What Makes a Digital Story?

Digital stories consist of:

• a narration,
• a series of still images, and
• a soundtrack.

The descriptions below use examples from this folder of sample digital stories created by students I’ve taught in the past.

The narration — You will write a script, and record yourself reading that script. The script will be much shorter than you think. If you type it out (double-spaced, 12-pt. font), it should be about 1/2 – 3/4 of a page long. Remember that unlike traditional writing, the narration does not have to tell the whole story–the images, the soundtrack, and the quality of your voice also share the load of storytelling. Be economical with your language. Note the description of Bobby (around the 1:00 mark) in the sample story “Kindergarten Kissing.” The description is less than 15 words, but it paints a vivid picture of Bobby, with the accompanying image and the quality of her voice contributing much to the description.

The images — You can use photographs you have taken, digital drawings you have made, or stock images to provide the visuals for the digital story. Note that there is lots of opportunity to inject personality into your story with the images, particularly if you make them yourself. Some digital stories use basic MS-Paint drawings to tell the story (“Kindergarten Kissing,” for example), and they are often quite successful. Others use collage-style images (“The Very Lonely Rabbit” <– note: this one is great looking, but very sad). “T-shirts” uses a built-in computer camera for its visuals. But, of course, you can do a great job using stock images (see “Yes_No_Maybe” for example). If you do use stock images, make sure that you include closing credits that list where the images came from.

A common question is “How many images should I use?” The answer depends on a number of factors, of course, but the general rule of thumb is that you don’t want any image to linger too long, unless there is a good reason to do so. “Kindergarten Kissing” is a good digital story, but I would argue that it could use more images. “Yes_No_Maybe” feels about right to me.

The soundtrack — Many people don’t realize how much soundtracks are used in movies and TV shows to help create mood (see MD101: Sound Mixing for more on this concept). Choose a piece or pieces of music that help to evoke emotion in your audience. I recommend using instrumental-only music; music with vocals can be very hard to manage (the vocals can clash with the narration and the content of the vocals have to match the story you’re trying to tell). This is a good place to find audio.