I've been taking a photo a day for 763 days. Last year I added a slight challenge but only used one word titles. Mostly for my own amusement but it did serve to keep me more interested. This year I'm trying to attach a song to every photo. It's going to be way tougher and [...]]]> I've been taking a photo a day for 763 days. Last year I added a slight challenge but only used one word titles. Mostly for my own amusement but it did serve to keep me more interested. This year I'm trying to attach a song to every photo. It's going to be way tougher and I can't say for sure if I'll be able to sustain it but I'll see. At the end of both years I've put together a video with all the images and used my daughter's music as a soundtrack. They've been a lovely keepsake for me and my family. So this year I thought I would cut the appropriate song snippet for each of my photos and put them together in a mash up.

I thought I'd try doing the month of January as a test. I'll be honest, I don't think it works. It seems sloppy, lacking any elegance.
Watch.

So while I plan to continue finding a song for each image I post, I'm not sure this will be the way to package it. I like the concept but not sure I can pull it off. I considered titling each image but thought that would simply add to the cognitive load. Maybe there is a way but I'm not seeing it. I could use your help. Can this be improved? Be honest. I can take it.

I was asked to produce a series of videos for an upcoming breast cancer fundraiser event in September. The concept was to interview someone who is currently in the midst of breast cancer, someone who has survived breast cancer and someone who has lost someone to breast cancer.

This video is of a local women who [...]]]> I was asked to produce a series of videos for an upcoming breast cancer fundraiser event in September. The concept was to interview someone who is currently in the midst of breast cancer, someone who has survived breast cancer and someone who has lost someone to breast cancer.

This video is of a local women who has terminal cancer. It’s challenging and a little nerve racking to be working with such a sensitive subject. The intent is obviously to tell her story in a clear and concise way and at the same time evoke the emotion that will get people to open up their wallets.

I Have Cancer from shareski on Vimeo.

I thought I’d take some time to reveal some of the reasoning and thought behind my production/design choices. I’ve always believed and have been taught that nothing should be random so hopefully I can address those choices.

Trimming

The raw interview was about 12 minutes. I had a goal of getting the interview under 5 minutes. Determing what to cut was difficult. This is where you need an unbias eye to see if you’ve captured a coherent story. I had my wife watch the first cut to see if the story was clear. This is crucial since it’s often hard to remove yourself from the knowledge you have of the entire footage.

Camera Positions

When doing interviews I prefer to have the camera slightly off centre. The interviewer in this case is sitting slightly to the left of the camera. It’s actually farther off centered that I prefer but without moving too much furniture around, it’s the best I could do. I shot the main footage with a Sony HD camera. The second camera is simply my Canon SD 780 still camera that shoots in HD. The use of a second camera is always a plus and in this case I think it helps the viewer see the setting of the interview and get a sense of being present. The split screen view makes that clear.

Transitions

The transitions between shots using the flowers and backyard footage has two purposes. First you see the subject and interviewer in a casual setting which provides context and background information to the interview. I rarely show the interviewer since they aren’t really part of the story. In this case I wanted to reveal a sense of friendship. Although you never see the interviewer ask a question, I’m hoping the transition video makes that clear. I switch to using the flowers in transitions to represent the beauty of life. The whole idea of a transition between scences is done to allow the viewer time to feel the impact and emotion of the story. It seems that for me the greater the emotion, the longer the transitions. In this case I would have lengthened the transitions even more in some cases but wanted the entire project to be under 5 minutes so I had to trim some of them.

Audio

I can’t stress enough the importance of a microphone for interviews. I have a bluetooth, wireless mic that works wonders in all sorts of environments. The air conditioner was humming in the background but the quality of this mic eliminated external sounds. This also allows me to easily add background audio withouth having to a lot of tweaking. The music, which I found on Jamendo (my new favourite Creative Commons source) is used to provide a delicate, soft backdrop to the story. I sampled dozens of instrumental music but was thinking piano as the core instrument. Music can certainly be overdone and I sampled until I found the one that best fit the piece.

