Digital Storytelling

I think I have a new favorite show on the Science Channel: Science of the Movies Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. It looks like it’s going to focus mostly on high tech F/X but I think we can borrow a few ideas for our students’ videos. Last week’s premiere episode featured a couple of neat effects that we can imitate easily enough in schools.

Doggicam is the name of a camera/filming company that got it’s start because a dog food commercial needed some dog’s eye view shots of the world “with attitude.” They developed a rig to see through Fido’s eyes and created a whole new industry to give us a fresh perspective by changing how we look at the world. There’s no reason we can’t share that philosophy through creative student projects. Set the camera down low to get an ankle level view of kids coming up the stairs or trooping down the halls during passing periods. Or strap the camera to a skate board to get a worm’s eye view of the world as it moves from here to there. (Picture courtesy of the Doggicam Photo Gallery)

Split screen is also a way to multiply your talent. This depends heavily on your software so Mac users are going to need at least iMovie ‘09 or iMovie HD6 with purchased plug-ins while PC folk would have to own a next level video editing program like Adobe’s Premiere Elements. There is a free MovieMaker plug-in but it can be a challenge to integrate. The big trick here (aside from either picture-in-picture or green screen capability) is to keep the camera locked down and immobile so that the backgrounds match up perfectly when you combine shots.  I think there are two ways to do it. The first is simply picture in picture where a cropped portion of one take is laid over one side of another take (i.e. actor on the left over actor on the right). The second is with the green screen/chroma key effect. You will have to wait for me to rearrange my kitchen studio to be able to video an example, but it’s just a take-off on the Harry Potter invisibility cloak that I demonstrated before. Your base shot is done with the actor talking to himself from one side of the screen. The second shot is either in front of a full screen green screen or with the green set up where the first self was (kind of a key hole). When you lay the second shot with its key color over the first, the first actor shows through the green and appears in and seems to be interacting with the second shot. See “Simply Integrated” from the finalists’ page of the California Student Multi-Media Festival. It’s about half way down.

And speaking of the CSMMF, it looks like they had another wonderful celebration of student creativity last weekend at both ends of the state. See our man-on-the-street Hall Davidson report over at Media Matters.

P.S. and a quick tip for you MovieMaker users from my Digital Storytelling students at Wilkes University. In order to separate the audio from a video clip, just drag the clip down to the audio/music track. Voilá!

FYI, just got this from the Center for Digital Storytelling:

Dear Friends of the Center for Digital Storytelling,

As we wrote last month, the 2nd International Day for Sharing Life Stories will take place this Saturday,  May 16th, 2009.

We are asking all of the folks on our mailing list to take 10 minutes this week to visit http://www.ausculti.org and join on our newly updated website.  Log in to add your name, information about your organization’s work, links about sites related to your work, or of general interest to our communities.

We have also built the site so that each point on the map can include a media story.  You will simply need to  copy the embed code from the story (as with Youtube videos) and paste it into your post on the site.

About the International Day

Began last year as an opportunity to celebrate and promote life stories, as well as a way to encourage critical thinking, cultural democratization and social transformation. The International Day is organized by The Museum of the Person International Network (Brazil, Portugal, USA and Canada) and the Center for Digital Storytelling (USA, Canada, Denmark, Czech Republic, Ireland and Portugal)

The chosen theme for this years’ Day is Journey for Justice – Migration and Refugees. The Human Rights Commission of U.N. estimates that there are currently 21 million refugees in the world. According to the International Organization for Migration, there are 200 million international immigrants all over the world. We want to hear the stories of people who have experienced migration in order to develop dialogue about this important matter in our societies and promote social change.

The day was chosen in part to honor Studs Terkel, the American writer, radio journalist and oral historian who passed away in October of last year.  Studs would have celebrated his 97th birthday this May 16.

Besides that, we could not leave aside the importance of any other person’s life stories. So, whatever your work with life stories is, join us!

The idea of the ausculti.org website is to show these stories and to promote a space for listening and exchanging experiences.

Post your stories, listen to other stories, and celebrate this day with us!

You probably know that I always stress writing as the basis of good storytelling. And you know that you can’t tell a good story without getting your facts straight. So, with that in mind, the DEN would like to get your story. If you have participated in the Discovery Educator Network or ever attended a DEN sponsored event, could you take 5 minutes and give us your thoughts?

Here are the links to the student video sites I mentioned during Tuesday’s webinar and a SlideShare version of the PowerPoint I used.

Discovery Education and 3M’s Young Scientist Challenge: Air Pressure.

The Flat Classroom Project’s Mobile Citizen Journalist.

Brainy Flix’s ACT/SAT video vocabulary builders: Cadence.

Great Minds Foundation Anti-smoking PSA.

The Net Generation Video Challenge: An opinion from Pakistan.

