Digital Storytelling

I suppose this is only tangentially related to digital storytelling, but it certainly seems handy enough to pass along. Thanks to an English Apple Distinguished Educator in my PLN, I have just started to play with this new online slide creation program, 280 Slides. Since I’ve only toyed with SlideShare (which I believe does not have a creation option), I don’t have much to compare it to. But I do like the look, feel and versatile options. You can publish on the web, send to SlideShare, embed on a site, and download as a PowerPoint. Also, it looks like it’s pretty darn simple to add media from the likes of Flickr and YouTube. Their demo presentation brings the new Batman trailer right up. So, take the tour and take it for spin. I think I may try to make my “Makin’ Movies” (minus all the copyrighted goodies) presentation available with this.

Well I sure got my money’s worth at the DEN Virtual Conference this morning. After months and months of telling people there are no plug-ins for MovieMaker Cindy Lane showed me that there are (the chat window can be an invaluable thing to keep an eye on during webinars). You can buy ‘em and you can download some for free including the coveted chromakey/blue screen. AND there is a very good YouTube tutorial by a very poised student to walk you through the process.

There’s nothing like a DEN gathering for learning new things!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L78_GEx9Fhs

I guess a Leopard can change its spots if it’s Apple’s newest operating system. PC people with chroma key capability may want to stick with this post just for the example of a staff training video with green screen and Mac users should be warned that the specifics of this exercise are only done with the most recent OSX, 10.5.
Many of you have picked up on my disappointment that the newest version of iMovie left out some great previous features and did not include a chroma key effect that is built into the free online conferencing program, iChat, which is part of the Leopard ugrade. A chance exchange of emails with fellow Illinoisan (Rose Bowl, what rose bowl?) and Apple Distinguished Educator, Bruce Ahlborn, clued me in to the same feature that is also in PhotoBooth. AND it can be saved as a movie AND imported into iMovie for further tweaking and editing.

So, as an example, I’m using a screen movie of how this is done. I captured the operations of going into PhotoBooth, choosing Video Effects from the Video menu, and then arrowing over to the add your own background screen with a free program for Leopard called Berio. If I had used a commercial program like SnapzPro by Ambrosia I could have limited the screen capture to just the part of the screen I wanted to show instead of capturing everything showing on my laptop’s monitor. There is another free movie screen capture program for both Mac and PC but it saves to its own server and may take some finagling to actually get your “hands” on the movie: The Jing Project.

Unlike traditional chroma key shots, PhotoBooth (and iChat) in 10.5 “memorizes” the background. Then you step back into the scene and it replaces those memorized pixels with a still picture or movie of your choice. I wanted to give you a feel of how the program actually replaces the many different shapes and colors of any background. Unfortunatley, one wall and my skin seemed to be a close match and wood and my hair also blended. If you were to actually set up a green or blue or any solid color, well lit background it would really be a piece of cake for the program to insert your graphic behind you. Here’s a quick movie in a movie walking you through the process.

With any green screen program, this can be a fun way to make staff or student training videos. By utilizing a head to foot shot, you can literally walk and point your way through the interface of any program to help your intended audience “get the picture.”P.S. Thanks to Hall’s pointing out that my part is on the wrong side, I see that PhotoBooth reverses the “live shot” but leaves the background the right way. You can see the Discovery logo is reversed on my shirt in one of the pictures and all through the movie. You can flip photos in PhotoBooth, but not videos (which would in turn reverse your background). I’ll have to investigate this phenomenon and get back to you.

I’m really embarrassed I almost missed Jennifer Gingerich’s Makin’ Movies Made Simple webinar last night and doubly embarrassed that I hadn’t picked up on it in time to plug it here. So let me try to make amends with this post.
Jennifer shared some great project ideas with practical tips for keeping it simple, keeping everyone together, and making the most of your “techsperts.” She showed some very creative projects from poetry to riddles and shares the how-to’s on this page of her site.
A few things that were discussed and sites to go with them…

Software:
iMovie on the Mac (free)
PhotoStory and MovieMaker for PC’s (free). You’ll have to search and download PhotoStory from the Microsoft site - XP and above.
PowerPoint, KidSpiration, HyperStudio (coming soon!), etc. are also good for visual storytelling.
Adobe Premiere Elements (very affordable), ULead, Pinnacle Studio, Final Cut Pro or Express, etc. are big steps up in price and power.
M-Audio has bundled a PC software program called Session with some of their music peripherals. It seems a lot like Garage Band: with keyboard or as a separate package

Cameras:
You can do a lot with digital still pictures and the movies that they make.
FlipCam doesn’t use tape and is very affordable (~$100).