Special Effects

5 minutes of "talking head’ can be a bit much. I’ve rarely seen it done effectively. If I’d had more time or had more ownership of the project, I would have liked more "b-roll" footage. In order to provide interest I used the dual camera and split screens. Again, these are done with purpose. The viewer gets a sense of place and hopefully adds to the intimacy. I used a bit of slow motion on the pan of the family photos. This was done as much to cover up the use of a handheld pan. There are a number of interesting filters in Final Cut Express which may have been interesting but time and the fact they have to be rendered each time to view them made that less desirable. I will need to explore them more to understand how they might enhance future projects.

The story is still the key. However these other elements represent the design and as I’ve mentioned many times, cannot be separated from the final product. I hope these insights are useful and certainly am open to critique of my choices. I just wanted to be transparent and explicit with how and why I did what I did.

This post will be double posted to the tech learning blog shortly.

Schools are text snobs. Most people reading this are text snobs. Our institutions are built around the written word. That in itself is not bad and we owe much of our culture, knowledge and understanding to the written word. It’s not our fault, we’ve [...]]]> This post will be double posted to the tech learning blog shortly.

Schools are text snobs. Most people reading this are text snobs. Our institutions are built around the written word. That in itself is not bad and we owe much of our culture, knowledge and understanding to the written word. It’s not our fault, we’ve been living in a world that up until a few years ago, only offered us to easily produce content via the written word. But like the revolution of the printing press, we are in the midst of a revolution of a digital nature that’s allowing us to easily create and consume context in many different forms, specifically audio, video and imagery.

So what are our schools doing to address this? I’d say for the most part very little. I must say I’m please to note that many curricula, are beginning to address this gap. In fact my own Saskatchewan Curriculum identifies these six strands as the cornerstone of the English Language Arts Curriculum: Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening and Viewing and Representing. All are considered equal but take a wild guess as to which ones receive the bulk of the attention? No doubt that many standardized tests and assessments focus solely on reading and writing and thus perpetuate the lack of attention on the other four. But even those who are building vast digital footprints and experience the power of publishing and connecting are doing so mostly via text. Believe me, I don’t want to discount its importance and value. Writing and the written word will always hold a prominent place in our understanding and experience of life but I’m concerned over the limited use of video, audio and even imagery among teachers and leaders in our schools and in particular those who have created and are developing an online presence.

(This post continues with the following video)

(And now some audio)

In general, schools have placed writing ahead of other forms of expression. Writing is what is measured and what is valued. As we consider the changing of the guard of modern communication.  The recent marketing ploy by the Australian government to find someone to be the caretaker of an island illustrates the shifting of communication skills. Instead of simply asking applicants to write an essay, they were to submit a video to sell themselves. Consider this quote by Stephen Downes.

OK, these are videos for that contest to live on an Australian island (the contest was probably the public relations coup of the year). They are, of course, creative and imaginative and effective. Now for the kicker: ten years ago, not one student in a hundred, nay, one in a thousand, could have produced videos like this. It’s a whole new skill, a vital and important skill, and one utterly necessary not simply from the perspective of creating but also of comprehending video communication today. Some people out there

Marco Torres get a great deal of credit and is seen as an extraordinary educator. Not that he isn’t but part of the reason Torres gets the attention is the fact that very few teachers/schools allow students to create and express themselves with video. I’d love for this to change. We need more Marco Torres’. The challenge is that most teachers who have developed their online presence is largely because of their ability to write. This continues the bias towards text over other mediums. We need kids that can write, tell a story, engage in a coherent, interesting conversation and tell stories with still and moving images. Shouldn’t we be modeling this? Who’s going to teach them?

Dan Meyer is at it again. Stirring up trouble and asking hard questions. That’s okay, in fact it’s good. While the specifics of his post might seem targeted at the small number of educators who regularly present at conferences and meetings, I think, and I’m sure Dan would agree it’s for all teachers.

