Digital Story Telling 101 A Step by Step Guide to Creating...

Digital Story Telling 101 A Step by Step Guide to Creating a Digital Story

© Matt Sherwood, 2008 Permission granted to duplicate and distribute for educational purposes. Credit must be given.

Digital Story Telling 101 © Matt Sherwood, 2008

Table of Contents

Below is the list of available materials.

Step Pages Materials

Step 1: 2-9 o Digital Story Telling 101 PowerPoint

o Digital Story: “Rose Colored Tales from a Minnesota Childhood”

o Planning and Writing tutorial

o “Webbing Your Story” worksheet

Webbing sample

o “Outlining Your Story” worksheet

Outlining sample

o “Writing Your Story” worksheet

Story sample

o “Extra Outlining or Story” worksheet

Step 2: 10-14 o Storyboard Tutorial

o “Storyboard” worksheet

o “Extra Storyboard” worksheet

Storyboard sample

Step 3: 15 o Managing Program and Project Files tutorial

Step 4: 16 o Managing Photos tutorial

Step 5: 17 o Editing Images tutorial

Step 6: 18 o Type Titles and Text tutorial

Step 7: 19 o Customize Motion tutorial

Step 8: 20 o Record Audio Narration tutorial

Step 9: 21 o Insert Background Music tutorial

Step 10: 22 o Save and Present tutorial


Digital Story Telling Tutorials

Using Photo Story 3

Step 1 Create a Personal Narrative and Script

Web Your Story o To begin a digital story, you must first plan. A good way to plan is to

brainstorm all the remembrances of a particular event. A story web has been provided to make this easier. This can be used on the computer or on paper. Either way is fine.

o See “Webbing Your Story” and example below.

Outline Your Story A great way to start turning your story web into a story is to outline it.

o Place numbers or Roman numerals next to the main events in your story web (I, II, II, etc.)

o Place letters next to the smaller details that go with each major event (a, b, c)

o Create an outline from these numbers on the outline worksheet provided. o The worksheet can be done on paper or on the computer. o See “Outlining Your Story” and example below.

Write Your Story Finally, convert your outline into a story. Remember that this story will be oral and should sound good when it is read. It should be a working draft, that can be modified and revised as needed.

o The story can be written on paper or on computer. o Writing the story on the computer will make editing, revising, and

storyboarding easier to do. o See “Writing Your Story” worksheet and example below.


Name Date Webbing Your Story Directions: Fill in the Story web in one of the suggested ways. It can be done on a computer or on paper. The more details the better.

* Suggested ways to web your story 1.) Web setting, plot, characters, solution 2.) Web several different events 3.) Web the sequence of an event 4.) Web all memories from a period in your life. 5.) Add bubbles as needed.

__________

__________ __________

__________

__________

__________


(Sample) Name Matt Sherwood Date 1/1/2008 Webbing Your Story Directions: Fill in the Story web in one of the suggested ways. It can be done on a computer or on paper. The more details the better.

* Suggested ways to web your story 6.) Web setting, plot, characters, solution 7.) Web several different events 8.) Web the sequence of an event 9.) Add bubbles as needed.

Tougher life o Walking to

school o Play in sun,

snow, rain o No video

games

Neighborhood o Kick the can o Tag o Fun o Fights o Snow hill o Sledding

Events o Window o Exploring o Tree house o Hood o Snowball

punishment

Playing with friends o Danny o Chris o Adam o Windows o Hood o Woods o outside

Sunnyside Elem o The Narc o Snowball o Learned

lesson o Walking to

school in snow

_Title_ Rose Colored Tales from a Minnesota

Childhood


Name Date Outlining Your Story Directions: Fill in the Outline in one of the suggested ways. It can be done on a computer or on paper. Use the details from the story web in one of the suggested ways.

1.) Put the main bubble ideas as the main points and the details as small points.

2.) Rearrange your points to tell you story in the order it happened and add details under each main event.

3.) Outline the setting, plot, characters, and solution.


(Sample)

Name Date Outlining Your Story Directions: Fill in the Outline in one of the suggested ways. It can be done on a computer or on paper. Use the details from the story web in one of the suggested ways.

4.) Put the main bubble ideas as the main points and the details as small points.

5.) Rearrange your points to tell you story in the order it happened and add details under each main event.

6.) Outline the setting, plot, characters, and solution.

I. Introduction: Walking to school

a. Snow

b. Uphill both bays

c. Exaggerating

II. Life was not as easy

a. Not driven to school

b. Walked in rain, snow, etc..

c. School

i. Narc story

d. Entertainment

i. No video games etc…

ii. Played neighborhood games

1. kick the can etc…

2. argued with kids about games (fight)

III. Life was slower on weekend

a. Cartoons

b. Didn’t spend day away from home

c. Played with friends

d. roamed free and explored

i. the woods

ii. the hood story

iii. the hood’s tree house


Name Date Writing Your Story Directions: Use your outline to write a rough draft of your personal story. Write it on paper or on the computer. Remember that your story will be “heard” by others, instead of read.

