Driving Question: How do we as writers make our message clear and engaging to an audience?

We sewed animals together- allegedly. 

got your attention, didn’t I?

You know the deal, another project, another blog post. 

Our most recent project was all about storytelling. You’re probably thinking “ok but like why you sewing animals together also nikan you are so cool”. Well, we were to write and film a story all about “Frankenstuffies”. We all brought in a few stuffed animals, traded them amongst ourselves, and got to work. A head from here, a leg from here, and soon enough, we had these abomination creatures. You can see mine below. 

Allow me to introduce you to Nigel B. Austin (Nigel Boston for short). 

As part of creating a world for our characters, the teachers had us create a bunch of lore for them. That was tons of fun. I loved being able to use my imagination and have some fun with it. I added so many tiny details, I think it was pretty funny. Read them here:

Nigel B. Austin 

“Nigel Boston” for short

-Super proud of his Boston heritage. Always calls it beantown.

-Hard boston accent

-Hard Red Sox, Bruins, and patriots fan

-Very rude to opposing fans 

-D.O.B. June 15, 2011- somehow 47 years old tho

-Pet bird named Larry Bird

-Lower middle class

-Season ticket holder for every sport

-5’8 280lb

-Works in a cubicle job he hates 

-Divorced twice, Linda and Sandy

-6 Kids, only sees them twice a month, doesn’t pay child support 

-Moderately Racist

-Didn’t vote for Obama, but claims its for no reason

-Practically lives in the sports bar

-Went to BC and BU before dropping out claiming he was too busy 

-Lived with parents for years, before getting kicked out

-Chants USA at every occasion

-“Not very sober”

-Small criminal record, 2 past DUIs

-favourite food is a fenway dog

-In severe debt

-Drives forest green 2002 tacoma 

-22y/o gf from Morocco named aziza, met her on tinder, only with him to secure a green card

-Big BC fan, but he’ll cheer for BU if need be

-Would rather die than cheer for Harvard, UMass, or MIT

Friends: 

Benjamin Garret Brog

Salary: 

35k/year 

Employer:

Bachman-Sanchez Toothpicks inc.

Political beliefs:

Didn’t vote for Obama, Hillary, or Joe. Make of that what you will.

Hobbies:

Yelling, exploring pubs, getting in fights

Greatest Strength:

Loyalty - to his sports teams

Ambitions: 

Watch the Bruins lift the cup 

Weakness: 

His emotions tend to get the best of him

Fears:

Losing

Intelligence:

Not very 

Sense of humour:

Edgy, offensive 

Painful setbacks:

The time he was kicked out of a pub for having too much fun  

 

At the start of this project, as a class, we were to read Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan. The book was to teach us about the heroes journey, and how we can implement it into our own stories. As the book went on, at the end of every chapter-goal, we would have a test. Boy did I have a doozy with these tests. The first test, I scored a 3/6. Not great. I blame that grade on me, as reading the chapters for that section, I didn’t write any notes, and just rushed it. The next quiz?  4/10. Brutal. I was so devastated, I knew I had to turn it around for the next quizzes. I worked super hard on the remaining chapters, writing notes, summaries, and studying. Im glad to say, they worked.

I know understand the value of taking my time with things, while still meeting deadlines.

Alright, the video. 

After creating the lore, we were to write a short-story about anything, as long as it included your character. I enjoyed writing the script. As per usual, I enjoyed it because I could use my imagination. I decided to write about Nigel witnessing a bar fight, then eventually starting a pizza joint with the 2 fighters. Making the video, however…..

I struggled making the video. I had the not-very-smart decision to not do any actual filming. My video is just drawings, previously taken photos, and AI generated things. 

In the time it took me to draw one scene, I could’ve filmed like 3. 

I couldn’t meet the deadlines to save my life. I was working hard on the video, chipping away at it every night, but I just couldn’t get things done on time. I finally got the video done about 2.5 hours before writing this, with the help of Tangled (2010) playing the background. 

The next day- today- I came to school pretty confident. I was pretty sure my video was going to be cleared. I walk up to Ms. Willemse, and show her. There definitely were revisions. I was pretty dejected after hearing that, considering that was already my 4th unfinished video I had uploaded. Once I got home, I got straight to the task. Reworking scenes, adding, omitting, and finally, we got the job done.

Check it out here: https://youtu.be/RE9muPFNq10?feature=shared

You can also check out my constantly-updating padlet: https://padlet.com/nikand/frankenstuffie-iumqyevtcoqtrew4

And finally, the driving question. How do we as writers make our message clear and engaging to an audience?

As writers, we need to keep a few things in mind while creating a film. In no particular order, we need to make sure our characters are likeable, the plot makes sense and follows structure, we use creative techniques to convey different things, and to leave some things to our audience to interpret. 

 

Overall, although I desperately struggled to meet deadlines during this project, I really enjoyed it. It’s been the most creative PLP project I’ve done to date, and I really love that.

Next time, I will definitely manage time better, and I will try to bite off less than I can chew- referencing hand drawing my video.

 

Here’s also the QR Code I created along with my Stuffie:

Alright guys, bless up, Nikan- OUT!