I sometimes post [...]]]> Dan Meyer is at it again. Stirring up trouble and asking hard questions. That’s okay, in fact it’s good. While the specifics of his post might seem targeted at the small number of educators who regularly present at conferences and meetings, I think, and I’m sure Dan would agree it’s for all teachers.

I sometimes post my slides here and even have gone to the trouble to add the audio, after the fact. I usually invite discussion but more so on the ideas rather than the packaging.

I’ll be the first to admit, the more I learn the more inadequate I feel to speak about visual literacy. I’m not trained in graphic design, but have read about it and practiced it to the point where I hope I have something to offer folks. I definitely push this the importance of visual literacy in our own school division.

Dan asked for people to explicitly solicit critique. I welcome it. When it comes to presentations, I subscribe to much of the ideas of Garr Reynolds, Cliff Atkinson and others. I spend hours and hours on each one. I recognize how it can engage audiences and provide some memorable images that can carry with participants beyond the presentation itself.  That said, I don’t think even the most compelling imagery can make up for incoherent ideas and poor delivery. I’m constantly working at all three.

So here’s a ten minute video where I describe why I make the choices I make. It was one take each so excuse the pauses and droning but maybe it will provide some insight. Leave any comments or suggestions. Don’t feel you have to be an expert to comment. Perhaps I haven’t explained something clearly or didn’t address something you felt was important. We can learn from and with each other.

If you don’t know about Alan Levine’s 50 Ways to Tell a Story, I can update you on a few other things: Obama is President, and they’ve landed people on the moon.

But I’d never seen Alan present and give his perspectives and insights into this impressive piece of work. I invited him to speak to [...]]]> If you don’t know about Alan Levine’s 50 Ways to Tell a Story, I can update you on a few other things: Obama is President, and they’ve landed people on the moon.

But I’d never seen Alan present and give his perspectives and insights into this impressive piece of work. I invited him to speak to some of our teachers who I’ve been working with on digital storytelling. So from the comforts of his house sitting gig from Iceland, he came in and did his schtick. For 90 minutes, he kept us engaged and fascinated with the potential of web based storytelling tools. What a treat. Too good not to share.

“Teachers will not take up attractive-sounding ideas, albeit based on extensive research, if these are presented as general principles which leave entirely to them the task of translating them into everyday practice … what they need is a variety of living examples of implementation, by teachers with whom they can identify and from whom they [...]]]>

“Teachers will not take up attractive-sounding ideas, albeit based on extensive research, if these are presented as general principles which leave entirely to them the task of translating them into everyday practice … what they need is a variety of living examples of implementation, by teachers with whom they can identify and from whom they can derive conviction and confidence that they can do better and see concrete examples of what doing better means in practice”
Black, P. and William,D. Inside the Black Box: Raising standards through classroom assessment, King’s College, London, England. 1998, 15-16

This quote reminds me to work harder at finding living examples of what best or better practice means. Last week I spent 2 days with teachers looking at Project Based Learning and how to embed it deeply into practice. Much of our discussion focused on a video used by our presenters showing a classroom and teacher in action. Discussions were rich and meaningful.  We’re working really hard to insure that professional development includes and is built around followup. In a month, we’ll be gathering virtually to share our progress and further our understandings. Sharing artifacts of learning is challenging at times. Finding time to write up something or even provide background to student work can be time consuming.

To help support this, I ran out at lunch and picked up Flip videos for all participant teams. The intent is that teachers will be easily be able to capture learning and share it with each other.  I’m hoping to piece together these clips eventually to create something that would clearly represent what Project Based Learning looks like in our district. 

I use this video a lot when I make the case for digital storytelling.

“…they need a variety of living examples of implementation, by teachers with whom they can identify and from whom they can derive conviction and confidence that they can do better and see concrete examples of what doing better means in practice.”

