Aesthetics: Intro to Storytelling

Aesthetics: Intro to Storytelling Overview

Beginnings is the first step in understanding the vital importance of story to humans, to our culture, and to how humans make and use art. From the beginning of our time on earth, humans have created stories to explain a chaotic universe to themselves, to explain their own impulses, to entertain, enlighten, teach, and to explore humanity’s inner emotions. We are who we are and our civilizations are as they are as much due to story as to anything else. Everything we create starts, centers itself, and ends with story. Understanding these underpinnings helps everyone working in the arts and creating content to know how and as importantly why to create content in ways recognized and appreciated by audiences. The class uses various examples illustrating major concepts in an atmosphere of mutual discovery and discussion to arrive at general and personal understanding of art and story.

Audience

This course is designed for: Producers – Editors – Assistant Editors – Multimedia Producers

Objectives

Exploring why humans create stories, discovering the relationship between story and art, finding the story in different genres and mediums of art, developing a definition of story and of art, breaking down the elements of storytelling and the elements of art for understanding and use, developing a sense of the value of story and of individual stories, recognizing basic story elements and how they are refreshed in new content, exploring the principles governing Plot, Characters, Theme, Tone, Tempo, Design, and Music, applying gained insights into analyzing stories in different types of content, and then applying insights gained to film/video content, recognizing how the technological constraints of film modifies the art of film. At the end of this course, the student will be able to place any work of art on a continuum of story, begin to codify a personal and professional methodology based on understanding the “rules” and when to break them, and have a firm grasp of how and why story works.

Prerequisites

Completion of the course Media Composer Fundamentals I (MC101) or equivalent experience. A working knowledge of Windows or Macintosh operating systems. Experience in video production or post-production is recommended.