Six-panel storytelling

It is well known how the power of a story can add so much effect to the exchange of information. It makes the communication interesting, accessible, simpler to understand and also has more chance of being remembered. It is not always a straightforward task to actually find a story within an a given problem context but, nevertheless, it is important to always at least try and approach such communications with an eye on logical sequence and narrative.

With this in mind, I was interested by the creative challenge run by the Little White Lies independent film magazine to break down any movie of choice into a six-panel comic strip to encapsulate the essence of its plot and overall story. Its an interesting challenge and, ignoring for now the artistic aspect of this competition, is a really useful approach to help all of us with the task of identifying and simplifying a narrative.

Whilst some might feel overly restricted by the thought of having to reduce a communication problem down to only 6 key components, we can learn a lot from the world of comics and their ability to eliminate waste and present only the core to a story.

The winning entry, shown below, is an interpretation of Zombieland by David Rigby.

Further information about the winning entry can be found here alongside images of some of the runner-up entries.