How to make a Digital Story in iMovie
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Making a Storyboard
- Write a script
- Gather Image Using Creative Commons Music and Images
- Uploading your completed Storyboard onto your ePortfolio
- Option 1: Uploading using the Gallery Module
- Option 2: Uploading using Powerpoint
Chapter 2: Choosing an Application
- Using iMovie on Apple
Chapter 3: Adding Audio to the Digital Story
a. Using Audacity or GarageBand
b. Adding Audio to the Digital Story on iMovie
Chapter 4: Transition
a. Adding Transition on iMovie
Chapter 5: Review and Publish your Digital Story
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Chapter 1: Making a Story Board
It is important to create a storyboard before you start to create your digital story and/or podcast. A storyboard outlines the sequence of shots or images to be used in the video.
The first step to creating a storyboard is to organize your ideas and create a script. In a script, one writes out the story that will be recorded for the video. With the images, video clips, and media you had prepared to put into the story, together we can combine the script to create the storyboard.
- Write a script
One of the most integral parts of Digital Story telling is the script. The script is basically a description of how you’ve decided to go about your Digital Story, essentially your narration of the story. Be sure to include this in your Digital Story section so that the viewer has a chance to look at something he might have misinterpreted or in case the audio isn’t clear enough. The script also helps you to speak confidently while recording your narration of the story. Knowing what you have to talk about and having the entire script written in front of you, makes a whole lot difference. So just be sure to either attach or paste your script in your storyboard.
- Gathering Images and Videos
Make sure that you collect and organize all the images and videos that you want to include in your digital story in a separate folder, so that it’s isolated from the other content. You are required to display all the images and videos you’ve used in the gallery section of your digital story.
- Using Creative Common music and images
Be careful of the music and imagery you use in your digital stories, most of the music out there cannot be shared unless you have the artist/label’s permission. Using such music in your work could create a copyright issue, to avoid that it is advised to use Creative Common images and music. What that means is that the owner of the content has allowed you to share it with other people without any copyright issues.
- Uploading your completed Storyboard onto your ePortfolio
In your courses, you will be required to upload your storyboard onto your ePortfolio. There are two options to do this. The first is to create your storyboard on the Gallery Module or upload it by first creating it on Powerpoint and then uploading that onto your ePortfolio.
Option 1: Uploading using the Gallery Module
Step 1: Open the Gallery Module on your ePortfolio.
Add a Module > Gallery > Select “Add this Module”
Step 2: Upload your media into the Gallery Module.
After selecting the Gallery Mode, click on the “Edit Tab”> Add Media . After selecting “Add Media”, a new window will open called “My Assets”. On that new window, you may now select “Browse Media” as shown below. Now you can pick the media you would like to add to your storyboard.
Step 3: Adding your script to your images.
Once you have uploaded all your images, you can now add your script. Select Edit Tab > “Edit Caption,” > Write your script for each image then hit “Save Caption”
Option 2: Uploading using Powerpoint
Step 1: Upload an image to your Powerpoint.
Once you have opened Powerpoint, the first step is to upload your first media image to it. To do that select the “Insert” Tab > Picture. After selecting “Picture”, a new window will open to allow you to browse for the media to upload. Do this for each media and place each of them on a new slide.
Step 2: Adding your script to your images.
Once you have uploaded all your images to your powerpoint storyboard, we can now add your script to it. In order to do this, select the “Insert” Tab > Text Box. Place the text box below your image, and write your script, as shown below.
Chapter 2: Choosing an Application
Step 1: Opening iMovie
Organize your media first and then click on Spotlight(The magnifying glass button located on the top-right of your screen). Search for “iMovie” there and just click on the top hit.
Step 2: Uploading media to use for Digital Story
To upload still images to your Digital Story, just select and drag them to the top left space in the video. Here they’ll be lined up one after the other, drag and drop them according to your story.
To upload video files, use the space given on the bottom of the screen to drag and drop.
Step 3: Editing the video clips
To trim the video clips you dragged and dropped, just drag and select the portions you want and drag your selection to the top left window where all the images are.
Step 4: Organizing your media in iMovie
All your pictures and videos would be then lined after each other in the top-left window. To arrange your media, just drag and drop them according to your need, to delete a clip or a still image, just select and press delete.
Step 5: Adding Themes and Transitions
To add some effects to your video, add themes and transitions to it. To add a theme, click the “T” button to the right, which would give you a list of all the available themes. Adding a theme adds transitions and title automatically to your video.
To add a transition manually, click on the transition button next to the theme button, select a transition and drag it between two images or an image or a video.
Chapter 3: Adding Audio to the Digital Story
a. Adding Audio to the Digital Story on Windows Movie Maker
Step 5: Recording your own sound/voice to add to your Digital Story
If you want to add your own sound/voice you can record it using any recording software. Use GarageBand or Audacity to record your voice, but for Audacity, remember to save your file in mp3 format.
Here is a view of the GarageBand interface
Step 6: How to add music
To add background music to your project, just drag it to the video area, clip it like you did it for the video and drag it to your other media. It just overlaps over your other media, move it according to where you want to place it.
Step 7: Change the length of time images play to go along with audio
After you add music/sound to your movie you can change the duration of each item on the movie by clicking on the settings button and selecting clip adjustments.
Step 8: Adding two audio files to your Digital Story
iMovie provides you with the comfort of adding 2 soundtracks to your movie, preferably one of your voice and the other a background music. To add a soundtrack do the same you did with the video. Drag your audio clip to the space given below, clip your selection and add it to your line of images and videos. To adjust the volume of your audio/video, click on the blue settings button and hit “Audio Adjustments”, here you can decrease the volume of your background music according to your liking.
Chapter 4: Transition
Step 8: How to add Transitions on iMovie
To add some effects to your video, add themes and transitions to it. To add a theme, click the “T” button to the right, which would give you a list of all the available themes. Adding a theme adds transitions and title automatically to your video.
To add a transition manually, click on the transition button next to the theme button, select a transition and drag it between two images or an image or a video.
Chapter 5: Review and Publish Your Story
Step 9: Saving and Exporting your Digital Story
When everything is said and done, go back to your project library and right click on the project you just made and click on “Export Movie” and then select the size of the video. It’s advised to select “large”, so that the video is quality is good and it wouldn’t take up as much space as an HD movie. Your video should be ready within 3-4 minutes in the destination you select.
