Nine films
At four thirty today we showed nine films that had been created in the first workshop of the festival. In the last day some of the participants worked with real intensity to turn their story into a film.Daniel and I commented afterwards on the difference between this workshop and the ones we were used to running in the UK. In general there was a lower level of preparedness among the participants here. Some arrived with no images relevant to their stories - so we had to spend more time creating pictures for their films in the workshop.
Thankfully some of them were highly skilled and organised. They offered a lot of assistance to others in the workshop - in some cases rescuing their fellow storytellers from potential despair.
iMovie proved to be an idiosyncratic piece of software. The process of digital storytelling showed up a number of bugs that may appear much less often when editing home movies. The greatest frustration is the unpredictable movement of clips on the timeline when single images are removed or added. Daniel went to great lengths to explain tricks to maintain the relative position of the clips and sound track, but we both experienced times when the clips upstream from the playhead (cursor) were pushed or dragged out of sync despite following the correct routine.
The integration between the iLife programs makes the organisation of assets simple, but the options for modifying those assets is limited. For example, The Ken Burns zooms are simple but with limited control I found the effect predictable and unsatisfying.
Despite these limitations and frustrations, each participant went away with their own story on CD-Rom. Some of them very moving, and all of them a real achievement.
As ever each person changed my life as I was privileged to share their story reliving a few steps of the journey that led them to San Francisco this week. There were tears, hugs and lots of laughter. Thanks guys - you were great.
posted by Dawnriser @ 06:21
4 Comments:
Hi Barrie - hope you're having fun in San Fran.
Interesting to read your thoughts re iMovie v Premiere.
I've used iMovie a lot to make a few digital stories now and I've changed the way I work when I'm using it.
Rather than maing a rough cut and then fine tuning the timing and adding transitions later I do all the fiddly bits as I go along.
This means you need to have a fairly good idea of how you'd like your story to look before you set the images down.
You also need to start at the beginning and do everything in a very linear way.
It's true that the Ken Burns effect is a bit primitive, especially not being able to control when the movement starts and stops - it just lasts for the duration of the clip you appply it to. To get round this I have the picture as a still frame for a few seconds, then have a new instance of the picture in the timeline with the effect applied to it, and finally grab the last frame of the moved section (Edit -> Create Still Frame or File -> Save Frame) as a new still to add a few seconds at the end of the sequence. It's a bit cumbersome and you end up with three clips doing what one can do in Premiere.
Are any of the films available on line for viewing?
Best wishes.
James.
As one of the 'unprepared' I wanted to say thank you - not just for helping me get there with a hilarious story but for the opportunity to use my own voice. After facilitating and designing workshops and strategies for the past 2 years I realise I have done less of the same work for myself. It is gift that these workshops provide, the opportunity to find your authentic voice...and use it!
So thank you, and looking forward to more together!
with light,
Natalie
Hi James,
Thank you for those tips about using iMovie. I think we had already concluded that building the story from the front was the best solution to the timelime problems. In practice, those who attend workshops, are still exploring storytelling and don't understand the process until they try it. Only then do they know what they're heading for. Often they want to change a few images - or simply remove some - and that's when iMovie becomes the enemy!
The Ken Burns tip is really useful and I shall use that one. Thanks - Barrie
Hi Natalie,
Thanks for the "light".
Barrie
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