I learned from Frank Ash, the creative consultant at the BBC academy about what Digital Storytelling: how to connect with an audience through a relevant story to create suspense and anticipation. Frank devised this into a series of questions, in which you have to answer in your piece. These questions were: The Top line, and the Big question.
Frank later went on to explain that when making a production you must work out what you as an audience member would want from a story. He also talks about how you must put your self into the shoes of an audience member in order to discuss what universal themes or ideas you want to convey, that connect all humans together.
If this can be achieved, it would mean that the audience would be able to relate to your main message and can really understand the production later on. They might even be able to put themselves into your story. This all comes under the umbrella idea of social trends.
He finishes off by saying, if you can answer all these questions, you will be more confident when coming to making decisions about your own productions.
When thinking of ideas for our production, we found that murder mystery had been in the news recently as the film 'Knives out' had started its advertising campaign and started gaining momentum. This gave us the inspiration to use the enigma genre, and we brainstormed our USP, and decided to reignite the love for Film Noir and use that approach.
We then came up with our Top Line and Big Question:
Top Line: On a cold night, a man is walking home from work when he is brutally murdered in an alley way. Detective Swanson, a close friend of the victim, is put on the case and he suspects the mafia, and it is up to him to find the truth, whatever it takes.
Big Question: Will the detective solve the murder
Useful research into how writers come up with engaging content.
ReplyDelete