I found the readings this week to be really interesting and approach storytelling and the analysis of storytelling from some different angles.

A big thing that I took away from the things we watched and read was that manipulation is a huge part of storytelling. Editing clips together and using various angles and staging all affects how the audience perceives characters and events. I’ve noticed a lot of that in my own creations this week as well. The minute you strip away the audio and just have the visual component, you can use sound to rewrite that story many different ways.

Another important aspect to storytelling and analysis of it is knowledge. You have to know not only the tools for creating and editing good video, but you also need to know facts and details and how you compose an interesting shot that manipulates the audience in a certain way. You have to know what’s realistic or makes sense. In “Reading Movies,” it seemed that all the tidbits of knowledge that a person collects over time can be really helpful with unpacking scenes. Google is another great tool for understanding the layers and terminology being used in something.

Ultimately, these skills don’t come naturally and require hours and hours of practice making and analyzing film. Much like reading and writing, in order to be a good writer, you have to read and in order to be a good reader, you need to write about what you read. You have to give time to building skills and learning how to look at the world and the way in which it is presented to you.