Interactive Storytelling at the Georgia State Fair

Glassner writes that "Audiences enter a storytelling experience in many different states of mind(93)." So, for my digital story, I decided to engage my audience with a trip to the Georgia State Fair. I felt that most of the audience would be able to relate to attending a state fair. I knew I could get interesting shots of the fair and encorporate them into my project.

The last time I had visited the Georgia State Fair was when I was in high school in the late 1980's. I am not sure I have been to a fair since then. I can't recall attending a single fair in the twelve plus years I lived in Los Angeles. So, I not only looked at a trip to the fair as a project topic, I looked at it as an adventure.

It's funny the reactions I got from people when I informed them I was going to the fair to take photos and video for my digital story project. Reactions I got ranged from "You'll see a lot of fights" to "Be sure and take a guy with you" to "Make sure you leave before it gets dark." Wow! I was immediately intrigued. What goes on after dark at the fair in downtown Macon? Well, as I learned from my experiences in shooting "Fair Night", not a lot really goes on at the fair on a Wednesday night. I'm still not sure why I got the sketchy reactions from everyone. If I had found crime and chaos at the fair, then I might have been a bit more understanding of the reactions and comments.

Nick and I packed up my cameras on a Wednesday night and drove to the fair. We arrived at 6:30pm. From the moment we stepped up to the ticket booth, I was overwhelmed by sights, sounds and the smells of the Georgia State Fair. I knew this would be an interesting subject for my story.

In structuring my digital story, I kept in mind Glassner's idea that "A story follows an interesting protagonist seeking a clear goal by addressing an ever-escalating set of difficulties(36)." The protagonist of my digital story is my boyfriend Nick. He was actually a very good sport about being in my story. He was open to anything I wanted to photograph him doing at the fair. I concentrated on the fair experience...the food, the carnival games and rides. (It also helped that there was a food stall everywhere you looked. So, when crankiness did set in with my protagonist, I could appease him with the occasional corn dog or flesh of some dead animal on a stick.)

I enjoy the photography process. I have worked on my own short film and video projects before. I have a small, independent film production company with my friend who is a director. I have been mainly invloved in the actual producing side of storytelling with those projects. I have essentially produced them, secured financing, crews, equipment. I have never been the director behind the camera. So, I enjoyed the freedom of taking the shots myself and getting to edit them the way I thought was best.

Overall, I enjoyed putting together my digital fair story. I like the idea of combining photographs and images to tell a story. I am also taking Mrs. Chalfa's Digital Storytelling class this semester. We are in the process of writing a script, collecting images and creating a digital story about change for that class. So, I feel that reading Glassner's techniques on interactive storytelling has allowed me a solid knowledge and foundation for digital storytelling with my Fair Night project.