multi media stories by morg

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Commercials- Blog Post #10

One commercial that always sticks out in my mind is the 2017 Super Bowl Budweiser commercial, “Someone Waits For You At Home”. The commercial was to raise awareness for drunk driving and promote responsible decision making. I have heard the same slogan “please drink responsibility” from every alcohol company on the market, but this specific commercial really brought home that message in a different way. 

The commercial followers a dog and his owner making different memories and showing their bond. Eventually the owner leaves the house with a case of beer and many clips of his dog waiting at home are shown. Thankfully, the owner comes home safely in the morning and the two are reunited. 

During the waiting period, the screen cuts to black and shows the text, “For some, the waiting never ended”. This was the moment in the commercial that especially struck an emotional cord in me. Being a dog mom myself, everytime I leave the house I am thinking about my dog and the moment I can be with him again. This particular moment in the commercial reminded me of my biggest fear, never being able to return home to my dog. It also reminded me of the guilt I sometimes feel when I leave the house and know my dog does not necessarily understand when or what time I will be home. Budweiser did a really good job at targeting that particular guilt/emotion while also giving a sweet and loving backstory to the owner and dog featured in the commercial. 

By the end of the commercial, when the two of them are reunited, I am feeling incredibly emotional, thinking of my own dog, thinking of the dog in the commercial, and all the dogs whose paw-rents never came back home to them. Budweiser tied in the elements of emotion, animals (which is a topic every human being can empathize with) and their message, which is consuming their alcohol responsibly. 

Another element of the commercial that they approached strategically was the subtle brand placement. I think that some of the most powerful and thought provoking ads do not blatantly show the brand in question. Only once halfway through was a Budweiser package subtly placed in the background of a scene, even then it was slightly out of focus. It drove home the idea that the message was far more important and goes beyond their own brand.

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Memes- Blog #9

The inspiration for my gif was drawn from my former thought process that memes are  merely a silly internet creation and do not serve as a representation of our society or current culture. It was not until last year during the Social Media and Culture course that I learned about the importance of memes and how they transmit messages across different groups and in many cases are a reflection of our society. 

Before that I had never considered the cultural significance of memes. I remember in middle school when I first got social media and had an ipod, memes were an endless source of entertainment. Scrolling from one to the next, I got hooked on finding funny examples of real world situations that I related to and could send to my friends. In hind sight, I can see the importance of finding those memes and being able to relate to it. Even now when I find memes that are scarily relatable I can find enjoyment through them. 

The example given in the article of the man coming to a realization of being creepy after seeing a meme in another girl’s tinder profile was relatable in itself. Memes are yet another way of showing your personality and being able to find common ground with others. The type/stye of memes someone likes can say a lot about their humor. 

One area of the content of memes that I find to be particularly interesting is the incredibly niche memes that people make. It’s interesting to analyze how different sub groups of society/the internet adopt memes and make it their own. In darker ways this can be seen with the pepe the frog meme being taken over by extremists and giving it an extremely negative connotation. On a lighter note, there are also accounts on the internet that target people who live certain lifestyles and utilize the memes to create content. One of my favorite podcasts, Sea Moss Girlies has an entire Instagram account dedicated to making popular memes about healthy living. It’s fun and entertaining, while also kind of educational at times. 

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The Stanley Parable - Blog #8

The Stanley Parable  is a video game wherein the player takes on the identity of Stanley. Stanley is a corporate drone who has found himself alone in his abandoned office and lost without direction from his bosses/colleagues. While I typically hate video games, I found this one to be particularly entertaining. The theme of the game was something I had never been introduced to before. It was almost a little daunting to play this game because as a soon to be grad, Stanley’s “lifestyle” is exactly what my friends and I all fear of falling into one day. 

Setting: The setting of this game was very realistic for the story that was being told. The bland colors, loose papers on the ground, the never ending hallways, and lack of personality is exactly what I envision when I think of a boring office job. Especially Stanley’s “office” which lacked any personalization and really stood true to the person Stanley was being portrayed as. As Stanley moved throughout the building I was also surprised by the different settings he entered, especially the warehouse section. Within the warehouse setting there were moments in the game where Stanley walked onto equipment and was placed in unfortunate, life threatening situations. 

