Digital Media Production Course - Create Engaging Multimedia Stories

1. Info + Web Tech Course Digital MediaProduction Anselm Spoerri PhD (MIT) SC&I @ Rutgers University aspoerri@rutgers.edu anselm.spoerri@gmail.com

2. Lecture 1 - Overview • Course Overview • Course Goals | Learning Objectives • In a Nutshell • Your Guide • Gameplan • Multimedia Story Design • Types of Stories • Steps of Developing Digital Story • Knight Digital Media Center • Trends & How To • Examples and Resources • Lectures – Week 1 Contenthttp://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~aspoerri/Teaching/DMPOnline/Lectures.html#week1

3. Course Goals • Plan + Develop Digital Multimedia Story • Design + Construct Website that uses standard compliant XHTML, HTML5 and CSS. • Apply Video Editing Principles to produce concise video pieces. • Apply Animation Design Principles to create interactive animations.

4. Learning Objectives • Plan + Develop Multimedia Story that is well researched. • Capture Photo & Video Footage that is visually engaging • Create Storyboard of video story to be produced. • Create + Upload XHTML Web pages standards compliant and contain relative and absolute links, tables, images and embedded video • Design external Cascading Style Sheets control the layout and visual appearance of Web pages.

5. Learning Objectives • Understand Basics of JavaScript to create interactive slideshow with concise captions. • Edit Video Footage using Premiere Elementsto produce well structured video in post-production. • Create Animation using Flashpresents information in a well timed and interactive way.

6. Individual Exercises • Exercise 1: Web Design – Present Story Outline for major multimedia project.Due Week 4 | Rev Week 7 • Exercise 2: Photography – Create Photo Essay using JavaScript.Due Week 6 | Rev Week 9 • Exercise 3: Web Design – Develop Website with Storyboard for video.Due Week 8 | Rev Week 11 • Exercise 4: Video – Capture & Edit Video using good camerawork and editing techniques.Due Week 10 | Rev Week 13 • Exercise 5: Animation – Design Animation using Flash to communicate key facts or concepts.Due Week 12 | Rev Week 14

7. Term Project and Discussions • Term Project: Digital Multimedia Story – Create Website using XHTML, CSS, JavaScript that contains interactive Slideshow, Video and Animation.Due Week 15 • Discussions – Three Graded Discussions • Topic 1: Identify Key Elements of Engaging Multimedia Story – Week 2 • Topic 2: Analyze Video – Week 7 • Topic 3: Analyze Animation – Week 11 • Students provide constructive feedback for exercises

8. In a nutshell Master Digital Media Production Mechanics Create Something of Meaning • Able to Create Web pages | Image Slideshows | Video | Animations • AnalyzeEmulateCreate • Able to Code & Troubleshoot • CopyPasteUnderstandCustomize

9. Your Guide • Anselm Spoerri • Computer Vision • Filmmaker – IMAGO • Information Visualization – searchCrystal • Media Sharing – Souvenir • Rutgers Website • Teaching • Information Technology | Web Design • Multimedia Production – student highlights • Information Visualization - whereRU

10. Gameplan • Course Website • http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~aspoerri/Teaching/DMPOnline/Home.html • Schedule • http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~aspoerri/Teaching/DMPOnline/Schedule.html • Lectures http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~aspoerri/Teaching/DMPOnline/Lectures.html • Narrated Lectures | Handout | Video Demos | Step-by-Step files • Requirements • http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~aspoerri/Teaching/DMPOnline/Requirements.html • Exercises • http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~aspoerri/Teaching/DMPOnline/Exercises.html

11. Gameplan • Course Content MCIS 507 – Digital Media Production and will incorporate customized content from • MLIS 550 – Info Tech + Web Design • MLIS 555 – Multimedia Production • LyndaCampushttps://lynda.comminfo.rutgers.edu/Login • Adobe TV http://tv.adobe.com/ • Web Resources

12. Gameplan • Communication • Online Discussions – use eCollege. • Virtual Office – use Discussion board in eCollege to create communal resource. • Virtual Meeting – chat, voice conferencing and screen / application sharing service. • Virtual Help – use Skype or Adobe Connect service. • Email

13. Gameplan • Hardware • Digital Camera to capture photos and videos. • Headset with built-in microphone. • Software • Web Editing: NotePad++ (Win; free); TextWrangler(Mac, free). • File Transfer: Filezilla(Win / Mac; free). • Image Editing: Pixlr(Win / Mac; free); Photoshop Elements (Win / Mac; $120). • Audio Editing: Audacity (Win / Mac; free). • Video Editing: Premiere Elements (Win / Mac; $120). • Animation: Flash (Win / Mac; accessible for free via SoftwareAnywhere@SC&I).

14. Multimedia Story Design- Overview • Multimedia Story Design • Source: Digital Storytelling Cookbook by Joe Lampert • Story is learning, celebrating, healing, and remembering. • Most have little voice, an editor, telling us that what we have to say is not entertaining or substantial enough. • Start with a small idea to overcome creative block. • Describe “picture-by-picture” to create story elements. Observe the patterns of words used. • Combine “Analytical” with “Emotive” • Interview / Self-Interview process can help to develop story.

