My digital story experience

Last week I posted my first digital story to my blog. Since I already went into detail about the benefits of digital story telling in my blog post last week, I’d like to describe my personal experience creating my own digital story.

I started out the process by brainstorming to decide what exactly I wanted to create a short digital story about. I decided to utilize my own artwork, particularly my photographs for my Disassembled Household Appliance series. I created a folder on my desktop and added all of my jpg images to it, including all 12 photographs from my series. I also decided to add screencaptures from websites and scans of magazines that my photographs have been published in/on. Once my images were ready I uploaded them into a new iMovie project, and arranged them in an order that I though was appropriate.

I designed a title page to add to the front of my presentation as an opening slide. Next, I wrote an artist statement about my work, the concept, process, and my inspiration. I wasn’t sure exactly how much or how little to write, so I started with just a few paragraphs, knowing that I could add more or take some out if needed.

I read my script outloud timing myself to see where I was time wise, and it happened to be right around 3 minutes, which was exactly what I was shooting for. I finalized my script and read it aloud, recording it with GarageBand. After listening to my first recording, I realized that I made a few mistakes and read too quickly. I recorded it again with better timing and fewer errors, and finally recorded it one last time until I was happy with it.

Once my script was complete, I downloaded it into iTunes. I added the audio file from iTunes into my iMovie project. Knowing that I needed 3:05 worth of images, I played around with the timing of each slide, and the timing of the transitions between the slides. This was definitely the most challenging part of the whole process. Through trial and error, I was able to eventually figure out the timing and arrangement of slides so that they went together with my narration and transitioned smoothly. I decided to add titles to each slide, but only half way through my appliance photographs so that it lets the viewer try to figure out what they are before I give them the answer.

I selected some background music into my digital story, and took some time to figure out the appropriate volume and song. I choose a song with a nice beat and no lyrics, because I didn’t want it to distract from my images or narration.

I am very happy with my digital story, and would certainly use both GarageBand and iMovie again. This project helped me learn the programs a little bit better, and I am confident that the process will be smoother and probably quicker the next time I use them to create a movie or digital story. I think that my digital story is successful for the following reasons:

-       captivating images that relate directly to the “story”

-       personal narrative gives the listener/viewer a background behind the images

-       timing of the images and story as a whole is appropriate

-       background music fits the pace and theme of the story, the volume is low enough so that it is not distracting

-       narration is clear, timed properly, informative, and easy to hear

I am excited about bringing this technology into my art classroom!

“The process of digital storytelling provides a voice rich in multimedia that has potential to resonate deeply with an audience. As a result, digital story telling has become one of the most powerful 21^st century learning processes available to teachers and students.”

- Digital Storytelling by David Jakes, Solomon & Schrum pg. 43