Backstory: The backstory of the game was very helpful, it helped give context to the type of person Stanley is. In Stanley’s reality he is merely employee number 427 and the lack of information given about his personal life really tied together his identity as a corporate drone, likely no different than the rest of the employees in the building. 

Immersion: The most immersive aspect of this game I believe was the narrator. Without the narrator, the game would have been incredibly boring and bland, much like Stanley. The anonymous narrator not only explains in real time what Stanley is doing/where he is going but also talks to Stanley while moving through the office building. His patronizing narration style adds a layer of humor and entertainment which helped me personally stay interested in the game overall.

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Documentaries - Blog #7

I am someone who has always been drawn to documentaries. While I had my interest as a child in fantasy and fictional films, at my core I love hearing other people’s stories. One of the great things about documentaries is that it is both a form of entertainment while also being informative and educational about a specific topic. Jon Else also preaches that one of the most important aspects of documentary making is that it provides the audience a space to learn and discuss about different subjects. 

The Speed Cubers, told the story of the most talented rubix cube solvers in the world. I personally loved the documentary, which was a surprise to me. I loved the educational aspect of it that highlighted the world of rubix cube solvers, as well as the stories of the two rivals that were featured, Felix and Max. The marriage of those two qualities is what I think draws me to watch documentaries so much. Even if the topic at hand is completely foreign to me or something I would not normally be interested in learning about, a well made documentary can make it worth watching. 

One of the parallels that I immediately saw between scripted content and documentary making was the aspect of “going off script”. Even in scripted television and movies that I have watched, it has later been revealed that the actor went off script and improvised. An example of this is seen in the show Euphoria. During the first episode of season one, Rue, played by Zendaya, engages in an emotional fight with her mother. Zendaya revealed in a 2019 interview with Refinery29 that Sam Levinson, the director of Euphoria told her to go off script, “He said, ‘I want you guy to go at one another’s necks. Just go as hard as you want to go. If shes goes hard, you go harder”. 

In documentary making, especially ones that follow an event as it unfolds in real time there is little scripting that can be made. In fact, he even notes that it is much more difficult to get funding for documentaries that follow real time events, vs ones that have already happened because of that very reason. Else noted that while the process of filming and directing a docu film is much different than a scripted one, there is still a great amount of thought and logic that has to go into every scene. Each scene, whether it be an interview or a b-roll has to have meaning and add to the story that is being told. 

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Blog #6

The video, The Fallen of World War II utilized animation to represent the data of fallen soldiers in war. Although I don’t particularly enjoy consuming content about war, I found this video to be relatively engaging and very informative. I appreciated the mixture of photography, narration and visual representation of the data. I thought that the figures and animation being shown were very well done and easy to comprehend at first. However, about halfway through I began to get a headache and from staring at thousands of dots on the screen move around. 

The narration of this video tied together the data being presented, without that I would have had a very difficult time understanding all of the information. I do not typically watch videos that are nearly exclusively data and animation, which is why it felt somewhat hard to follow along. 

The animation and visuals were comprehensible for the first few minutes but after a while it became mind numbing to have to stare at the screen. I feel as though I would have better understood this data being presented in the animation form through an infographic. While pictures were interwoven into the video I would have appreciated more pictures, or even lists of names. 

The video reminded me of the time I visited the 9/11 memorial, staring at a huge wall of portraits and names helped me better understand the thousands of lives lost that day. I think that this video could have benefitted by adding one of those aspects.

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Blog #5- Journalism

2 years ago, in a pre-pandemic world I loved being up to date on everything that was happening in the news. My phone would buzz all day long with push notifications from my favorite news outlets and I would almost immediately click to read the articles or watch the videos. Now, two years later, my consumption of news on a daily basis looks much different. 

