Conceptual Storytelling

ASSIGNMENT 9: FINAL

2011-12-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

All events actually occurred in real life.

ASSIGNMENT 08 COMIC STRIP STORY & INITIAL LAYOUT

2011-12-03T11:15:00.000-08:00

I'm still working on a title, but here is the comic inked. More will be showing up soon, maybe more. The story in this one starts off with my freshman year of high school offering a friend a ride home. My sister, Heather, and I get in the car and start heading towards her house when she see's two of our other friends walking home, she would have been walking with them without us. Deciding to rub it in their face, she yells out to them, but someone else looks at her and answers. In which she replies, "NO! NOT YOU! I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU!" It was very funny how random it was.

This was my school advisory's idea of feeding the homeless. We drove to skid row in downtown LA and passed out a bunch of grab bags with pbj, juice, and chocolate right before christmas. We went around a block, and after parking the car, turning right, and again turning we came upon a bunch of homeless people and it looked like we stepped into a horror film. One man even came to get a sandwich, but only wanted it from my advisory member Elizabeth. Creepy to put it simply.

This is my first meeting with Heather. She, unfortunately doesn't remember this incident. She was running late and her mom chased the bus down, so we stopped before exiting onto a major street and she jumped on. There was a spot next to me open which she took, but we didn't talk until we reached Sepulveda road. Which, it sucked going being bused from Highland Park to Sherman Oaks. Anyways, she asked about my music, I replied and asked what her favorite song was before dropping into an awkward silence. Ah...memories.

For secret santa in my 10th grade year I got Heather, we didn't know how it could happen since we drew randomly, but I wasn't going to question it. Some people were a bit peeved about it, but whatever. I decided to pull a prank on her and have her open a box, then another, then a bag, and then another box before she could get her present. Unfortunately I couldnt find a small box to ft in the bag so I simplified my plan. She was pissed and she flips me off in the video I have. I believe I should post it on here sometime.

ASSIGMENT 07: COMIC STRIP CHARACTERS & SHORT BIO's

2011-12-03T11:08:00.000-08:00

These are my quick sketches of how I want my comic scenario to play out. A storyboard if you will. My comic story is of a time I offered my friend heather a ride home and on our way she saw tow of our friends and yelled to them. Unfortunately for the bystander, he was yelled at for looking when 'she doesn't even know him.' I'm missing pages, so I wil explain and edit later. My next comic is of how Heather and I first met. We were on the bus to school, when a van pulled up behind the bus and a girl caught up to us and got on. She ended up sitting beside me, but we didn't talk. I was listening to my music and just trying to wake up. When we get close enough to the school, I turned my music off when she spoke to me. "You like Linkin Park?" "Yup." I replied, before continuing. "Place For My Head is my favorite song, whats yours?" She answered "Crawling." After that, silence. I think back on this moment and laugh because we became best friends, but in our first conversation ever it seemed like I would never talk to her again. In my last one, its of me, dani, heather, chickle, and jovan at a party before we go to heathers house and play rock, paper, scissors. Chickle ended up losing 4-1 as we ll played rock and he played scissors.

ASSIGNMENT 6: MY CHILDREN'S BOOK-FINAL

2011-11-19T15:05:00.000-08:00

ASSIGNMENT 05: My Children's Book Story- Initial Layout

2011-11-05T01:04:00.000-07:00

The King was grumpy and having a bad day.
Hoping to end his bad mood, the knights went out to find some company that would make the King laugh with glee.
All across the country, the King’s men searched, finding jesters, jokers, and bards. They even searched as far as across the bay!
One by one, the King saw through the line of people, looking unimpressed and bored. Things were looking bad, as far as the guards could see.
When the prankster first entered, he juggled cups and pots of tea. The King only yawned, too bored to yell.
Out went the prankster and in came the joker. He started a joke with a ‘knock, knock.’ But the King didn’t answer, instead he waved his hand and away the joker went.
Gone was the prankster, out was the joker, and next was the jester. In he bounced and fluttered, dancing like a buffoon while talking with his shell.
Scowl in place, the King never cracked a grin. So out went the jester, with the prankster and the joker. The King sat still when his nose caught a sweet scent!
The King sat straight up and smelled the air, his stomach grumbling at the sweet smell. Turning towards the guards he asked, “Where is that smell coming from?”
The guards looked at one another before shrugging their shoulders. “I don’t know.” “Neither do I!” “Nor I!” They shouted out in a hurry.
As the guards scrambled out, in search of the mysterious smell the last performer entered. With an extravagant bow before the King, he began to play and hum.
The bard’s music was soothing to the King; he didn’t feel as bad as he had. In fact, he was forgetting all about his fury.
As the King relaxed, the guards rushed back in, followed by a nervous baker.
The King looked upon the baker and his goods, hearing the rumbling in his tummy. “What can you do for me?” The King asked the baker who stood before him, holding a tray of breads and crackers.
“I-I have s-s-some b-bread here, if you’d l-like.” The baker replied nervously, holding the sweets. “They’re v-v-very yummy.”
The King looked onto the tray of sweets, feeling his tummy grumble and rumble.
He waved the baker over, as the bard continued to play. The closer the baker got, the louder the King’s tummy roared.
Shaking in fright the poor baker walked closer and closer to the grumpy King, hoping he wouldn’t be thrown out the castle in a tumble.
At last he reached the King, where he ate and ate and then he some more. The knights then knew, that they had scored.
Once full, the King cracked a smile and then he laughed and once again the kingdom was saved. Thanks to a baker and his tray of bread.