Resources:
Use “kits” to save time and keeps students focused.
http://www.kitzu.com
http://schoolhousevideo.org
Library of Congress
National Archives
http://pics4learning.com (for teachers by teachers)
David Jakes has tutorials and solid color slides at http://jakesonline.org
Find picture sets on Flickr and Picasa. Look/search for Creative Commons licensed pix that you can use freely.
“Free” music isn’t free outside the classroom (even at board meetings!):
http://www.freeplaymusic.com
http://www.findsounds.com

Internet citations:
Come with Discovery streaming stills.
http://pics4learning.com
David Warlick’s http://citationmachine.net
http://bibme.com

Thoughts:
Use external and headset mics for the best sound when narrating. Usually in the $15-20 range. Mac users can’t just plug into the line in jack. Mics on a Mac need to go through USB to have enough power.

Keep it simple and focused - limit special effects and transitions

Preparation, research, writing, storyboards are key. The technology is secondary and can’t rescue a poor foundation.

Here is the DEN’s webinar schedule for the whole rest of the school year.

PC people need read no further, unless you want to engage in a little “now you know how we feel.” Like MovieMaker, the newest iteration of iMovie doesn’t support third party plug-ins. I’ve hesitated to blog about the new iMovie because I haven’t got my hands on a copy of version 7 yet except for a few minutes in the Apple store. However, there has been enough of a flap that the iMovie ‘08 installer leaves the older version intact and Apple allows a free download of iMovie ‘06 for those who may have already trashed it.

This newest version is pretty and has some very cool features, but a lot of the power and control that we have come to enjoy in education have been eliminated. One of the companies that makes great plug-ins is GeeThree and they have posted an interesting chart on the functionality range of the iMovie versions in comparison with Final Cut Pro.

Let me pass on my standard warning here. Transitions and special video effects can be as much distraction as they can be used to advance a story. BUT they (especially the green screen/chromakey effect) can add a lot and expand students’ creative voice, too. Let the author beware!
Third party plug-ins can add an absolutely enormous range of effects to iMovie, too many to go into in any great depth here. But I will give you a little taste of my three favorite makers and encourage you to visit their sites (and download their FREE samples).

cf/x has the most unique sales plan: it’s a la carte. His plug-ins sell for $1.50 to $5.00. I tried the first version of the chromakey and it was a little rough, but that was two generations ago. You can download and try any of the plug-ins before buying. There are a few free ones sprinkled through his list. Here’s a handy one for rotating still and video images.

GeeThree may have the slickest packages. (Sorry I couldn’t resist that. They actually call their collection “Slick.”) Chromakey is in Volume 4, the Hollywood Edition. And their free collection is a must. The aged B&W film effect could add a lot to some stories.

Stupendous Software offers 68 free plug-ins, but it does it by tucking a few free effects into every one of its 16 packages. Be careful with that because your students will rarely pay attention to which ones will end up with a watermark or won’t render. That said, the Masks and Compositing package has a free blue screen plug-in in it.

So, iMovie users, let’s hope that Apple sees the light and opens iMovie ‘08 back up for plug-ins and restores those other powerful features. Or are we waiting for Leopard to see what this version can really do?

