Assignment NT5.5 Part IV

Whether it is in form of a letter, storyboard, or website; the basic story that one is trying to tell stays the same, but there are still some changes one must make to the story because each “technology” being used to tell the story has it’s limits. When using a letter to tell the story, the storyteller is bound by the limits of only using words and if he or she chooses to storyboard their tale, the storyteller can only use pictures and short sentences and phrases. On the other hand, a website combines both mediums of letter writing and pictures to tell the story.
I found it more comfortable to be more descriptive in writing out the story than trying to storyboard it. I think it is easier to portray emotion and what people are thinking through writing than trying to draw it out. Maybe it is due to my artistic handicap of only being able to draw stick figures with basic expressions on their faces of being happy or sad. On the other hand, when writing out the story, I could write specifically how they were feeling and could portray their emotions accurately. I found storyboarding kind of frustrating because due to my artistic limits. I felt that the viewer or audience had to make up in their own minds what kinds of thought and emotions I was exactly trying to portray, as opposed to writing where you can be more straightforward. As an example, one can easily draw a stick figure with a frown on it to portray that the character is sad, but how sad is the character? What kind of “sad” is the character feeling? When writing the story in letterform, it took less work to describe what kind of “sad” and other emotions the character was going through. I found that storyboarding is a more “general” way to tell a story and writing allows the storyteller to give more description and detail.
I found that using a website to tell a story combines the best of both worlds of storyboarding and letter writing. On a website, the storyteller can use both descriptive letters and pictures to accompany the writing. Using a website not only gives the audience a written description but also a visual portrayal of what the author is trying to get across. Also by using a website, not only can the storyteller use pictures and writings, but he or she can also insert video clips, sounds, and music to heighten the senses of the viewer and give more of a profound impact on what exactly the author is trying to depict.
When exercising these different technologies of storyboarding, letter writing, and website designing for this assignment, I found that the basics of the story does not change across each medium, but the way it is described changes profoundly. I found the use of storyboarding very limiting and lacked detail than writing a letter. I thought the best way to tell a story more accurately and the way the storyteller wants it is by using a website. Using a website combines all of these technologies into one bundled form of media, allowing the author to be more creative and descriptive.
I think I am a form of fictional character in my writings because I can control what I do, how people perceive me, and many other factors that I cannot control in the real world. I can be anything and do anything in my writings, storyboards and websites and there are no limits. For an extreme example, author James Frey who wrote his best selling memoir, A Million Little Pieces, fabricated most of his so called adventurous life. He created a character that was supposed to be himself but embellished on it greatly to make himself appealing to his audience. Frey demonstrates that the author can embellish himself (not as extreme as Frey’s case) to make the story more interesting to the reader or viewer, thus creating a somewhat fictional character.
In my story, in all its forms I am a type of fictional character. In my letters to my mother and friend, I am a fictional character because the letters were loosely based on a true occurrence and names of people, and locations were changed. I created a fictional world in these letters in which I could tell my story of a true occurrence but not give away real names and locations. In the storyboard, the fact that I was fabricated into a “stick figure” that spoke using bubble letters portrayed me being a fictional character. In the letters I was transformed into a fictional character because not all the accounts were accurate and real in the story and in the storyboards, I was physically transformed into a fictional character and represented in stick figure form. The character that I created was a representation of my real self, but still was a fabrication of my mind.
I think everyone writes the character, but the degrees of impact are varying. Obviously, the writer has the biggest impact on the character because he/she is the creator. The author decides who the character is, what he/she looks like and what his/her personality is like. The author also determines the actions and the fate of his/her creation. The audience has an impact on the character because depending on who the audience is; the character can be interpreted differently between each audience. This in turn has an affect on the “writing” of the character. As an example, I could describe myself in the story as a strong, charismatic, and intelligent man. The audience could interpret this character that I portray as the complete opposite. They could view me as an arrogant and “cocky” guy with a big ego. The storyteller writes the character, but all of the information about the character is up for interpretation by the audience.
The medium in which the character is produced and the narrative structure also affects the way the character is written. The medium can affect the way the audience interprets the character. As mentioned in the paragraphs above, depending on the medium one chooses, as an example a storyboard, one may get a completely different interpretation of the character because of the lack of description a storyboard has when compared to a letter or a website. The narrative structure can also have a profound effect on the way the character is written. The letter for the assignment was written in first person and the storyboard was written as a third person account. The character created in the letter could have a completely different personality than the character in the storyboard because another author interpreting the first person account of the story drew the storyboard. All of these factors, the storyteller, audience, narrative structure, and the medium affect the way the character is written. The character is originally written by the author, but the interpretation by the audience, the narrative structure and the medium it is placed in can manipulate the “writing” of the character and changes between each eye of the beholder.