First Ever Center for Digital Storytelling Open Workshop in Texas!
Led by the founder of the Digital Storytelling movement
And author of Digital Storytelling-Capturing Lives, Creating Community

Monday-Wednesday, 9am-5pm, March 19-21, 2007
Communication Area, North Office Building A University of Texas Austin, TX (map)

Instructors: Joe Lambert, CDS Staff
Price: $ 495 USD Individual project

To register: email workshop@storycenter.org
Or go to http://www.storycenter.org/workshops 

DIGITAL STORYTELLING WORKSHOP

In 1993, Joe Lambert and his collaborators developed a unique workshop environment that assists people in creating video stories from their family photos and home video. It is based on a philosophy of emphasizing fundamental elements of good storymaking combined with a demystification of multimedia technology and  tools.

We have helped over 10,000 people to mine powerful and effective tales from the pictures of their lives, or the lives of their loved ones.  The stories have covered every conceivable topic: tales of survival and achievement; corporate brand stories, travel adventures; love stories, health and healing; oral histories about cultures, historic periods, and work experiences; and memorials to loved ones.

The class is a great introduction for the multimedia novice or the professional to working with digital imaging and digital video softwares.  The workshops include hands-on instruction to Adobe Photoshop and Final Cut Express and script/storyboard development.  The CDS teaching staff will give each student specific assistance on their projects, including design, scripting, and other issues regarding the specific use of their digital story.

Students will complete a 3 minute piece which will be output to disk and mailed following the workshop.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

1. To provide students with an introduction to the tools of desktop video in a production context.
2. To introduce storytelling methodology (point of view, emotional content, dramatic action) into a dialogue about new media content.
3. Assist students in completing a project.

ROUGH TIMETABLE OF WORKSHOP

DAY ONE

• Introduction
• Introduce digital storytelling with samples of prior students work,
• analyzing strengths and weaknesses of various pieces.
• Discuss with students their own project plans, preparation of material
• including scripting, rough source material selection and storyboarding.
• Overview to Final Cut Express software and procedure for preparing still
• images in Photoshop.
• Adobe Photoshop Tutorial
• Preparation and Digitization of Material
• Each student will be scheduled for input of source material to individual
• workstations, scanning and sizing images in Photoshop, capturing soundtrack
• audio and video, and recording voice-overs.

DAY TWO

• Final Cut Express/Premiere Elements Tutorial
• Review and re-write scripts
• Finish recording voice-overs
• Begin rough edit in Final Cut Express

DAY THREE

• Continue editing in Final Cut Express/ Premiere Elements
• Complete Second Edit
• Students will explore special effects for their work in Final Cut Express
• including image pan, motion, superimpostions, transparency and titles.
• Final Edit and Review
• Students will complete edit and make snapshot of final version of their
• digital story for class presentation in final hour.

PRE-WORKSHOP PREPARATION

To get the most of out the workshop we recommend preparing the following materials: an idea for a story you want to tell, a script, images, video and music.

It is best if you come with a rough draft of a script.  Since we are working on pieces that will be 2-3 minutes long, bring a script that is about 1.5 pages, double spaced or 250 words.

Also bring photographs, art work, letters and items for your story. Images can be scanned ahead of time or during the workshop.  Around 20 images is a good number.  If you can scan them ahead of time we recommend scanning at about 300 dpi and bringing them on a CD if possible, or flash card.

If you are planning on using video make sure you have previewed your tapes prior to the class and made notes about which 5-15 second clips you will want to capture.  Video uses a lot of memory and can be time consuming to work with so we will use video efficiently and in small clips.  If you are using a video format other than VHS or Mini-DV please bring along your camera for use in capturing your video clips to the computer.

For background music you can bring music on CD.  Choose a couple of possibilities and then you can choose the option that works best.  We will also have copyright free music and software available at the workshop if you would like to use that, or you may find songs available on-line for purchase.

Our web site has a copy of the Digital Storytelling Cookbook, the manual we have created to accompany the class.  You will find the first sections helpful to read prior to the class.  There is a PDF version of the front sections of the cookbook at www.storycenter.org/cookbook.

You can also find helpful resources in the new text: Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community by Joe Lambert which is available for purchase on-line at: www.storycenter.org/book.

THE CENTER FOR DIGITAL STORYTELLING is a non-profit project development,  training, and research organization dedicated to assisting people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories from their lives.  Our focus is on developing large-scale projects for community, educational and business institutions using the methods and principles built around our Digital Storytelling Workshop.  We also offer workshops for organizations and individuals, and provide a clearinghouse of information about resources on storytelling and new media.

The Center for Digital Storytelling can be found on-line at http://www.storycenter.org