Until recently, if you wanted to create mediated stories you had to learn how to produce them from scratch, using audio, animation, graphics, and or video programs. You had to write out the scripts, build the storyboard, ‘hire’ talent/actors and find or create your own settings/stages (which may or may not be enhanced using computer graphics (CG)). With the The latest virtual augmented (and especially virtual) technologies, many of these steps can be eliminated or at least minimized. Video games, (especially narrative role playing games), for example, utilize avatars and virtual characters who appear on pre-configured ‘stages’.
Multi-player, role playing games
Multiplayer games provide a cast of characters who ‘act out’ based on their allowable actions. As the ‘story’ of the game unfolds, it is possible to screen cast (i.e. video record) the scene. Then, going back to the recording, one can edit the lengthy interactions into concise storylines. This is the function of of a process called ‘Machinima‘. In this course we have provided a sub module that discusses this functionality much further. Take a look and think abut how you can use it to:
- teach story creation but having students edit the gameplay into a reasonably sized storyline
- have students storyboard out the game a sit is played to see if they can identify the story elements.
- Decide in advance the story and try to enact it using the video game.
Regardless of the method use choose,(or others you can think up) multi-player narrative games are a perfect way to short cut the video recording process.
Other virtual reality apps
Multiplayer games are more or less set up based on the story line of the narrative game you choose. Less structured are virtual reality apps such as Secondlife, which utilizes similar functionality but the interactions among your avatars and perhaps others they ‘meet’ online (or others you pre-arrange to meet) in the settings you select or the ones you build are not prearranged like they are with a multi-player narrative game.
Second life is mainly aimed at larger computing resources, such as laptops, or desktops. For smaller appliances such as iPads or Chrome Books, there are plenty of smaller apps that are not a fully feature rich that you can use. These include:
Or others. The idea is the same… like with second life you write out the script and storyboard it and then screen record/cast it. The scenarios more straight forward and the choice of location is a lot less but accomplish much the same.
Augmented Reality
The mediation here is much like that with CG. You create the backgrounds with out avatars and utilize it as your ‘setting /stage on which your on screen characters enact the story. It is much less costly but makes up for not having authentic settings or imagined locales.
There are plenty of virtual reality site and apps you can find all over Google Play Story, online on the Web and the App Store.
The idea is for you to explore these three ideas and come up with a scenario in which you would use them to teach story creation. Pick two of them and write out your ideas, along with a reflection about how these ideas strike you as potentially useful classroom activities. Make sure your plan includes specific details on how you would incorporate the five story creation elements introduced in this course: (Brnaigan’s four elements and Kintsch’s subject predicate analysis). Combine them into a single reflection and post them in the Drop Box set up in Canvas.