My reviews of digital stories

As part of the Slough of Despond 2 task of CMWP,  my review of examples of digital storytelling shared along with one of my choice are as follows:

1. Teaser of the movie: Sound of my voice

http://www.soundofmyvoicemovie.com/index2.html

Overall, this was an amazing trailer, which left you wanting to watch the movie.

In design the trailer begins with a visual design constituting of dim lit scenes to give a suspense feel. The initial few minutes almost had no dialogues but background music appropriately used with extremely exaggerated sounds of movements and actions like shutting of doors, footsteps, sound of paper. In terms of functionality, it delivers huge intrigue and interest in me to know more about what will happen next. The story unfolds very slowly to unveil the expected topic of the movie. In structure the entire scene sequence leads to a gripping unfolding of more about the movie. It just stops at the right time, when the audience is intensely engaged with the scene when she will know what the movie is about. Obviously, she will have to go and watch the movie to get her answers as an audience.

All through the screen, one gets options of sharing and embedding this teaser video. In order to further enhance viewer interaction, if you have really liked it, you can post the link of the teaser on twitter/Facebook/tumblr .You can also see who all viewed this particular video.

2.My second review of digital storytelling is on twitter stories as per recommended reading/link

http://www.fastcompany.com/3003726/twitter-emerging-creative-medium-digital-age

There are examples of success in twitter stories. To my mind, this success is attributed to the fact that Twitter helps reach people very closely given the fact that it delivers stories straight on mobile phones in real time. The restricted character size of 140 helps to keep the interaction crisp and short making the audience consume content comfortable instead of overloading them with a lot at one time. In functionality, twitter proves to be a flexible platform with real time broadcasting ability. It manages to deliver high on parameters of engagement and anticipation, which are key requirements of audiences for any story. One can create a feeling of suspense by broadcasting every line, which can even be done in the identity of the fictional character of the story. This edge of twitter is a clear winner as it helps the character tweet and gives a sense of his/her personality and likes/inclinations. Example: Pyre created a horror story on twitter as a white house nanny with actual tweets of the character over 5 days without programming his tweets. He matched his tweets with actual time, example: a horrific nightmare was timed with actual night time of Washington time zone. This is how real Twitter storytelling can be! Just not this, but it helps interact with audience in real and imaginary space by creating a fictional character on twitter and bringing her/him alive with tweeted photos, posters, press clips etc.

This mode of storytelling is highly interactive given that many authors have tested its interactivity quotient by asking audience to tweet the expected endings of a story.

Success of this medium is evident from examples such as detective story called Working theory of love by Scott Hutchins delivered in five instalments. Pulizer prizewinning author Jennifer Egan’s story “Black box story” was broadcast over 10 hours in 600 tweets.

Going by the high interactivity and functionality quotient, according to me , twitter stories have huge potential especially for the horror/detective genre.

We considered using this aspect of twitter in the prelaunch of our digital story called food quickies : a show on quick & healthy food recipes.Twitter will help us generate interest in our launch and also help create a fictional character : our chef who is the host of our food quickies show. He will keep the conversations alive with the community interested in quick and healthy food recipes.

3.My review of a trailer of my choice of minininjas

http://www.minininjas.com/us/#/Trailer

I decided to review this trailer which I stumbled upon when I saw my son watching it. The look of the website and the trailer got me interested in it! The visual design is excellent with close to real and interactive animation to illustrate the ninja world. The animated illustration of ninja associated with the usual ninja identity coupled with background audio sounds of birds, insects, animals, thunder and other actions give a true feel for ninja to be on alert! The interplay of the voice over and background music makes the narration of the story to the children who are the primary audience, highly engaging. These sounds help create intense suspense for the children audience in this story. To my mind this story delivers highly on visual design with excellent animation and structure for storytelling for children. My viewing experience however was interrupted strangely due to the continuous buffering of the trailer video. The trailer stops at a point just before a critical revelation is to happen. This led me to have a lot of interest in the video to know what will happen next. The website which was playing this trailer supports many interactive options for children in the form of games, screens ,character information as trivia. This helps keep them attached to the theme of ninjas continuously.

