The Story Lab 2015

What is story _now_?

Category: Weekly Intros

Dr Troy Innocent – Guest Lecture

April 16, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Hi team –

You can grab my garbled notes from Troy’s lecture here, just in case you’ll find them useful. Lots and lots of interesting tidbits were raised — both in the lecture and the subsequent discussion — that I think will be useful for a lot of your projects. Also a lot of good sparks for awesome blog posts: pitch me Story Lab as micronation! Write a constitution! Design a flag!

Even if you’d not thought about game mechanics and elements of gaming before, maybe you’ve been inspired to include some of these things in order to increase player/audience interest and engagement with your projects.

Week 5: Slightly smaller fries

March 30, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Startfromnowcast

This week we move into looking at slightly marginalised characters and relationships, with a brief sojourn to ’90’s television!

We’ll be watching a few episodes of Julie Kalceff’s incredibly engaging web series Starting From… Now and looking at representations of non-hetero/non-cis characters and relationships in traditional and transmedia contexts.

I’ve added Natalie Krikowa’s article on creating low-budget transmedia projects to the Resources folder on Blackboard – check it out, and let me know if you need full reference details (or look here).

Week 4: How the big boys do it

March 22, 2015 / / 0 Comments

agent-carter-tv-show

This week we’ll be exploring how big businesses spend vast sums of money to create transmedia worlds. Are the worlds and stories created by powerhouses like Marvel and DC as complex and multi-faceted as they appear?

Also, if you look through the readings you’ll find a neat little piece by Whitehouse on how comic books are the perfect precursor to transmedia storytelling. Can you think of any other forms that have transmedia characteristics – or, to steal Bryan L’s phrase, a ‘transmedia aesthetic’ – within a single channel/platform?

We’ll also be watching the various incarnations of Agent Carter – originally a minor character in the first Captain America film from 2011, and looking at how Marvel is toying with traditional themes and representations. After a 20-minute spiel from me on Wednesday morning, there’ll be about 90 minutes of screening: firstly, come prepared to take notes, secondly, if you’d like to bring snacks, feel free!

Week 3: Producing for transmedia (plus, one down, three to go!)

March 16, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Congrats to all of you on getting the first assessment out of the way. I’m looking forward to working through these over the next week and getting some feedback to you well and truly before the second Project Brief is due.

Speaking of Project Brief 2, the Research Prompts and complete instructions are now available here on the blog and on Blackboard. Please ensure that you read this at some point while constructing your Research Report (at least the prompts!). Remember: this is an essay-style response, so formal, academic language is required, as is full referencing and a references list. If you’re unclear about essay writing (or any other assessment styles), the library has a fantastic online resource called the Learning Lab. Similarly, if you’re worried about referencing, the library’s got your back there too.

This week, now that we’ve accepted that there is no such thing as originality, we’ll be looking at the process of adaptation, as well as best practice for producing transmedia projects. This will include a (tiny) bit of OH&S stuff (remember, all final projects must include a Risk Assessment).

We’ll be watching some short films this week, that were commissioned by Matrix creators the Wachowskis. In your readings, you’ll find Henry Jenkins, the guru of transmedia storytelling and convergent media. You’ll also find one of my favourite articles, by Umberto Eco (yes, that Umberto Eco), where he talks about the glorious film Casablanca as a cult object. The final reading is by Janet Murray on ‘agency’ in hypertext and videogames. A lot to get through, but I want you to think about all of this – transmedia, cult objects, agency – while we’re watching The Animatrix in class.

Happy reading, and see you Wednesday!

Week 2: Models, transmedia, audiences, agency

March 9, 2015 / / 0 Comments
Source: KnowYourMeme.

Source: KnowYourMeme.

Things will be getting a little darker this week, though, as we ask each other: Why so serious? Yep, you’ll be exploring the advertising campaign for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, and trying to work out how this plays into the narrative of the film, if it does at all.

To get a head start, you’ll need to do two things.

First of all, get stuck into the readings. They’re a little tougher this week, as we move from the ‘fun’ of asking simply ‘What is story?’ into exploring how some other people have answered that question. Be patient with Manovich, Giovagnoli, and Navas – their work forms the basis of much of how we’ll be thinking about narrative for the rest of semester.

Secondly, have a look at a couple of short films: Hardware Wars and Ryan vs. Dorkman 2. These are little films made by fans of the hugely-successful and soon-to-be-continued Star Wars franchise. The first was made in 1978, a mere one year after the very first film’s release, the second in 2007, after the pain of the prequels had subsided. Think about what you know of the Star Wars films. How do these two shorts plug into the popular consciousness of this narrative? By extension, what do they suggest about the universality of the film’s themes — and can this question be answered just by watching two teenagers duel with lightsabers?

Hardware Wars

Ryan vs. Dorkman 2

Week 1: Welcome to no limits narrative

February 24, 2015 / / 0 Comments

For our first sessions together, we’ll be asking ‘What is story?’ What are the characteristics that every story has to have? We’ll also be exploring a number of ways to analyse those stories, and maybe think about planning our own.

In preparing for class, make your way through the set ‘readings.’ These include the really engaging video by Andrew Stanton, who has worked at Pixar for many years, and is probably responsible in some way for many of your favourite childhood films!

We’ll also be listening to Orson Welles’ original broadcast of The War of the Worlds, which I think will be interesting after you’ve listened to the Radiolab episode about it. And if you’ve not subscribed to Radiolab, just do it: it’s amazing.

Get into it, and I look forward to meeting you all in Week 1!

Recent Posts

Categories

© 2024 The Story Lab 2015

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑

Skip to toolbar