TeacherTube: electro-magnetism explained in a town called Simplicity.

The International Student Media Festival (opens for entries 5/1/09):great example, No Public Displays of Affection  No PDA’s.

Lights! Camera! Publish!

View more presentations from JoeBjr.

On Tuesday, April 14th at 7 EDT (since I’m sure you’ve all got your taxes finished and those refunds in the bank) you can drop in on my last Makin’ Movies webinar of the school year, Lights, Camera, Publish! and see ways to share your videos and learn from others. We’ll take a look at the American Film Institute’s ScreenNation, TeacherTube and a few of the winners in various education video contests like the Great Minds Foundation and BrainyFlix. You can check the schedule and register here.

And two weeks later on April 28th, you can follow up with Makin’ Movies, Made Simple:
Digital Storytelling doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, you may be surprised at how easy it can be! Jennifer Gingerich breaks it down for you and shows how you and your students can achieve incredible results using tools you most likely have access to already!

Both should put you in great shape to end the school year on a high media note and share some of your classes’ work or maybe even consider having your students enter the Discovery/3M Young Scientist Challenge or the International Student Media Festival.

Thanks to a tweet from Wes Fryer, I found this blog post with video on 1st graders thoughts about writing. Since I believe you can’t make a good digital story or new media narrative without good writing skills and strategies, I thought it only appropriate to share the blog here. I’ll let the kids tell the rest of the story.

This is the “handout” for my 3/20 session here in Detroit. An abridged version of the slides can be found in the post before last (March 9th).

My hero Marco Torres (Marc O’Torres?) and his students from San Fernando H.S.

Frank Guttler’s 

Google Teacher Academy video application and his Lights, Camera, Learn blog

Learn and share at the American Film Institute’s ScreenNation. And their YouTube channel.

Jason Ohler, Art is the 4th “R” and New Media Narratives

The Great Minds Foundation, students making videos to encourage other students to make a difference.

The Chicagoland Television Educators Council

Discovery Education streaming (search on “afi”)

This is the “handout” for my Makin’ Movies: Special Effects session at MACUL in Detroit 3/19/09.

My home made F/X are at homepage.mac.com/jbtv. Look for the clips that begin with “FX.”

The”Ken Burns” effect which can be used in iMovie and PhotoStory on a PC, lets you move around a still picture. Bring the same picture in a few times to get multiple moves. My daughter met her husband in pre-school.

You can make a movie rating screen in any program that you can put a transparent table over a green background.

Black and white is a great way to show a dream sequence or a memory. You may also have access to other color filters to get more video effects.

Morphing can be as simple as adding a cross dissolve between two similar pictures. It’s also a way to bring movement to still pictures or just have some fun. This video was made with still pictures taken via the built-in camera on a Mac and Photo Booth. The key is the camera DID NOT MOVE. You can do a lot when the camera remains fixed and you just cut pieces of time out.

A fixed camera is the foundation to many F/X shots. Put it on a tripod and make sure it doesn’t budge. People only see what the camera sees AND what slices of time you choose to let them experience.
…as in this passage of time (P.O.T) shot
…or in this “Field of Dreams” shot
…or in this “beam me up, Scotty” kind of shot where the Dr. just appears between the parents
…or ghosting where a long cross dissolve can make a specter appear

Reversing a clip takes a bit of planning and is a very attention getting way to make a point.
…as in this chase sequence from the California Student Media Festival
…or this recycler’s best friend

Green screen or chroma key probably goes beyond simple except in iMovie ‘09. Make the green screen a character or prop by putting the key color in the foreground. The computer doesn’t care where the pixels that it is replacing are. There are plug-ins for iMovie HD6 (old, old post but I think all the links still work) and for MovieMaker. Mac users with Leopard should look into the effects in Photo Booth.
…as in this clip from Eastwood H.S. in El Paso
…or this one from my kitchen

Here’s a slightly updated version of the PowerPoint linked below inspired by my day with a great group of teachers from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools and some upcoming webinars.

Here are the PowerPoint and the links from today’s webinar AND I just realized there are a number of entries already posted on the NetGen site.

The American Film Institute’s ScreenNation. Student viewing and sharing site.

Marco Torres’ students at SFETT. Great work from an L.A. high school.

Frank Guttler’s Google Teacher Academy application video shot with the built-in web camera in his MacBook’s lid. And his blog, “Lights, Camera, Learn!”

From greatmindsfoundation.org:
“Talent Show” a young martial artist can’t break the board. Low angle show initially portrays him as powerful. High angle then makes him look weak.
“A Message of Well Being” young man looks like a clown to an attractive young lady because he smokes, drinks, and eats junk food. Great shot composition and next to no dialogue.

And the PowerPoint file:

makemovies4web.ppt