Explore the World of Digital Stories
"A man is always a teller of tales, he lives surrounded by his stories and the stories of others." - Jean-Paul Sartre
Overview
It is highly recommended before starting your own project to have fun watching and surrounding yourself with many examples of digital stories. The DigiTales Storykeeper's Gallery plus these additional websites will give you an overview of personal digital storytelling from many points of view. Take note of techniques and elements that you find engaging and appealing. Also take note of any distracting styles or approaches that you want to be sure not to replicate. Be curious about what makes each story powerful.
Downloading Software Readers
Some of the stories are distributed using QuickTime (QT) while others are saved as Windows Media Player (WMV) file formats. Both types of files can be viewed on both Macintosh (MAC) and Windows (WIN) platforms. Use the following links to update the software readers for your computer.
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Amy's Choices is one 15-year old girl's digital story posted on the Internet to share with other teens the dangers of leaving home to meet face-to-face people you met online. While it is not a movie, it does present a powerful use of voice and media to warn other teenagers a lesson learned: " you never know who that person (online) is and what he is capable of doing. I was lucky." Click Here. |
| The Call of Story is a television special exploring how traditional storytelling may be transposed into a new medium. From personal stories to family stories, this site touches the essence of blending oral storytelling with filmmaking. Click Here. | |
| Capturing Wales is a BBC project to share the richness of life in Wales through stories made by the people of Wales. Ongoing monthly public workshops are held around Wales to help citizens create their own digital stories. Click Here. | |
| The Center for Digital Storytelling is a non-profit project development dedicated to assisting people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories from their lives. Their focus is on developing large-scale projects for community, educational and business institutions. Click Here. | |
| Choose-Your-Own-Adventure's site provides a story generator to read and write your own hyper-interactive books. Some of the features that make this site stand out from the rest of the hyperfiction sites are being able to create writing clans; image uploads; work in public or private story rooms; an approval system for appropriate family-friendly material; private messaging; and the ability to do "room" linking. Click Here . | |
| Island Movies are stories from a digital storytelling contest for students in Hawaii, Alaska and Japan. Students demonstrate their creative writing, collaborative teamwork, and digital movie-making skills. Based on curriculum with a content focus, the videos display what students know, care about, and are able to do while developing an understanding of the unique and significant aspects of their cultures. Click Here. | |
| MoveOn.Org is a website that is using the power of digital stories to activate political change. While it is a more liberal political site (working for change always brings that label), one of the most interesting events they have held is a national request and appeal for anyone to create a thirty (30) second digital video clip to submit for selection to play during the Super Bowl Games. Not only was the ordinary person able to participate in creating a video but then MoveOn posted these submissions for all members to vote on the most powerful message. Child's Pay was the winning video. Click Here. | |
| Next Exit is an interactive theatrical performance created and presented by Dana Atchley, the co-inspirer of the personal digital storytelling movement that has touched many countries and many ordinary people's lives. In the performance, Atchley sits on a log next to a digital campfire and, drawing from a virtual suitcase of seventy stories, creates a unique selection for each audience. Next Exit is an excellent example of the positive impact of new technology on the ancient art of storytelling. Click Here. | |
| Telling LIVES is a non-profit project with the BBC inviting teenagers, World War II veterans, and ordinary people from England to tell their stories. Click Here. | |
| Sadako's Story is a very special website. While there is not digital story, there is not question that the ability to share our life stories and dreams on the Internet can empower every ordinary child and adult to inspire change. Click Here. | |
| Stories of Service is a national initiative dedicated to mobilizing young people to serve their communities by helping to digitally preserve the stories of our nation's veterans. Click here. | |
| The Story Sprawl is a hyperfiction interactive storytelling website that also features MP3 audio dramatizations. Click here. | |
| Third World Majority (TWM) is a training and production center run by young women of color dedicated to developing new media practices that affect global justice and social change through grassroots political organizing. Click here. |