Don’t worry too much about grammar and spelling right now.

Focus on telling your story so that it is interesting, fun, or inspiring.

Get your “listeners” attention right away.


(Sample)

Name Matt Sherwood Date 1/1/2008 Writing Your Story Directions: Use your outline to write a rough draft of your personal story. Write it on paper or on the computer. Remember that your story will be “heard” by others, instead of read.

Don’t worry too much about grammar and spelling right now.

Focus on telling your story so that it is interesting, fun, or inspiring.

Get your “listeners” attention right away.

Rose Colored Tales from a Minnesota Childhood When I was a boy growing up in Red Wing, Minnesota, life was hard, and we were tough! My brother and I had to walk four miles to school in thick snow, and it was up hill…both ways! Perhaps I’m exaggerating a little, but life was not as cushy as it is today. None of us really looked at the world and demanded that everybody coddle us. We kids didn’t really expect the same things as kids do today. For starters, nobody’s mama drove them to school, not even when it was raining or snowing. We just bundled up, put on our boots and a warm jacket, and dealt with it. That walking to school routine gave my brother and I time to wind up and down before and after school. I’m sure we complained about it plenty, but my parents were pretty tough too. They didn’t want to have a couple of little sissy boys on their hands. School was tougher too. I couldn’t get away with anything at recess because of THE NARC. That is what we called the yard duty lady. One time, when I was in second grade, I ignored the Narc’s directions to stay away form the snow hill. That was a very bad idea, because she didn’t have a special nickname for no reason. She made me grab the largest snow “boulder” that I could find on the snow hill and carry it over to the school building. She then sat me down and put the snow “boulder” on my lap. Looking back as a teacher, I actually kind of admire The Narc, because she really knew how to make a point. I stayed away from the snow hill after that. Entertainment was even tougher too. There were no video game systems, 24/7 kids TV stations, or nightly activities planned by parents. Instead we had to rally the neighborhood kids for a good game of kick the can, hide and seek, or tag. That took time, but it was worth it. Of course every evening ended in at least one neighborhood fight or spat, but remember, we were tough and we liked it that way. And after Saturday morning cartoons were over, nobody was making plans for us.

That’s right, there were no soccer games, football practice, baseball …. ……………..


Extra Outline or Story Worksheet



Using Photo Story 3

Step 2 Storyboard the Personal Narrative

Once the writing is done, it is time imagine what the story is going to look like visually. To do this the following process should be done:

o Divide up story into “scenes” using numbers, brackets, or paragraphs. o On a computer, copy and paste each scene onto the storyboard worksheet. o OR On paper, write each scene onto the storyboard worksheet, or

correlate each scene with numbers from the first step. o Make a quick sketch of the picture you would imagine for that scene o If the image is going to be collected from a website, write in several search

words that will help locate you locate the image. o It might even be possible to copy and paste images directly into the

storyboard. o Keep in mind that small “thumbnail” images will not be a good enough

quality to work in the digital story. However, they will work for planning purposes.

o See “Storyboard” worksheet and example below.


Name Date Storyboard Directions: Use your rough draft of your personal story. Divide it up into “scenes” by deciding which sentences to group together in the script box below. Then sketch or copy a picture into the storyboard. You can use this on the computer or on paper.

* Suggested uses: o On Paper: Number your sentences in your

story and write the numbers in script box. Sketch the desired picture in the sketch box

o On a computer: Copy and paste the desired sentences into the script box. Copy and paste desired pictures into photo box. (or print and sketch)

o Write out search words that might help locate photos for the digital story.

Scene Sketch Search


Storyboard Worksheet: by Scene Sketch Search


(Sample) Storyboard Worksheet: Rose Colored Tales from a Minnesota Childhood by Matt Sherwood Scene Sketch Search

When I was a boy growing up in Red Wing, Minnesota, life was full of adventure and mystery. I had a gang of friends and we had free reign over the neighborhood, forest, and streets. Life tended to be hard much of the time, but it made us tough!

snow hill

snowy street

For starters, my brother and I had to walk two miles to school in thick snow, and it was up hill…both ways

Perhaps I’m exaggerating a little, but life was not as cushy as it is today. None of us looked at the world and demanded that everybody coddle us. We kids didn’t expect the same things as kids do today.

muddy boys snow play

For starters, nobody’s mama drove them to school in the family station wagon, not even when it was raining or snowing.

warm

snow play

snow

station wagon

We just bundled up, put on our boots and a warm jacket, and dealt with it. They didn’t want to have a couple of little sissy boys on their hands.

