sree.net
> teaching
> digital storytelling
Prof. Sreenath
Sreenivasan
Dean
of Students, Columbia Journalism School * 212-854-5979
www.sree.net * sree@sree.net
Digital Storytelling Best Practices
- Think in terms
of "experience" time, not words or minutes (how long does it take
to read all the text, see all the photos, click on all the audio, etc). Is
this story a one-minute experience, a five-minute experience or 30-minute
experience - that should drive everything else.
- Know your audience.
- The story comes
first, the technology, second. What if this were a traditional print or broadcast
story? If you can't tell it well without the technology, perhaps it's not
worth telling.
- Everything in
moderation - don't overdo the bells-n-whistles.
- "Normalize"
your stories - watch out for local words, locations, lingo, jargon, etc. Watch
for "here" and similar construction.
- When adding
multimedia, think photography first, then audio, then video.
- "What makes
great video is really strong audio," says MediaStorm
founder Brian Storm. "If you learn the basics of linear storytelling
by recording audio only first, you can make a more seamless transition to
video later."
Digital
Storytelling Examples
Collections
of Work Worth a Look