Project link: https://editor.p5js.org/shareenchang/sketches/pY-JRc9Fl
Project Inspiration
My narrative media project is inspired by the movie Memento. The movie is a non-linear narrative using two different sequences of scenes dispersed through the film. The black and white scenes are shown chronologically and the colored scenes are shown in reverse chronological order. These scenes simulate the mental state of the protagonist who suffers from short-term memory loss and is unable to form new memories. At the end, the two interspersed sequences eventually meet and provide a complete narrative at the end.
Project Overview
In my narrative project, I wanted to create a thriller that begins at “The End”, immediately immersing the reader in the final moments of the story. As the reader moves backward in time, more context unfolds, revealing the events that led the main character to this point and how she ended up in her final state.
I used the help of ChatGPT to create a short story inspired by Memento to create a short story outline. With modifications, I set up an outline for my story that when read in reverse chronological order, the story will feel like it is uncovering more and more of the past. When the story is read in chronological order, it will start with the big event that caused the main character, Sarah, to lose all her memory and continue to the end where she slowly recovers all her memory and has an emotional realization. Depending on the order you read the story, it evokes a different type of feeling.
On the screen, the text appears from the bottom up as the user moves their mouse upward, gradually revealing more of the story. The user interacts with the narrative to uncover hidden details, and as the mouse moves away from earlier lines, they fade, evoking a sense of memories slipping away.
There is a progress bar on the top of the page that signals the progress of the story. The bar starts out as 100% filled out because the story “starts” at the final moment. As the story goes backwards, the progress bar decreases. This is another way to signal to the reader the reverse nature of the story.
The user can then use the left and right arrow keys to go to the other phases of the story. As the reader goes to backwards in time, the background also changes and becomes redder representing the gradual progression of the story up until the big twist at the “beginning” of the story.
There are aspects of my project I’d like to improve, such as incorporating clickable text that allows users to ‘hold on’ to a memory, preventing it from fading away. I also want to add more text effects to highlight key moments in the story and emphasize its emotional impact.
Huge thanks to my peers and our TA for helping me ideate, debug, and work through my project with me!
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