15. Multimedia Story Design– Types of Stories • Someone Important • Character Stories:how we love, are inspired by, want to recognize, and find meaning in our relationships. • Memorial Stories: honoring and remembering people who have passed is an essential part of the grieving process. • Event in My Life • Adventure Stories:we travel to break away from the normalcy of our lives and to create new vivid memories. Before trip, create a story outline of what kinds of images, video, or sounds useful for story. • Accomplishment Stories: about achieving a goal and easily fit into the desire–struggle–realization structure of a classic story. • Place in My Life • Your insights into place give us insight about your sense of values and connection to community. • What I Do • Jobs help to give some sense of identity, people also refer to their hobbies or social-commitments when thinking about who they are.

16. Multimedia Story Design– Types of Stories • Recovery • Sharing the experience of overcoming a great challenge in life is a fundamental archetype in human story making: descent-crisis-realization pattern. • Love • Romance, partnership, familial or fraternal love all naturally lend themselves to the desire-struggle-realizationformula. • Discovery • Process of learning is a rich field to mine for stories, illustrating how we uncovered the facts to get at a truth or insight. • Good Story often comes from looking at the familiar in a new way and with a new meaning. • Stories ask us to reveal things about ourselves that make us feel vulnerable.

17. Steps of Developing Digital Story • Help storytellers fully visualize their story before they begin to write script. • Identify the moment of change in their story. • Owning Your InsightsWhat it’s really about: the storyteller, as the person who lived through the story. How does this story show who you are? • Change came to you or you went towards change - archetype of symbolic journeyof self-understanding. • Owning Your EmotionsBecome aware of the emotional resonance of story. • Sharing your story (idea), what emotions did you experience? • Become aware of contrasting and complex feelings and express without relying in clichés or using “feeling” words. • Knowing your intended audience shapes emotional content of your story.

18. Steps of Developing Digital Story • Finding The MomentIdentify moment that you can use to illustrate your insight. • Once this moment of change is identified, you need to determine how it will be used to shape the story. • If you can paint the audience a portrait of both you, and your experience of moment of change, then you are creating a scene.

19. Steps of Developing Digital Story • Seeing Your StoryDescribe images when recalling moment of change. • Why this image? What is it conveying to you? Is the meaning explicit or implicit? • Literal or direct images are used to illustrate a story. • Implicit image have multiple layers of meaning. • Two common techniques to convey meaning through the use of implicit imagery are visual metaphor and juxtaposition. • Well-chosen images mediate between story and audience. • Hearing Your StorySound is one of the best ways to convey emotional tone through how voice-over is performed and ambient sound + music work with story. • Is ambient sound or music enhancing the story, or not? • Music can alter our perception of visual information. • The more spoken voice is inserted into the written script, the more you will pull audience into story.

20. Steps of Developing Digital Story • Assembling Your StoryHow are you structuringthe story? How are layers of visual + audio narratives working together? • At what point will moment of change appear?What are the necessary parts of my story? • Determine how much to tell audience and at what point.Don’t give away too much information all at once. • Once basic structure in place, the next step is scripting and storyboarding: laying out how visual and audio narratives will complement each other to best tell the story. • If an image conveys my meaning better than words can, how can I use my words to tell another aspect of the scene? • Closure: audience understands pieces as single idea. • How does the pacing contribute to the story’s meaning? Fast pace, quick edits + upbeat music can convey urgency. Slow pace with gradual transitions and extended shots may convey calmness.

21. Steps of Developing Digital Story • Sharing Your StoryWho is your audience? What was your purpose in creating the story? • Contextualizing: if you know who the audience will be and what they know about you, then it will help determine how much context to provide about the story. • You may choose to provide contextual information outside or inside of the story. • If you know presentation setting, this will help you determine what kind of contextualizing materials to provide. • Digital Storytelling Cookbook: Approaches to Scripting and Storyboarding

22. Digital Media Production – Further Required Readings • Knight Digital Media Center • Transition to Digital JournalismCovers major digital tools and trends that are disruptingnews industry and changing the way journalists work. • What is a Multimedia Story?Best multimedia stories are multi-dimensional. • Go into field to report the story face-to-face with sources. • Gather as much information as possible in rough storyboard - outline of the story that lays out the multimedia possibilities. • Assembling Your Story?Describes different elements that can go into a multimedia story and steps and stages needed to pull it together. • Picking Right Media for StoryUnderstand strengths and weaknesses of video, images, audio, text and data and types of stories lend themselves.

23. Digital Media Production – Digital Multimedia Story • Examples • Spilling Over created by students at School of Journalism and Mass Communication University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. • What is the True Cost of Gasoline? an animated feature created by the Center for Investigative Reporting. • The Reckoning: New York Times journalists use digital media to present stories and information about Sept. 11 on the 10-year anniversary. • Resources • News21 • Knight Digital Media Center • NY Times Multimedia • Economist Multimedia