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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

the future of storytelling

these courses are great, guys. i've finally gotten around to looking through them. lots packed in there, so start taking a look even if you only have 10 minutes free. if you're behind or feeling information overload - don't worry - you have as long as you like. what i've learned is that it's mostly something that you meditate on the implications of in your 'spare' time, and the ideas get integrated into every aspect of your life - that's the power of storytelling!

don't forget to check out the additional resources they've recommended and made available, and check back here as i've been placing some in here (check the first post).

as i mentioned before, i have some lingering, unpublished stuff on stories that's eerily similar (which makes a lot of sense, of course, we've been researching the same sources) to a lot of the things they are looking into on a basic level. i hope to polish that off and have it for you guys within a few weeks along with some additional resources and a brand new story and a brand new short!

in the meantime, should any certain micro-topic (say, orality>literacy) peak your interest, don't hesitate to contact me here or privately - i'd be happy to recommend specific resources or have an informal discussion.

even though i didn't design the course, it comes with my guarantee it will make you a better filmmaker, no matter what your specialty is in the industry. producers, ops, one-man band corporate videographers, even dits will benefit from understanding what they are ultimately assisting. and you never know, maybe one day you'll have a story to tell - everyone does! if you don't get what you need out of the videos, contact me and we'll get you where you want to be, always happy to talk about and share stories.

it is possible to get 'stuck' in, say, a formalist or structuralist (read: formulaic) approach to stories, so if you're worried about getting too 'academic' about your art and craft and somehow losing the purity of it that's a legitimate worry, let's talk it out. i've found that it's simply a difference of knowing what you're doing or not, but it is something to eventually work through, in my experience if you stick at it every good storyteller has an aha! moment where they figure out where they are in a story or why they want to tell stories - or something like that. blundering through the woods is how every path has ever formed, but once that arduous task is done it can be easily followed - or diverged from - and must be at some point. it is the wisdom of humans to be lazy when we can be, gathering up the free-fruits of another's labor allows you to put your energy into something no one has ever attempted or something relevant to your particular place in space & time... that's how you make an impact.

that being said, being a storyteller is being an artist (as opposed to a craftsperson). i don't recommend it as a rule. it means sacrifice and uncertainty. only pursue it if you have no choice. dabbling is fine, but be careful lest you get sucked in and become a storyteller. there is no turning back. if you want to return, you must come full circle and walk two worlds, which is near impossible.

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so if you ain't signed up yet, do it now - ahoy! you're free to browse and there's no obligation to participate at all - no biggie, just browse.
awesome opportunity, welcome aboard mateys ;)
https://iversity.org/c/6?r=353b8
 
just to get y'all in the mood a few weeks early, my essay dives specifically into non-linear narrative, an oft-overlooked aspect of storytelling.

i'll also be talking about films such as memento and pulp fiction (and getting into literature and oral tradition), but as a part of my research and expression of it, i recut aronofsky's fountain - check it out when you get a couple hours. more details to come.

for those that have seen the original (and/or read the graphic novel), would love to hear some feedback about how the rearranging/editing effects your experience and understanding of the story/themes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otIUX9CHZ94

Thematic, structural, and spatio-temporal philosophic shaping motifs make rich analysis alongside deeply spiritual and transcendent audio-visual poetics in "The Fountain".
 
happy halloween!

last night i told a personal story for my first creative challenge (i.e., better name for homework... haha). video is on the way. until then, enjoy some audio!

https://soundcloud.com/paul-herrin/haunted-maize

It happened some seven years ago on a night not unlike tonight... we narrowly escaped with a tale to tell. you can't reason with a headless man!

---

Here are some of the major sources that I was responding to as inspiration for my storycraft. I very much recommend reading Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow if you have not (and Rip Van Winkle while you're at it). The others are essential, related sources of folklore predating it and I have to say they are absolutely fine epic poems - very much worth a few minutes!

