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 own materials. And teachers in class with young children may also find it easier to use images from the internet. If you do use your own personal materials though, you’ll not only avoid issues around intellectual property, but your story will also truly be your own. Written and first published by Gareth Morlais on…
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Avoid less-than-perfect voice recordings – number 3 of 7 DS no-nos
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 aim for top radio quality when you record. Written and first published by Gareth Morlais on 18 July 2008.
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Thanks for the memory
In the summer of 2007, my BBC Wales colleagues Carwyn Evans, Lisa Heledd, Robin Moore and I worked with Microsoft Research Centre via Participate in the testing of a prototype wearable camera called Sensecam. Carwyn and Lisa gave Sensecam cameras and laptops to six people from south Wales from different backgrounds and with varying experience of digital media. They worked with Dave Randall and the teams at Microsoft Research, Participate and BBC Research & Innovation on a series of suggested tasks to test what it feels like to walk around all day with a device around your neck that captures automatic pictures every minute or less – and more often…
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How to upgrade your home video so it can be broadcast on TV
Between Christmas and New Year, we stayed with my brother in law Dylan’s family. Dylan’s wife had given him a camcorder for Christmas and he’d filmed his family opening and playing with their presents on Christmas morning. He played the disk back and it was interesting to watch how people construct home videos. What Dylan had shot was a documentary-style piece showing other people – but not Dylan himself – opening their presents. We did hear Dylan’s disconnected voice from behind the lens, giving a running commentary and asking questions to his subjects. Watching this home video set me wondering about what Dylan might need to do to get what…
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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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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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Five things to plan for in a digital storytelling post production session
You’ve been invited to help a group of digital storytellers to post produce their stories at the end of their workshop or course. Here are some things to think about when you prepare your digital storytelling post production. 1. know your ‘deliverables’. Have a list of things you need to take away from the digilab and make sure you go home with them. It’s good to have this printed and hand it out or pin it to the wall. I use my Dream Deliverables list as a guide. (Gosh, that page is being linked to now, it’s Number 1 for that search term in Google today) 2. have a Plan B,…
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Good housekeeping in Digital Storytelling
File and folder housekeeping is really important when it comes to building, re-building and archiving your Digital Story movie-file and associated assets. It’s worth emphasising this. Devise a way of working whereby all the components of the Digital Story fit in named sub-folders of one master folder which has the storyteller’s full name on it. When you’re helping someone to make their Digital Story, ask them to make sure that none of their images, sounds, videos or project files are anywhere other than in their named folder or in its sub-folders. When you follow this simple guideline, it should be possible to burn that folder onto a disc and re-build…
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Online audio recording tools
If you want to post an audio blog on the move or are desperate to record a voice track for a digital story, but don't have access to voice recording facilities on the computer you're using, here are three sites which will let you record audio via your phone: http://www.gabcast.com – The free package seems to offer plenty. You can use London voicemail number 0207 1002530 (UK, London number with very smarmy voice asking for account number) and VoIP. http://www.gcast.com/ – Free. Two ways of making an audio file: uploading your own mp3 file and dialling a US phone number. There's podsafe music available for use too. http://www.hipcast.com/ – This…