RavingLEARNatics

Public Domain Content

I just read a neat little book that Dan Pink recommended in his blog called Bound By Law. It gives a great overview of Public Domain and Fair Use laws and is presented in comic book form. It is a great resource for e-learning developers looking to use media elements in their courses to make them more engaging. The book discusses the balance between protecting an artists work while "ensuring the availability of raw materials for future creation," what type of work is usable, and how the Copyright law may be going astray.

Story Structure II

Screenwriting and story guru Robert Mckee, author of the book Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting describes story as "a design in five parts."  The five parts are:

1. Inciting Incident - A sudden decisive event that significantly upsets the character's life balance either positively or negatively.
2. Progressive Complications - To generate more and more conflict for the characters as they face greater forces of antagonism.
3. Crisis - The decision of the character to take one action or another.
4. Climax - A revolution in values from negative to positive or positive to negative.
5. Resolution - Tie up lose ends and allow the audience to gather it's thoughts.

Story Structure

Respected and influential comic artist Will Eisner mentioned in his book Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative that the structure of a story can be diagrammed with many variations from beginning to end. His basic story structure is shown in this graphic . . .

Eisner tells us that at the outset of telling a story, there is a "contract" between teller and audience. The teller expects the audience will comprehend, while the audience expects the teller will deliver something that is comprehensible. The burden is on the teller and is the basic rule of communication. A major element of the "contract" is audience control. According to Eisner "Once the reader's attention is seized it cannot be allowed to escape. . . In comics, reader control is attained in two stages - attention and retention." Use of "provocative and attractive imagery" gains attention, while the "logical and intelligible arrangement of images" achieves retention.