Wemberly Worried
Projects by Janie Triebold
Digital Storytelling
I based my digital story off of the plot of Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes. In this project, I attended to author's craft by staying true to the source material. One key feature of the original story is the repetition of Wemberly's mother, father, and grandmother telling her not to worry. I decided to include this aspect in my story as it not only rings true to many family dynamics in which a child worries often, but the repetition also helps to connect pieces of the story to make the tale flow. Secondly, I made the characters basic in terms of design. I did this because the author has a series of children's books featuring mice, and I wanted my characters to be easily recognizable as characters from a Kevin Henkes story. Though my digital story simplifies the plot of the original story, I kept the repetition of certain lines, character design, and overall plot the same so as to make my story easily distinguishable.
In this project, I considered multimodality mostly in the relation between the audio and the visuals. I wanted the story that I was telling to match up with what was happening on screen. I was able to get the timing matched up, but I also wanted the story to come to life. I did this by having my friends voice different characters so that it was clear who exactly was Wemberly's father and who was her mother, especially because the characters all look very similar. I wanted my own voice to match up with what I imagined Wemberly's voice to sound like, so I digitally altered my voice so that it would be several pitches higher. I also did this to Jewel's voice, but I made it slightly lower so that the two voices could be distinguished.
I intentionally made this a stop-motion film as I thought it would present a fun challenge for me, but more importantly, would best convey the scenes in the story. By using animation, I could actually show the cracks on the wall and the spiders that Wemberly was fearful of. I felt as though animation would give the story life as opposed to a stagnant, still-image story. Wemberly's brain is constantly on and moving from scenario to scenario, so I thought stop-motion would best represent her sense of frenzy. I did come across several problems with this medium. My hand was often in the pictures I took, so I had to scrap those and retake them at a slower pace. I also had some issues with getting the audio to match up with the visual. However, after much trial and error, I was able to produce a finished digital story that I believe conveys the story, Wemberly Worried. Hope you enjoy!
Video not currently available.
In this project, I considered multimodality mostly in the relation between the audio and the visuals. I wanted the story that I was telling to match up with what was happening on screen. I was able to get the timing matched up, but I also wanted the story to come to life. I did this by having my friends voice different characters so that it was clear who exactly was Wemberly's father and who was her mother, especially because the characters all look very similar. I wanted my own voice to match up with what I imagined Wemberly's voice to sound like, so I digitally altered my voice so that it would be several pitches higher. I also did this to Jewel's voice, but I made it slightly lower so that the two voices could be distinguished.
I intentionally made this a stop-motion film as I thought it would present a fun challenge for me, but more importantly, would best convey the scenes in the story. By using animation, I could actually show the cracks on the wall and the spiders that Wemberly was fearful of. I felt as though animation would give the story life as opposed to a stagnant, still-image story. Wemberly's brain is constantly on and moving from scenario to scenario, so I thought stop-motion would best represent her sense of frenzy. I did come across several problems with this medium. My hand was often in the pictures I took, so I had to scrap those and retake them at a slower pace. I also had some issues with getting the audio to match up with the visual. However, after much trial and error, I was able to produce a finished digital story that I believe conveys the story, Wemberly Worried. Hope you enjoy!
Video not currently available.
Infographic
I diverged from the plot of Wemberly Worried as I was not sure how to translate the story into an infographic. Instead, I took the main focus of anxiety and used factual information to create a presentation on what Wemberly faces. Although it is different than the source material, I attended to author's craft here by using an original illustration from the story in the title of my infographic. This helps to remind the viewer of the connection between the focus of my infographic and the original source.
This infographic is interactive as I thought it would not only make it more engaging, but it helps the viewer get more out of the experience. I added a YouTube video about anxiety, created by a woman with anxiety, as I do not have it; the information that I alone put into my infographic can only go so far. I also made interactive charts so the viewer can mouse over them and see how many Americans suffer from different anxiety-related diseases. The multimodality of this project makes the entire infographic not only more fun and interesting, but also enhances the learning experience.
I decided to include a "do's and don'ts" of helping a friend with anxiety. I thought that I should contextualize anxiety by bringing it closer to home. I put that section at the end of my infographic as I thought that the viewer would scroll through, learn more about anxiety, see how many Americans are affected, and then want to be able to help after seeing that there is a good chance someone they know will have it. This project consisted of a great deal of trial and error for me. My first time trying to create an infographic made me slightly confused, but as I worked through the program, I was able to get used to it and finally created an infographic that I hope you can learn from!
This infographic is interactive as I thought it would not only make it more engaging, but it helps the viewer get more out of the experience. I added a YouTube video about anxiety, created by a woman with anxiety, as I do not have it; the information that I alone put into my infographic can only go so far. I also made interactive charts so the viewer can mouse over them and see how many Americans suffer from different anxiety-related diseases. The multimodality of this project makes the entire infographic not only more fun and interesting, but also enhances the learning experience.
I decided to include a "do's and don'ts" of helping a friend with anxiety. I thought that I should contextualize anxiety by bringing it closer to home. I put that section at the end of my infographic as I thought that the viewer would scroll through, learn more about anxiety, see how many Americans are affected, and then want to be able to help after seeing that there is a good chance someone they know will have it. This project consisted of a great deal of trial and error for me. My first time trying to create an infographic made me slightly confused, but as I worked through the program, I was able to get used to it and finally created an infographic that I hope you can learn from!