Digital Story Telling Toolkit
Sometimes it can be tricky to think creatively about your wellbeing and talk about it with others — digital stories are a lovely way to bridge this gap and help you share bits of your journey with others.
Digital stories can be fictional or non-fictional (based on real events).
To get started, we have put together a quick guide with a few steps that might be helpful to create your own digital story.
There are many sources to draw inspiration from for creating a digital story — whether that's a personal experience or memory, a song you like or a conversation you've had with someone, these are all great starting points. A mindmap might help you explore the different narratives or stories you could tell, or the different things you might want to mention.
Especially when creating a story that is fictional or one that doesn't stem from personal experience, making sure you have a good understanding of the subject you're talking about is crucial. Learning more about your chosen topic will help you get a solid base on which you can build your narrative with confidence, knowing you have this knowledge about your subject as a foundation. Research can take many forms: in some cases it might be googling images from a historic period, in another instance it might be talking to family members, or journalling about a personal experience to really delve into your own feelings and thoughts.
We all know nothing is as daunting in a creative process as a blank page, so don't let yourself be put off by it! The sooner you start putting words down, the quicker you'll get into the rhythm of creating. It's great to start out by getting everything down on the page: you can always come back to it to make selections, take bits out or add bits in, and edit the whole text together. To create a 2-3 minute long digital story, your script will have to be around 250 words (that's roughly half an A4 page: see, that's not so bad!) — feel free to go for fewer or more words, but this can serve as a guideline for the length you're looking for.
Your story might have been inspired by one photo in the first place, but in case it wasn't, this is the time to gather visuals for your digital story: these can be your own, personal photos, or images you found online. Creating a storyboard might help you figure out what images you will need to illustrate the story by sketching out what will help you communicate your story best. You don't need much artistic talent to get started, the aim is just to get a better idea or the visuals you'd like to use with annotations under each image, no need to make it look pretty! There's no one way to storyboard correctly, your sketches and descriptions can be as detailed as you'd like. Here's a link to a storyboard template (it's super easy to make yourself, as well!), and you can take a look at this video if you'd like more guidance (the video is about storyboards for shooting films, but the process is mostly the same either way!
Once you have your story all written out and edited, it's time to record your voiceover. All you need to do is record your voice on your phone or on a computer as you read out your story. You might find that you need a couple of takes before getting it right: that's okay! Reading your story out multiple times might even help identify places where you want to tweak the script a little. Additionally, if you would like to add music to your video as well, thinking about the kind of atmosphere and mood you want to create in your video will help you idenitfy the type of music that will fit your story best. You can imagine that using heavy metal for a video about your pet bunny would probably be confusing in most cases (we're sure there are metal-fan bunnies out there!). A good place to find music that you're legally allowed to use might be this website, which sorts songs based on their mood (link).
Once you've got all the raw materials, such as images, your voiceover and any background music you want to use, it's time to put all of this together in a video editing software. If you have access to a computer, you can simply use the default editor that comes with the operating system, or download a free video editing application on your phone. Add your voiceover to the editor and arrange your images over it, in the order you want them to be, then add the background music. You can even add bits of text over images, if you think that will help your narrative.
Once your digital story is complete, sharing it in your group could be a great start to putting it out there and receiving feedback or other comments. It could also be a nice discussion starter in your group to talk about the topics that come up in your story. When sharing your story, we would recommend uploading it to Youtube as an 'Unlisted' video, meaning only people with the URL can access your digital story. This way, you get to choose who can have access to it, and can change it to a 'Private' video anytime you want to (meaning only you can view it).
While external feedback can be exciting to receive, allowing ourselves time to evaluate our own work is possibly even more valuable. Take a bit of time to consider the following questions: What did I find out about myself throughout this process that I didn't know before? Which skills have I improved through this process? What would I do differently next time?
Merv’s story from the What’sm Up With Everyone co-created digital storytelling project with fantastic partners inclusting Aardman and The Mental Health Foundation, is a great example of a short expressive story tackling a tricky topic. Visit the website to watch more storie an meet the other characteers, as well as folr more great wellbeing information.
The theme of this digital story, created by a highschool-aged student, is quite connected to loneliness.
Note how they started the video with a black screen without images, which adds anticipation and suspense to the story!
This digital story about dyslexia addresses loneliness from a different perspective.
Take a moment to compare this story with I’m an introvert! What major differences do you notice? Think about the images used, the pace, and the presence or absence of music!
Here are a few extra ideas for you to get stuck into if you still have a creative itch!
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Journalling is a great way of reflecting, and you might enjoy taking this approach.
Many online resources call these “self-reflection journal prompts”, and while they really do make handy journalling prompts, you could also explore topics in a number of ways.
Perhaps you would enjoy discussing certain topics with other people in your group, or friends or family members outside your group who you trust and feel safe around.
Talking to others can be a very helpful way of getting a new perspective on a topic, and you might even find out a new thing or two about your conversation partner!
This video tells you about 5 unusual and challenging questions that you might want to consider asking yourself — they’ll likely give you a new perspective on any situation!
Here are some extra images you can save and add your own thoughts to.
Share them within your groups or on your social media, such as instagram stories!
Click the image to view the graphic, right-click (or long-press if you are on mobile) and save!
Click the image to view the graphic, right-click (or long-press if you are on mobile) and save!
Click the image to view the graphic, right-click (or long-press if you are on mobile) and save!
Are you interested in encouraging your students to run digital storytelling workshops?
View and download this fantastic guide from SOLIS for more tips, or visit this link for additional resources.
Digital Storytelling Toolkit