Your favorite storytelling media

AliceHoffmannArt 2016-08-12 15:43:58 UTC #1

What is your favorite medium of storytelling?

Since you are part of the Tapastic community, webcomics are probably up high for you. (Duh.)
But in addition to that, which elements of other media do you appreciate particularly?
Maybe the immersion music and sound can provide? The hypnosis of looking at moving pictures? The simple yet effective magic of words in a book?

Do you perhaps work in other storytelling media than webcomics too?

I for one am fond of visual novels/ VNs in terms of having your own tempo of progressing, the possibility of them to feature music/ sound and even voice acting or (little) animations. I just love seeing how exactly an author envisions their world. I'm not a fan of most dating sims but appreciate how the lower requirements compared to e.g. full animation enable creators to flesh out compelling atmospheres.
eden* is imho a stunning example of how a VN of high effort can look. Gee, they even lip-synched all voice acting!

These reasons lead to me working on a VN named 'Nova: Synthesis Creaturum' with a team of neat people. It's a lot of work but always feels very rewarding when I get to test new chapters with everything coming together. <3

As many others I enjoy film and animation too but am not so inclined to create a work in that section. It just takes so much energy to get a stunning result. (In terms of animating: Many, many frames...)

When it comes to webcomics I like that for creating, once the story is done, there aren't so many other areas to work on and flaws to watch out for. There's less risk of ruining a separate element, like e.g. not having good enough music in a film. And when you do it in black and white only, you can save a lot of time. (It should fit the story too obviously, otherwise it's not really saving time but stifling potential I guess...)

Looking forward to read about your thoughts!

Kamikaze 2016-08-12 16:01:39 UTC #2

Easily hour to 30 minute long episodic series. I like the short format stories that string together into longer narratives.

I come from an animation background so I'm really partial to it, but like you I realize I'm not necessarily an animator so much as a storyteller, which is why I love comics so much. I don't have to draw 15 freaking frames for a second of animation (on 2's anyway).

AliceHoffmannArt 2016-08-12 16:05:15 UTC #3

Exactly! It sounds so dreamy to eventually have one's story picked up by a studio so they do the repetitive work of animation. XD

Inspector_Spinda 2016-08-12 16:05:57 UTC #4

animated tv shows and live action films

69Michi 2016-08-12 16:06:52 UTC #5

Personally I'm bias toward novel/book. In my opinion, a book is the best form of storytelling media because it allows endless possibility for reader's imagination. In a book you can describe how beautiful something or someone could be and your readers would have no problem imagine said something/someone to their beauty standard, but in a Webcomic or any other visual media, that... really depends on a person's art skill and design choice. I like Webcomic for the visual aspect, but also dislike how forceful it is on one person's imagination.

I often ran into this problem with my own comic because I'm way too used to go on a lengthy description when writing my novel. Sometimes I would just stop in the middle of my drawing and think to myself "I'm not doing this scene's atmosphere/person' design justice."

Another problem that I complain a lot to my friend about when switching from novel to webcomic is that usually there is always a "main character" whose thoughts and feeling are always exposed to the readers. But when you wanted to expose the thought of another character that is not that main character, (keep in mind both main character and said character are standing in the same panel) it would make the flow of the story sort of confusing.

quakeulf 2016-08-12 16:10:59 UTC #6

Comics, games, movies, books.

I'm not into TV-series. They take too long and are usually not worth it in the end. The only exception so far in my life has been X-Files.

AliceHoffmannArt 2016-08-12 16:14:45 UTC #7

Ah, that's a different perspective for the visual aspect!
I can understand that sentiment, lines and shapes are just limited and don't leave other possibilities open...

Funnily, it makes me uneasy when I'm not sure how the author envisions the scene. There could be pages of description I'd still feel somewhat weird about not seeing the exact same thing as the creator, even if a frame is also just a cropped picture of the whole thing.

But yeah, also the need of proper skill to draw complicated scenes like they are supposed to be... It's a real challenge.

spadesart 2016-08-12 16:14:57 UTC #8

Animated tv shows or comics with animated "end of chapter" or important scenes segments (i.e. Zeurel's Walking City (one of my fav eoc animations) or Homestuck or Ava's Demon, etc)

AliceHoffmannArt 2016-08-12 16:17:36 UTC #9

Wow, that's well done animation! Thanks for the link.
I didn't know that some comics do that, it's a great idea though to only animate the juiciest parts.

AnnaLandin 2016-08-12 16:22:03 UTC #10

I love nearly all forms of storytelling - I'm a storytelling junkie - but there's something about audio-formats (be it podcasts, spoken word poetry, audiobooks, or just listening to someone read out loud) that really gets me. I think it's because it reminds me so much of being a small child and having stories told to me.

But like I said, I like nearly all forms of storytelling. If you want to tell me a story, you've got my attention.

Kura 2016-08-12 18:55:14 UTC #11

Video Games (Not VNs)

Animation TV or movie (I have such a hard time trying to watch live action, I just don't have the attention span to sit down and watch it, I have to force myself to sit still and try and keep focused on it)

Novels (but I'm really picky with them, I just hate first person written stories, anything that focuses to much on descriptions, uses too many god damn similes, or stories that drag on a scene / event by throwing large obscure words and complicated sentencing. (example I once read a book that was two pages of text that could be summed into 'he woke up and farted. I was a nice day') Also I REALLY HATE books that assume you're American?????????????????? I noticed it's a thing. REALLY a thing. Writers will throw in references / descriptions that should be 'obvious to the reader' but I have no idea what they're talking about. Like "Everyone could tell he was from Jersey" or "Everything about him just screamed Texan" or "Well, you know how New York is." or "The sunset looked just like it would in California." What the fuck does ANY of this mean???????????????????????????

