Join The Resistance- the lonelygirl15 Universe

I have to admit I was blown away by Lonelygirl.15, which puts an unique twist on storytelling. The site combines, acting, writing, and film to create live action stories. The creators put a real effort in trying to mold stories that have concrete plots and fully developed characters. For example in the story I viewed called "The Resistance" the story is about these possible alien or government cult whose leader a guy named Jonas, who finds girls, whose blood is the key to helping save lives, and makes them his disciples.The main goal is for "the Resistance" to protect the girls from those who want to harm them. Like books the stories are part of a series, that are labeled by chapters.

Last week in our Writing For New Media Class, we discussed the elements that make up traditional storytelling: Narrator,characters,settings,message,diction. lonelygirl15 uses these elements in creating their stories. I compared "Resistance" with other digital stories we have viewed.

Voice:

In books there is usually a narrator, whose voice is consistent throughout the story. Stories can be written in 1st "I" or third person "They, she, he." In Resistance it incorporates different points of views from characters, that are used by authors as devices to keep the story moving, and to give back story; which sheds a light on the past leading up to the present situation (plot).


But the tricky part about so many Pov's is that you have to keep the essence of the characters intact. The story has to flow, so as not to confuse the readers. In my own Fiction Writing experience, not all stories have to start at the beginning, it could be the end/middle/beginning or middle/beginning/end, however the story is told there has to be a pattern, a anchor to keep the story grounded and audience focused.

For example in the story we looked at in class called "An Untimely Raven," which has vignettes written by different members. though each part of the story goes back and forth in time, they are linked through the voice of the main character Raven. For Resistance it does the same thing, each different setting is connected to the lives of the characters.






Characters:

In novels and book series characters have their own personalities and history. In Resistance Ch.1 there is Jonas, mysterious girl, the Resistance themselves and Jonas's disciple.The disciple stood out to me because of her quirky, valley girl persona and bubbly dialogue that's entertaining, giving some comic relief to the nerve wrecking story. The girl in the hospital, seems childlike, naive, she tells the audience her life, by making it seem like a fairytale.

In lonelygirl15 the voice/personality of each character is continuously presented in the story. As a viewer I can tell that the creators sat together, talked and collaborated on their own visions for the story. This shows the downside of traditional storytelling, where the authors doesn't have comments from readers that can spark new ideas for the story, like in digital storytelling.


In the wiki novel "A Million Penguins" there were so many members writing stories for the the main characters, that the characters personalities were lost. Due to lack of communication between the members,the characters only reflect the personalities of the writers, and not those presented in the first story.






Imagery:

In traditional writing the author has to paint the settings and physically descriptions of characters with words; which is not easy. It takes patience and scraping your brain to find the right words that woven together create an image. For Resistance this is not a problem. Like in the film genre colors or lack of colors are used to set up each scene of the chapter. For example whenever the audience sees the girl at the hospital, everything is in black and white, showing the sterile, unhappy environment she lives in. Bright colors are featured in scenes with Jonas and his disciple.



I believe lonleygirl 15 is worthy of being considered a true story. It carries the elements of traditional storytelling, but also stands out by getting the audience to participate in the story. The characters talk directly to the viewers, making it seem that they are part of the experience. By watching chapters of lonelygirl 15 makes me think about my own style of storytelling, it would be interesting to seem story come to life and reach a boarder audience.










Check out: http://www.lg15.com/lonelygirl15/?p=695