Digital Story Telling

Lights, Camera, Action! We have the opportunity to create a story to send a message and practice some valuable skills.  We find creative ways to show experiences that first year students often experience while creating an environment for Hixson’s to build a sense of community and develop skills working in a group.  In this blog you will find advice and some secrets that you can use to add to your Digital Story Telling project.

Start early by getting organized.  Different personality types sometimes prefer to do things closer to a deadline but it is important as a group to establish a timeline for each part of the project.  Knowing that the script should be done by x number of weeks and then filming to follow that creates intermediate deadlines that can motivate those who prefer the pressure accompanied with procrastination.

A schedule is great and all but can often be useless without some accountability.  It can be difficult to find someone who is able and willing to take an authoritative leadership role.  If your group can appoint a “producer” to be in charge of making sure the group is on schedule and delegate task you can ensure a timely production.  This person can be in charge of setting up meeting times and creating the master schedule as well as assigning what part each person will play.

If you’re lucky at least one person in your group will have at least some experience with video editing.  If no one is capable, simply find someone willing. Then have them make their way to http://www.iastate.edu/lynda , login, and take advantage of some of their awesome tutorials on video editing software.

There are vast amounts of resources available out there to help you be a successful short filmmaker.  The communications building has cameras and tri-pods available to check out and best of all, it’s free for ISU students.

This project can seem tedious but it can all come together easily and timely if you can get everyone involved and make an effort to have fun with it.

~Easten