Instead of consuming multiple flash news pieces a day I prefer to sit down at the end of the day or week, or whenever I find the time, to either watch or read longer pieces that tell a more detailed story. Maybe it’s due to the fact that my screentime was astronomically high during the pandemic and I’m still working to decrease that number, or maybe it’s because my interests have evolved into quality over quantity. 

As someone who grew up watching the daily news and every morning and every night with my parents I always noticed that I particularly loved the stories at the end of the night that were longer form and took on a narrative structure. As someone who also loves reading/writing prose essays, the storytelling nature of this style of news was very satisfying to watch. 

Another shift that happened in my relationship with reading the news was my anxiety. During the pandemic I felt as though I could not get enough news each and every day which eventually manifested itself into a lot of anxiety and pessimism about the world. I had to completely re-evaluate how and when I consume news and if certain news stories are ever worth watching or reading. Right now in my life I still make it a daily priority to listen to NPR every single morning and keep myself informed of what is happening in the world but know when to be intentional about certain stories I’m going to read. 

Outlets such as Vice, ABC, 60 Minutes, and BBC create longer form video content that follows a narrative structure. For me, this style of news is much more enjoyable and digestible. Aside from breaking news stories that I find important to read as soon as they are published, I try to mainly watch or read news that follows a narrative structure. In addition to being able to sit down and hear multiple sides of the story in a more detailed manner, I also enjoy the high quality of writing that longer pieces typically contain. It makes sense that most breaking news stories try to give as much information in as little words/reading time but I much rather enjoy the details and descriptions that narrative pieces have. 

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Blog # 4 - Podcasts

Podcasting is unique in the way that interviews can be held remotely, this gives the interviewer access to taking notes, reviewing questions, or even fact-checking information in real time. With the visual aspect removed and the senses limited to just sound, the listening experience can often feel more “intimate” for the listener. That very reason is why I would consider myself a podcast gal. In fact it’s one of my main sources of entertainment. The intimacy and often “low-key” tone of most podcasts I listen to make it easy to consume content from some of my favorite creators while also living my very busy, on the go lifestyle. 

The podcasts I listen to vary, but more often than not follow a casual, conversationalist structure. Gals On The Go, being one of my favorites. It is essentially two best friends engaging in a conversation for one hour about their current social life plans, travel stories, or reporting on upcoming trends. As a listener, for the entirety of the episode I feel like I’m having a facetime call with close friends. It’s easy and simple to follow along with but also engaging and relatable. 

The minority of podcasts I listen to tell a more structured story. Crime Junkie (another favorite of mine) reports a new true crime story each week. I look forward to and appreciate the flow of the podcast coupled with additional storytelling aspects of 9-11 audio clips or interviews of family members related to the case. 

ILYSM (I Love You So Much) podcast maries both qualities of structure and clear storytelling with casual and off-script commentary by the host. Each week the host, Kenzie Elizabeth begins her podcast with a life-update/life stories, followed by an interview or deep dive into a particular topic. 

Podcasting is fascinating to me because in today’s world you can find hundreds of different episodes or shows that cover the same topic but listen to many different perspectives/storytelling narratives. With the lack of visual stimulation, podcasts can consist of just two people talking casually or elevated with external audio clips or descriptive language.

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Blog # 3 - Graphic Novels

Some of my favorite child memories include waking up on a Sunday morning and running downstairs to drink orange juice and read the Sunday comics. I’m not sure if comic strips are prevalent in newspapers today but I feel especially thankful to have had that be a part of my childhood. As I grew up I was always a very big reader, going through multiple books a week. I had my genre preferences but at one point had a comic book phase. There was something about the intricate illustrations and nostalgia of those Sundays spent at the kitchen table that drew me in. 

