Aberth Digital Storytelling

digital storytelling, participatory media and easing access to mass media for public expression

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Entries Tagged as 'tips'

Bug eats VHS

September 7th, 2008 · No Comments

Anyone who filmed home video from the 1980s -90s will is likely to have that footage in the VHS tape medium. I’ve just seen an item on a TV programme called Sunday Life which warned that fungus is attacking these old tapes. So now may be a good time to digitise these old recordings.
The way […]

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Tags: tips · capturing assets · digital storytelling

Avoid using other people’s stuff - number 7 of 7 DS no-nos

August 6th, 2008 · No Comments

This is your story, so try to use your own images, story, words, original sentiments, music, style, philosophy, etc. as far as you can.
The promotion of royalty-free content advocated by some digital storytelling trainers means that opportunities may be missed. Of course, sometimes you’ll find yourself working with people who have no access to their […]

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Tags: tips · capturing assets · digital storytelling

Pink fingertip syndrome

August 5th, 2008 · No Comments

This is a new term I just had to invent. We launched a new Welsh-language mobile website yesterday (info). It was fast as anything when I browsed it alone, yet when I needed to show it to Siwan from the press office, it loaded ever so slowly. Why did this happen? Because of pink fingertip […]

Popularity: 23% [?]

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Tags: tips · mobile

Avoid rhyming poetry - number 6 of 7 DS no-nos

August 2nd, 2008 · No Comments

Of the stories I’ve seen which use poems I can remember only one or two as being the best possible way of telling that person’s story. This is just my personal opinion.
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Tags: tips · story · digital storytelling

Avoid show and tell - number 5 of 7 DS no-nos

July 30th, 2008 · No Comments

If the story goes something like this:
“When he came back from the mine he had a bath”
weaker: cut from a photo of the mine to a photo of a tin bath
stronger: leave up the photo of dad throughout, maybe with a slow zoom in.
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Tags: tips · digital storytelling

Avoid visual cliches - number 4 of 7 DS no-nos

July 25th, 2008 · No Comments

E.g. the question mark. If you’ve got a line in your story like: “why did he do this?”, don’t put a great big image of a question mark on the timeline/screen.
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Tags: tips · digital storytelling

Avoid less-than-perfect voice recordings - number 3 of 7 DS no-nos

July 18th, 2008 · No Comments

Get your voice-recording done with a high-quality unit in a quiet room with natural acousics (neither boxy nor echoey), unless there’s an overriding reason to the contrary (e.g. you’re working with an archive recording or in an inescapably noisy environment). As I’ve said here before, the best digital stories can work as radio pieces, so […]

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Tags: tips · capturing assets · audio · digital storytelling

Avoid fancy video effects - number 2 of 7 DS no-nos

July 12th, 2008 · No Comments

Cuts or cross-fades are the video transitions I recommend, unless there’s a good story-related reason to use something else.
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Tags: tips · instruction · digital storytelling

Avoid pure linear reportage - number 1 of 7 DS no-nos

July 6th, 2008 · No Comments

E.g. it’s tempting to tell the story of a trip chronologically thus
weaker: “We started in Rome, took the train to Florence where we saw Ponte Vecchio, then we headed to the coast towards Pisa….”
stronger: look at how well Simon Griffiths uses the device of how he funded his south American trip to make a great […]

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Tags: tips · story · digital storytelling