Storytelling

How stories can be told..?

A story is a narrative, a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events. Stories can be presented in many different ways such as in writing, drawing, drama (acting) or even dancing or music; almost everything can tell a story. During a narrative shares their thoughts, feelings, reactions, and actions, everything that helps the reader form a picture of the event in their mind. Storytelling is the events transfer into words, images and sounds often by creativeness or exaggeration. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to in-still moral values. The important elements of stories and storytelling include a plot, characters and narrative.

I started looking and researching some of the different ways and looking at some pacific artists and film makers; below are my findings:

Filmmaking

The process of making a film, from an initial story idea or commission, through scriptwriting, shooting, editing, directing and distribution to an audience. I looked into some good filmmakers:

Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle, an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach, Sunshine and Slumdog Millionaire. For the latter Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director. Boyle was presented with the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award at the 2008 Austin Film Festival, where he also introduced that year's AFF Audience Award Winner Slumdog Millionaire. On the 17th June 2010, it was announced that he will be the artistic director for the 2012 Olympic games opening ceremony.

John Waters

John Samuel Waters an American filmmaker, actor, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films. Waters' 1970s and early '80s trash films feature his regular troupe of actors known as Dreamlanders—among them Divine, Mink Stole, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Edith Massey.

Waters skirted mainstream filmmaking with Hairspray (1988), which introduced Ricki Lake and earned a modest gross of $8 million domestically. In 2002, Hairspray was adapted to a long-running Broadway musical, which itself was adapted to a hit musical film which earned more than $200 million worldwide.

Music
Feelings and emotions can be shown through use of sound; for example the smooth motion, often in eighth notes, suggests calm and more agitated motion suggests strong emotion and the heartbeat for instance. A horn ensemble playing in fifths and sixths in a fanfare-like style suggests a hunting scene almost universally, at least in western music. Vocal music where there is an association with words as in song or opera, that a story is being told is unquestionable.

A good example of story being told through music is the popular musicial, 'Phantom of the Opera'; Andrew Lloyd Webber- The Phantom of the Opera.



It tells a story about the phantom falling in love with Christine whilst; although she is fasinated and drawn towards the phantom, she falls in love with her childhood sweetheart Raoul. The phantom gets madly jealous, kidknapps Christine, and threatens to kill Raoul. She, to save Raoul, agrees to marry the phantom and kisses him. He then realizes what he's done and then makes Christine go with Raoul, disappearing forever.



Art/DrawingThe earliest forms of storytelling were said to have been primarily oral combined with gestures and expressions. In addition to being part of religious ritual, rudimentary drawings scratched onto the walls of caves may be forms of early storytelling for many of the ancient cultures. The Australian Aborginal people painted symbols from stories on cave walls as a means of helping the storyteller remember the story. The story was then told using a combination of oral narrative, music, rock art and dance. Ephemeral media such as sand, leaves and the carved trunks of living trees have also been used to record stories in pictures or with writing.

A good example of an art is The Boyhood of Raleigh by Sir John Everett Millais


Through looking at this piece of art, you can imagine the story behind the image of what was happening. You get the idea that the man is telling the two boys a story about the sea and it is a long one because of their body language and facial expression of being bored and not interested.