Is a picture worth 1000 words? --- Narrative Assignment

This next assignment will require you to do some more thinking before you shoot the photos.

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• You will be telling a story using only 5 or fewer photos.
• Choose any subject, but the entire sequence should visually tell a story.
• A title is the only words that can be used.  Rely on the photographs to bring the story to life
• You MUST include a title. 
• The title can help guide the viewer to better understand your story.
• THINK ABOUT COMPOSITION and LIGHTING ALWAYS!

Guidelines for Telling a Story

Guidelines are not rules, but a formula that can be used to suit your creative imagination. Several avenues exist for story telling, such as journalistic reporting, sequential photos that reveal a moment, photographic poetry, and narrative.

The following guidelines are for narrative.

A good story has characters in action with a beginning, middle, and an ending. Fortunately a lot of information can be given in a single photograph, enhancing the limitations of five photographs for your story. Location, time, and atmosphere aid viewer imagination. Keep individual composition in mind, but pack as many story telling elements in one photograph as possible to develop an action.

Remember:  these are just guidelines.  Creative people may not use these, and be even more successful!

1st photo: establish characters and location.
2nd photo: create a situation with possibilities of what might happen.
3rd photo: involve the characters in the situation.
4th photo: build to probable outcomes
5th photo: have a logical, but surprising, end.

Important Tips

• Also, give your Narrative a title when you post it to your blog.  
• DO NOT USE WORDS on your images!
• Make sure your story makes sense to a 1st time viewer. 
•  (Be warned that any extra information in your photos may cause your viewer to get confused.  Be aware of the background at all times!!)

LINKS for examples

My Mom and I
December 3rd
The Night (anbiguous, but leaves you to make your own assumptions)
Om nom nom  (uses a white background, similar to your egg photos)
Don't Stop me now!
Plugged In  (only uses 4 images, but it is good)
A Ladybug's Trip  (only uses 3 images, but the photography is nice)
Sickness to recovery
Nature Can Be Cruel (only 3 images)
EggO   (cute!)
Scramble the Egg  ( very cute!)
Humpty Dumpty (notice the use of motion blurs!)
Foot to Flight (tells a story, but it is too boring. ::yawn::)
Daily Grind.
Day in the Life of a Coffee Bean


Former Student examples:

Message in a Bottle  (notice the use of the rule of thirds, and the unity in the series due to the sepia tone)
How Crayons are Made  (unity due to the simple background)
story board  (no title)
duck love  (this one really only needed 3 images to tell the story. The rest are just overkill)

Example from last year

Skateboard Guy

Mr. Roboto

more examples

EggO

Scramble

Modern Family  (my favorite so far)

5000 Word Essay due Monday

(((((((A PHOTO IS WORTH 1000 WORDS.)))))))

This next assignment will require you to do some more thinking before you shoot the photos.

~NO PHOTOS WILL BE TAKEN IN CLASS!~  So, don't ask.

You must take the photos at home, or at school during lunch, etc.  If you do not have photos by Next Monday, you will be writing a paper in place of the next assignment. You've been warned (and you have a WHOLE WEEK!)

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Rules

• You will be telling a story using only 5 photos.
• Choose any subject, but the entire sequence should visually tell a story.
• A title is the only words that can be used.  Rely on the photographs to bring the story to life
• You MUST include a title, but don't write the title on ANY of the photos.
• The title can help guide the viewer to better understand your story.
• DO NOT PUT ANY WORDS ON THE PHOTOS.  

Guidelines for Telling a Story

Guidelines are not rules, but a formula that can be used to suit your creative imagination. Several avenues exist for story telling, such as journalistic reporting, sequential photos that reveal a moment, photographic poetry, and narrative.

The following guidelines are for narrative.

A good story has characters in action with a beginning, middle, and an ending. Fortunately a lot of information can be given in a single photograph, enhancing the limitations of five photographs for your story. Location, time, and atmosphere aid viewer imagination. Keep individual composition in mind, but pack as many story telling elements in one photograph as possible to develop an action.

Remember:  these are just guidelines.  Creative people may not use these, and be even more successful!

You  may want to use the following format...but I would prefer you were more creative and came up with your own idea.

1st photo: establish characters and location.

2nd photo: create a situation with possibilities of what might happen.

3rd photo: involve the characters in the situation.

4th photo: build to probable outcomes

5th photo: have a logical, but surprising, end.

Also, don't forget to give your Narrative a title, but do not put words on the photos.

Be thinking about this assignment for the next few days...but we will work more on it after we finish the Blur pictures, which will probably be on Thursday. 

Examples will follow on a post tomorrow.