Author Archives: Mollie Cowell

The Story Lab: Week 2 Reflections

In this weeks class we wrapped our heads around the three set readings for the week that got quite technical and discussed different theories of transmedia. As a class we focused mainly on the theory behind ‘remixing’ ideas in storytelling.

When it came to the practical part of our class this week, Dan set us the task in our peer groups to create a story that could be told in five parts. My group decided to have a bit of fun with the idea and we conjured up a story of a guy and a girl who decided to go on a road trip to a cabin in the woods. Along the way they meet a hitchhiker who joins them on their journey but when the travellers stop at a gas station, the hitchhiker disappears to then later return at the end of the story to brutally murder the couple. Keeping in mind this story was told over five flashcards. We shared our idea to the class and everyone had a good giggle at the crazy extent some groups went to when creating their five part stories.

Our next challenge was to ‘remix’ this idea. By ‘remixing’ the story we are able to take any part, for example the character or the setting and give it a new spin, like changing gender, occupation, intent or even rearranging the order that the story was originally told etc. Just like remixing a song!
My group got a little carried away and gave our story a big remix, but for the better I reckon! The story ended up evolving into a thriller which still begun with girl and guy on a road trip but the hitchhiker evolved into a travelling salesman who ends up abducting the couple to a secret cult in the woods and which then ends in the murder. Although our idea took a turn for the more ridiculous, it was still a really interesting process going back over work and applying this idea of ‘remixing’ which is something I haven’t ever done in my writing.

Finally we ended with one last challenge, which was to adapt our story into three different forms of media. My group decided to adapt our idea into a short story, screenplay and alternative reality game. I took on the task of creating a ARG and had a lot of fun thinking about it. After reading about The Dark Knight‘s viral marketing ARG, I was fascinated by the idea of audience participation and am truly amazed at the extent they went too for that particular film! It makes me hope another production company creates an amazing ARG on par with the Dark Knight sometime soon, as I want to take part!!

Now to finish off that case study…

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The Story Lab: Week 1 Reflections

In our first week of Story Lab, we got straight into it and began to explore the idea of what makes a story by looking at two examples of storytelling. Our first example was a more conventional way of storytelling, that being the 1931 film ‘Frankenstein’ and our other example would be described as more unconventional, being the 1938 radio drama broadcast by Orson Welles, The War of the Worlds.

Both of these examples happened to be from the same era, the 1930s, which was quite interesting beginning point to our exploration of storytelling. In this day in age it seems easier and more accessible for anyone to create a story in any medium and publish to the world, thanks to the advancement in technology. Yet in the 1930s, you had to be more creative in your means of storytelling. Which is why The War of the Worlds stood out in its time, causing much controversy.

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When listening to the radio drama in class, what stood out the most to me was the production values. You could almost describe it as a theatre production, it was so perfectly well timed as well as the extent they went too, to layer each sound creating atmosphere in each segment. It’s seamless flow made people honestly believe it was a true news broadcast crossing from post to post across America reporting this UFO landing. Pretty amazing stuff, It may be a tad dated but I must say I really did enjoy it!

Will be interesting to see what is next to explore in next week’s lessons.

☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