Premise and Purpose
Premise and purpose make up the bulk of any project. For me, as a member of the occupational and pursuit team, my premise with my objects revolves around representing success in hobbies, occupations, and any general pursuits; to me it all focuses around ambition.
Audience and Market
Understanding your audience is vital for any storyteller. You would not market a romance novel to the same crowd that you would a thriller, and vice versa. The audience of this project is my fellow college students who are all on their own Hero’s Journey’s. I believe that my objects can resonate with them, as the fountain pen represents putting success into “ink” or permanence, and the hiking stick represents the journey to success.
Medium, Platform, and Genre
Understanding the medium you are working with is important when tackling a project. The medium that I’m working with is the virtual 3D world. Specifically, blender, but also second life! Despite the fact I don’t intend to make my own account, my creations are still intended for it, so it is this projects platform.
Join a Journey
Having a journey that the viewer can follow along with ties them closer to a story, and lets them understand the message a work is trying to convey without having to be told it. The journey I am following is quite literal here. I am following along the Hero’s Journey with the rest of the class, but also going through my own as I go through college. My hiking stick object corresponds particularly well with this point, as a hiking stick is symbolic of a journey and of progress.
Narrative Elements
Narrative is just as vital to a work or story as a journey is. By building a deep, and personal (to the viewer) narrative, you make the viewer care. If they can connect with your story, they will be more invested. In the case of my objects and project, I think the journey to success and the struggle to get there is something most people can relate to, but I could certainly make more of a narrative.
User’s Role and Point of View
Point of view, in writing and stories in general, refers to how the story is being told. Is it being told from the perspective of one character, within their thoughts like a diary? That would be first person. Is the narrator focused on one character but on the outside? That’s third person limited. Does the narration focus on many characters at once? Thats third person omniscient, and so on. Here, with this project, the point of view is of a user instead. The user is the person walking through the hero’s journey, so it is more akin to second person (where the viewer is being directly addressed). The user needs to be considered a lot in this project, and I would ideally like my objects to be something that the user would be drawn to.
Characters
Characters get an audience truly emotionally invested in a work. Even more so than the narrative does, I’d argue. Characters build direct connections with the viewer. In this project, there are not literal human characters (since we are just adding objects to the world) but I think by giving my objects some character with how they look, it may achieve a similar effect.
Structure, Interface, and Rhythm
The structure and interface of a project influences how a viewer can interact with it. Incorporating movement and rhythm into this part of one’s work can make it more memorable. Here, my project is quite simple: to make objects. But are these objects usable? I am unaware if you can pick items up in second life, but if you can, that would be a unique way to incorporate movement into my hiking stick and fountain pen.
Storyworld and Settings
Setting gives the viewer context for where a story/work is taking place. For this project, the setting is an island and very reminiscent of Port Angeles (aside from the fantastical elements and pirate ship) so I think my items fit in well.
Overall Appearance, Movement, and Sounds
Sound, appearance, and movement are important to any story/work to give the viewer the illusion they are part of the world. This is true even in writing, where you are only working with words. I cannot add sound to my objects, as neither of them make sound naturally, but I do intend to make their appearance unique and add some movement if I can. Maybe I can animate the gears inside of the fountain pen’s interior.
User Engagement and Opportunity to Share Experiences
The message is, like the premise, a huge part of any story. The message I want to convey with my objects is that it is possible, through effort and learning from failure, to achieve your ambitions. Even if it takes climbing a mountain, you can one day put your successes down in ink.
All of these points are incredibly important to storytelling development, and I think by going through them you can gain a better understanding as to what a story is really made of. So get out there and get creating!
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