Our task for this project was to take a traditional story and re-tell it without using words.
We had 5-6 scenes in which to tell the tale - or put the information across, following this rough guide:
Scenes 1-2 introduce the characters, their relationships and situations; hint at forthcoming action;
Scenes 3-4 move the action on (make the viewer WANT to see what happens next)
Scenes 5-6 resolve the action and end the tale
However we were not to traditionally illustrate the story. We were encouraged to use symbols, colours, shapes, textures, objects to replace the characters and action in our re-telling.
The story I chose to re-tell was ‘Peter and the Wolf.’ I chose this specifically because it wasn’t a typical fairytale that everyone seems to know, it’s a dark tale that used to give me nightmares when I was a child.
This story was specifically created to teach children the musical instruments of the orchestra. Each character in the story has a particular instrument and a musical theme.
Bird: flute
Duck: oboe
Cat: clarinet
Grandfather: bassoon
Wolf: French horns
Hunters: woodwind theme, with gunshots on timpani and bass drum
Peter: string instruments
This was my first attempt to represent the story through simple cut out silhouettes of the instruments.
There was once a young boy called Peter who lived with his grandfather in a forest clearing.
One day Peter went out into the clearing, leaving the garden gate open, and the duck that lived in the yard took the opportunity to go swimming in a pond nearby. The duck started to argue with a little bird.
“What kind of bird are you if you cannot fly?” asked the bird
“What kind of bird are you if you cannot swim?” replied the duck.
Meanwhile Peter’s pet cat was stalking the two birds quietly. The bird flew to safety in a tall tree and the duck swam to safety in the middle of the pond after being warned of the cat by Peter.
Peter’s grandfather scolded Peter for being outside in the meadow.
“Suppose a wolf came out of the forest?” exclaimed Peter’s grandfather.
Peter defied him and shouted back, “Boys like me are not afraid of wolves!”
Peter’s grandfather dragged Peter back into the house and locked the gate. 
Soon afterwards a big grey wolf came out of the forest. The cat quickly climbed into a tree, but the duck that had excitedly jumped out of the pond was chased, overtaken and swallowed by the wolf.
Peter fetched a rope and climbed over the garden wall into the tree. He asked the bird to fly around the wolf’s head to distract it, while he lowered a noose to catch the wolf by its tail. The wolf struggled to get free, but Peter tied the rope to the tree and the noose just got tighter and tighter.
Some hunters who had been tracking the wolf came out of the forest ready to shoot, but Peter got them to help him take the wolf to a zoo in a victory parade that included himself, the bird, the hunters leading the wolf, the cat and Peter’s grumpy grumbling Grandfather.
I liked the simplicity of this first attempt, so I carried on with it, but neatened it up on Photoshop
I can always remember Peter’s theme, and even thinking about that now seems to give me shivers sometimes because it reminds me of the whole story. But the part of the story I can never forget is the ending where you can just hear the duck quacking in the wolf’s stomach because the wolf swallowed him whole.
The Final Storyboard
Peter and the Wolf
