Walled Lake Consolidated Schools

Digital StorytellingCreated by P. Shoemaker for WLCS

Element # 1: Media

• Digital storytelling uses many types of media: – Scanned drawings/pictures – Digital video clips– Text– Digital or scanned photos– Voice narration– Music– Titles– Transitions

• The author chooses what media to use and how the media will be arranged.

The Writing Process

• We expect that you will make many revisions to your writing throughout the creation of the digital storytelling process!

• The technology is secondary to the writing.

The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling

1. Point of View

2. A Dramatic Question

3. Emotional Content

4. The Gift of Your Voice

5. The Power of Soundtrack

6. Economy

7. Pacing

Element 1: Point of View

• All stories are told to make a point.

• You, as the author, need to figure out what you intend the viewer to “get.” What message are you trying to convey? In other words, what is the theme?

Element 2: A Dramatic Question

• A good story has a “hook” that will hold the attention of the audience until the story is over.

Element 3: Emotional Content

• A story that deals with our emotions, - such as loss, love, loneliness, courage, acceptance, rejection, hardship, etc. - will help the audience maintain their attention.

Element 4: The Gift of Your Voice

• The way you use your voice can impact the story you tell. – Tone of Voice: Slow, Fast, Loud, Soft

The tone of the storyteller’s voice provides the drama and sets the mood, while engaging the reader. It draws the reader into the plot development through the use of story elements.

• Caution: You don’t want your final project to sound like you are reading your paper. Practice!

Element 5: The Power of Soundtrack

• Music sets the mood.• The goal is to match the music to the story.• Instrumental music, without words, works the

best to create an appropriate mood.• The focus should be the narration and the

music should support and enhance the storytelling.

• Use only copyright-free music! (Soundzabound)

Element 6: Economy

• Use the least amount of images required to tell the story.

• Your selection of pictures and drawings should illustrate the theme without becoming a distraction.

• Too many images tend to confuse the audience.

Element 7: Pacing

• Changing the pace of the story can be very effective. The narrative can have pauses, the music can change tempo, and the images can be set to enter at different rates of speed.

• Changing pace allows the audience to concentrate, think, and maintain interest.

Five Writing Components - all to be saved and turned in.

• Brainstorm at least two topics

• Pre-writing graphic organizer

• One-page draft of story

• Storyboard

• Final draft of story

Technology Components of the Project

• Downloading digital camera photos• Scanning still photos and drawings• Importing digitized media into Movie Maker 2• Creating digitized voice-overs (narration)• Editing/timing photos to correspond with narration• Rendering the video (converting to a file format so

that it can open and play in Media Player)• Importing the rendered video into Movie Maker 2• Capturing and importing musical soundtracks• Final Rendering

Personal Story

• Brainstorm ideas. Think about events or a person that has impacted your life. What lessons have you learned by going through this experience?

• Write down at least two ideas. Each idea can be a short one or two sentence description.

• You will choose one of these ideas to write your digital storytelling project about.

Select One Idea

• Share your ideas with your parents, your friends, and your classmates. Determine the best idea for your digital story.

• Think about what media you have available to include in your project – photographs: such as objects, people,

nature scenes, etc. (you may have them already or you may need to take a snapshot)

– drawings that you create

Questions to Think About

• How did this event or person have a direct impact on your life?

• What emotions did you experience?

• What lesson/s have you learned from this experience?

You will complete a graphic organizer in Word to help organize your ideas and thoughts.

The First Draft

• You will create a one page script in Word of your organized ideas in the form of a story. (Arial font, 11 pt, double-spaced, with one inch margins).

• You will first introduce your topic and the “hook” to draw in your audience.

• Next, you will present your ideas and thoughts on your topic.

• The conclusion should include the lesson or lessons learned from your experience.

Co-Editor Proofreading• Schedule a 20 minute conference time with a parent/guardian

(co-editor) to review the script. The objective is to just proofread. Co-editors should NOT change student ideas. – Materials needed: three copies of script and highlighter.– One copy to your teacher, two copies for proofreading at home– Your co-editor reads the story aloud, exactly as the story is

written.– As the story is read by the co-editor, the author highlights the draft

with any dropped words, misspellings, unclear thoughts. – Your co-editor will then go back with the author to edit for

grammar and punctuation errors.– The author will then “honor thy Websters” and look up misspelled

words for correct spellings and meanings.– The co-author will do a second reading of the corrected script.

Repeat editing process as necessary.

Development of Script

• Turn your script in to your teacher.

• Feedback will be provided.

• Once your script is approved by the teacher, you can begin collecting media.

Selection of Media

• Collect and/or create images to include in your digital story. You will have more than you will use.

• Select/sort the images, choosing those that enhance and do not detract from the script. More is not better.

Putting Script and Images Together

Creating a Storyboard• A MS Word storyboard will be used to put the

selected images with the script.• Make sure that your script has a clear

beginning, middle, and end as you organize your images with your script.

• You may find that the script will need to be revised to fit with the images that you have chosen.

• Turn in your completed storyboard to your teacher for approval.

Production

• You’ll digitize all selected images. All drawings and photos will be scanned.

Putting it all together with Movie Maker 2

• Import digitized media

• Add voice-overs/narration

• Editing timings of photos

• Add title

• Add transitions and special effects

• Add credits

• Add soundtrack (Soundzabound)

Digital Storytelling Website

All files needed for the project, along with student examples, are posted at http://walledlake.k12.mi.us/aal/digstorytelling