I’ll stop talking now.

projectbasedlearning, galileo, black&william, flipvideo

I’m not sure I completely believe that but certainly my last post hints this.  Today I see Barbara Ganley, who is one of my longtime blog heroines and thinkers refering to the post and of course takes the idea much further and further complicates and spins the idea of writing and imagery to new depths. [...]]]> I’m not sure I completely believe that but certainly my last post hints this.  Today I see Barbara Ganley, who is one of my longtime blog heroines and thinkers refering to the post and of course takes the idea much further and further complicates and spins the idea of writing and imagery to new depths. (that’s a compliment by the way)

Then I grab this little gem from Garr Reynolds about Ken Burns:

When you think about it, often the photo really is more powerful than video at telling the story. The photo captures a moment in time allowing the viewer to slow down and think and wonder and reflect. Photos allow for greater emphasis and may have less distracting elements, giving the presenter or narrator/film maker more freedom to augment the photo (or the other way around). We can learn a lot from documentary film, especially the kind like those created by Burns which rely so heavily on still images. One tip is to avoid the usage of imagery as ornamentation. What you see in Burns’ films is a simple and powerful use of photos and other imagery that support the narrative and illuminate the story on a visceral level, thereby making the experience richer and stickier.

As someone who has been using video for a long time and is considers himself a better videographer than a photographer, I am becoming more appreciative of the still image. As Burns says in the video excerpt below, “video is simply a series of 24 still frames per second”.

You can think of stills as slow motion. As a sports enthusiast, the advent of slow motion has transformed the viewing of sports and allows us to gain an understanding of the intricacies of athletics in ways never before possible. We’ve had this for a long time with stills, it was simply hidden in plain sight at least for me.

It’s 3 weeks until NECC. I’ve never been and am eagerly awaiting. David Jakes has invited me to help him present his session on 10 strategies for improving presentations.

As David and I held a little planning session tonight we talked about the power and importance of visual literacy. We also agreed that while PowerPoint may [...]]]> It’s 3 weeks until NECC. I’ve never been and am eagerly awaiting. David Jakes has invited me to help him present his session on 10 strategies for improving presentations.

As David and I held a little planning session tonight we talked about the power and importance of visual literacy. We also agreed that while PowerPoint may be the tool we focus on, it’s really not about PowerPoint but the ability to communicate a message effectively with the support of well designed visuals.

This video promoting a book called The Back of a Napkin, demonstrates how ideas can always be enhanced and developed using simple visuals.

Many of these principles are transferable whether you’re using a napkin or a slide deck. If you’re attending NECC, we’d love to have you pop by Monday, June 30th at 11:00. David plans to take everyone who attends out for supper that evening.

If you still see flickr as simple a photo sharing site, you’d be sadly mistaken.  The ways in which its users have crafted endless ways to leverage their photos continues to increase. The following is simply a few insights into my learning via flickr.

Thanks to D’arcy Norman’s inspiring work of 2007, a number of us [...]]]> If you still see flickr as simple a photo sharing site, you’d be sadly mistaken.  The ways in which its users have crafted endless ways to leverage their photos continues to increase. The following is simply a few insights into my learning via flickr.

Thanks to D’arcy Norman’s inspiring work of 2007, a number of us decided to take on the challenge of shooting a photo a day. 48 days into it and I’ve certainly become more visually aware and I believe more literate.  Part of the power of joining a group in flickr is to be able to see how many are trying to achieve the same thing but in a myriad of ways. Amazing learning takes place.

Subscribing to the 366photo feed allows me to see everyone’s efforts. Today I was struck by a seemingly innocent photo of a child’s rocking chair taken by Alan Levine.

