Digital stories are not required for CEE614 because of time constraints, but you are encouraged to create them as part of your final project's multimodal component.
1. Review Darren Chase's digital storytelling handouts.
Copyright, Fair Use, and the Creative Commons
2. Look at example digital stories. Most of the examples are autobiographical. That is not required. Use the assignment "to tell a story" in the broadest possible sense; you may in fact use the assignment to visualize a chunk of theory, set it to music. I don't care as long as it's interesting. No one expects this level of virtuosity, but this is indeed an example of what I mean by setting a chunk of theory to music.
3. Create a template in your ePortfolio by adding a section called Digital Story. Add three modules to the page that it makes: one rich text format module for your script, one gallery module for your images and video clips, and one rich text module for your reflection. See the sample page.
4. The script module is fluid for your needs. You can post your brainstorming ideas there, and later post a more formal script.
5. Find images and video clips that you would like to use. Combing Creative Commons for desirable materials licensed under a share-alike, attribution, non-commercial license can be a great trip. (Read more about the licenses here.) Those licenses allow you to remix work in your video, cut them and crop them, and even use filters or make collages of them, as long as you provide attribution (give credit to the creator). (If it's share-alike, that means that you are required to license your remade images under the same license.) Upload the images to your gallery module in roughly the order you want them in the video.
6. Are you going to use iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, or something else?
7. If you are going to use Windows Movie Maker Live, watch this video that will show you how to combine a voiceover with a music track:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0XhF60KoR0 . Actually, I can embed this below.
This is Devin. (I love Devin. Don't say anything bad about him. He might have seen a double rainbow once, but he knows stuff.) If you can't sit through it (hey, it's amusing, but you are busy people), essentially: The program doesn't allow for a voiceover track and a music slot, so you have to make the movie by putting a music file in the sound slot, save it (make a movie), and then put the movie back into the program and add another sound track with your voiceover in the new sound slot. Then save the movie again.
If you use iMovie, there is a feature for adding both music and doing a voiceover so this problem doesn't occur.
8. The somewhat time-consuming feature of the assignment is figuring out how to put together your clips, music (do use original music or Creative Commons-sanctioned music), and voiceover. You can break the script up by writing it as comments under each clip in Digication, if that is helpful in organizing it. Record the voiceover in a quiet place, and be prepared to redo it a few times to get it right. You may wish to use the freeware program Audacity to record your voice, as it allows you more control over the sound quality, or you can use Sound Recorder that comes with Windows. With a Mac, you can generally record straight into iMovie, but Audacity is cross-platform if you prefer to play with that. When you get to that stage, change the length of clips in the movie making program so that you can pace your voiceover. It is best to do this BEFORE you add the music track in Windows Movie Maker Live.
9. When your video is ready to save, create a YouTube account if you don't have one (you can do this with your Stony Brook gmail account), and upload the video to YouTube. Set it to Unlisted (or public if you really want it to go public to the world; it's up to you).
10. When it's produced and uploaded, click on Share/Embed and copy that code in the Embed window.
11. Open the image/audio/video module in Digication by clicking Replace This Media and choose Media From Web. Choose YouTube. Paste the code in the Embed window and save.
12. Save and publish everything as you go in Digication.
13. Reflect on this project in the reflection module after you're done.