Modern Storytelling

 

Despite the number of storytelling techniques that exists, it continues to evolve today. in the last decade, technology has been rapidly changing and evolving bringing up close to preserving reality on film. However, does this mean we should be using these new discoveries to tell stories?

While researching about storytelling I was able to find a number of new innovative tools that could change the way stories are being presented. A few I want to point out is:

Computer-generated Imagery

computer-generated imagery (special visual effects created using computer software). “fewer real stunts are performed because filmmakers can just use CGI”

CGI has completely reconstructed storytelling in film and TV. The development of it has gotten so advanced that you would be able to tell real from fake in the most modern film with good CGI and VFX.

In 1972 Pixar co-founders, Ed Catmull and Fred Park, created the first prototype of a digitally-rendered 3D hand using a technology that would be the foundation for countless effects and film masterpieces that followed. (HuffPost Australia, 2016)

 

In 1993 Jurassic Park projected dinosaurs to our screens, it was the first ‘physically-textured’ CGI film, meaning at the time those dinosaurs looked quite realistic on screen.

Fast forward to 2018, the 1993 Jurassic Park looks completely fake compared to the 2018 Jurassic World.

Real-time Storytelling

The ability create visual content has been around for some time but social media has made it easier than ever to share stories and to engage others in them. An app such as Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope, Youtube, Facebook and TikTok enables users to share visual content, recording and posting it from their phone or sharing experiences as its happening through Facebook live or Twitch. Although these video streaming tools aren’t new, by linking it to their social media they’re able to share these stories with thousands of real time followers. This in itself is a huge way of visual storytelling’s evolution.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

Virtual reality (VR) is an interactive computer-generated experience taking place within a simulated environment.

Augmented reality (AR) is technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.

VR and AR, although they have been anticipated for some time but has always seemed to be a furistic concept, is finally is already on the verge of changing the way we experience things. Filmmakers are making VR films and VR photography where every scene is shot by multiple cameras and stitched together into a 360-degree view that can open in multiple directions, these videos can be played on Oculus Rifts, PlayStation VRs, HTC Vives, Samsung Gear VR and many more.

VR and AR had enabled storytellers to immerse their viewers in the images and thus the stories themselves. The ability to look around and watch images as it changes breaks the wall between reality and real life. With this ability, storytellers can place viewers in the centre of their stories.