      With the Frames program that is ($44.95). A friend who works for Tech4Learning gave me a copy of the latest version at a conference last month and playing around with it reminds me what a powerful storytelling tool stop action animation can be. It was one of the original special effects in Hollywood after all! I’ve seen a number of entries in media festivals that use their Clay Animation kit figures or Legos or photos or drawings to tell a story. And, yes, you can string those images together in a variety of programs from PowerPoint to Final Cut or Adobe Premiere. Frames, however, puts it all at your fingertips including recording and green screen capability for still images, an "onion skin" feature that lets you line up a picture with the last one, and exporting to a variety of formats from web or podcast ready to importing into your video editing program.
     Though not made with Frames, here are a couple of PSA’s (public service announcements) from the San Fernando Education Technology Team that use stop action: “Buckle Up!” and “Parents” (which really just speeds video up for a time lapse effect). Aside from creating a virtual set with stop action animated actors, time lapse style movies can reveal changes that students have a tough time visualizing. Growing plants from seed in class or measuring evaporation in a glass container? Take a picture every day from the exact same place, put them together in a video editing program and add a cross dissolve-like transition between each shot. Thirty, one second pictures could show a month in just half a minute.
     For years I’ve kidded the Tech4Learning people that they give away as much as they sell and I’m not talking about their software. They are a tremendous resource for copyright friendly pictures with Pics4Learning; free software tutorials from their own products to hints on

Microsoft and Apple programs, as well as unitedstreaming (Snacks are free, Recipes4Success is a subscription service); and some tools like a rubric maker and a graphic organizer maker.

      This was just going to be a simple review of a very powerful program for adding the “Ken Burns” effect or panning and zooming around a picture. PhotoToMovie ($49.95 for both PC’s and Mac) is such a powerful program for doing that, that people have been able to make commercials and DVD’s with it. And since the sight of our brand new granddaughter in the arms of her three great-grandmothers has made me unusually sentimental and intro- and retrospective these days, I thought I could just fly around an old copy of a photo of me in my great-grandmother’s arms to create that same feeling for others. You can see from the picture (click to enlarge) how easy it is to identify an area, set the timing, define the path, and move/zoom to the next point of interest. Easy enough to do for a quick blog post: here’s me in my christening gown, up to dad, over and around to grandma Brennan, and back to the lady who’s holding me, “Congratulations, Mrs. O’Brien, I just made you a great-grandmother for the last few years of your life!” One picture, one program, one post…what should I blog about next? But that approach does neither PhotoToMovie nor any of my great-grandparents justice.
     Now might be a good time to watch the version of the short video I did make with PhotoToMovie before I pick the program and the storytelling process apart.
     “Opportunity”  Download DEN4genOpp.mov

     All I had to do was run my original version once to realize that the story in that picture wasn’t about my birth making a four generation photo op, but rather about the opportunities that all eight of my great-grandparents created for generations to come with their brave exodus to “Americay.” So, here is a little on what I refer to as the “classic” digital storytelling process (as opposed to my usual “Makin’ Movies” slant).
     -The writing comes first, then find some pictures to emphasize the words. In this case, the words were inspired by the picture or what lead up to that moment and has come to be since. In general, to get a good three minute video, write three pages, boil it down to five hundred words or half a page, then pace it with some good images and appropriate (soft) music. One long sentence did it for this video and if I waited to find just the right music (copyright clear, of course), my brand new granddaughter would probably be walking and talking, so no music this time. The video is also just a bit long, but I did kind of want to wallow in PhotoToMovie’s ability to move around a picture. Good digital stories should be tight and spend just enough time on images and words to make a point and then briskly move on. My timing here leans toward the melodramatic.
     -Black with no picture accentuates the words and heightens anticipation for the image to come or gives you time to ponder the image you just saw. I used it at the beginning and the end to do both and give some symmetry.
     I slipped in a picture of dad’s other grandmother at a younger age to put a “face” on the part about their immigration and balance my older picture on the other side of the four generations photo. I hope the black and white photos dissolving into color speak for themselves as the past, present and the future.
     You can see from the screenshot that there is a very familiar timeline to work with and the ability to add sound and some transitions. Consider a copy or two of PhotoToMovie for your media centers to let students really get into making still pictures a moving experience. The exported clip can easily be incorporated into any of your video editing programs to get the best of both worlds. I imported this PhotoToMovie project into iMovie so that I could time the words to the pictures better.

