Artist’s Statement

Round Robin


As we all have looked over each other’s contributions, the overall plot arc for each story suffered a dramatic change. Looking at them all lined up next to one another, we can see where we wanted each story to go and contrast that with where the stories actually went. For example, Colton’s story started out following a detective and his wife, but when it got to Parker, it suddenly switched to a story about a lover with a raccoon addiction.


DJ Spooky discusses this disconnect in his article. He presents an important example involving the children’s game Chutes and Ladders. This game was originally played in India, around 2nd century B.C and was called “despada.” We now play this game for entertainment, but in its earliest form it was designed to teach morals and the classes of reincarnation in the Hindu religion. The British adopted the game in the 1800’s and slowly morphed it into the game we play today. This is a prime example of how different cultures and ideas will influence media, and slowly alter it into a very different form. We saw this happen in our tiny stories, where almost none of them ended as we would have guessed. Similar to the Chutes and Ladders example, we all separately added our own insight and good ideas and guided the stories in the direction that we wanted, without any concern for the original authors. However, just like in this example, each new element we introduced was something that somehow connected to our group as a whole, being middle-class, LDS, film students—such as the wedding in the temple, film noir references, or even our generation’s fascination with super heroes. All of these elements were familiar to us due to our shared culture.


From an author’s perspective, it was also slightly upsetting. (We should note that not everyone was upset with the changes, but some people – Sarah – were.) That facet of this experience reminded us of Joss Whedon’s words on his experience writing the screenplay for the film Alien: Resurrection, which was drastically changed from his original treatment:
“It wasn't a question of doing everything differently, although they changed the ending; it was mostly a matter of doing everything wrong. They said the lines...mostly...but they said them all wrong. And they cast it wrong. And they designed it wrong. And they scored it wrong. They did everything wrong that they could possibly do.”

He wrote a script, sent it into the world, and it was transformed into something he barely recognized. As future filmmakers and artists, we will most likely experience this feeling again and again. We will have to learn to work with others and accept that when we collaborate with others, our original ideas will inevitably be altered by their creative contributions.

Colton’s Story

Day 1 

The detective hurried toward the old warehouse, to close in on the infamous Red Bandit. He smashed the door open, but the culprit was none other than his own wife.

Day 2

His wife was waiting in the interrogation room, but the detective wasn't ready. He supposed the obvious question was, "Why?" But did he want to know the answer?

Day 3

"I don't need to tell you anything, Darling. You were there the whole time."

DAY 4

“Wearing your kimono and slippers you two-timing raccoon lover.”

DAY 5

It was unfortunate that his wife leaving him was the thing that drove him to go, he thought, but he was glad to finally do something about his raccoon addiction.