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Modern technology adds to all of the previous techniques for storytelling the motion picture, together with oral dialog, images, sound effects, and musical accompaniment. But whether in olden times or in modern times, the challenge of storytelling was the same: How do you get across the complexity in the events of the story?
A seafarer tells the young Sir Walter Raleigh and his brother the story of what happened out there at sea. Young Raleigh's toy boat is in the lower left.
The Boyhood of Raleigh by Sir John Everett Millais, oil on canvas, 1870.
People in all times and places have told stories. In the oral tradition, storytelling depends on an audience: the listeners create the images from the words told by the storyteller. In this, the audience is co-creator of the art. Storytellers dialogue with their audience-- adjusting their words to respond to the listeners and adjust to the moment.
The intrinsic nature of stories was recently described in A Palpable God, (1997) by Reynolds Price (Akkadine Press) when he wrote:
There are many kinds of stories, such as fables, parables, myths, and legends. Stories are of many moods, such as humorous, inspirational, educative, frightening, tragic, romantic.
Stories of wise men are well known, such as Solomon and Nasreddin.
Modern storytellers may be actors, singers, rappers and comedianA comedian (also comedienne female) is a person who attempts to make people laugh through a variety of methods, normally through joke telling. However, other comedians rely on methods such as slapstick (for example, Laurel and Hardy), or prop comedy to ges.
Organizational consultants and managers have also discovered the power of storytelling in organizations. A good story of organizational transformation in one organization might motivate similar organizations to change as well; also, the informal stories people tell to each other about organizational norms, policies and change initiatives permeate organizational culture and reflect the meaning people give to organizational interventions.
Robert Begiebing et al (2004) summarize personal and professional experiences making successful modern films, novels, biographies, articles, museum displays, and poems. Even in modern times, the power of storytelling comes from creating an engagement or dialog with the audience. But if the storyteller is not right there in person, how can there be engagement? As a professor of English, Begiebing hypothesizes that the effective writer provides just enough clues to get the reader's imagination, intellect, and emotional responses involved in figuring out what is going on in the story. The stories that last through the ages "Leave plenty up to the reader."
History museum expert Barbara Franco describes how good storytelling techniques can improve a museum exhibit. She illustrates the point when she says "good labels raise questions and get people thinking." The voiceThe word voice can mean: The human voice. A section of a choir or other musical ensemble that sings or plays the same part. The register of a line of counterpoint, including soprano, alto, tenor, bass. These terms come the section of the choir to which a telling the story makes a great difference. First-person encourages the reader, audience, or visitor to the museum to listen and relate to a person, the speaker, not just to the recitation of facts. But mixes of viewpoints and voices assist in telling complex stories. Franco says it this way. "Audience research has shown that visitors are more willing to deal with difficult topics in exhibitions if they are given multiple viewpoints and are able to hear different sides."
thumb PrometheusThis article is about the mythological figure. For the moon of Saturn, see Prometheus (moon) for the fictional attack vessel from Star Trek, see Prometheus class starship and for the fictional vessel in Stargate SG-1, see USAF vessel Prometheus. In Greek in Chains by Nicolas-Sébastien Adam , marble, 1737.
"Addressing the unfamiliar is one way to foster critical engagement," says Joshua Brown, filmmaker and historian. A good storyteller gives the listener or reader a sense of making order out of chaosChaos derives from the Greek Χαος (pronounced similarly to "house") and may refer to: Chaos or Khaos, the primordial substance from which the universe sprang in Greek mythology. Chaos, a Chinese god. Chaos the cat, a character fro. So the good storyteller must give the reader a good dose of feeling the chaos, and there has to follow enough order made out of the chaos to give the reader the satisfaction of a good story.
However, the stories that appeal to generation after generation are the stories that are never resolvable--just as life is never resolvable; the complexity of life remains. Life is non-linear, says filmmaker David Grubin. If life were linear, we would always live in the present moment, but we don't. At any moment, we live in the past, partly in the present, and much in the future. Life is non-linear. And the best films convey that non-linearity of life in flashbackAs in film, a flashback in literature is a technique which takes the narrative back in time from the point the story has reached, to recount events that happened before and give the " back-story. It was used extensively by author Ford Madox Ford. A flashbs and premonitions. Grubin tells his own experience of trying to capture on film what it was like to be Sigmund Freud. And Grubin's solution was to tell the childhood of Freud toward the end of the film when Freud is rehashing for himself the difficulties he had in creating psychoanalysis. And in that moment of complexity in his life, Freud reflects on the similar difficulties he had in his childhood in getting people to accept him.
In Grubin's estimation, Kurosawa similarly looked for non-linear storytelling techniques when he approached the problem of telling in Rashômon the very complex story of conflicting interests. Four different people are involved in a murder. They have different self-interests, and they have different stories of what happened. It is all one film, but it is four different stories with similar people and similar props in each of the four stories. And Kurosawa does not give a clue to what really happened--as opposed to the four conflicting stories. And the non-linearity of the storytelling adds to the popular appeal of the film.