Workshop Preparation

In order to get the most out of the workshop, we encourage participants to do some work ahead of time. It is best to come with a rough draft of a script. Since we are working on pieces that will be 3 - 4minutes long, final scripts should be roughly 250 words. Participants should also collect and bring photographs, artwork, letters, and other flat items to scan (about 15-20). Images may be scanned ahead of time, at around 150-300 dpi, and brought on USB drives or CD. Participants who wish to use video clips should preview their material prior to the class and make notes about which 5-15 second clips they would like to use. Background music should be brought on CD, on a laptop or USB drive.

In addition to preparing your media materials, we encourage you to prepare your thoughts and feelings about your story prior to the workshop. Participants in our workshops often choose to share personal stories which they feel are particularly close to their heart. Facilitators will work with participants to help them recognize their own boundaries with regard to their stories, and find the appropriate level of engagement with the material.

Download a PDF of our 1 page Course Description

Agenda: 3-day Basic Workshop

Day 1

• Introductions
• Introduce digital storytelling with samples of prior students work, presentation of 7 Elements of Digital Storytelling as methods of analyzing various pieces. Discuss with students their own project plans, preparation of material including scripting, rough source material selection and storyboarding. Overview to digital video editing software* and procedure for preparing still images in Photoshop.
• Adobe Photoshop Elements Tutorial (when applicable)
• 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 2

• Digital video editing software Tutorial
• Review and re-write scripts
• Finish recording voice-overs
• Begin rough edit in Digital video editing software

Day 3

• Continue editing in Digital video editing software
• Complete Second Edit
• Students will explore special effects for their work in Digital video editing software including image pan, motion, superimpostions, transparency and titles.
• Final Edit and Review
• Students will complete edit and make draft of final version of their digital story for class presentation in final hour.

* The digital video editing software used in our open and custom workshops depends on the platform (Macintosh or Windows) and goals of the participants. Generally speaking in our open workshops at our Center in Berkeley we teach in Final Cut Express on the Macintosh platform. In other workshops taught in the Macintosh platform we occasionally teach in iMovie. On the Windows platform we usually teach with either Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Premiere Elements, Sony Vegas or Pinnacle Studio.