Stories on Screen

This course looks at the development, production, and use of small screen online stories which has become an avenue of expression leading to new forms of social networking and a means through which story is re-made for different media. The course examines techniques of story production through a range of digital media which will lead to the development and production of stories by students. The capacity for storytelling has developed through the availability of convergent communication technologies, particularly consumer grade technologies such as those in DSLR cameras, smart phones and tablets. The availability of these technologies has meant that new skills and techniques of writing and producing are necessary which fit with computer and mobile screen technologies and other parameters of these new media forms. The subject will cover the relatively short history of this new field of media production, linking it to older forms of storytelling in terms of connection to comparative and Indigenous precursors and uses. Building on theory covered in first year core Media courses, this course will cover an analysis of the 'producer' as an autonomous media producer and the development of a computer mediated aesthetics. Theories of narrative form, visuals, sound, music, subjectivity and identity will form part of the course with an examination of forms of collective and political engagement that develop out of online stories. New mainstream genres which grow out of older forms such as the diary or the journal will be discussed. The course has a practical focus which will encourage the production of new forms of narrative through exercises and the use of skills developed in class.