Even as a child I had my reservations about comic books. Because I was such a fast reader, comic books forced me to slow down. Instead of a full length page of words I had to analyze the drawings images take my time to absorb their meanings. I never thought of them as illegitimate pieces of literature but for most of my life I have been more inclined to read words and create my own visuals instead of vice versa. Growing up with a mother who is an artist, and loved drawing manga style illustrations I understood the amount of creative labor that must go into creating comic strips. In our reading this week it was interesting to learn that many Hollywood movies have been inspired by the styles of comics. It makes sense, I can easily see the parallel between an action scene with bright colors being turned into an over the top special effects in a movie. Understanding the history of comic books and the content it has inspired for Hollywood certainly elevates how I view comic books in yet another way. 

I never viewed graphic novels as a bad thing or really anything less than a typical book. I struggle to understand people’s discredit or critique of graphic novels. I think it’s a very important medium for storytelling. It offers a visual experience while still experiencing the similar brain engagement of reading a book. Aside from the artistic appreciation of graphic novels I can also recognize that everyone has different learning styles for which comic books may be an advantage or disadvantage for them. For visual learners or people who appreciate being presented with action images of what is happening in a story, I can very much see why they might gravitate towards graphic novels.

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Blog # 2- Radio Storytelling

As much as I will proudly announce to the world that I am a podcast gal, I was not the biggest fan of this week’s multimedia story. It’s interesting to me because I listen to a variety of different podcasts, all varying in subject matter and even the narrative structure. The Skinny Confidential is one of my favorite lifestyle podcasts, it is hosted by Lauren and Michael Bosstick. The couple interviews people from many different professions, ranging from Instagram influencers to Doctors. The structure of their podcast is more conversational and includes a lot of banter between the couple. This is the same with the majority of other podcasts I find myself listening to, conversation driven and meant to feel like you could be chatting with a friend on facetime while getting ready for the day or cleaning your room. 

I did not particularly enjoy “The Hitch-Hiker” for a few reasons, most of which being that it was published in the 1940’s and that content is just not interesting to me. But more notably most times I just automatically think that radio or podcast shows are all following a conversationalist tone and forget that radio storytelling is/was a thing. There is something just so foreign about puring listening to the audio of a story and not also having visuals to connect the audio too. With the podcasts that I listen to I can find myself being able to do other things while they are playing, I can successfully multitask while also still getting my entertainment fix. With this style of radio storytelling I felt constricted. It might just be an inherent instinct but I wanted to just lie down and stare at the wall while this story was playing. It was not as engaging as I expected it to be. 

However, I did not hate this story, there were some aspects that I related to or found appreciation for. One of which being the 1940’s voice and annunciation by the actors. Their voices were very vivid and dramatic which certainly aided in me being able to mentally create visuals as the story was being told. The content was reminiscent of reading a book, although I have always much preferred holding a physical book in my hand and being able to feel the pages in my hand, the radio story brought me along the same journey of mentally creating images for the characters and landscapes in my head. 

In recent years I have witnessed my favorite influencers gain another source of income by starting a podcast or being featured on many different podcasts. All following the same structure that is parallel to their Youtube or Instagram content, casual but informational. Gals On The Go (GOTG) another one of my favorites, which is a podcast hosted by Brooke Miccio and Danielle Carolan recently added a video component to their podcast. While I have watched both of their content for years now via their Youtube channels I was very intrigued and somewhat surprised to notice they were now going to be posting their podcasts in video format on Youtube as well. It made me genuinely wonder, are podcast listens decreasing, do they just wanting to expand their audience viewership, or are podcast listeners demanding video formats be the new norm?

One of the things that drew me to liking podcasts so much was the absence of the video form content. I had realized, especially during the pandemic that video content or frankly any content that required me to look at the screen was draining. Switching to podcasts as one of my main forms of entertainment allowed me a break from binge watching in my bed or headaches from staring at my screen all day. 

After analyzing my podcast library, the closest show I could find to “The Hitch-Hiker” that encapsulates some true storytelling aspects was the true crime podcast, “Crime Junkie”. 