ASSIGNMENT 04 My Children's Book Story: 1st Draft

2011-10-28T23:56:00.000-07:00

First Story- The King's Bad Day

The King was grumpy and having a bad day.
Hoping to break him out of his bad mood, the royal advisor called forth the soldiers to find some company that would make the king laugh with glee.
All across the country, the King’s men searched, finding jesters, jokers, and bards. They even searched as far as across the bay!
One by one, the King saw through the line of people, looking unimpressed and bored as time dwindled on. Things were looking bad, as far as the guards could see.
At first entered the prankster, juggling cups and pots of tea. He moved and flounced, but the King just yawned, too bored to yell.
Out went the prankster and in came the joker. He started a joke with a ‘knock, knock.’ But the King didn’t answer, instead he waved his hand and away the joker went.
Gone was the prankster, out was the joker, and next was the jester. In he bounced and fluttered, dancing like a buffoon while talking with his shell.
Scowl in place, the King never cracked a grin. So out went the jester, with the prankster and the joker. The King sat still when his nose caught a sweet scent!
The King sat straight up and smelled the air, his stomach grumbling at the sweet smell. Turning towards the guards he asked, “Where is that smell coming from?”
The guards looked at one another before shrugging their shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“Neither do I!” “Nor I!” They shouted out in a hurry.
As the guards scrambled out, in search of the mysterious smell the last performer entered. With an extravagant bow before the King, he began to play and hum.
The bard’s music was soothing to the King, he didn’t feel as bad as he had. In fact, he was forgetting all about his fury.
As the King relaxed, the guards rushed back in, followed by a nervous baker.
The King looked upon the baker and his goods, hearing the rumbling in his tummy.
“What can you do for me?” The King asked the baker who stood before him, holding a tray of breads and crackers.
“I-I have s-s-some b-bread here, if you’d l-like.” The baker replied nervously, holding the sweets. “They’re v-v-very yummy.”

Main Characters:
The King-The King is the main character that the story revolves around and the kingdom trying to make his day better. The King is actually very sweet, but like anyone else he is having a bad day that causes the whole kingdom to be in an uproar. When the King is having a bad day, everything seems to stop as the guards and people try to cheer him up. However, the real problem is the source of what is making him grumpy. His only motivation through the story is to end his unpleasant morning.

The Guards- The Guards are the ones that have to bear the brunt of the Kings wrath, on the off days that he is upset. The only motivation they have is to protect the King and make his life easier as it makes there life easier. The guards are loyal and friendly, but also can be menacing when they have to be.

The Performers: Joker, jester, Prankster, and Bard- Are some of the people that came to see the King and make his day brighter. the only one who actually accomplishes it is the Bard. He was only doing what he loved, playing music that can soothe the soul. With a lute in hand, he plays a melody that can put anyone one to sleep.

The Baker- Is a nervous wreck. The only time he ever feels truly fine is when he is in his kitchen baking. It's his sanctuary and the one place he feels he belongs. His motivation in life is to bake and create food that will put a smile on anyone's face. His role in the story is of the poor baker taking his goods when the guards seize him and take him into the King where he gives bread to the king and saves the day. He's the hero.

Second Story: Little Kid's Will Be Kid's

Amanda was prissy, but around a spider she was a sissy.
Benjamin was nice, but he like to play with pet mice.
Charlotte liked to climb, even when her mother yelled to her about the grime.
Daniel was shy, most of the time he daydreamed underneath the sky.
Evalyn liked to eat, until her father fed her chicken feet.
Freddy loved his blanket, until he had to fight for it with the monster in his closet.
Gene hated to get ill, only because her parents made her lie in bed very still.
Harry didn’t like magic…which made his life all the more tragic.
Irene liked to swim in a pool, it made her feel like she was cool.
Josh was nerdy, but he was good at getting information like a certain little birdy.
Kitty loved to dance, she has a dream to visit France.