MissMagicGirl 2016-08-12 19:29:56 UTC #12

Books are defiantly my fave. I have always loved comics and finally making my own is a dream come true. But reading and writing novels are amazing. Their is defiantly a certain magic to books and how a good writer can paint with words.

Thesleepypencil 2016-08-13 03:06:25 UTC #13

i can't really answer this questions properly since as someone who studied film, animation, and media.I love pretty much all forms of storytelling.

with Books you can get these large intricate stories filled with details and emotions and you can interpret or imagine characters and universe as much as you want given with the info gifted to you and it's great. like Harry potter or Tamora pierce's two universes

with movies stories can be boosted with great cinematography and music. and I adore music. my favorite examples is star wars: the force awakens. now star wars in whole created such an amazing universe and story. But the force awakens really utilizes space, sound, and colour sooooooo well. Like showing reys isolation and life while on jakku, with multiple distant shots and pons so show her small and alone, the score dedicated to rey in the scene is soft but have this playful tune and it's my favourite score. The entire use of colour in the final killer star base scenes. Or in animation wise look at the lighting, music, ad setting for tangled. tangled does a great job at switching to greys and greens at the end to create and eerie and threatening atmosphere. and i see the light was amazing. music wise is just floooows, like one rapunzel stops at the base of the tower while leaving the music stops with her, and the village dance is my favourite score piece ever.

Tv shows are also great, while made on a smaller scale than a movie. they have alot more time/ added episodes to tell a story. they can take longer, tease their audience and it's great. good examples for storytelling is steven universe or izombie. I pick izombie because when i started watching it i was amazed at their ability to make most things in grey monotones and then will make certain things pop. alot of reds, and this are always brighter when she is around her friends. steven universe is obvious since it's amazing at using colour and it's started it's fourth season and is still teaching us alot of lore.

webshows are shorter episode and can tell a good story too. I love shows like the lizzie bennet diaries who we only saw the story from her point of view until they started introducing stuff. and with the lack of moving scenes, music or changes of lighting and colour. the story was boosted with great acting, great writing and a new style at telling a classic story. or bravest warriors or bee and puppy cat. short episode on the web but still using amazing animation skills and styles.

other great mediums i love and listen
Musicals: I've been listening to hamilton non-stop and they story you can get from just listening to the soundtrack. I also just love going to see plays.
Comics: Comics are great at writing and showing what you want to show, comics also get to use colours to help show their story. I love comics.
Podcasts: I haven't listened to many podcasts, but i use to be really into welcome to nightvale when it first came out the the ability to use sounds and voices to tell a story you can see is great .
Video games since this one is interactive you can get really immersed in the story. Right now i love inside because the story while insanely strange is beautifully told. and while it wasn't a good video game final fantasy XIII had enough of a story that i cried twice.

miseryhunting 2016-08-13 10:43:44 UTC #14

First and foremost, Animation.
Then Graphic Novels,
Books,
Comics/Webcomics
Movies
Musicals
I'm not too keen on games, but that's because I get easily distracted, I can appreciate a good one.

AnnaLandin 2016-08-13 11:09:28 UTC #15

This is part of why I haven't read the Hunger Games, even though everyone got all excited about it; I am really, really picky when it comes to PoV, and I avoid first person whenever I can. The only first person PoV-book that I've truly enjoyed (that wasn't an epistolary^) was Nick Harkaway's Gone-Away World - which is, in fact, one of my favourite books ever. But he did some amazing things with unreliable narrators in it that kind of needs a first person PoV to work.

^) Epistolaries - i.e: stories that are written in the form of letters and notes between different people.

I'm kind of a sucker for good descriptive passages, but I agree - it can drag on for way too long. If a character wakes up and gets out of bed, that needs a paragraph at most, and then only if they're not a morning person and need to whine a bit about it first. Your goal should not be to be Marcel Proust.

I mean, Moby Dick is one of my favourite books, and it's got an entire chapter that is basically just "let's talk about how hemp ropes are made for five pages" - but it's the only place I'll put up with that sort of thing.

I think this is a general Anglocentric thing, actually. I read a bunch of books in English, and as a Swede, I've noticed that a lot of writers from the US and the UK kind of assume that everyone knows certain things. "It was a typical London morning". Uh, okay. I'm Swedish and I live in a tiny village in the woods. I barely know what a typical Stockholm morning is like. Give me something to go on!

eslameldeeb 2016-08-13 12:59:43 UTC #16

for me, a book (including comics obviously) and a video game are the best storytelling media ever, i guess the reason would be that the story progresses at the speed of the reader's/gamer's own interaction, while a story told in a motion/animated picture will end whether you interact with it or not.. i also envy people who play tabletop games so much, i think tabletop games like DnD combine elements of reading and gaming (which is perfectly what i enjoy), unfortunately such communities are almost nonexistent where i live.. i guess the nerd in me needs to wake up XD...

okellymx 2016-08-13 13:04:58 UTC #17

I don't I love them all equally, I'm just too lazy to read books most of the time.

punkarsenic 2016-08-13 14:19:16 UTC #18

While comics really excite me, their potential and ability to combine visual and verbal into a narrative, I've still gotta say novels are my favourite form. I was raised on books and love words to death, so I'm still loyal to them.