     We’ve been having a little discussion over in the discussion boards about students creating their own magazine covers as a way to express their personalities and tell their story. Along those lines, how about making a comic book or graphic novel? But this program is just for Macintosh users (some free and PC ideas at the end, though)- ComicLife from plasq comes bundled with the Intel Macs or is $24.95 ($29.95 for the deluxe version which adds lots of fonts and templates). They advertise that there is no learning curve and I have to agree (especially for students!) Everything is pretty up front on the creation page: page templates, fonts, speech balloons, importing pictures…. Export options are also straight forward. I like that you can save your book as a QuickTime movie that moves from page to page as you hit “play.”
     You can approximate this on your own by making your comic frames in any number of programs. PowerPoint and Kid Pix let you save your slides out as pictures. They can then be imported into a Word document for instance (make sure you set “float over text”) and arranged comic book style. The Draw document in AppleWorks also lets you create separate boxes to fill with text and pictures. Opaque ovals can then be added as speech balloons. A bit more work than ComicLife, but free for those with programs that allow the flexibility of placing text and pictures.
     And now back to those magazine covers. In your program of choice, import an image that’s big enough to fill the page. Now make a title or some headlines in a contrasting color (good use of WordArt) to place on that image. Add smaller pictures and more text boxes as teasers for the stories within. We did something similar to this in the library of my former school to celebrate National Library Week. There have been magazine covers, wanted posters, “Read” posters, trading cards… Let your imagination run wild!

     Here’s another program that’s right under your nose (if you are a PC with XP user). To get it, all you’ll have to do is visit Microsoft’s site to download your free copy (remember, XP required!). Yes, there are a number of things that it doesn’t do, chiefly not video. But it is PhotoStory after all! What it does do is to let you simply and pretty elegantly bring still pictures to life, add your and/or someone else’s voice and generate your own music track. Not bad for free! We’ve used it a couple of times in my former school district for senior citizen workshops. It really let those folks concentrate on their stories and not have to give a thought to the technology. Check out Niles Twp. High Schools’ digitalstories.org for their work. They are all worth a look, but I have to point out “We Can’t Toot His Horn” as a fine example of the “classic” digital storytelling style and “Special Day on the other Side of the World” as well, especially for its historical timing. Was this little girl the first American born in Saigon before our involvement in rebuilding turned into a war? And while you’re there, take a look at the "Presentation" link on the main page. You’ll find the workshop handouts, a tutorial, storyboard templates, and a PowerPoint about connecting senior citizens to our schools.
     Writing is the hard part. Once you’ve got a good, tight story, it’s just a matter of lining up your pictures, setting any panning or zooming in and out, recording the voice(s), and asking the program to create some background music. You can also add text and titles to each or import PowerPoint slides or graphics slides from other programs. My buddy David Jakes has also put together a nice tutorial on the program along with many, many other great resources and even has some colored backgrounds you can download and import for your titles. You’ll have to scroll down to just about the bottom of the page for the tutorial in PDF.
     Just a bit of a catch on sharing PhotoStories, though. None of the export options seem to play on a Mac. And since I’m still getting the hang of running PC applications on my Mac laptop, I have a few questions for you veteran PC storytellers. Is there a way to bring your zooming/panning pictures into MovieMaker? And can you also import the music sound tracks that you create in PhotoStory?

       Since the winter gift giving frenzy is upon us and we all know educators use vacations to catch up on things, I thought I’d give the next few weeks over to advice about how to spend both money and time this holiday season. In the tradition of Kathy Schrock (see the archive of her webinar on the Discovery EdTechConnect page), I have a couple of shelves and hard drives full of goodies I’ve used to help turn out a story in one fashion or another.
     I’ve already tooted Audacity’s horn (and remember, it’s free!) a couple of weeks ago. Today I’m recommending a utility that is right under your nose and will cost you little, but every media center should have at least one copy of QuickTime Pro. The easiest way to see what it does is to see what it doesn’t. If you don’t already have a copy of QT Pro, just open up a QT movie and start looking through the menus at the top of the window. All those grayed out features with “Pro” in front of them are yours for just $29.99. And there’s no thing to buy. Once Apple has received your payment you get a key code that unlocks the features on the QT that is already in your computer. You can show movies full screen, record video and sound, edit, and save and export in a variety of formats. Lately, my most common use for it has been to take the edited QT movie files that I share through this blog and export them as hinted streaming movies. That way viewers don’t have to wait for the whole movie to download before it starts playing (and when, not if, I forget to do that, please remind me). In addition to everything else it can do, it’s a great piece of software to get sound and video web ready.

[photo - Jupiterimages Corporation. "Man in Santa hat, holding gifts, portrait from above." unitedstreaming: http://www.unitedstreaming.com]