Flashback to the day before. Alan writes about his “pathetic” photo,

A photo of a corner of my roof makes my 366photos of the day? Could this be the most pathetic day of the year (that i always possible). No, this marks a spot where something was but is no more. Today, I sold the Hughes Satellite Internet Dish that sat here for 2 years. Since moving to Strawberry, I got more reliable (used loosely in a small town) cable internet service. I posted a few paper flowers down at the market and Post Office in Pine, but shazam, it was Craigslist that connected me with a family near Snowflake AZ (look it up actually named for town cofounders with last names of “Snow” and “Flake” and thus could have just as easily been called “Flakesnow”) that needed a dish to get to the net. So in a contemplative mood I am wondering- we typically focus on a photograph as a means to “grab” or portray something that is there– but is there room or a place to consider perhaps “negative space” photography, the portrayal of a place where something is not there? On a less philosophical note- proceeds of this sale have underwritten the costs of my new western footwear…

Every picture has a story. If you aren’t already aware, you need to understand that Alan is a master at this type of storytelling. Witness his efforts to tell the same story about his dog Dominoe using 49 different online storytelling tools. So now we move to today’s post of the chair. I won’t attempt to share the contents of the story, you need to read it for yourself,but I hope we begin to see how powerful and important it is to think about how we see the world. All of us have hundreds of these images stored in our memory filled with beautiful, sad, scary, disturbing, inspiring stories that are waiting to be shared. Yes shared.  Okay, keep some of them private but I as I commented to Alan:

What a privilege to be in a community where people feel vulnerable enough to share such depth. To think a seemingly innocent photo a a rocking chair could illicit such emotion and meaning….if your last photo was your most pathetic (I doubt if it is) this might be your most powerful.

Images: David’s Rocking Chair by Alan Levine
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/2274055016

Technorati Tags: darcynorman, alanlevine, flickr

With the advent of digitalstorytelling as more common place in our schools, often we’re so elated to get them to produce anything that the quality of work isn’t always there. We’ve been down this road with powerpoint, but now most are taken in by the the wow factor. With video, there’s still enough mystery in [...]]]> With the advent of digitalstorytelling as more common place in our schools, often we’re so elated to get them to produce anything that the quality of work isn’t always there. We’ve been down this road with powerpoint, but now most are taken in by the the wow factor. With video, there’s still enough mystery in production for many teachers and students that we accept work that is less than exemplary. I think at times, we’re letting kids off the hook.
Last year, I showcased the work of a couple of local kids who did a great job with the lego format. My son and one of the contributors to the other video had an assignment to create a movie trailer on the novel Life of Pi. This is a fairly common assignment and one that does require synthesis and should incorporate elements of good design. But there work does many of the things I think make for a great trailer.

Simplicity, planning, innovation, constraints and whitespace all are used. Yes, they use some green screen but really, it’s about storytelling. My son played director and  producer and his buddy did the editing. When asking about ideas, he said it came from watching movies, playing video games and tv.  This is why demanding students to talk about movies like we ask them to talk about books is critical. Students should be as fluent talking about video as they are about writing. We’re so text bias as schools, that it makes it difficult to even understand what is a well crafted, design piece of multimedia. And while I think we need more examples of student work, I think there are so many in the real world, but we don’t look deeply at what makes them work. That’s what these guys did.

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I’ve also appreciated the use of time lapse photography. From watching a flower bloom to the changing of seasons, it’s a powerful technique.

I checked my Canon SD750 and realized it had the feature. So let’s give it a try.

I set it up tonight while I prepared a meal for my family and our friends. The [...]]]> I’ve also appreciated the use of time lapse photography. From watching a flower bloom to the changing of seasons, it’s a powerful technique.

I checked my Canon SD750 and realized it had the feature. So let’s give it a try.

I set it up tonight while I prepared a meal for my family and our friends. The total time of preparation was about 50 minutes. I set the time lapse to shoot every 2 seconds. What you have is about 2 minutes which I cut down to about 80 seconds. If you look carefully you should see a spill, boy in underwear and puppies.

This will prove to be a valuable tool for me. Check your digital camera and see if you can do time lapse. I think it’s very cool.

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In creating the keynote for the Flat Classroom 2007 Project, I utilized chroma keying. Many seemed quite intrigued as to how I did it and although for most videographers, this is not a difficult or complicated task, for those entering into video editing it may seem a bit arduous. It’s not. This video [...]]]> In creating the keynote for the Flat Classroom 2007 Project, I utilized chroma keying. Many seemed quite intrigued as to how I did it and although for most videographers, this is not a difficult or complicated task, for those entering into video editing it may seem a bit arduous. It’s not. This video demonstrates how I use chroma keying.

