Workshop: “Storytelling and Cartoons”, Leipzig Germany Lutz Reinke and Sabine Gehring in cooperation with the “Offener Jugendtre ff” Sellerhausen, Leipzig. The “Offener Jugendtreff” is a youth club for kids and young adults coming from a difficult social background. Therefore the training was open for these children and the advisers to give them new strategies to communicate and express their ideas. The group consisted of four children and two adults. The focus lay on telling a story together and putting it into a photo- comic-strip. At the beginning the participants got a short lesson in storytelling. We discussed which elements are essential for a good story. We talked about building characters, whatmakes a good plot and how to create a red line that is leading through the story. Afterwards we started to plan the story. First the participants chose a genre. Which was at the beginning a little tricky, since everybody wanted to tell a different story. In the end all agreed on a horror love story. Then we asked for ideas concerning plot and characters. Again the group had too many contrary ideas to make a single story out of it. Luckily we were prepared for this case. Each of them got an item which should be part of the story. The grouphad to cooperate to fit all the items into one story. Not only the plot but also some of the characters based on these items. Next step was to create a storyboard. So that the following photoshooting will have some structure. The children had lots of fun to paint the pictureswhich also kicked offa discussion about field of view depending on the scene. Then we assigned the parts and started the photoshooting. One problem that occurred was, that not everybody was involved in every scene. Especially the younger kids started to get bored. So we decided to show them how to use the camera and aloud them to take pictures as well. During the photoshooting some of the participants came up with the idea of an alternative ending which most of them assumed being better. So instead
of following the storyboard we decided to go for the new idea, because we didn't want to limit the creativity of the participants. After all photos had been shot the participants chose the best photos to build the photostory. These photos were transformed into a slideshow and were presented two weeks later. Results We had different expectations concerning the outcome of the pilot project. Some were on a professional level, others on a social level. On a professional level, we hoped the participants would manage to build a story and create a storyboard. The final step at the training in Italy was to takethis storyboard and animate a short film in Adobe Flash. We decided to do a Photo-comic-strip instead, as most participants didn't have the technical equipment to run such a program. On top time we had was limited. One day was too short for teaching the basics of storytelling and explaining how to handle Adobe Flash. The participants should get an idea of the whole creative process. From the first ideas, to creating characters as well as a plot that follows a main idea, putting all this into pictures and finally making a Comic-strip out of it. We gave them guideline questions they could follow. This gave them the structural foundation to bring their own ideas and stories to life. Another result mainly of social nature was that this guideline made working as a group much easier and faster. They developed the story step by step answering the basic questions. So instead of trying to agree on the big decisions, they had to make many smaller ones. This step by step guideline was a very valuable tool we learned in Italy. Also basic social skills were trained. As they had to express their own ideas and at the same time give room for the ideas of others. Which was in the beginning quite hard for those kids, because they had to communicate in a constructive way. The longer the project took place the easier they found compromises for ideas, or solutions for problems. In the end they learned how to tell a story in a group. ´ Copyright Recipients are free to use all or parts of this document for personal use however are requested to inform the author. Recipients are requested to acknowledge The artist within – Applied eMOTION consortium and the author in any reference to the content of this document. In the event of any further queries please consult the author. Acknowledgements This project was possible with the financial support from the Erasmus+ program. The methodological resources and inspiration came from the The artist within – Applied
eMOTION long-term adult education project (www.theartistwithin.eu). The generosity from the fund and these organisations is much appreciated.