Friday, May 2, 2014

Evaluation of the story telling process

Story telling

            The process of story can either be easy or complicated depending on the person.  When sharing a personal story it can be tricky how to convey your message in the best way. One especially hard part is making the story shorter when it is so personal and close to your heart. Through the story telling process of sharing and rewriting to prefect the story you can gain a better understanding of the story you are telling.
 As for my self I found telling a personal story to be harder because you feel as if every aspect is necessary to leave in. Through the process of sharing in the story circle and hearing my story out loud I was able to cut some things out. This was one of the hardest parts of deciding what were the most necessary parts to leave in and what other parts were not as important. The quality of being able to tell a whole story as short as possible can help with pulling out the most important aspects. The story circle helped by hearing feed back from others as to what they thought grabbed them the most. From hearing the feedback I was able to finalize my story.



Processes

            The process of working on a project can differ greatly depending on what you are trying to convey. For the digital story telling project the process of working in a group had a huge impact as to how the final story was completed. Hearing your story out loud helps you to better understand what aspects of the story work and what doesn’t. Hearing the feed back from others in the group lets you know what parts of your story were the most engaging. From hearing what people liked let’s you know what to emphasize and what to maybe cut out.
            Working on a story individually can create a whole different out come when it comes to story telling. When working on story individually there is no feed back as to what works and what doesn’t so you are going solely off of your own opinion. This can be a good thing depending on the type of project or story you are working on. For the second project we worked on the need to work with a group and hear feedback was less. When telling the story of someone else it is easier to be more objective but when it is a personal story it can be harder to be objective. Having the feed back from someone is more important when the story is personal opposed to not about you.

Platforms/venues


            Depending on the type of story there are different platforms that would work better. Some stories could be told through a number of platforms while others work the best with one kind. The digital story worked best on you tube because it is easily accessible to anyone to watch it. Having the digital story on you tube also gives the opportunity for it to be seen by a very wide audience. For a written piece there are many options of where to post it to. For a longer story the best place to share it might be a blog. If the story is not as long you could share it on Cowbird or exposure. These sites are best for shorter stories that have an image to go along with them. By having only one image big on the screen it brings more power to the picture because people are forced to take a closer look at the small details.


            For my self I have liked working with exposure and Cowbird because I think it can change the whole perspective of a story when it is shorter. You are forced to pull out all of the important aspects and leave any thing else out. The picture you chose can also help add a lot to the story. Having the picture be so big gives the reader a better idea of what you are trying to convey because they are forced to take a closer look instead of just seeing a smaller version and scrolling past.

Social media and technology


            Social media has a huge impact on the ways in which people live their lives today. There is no way of getting around it almost everyone uses some type of social media. People are posting things in order to get likes and for people to pay attention to them. Even when people try and stay away social media is everywhere it is even apart of how we get our news. Now many people get news from places like twitter or Facebook, this has become so commonplace today. This is neither a bad or good thing but the way our society has become and continues to go in this direction.

Specific technology


             Over the course of this semester we have worked with a number of different technologies.  For my self I have never worked with imovie before this class. It took me some time of just playing around with all of the aspects to learn how to work the program.  The process of learning how to use imovie was not hard and I learned my way around very fast. When did come across a problem I either asked a friend to help or google what to do. Either way I was able to figure out how to fix the problem shortly.

Conclusions

             Telling a story can be a complicated process but with the help of working in a group this process can be easier. Working in a group opposed to individually can drastically change the out come of a story. Once a story is done choosing the best online platform is important so it is received in the best way possible. Knowing how to use different technologies to create the best project possible that effectively tells the story is important. Depending on what platform you chose can effect the way the story is perceived. All of these aspects come together and make the story special and unique compared to others.