Did ya' ever wonder why the combination of cookin', eatin' and storytellin' was so dang central to our humankind-type ways of bein'? Back before language, we weren't
	much more than clumsy looking monkeys pickin' berries and chasing critters around the savannah. When and how you ate your supper just weren't that important. And since you couldn't do much more than point and grunt to get your perspective across, dinner conversation wasn't too inspirin' either.
	I believe that way back when the development of tool use and language complemented each other. I imagine the scene of pre-historic couple at the end of a long
		day. The guy who was supposed to be out huntin' has just woke up from a long relaxin' siesta. They are hanging out in front of a fire, and the female looks at the guy with a somewhat disgruntled scowl, grabs not so tasty-lookin' root thingy, crams it with a sharp stick, and plunges it in the flames. The startled male asks, "Ugh, like, how was your day, honey?" Cooking, eating and storytelling was born. Over the last five years, Dana Atchley, Nina Mullen and I have travelled around the world talking about Digital Storytelling and exposing thousands of people to the process of mining stories from their personal archives. A few years back we developed a little cookbook on our process, and we share the latest version of it with you here. Getting Around The Cookbook is meant as a progressive approach to preparing and producing a short video story on a computer. We come from a Macintosh-centric West Coast attitude, so our illustrations are very Mac-like, but most of what we discuss in the tutorial works on a Make-Bill-Gates-A-Little-Richer computer as well. Our principal software, Photoshop and Premiere, made by Adobe Systems, is virtually identical on the Macintosh and WinTel PC. As you go through the tutorial, there are some sidebar pop out screens, and some other digressions from our relentless linearity. Refer to the Navigation on the left to keep you on track, as well as the page advances at the bottom on every screen. You will also find some useful pdf files that you can download and open with Adobe Acrobat. This tutorial is a bit graphic heavy. Those approaching these pages with a 28.8 modem may find it like jogging in molasses. Overtime, we hope to lighten the load a bit with some alternatives. We also will provide a number of pdf files for you to download all the pages, and print for your reference. Enjoy this tutorial and let us know what you think. And if you make a story, send us a copy, or tell us about your experience. Email cookbook@storycenter.org with your comments.