M.+Steps+for+Project

toc = Steps to a Successful Media Project =

it’s like any art form—you have to spend a lot of time and really commit yourself.” //Ken Ikeda Youth Sounds/BAVC//**
 * “To be really good with media,



Step One: Writing the script
Finding the right story requires brainstorming ideas that fit the assignment purpose and audience. Mind maps can help you explore ideas, organize details, and decide which ones will be used to tell the essence of the story. Whether developing fiction or nonfiction, researching the background and details of the topic will help the story be more authentic and credible. Whatever story is chosen to make into a digital story, the written script needs to be about how this particular topic touched the author’s life—not just a presentation of the facts and information.

Step Two: Planning the project
This step of creating storyboards and image/sound lists is the modern version of making an outline for a written report. The time spent here increases the quality of the communication and saves lots of time and frustration during the Production and Post-production phases. Storyboard templates are graphic organizers that allow authors to visualize and detail out all aspects of their story—narration, images, titles, transitions, special effects, music, and sounds—before actually using any of the technology tools.

Step Three: Organizing folders
Managing all the files—text, images, sound, music, and final product—is an important and often overlooked step that’s needed to ensure everything is in place for each participant’s product. You need a well-organized system for file management, keeping in mind that video-editing software references (rather than actually embeds) the media elements.

Production involves gathering and preparing digital media:

Step Four: Recording the voiceover
Earlier in the process, youth created a written narrative script that will now be recorded into a digital voiceover. Perform the meaning and emotional tone rather than read or recite the words on the paper. The author’s voice should be the emotional conduit for viewers to experience the information or story being told.

Step Five: Gather, create, and edit media resources
Each media chosen decorates, illustrates, or illuminates the message. Gather, create, or edit images, sound, music, and other media with the deliberate intention of extending the understanding and increasing the power of their message.

Post-production and distribution are where you pull it all together:

Step Six: Creating rough cut FIRST and final cut LAST
While your storyboard provides the initial decisions and elements, it is now time to mix the elements to- gether in a compelling and memorable story that illuminates understanding for others. The ultimate goal is to draw viewers into the story and hold their attention as it unfolds. This is the time for revision and reflec- tion determining if the story flows. If so the addition of final effects and titles are part of the final cut phase.

Step Seven: Applause! Applause!
Perhaps the most important step is presenting the finished work to an audience and giving the creators most deserved praise and acknowledgement. Exhibition and distribution strategies can take many forms – from online streaming media to neighborhood outdoor screenings. The outreach strategy should fit the ultimate goals of the project and most directly target the audience the creators hoped to impact with their work.

While the process steps outlined above to guide media producers are common to video production, digital storytelling is not a precise lock-step linear process. It is a creative process that sometimes takes its own path.

Courtesy of: Adobe Youth Voices: Program Guide • Version 2.1 • 2008