This book is about names and rhymes in the ABC format. It kind of follows Dr. Suess's ABC book, but darker and more Gothic. All the children' roles in the book is to point out a flaw or an event that has always bothered children. Or made there life difficult. most stories are real experiences that have happened.

PICTURES ARE NOT SCANNED: THEY ARE IN SKETCHBOOK!

ASSIGNMENT 03: Short Story Through a Child's Eyes

2011-10-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

I like cookies very much but my mommy tells me that I mustn't spoil my appetite. I'm smarter than I let her think because when she turns her back I’m quick to try and sneak some. But mom is smart too and she puts the cookies on top of the fridge. I’m lucky though, because my sisters are older and taller. But we still can’t reach the fridge no matter how much we jump and try. Then all of a sudden I get an idea from the t.v from what I watched on the Rugrats. I tell my older sister Amanda to kneel on the floor before telling my other sister Danielle to climb on top of her so that I can climb and reach the cookies. Just like Tommy, only Amanda has to be Chuckie and Danielle has to be Phil and Lil. So I climb on top of my sisters and I reach up to grab the jar and get some cookies for us. Hurridly I climb down and we eat hurryidly so that mom won’t know. We smile and high five for a job well done. Mom doesn’t know we keep having snacks and keeps yelling at Uncle John to stop eating our snacks. Its really funny cause he’s not, but he keeps getting in trouble for it. We smile because she doesn’t know its us. We wait for mom to leave the kitchen before we try and get more cookies. Amanda kneels down and Danielle is next to try and get some, but when I try I hear my mom and it scares me. So I stop and look and she’s watching us next to my Aunt Chrissy. She looks really mad and it scares me, so I don’t look at her. I’d rather watch my toes curl so I don’t have to see her look mad at me.

“Go to your room!” She yells at us and we run to our room before we sit on our beds and feel bad. We should have listened to mom when she said to stay out of the snacks. Mom comes in after a while and tells us we’re grounded for breaking the rules and we nod. We know we did bad, but the cookies were really good. Mom takes some toys away and tells us we have to stay in the room until dinner time, but we know tomorrow when we go to school that we’ll have cookies. Cause mom loves us and she tells us so when she leaves us notes in our lunches. Even when we do bad stuff she loves us. That’s why I love her.

So when she calls us to eat I tell her I'm sorry. She just smiles and tells me she knows and that next time I'll be in big trouble. Since mom has forgiven me I feel much better and I don't feel bad anymore. What's even better is I get to have my favorite food for dinner, TACOS! Yum!

ASSIGNMENT 01: 3 Writers & 3 Stories

2011-10-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

First Writer: Edgar Allen Poe Born: January 19, 1809 Died: October 7, 1849

My favorite poem by Edgar Allen Poe is El Dorado. It is about a gallant knight in search of El Dorado and as time goes on he grows older. In his journey, it seems like he meets death, but he continues on the road looking for El Dorado.

I like this poem because I can visualize it. Most poems are not set up like stories, they are more like rhymes of 'roses are red.' I think it makes a difference when a poem can rhyme and still hold a story in it. My favorite part is when the knight meets a pilgrim shadow who tells him where to go.

When Poe was young he attended a grammar school in Irvine, Scotland. He then returned to London, England with his unofficial adopted family, the Allen's, to attend Reverend John Bransby’s Manor House School at Stoke Newington. After graduating, he returned to the United States and attended the University of Virginia.

Poe struggled to get where he is today. He tried to live solely by writing, which was an unconventional and unheard of way to live in the 1800s. Publishers wouldn't pay writers or they would very late, leaving Poe to beg for money and resources often. Finding no luck as just an author he went into work at magazine publishings like the Southern Literary Messenger, Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, Graham's Magazine, Evening Mirror, and lastly the Broadway Journal.

I can't find any form of advise from Poe, but I believe if he did have any, it would most likely be something along the lines of "Be paid up front."

Second Writer: Stephen King Born: September 21, 1947

'Salem's Lot is my all time favorite book by Stephen King, even with tough competition by The Body, Green Mile, and Bag of Bones. It's the story about Ben Mears a successful writer who returns to Jerusalem's Lot after twenty five years away to find the small town infested with vampires. Trying to save it, he finds more trouble along the way when he starts to lose more allies than actually making them. With one ally, Mark Petrie, Ben and succeed in destroying the master vampire Barlow, but are lucky to escape with their lives and are forced to leave the town to the now leaderless vampires.

I really like this story because it really was a good one. It had such an intriguing story, from the characters, to the setting, and lastly the ending. Mark who wasn't religious in the beginning had found God in Mexico, after losing everything, but the most surprising was the fact that he convinced Ben that they had to go back and finish what they started.