Extremely powerful imagery and rhythm... and that without a camera or microphone! Would love to record a recital and do a proper short with sweet fx based on either of these some day. And of course the Tim Burton and the Disney version of Sleepy Hollow are wonderful masterpieces in their own right, but I'd love to do a live action interpretation in a Romantic/Magical Realism style sticking close to the text.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820)
http://www.bartleby.com/310/2/2.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_VsSckm3ws


The Wild Huntsman (1797, p. 140)
https://archive.org/details/germanballads00crai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_wnU20-u4U


Tam O'Shanter (1791)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1279/1279-h/1279-h.htm#link2H_4_0316
https://vimeo.com/35680696
 
I'm still working on a damaged computer, and can't open a single link - I can open links with the http: up front, but the class links don't have it, so I can't copy/paste. I'll get a loaner in a few days and let's see if I can catch up.

Arg




My work

http://thestarvingdramaturge.wordpress.com/
 
ergh, haha sorry, not sure what's goin on with your links, that's weird - if it makes you feel any better i'm behind as well and i'm also right there with you with ironically old tech... haha, so we can catch up together. luckily most of the stuff is short. one of the videos i found really cool was a longer 'lecture' in ch1 unit 2 on the origins and evolution of storytelling from a library science perspective... awesome.
 
btw... don't forget about how awesome public libraries are - they typically have free or low-cost access to computers/internet...

oh, and books

and people who know about things

;)
 
robert scholes "on narrative"

excerpts:

Only one kind of thing can be narrated: a time-thing, or to use our normal word for it, an "event." And strictly speaking, we require more than one event before we recognize that we are in the presence of a narrative. And what is an event? A real event is something that happens: a happening, an occurrence, an event. A narrated event is the symbolization of a real event: a temporal icon. A narration is the symbolic presentation of a sequence of events connected by subject matter and related by time. Without temporal relation we have only a list. Without continuity of subject matter we have another kind of list. (p. 209)
Click to expand...

The difference between drama and narrative is not that characters speak in drama but that we hear them; not that they have bodies but that we see them. Drama is presence in time and space; narrative is past, always past. In viewing film, of course, we are not in the presence of actors but of their traces on a screen. To speak of events in the future tense is not to narrate them either. Science fiction novels are always told in the past tense. To speak of the future is to prophesy or predict or speculate - never to narrate. (p. 210)
Click to expand...

A narration involves a selection of events for the telling. They must offer sufficient continuity of subject matter to make their chronological sequence significant, and they must be presented as having happened already. When the telling provides this sequence with a certain kind of shape and a certain level of human interest, we are in the presence not merely of narrative but of story. A story is a narrative with a certain very specific syntactic shape (beginning-middle-end or situation-transformation-situation) and with a subject matter which allows for or encourages the projection of human values upon this material. Virtually all stories are about human beings or humanoid creatures. those that are not invariably humanize their material through metaphor and metonymy. (p. 210)
Click to expand...

---

Jane Duncan, photo-realist on narrative, artifice, & mise en scene

---

next, we will discuss anti-narrative...
i say discuss because i'm looking at the number of views in relation to the number of comments, don't be shy (:
opinions, questions, criticisms, and ideas about anything are all welcome and valued.

then (eventually) we'll get around to looking at the kind of in-between in non-linear narrative
check out the fountain (remix) and the original if you like
also of note in recent cinema are pulp fiction, memento, inception, tree of life, and eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
if you want to check those out as well you'll get a pretty good idea of some cinematic-storytelling techniques
 
fictional first-person (and song-story)

okay, actually i wanna look (listen, actually) real quick at something special... hot off the digital press (:

this is my friend bryce avery from rocket summer (i don't know him), been following his work for 10 years.
i think my fav solo musician [insert fangirl emoticon here]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnW6N5u7KPI

the rocket summer - elf creep
christmas madness ep
(my transcription, accurate-ish)


i'm an elf, a santa's helper, you see
i keep watch
while he's down the chimneys
and one night, i saw something so pretty
that i
i, i
i went through the window
and i,
i,
i hid in the shadows
my, my
my heart beat crescendoed
high, high
and i saw a... girl


for twenty years, i keep going on back (back, back)
i pay the reindeer to keep it under the wraps
i'm not a stalker (i promise)
i'm just a real-big-fan


