Visual Storytelling

Writing pictures: Overview of the key visual and audio media that build narratives through the sequence of images: Photography, comics, film, animation and interactive media. Introduction to the principles of linear and non-linear storytelling and their implementation in the different media. Differences and similarities explored between time-based media versus comics and photography. What?s in a picture? An investigation of the single image as the elemental unit for creating narratives. Telling a story in a single image. The function of the single image in the chain of narrative events. The basic concepts of composition, staging, lighting and colour within a single frame. Building visual narratives: An exploration of strategies to construct a variety of narratives in and through different media. Practising concepts through connecting images in sequence: Comics, storyboards, animatics, photo-series and/or live action short films. Students will learn how to apply basic concepts of editing and cinematography in communicating a story. The role of sound for audio-visual media: Through analysis of a variety of examples from film and animation, students will learn about the role of sound in narrative context. Basic concepts of sound design and scoring will be explored as elements of the filmmaking process. Beyond traditional narrativity: An introduction into newly emerging and rapidly evolving story-formats that deviate from traditional forms in structure and format: spatial and fragmented storytelling (installations/exhibitions), interactive storytelling, immersive environments (dome and VR), augmented reality. This will be a basic introduction that familiarizes students with the terms and helps them understand the different requirements for conceiving narratives. Class assignments: Four creative projects, which explore the adaptation of narratives for visual and audio-visual storytelling ? composition of a single image, image sequences in various forms, storyboard and full audio-visual animatic, live action short film or photographic sequence. Developed through lectures, tutorials, class exercises and peer/instructor feedback sessions.