Perception - September 2010

Three Featured Videos
Moving through the
Digital Storytelling:
Sample Projects
and Reflections

Additional Resources

"Digital Media Creation" - Apple Curriculum
"Making a Good Movie" and "What Filmmakers Say" by the American Film Institute Screen Nation

Great Minds Foundation - A Video Contest Compilation

Mihaly Csikszentmihali - a 2004 TED Conference address exploring his ideas of Flow to show why we experience this highly-motivated state so positively.

Dr. V.S. Ramachandran – a 2007 three-part lecture providing insights into how the brain deals with number, color, metaphor, and creativity. Part I Part II Part III

Getting Started with Digital Storytelling

The VPS Way (September 6, 2010) A Visual Portrait of a Story Analysis
And the Dogs Continue to Bark... (September 13, 2010) An AFI Door Scene Analysis
Writing to Screen Education Process (September 20, 2010) Integrating DST into the English Classroom

The summer issues of Perception covered the mountains and valleys of Project-Based Learning, Globalization and Advocacy, and Cognition and Technology. The fall issues are all about video production, from the beginning of the process to the end! This issue starts out by taking a closer look at Digital Storytelling videos to learn from their strengths and weaknesses. The videos demonstrate application of the ideas and concepts explored. A major English Digital Storytelling project will be introduced, explored, and carried out in the October issue of Perception. Perhaps the greatest inspiration for this issue is Joe Brennan, Wilkes University Professor.

A Word from the Producer - Inspired by a peer’s passion, I asked if he could impersonate his inspiration, John Lennon, for a DST Interview. He had the hair, look, accent, albums... so I started to work on the script and storyboard. Well, I wound up putting the majority of my time and effort into making the interview authentic to 1969. That meant figuring out what was produced before our interview date, finding the quotes from Lennon I wanted, watching samples to duplicate a sixties/seventies talk show, working with the theater teacher to put up a TV set, and unearthing a female talk show host working at that time. I learned a lesson about working with others. I did not convey the complexity involved in the undertaking to my actor, and because expectations were not clear, it was actually too much for him to take on. This was to be the day of the filming. While it was disappointing, the show must go on!
Fortunately, after an hour of calls and emails, I found Sam, a former student and a Lennon lover, and he was more than glad to help me pull this off the next afternoon. My colleague and I tried to create a set, but we found little to work with; I gathered what I could to imitate a TV set. Although he put a screen behind the chairs, it was too small. I was limited entirely to shooting from one position because filming from either side would have shown the rest of the room. I knew little about properly lighting the scene, and looking back I would reposition the lights. You can’t always count on people or resources to come through, so you need back up plans. Clearly, I didn’t have enough of those!
The filming is simple, which works because it's like the sixties. While editing, I stuck to dissolves and cross fades to be as unobtrusive as possible. The cool thing I did learn was how to make my new footage look old. I used effects like adding noise and de-pixilation so that the clip looks like it was filmed forty years ago. I can’t say I didn’t have fun with this, I just bit off more than I could chew. Like Mama says, keep it simple. I should have listened. If I had stopped to think, I would have realized I'm not a Beatles' fanatic like my friend is, so to do Lennon justice, I would need another good week of research.

A Word from the Producer - Recommendation for You: I had a blast making my storyboard in Storyboard Pro by Atomic Learning. I have to throw it out there as one of the most incredible planning programs out there, and it’s free! I’ll attach a little screenshot. I highly recommended. It was perhaps the most valuable tool in designing my project. I used AFI’s list of the types of shots to decide when to use which shot to match the purpose I wanted to achieve in that frame.
Entertainment at My Expense: Shooting in the dark is crazy. I used an AC/DC power converter from the car, ran an extension cord around the passenger’s side, plugged in a lamp for back-lighting, and brought out a stool for the high angle shots. I kept having to move the extension cord out of the shots. I ended up climbing all over the car, abandoning the stool entirely. There were some shots I couldn’t avoid using flash on, which made editing in Photoshop a nightmare while trying to reduce/remove flash glares. I felt like using the comic theme made it better overall. I only used a couple of deliberate transitions at the beginning and end, a different approach for me.

A Word from the Producer: In an attempt to make a quality mini-video introduction to myself, I knew that I needed a solid narrative and coordinating visual stimuli that flowed naturally together. There were an infinite number of possibilities for how I would develop my project. Many decisions were made, from the organization of the narrative to the selection of pictures and videos. I began by considering the immediate images that my mind retrieved in relation to the prompt, then wrote the narrative, a backward process for me.
One decision I made was that I wanted to find a universal “thread” to weave through the piece so that it had some kind of inherent message, trying to connect with my audience. I went with the first line that popped into my head, and suddenly, the words started to reveal a journey from past to present, organized logically if even by accident. As I considered possible titles, disregarding each, I came back to my name, Laura Joy, named after my mother Joy, and that I take joy in teaching. The Joy of Teaching was discarded instantly along with several other plays on the word. When I set out to choose the soundtrack for my piece, it was quite natural that “Ode to Joy” surfaced with no effort at all. My mind returned to the journey concept and out came “Road to Joy”. It fits, it’s unique, and it’s a bit witty at the same time… or at least I tried!
Another decision I made was how to frame and deliver content visually that matched up with my narrative, produced consistency throughout all parts, and illustrated the transformation from person to educator. I looked at my opening line: “A century of preachers and teachers comprise my family history, and my mother, Joy, inspired me to continue the legacy.” I could actually see the faded, sepia colored photos of my family generations ago, as pages flipping through a book. I went with that. “Road to Joy” became a book, and I chose transitions accordingly. Page peels worked as I quickly moved through images of my family, pausing longer on my mother, then minimizing transitions unless indicating a new “chapter”. I took to some older footage that moved too much and restructure it to be less distracting as our readings emphasize. I also checked release forms from former students in the video.