Narrative and visual Styles

Story zero: The manifesto

A first person written document, detailing the terrorist / homeless persons views and observations about modern life. It will provide some historical highlights, filling in some of the gaps between 2008 and when the story is set. It will also look at many of the problems that some of problems and issues that exists because of modern technology as well as refer back to how some of today’s problems were solved and how some of the new technologies today, caused problems in the years that followed.

The tone of the narrative will be one of contempt and distain for society and culture. And will refer to events and people who will also be mentioned in the two narratives. Unlike the two main narratives, this first person document will be written a number of weeks before the events in the further two narrative time lines.

At present, I have two main ideas for the visual style of this section. Firstly, I have been inspired by an episode of Doctor Who entitled Human Nature. The Doctor, who has temporarily become human, still dreams about his former life as a Time Lord. Fascinated by his dreams he starts to put them down in a Journal, (entitled A Journal of Impossible Things) which forms a mixture of written and illustrative images.

I like the visual style of this Journal; it has a very personal touch. Moreover, one of the personality traits of the character will be one that hates technology, so a hand written document would be an appropriate medium to support the story. A collection of loose pages, hastily bundled and bound together.

The Second idea I had for the visual style would be in the style of a pamphlet. Something which has pages but can also fold out to the size of a poster, with different chapters and images arranged in different positions, angles, sides etc etc. Something which could be mass produced and printed easily.

In relation to technology interaction, this character won’t have any direct connection to technology per say. Instead he will simply comment on some of the negative aspects of modern technology as well as the problems and issues it has caused.



Story One: The security operative

The main character believes he lives in a technological metropolis. And while it as its problems like any modern city, they pale in comparison to the technical wonders and services the modern city provides. The visual style will reflect this. I intend the visual style to reflect how the main character sees the world around him. So the visual style will portray the city as a clean, bustling metropolis, full of modern technology.

Story Two: The terrorist / homeless guy

Both sides of this characters personality feel that they have been dealt an un-fair hand by society. Living in an ageing and unkempt part of the city, they have grown to despise technology and the society which depends on it. The visual style will portray the city as an ageing, dark and forgotten place, and while still garnished with some modern technology, it too has become aged and forgotten.

The bulk of both narratives will take place at the same time. However I intend to weave in certain plot element that will be common to both narratives. (e.g. if one character witness an explosion, then the other one may hear it, see smoke, or see a breaking news bulletin. Or an event or action in one narrative will affect the other.


Its also just occurred to me that the general layout of the narrative. (telling the same story from different points of view) is similar to an episode of the Simpsons entitled “Trilogy of Error”. The episode portrays one day from the viewpoints of three different characters: Homer, Lisa, and Bart, piecing them together to make a complete story. Three intertwining tales offer different perspectives on a day. As the mayhem of the day unfolds, it becomes clear how the actions of each family member directly affect the rest of the household.