Workshop Process & Agenda

In the Center’s three-day Standard Workshop, participants are guided through a complete media production process, from conceptualizing a story to gathering images to finishing a short digital story. Our facilitators assist each participant with scripting, design, and editing. Participants work at their own pace to create a three-to-five minute piece, which is output to CD-ROM and/or DVD after the completion of the class.

Four Steps to Making a Digital Story:

1. Presentation on The Seven Steps of Digital Storytelling:
To provide an overview of scripting and design issues and a showcase for presenting and discussing noteworthy examples, our facilitators begin each Standard Workshop with a lecture-demonstration on suggested guidelines for creating a digital story.

2. Group Script Process:
As in a creative writing class, facilitators lead a review of story ideas or actual scripts, in a group process. Both the general approach and specific editorial issues are addressed, and issues of storyboarding and visual treatment are touched upon.

3. Hands-On Computer Tutorials:
Workshop facilitators guide participants step by step through the basics of file preparation and management and digital video editing.

4. Production Support and Management:
During much of the Standard Workshop, participants work at their own pace. Our facilitators assist them through the steps of creating stories. Great attention is given to time management, troubleshooting, and prioritizing key tasks, to assure that participants complete a final project by the end of the three-day session.

Note: the digital video editing software used in our Standard Workshop depends on the location of the workshop. Generally speaking, the Standard Workshop in Berkeley, Pasadena, Denver, and Washington DC is taught in Final Cut Express on the Macintosh platform. The Standard Workshop in Toronto is taught in Adobe Premiere Pro on the Windows platform. Facilitators will notify you if a different editing program is to be used (on the Macintosh platform, we occasionally teach in iMovie; on the Windows platform, we occasionally teach with Adobe Premiere Elements, Sony Vegas, or Pinnacle Studio).

Day by Day Agenda:

Day One

• Participant and facilitator introductions
• Presentation on The Seven Steps of Digital Storytelling; viewing of sample stories
• Story Circle: group script sharing and feedback, with facilitator guidance
• Image Preparation Tutorial
• Individual script work and image preparation (storyboarding, scanning and organizing of images)

Day Two

• Finalize and record scripts
• Digital Editing Tutorial
• Begin rough story edits

Day Three

• Complete rough story edits
• Explore transitions, motion effects, music, and titles
• Complete final story edits
• Story screening and celebration