Picking Mobile Stories Out of the Air

I have been having an ongoing dialog with David Vogt on the nature of narrative and (to use a term much beloved by the Mobile Muse technical guru Jim Udall) its instantiation as mobile shorts. David has been on the sidelines commenting on the development of a storyline called "Queen of Spades," a kind of film noir short in classical 2D animation. It is intended as a test of 2D animated shorts on mobile phones. 

David is hard to please and he has pretty well shot down everything I have come up with so far.

I was thinking about this problem about an hour ago, using a method that has always been effective. I went for a walk to do some grocery shopping, passing through Moody Park, a big city park about two blocks from my house. On my way back, lost in thought, I looked up. I came across a scene. It was a young Asian mother and her baby in a baby carriage. She was flailing in the air. As I got nearer I realized that she was using a stick to poke at a long yellow strap dangling from the branch of tree. The strap formed a loop with two keys on the end. (The keys to her house?) She was trying to get it down using a long branch. It was not long enough. I have no idea how the keys got up there, about ten feet in the air.

There was a young boy standing off to the side offering advice. Probably not her son.

I stepped into the breach and told her, "I'm taller than you, let me have a go at it." I grabbed the branch.

Meanwhile a gaggle of elderly Asian women came down the path.

The keys were firmly lodged in the tree's branch. The little boy said to me, after watching me unsuccessfully try to hook the strap. "Maybe you should jump."

The elderly ladies had stopped and I could hear them chattering behind me, probably assessing the situation. Jumping while holding my Safeway bags and coat slung over my arm did not seem like an elegant solution. For some reason I was loath to put my purchases down.

My actions were probably not heroic. The young mother had not asked for my help, and my own fruitless endeavours were merely adding to what was an embarrassing situation for her. What cultural protocol was I breaking? She nervously picked up small sticks and waved them about half-heartily.

I tried stripping the end of the branch to better insert it into the loop formed by the strap. I stabbed furiously, trying to hook the keys. The branch was too thin and flexible.

I caught sight of the little boy out of the corner of my eye, standing there enraptured in his over-sized glasses, very intense, about three feet high, ducking as one of my desperate attempts went terribly wrong. Close shave.

Then I managed to hook the key strap. The keys were flung down clattering on the pavement. Behind me I heard a big "ohhhhh" and collective sigh of relieve.

What I realized in a flash was that what had just transpired had all the characteristics of a good story. There is the damsel in distress storyline, complicated by unknown cultural protocols. There was tension provided by the failure of my attempts and the value of the keys, offset to some extent by the absurd contortions I was going through. There was an audience, apparently enraptured. There were colorful characters involved...well, why invent? It is a short enough story to be told in mobile and the setting is simple enough to make the story easily compressed.

So, David, I think I will can the Queen of Spades storyline and tell this story. I think Jason Doll, the animator I hired to do the Queen of Spades will be able to do some wonderful things to make this story interesting to watch, using his animation skills and character designs. It is a visual story and it's got lots of potential for its telling in 2D animation.

If I had not heard the spontaneous exclamation of relief from my impromptu audience, I would not think of this as a story, but rather as a mere incidence. Now it's up to some clever writing and Jason's animation skills to try to bring the story alive within the framework and restrictions of mobile video. A really good soundtrack will help. I am thinking of the scene from a Bertolt Brecht play parodying the actor rehearsing for a play... It's a monologue played out as a mime. I've wanted to test the idea of a mobile video with a long monologue.

That's how you find a story suited for mobile telling. You pick it out of the air.