#com267

[colesonf]

Severance Makes Everyday Objects Feel Creepy

Watching Severance this week made me appreciate how much storytelling you can do with tone alone. The fluorescent lights, the empty halls, the frozen smiles, it all makes the world feel off even before anything scary happens.

What stuck out the most is how transmedia ties into this show. Fans create diagrams, maps, theories, fake documents… it feels like the world leaks out of the TV. That’s kind of the whole point of transmedia: the story keeps going across different platforms.

This class is making me realize how many stories today aren’t limited to one format. And honestly, it makes things more fun.

[colesonf]

Unfiction Is Way Cooler Than I Expected

This week we covered unfiction and honestly I didn’t know it was an actual genre. I thought it was just random creepy internet stuff. But once we looked at examples like Mystery Flesh Pit and SCP, it clicked for me.

Unfiction works because it plays by real-world rules. It doesn’t tell you it’s a story; you just stumble into it like it's a real document, website, or incident report. It’s kind of genius.

What stood out most was how much world-building goes into these projects. People create fake companies, fake government memos, fake logos; it’s like storytelling through clues instead of chapters.

It’s making me think differently about my transmedia project later this month.

[colesonf]

Local58 Made Me Understand Why Analog Horror Works**

Local58 honestly creeped me out more than I expected. There’s something about old-school TV style mixed with horror that hits different. It feels wrong in a way modern HD video doesn’t.

The Nexpo video helped explain it. Analog horror works because it feels like you’re discovering something you were never meant to see. The low quality, the weird cuts, the emergency broadcast stuff… it just gets under your skin.

Screenlife films are interesting too. They feel almost too real because everything happens on a laptop or phone screen. It’s the kind of format we use every day, so it makes the story feel like it could happen to us.

[colesonf]

 Sound in Whiplash Hit Way Harder Than I Expected

The videos this week made me pay attention to sound in a totally different way. Whiplash is already intense, but breaking down the close-ups and the audio made me realize how much the movie relies on rhythm, breath, and tiny noises to create tension.

It feels like the camera and sound design work together like an instrument. The way the shots cut on beat, or how the sound jumps from loud to quiet, and those choices basically force the audience to feel the stress the characters are feeling.

It made me think about how I want to use sound in my own video essay. I never really cared about audio editing before, but I get now why it’s such a big deal. You can literally change the whole emotion of a scene by switching the sound.

This class keeps making me notice stuff I used to ignore.

[colesonf]

 Twine Made Me Realize How Hard Choices Actually Are

Playing the Twine games this week showed me that interactive storytelling is a whole different challenge. You’re not just writing one path, you’re writing five, and all of them have to feel real.

What surprised me was how emotional some of the choices felt, even in short games. It’s because you’re not watching a character make a decision, you’re making it. That changes the entire experience.

It made me think about how storytelling changes when the audience becomes part of it. That’s something regular film or podcasts can’t do.

[colesonf]

Fall Break = Brain Break I Needed

Not a lot happened this week because of fall break, but honestly it came at the perfect time. I didn’t realize how drained I was from everything going on: classes, practices, and starting the storyboard.

I didn’t do a ton of media analysis this week, but I did notice that when I finally slowed down, I started paying attention to how I consume media again. Like how I automatically scroll on my phone without thinking. I guess this class is getting into my head a little.

[colesonf]

 Low-Key Liked Having a Work Week Instead of a Lecture Week

This week was basically a reset button. Having two in-class work days made everything feel a lot calmer, especially since the video essay stuff can get stressful fast. I used the time to mess around with the storyboard assignment and start thinking through what scenes actually matter in Annihilation.

It helped to take some pressure off and just sketch ideas without worrying if they were “right.” I realized that the hardest part of storyboarding is just choosing which moments are worth showing visually. Once you pick the scene, the rest starts to make sense.

It also felt nice to see what other people were doing. Everybody had totally different ideas even if we were watching the same kind of videos in class. Makes me feel like the final video essays are going to be pretty cool to watch.

[colesonf]

American Animals Messed With My Brain (In a Good Way)

American Animals was honestly one of the most interesting movies we’ve watched in a class. I didn’t expect the mix of documentary and reenactment to work so well. The article we read about “true-life movies stealing facts” was kind of funny but also true—it made me question how much of any “true story” film is really real.

The movie plays with what’s true vs. what people remember. The split interviews and shifting details made me realize how unreliable human memory is. I’ve never seen a movie that treats truth like a puzzle that keeps moving.

The cool part is how the film uses documentary style to convince you something is true, and then the edits remind you it’s still a movie. It felt almost like the film was calling itself out.

This week also made me feel more comfortable with the idea of doing a script or storyboard scene for Praxis.