Story Definition
I like Donald Miller’s definition of a story: … is a character that wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.
Story in Minimal Words
This is a great example of how a story can be told and there are few words in the whole video:
Starting Again
I’ve started on my third digital story for this year. I have a goal of getting four done and published by New Years Eve. I’m getting behind of my schedule.
This story is going to be titled “Beauty.” Again it will be deeply personal on how God showed me a glimpse of His beauty in an incident last year.
I’ve written the first cut of the story. It came just flowing out. It’s like it is a story that wanted to be told.
I’ll let it rest now for a few days. I’ll pick it back up and then refine it more.
I hand wrote it out in a notebook purchased specifically for this purpose. How do you write out your rough draft?
Digital Story Telling Workshop
I’ve been wanting to make better videos. I’ve known that good technical video technique did not necessarily make a good video. What makes a good video is a good story. This is an area in which I am weak.
The first thing I did was to spent three days at a workshop in Washington, DC, put on by the Center for Digital Story Telling in September of 2008. We went through a quick but intensive time making my first digital story.
I made it about my experience in Bosnia. Here’s my finished story:
My thoughts on creating this
I had a great time making this video. I had great feedback from the instructors and other students in the workshop. We worked hard and we all came away with great videos. I already know the topic of my next video: My Beard and the Great Shave.
Your thoughts on this
So what do you think? I’m interested to know what you think about what I’ve made.
The hardest part of telling a story for me is starting. I’m thinking of the end product and that isn’t what is coming out on paper. I’m learning to keep plugging along and just write.
Here’s Ira Glass’s perspective on starting out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE
Ira Glass on Storytelling #3
He’s right; I suck at this so far. But I’m going to keep plugging at it and keep making digital stories.
What do you do to “fight your way through” the resistance to do something?
This is my latest digital story. It is the first that I’ve made that I didn’t do as a participant of the Center for Digital Story Telling‘s Workshop.
I created it to be an entry in the Donald Miller Short Story Video Contest. (donmilleris.com). He wanted to show that a good story could be told in a 90 second video. So he created the contest had a number of really good submissions. I didn’t win but I was in the upper 30% of the voting.
Let me know what you think.
Setting up the Sequence
We all like to be able to see where we are going. We want to know, before we start, how we will get there.
But do we really know? Can we really see how we will get to where ever we are going?
Our family has a tradition of playing dominoes when ever we are together. Recently, we had a very unusual night of dominoes.
The game of dominoes is played by playing your tiles on various “trains.” The goal is to be the first to play all of your tiles and to go “out.”
On the first hand I didn’t have the right tile to start my train. And without that starter tile I could not develop any sequence of tiles. The sequence is important because that represents a series of safe plays. I had no safe series. All I could do is play whatever tile I could on whenever I could as I had the opportunity. So on each turn, I played the tile that was a right play that turn. And I kept playing. And I kept being able to play again. And low-and-behold, I went out.
To go from not having a starting tile to being the first one out was attributed to lucky breaks and taking advantage by proper play. It is also VERY rare to not have a beginning sequence to being the first out.
The second hand started in the same way. I had no starting tile. All I could do is play each turn with the tiles I had.
So that’s what I did. I played each tile and each time it was my turn, I had another play I could make with the tiles I had. So I kept playing and yet again I was the winner of the hand. Amazing! Unbelievable!
So the tiles were shuffled and I drew out my third set. The opening tile was laid and I realized again that I didn’t have that one so I could not create any sequence to plan my play. But, again, whenever it was my turn, I always seemed to be able to put a tile down.
For the third time in a row, I went out before anyone else. For three hands in a row, the player who looked least likely to win actually won. How could that be?!
The explanation I like was that it was a “God thing.”
I believe that God was showing me that even if I can not see how I’m going to “play my hand,” God knows how He will use me and get His will done. I believe that God was showing me that He really was in charge of everything – even tiles in a game of dominoes.
