digitalstories

Digital stories are a multimedia form of storytelling that has become more popular as video editing software has become more affordable and easy to use. The process of digital storytelling has a few specific components. First is the story. The story needs to be adjusted to fit the medium. Once the story has been developed for this medium, start to collect your pictures and edit them as necessary. We will use Windows Movie Maker to compile the pictures, audio, and narration into a digital story.

media type="google" key="5464236606340832120&hl=en" width="400" height="326"

[|iCan video Ham and Eggs]
 * Link to student stories** like

An easy video editing tool to illustrate now video editing software works. http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/filmmaker.html?nav=DL2

**Developing a story**
Your digital story should be short and to the point. Longer stories that wander or have excessive elaboration work against the photos, videos, and music tracks. The power of a digital story is in the combination of media. The recommendation from the Center for Digital Storytelling is 150 words, and they stick to that limit. Elaboration should be done by choice of vocabulary rather than addition of text. For instance, many times when we talk about elaboration, we discuss adding description. That is fine for some mediums, but when we are talking about a video, you really want the script to be concise. Rather than adding more descriptive words, choose powerful words that express more than the basic adjective. Use words like "midnight" instead of "dark", or "adore" instead of "love". Then cut the number of sentences down to the basic story. Focus on the purpose of the story and cut details that do not support that purpose.

**Collecting and arranging pictures**
Scan any old or developed photos that you want to use in your story. For information on editing photos, go to the photo editing page. They have to be in an electronic format to use them on the computer. Place all photos, videos, music, and any other files that you want to use in the same folder. Placing everything in the same folder will prevent some problems later and make it easier to find files that you want to use.

Once you have written the story and collected your pictures it will help quite a bit to create a storyboard for your project. The storyboard will help you to organize the order of your picture and view the story at a glance. It also helps you get an idea of the flow of your story. More about the process of making your storyboard on the storyboarding page.

Open Windows Movie Maker. Movie Maker is a video editing application that will allow you to combine pictures, video, narration and music into a video project that can be played on any computer with Windows Media Player or upload to any online video sharing service like You Tube or Teacher Tube. Movie Maker with the Timeline view Storyboard view

Go to the **Capture Video** section and click the option **Import pictures**. That will open a dialog box that allows you to find the images that you want to use. Go to the folder that has all of your files and **click** the first picture. Hold the **Shift key** down then **click** the last picture. That will select every picture in between the first and the last one. Click the button labeled **Import**. That will place all of the pictures in your **Collection frame**. The **Collection frame** is in the middle of the window.

The actual project area is the bottom frame of the window. There are two views of the project. The **Storyboard** view is very good for putting images and videos in order. It is also very good for inserting transitions. The **Timeline** view is very good for inserting audio and editing audio and video clips. You will also have to use the timeline view to record narration. I have gotten used to using the timeline view all of the time.

To arrange pictures, **click** on each picture that you want to use **and drag** it to the project area. You can change the order of pictures in the project area by **clicking** on them **and dragging** them to a new position.

Go to the **Edit Movie** section and click on the **View Video Transitions** option. To place a transition from one photo to another, **click** the transition that you like **and drag** it to a position between the two pictures. Click **Play** in the preview frame to view the transition. The vast majority of the time, it is best to use the **Fade** transition. Other transitions may grab the viewer's attention, but most of the time they are a distraction rather than an enhancement. You usually want the video to go smoothly from one picture to the next.

The **Edit Movie** section also has some other options that may be of interest. The **Show Collections** option takes you back to the collection of pictures you were working with. The **Video Effects** option has some other effects that you can apply to a picture or a video clip. The **Make Titles or Credits** option allows you to create a title slide and credit slides.

Go to the **Edit Movie** section and click the **Make Titles and Credits** option. Choose the title option labeled **Title at the Beginning**. That will place the title slide in front of your first picture. Type your title in the text area of the middle frame. Click the option below labeled **Change the Title Animation** to change the action of the title. Click the **Change Text Font and Color** to change the appearance of your title slide.

There is more information about editing videos on the video editing page.

**Adding narration**
Record narration from the **Timeline** view. Plug the microphone into the microphone jack on the computer. Click the **microphone icon** in the timeline view and a recording frame will replace the collections frame. You can test the audio levels by speaking into the microphone and watching the audio level indicator. You want the levels to reach the yellow level, but not go too far into the red level.


 * Click** the **record button** and begin reading your narration script. When you finish reading click **Stop**. You want to read it steadily, but with passion. A well placed pause can enhance the story, but too many pauses can distract and damage the impact of your story.

You will need to save the video with your narration, then open the video up again to add a background soundtrack.

More detailed information on recording narration can be found on this audio page.

**Saving the video**
Don't click on File and Save because that will save the file as a Movie Maker project. Save the project as a video in the Finish Movie section. Click the option for Save to my Computer. The best option is to follow the recommended options throughout the save video wizard.

**Adding audio tracks**
After you have saved the video with your narration, then click the option for **Import Video** in the **Capture Video** section. Find the video in the **Import File** dialog box. At the bottom of the dialog box, **remove the checkmark** from the option that says **Create Clips for video files**. The click **Import**.


 * Drag** the video from the collections area to the video portion of the project.

Go to the **Capture Video** section and click on the **Import Audio or Music** option. Find the music that you want to use for a background soundtrack. Click **Import**.


 * Drag** the music to the audio portion of the project frame.

To the left of the **video section** there is a **(+)** sign. Click that **(+)** and you will be able to view the audio and the video tracks. Play the video in the preview frame. If the background soundtrack needs to be turned down, **right-click the narration track** and select **volume**. Then move the volume down and preview it again.

If the background is good, but the narration is too quiet, then right-click the narration and select volume. Move the volume up and preview the video.

When all of the audio is balanced, follow the directions for saving the video again.

Save the project as a video in the Finish Movie section. Click the option for Save to my Computer. The best option is to follow the recommended options throughout the save video wizard.


 * Recommendations from training classes**