This show is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Each week they dissect true crime cases, both solved and unsolved. One of the parallels that I noticed between this show and our assigned story for the week was the use of different audios. In The Hitch Hiker, dialogue, background music and varying environmental sounds all helped shape the story being told. In Crime Junkie episodes, audio clips of 9-11 calls or police interviews are also included to help tell the story of the case that is being explained. The added audio is crucial for me as a listener to fully digest the story that is being told. While I can appreciate the lengths of which radio storytelling has gone to include those elements, I truly do not believe that radio storytelling will be ever reach the same level as podcasts of television. The only other advantage I can see within this medium is accessibility. People who have impaired vision or simply do not appreciate watching visuals as much as audio have the option to consume this type of content which I do think is important.

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Blog Post #1- Hero’s Journey

One of my favorite quotes of all time was said by Robert McKee, “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today”. I appreciate that sentiment so much because storytelling has always been an instrument in which ideas, fantasies, and lessons have been brought to the human experience. Storytelling is a vehicle for creativity that brings people from all walks of life together to embark on a journey with a character that will hopefully impact them on a personal level once that character’s journey is completed. 

Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey monomyth ties together several important elements of storytelling into one structure. The Hero’s Journey is segmented into multiple steps that predicts the journey of the main character throughout their storyline. The Hero’s Journey relates to many stories created throughout history and encompasses elements of a successful and interesting story. 

After reading Campbell’s Hero’s Journey breakdown I instantly thought of many movies that follow this same story arc. The Disney film Moana being one example. The story follows a young girl, Moana, who is chosen by the ocean to set out on a journey to save her people from a life-threatening darkness. On this journey Moana faces many challenges that could easily be compared to the structure of The Hero’s Journey.  

Separation / Departure: 

Freedom To Live: This shows the character before they are aware of the journey they are going to embark on. In the film the musical number “Where You Are” Moana’s father sings about the island and it successfully shows the vibrant love and appreciation their people have for the land. 

Call To Adventure: Moana’s mission in the film is revealed after she is “chosen” by the ocean to save her land.

 Refusal of The Call: This is a moment in the journey where the protagonist faces some sort of doubt and decides they are not capable of fulfilling the adventure. In Moana, once she decides she is going to venture beyond the reef she is defeated by large waves and washed back to shore. Moana experiences defeat for the first time and nearly gives up on her journey of saving the island. 

Acceptance of The Call: This is a very important part in the Hero’s Journey. In this plot point the character experiences something that justifies their calling. Just after Moana washes up on shore her Grandmother shows her the boats of her ancestors and validates her wishes to journey into the ocean. She gives Moana the emotional and physical support that she needed to re-inspire her to go on this journey. 

Initiation: 

Road of Trials: This crossing of the threshold signifies the entering of the special world and truly accepting the journey the character is about to embark on. For Moana, this is seen when she successfully crosses past the reef and officially begins her mission.

As this phase of the story continues the hero is introduced to new people and “tests” that will push the characters limits. Moana meets an enemy turned ally, encounters a storm that throws her off her boat and faces off with the pirates. Each challenge Moana faces becomes larger and larger as the story progresses but instills confidence and capability. 

Apothesis: This is a moment in the journey where the hero may be coming out of a very difficult situation and at a low point. For Moana she is defeated in a battle and nearly gives up. Her Grandmother “visits” her and inspires her once again to continue on her journey. Spiritually, this visit from her Grandmother gives Moana the strength to keep moving. 

Following this, Moana sees the light at the end of the tunnel and swims to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve the heart of Te Fiti. Moana eventually defeats her enemy and 

Return: 

Crossing of the return threshold: After Moana defeats her enemy, life comes back to the island. Moana is fulfilled after successfully completing her journey and is forever changed. Moana returns to the island with knowledge about wave finding and wisdom she gained from her journey which impacts the way her and her family live. 

After analyzing the Hero’s Journey and comparing it to the plot of Moana it opened my mind to seeing the parallels Campbell’s structure has with many more movies and stories. Ultimately, I think that the Hero’s Journey encapsulates the story of human nature which makes it easy to apply to countless other stories.

The Hero’s Journey lays out the plot of life before, during, and after some sort of challenge that fundamentally changes how the hero exists in the world which is a fairly universal story.

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introductory video