Animated Narratives, Week #3

STORY

-The relationship between Olivia and her boyfriend has been frozen for a while.

-Today, her boyfriend seems to be unhappy with her role as his girlfriend.

- ‘Why not just break up?’ Olivia says, but it is contrary to her convictions. She tries to confirm her boyfriend’s love for her by using such an aggressive method.

-However, her boyfriend agrees and says he has disliked her since a long time ago.

-She is shocked and sad even cannot breathe.

Olivia doubts herself that maybe she is not good enough to be worth loved, which is why her boyfriend breaks up with her.

-She cannot control herself immersed in sad memories and has been upset for a long time.

-Eventually, she feels it is time to finish such negative moods.

-Olivia buys a film ticket, and she hears that this film can smooth destructive emotions.

-The idea of this film is that love yourself before falling in love with others.

-Through watching the film, she realizes many merits of herself and believes she is worth being loved. She thinks that she is brave, kind, and optimistic.

-Olivia falls in love with herself, ‘It would be great if I can marry myself’, she says to herself in the mirror.

-Surprisingly, another Olivia walks out from the mirror.

Olivia embraces and kisses with another herself.

REFLECTION

This work examines ideas of reversing engineer a short story from an ending point. I begin with the premise 'Olivia embraces and kisses with another herself.'

By imagining situations using bullet points from the end, I  transform an original way of thinking, different from the storytelling orders in the last week. Lean on the ending point, then come up with situations that may cause this result, that is, 'what ifs'.

This method is similar to Film Art's: An Introduction(Bordwell, David &Kristin, 2008) about causes and effects. In most detective narratives, utilizing people's curiosity often gives an effect at first but not the causes.

By examine the TED TALK How Games turn Players into Storytellers presented by David Cage. After watching the robot saves a goldfish, which influences his personality in the game Detroit: Be Human. I reflected that I had missed some important personalities of the protagonist that will lead to such an end. So, I added some details of changes for Olivia's characteristics over time.