As I mention in my keynote and in this behind the scenes look, chroma keying has the WOW factor but with anything else it can be overused. I don’t claim to be an expert editor so for those with greater skill than I, excuse the rather crude editing and set up.

I think the potential for projects like Vicki’s and Julie’s would be to have students collaborate and create content that appears seamless;as if they were working in the same room.  I like the recent Gmail video as one example as well.

I used Viddler based on Chris Harbeck’s use and it serves as a nice interactive video tool. Go ahead and leave a comment on the video itself.

Technorati Tags: chromakey, greenscreen, flatclassroom, shareski, viddler

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Bud alerted me to this via twitter,

Almost a new take on Did you Know but it’s actually another video from Michael Wesch of Kansas State who produced The Machine is Using Us.

Don’t dismiss this because it’s focused on higher ed. The message is pretty much the same. Powerful.

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I’ve been watching with great interest the efforts of Dan Meyer and Christian Long in pursuing the idea of the Chicago Graduate School of Business’ recent demands on their applicants. To see the idea begin somewhere very auspiciously and end up generating some great ideas and stories is very cool and a testament to [...]]]> I’ve been watching with great interest the efforts of Dan Meyer and Christian Long in pursuing the idea of the Chicago Graduate School of Business’ recent demands on their applicants. To see the idea begin somewhere very auspiciously and end up generating some great ideas and stories is very cool and a testament to the power of networks and creativity mixing.

While I love the idea, I didn’t enter the contest mostly because life here is a bit nuts and also because my creativity as small as it might be, needs some starting point and I didn’t quite get it until I saw the entries. All very good stuff.

I’m teaching a workshop on digital storytelling tomorrow and along with completely stealing Alan Levine’s great resources, I’m going to require my participants to give this concept a shot. I figured I needed to walk the talk so I created this. You’ll likely recognize elements in other entries but hopefully I’ve mixed some original design elements. I also used the tell a story in six words idea for each slide.  The idea of restraints and conciseness is continuing to mull around my brain as a key ingredient to effective communication.

Thanks to Dan and Christian and Scott for kickin’ it up a notch!

[tags]4slides,danmeyer,christianlong,scottmcleod,alanlevine,digitalstories,presentation,shareski[/tags]

I had the delight this evening of participating with Dean Shareski, David Jakes, and students in a course Dean is teaching via an Elluminate Live session to discuss Digital Storytelling. Dean shared the following quotation from Joe Lambert, who is a co-founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling:

Digital storytelling begins with the notion that in [...]]]> I had the delight this evening of participating with Dean Shareski, David Jakes, and students in a course Dean is teaching via an Elluminate Live session to discuss Digital Storytelling. Dean shared the following quotation from Joe Lambert, who is a co-founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling:

Digital storytelling begins with the notion that in the not [too] distant future, sharing one’s story through the multiple mediums of digital imagery, text, voice, sound, music, video and animation will be THE PRINCIPAL HOBBY OF THE WORLD’S PEOPLE.

The fact that the iPhone has a YouTube button which permits people to directly watch YouTube videos directly on their phone is really amazing, IMHO, but I think it reflects the continuing manifestation of the above prediction by Joe Lambert.

Just listening to Dean and David share during our virtual class this evening, I learned about a BUNCH of great digital storytelling examples and tools I hadn’t seen or heard about before. I saved most of these to my social bookmarks and YouTube playlists, but briefly, some of the highlights were:

Digital storytelling examples:

• True America: A super-powerful movie by an 18 year old student in David’s district about the meaning of freedom and the United States, created in response to a request from Barack Obama on his MySpace page for student-created videos
• Fun and powerful Apple advertisement from the late 1990s about 21st century “show and tell” via digital storytelling
• Chasing Metaphors: Great example of a digital storytelling theme or assignment for students
• A fun video Dean made of his family at Lake Michigan set to part of the song “Jump” by Van Halen

TouFee, another web-based video editing environment similar to JumpCut, and EyeSpot were mentioneed by David. Vimeo was mentioned but I think it is mainly a video sharing and commenting/social networking site, rather than an editing tool.

