Week 3: Activity 1 Blog Posting 1 The Seven Elements of Digital StoryTelling

The following is from the Pacific Voice project - Tell Me a Story

Element #1: Take a look at the two examples and see if you can identify the purpose behind each story. What is the point of view in each? Whose voice do you hear?

**Both are informational videos.  The first example show the tools and steps to harvesting a salt bed.  The second example shows a self-sustaining, "green" fishery.  The voice in the first video is narrated and originates from the point of view of the students of the Pacific Voices project.  The second video is narrated by the teacher of the science classroom Val Welch of the Pacific Voice project.  It appears to be his point of view as well.  

Element #2: See if you can find a dramatic question in the examples for this section. A dramatic question is posed by the narrator at the beginning of the story to create tension and draw in the audience. A dramatic question is usually not an actual question that the narrator poses; rather, it is an intriguing statement that causes the viewers to ask themselves a question.'I was seven years old when I met my father' is an example of a dramatic question. It hooks you in and motivates you to listen to the story until its conclusion. Is the question resolved in each movie or are you left without a resolution?

**The first example asks, "Are you making our island ugly?"  The video shows 3 young individuals throwing junk into an undesignated area in Guam.  It then spans across the area to show how much unwanted junk was thrown in the area before hand.  The resolution is - "Do your part to make Guam beautiful again."  I am assuming they take part in the beautification project but I am not sure.  so the movie is somewhat unresolved by the end.  The second video talked about an ancient woman from folklore who caught so many fish that she did not have enough salt to preserve them for future meals. The video asks for a resolution to the deficit of salt in preservation of food.  The resolution was answered when a goddess appeared and created a sea of salt that could be used to harvest sat.  

Element #3: See if you can identify the emotional paradigms behind these stories.

**The first video touches down on teen depression.  What it is like to be alone, angry, scared, and suicidal.  Definitely an emotion paradigms that stretches across the generations.  It emphasizes that there is help available.  The second video reminds us that our elders are our best source to our culture.      Take advantage of this source before it is too late and you have nothing to pass down to your children.

Element #4: What impact that the voice plays on the overall effect of the story?

**The first video utilizes an experienced voice, which gives credence to the story.  The second video represents a voice of innocence as children sing in the background and narrate the story.

Element #5: What impact does the music have on the emotional content or purpose of the story?

**In the video the music is very representative of the culture.  As a foreigner it adds mystique and curiosity for me.

Element #6: Look at the examples in this section and consider the decisions the authors made about length of clips, types of transitions and sequence of events. Are you able (as a viewer) to fill in the missing pieces? Give an example?

**The pace of the first and second video are excellent.  The narrators for both videos read slow enough that they give the viewer a chance to "soak in" the illustration before moving on the next 'page.'  It is interesting that the two groups have basically the same story but the pictures are in a slightly different order.  The second video is also longer.  They used a few more pictures to emphasize that Tara needed time to design the way her room was going to be arranged.  Neither had missing pieces within their story.  They both had enough sufficient information for their stories to flow.  I am not sure what the missing pieces would be to give an example.  

Video 3 had a decent pace.  It probably could have been slower.  The message was kind of confusing.  It may have been because the images did not all match.  There was a jump between the woman in the story bending over the river bed with her "dream" man and then all of a sudden she was in bed with her children (?) with the message "Dream Children."  I did not feel that the music matched the story either.  

Element #7: How does the narrator use their voice to pace the story? Give a specific example.

Video 1 is an informational story about earthquakes.  The narrators use urgency to emphasize that earthquakes can be dangerous and life threatening.  The are speaking slow enough for the viewer to listen but quick enough to give it an urgent feel.  Since it an informational story, the voice of the narrator is also very factual.  However video 2 uses text for the voice.  And it flips through the videos at a medium pace just long enough for the viewer to get an idea that the school is small and the student body size is as well.