The GIF of the Story


THE GIF OF THE STORY

 

    This semester's discussions have brought me to ponder deeply on an experience I had a few years ago. At the time, I was really into this game called Red Dead Redemption 2. It's a virtual world that places you into the age and world of the western frontier. This game allows me to exit this world and virtually explore a stunning 3d space that is far away from here. It’s also a game about good and evil choices, but that is not where the value of this game lies with me. I found myself playing this game all the time and just enjoying riding around in the mountainous regions. Exploring all the nook and crannies I could find and hunting digital game. I came to realize that I would rather explore and experience the real thing than just a game in my living room. This is when I started exploring the Utah Valley. I bring this experience up due to the last essay we read. The New Aesthetic is manifested through some kind of digital to real platform. This game is highly correlated with the real world with real consequences. Even to the point where you hesitate to make a decision because your actual curiosity is peaked. What if you make the wrong decision??? On the other hand, one could argue there is no consequence at all, as you are able to save and turn off the game with no actual consequence to your life. It is this consequential question that gave me the structure for my GIF story.

              I recorded my whole video with my own gameplay, and had trouble getting the camera in the                 right spot as it isn't as free a unit as other games might be. I also had a hard time getting the                         characters to actually stand and do the movements. 

    Upon analyzing the GIF as a medium and talking about the project in class, I really wanted to find a way to use each GIF in a circular, but linear, way. I thought of how that would play out with a camera and audience. At what point, would they be looping the same action in viewing? Then it hit me while I thought about it in the context of the world of Red Dead Redemption 2. A gunfight! The audience is looking desperately from one fighter to the other, and so it would made sense that a linear story could be told within the perspective of a worried onlooker. I like this discovery because I’m not sure I’ve considered creating a narrative based on what the camera/audience will want to see. In the end, I managed to accomplish my goal of complete circular storytelling for each GIF save for the dismounting of the horses. The end result is a neat, two-sided conflict between cowboys told through the perspective of an omnipotent onlooker. 

            *All game footage is exclusively mine. All effects are mine as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            


           

           

            



              


 

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