Writing a story 15/3/12

Out of all the lectures,this was the one I've been looking forward to since I feel like I could use with some pointers on writing tips as there is definitely room for improvement in this department.From the previous lecture on layout,it only seemed to be the tip the iceberg when it came to story structure.

There were some very basic but true quotes that I picked up from this talk ;

"Stories are so powerful that we lie, exaggerate and omit the truth in favour of telling a good story." - Errol Morris

"Promise your audience to lead them towards the story."

"Make it care."

That last quote sums it up perfectly.How many times have you watched a film or read a book and continued reading even though you cannot relate to any of the characters? Hopefully your answer is never as this is what every good story is based on.In some shape or form, the audience must be able to relate to the main characters or at least, understand their motives and why they feel the way they do.It sounds so simple but I find personally that this is a regular occurence.How many times have you sat on the couch just flicking through channels and settled to watch some programme you hate just because there is nothing else on? Actually don't answer that one...

The key in making the audience care about your characters and story is to add spines to them and build the skeleton,muscle and flesh from the core.What are their goals? What motivates them? What ticks them off? Every classic character in fiction whether they be Rocky Balboa or Wile E. Coyote have these traits which make them identifiable characters.The more recognisable the goal, the more you can exploit their traits.As long as its set in a relam of normalacy, that is.There must be rules in order for this to work.That's not to say these can be broken at some point.How you delve into this territory depends on where you want this story to end up.

When it comes to drama in story, it can be defined as a point in the plot when anticipation is mixed with uncertainty.Which characters cross over each other and how does it effect the general feel of the developments before and after these moments.Do things improve for the characters and does this keep the audience engaged or do they lose interest? This is when things can get a little complicated -  its almost like weaving a web,one false move could destroy the structure of what your trying to create.Fortuately there are some useful formulas we can use to help us get a better understanding of how we can avoid this.

For example Dan Harmon, writer for Community uses a circle with 8 points that cycle through a typical process for a character he's writing.

1. Comfort zone

2  Want/need

3  Unfamiliar territories

4  Adaption

5  Achieve their goal

6  Pay a price

7  Comfort zone

8  Development

Kurt Vonnegut famously used an algorythm to shape his stories.Depending on how erratic the graph seemed to be determined how interesting a story could be.

Fonts and type and how they effect the product 8/3/12

This lecture was primarily on typography and how important it is to display a clear and readable text.It's essential that communication of both the wording and the characteristics of font match with the chosen image and tone of a particular scene or moment.

With the previous lecture,we approached this topic from the point of view from comics and childrens books.There are two main ways of implementing font, through word processors and hand lettering - both have differing sensibilities.By computer, lettering looks more professional and clean but with handlettering, it gives the piece a more personal or natural appeal.We were then introduced to many of the basic terms like serifs and formatting your word structure to have a display font in the header. Kerning is also vital when structuring text as bad kern is generally frowned upon and is instantly noticable when analysing a particular design.Without proper kerning,the image ends up looking unprofessional and poorly implemented which is commonly apparent in handwriting fonts.An easy way to combat this is by using a tool such as Ames lettering guides to better facilitate layout of fonts freehand.

Layout is one thing however if the chosen type doesn't marry the accompanying image, then the whole exersize is futile.Image and text must balance each other out whether it be bold or italics.As an example of how effective this can be,we were shown a slideshow of groups of fonts from different decades and how trends change the style of lettering.What was instantly noticeable was how in the twenties and thirties,most of the fonts displayed had timeless qualities and could easily be used today and from the 40's onwards,fonts almost became fashionable depending on what was in pop culture and society at the time.

Finally at the end of the lecture we had a bit of an interactive section were the audience had to work on making a font work with a particular image - computer graphic.We had a considerable amount of time as a group to play around with characteristics of fonts and made me realise how meticulous and impacting choosing the right font can be to just give the image that extra push.Despite being reluctant in typography in the past, it is perhaps something I really should take more into account and study.

Layout Lecture 1/3/12

This lecture was the first in a series of lectures by Dan and Sue which covered the topic of layout in comics and childrens books.It was split into two halves the first being Sues examples and the second being a short tutorial in which the audience had to construct a short story through comics.

The first book Sue used to show the importance of good layout was Where's my Teddy by Jez Alborough.Like all good childrens books the author uses effective differences in scale and colour throughout the book to make it as visually engaging as possible.This is all seen within the cover and clearly shows what type of narrative is in store.The narrative is very one directional - fusing the compositions from left to right in anticipation to turn the pages as the story progressses.

Within this template there are many constants Jez uses to keep the story simple.The horizon is always centred in the middle of the images to keep in with the flow,action is broken up to keep a level of uncertainty,page layouts go from single page to double spread to keep things balanced,sky is introduced whenever it feels like it needs to break tension,gutters are always the same measurement away from the spine of the book so that it doesn't distract the reader to much and dominant figures are featured in the right context, e.g the colour of the giant teddy bear is bright and sticks out, the colour of the forest and volume of leaves reflects the size of the bear.A lot of visual information is depicted within this frame of narrative which shows the amount of initial thought that goes within developing a childrens story depending on the tone and how you want things to proceed.

In My Grandmother's Clock by Stephen Lambert, different techiques are used accordingly with the tone and subject matter of the story.Pastels and bright colours are used throughout which give it a feeling of time or nostalgia which works on both levels for a child and a parent who may be reading the book.A lot of high angles and vignettes are used which almost give a comic like quality to some of the layouts.This effected the way type is used in the book which varies from being embedded to some of the compositions to almost squeezing some of it in which isn't usually advised.In comparison to Where's my Teddy? the book takes a more liberated approach to how it handles text as it's almost a part of the illustration itself rather than just exposition.

In Dan's section, he set about a scenario involving a character involved in a immoral situation which the audience had to solve.A scenario such as this is a quick example on how a drama can be quickly put together and how this opens the possibility of creating short stories or perhaps a novel when an idea is expanded.In doing so we first established a character, place,adversaries and a distraction to set the scene.With comics, the thing that appeals to me when it comes to starting off such a premise is the use of visual information that can be ascertained within the setup of say mannerisms of a character or details within the location.

Once everything is setup,questions emerge.What is the core of the character? How tough is the situation and how can the character overcome these elements and are they feasible? What components do I have to work with? Keeping within continutity and preventing conflicting compositions (e.g. when two characters suddenly switch sides for no apparent reason.) The key is making it readable and still keeping the viewer in suspense.More that will be discussed in another lecture in the future.