4.My review of Goldilocks-the iphone 4 & mobile series episode 1: meet locks on vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/15608787

Given that its shot on an iphone and ipod touch, it is a well shot episodic mobile action series with scene sequences which keep the audience interested.The unbelievable power of a mobile camera phone comes alive here!There is continuity in actions which are shot that helps unfold the story comortably to the audience but with an element of surprise.The extensive use of background sounds illustrates that the story is a thriller.There is a continuous overplay of audios of actions and background soundtracks which help create a highly engaging and intense emotion amongst the audience.There are almost no dialogues until the end .It’s then when the story flips and creates a big turn with the dialogue.It stops at a critical point leaving the audience wanting to know more.This is the desired response which actually highlights the success of this story.As an audience, I give it full marks on structure and functionality as a suspense thriller!

Soundscapes for Suspense

Industrial Media Assignment on The clown train: Analysis of use of sound and visual to contribute to the film genre.

Just at the onset of this piece, without meaning to bias you, I have to confess that I watched the film one late evening in a dark room a few nights ago. The effects in this film scared the hell out of me as a viewer! It took me all these days to get this courage to write the analysis, that too early morning today so I have no glimpse of darkness or any other cues or links to the film to get me horrified yet again!

So, the film begins with complete darkness along with the sound of train slowing down and compartments sound is heard. There are no visuals used. One hears a sound of the train breaks screeching and we hear the train stop suddenly. This creates a rather scary feel to the darkness! This sound suggests the genre of the film as that of “horror or thriller” brakes for evoking the emotions of danger/horror in the audience.

The focus shifts to the location of a compartment in the train where the film is shot. There is a young man who is the focus with the engine sound is still there with sound of cars from the road.

A clown shows up with a sound of a drum and his big smile. The effect of his appearance is very impactful along with the sound of drumbeats used. There are low-key piano notes and beats playing very softly suggesting “expected danger in action” to add to the suspense of the audience. The young man asks the clown where they are and why the train has stopped. There is a conversation between the clown and the young man. The sound of the buzzing of light and drum beat hint that danger is expected with! By hearing this, it is evident to the audience that there will be danger, thus creating suspense in their minds to know what will happen next.

There is a feeling of constant danger in the audience with a sound of a light wire buzzing accompanied with the flickering of light almost three times. The next moment when the light goes off with the buzz sound, the clown shifts to sit next to across the young man.

The clown asks him if he wants to hear a joke? There is a train track sound in varied frequency is played in the background. There is a loud sound when the clown tells the young man a joke on cannibals, which is far from humorous and rather scary! That he has already told him that joke. To me this also suggests that they have met in the past!

There is a light buzz sound again with darkness. Now the clown shifts place and leans over him while the young man looks away. There is climax in the film when the young man now feels danger from the clown sitting next to him with a loud laugh. The young man just wants to run away now. The clown is laughing very loudly and the train track sound is in the background once again.

Visual of the young man struggling to open the train compartment door to get out is accompanied with a sound of the door of metal opening. He jumps out with a sound of him hitting the ground with a thud.

We hear the clown say that he will tell him the joke on Friday. There is a light buzzing sound again with complete darkness. The credits come on with the sound of a train.

The film consists of a sound effect for almost every action in the film, making it truly successful in evoking horror in the audience!

The shot construction is such that it keeps the focus on the conversation between the young man and the clown. Each time the clown shifts closer to the young man, the shot composition adds to the danger quotient for the young man. The clever use of light buzzing sound and lights going off leading to darkness lends immense suspense to the audience.

I would also like to share an example of a film of a different genre which has successfully used excellent sound effects which is : Dolerean Time Machine of Back to the future series and Star Tek Series which caters to Sci- Fi film lovers who enjoy a journey into the space age!

If you are a horror fan, or a student of media wanting to learn use of sound effects to create horror, Clown Train is a must watch simply owing to it’s amazing sound effects and lighting!