Storytelling: Buildings and Vampires

I love stories of all kinds. Storytelling is such a natural form of entertainment and teaching; people have used stories for hundreds of years to pass on myths and truths. With Halloween coming up, people will be creating and absorbing stories through comics, video, books, music and word-of-mouth.

When babysitting the other day I thought to get in the Halloween mood we should carve pumpkins. Unlike my little brother who did his best to do an angry pumpkin so he wouldn't be afraid of it, my youngest sister put all her effort into making a scary pumpkin. When she was finished she stared at it and then piped up worriedly: "Evie told me pumpkins come alive at night. Will my scary pumpkin do that?"

My brother's angry pumpkin and sister's scary one

There is something wonderfully naive about children and their stories. I think that's why Where the Wild Things Are is so successful and why it has inspired so many people since. I particularly like the Buildings and Vampires story and how the tribute video by Sebastian Baptista & Nico Casavecchia then went on to inspire the likes of Manuela dos Santos to be more experimental. Creativity breeding creativity is a wonderful thing and I love the childlike style of both the video and the chalkboard cards.

Buildings & Vampires from Nico Casavecchia on Vimeo.

Manuela dos Santos' chalkboard cards.