Workshop Blog - Session Six

Hi all!

If you're up to looking for additional assets (music, images, sound FX) on-line you'll be wanting to check out copyright free assets in the Interesting Links Forum. If you find any additional sites please post them here so other people can benefit from your surfing ; )

If you're up to voice recording here are some quick tips:

1) open a new project in either iMovie or MovieMaker and save it as yourname_v1

2) refer to the Rainbow Family Tree manual specific to your software (iMovie or MovieMaker) if you need to work your way through a tutorial

3) otherwise follow instructions in your manual (MovieMaker pgs. 12-13, iMovie pg. 7) to do a test voice record

4) when you have recorded something, plug in some headphones to your computer (even MP3 player/ipod headphones will be fine) so that you can listen back to the recording

5) turn the volume up as loud as you can and listen for any hiss, pops or crackle

6) if the quality is not good you may need to consider plugging in an external microphone

7) please, please, please get in touch if you have ANY concerns about audio quality!

8) if all is good... go for it!

9) Prepare yourself to 'perform' your recording by taking some deep breaths and reading VERY SLOWLY through your story

10) Remind yourself of how you feel about the people, places and emotions in your story

11) You may need to do several recordings - it's a good idea to save each one as v1, v2 etc as you may wish to use different sections from each recording

12) Once you have a narration you're happy with you'll be adding all of your visual assets. You may still need to adjust the position of your voice, to allow more silence... or to move things along more quickly

13) When you're happy with the 'flow' of your images and narration you may wish to add music

14) If you're using iMovie you can import your copyright free music choice directly into your project

15) If you're using MovieMaker you'll need to export your audio track so that you can import it into Audacity. When you're up to this, let us know and we'll guide you through it with more specific instructions!

16) In Audacity you'll add music and/or sound FX to fit around or play 'underneath' your narration. Don't make changes to your narration track unless you are prepared to make appropriate matching adjustments to your images later, back in MovieMaker

17) When you're happy with the soundtrack you've produced in Audacity you'll export the 'mixed down' audio file so that you can re-import it into MovieMaker...

18) It's a tricky 'work-around' but it's the best we can do using free software! If you get the Digital Storytelling 'bug' and wish to make more stories you'll probably graduate to software like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro ; )

19) A Facilitator is available to walk you through all of the above steps... either post a message in the forum for today: HELP! or give Sonja a call... I've given all of you my work and mobile numbers - USE them!

20) FINALLY... don't stress! Yes, it IS hard... but NOT impossible... and when you look back you'll think it was all REALLY REALLY worth it... a bit like life - one step at a time ; )