In week 6 class, we did idea generation exercises that brainstormed story ideas from a variety of music and photos displayed.
IDEA GENERATION FROM MUSIC
I am a music addict. In fact, music has the ability to open to me a whole world of high feelings, passions, thoughts and inspirations. To channel that music power into inspiration for my story ideas, I summary two questions I asked myself during the class exercise:
- How does the song make me feel?
When I listen to music/songs, I always find myself transported to another place and time, as the emotions and moods in the music remind me of a moment I’ve experienced or let me construct an imagined scenario. Strong and powerful lyrics also can help me create a story or give me a portrait of a character.
- What kind of story would use this song as a soundtrack?
I used to collect music for post-production works (editing and soundtrack) when I already have a script/story. But Directing Performance studio allows me to look at music from a pre-production point of view, which is more free and purposeless. Through the class exercise, I began to use the songs to conceive a plot point worthy of film, to imagine a new scene or character. In other words, music becomes the starting point of all my inspiration.
IDEA GENERATION FROM PHOTOS
In this part of the exercise, we created story ideas inspired by photographs. Based on visual ingredients from the photos, my story ideas get start from selecting a protagonist and describing character portraits. Compared with music as inspirations which gives me a kind of emotion and mood at first, to think about the photo as a jumping-off point for my imagination, portraying character do quickly give me a more figurative and concrete story ideas. In this case, I am more likely to focus on developing the main character’s appearance, personality, motivations and back story.
Class notes:
- Choose a main character
- Choose a setting
- Choose a conflict
- Map out the story
- Write, revise and share
As a media practitioner who is connected with creative industry, I can say how important it is to have inspiration. If I have been visited by a muse, even the most difficult task seems feasible, but if there is no inspiration, then the creative process turns into torture. Thanks to music and photos, I will find in myself new forces unknown to me before. To look for inspirations, listening to music and generating ideas from photos may be a method I use in the future.
References:
- Nicole Daniels & Natalie Proulx 2020, ‘Use These 18 Images to Inspire Your Own Short Story’, The New York Times, August 6, <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/learning/use-these-18-images-to-inspire-your-own-short-story.html>.
- Ideas Generations Pinterest Board, <https://www.pinterest.com.au/sbertoli85/idea-generation/>.