I have used these previously, but I did specifically save and tag David’s excellent PhotoStory3 tutorials and screencasts as well.

Thanks to Dean for both the opportunity to guest blog here, and also join in the conversation tonight via Elluminate about digital storytelling. I learned a lot and had fun!

Technorati Tags: digitalstorytelling

Alan inspired me to spend a bit more time with Voice Thread than I had a month or so ago. This is a test using images from Flickr and the movie being shot at our house. Might be a great way to ask questions, leave comments or whatever.

[tags]cogdog,alanlevine,voicethread,finnonthefly,movie,shareski,digitalstories[/tags]

Here’s a great story and idea passed on to me by friend Jim.

The Simple Truth of Service Movie

I usually post something about mothers and fathers, here’s a remix of one I did last year. Most of the photos are of ones I’ve taken or friends. Using pertinent, powerful quotes, quality images and fitting music is a simple recipe for effective digital storytelling.

[tags]fathersday,digitalstories[/tags]

My wife is big fan of reality tv. I know, I can hear it already: “It’s not reality”, “I don’t watch a lot of tv”, “blah, blah, blah”….. I actually like a few as well.

This summer Fox has unveiled, On The Lot, a Mark Burnett production to give aspiring filmmakers a chance to strut [...]]]> My wife is big fan of reality tv. I know, I can hear it already: “It’s not reality”, “I don’t watch a lot of tv”, “blah, blah, blah”….. I actually like a few as well.

This summer Fox has unveiled, On The Lot, a Mark Burnett production to give aspiring filmmakers a chance to strut their stuff and have a chance to earn a 1 million dollar development deal with Dreamworks.

There are great lessons to be learned for digital storytelling. In Monday’s episode, 18 contestants had to produce 1 minute comedies. Each was critiqued and contestants were provided feedback on their work. The show helps you see the challenge behind good storytelling. As an observer, you get insight into the qualities of good film making. Viewers can also submit videos for review.

Here’s one great example:

With summer coming and the television lineup dwindling, this might be something worth checking out.

Here’s my mother’s day tribute.

I’ll likely use this in church on Sunday.

[tags]mothersday,mothers,video,shareski[/tags]

24 hours of Flickr inspired me to recreate a previous post I did over 2 years ago. That post featured a photo every hour on the hour. Here are just some samples of my day…I have till May 21st to submit one photo to be considered for the 24 hours of Flickr book. Which one [...]]]> 24 hours of Flickr inspired me to recreate a previous post I did over 2 years ago. That post featured a photo every hour on the hour. Here are just some samples of my day…I have till May 21st to submit one photo to be considered for the 24 hours of Flickr book. Which one would you submit?

The List

Cleaning Gutters

Washing Windows

Help from Martha

Mowing the Lawn

Watching Golf

Board Game with Family

[tags]flickr, 24hoursofflickr[/tags]

If you want to show kids the power of editing and music in storytelling, show them this remix of Dumb and Dumber as a horror movie. This would be a great assignment for students to remix video to change the genre.

This song’s likely very familar to anyone from Saskatchewan. Here someone adds it to their rather uneventful drive down Main Street in Moose Jaw. I think it says something about people who can laugh at themselves. Not sure what but it says something.

[tags]moosejaw[/tags]

I love NFL Films. They can make the most boring, insignificant game seem like an epic battle. With great cinematography, authoratative voice overs (Gene Hackman, Alec Baldwin, Lawrence Fishborne, to name a few) using well crafted scripts and adding the perfect sound track, to me it’s storytelling at its best. Even if you’re not [...]]]> I love NFL Films. They can make the most boring, insignificant game seem like an epic battle. With great cinematography, authoratative voice overs (Gene Hackman, Alec Baldwin, Lawrence Fishborne, to name a few) using well crafted scripts and adding the perfect sound track, to me it’s storytelling at its best. Even if you’re not a football fan, you have to marvel at the mastery of their form.

