Digital Storytelling: Hollywood Comes to the Classroom

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Digital Storytelling Hollywood Comes to the
Classroom

• Carol Siwinski
• Germantown Academy
• Curricular Technology Specialist
• PETE C
• February 19 -21, 2006

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Digital Storytelling

• Ancient art of oral storytelling
• Engage palette of technical tools
• Weave personal tale
• Use images, graphics,video, music, sound and
  authors own voice
• Students are
• Readers and writers
• Screenwriters
• Artists

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Elements of Digital Storytelling

• Living inside your story
• Told in first person, in your own voice
• Share your feelings
• Not a detached telling of facts
• Unfolding lessons learned
• Express personal meaning or insight
• Story makes a point either implicitly or
  explicitly
• Develop creative tension
• Create intrigue or tension
• Create a hook to draw the viewer in
• Posed at the beginning, resolved at the end
• Pacing, keep viewer wondering

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Elements of Digital Storytelling

• Economizing the story told
• Seek the shortest path
• No longer than 3 to 5 mins.
• Use few words along with images and sound to make
  point
• Showing not telling
• Use vivid details
• Images, sound and music can be used to create
  setting, give information, provide emotion
• Developing craftsmanship
• Incorporate technology in artful ways
• Technology used to illuminate meaning rather than
  bells and whistles
• Dont just decorated story but convey significant
  meaning

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Approaches to Scripting

• Use 4 x 6 index cards
• Writing exercises to find voice
• Stories from pictures
• Get into the story
• Write as if there
• Experience events as they unfold
• Experience the emotion - shock, surprise, etc

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StoryBoarding

• Plan story in two dimension
• Time - what happens first, second, etc
• Place script
• Interaction - how does audio(voice over) interact
  with images
• Transitions, effect and type of music
• Planning on paper saves time, energy and expense
  during production
• Helps clarify what you do not need
• Use posterboard, paper, etc

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Digitizing Story Elements

• Scan images
• Make jpg, landscape 640 X 480
• Download digital images from camera
• Be careful not to crop become pixilated
• Download images from web
• Only USE 640 X 480 or larger
• Use digital video camera with firewire
• Record voice over
• Use iMovie, GarageBand, Audacity or iPod with
  recorder
• Capture Music
• iTunes, GarageBand loops, CD
• Use mp3 format
• Free music resources

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Examples

• Racontez une histoire
• http//www.germantownacademy.org/academics/us/ModL
  ang/french/recontre/index.html
• Cuentos Digitalis
• http//www.germantownacademy.org/academics/ms/8th/
  centosdigital/index.html
• Colonial Day Museum
• http//www.germantownacademy.org/academics/ls/3/Co
  lonial/Index.htm
• Lost and Found
• http//www.digitales.us/story_details.php?story_id
  51

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Resources

• Digital Storytelling Cookbook
• http//www.storycenter.org/cookbook.html
• Center for Digital Storytelling
• http//www.storycenter.org/index1.html
• DigiTales The Art of Digital Storytelling
• http//www.digitales.us/index.php
• Audacity - cross platform music editor
• http//audacity.sourceforge.net/

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Sound Resources

• History Channel Great Speeches
• http//www.historychannel.com/broadband/home/index
  .jsp
• The Classical Music Archives
• http//www.classicalarchives.com/
• Dance Music MPeg and Video Clips from Library of
  Congress
• http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/divideos.html
• Free Music Play sample clips royalty free
• http//www.freemusicplay.com/

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Image Resources

• Library of Congress
• http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/
• Kodaks Powerful Days in Black and White
• http//www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/moore/moo
  reIndex.shtml
• National Archives of UK from Doomsday to present
• http//www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
• National Archives
• http//www.archives.gov/
• Classroom Clipart
• http//classroomclipart.com/
• Pics4Learning
• http//www.pics4learning.com/
• Stock Photography
• http//www.stockphotography.com/index.html
• Barrys ClipArt
• http//www.barrysclipart.com/