Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
I have started to re evaluate iMovie 8 (part of iLife 09) as a tool for digital storytelling. I was beginning to warm to it until I began some tests to nail down it’s behaviour with still images.
Now it’s driving me to distraction – it’s so inconsistent. So my write up will take a bit longer than I’d hoped. On the whole, at this stage, I’m disappointed with iMovie 8. Transitions make a mess of timings, fine editing is tedious and too many numbers have to be typed into boxes when dragging a clip edge should do the job. More later – hopefully with fewer grumbles …… or perhaps I just need to lock myself away in a darkened room to calm down and wish for a bug fix in Snow Leopard for iMovie HD.
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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
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…)
Tags: "photo to movie", application, digitalstorytelling, editing, evaluate, iLife, images, iMovie, keyframes, movie, photo, review, Software, timeline, transitions, workshop, zoom
Posted in Opinion, Resources, Software, Tips, Tutorial | 1 Comment »
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.
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Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Last year I trained several teams of digital storytellers who have since been running workshops for a project called Culture Shock. The first stories (over 200 of them) are now online. The site is smart and functional and well worth a visit.
The stories are, of course, a fascinating insight into life in the North East as inspired by the museums collections in the region. All ages are represented from school children to some who are even older than me!
My congratulations to everyone involved in this project. They all worked hard in the Training Trainers workshop and they have clearly continued with dedication to pass their skills on to other storytellers.
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Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
iLife 09 continued: My first iMovie 09 video | The Download Blog – Download.com
You also have better control over the audio track, the title animation, and the sound effects–you can change them or move them around, for example. But we still would prefer a more precise manipulation. For example, we wanted to match up an exact part of a song to a specific point in a video clip. We could only do this after a lot of dragging and dropping and trial and error. If we had a timeline, lining them up would be a lot easier. For better transitions and edits, the precision editor works great, but we still miss the timeline.
While it seems that the new iMovie is better than the previous version the lack of a timeline still concerns me. I will update my views after I have installed iLife ‘09 for myself – still waiting for the postman to delever.
Tags: Apple, video
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Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
The new iMovie ‘09 appears to have the same serious limitation on using stills as the previous version. Drag a still into the project and it’s duration is set by default to 4 seconds. In any other video editing software changing the duration is just a matter of dragging the end of the clip to the right place on the timeline. In the new iMovie you have to click on a tiny icon and enter the duration from the keyboard in seconds (no frames as in iMovie 6 HD). A matter of trial and error in equal quantities.
I found out about this from the Apple iMovie ‘09 tutorial so I have posted a question on the iMovie ‘09 discussion on the Apple Site to see if anyone had discovered a workaround. In the meantime I’ll be using version 6 HD, which I am assured does work after iLife ‘09 has been installed.
Tags: Apple, iMovie
Posted in Opinion, Software, Tips, Tutorial | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 6th, 2008
Here on the west coast of Wales at the UKs only digital storytelling festival I have connection to the outside world only through my iPhone. Access to the university’s wifi network is denied to all but staff and students, t-mobile supplies no signal to my broadband 3g dongle and the nearest public wifi point is half an hour’s walk away. So my intention of live blogging events here is thwarted. So today we’ll continue to discuss the glorious possibility offered by connectivity, web 2.98, broadband, etc etc and it will remain theory only until I escape on the 7.27 train out of town tomorrow morning. I’ll just have to wait till then to blog from the train and bring these pages up to date on the journey home.
In the mean time I’ll continue to enjoy this festival of ideas and the good company of the delegates.
Tags: digitalstorytelling, ds3, techead, Wales
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Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Can I have a carer please …. for next Tuesday ….. I want to go out with my friends.
Georgina is a 16 year old arranging an afternoon out to go bowling in the school holidays. She has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and she’s made a film about living with her disability.
It’s very revealing. Notice how cheerfully she deals with potential setbacks. Wondering if her carer will arrive because the agency didn’t get back to her to confirm the booking. Getting off a bus with a broken wheelchair ramp. I hope the people with power to change things watch this film as well as the people who judged her film worthy of an award.
It’s not strictly Digital Storytelling, but there’s no doubt the film says what Georgina wants it to say.
Watch it here
Tags: award, disability, film, wheelchair
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