Archive for November, 2009

“iMovie” or “Photo to Movie”?

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

I’ve been evaluating Photo to Movie from LQ Graphics as a tool for digital storytelling. My favourite application is iMovie HD. It’s not perfect but better the devil you know – and I know iMovie pretty well now and still discover tricks that make me think “how clever”.

When Apple rewrote iMovie for iLife 08 it presented a host of problems for digital storytellers. The most obvious one is the total lack of a timeline in the conventional video editing style. It can be pressed into use for digital storytelling but for a new user there is a serious lack mouse functions for stills. Almost all of the digital stories told in my workshops are told by beginners using still images. Things improved  in iLife 09 but not enough for me to start using it over the HD version.

Building Affected for Life? in Photo to Movie

Building Affected for Life? in Photo to Movie

Last month someone alerted me to Photo to Movie. A package written specifically for still images. It has a timeline and is capable of creating something more sophisticated than a simple slideshow by the use of highly configurable zoom and pan functions. It integrates quite well with iTunes and iPhoto, and so things looked hopeful as I read the help files and absorbed the basic functions. There are also Mac and Windows versions. But would it live up to my hopes? (more…)

More Engenious Stories

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

YouTube - digistoriesuks Channel .


I’ve just uploaded the final batch of digital stories made by Engineers in the Engenious Stories project. It was organised by The Universities of Salford and Southampton and funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. I held workshops in Salford, Bradford, York, Birmingham and Southampton where a wide range of people told an equally varied selection of stories.

In addition, school children at Bittern Park School in Southampton created stories which have been used internally although not published.

I have watched all of these stories as they have been uploading and they are, as always, even better for watching them again. My personal thanks to all of the participants for their hard work in making these digital stories and now I hope they will inspire young people, and some not so young, to consider a career in engineering. As someone who began life as a Broadcast Technician with the BBC I was not a little envious of the work these people have devoted their lives to. Whilst I was taking a path of journalism and broadcasting they were solving engineering problems and turning ideas into practical solutions. We all make our choices, but I can still look longingly at a path I might have followed if other callings hadn’t come my way. Running these workshops reminded me that I still get a buzz from science and technology.

Please go to the digistoriesuk YouTube channel and watch these stories.

Testing new software for digistories

Friday, November 6th, 2009

LQ Graphics Photo to Movie.

I’m testing this software for use in my workshops. It’s available in Mac and Windows versions. There’s a timeline and it works under Snow Leopard. With no sign of a fix for iMovie 6 under Snow Leopard and the download no longer available on the Apple website, I have to do something. So what are the choices?

iMovie ‘09 – limited still image functions

Final Cut Express 4 – complicated for first time users

Photo to Movie – under test

If you have any experience of using this software or suggestions of other software I would value hearing about it.

Culture Shock records ordinary lives in North East

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Culture Shock records ordinary lives in North East

By Culture24 staff | 28 October 2009

Culture Shock particip[ants editing their digital story(Above) Culture Shock participants editing their digital story. Photograph courtesy Culture Shock

A project in the North East is allowing local people to contribute records of their own lives to the permanent collections of the region’s museums and galleries.

Culture Shock aims to help visitors create 1,000 ‘mini-movies’ in the course of some 100 digital storytelling workshops.

via Culture Shock records ordinary lives in North East | Culture24.