Stephen King wrote this book in 1975 and though it has two minis series they hold nothing to the actual book. He still lives in Lovell, Maine, but owns a home in Bangor, Maine and now one in Florida. He still writes books, poems, novels, and short stories, but also has his own column with Entertainment magazine.
A list of his works can be found at http://www.stephenking.com/the_library.html

Stephen attended grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. He went on to attend school at University of Maine at Orono.

Stephen wasn't able to find a teaching job soon after graduating and worked as a laborer at an industrial laundry, selling a short story sale to men's magazines on the side. he found hist first major publication of his book Carrie in 1973, then 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, the Stand, and The Dead Zone. Where we now know him as the magnificent horror story writer he is.

"To become a better writer you probably – and not so surprisingly – need to write more."

Writer Three: William Shakespeare Baptized April 26, 1564 Died April 23, 1616

Shakespeare's XII Sonette, is my absolute favorite. It is about time passing and as humans we cannot fight the inevitable death, but we can leave apart of ourselves on this earth by reproducing.

I like it because its an honest opinion. We will not live forever and one day death will come upon us, the best way to ensure a future for ourselves and to leave s piece of us behind is by reproducing. Ironic considering his writing is a classic.
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
This is my favorite part of the stanza and I can't really say why. It's just always stuck with me. I think maybe because it references the passing of time that it really struck me, because its a common way to see the passing of time, but its worded strangely compared to how we write now.

William Shakespeare is long since dead, but you can read his works online on free websites. Example: http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/

William Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford since it would have been closest to his home. After that there is little know about what he did, its rumored he was a school master for a time being before joining a theater troupe. He was writing poems and plays, and his involvement with theater troupes and acting is disparagingly condemned in a 1592 pamphlet that was distributed in London, attributed to Robert Green the playwright titled "Groats Worth of Witte" haughtily attacking Shakespeare as an "upstart crow." After Queen Elizabeth's death, during King James I rule, he and the theater troupe built The Globe Theater and Shakespeare truly began his literary career with his plays and sonnets. Its with the help of The Globe theater that we have his literary works today.

Some of the best advide that can be found from Shakespeare is in Hamlet. In it Hamlet offers directions and advice to a group of actors whom he has enlisted to play for the court of Denmark.
Hamlet: Speak the speech I pray you as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant — it out-Herods Herod. Pray you avoid it.

ASSIGNMENT 02: No More Time

2011-10-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

No more Time

It was inconceivable how all that hard work went out the window in mere seconds, even after it was hour’s worth of work that had been put into it. Today was going to be the day, it was going to be the day I got my promotion and could finally afford a new apartment. Instead, I lost everything in a moments notice...all because of him.

Today started like any other day, I woke up and got ready for work. On my way out the door though, things became so messed up. My keys fell out of my hand and in a puddle, then my coffee spilled in my car. I was thankful all the necessary paper for the project was in my trunk. When I pulled into work, a red Mercedes had taken my parking spot. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't have cared and simply found another, however, all the spots were taken on this floor. And the next, and the next, and the next. Twenty minutes of searching brought me to the parking on the roof, where I was then able to pull the important documents from the trunk before I began my descent down four flights of stairs. Halfway down, I tripped and lost my footing, paper spilling out of the box and onto the pavement. I had already wasted all the extra time I allotted for this morning, and now I had to rush to pick up the papers. So I rushed and in my rush I missed documents I needed. When I made it to the meeting room, started to layout my work I found to my horror they were missing. Rushing back to look for them would waste more time that I didn't have. In my rush to make it to the copy room, I ran out the door and straight into my boss...who didn't look pleased at all.

"Ms. Morris, if it were any other day I would have fired you on the spot for your brash behavior, but as it is you are necessary for this meeting and I cannot dally with such an event. Is there a reason behind this?" My boss asked as he towered over my fallen form. I could do nothing, but flap my mouth open and closed like a fish out of water when HE showed up.

"Ms. Morris! There you are! I have some papers you left outside. I couldn't get them all because some blew away, but I got what I could for you." He said with a sickening smile towards me. Kneeling on the floor I could only watch as my boss looked from him to me and walked past me into the room. I knew right then, time had run out for me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Ms. Morris. If I had known it was Mr. Benning I wouldn't have said anything." I nodded my head as I picked myself up, but I couldn't look up. I could feel the tears burning behind my eyes and the taste of disgrace in my mouth. "I'm also sorry about your parking spot. I had forgotten today was the meeting and Ms. Hensy wanted me in early, I just parked randomly." Slowly, I looked up at the man who just ruined my life. He was the man who parked in my spot and made me park FOUR floors higher for parking.

(Unedited-10:37 am October 15, 2011)