high, high, i,
i went through the window
and i,
i,
i hid in the shadows
my, my
my heart beat crescendoed
ah, ah
i just stood there


oh, how i loathe
how christmas comes
then christmas goes
and i'm all alone
left in my head
are images
three-hundred-sixty-four more days
until i'm watching her... sleep


i'm such an elf... creep


the time has come
the night is here
all the best lines and poems
i've rehearsed and re-hearsed for years
i woke her up and said 'sugar, don't you fear'
she screamed so loud she busted the drums
in my pointy-spock-ears!


i ran out
out, out
i ran out the window
and how, how
her screams sorely echoed
now, now
i'm banned for life from hot cocoa
but it's fine, yeah it's fine
cause she knows that i exist
she knows,
she knows that i exist
she knows,
she knows that i exist
she knows,
she knows that i exist
she knows,
she knows that i exist.

(:


story-songs go back to the days of traveling bards and before, very old tradition, usually epic poems.
this story and song is excellently crafted.
tongue-in-cheek humor about an issue that's avoided in conversation (voyeurism) turns into a beautiful little love-story.
take note of the vocal-musical dynamics and qualities, how they create a sense of stillness, urgency, space...
almost every line is a story-symbol triggering images in the listener's imagination.
clever last line... think about it all in context (:

exclusively stream also:
christmas madness
grapevine [tx] christmas eve

anyone else know of any good fictional first-person examples (any form/genre, means, medium, mode, whatever)?
 
p.s... i've got $10 (and 9 cents to be exact) in my itunes account, shoot me a pm and i'll shoot you the songs if you like these sounds...
merry christmas
 
so awesome topics this week on virtual/augmented reality and location-based story installations...
basically why i was attracted to the course and what i'm most interested in and have been experimenting with myself

https://iversity.org/my/courses/the-future-of-storytelling/questions/15117?answers=166641

YAH-map.jpg


this is my ongoing virtual installation project in savannah, georgia that i threw together just in time for the spring equinox this year

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it explores the history of savannah using QR code-links in secret spots, like an easter-egg hunt

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launch was a 4 day&night sequence featuring community activities and site-specific, animated projection art

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it's in a beta phase, awaiting a serious update this spring (:

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https://vimeo.com/paulherrin/yah

check out more pictures and info on the launch on fb (:
come visit us in savannah and see for yourself!

https://www.facebook.com/YouAreHereSavannah
 
woah, just discovered this via nofilmschool...

https://vimeo.com/81047160

Linklater is at ease partaking in the long conversation of cinema, of what it is or might be (a conversation that is being reclaimed from its academese stagnation of “is” paralysis). For Linklater, it is a question both of history and possibility. It is less about prescription then it is potential... If cinema is also the art of time passing, then Linklater is proving to be one of its most actively engaged and thoughtful directors. Unlike other filmmakers often identified as auteurs, Linklater’s distinction is not found on the surface of his films, in a visual style or signature shot, but rather in their DNA, as an ongoing conversation with cinema, which is to say, a conversation about time passing.
Click to expand...

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/...ng-conversation-richard-linklater-cinema-time
 
okay, final reminder here... if you want access to the free "future of storytelling" lecture series you need to log in before the 20th, so go ahead and do it.

no fees, no expectations, just check it out if you want.
if that's something you may do in the next year... do it.
have i said free enough times?
this is why i'm not in sales, i can't even sell free stuff... lol (:

...i'm really hoping everybody here is upping their game, and learning about what you're already doing is seriously a part of that.

i'm still finding time to get through it all, but there's some really great material on television & web series going into transmedia and augmented reality aspects... if anybody has finished the whole thing (i haven't, yet) please let's hear your perspective (:
 
hobbit soundworks

hobbit soundworks

on the complimentary nature of audio and visuals
and balancing dialogue, score, sound fx for storytelling purposes
and how surround sound (esp dolby atmos) provides creative challenges and opportunities for things like character development or audience immersion

https://vimeo.com/83936766
 
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