http://mith.umd.edu/digitalstorytelling/2012/09/09/struggle/
My story, “Struggle,” is a first-person narrative about a character trapped in the dark struggling for freedom, and when he finally finds a way to solve the dilemma, it turns out that “he” is a butterfly that breaks through a cacoon and flies away.
As discussed in Thursday’s class, e-lit succeeds when it manages to create an interaction between the reader and the story, but it fails when the reader gets distracted by overwhelming digital effects. After going through the readings again, I’ve listed out five features that I want to include the most in my e-lit:
1) Flash
Fisher incorporated Flash (or some sort of animation) in the background of “These Waves of Girls,” which inspired me to try similar techniques. When the reader enters the website for my story, he or she will see a dark gray background. Then a thin, black horizontal line will appear in the middle of the page and gradually expand both upward and downward until the whole background becomes black. This effect represents the viewpoint of the main character when he opens his eyes and finds himself in the darkness. The reader may be able to relate to the character more if they share the same viewpoint.
2) Sound
As the first effect finishes running, a play button will appear on the bottom left of the page, and when the reader clicks the button, he or she will hear the sound of a person breathing heavily. It allows the reader to feel the fear of the character, but if he or she thinks the sound is too distracting, it can be turned off by clicking the button again.
3) Links
I will break up the story into short paragraphs, put them on separate webpages and create links to each on the homepage in chronogoical order. I will not make the links open in new windows because the readers might be distracted by the pop-ups. However, organizing the story in such way helps the reader follow the plot, a function similar to that of the number labels for comic storyboards.
4) Images
For the last few paragraphs of my story, I would like to include images, such as pictures of a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, on each webpage to give the reader a better sense of what is happening. The reader may be surprised when he or she finds out that the main character is a butterfly, and the images that appear on previous webpages may serve as a hint.
5) Video
On the webpage for the last paragragh, there will be a YouTube video taken from the perspective of someone moving outward in a cave toward the sun. The video also attempts to draw the reader’s attention and help he or she relate to the main character.
“The 21 Steps” failed to establish a connection with its audience because Google Map presents buildings with a high angle shot rather than a normal person’s perspective. It also omitted details that the reader might find interesting; thus, the purpose of making the story an e-lit is obscure. This is why I choose to take more of the reader’s feelings into consideration as I design my own e-lit.