Digital StoryTelling Course Outline
“After a digital storytelling is shared, it should be remembered for its soul, not the bells and whistles of technology.” — Bernajean Porter
Telling our story is an essential part of our humanness. It allows us to feel part of the community that knows our story, and it fosters empathy for those that surround us. Story is a powerful force in shaping mental models, motivating and persuading others, and teaching the lessons of life. Telling story extends back to a time when oral history dominated the tools of communication. And now the flood of technology tools that allow for instant communication has spun us back into a golden age where story again dominates the media landscape.
The world is full of story -- just look at the fire-hose blast of Snapchat images, YouTube videos, and those moments of binge-watching Netflix. The noise of this digital information can be overwhelming. It can create a numbness to the outside world and limit the ability to retain and reflect on essential learning.
Digital story works because it fills our heads with engaging emotional rhetoric and paves a compelling reason to act or think differently. Emotion alone doesn't make digital story, as the names, faces, and numbers of the situation round out the message. Without the intellectual hook, the emotional plea can sound hollow and appear to be built on a flimsy foundation. The unique nature of digital story -- with its quick visual displays of information coupled with its engaging images of people, place, and planet -- provides the ideal media for amplifying the impact that comes from seamlessly weaving together these areas.
A good Digital Story must contain:
A good story has a destination—a point to make—and seeks the shortest path to its destination. The art of shortening a story lies in preserving the essence of the tale—using the fewest words along with images and sound to make your point.
COURSE STRUCTURE: The course is broken down into three areas:
Pre-production – The students will learn to generate and pitch ideas, write treatments, scripts, storyboards, shot lists, and shooting schedules.
Production – Students will learn narrative and documentary forms, proper use of digital videos, lighting, and sound equipment depending on the resources available to our class. Lighting, camera and sound recording and techniques through hands-on location will be covered as well as studio shoots and collaboration on group projects.
Post-production – Students will engage in critiques of each other’s work as they learn the concepts of motion picture editing through the use of non-linear editing systems.
All projects will require a dynamic element. (Video, audio, animation in timeline)
PRE-PRODUCTION WORKFLOW:
Filmmakers must sell their ideas before they can produce them. In the industry, the written document used to sell a film idea is called a treatment. Before you have clearance to work on your project, you must write a treatment and propose it to the class. Here is a Treatment Sample
The next step is to do a Storyboard.
A storyboard is a graphic organizer in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at Walt Disney Productions during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios.
Look at this Exemplar Storyboard