School was tougher too. I couldn’t get away with anything during recess at Sunnyside School. That was because of the NARC! That was our nickname for the infamous yard duty lady.

yard duty

narc

mean lady



Using Photo Story 3

Step 3 Managing Files

o Open Photo Story 3.

o Select “Begin a new story” or “Edit a project” if your project is already saved.

o Click Next.

In order to save the project, you must import at least one picture. This will be done in the next step.

Once the storyboard is complete, the Photo Story 3 project can be started. Just follow the steps on each tutorial to create a digital story.



Using Photo Story 3

Step 4 Manage Photos

Once your personal images and website images have been gathered, you can import them into your project and begin arranging them as you would like. Once imported, simply drag the pictures left and right. Some non-copyrighted image sources are:

o http://www.flickr.com or www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm o http://picasaweb.google.com o http://www.photobucket.com

These small arrows will scroll through the pictures throughout the process.

When you finish arranging and editing photos, click “Next” to proceed. Do this each time you finish a step. Click “Back” to revise a section.

Simply “drag and drop” photos to the left or right.

Once you click “Import”, a window opens that allows you to browse your computer’s files to find your pictures. To select all pictures,

o Click on the first picture o Hold down the shift key o Click on the last image o Click “OK” button

Notice the slider to reduce or increase the thumbnail size of pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/

http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm

http://picasaweb.google.com/

http://www.photobucket.com/



Using Photo Story 3

Step 5 Edit Images

The effects to choose from are: Black and White, Chalk and Charcoal, Colored Pencil, Diffuse Glow, Negative, Outline-Black, Outline-Grey, Sepia, Washout, and Water Color.

These buttons allow the user to quickly rotate, eliminate redeye, and make color adjustments.

If any pictures are not a standard shape, the “Remove black borders” link appears. Those pictures are then located and cropped.

When the “Edit” button is pushed, the user has the choice to “Rotate and crop”, “Autofix” or “Add effects” to images.

This phase of Photo Story 3 allows the user to fix and customize the appearance of images. It also allows the user to arrange the images in the desired order and give the images a uniform size by removing black borders.



Using Photo Story 3

Step 6 Type Titles and Text

To add titles, simply type them into the small text box to the right of the photo viewer.

These tools adjust the alignment of the text. The “AA” button allows the font, color, and size to be customized.

The picture effects can be modified here. Often the effect chosen can affect the visibility of the text.



Using Photo Story 3

Step 7 Customize Motion

Next, click on the “Transitions” tab and select the desired transitions between pictures. Again, the duration of the transition can be chosen. Then scroll to the next picture with the small arrow to make further changes.

To customize motion, first enter the “Narrate your pictures and customize motion” section. Choose the “Customize Motion” button under the preview window. To preview changes, click on the “Preview” button. This button will appear on the remainder of the steps.

On the “Motion and Duration” tab, choose a beginning and end point for the picture. Select a new time duration if you want to. Then scroll to the next picture with the small arrow and make changes.



Using Photo Story 3

Step 8 Record Audio Narration

To record your audio narration: o Set up your microphone or headset o Run the sound setup wizard o Select the picture to narrate audio on o Click the red dot button to record o Click the square dot button to stop o Click the “Preview” button to listen and view your audio narration o Click the curved arrow to undo your audio and record again. o When satisfied, click the small arrow to record on the next image.

o Sound setup wizard o Undo recording o Stop o Record o Listen to recording o Advance to next image



Using Photo Story 3

Step 9 Insert Background Music

Background music can be added in the following ways: 1. Select Music that you have already downloaded.

a. Click the “Select Music” button. b. Click “Open” when you locate your music file (mp3 or wma file).

2. OR Create original music using Photo Story 3. a. Click “Create Music”. b. Customize the style and characteristics of your background music.

3. Music will begin on the picture you have selected.

Make sure to adjust the volume level after your background music is added. It should be about 1/8 to ¼ loud.

Don’t forget to preview. The volume often needs to be adjusted.

While creating music, press the play button to hear your choices.



Using Photo Story 3

Step 10 Present Digital Story

To save the digital story:

1. Choose “Save your story for playback on a computer”

2. Browse to where the project should be saved.

3. Click “Settings” and adjust.

4. Choose profile 2, 3, or 4. The playback resolution should be at least 640 x 480. 5. Click “Ok”. 6. To finalize your project as a movie file, click “Next” on the “Save your story” phase.

After saving your file as a movie it is available to watch. Either watch it on the computer monitor, or hook up an LCD and speakers to present it to an audience.

Tip: To enable the VGA port for an LCD projector, press [fn] f4 buttons, or right click on desktop for properties. Go to settings and enable.

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