COP3 Practical - Storytelling through post it notes - Consideration of perspective

Using the content of my Premise, I began to sketch out the main key points of the story line on post it notes. I used post it notes as a quick form of storytelling, I wanted to focus on creating a coherent and engaging 'storyboard' rather than focusing on the visuals and perspective straight from the first step.  I quite enjoyed sketching quick visuals and moving the post it notes around to create a refined piece of storytelling for both of the main perspectives that I wanted to make for my practical outcome; flat perspective and perspective, to then be merged into one refined perspective.

With the first set of post it notes I focused only on the key frames of the story, it was actually quite difficult narrowing this down as I could visualise so many parts of the story and automatically drew these down; even in this early stage I was already subtracting parts of the story to get to the basic core of the storytelling [Fig 1]. I first drew only two post it notes, the beginning and the ending, the setting and the reward. Doing this allowed me to add key frames inbetween which helped me to narrow down the story to its core.

From this storyboard I began adding perspective to enhance the storytelling, giving the story that anticipation. [Fig 2] I found this quite difficult, I had keep referring to the premise and slightly changing it visually to absorb the anticipation that I wanted the storytelling to have. I added basic power angles and canted shots to create that tension of this shack that the characters enter, being unknown to both the spectator and the characters. I want the spectators to learn about the surroundings as the characters do therefore I can begin to add theories that I have researched in my dissertation into my practical. A prime theory to add throughout is Narrative Retardation, the process of purposely refusing the spectator information on what is happening in the scene, the spectator has to piece this information together themselves. Although this might be more suitable for an older audience, I want to add this theory into one of the boards, most likely the perspective board as it will enhance the theory, as it gives the piece more anticipation and tension. The only part of this board that I wasn't entirely comfortable with was the birds eye perspective of the Shadow character moving through both sides of the aisles. I liked this inclusion but I didn't think it was suitable for the perspective board, it was better suited for the flat perspective with the framing of the shot being so linear.

Fig 1. The Main Key Points - A focus on storytelling

Fig 2. Adding perspective to enhance the storytelling

The flat perspective board was the most difficult one for me to create, it took me awhile considering what shots would make the storytelling interesting even though the shots would be flat [Fig 3]. I watched a few examples of flat perspectives in cartoons, Teen Titans GO! and Be Cool Scooby Doo! which helped me to generate ideas to make the storytelling more visually appealing. Even though both of these shows add quite alot of medium shots of the characters talking, I can still use this as an influence towards my work. I decided not to add the linear framing post it notes from the previous board, as I felt that this scene held too much content and took away from the anticipation/main point of the story. I did however add an extra scene into this board compared to the previous ones. Once the characters reach the chest at the end of the aisle, the Hero goes to open the chest but with a thunderous cry, lightening strikes and a close up of a figures face fills the screen - from this the Hero jumps into the Shadows arms, but with the Shadow being a shadow, the Hero falls through the Shadows body. The figure then slams the chest shut and points to his left, the characters follow the direction to see a counter in the background - as they turn back to look at the figure, they notice that the figure has disappeared. They decide to towards the counter to see what the figure wanted them to see. I quite liked this inclusion, it gave a bit of tension and mystery to the plot with the use of a fake chest and a hooded figure that appears and disappears before the screen.

Fig 3. Adding a flat perspective to enhance the storytelling

 Merging both of the perspective boards was quite fun, I enjoyed picking the best of the best from each board and calculating which perspective would work with which. Additionally I included new post it notes to make the storytelling flow smoother. When I took a step back from this board, I found that something didn't work, the story was too long. This was mainly in the ending segment of the board, I felt there were too many shots of the main characters and the revealing of the chest took too long, it lost that anticipation.

Fig 4. Merging both flat perspective and perspective Part 1

Fig 5. Merging both flat perspective and perspective Part 2

The refined merged storyboard took me the longest to complete, I added quite a few more post it notes that replaced almost a row of previous post it notes. I wanted the story to be simple and the inclusion of the characters walking all the way round the aisles took too long to get to the main story. I wanted the refined merged board of perspectives to hold the main storytelling, so when I go back to the singular perspectives I have reference for the best storytelling. Personally it does feel that doing this method feels almost a backwards way of tackling the outcomes but through consideration I found that this process will eliminate the majority of problems; such as the storytelling being the same outcome, the audience and what perspectives are needed where.

Fig 6. Refining merged perspectives Part 1

Fig 7. Refining merged perspectives Part 2