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PART I1I SHARING YOUR WORK
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anecdotal storytelling
SCREEN STRUCTURE
Anecdotal storytelling is a first-person account of a meaning- ful experience. This kind of slide show is driven by a voice- over track that is written and delivered by the storyteller him- or herself. It is my favorite genre of slide shows.
Screen structure is the combination of writing (con- ceptual) and direction (design) that holds a viewer’s attention during a time-based media presentation.
The production can be really simple: a few photographs, some old snapshots—and your voice. But the effect can be truly moving. (See Chapter 7 for four examples from an inter- national movement known as Digital Storytelling.)
There are four—and only four—basic kinds of screen struc- ture: Narrative, Documentary, Artsy/Designy and Emotional.
If you understand these four ways to select images and edit them into a fixed sequence, your slide shows will reach a new level of impact.
The images that follow come from an account that one of my students created about sleep paralysis, a chronic disor- der that involves visual and aural hallucinations.
narrative structure
A few years back I visited a ranch in the Rocky Moun- tains. I got to know a friendly and capable young wran- gler named Jody. At dawn one morning I shot about fifty or sixty stills as Jody did what she does every morning: wrangle the horses and groom them. Later I shot more stills of the ranch building and surroundings.
Slides from a two minute slide show titled “Sleepy Paralysis.” The creator recounted three types of hallucinations: one which the sleeper imagines a malevolent pres- ence in the bedroom; one in which nightmarish sounds are heard; one which there is sleepwalking. Ananda Tinio
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CHAPTER 5: SLIDE SHOWSZ
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In narrative structure, the primary criteria for image selection and sequencing centers on an unfolding of series of events that involves one or more characters. The constant question in the mind of the viewer is: “What happens next?”
For the Narrative mode I start with an image taken at dawn (upper left), which sets a tranquil mood. We follow the young wrangler as she heads out to the corral and halters a horse named Harry (slides 2 through 5). Jody grooms and then saddles Harry (slides 6 through 9). The sequence ends with a shot of rider and horse and dog, heading out onto the range.
Examples of narratives are everywhere: the movies; TV sit- coms; crime dramas. Most advertising is built on narrative structure. This is the world of storytelling.
The author thanks Jody Goldbach for permission to use these images and those in the following slide shows.