The first of BBC Scotland’s Highland Lives videos and audio slideshows are now live at http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/highlandlives/. I watched two videos – To Catch a Lobster and Love to Grow. They were mainly video with some still images. They had some really rare moments and certainly revealed something special about the authors and their lives. Having the camera still – on a tripod – when the author was in shot yet often moving when they were out of shot reciforced the image of the author holding the camera and ‘calling the shots’. Having some still images in the video worked well too. The storyteller edits their own video in the workshop.…
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18 things a digital storyteller needs
I’ve just updated my shopping list here: brand new Aberth Digital Storytelling Resources It’s actually the first page of a brand new sister website to this blog. Aberth Digital Storytelling Resources is a response to what a number of people have asked for: a site that brings together in one place all kinds of equipment and software that digital storytellers will find useful. I’ve chosen to focus on items on sale on eBay because it’s a great way of presenting current resources (like flashcard portable audio recorders)Â alongside discontinued software (like the digital storyteller’s old favourite Adbe Premiere 6.5 which can be installed on both Macs and PCs). I hope you…
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Freelancing opportunities
I bumped into Sue Williams of Hyperaction at an Adobe event in Cardiff last week. It was nice to catch up with her and hear about some very exciting plans Hyperaction are making. They’ve just put out a call for freelancers in the south Wales area which I’m pasting here in the hope it’ll be of interest to Aberth DS blog readers. ——————– HyperAction has been running award-winning multimedia projects with schools and the community since 1997. (http://www.hyperaction.org.uk) Due to a number of exciting new projects in development, we are seeking to expand our pool of freelance workers who can work with us on multimedia projects in a number of…
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New changes to Aberth Digital Storytelling
I’ve changed this site so you can now add your comments to any post. You do this either at the bottom of the post’s own page or by clicking on the word ‘comments’ or ‘no comments’ at the end of the item on the homepage. I’m hoping the anti-spam device works and I’ll keep an eye on it over the coming weeks. Happy commenting! The design’s been re-vamped. I lost some categorisation in the migration and I’ll try to fix this in future.
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60000 storytellers
Wow, I've just been reading about the Singapore International Storytelling Festival that's going on this week. 60,000 storytellers are expected to attend. I'm struggling to imagine that many people all coming together for a storytelling festival. Fantastic! Digital storytelling is on the programme this year and Denise Atchley is taking part. I'll never forget Denise's speech at our 2003 Digital Storytelling Conference here at BBC Wales in Cardiff. From the platform, she presented an unfinished digital story made by her late husband Dana in which she filled in the gaps live. It was incredibly moving. The ingternational digital storytelling community of course owes a huge debt to Dana and Denise.…
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Digital story shopping list
We looked at workshop space in the last post, today it’s the kit. You want to bid for funding to set up a digital storytelling project, but you’re not sure what you’re going to need? Here’s a list to build from of examples of equipment needed to run digital storytelling and participatory media workshops. The kit specified below is all portable so, as long as extra trained personnel are available, workshops can be held in external community spaces as well as in the Workshop base. Here’s the shopping list: laptops with software to capture/edit/show video, image and audio with mains leads and spare batteries. I think Apple computers have been…
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Dream digital storytelling digilab
If you’re planning to set up your own digital storytelling or participatory media project, you’ll need somewhere to hold your workshops. You can base yourself at one venue or roam around using existing community facilities as venues. Here’s a solution which has the capacity to combine the two scenarios. If you’re making a bid for funding, good luck. The overall vision is a space where members of the public can go to get help to make their own video and audio which the can be broadcast and published on the mass media. Here are the required features: accessible by public transport. parking nearby for loading equipment. ground-floor room of 440 square…
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Summer catchup part II
Following on from yesterday’s roundup, here’s the final batch of links, for now… 400+ Tools for Photographers, Videobloggers, Podcasters and Musicians. 50 storytelling tools on the web. Page of links to DS resources. Online video editing tool. Digital Stories Swansea stories, and some more from Swansea on YouTube. Cyfle Animation Scheme students’ animated digital stories.
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Summer catchup part I
Here’s a post-summer catchup of stories about digital storytelling around the web… Voicethread is a new online way of connecting people’s stories about stories. Call for papers Quebec – Building Community-University Alliances through Oral History, Digital Storytelling and Collaboration. Guide for documentary students on Bib 2.0 Creating a movie with Web 2.0 links to online story-making tools. Part II to follow…
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Three essential online tutorials
I had an email this morning from a student at Albany, NY, USA, who’s making a digital story for a college assignment. He was writing to ask about online tutorials. Here are three that came to mind: 1. www.photobus.co.uk > DS > DS Tutorial. Daniel Meadows goes into the software and the key steps to building your digital story. There’s also a fantastic pdf guide to making a story using iLife on this site. 2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/highlandlives/ – BBC Scotland’s model is a little bit Video Nation and a little bit Digital Storytelling. The tutorials take you through the steps involved. 3. http://uk.current.com/make/training – Current TV was a pioneer in giving…