Recently the produced America’s Game, chronicling the past 40 Super Bowl Champions. I didn’t miss one episode. Yes, I’m a huge football fan but when you look at the craft of storytelling, it just doesn’t get any better. I love the emotion of the individuals recalling events that happened years ago. In many ways the elements of these stories are quite reproducible. No fancy graphics or effects. Just a great story. I guess winning 92 Emmy’s should tell you something about quality.

If you’re a football fan but do not get the NFL Network, you might have missed this. I’d suggest buying the DVDs or buying them off itunes for $1.99 an episode. If nothing else, kids need to see examples like this to see what digital stories can be.

[tags]digitalstories,NFL,AmericasGame,NFLfilms[/tags]

This from David Jakes touting the beauty and power of Doritos latest campaign of using user-generated video for their SuperBowl commercial. This video is one of five finalists and it cost $12.79 and none of the creators was over 22 years old.

I’m sure we’ll see more and more of a trend towards validating user generated [...]]]> This from David Jakes touting the beauty and power of Doritos latest campaign of using user-generated video for their SuperBowl commercial. This video is one of five finalists and it cost $12.79 and none of the creators was over 22 years old.

I’m sure we’ll see more and more of a trend towards validating user generated content. We’ve already seen this with blogging and journalism; this is a natural progression.

It also tells me that people are learning this stuff on their own. The tools used to be the hard part. Now the focus is on content and in a flat world everyone’s got a shot at success.

You can watch all five finalists here…you can also find them on youtube and probably a jillion other sites as well.

I uploaded my Extreme Makeover Video to Revver to compare. I think the quality is better but you be the judge.

Here’s a condensed version of a presentation that I’ve done on using PowerPoint effectively. I recorded it using Camtasia studio. I’ve been exploring it lately both as a pure screencasting tool with only audio but here as a presentation tool with Picture in Picture. Not sure what is most effective but you can decide for [...]]]> Here’s a condensed version of a presentation that I’ve done on using PowerPoint effectively. I recorded it using Camtasia studio. I’ve been exploring it lately both as a pure screencasting tool with only audio but here as a presentation tool with Picture in Picture. Not sure what is most effective but you can decide for yourself. So if you have a free 20 minutes….(again, reading this in your reader won’t likley display the video)

Note: I have a director’s account in youtube which allows me to upload videos longer than 10 minutes.

[tags]powerpoint,makeover,digitalstories,digitalstorytelling,camtasia,screencast,youtube[/tags]

Ewan posted this and it provides a powerful message. I’d never heard of Bebo before but it would seem to fit into the myspace/social network sites of the internet. The video tries to look at what really happens in a social network. The good and bad are portrayed here. I think it really opens ups [...]]]> Ewan posted this and it provides a powerful message. I’d never heard of Bebo before but it would seem to fit into the myspace/social network sites of the internet. The video tries to look at what really happens in a social network. The good and bad are portrayed here. I think it really opens ups some great opportunities to discuss the implications of social networking with students. Even if you’re not fully aware of social networks, why not engage your students in this discussion. You’ll learn a great deal from them.
[gv data="ueRqGzwMjEI"][/gv]
PS. If you’re teaching somewhere where youtube is blocked, there are ways to download youtube videos to reuse.

Here’s one method:
STEP 1:
*Getting an FLV player/encoder.
http://www.rivavx.com/

STEP 2:
*Saving the FLV file.
http://www.keepvid.com/
*If you use Mozilla/Firefox, this plugin will help you bypass a lot of this step.
STEP 3:
*Playing the FLV file.

STEP 4:
*Converting the FLV file into something else.

I created a little story about geocaching using BubbleShare. BubbleShare is an essential in digital storytelling. I’ve used it before and also RockYou but the features in Bubbleshare make it #1 in photo stories online.

Start a class discussion with this video.

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