A digital story is a short, first-person video-narrative created by combining recorded voice, still images, music or other sounds. The goal of the workshop is to give organizers the necessary skills to put together a digital story that conveys the essence of their organization’s mission or a particular campaign. This can then be used as an educational tool during events, distributed on the Internet, posted on their websites, etc. Organizers and their constituents use digital stories to translate their experiences to their communities, policy makers, the general public and the world.
In this workshop you will use still photographs, an audio narrative, music, sound effects and video editing software to put together your digital story. You’ll start by creating the narration or audio portion of your video. Ideally a digital story is told from the first person, therefore you will write and record the narration for your digital story yourself. Then you’ll gather and digitize images that illustrate the narration that you’ve written and recorded. These images may already be in existence or you can create them as needed with a digital camera or by scanning documents or drawings, etc. You’ll then learn the basics of a video editing program that will allow you to put your images and your audio together in much the same way that videos are edited.
Organizers who complete this workshop will be encouraged to replicate it within the communities that they operate. The Grassroots DC will provide training and support for any digital storytelling projects that local community-based, social change organizations design. Workshops must be requested and paid for by an organization wishing to provide this training for their staff and/or constituents. For more information contact Grassroots DC’s coordinator, Liane Scott at liane@grassrootsdc.org or 202-608-1376.