‘Narration’: telling / inventing / imagining

Teachers: Caroline Godart, Stéphane Noël

'“'What we do (in theory)”

In this multidisciplinary workshop, we learn how to tell stories.

It sounds simple enough and it's true, we do it all the time: we tell stories about our days, childhood memories, adventures, celebrations and the ups and downs of our hearts, to tell others and ourselves who we are. But every culture has its own technique for creating stories, and in this course we look at how Westerners have been telling stories since at least Homer, 2800 years ago, and probably much earlier. The overwhelming majority of them, from Hollywood films to Greek tragedies, and including just about every TV series, novel, fairytale and even our most everyday anecdotes, follow variations of a similar pattern. We think it's vital to be familiar with it and to understand its power, even if we also criticise its possible excesses.

in 1st quadrimester

'“'How we do it (in practice)”

In each lesson of the first term, we begin by presenting a technique: how do you build a character? How do you generate tension? Emotions? A climax? How do you finish a story, or use symbols and motifs? We illustrate this with extracts from films, comic strips, illustrations and novels. Then we give you an exercise with clear instructions, linked to the technique we've introduced. For example, in a session on characterisation, we might ask you to draw a tarot card at random, look at it carefully and describe the figure depicted with precision: what is its name? What are the three most salient personality traits? In what world would you like this person to exist? This character can be used in the following lesson to begin constructing a story, which could take the form of a comic strip, video, sculpture or other, depending on your preference.

At the end of the term, students must submit two or three pieces of work, each covering several work sessions.

2nd quadrimester

In the second term, all the PAs work together on a collective project based on a particular form (a film, a cabaret, a parade, etc.).

This project provides an opportunity to

- Meet all the Bac1 students, forge links and share knowledge by taking it in turns to be learner*es and apprenant*es.

- experiment with a self-managed project, and develop autonomy in the search for tools and resources useful to the project. To get to know the players, spaces and tools available in the school.

- Take an active role in a collective project and experiment with organising a large group event.

- Get to grips with unexpected learning experiences.