I sat down with my then boss and we had my annual review. To my surprise, he changed my title from Corporate Marketing Assistant (I literally did paperwork at a desk) to Creative Designer. I was so shocked. #exsm3989#crossplatformstorytelling#originstory
I was so shocked. In all the years I worked for my company, we had never employed a graphic designer in house. I accepted and was so excited. #exsm3989#crossplatformstorytelling#originstory
Have you ever wondered what makes a good story? What is it that keeps a listener, viewer, or reader’s attention?
Perhaps it’s the overwhelming urge to find out what’s going to happen next. But why do you feel the need to find out? What keeps you engaged in the story?
If you think of story telling like a graph, it looks something like this:
This particular image of a story is quite boring and doesn’t really explain anything. So what does it mean, you ask? Well if you notice, there are 5 points in this particular graph and each point represents something that’s happening within the story. Five stages of storytelling, if you will.
What are the stages?
The stages are much easier to understand with this helpful infographic.
The Power of Three
There are 3 divisions within a good story; a beginning, a middle, and an end.
In the infographic, the first two stages are the beginning of our story. This is the setup of the background and the characters, the hook that will keep you engaged.
The peak of the infographic is the peak of the story, or the middle. This is the area where the main character has some sort of moment. Whether it be a resolution to a conflict, an a-ha moment, or realizes he/she knew all along.
The last two stages are the ending. This is when all the loose ends are tied up nice and neat and our character goes back to his/her regular life.
There you have it. Five stages to good storytelling. Next time you want to tell a story, just keep these things in mind and you will have people hanging on your every word. They will be listening, watching, or reading until the very end.
This has been a particularly hard week for me. And because of that, I haven’t been sleeping well. My puppy Tiberius got stolen on Monday night and I was heartbroken so I haven’t been sleeping well. Plus, work has been a tad stressful with my tight deadlines this week. So because of all this, I decided on Wednesday night that I’d take a prescribed sleeping pill (which I don’t normally take).
Usually doesn’t knock me out like it did…
Thursday morning comes around and I didn’t hear any of my 4 alarms between 6:15 and 7:30. They just kept going and going and going like some crazy, sleep deprived Energizer Bunny.
Until finally, at 8:10am, I woke up. At first I thought it was the weekend because it was daylight in my room which it usually isn’t at this time of year. Then I realized my alarms were all going off still and I don’t use an alarm on the weekend. Yikes!
Pretty sure this is actual footage of me waking up Thursday morning.
So thankfully, I shower at night so when I woke up, I just had to get dressed, get ready and run out the door.
So here’s my live tweets of my Thursday morning sleep in. Oh no! I slept in…
One of my favourite characters that I’ve loved ever since I was a kid has got to be Spider-Man. I used to watch the 1967 cartoon series every Saturday. I would get so excited hearing the Spider-Man intro
play, knowing that whatever trouble Spider-Man would get into this week, he would no doubt get the villain and J. Jonah Jameson would be hard-pressed to prove that Spider-Man was, indeed, a bad guy. In the end, Spider-Man would get the bad guy and slip away just in time for the cops to show up and see the note left behind that read: Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
So with that little anecdote in mind, it comes as no surprise that Spider-Man: Far From Home is one of my favourite stories. At its core, the movie is about as close as one could get in bringing the 1967 cartoon to life.
When Stan Lee created Spider-Man, he wanted the character to be relatable.
“…nothing ever turns out 100 percent OK; he’s got a lot of problems, and he does things wrong, and I can relate to that.”
Stan Lee
So Tom Holland’s portrayal of Spider-Man is spot on. He’s a teenager and he’s a bit awkward. That, more or less everybody has felt at some point in their life. He makes mistakes like we all do and he has this moral compass that makes him want to always do the right thing.
Now, for the story of Far From Home, if I were to use Ken Adams story spine, it would look something like this:
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Once upon a time there was kid named Peter Parker who had supernatural powers given to him because he was bitten by a radioactive spider.
Every day he would fight crime using his alias, Spider-Man, whilst dressed in a red and blue Spider costume, complete with mask.
But, one day he wanted to go on the school trip for vacation and tell the girl he likes that he likes her.
Because of that he did go on the school trip and then he met Quentin Beck aka Mysterio.
Because of that he fought villains from another dimension whilst on vacay.
Until finally he found out that the real villain was actually Quentin Beck and he had to fight him instead and Spider-Man won.
And, ever since then he told the girl he’s interested in that he likes her and went on a date as Spider-Man/Peter and then Mysterio framed him and told the world of his true identity.
The story has everything. You want a love story? Check. You want action? Check. You want sci-fi? Check. You want a comedy? Check. You want a mystery? Check, check, and more check. This movie will have you on the edge of your seat and will leave you wanting more, like any good story does.
The thing I like about this story is that it stays true to the Marvel characters whilst updating them and making them believable. You know, as believable as a cartoon character can be.
As anyone who knows anything about Marvel movies, it’s that they are intertwined and they are a monolith to take on if you don’t know anything about them. Each movie is also a stand-alone movie, in and of itself but knowing the ins and outs of all the characters and their story arcs really does help. Spider-Man: Far From Home is the 23rd movie (or 24th depending on whether you count The Incredible Hulk) released within the Marvel Universe. If you count all the TV shows that go with it, it’s the 46th story within the Marvel saga. So the best part of Spider-Man: Far From Home is that it’s the 2nd Spider-Man movie within the Marvel series and with the cliff-hanger at the end, you know the 3rd instalment is going to be just as good, if not better.
So there you have it, Spider-Man Far From Home. One of my favourite stories. I hope you enjoyed reading my post as much I enjoyed creating it.
EXSM 3989 - Digital Storytelling Class Blog 