Here’s the 15-minute video of my presentation about digital storytelling innovations at the #dst2021 Storytelling for a ‘Just’ Future conference run by the DST Conference Committee on the 21st and 22nd of June 2021.
Six features of the digital story we helped people to make as part of the BBC Capture Wales and Cipolwg ar Gymru digital storytelling project, which ran from 2001-2008 at BBC Cymru Wales were that the digital story is: a video of about two minutes duration 2. a personal, usually true, story written and voiced by the individual storyteller 3. a “considered narrative” (Daniel Meadows) usually scripted by the storyteller (c250 words) or proactively told, not reactively in response to a media professional’s questioning 4. illustrated with 20 or so of the storyteller’s own photos or images – sometimes including a short video clip – edited together by the storyteller to make…
I made a presentation to Cardiff Geek Speak this month about ‘swooping in storytelling‘ and they asked me to put my presentation online. I haven’t put the whole thing here but I have highlighted out one section, which looks at some of the elements that make up… A great story E.g. Walking with Maurice by Hanne Jones on the BBC Capture Wales website. · Starts with one incident and work out from that. · Has a clear point of view (Hanne’s was a personal take). · Makes you give a damn – I can’t define how to do this, but I did care for Hanne and her Granddad. · Has the stepping-stone-effect: when you reach the other bank you…
Photographer guilt stems from the disarray of our photographic collections on various devices and lack of legacy archive planning. Back in the day when we used film and had our photographs developed and printed, there were two things that were different from today’s digital image world. We were more careful about the images we captured because there was stock and production to pay for. We could put our hands on our proudest images because we’d move them from the developer’s envelope into photo albums and scrapbooks. Today, we snap more images. They’re kept on different places: phones, cameras, storage cards and drives, hard drives, laptops and in the cloud. It’s…
This article is about running a storytelling workshop with a large group. Canadian digital storyteller Kent Manning contacted Barrie Stephenson and I recently with a question: “I’m conducting a digital storytelling session next month for a group of 26 educators. I value the story circle part of the process as this is the way I was taught by the folks at CDS. Would you have any suggestions for conducting story circle time with such a large group? Would you have individuals share their stories with the large group? Small group sharing perhaps?” Here’s what I suggest: 26 is a big group. You could either split it into three and hold…
Here are some lessons digital storytellers can learn from Steven Moffat, based on advice he gave in an interview: 1. Imagine someone with their hat on, their coat half on, stepping out of the door. Make them say: “I’ll just keep watching until I find out what this is about” 2. Have a big whallop at the start. 3. Start with a promise of something you’re going to deliver 4. Surprise them 5. Try to think of a brand new idea. 6. Keep giving them reasons not to turn off 7. Try to make what you do appeal to _everybody_, then you’ve a chance of making it somebody’s favourite. 8.…
I’ve just been speaking on Facebook with south Wales digital storytelling and community video practitioner Sandra Anstiss. She’s venturing into the private sector making stories with owners, marketing staff, customers, etc. and she was asking members of the Facebook DS Working Group for advice about consents and copyright. I’d say there are three or more issues here… 1. The stated consent of the storyteller and featured subjects; 2. Some form of evidence that any third-party assets are OK to use (other people’s pics, music, etc.); and 3. Something that says who owns the finished digital story entity. Once these are established, it becomes possible to license the story’s re-publication elsewhere,…
Here’s an idea you can try at the story-origination phase of your next digital storytelling workshop. Ask everyone to place their hand on a blank piece of paper and draw round it, kindergarten style. Ask people to write a line on each digit, in response to this: Little finger: what’s the best thing that’s happened to you so far this year? Ring finger: Looking further back in time, name one highlight of your life. Middle finger: thinking of your family, what makes you most proud of being you? Did your grandfather have a fascinating job? Has your family made its mark in your town? Index finger: pointing to the future,…
Up until the 1990s, passing round a Truprint envelope full of 6″ x 4″ photographic prints was the norm; nowadays we publish our own online and ‘Like’ our friends’ photos on Facebook. Increasingly, that’s how we pass round our snapshots. This is a great moment to capture that change in the way we share our personal photos. “From Snapshots to Social Media – The Changing Picture of Domestic Photography” is a new book by Risto Sarvas and David Frohlich from University of Surrey. David has a fascinating history in Digital Storytelling as the pioneer of Audio Photography and one of the people behind the StoryBank digital storytelling sharing project in…
When Newport University film studies lecturer and social action broadcast specialist Peter Watkins-Hughes went to Tredegar Comprehensive School students with an idea for a short film about teenage drink driving they said: “It’s not drunk driving that’s the biggest problem; it’s texting while driving”. Peter didn’t have much of a budget, so he asked Gwent Police for help. They gave advice, use of their helicopter, their vehicles and their officers as ‘extras’. When the film was shot and edited, Peter put it on You Tube so he could send a link to BBC commissioners. Within a week, the film had had 50 views. It then rose to 200. Then Peter…