Friday, August 17, 2007

Fast Fiction Friday #1...

Having been working my assets off this week, editing a lot of fiction, design and photography - I have come to the conclusion that many of today's photographers and designers don't understand the following:

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Every picture tells a story.

Now this is a very broad statement with no small amount of rudeness attached, but bear with me. Every time you see a picture - whether through the lens, or on the computer screen or in a screenplay, or in a comic - it should tell a story. You find the story behind the image and the image changes, becomes sharper and communicates better.

People just aren't finding the story.

The images just don't communicate. They are just images shot through a lens, or scrawled with a stylus with no thought, no storytelling behind it.

So I thought it might be fun to see all the stories people can find in a picture that I would post. Because we tend to do things on the cheap here at old DISContent (Bill, say it isn't so!) I'm limiting you to 100 words. Brief, simple, impactful. **

But most of all, fun.

If we all learn to find the story in the picture, then we can more easily reverse engineer the process and create the (word)picture to fit the story. (A-ha!)

The pictures are going to come from everywhere on the web, picked by me at random. If you want to participate then come up with your 100 rounds and launch 'em at the target. No winners. No losers.

This image comes to us courtesy of Bruce Timm. I found it on his gallery over at Pop Culture Shock. As always, if I'm treading on someone's copyright or trademark here I will take the pic down and replace it with something else. No one's making a dime off this, and I want it understood by all parties.

** as an aside, brevity is going to become a powerful tool in the creator's toolkit as the web takes a greater piece of the entertainment pie. People are becoming used to short bursts of entertainment.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Aesop Kong

From the beach, Ann heard a turbulent moan. Curious, she walked until coming across Kong. She turned, but Kong held out a blooded paw containing a giant thorn which she pulled out.

For several days, Kong brought food and protected her from danger. But after a fierce battle, Carl Denham’s crew seized the creature and sailed to New York.

At an exposition, Kong tore his bindings to attack the crowd. But then he recognized Ann, and subsided. Carl asked why, and afterwards freed Ann from her contract and returned Kong to the island.

Gratitude shows a noble soul

Grubber said...

A furious Kong tries again to grasp this darting white fly and rip it into snack sizes. Again he comes away with nothing more than clothing.

Ilandra’ had not planned on battling the monster in her La Perla lingerie; luckily she always listened to her Mum. The gorgeous platinum bracelets by up and coming designer Alara Twang, bore the brunt of most of Kong’s strength and still retained their shine.

Ilandra is sick of rescuing blonde twits kidnapped by large primates and resolves to return to the catwalk and the hellion days of heroin chic.


Product placement go un-noticed?….must forgive……..been up for about 19 hours, one sick kid, one not understanding and about 4 hours sleep. Seriousness was not an option. That's my minutes writing for today, off to bed.
cheers
Dave
PS but it is still fun to see what others see in the picture.

Scott Eggleston said...

Ursula was tiring of this.

She didn’t know who’s idea it was to super-irradiate chimp DNA, but felt someone needed a slapping around because of it. Not only did it create an 8,000 lb. gorilla, but a lovesick one at that. To further complicate matters, the thing (answering to the name “Bozo”) had been given regenerative powers, making destroying it a daily task.

While preparing for a real date, her primping had been interrupted by the ape’s recurring shriek. Grabbing a kitchen knife, Urs decided that perhaps circumcision, not death, would be the greatest deterrent for her affection.

Cunningham said...

"Hurry, Zanna, hurry," growled the giant ape to his female companion.
"The worm has bored its way through and is almost at my heart!"

As the great ape roared, Zanna held her breath raising her dagger high, feeling for the right moment to strike and kill the deadly parasite. Her fingers moved across Kongor's rough hide...

There! Near the surface, like a distended vein, but moving...

"Aaaargh!" roared the giant ape as Zanna's razor edged dagger struck swift and true.

One thing Zanna could count on was her job in the supernatural animal preserve - or Monster Island as it was nicknamed - was never boring.