Miss Mercee Me: {I AM A MOVIE MAKER!!!}

So, I made a movie. Yes, I did! BIG DEAL ALERT!

Digital Storytelling is something I have never done, so my new experience was pretty interesting. Read all about it.

I love to think of stories and write stories and tell stories. I love to draw and create. You'd think mixing all of that together, throwing in a dash of technology, and putting it in the School Project oven would be easy as pie;)

BUT

I underestimated the detail and time you need to devote in order to come out with a presentable digital storytelling piece. First, we had to create a story map. This is like the guideline basically every story has: an introduction to characters and their normal lives, a challenge or enemy that the character must defeat or overcome, and the conclusion and resolution to normal life or better life. All, of course, revolving around the moral. In writing any story I had every written previously, I never once had to write a story map first. So, I thought: "I'll just write the story map after I write my story!"

NO. NO. NO.

I ended up writing a small library of stories, unsatisfied with all of them! So, I finally decided to write the story map first. Take a look at my story map!

Part 2 was to write the story, or "narrative." This part came pretty easily aside from having to stay within the time limit, which I ended up going way over anyways. HERE is the final draft of my story, The Rattle Slayers.

This story was SO much fun to write because I felt like I had no limitations! I could be as creative and off-the-wall as I wanted to, but I later found out it would not only make the "digital" part of the "digital storytelling" very difficult, but also steal away a lot of the underlying moral I wish could have been more clearly seen.

Putting together all of the pictures became difficult as I was EX-hausting Google search high and low for free pictures that fit the story of a little boy with a very active, involved imagination. I did not expect the fight and time it took, but I think it ended up...presentable. With a few hundred re-takes of narrating the story and adding on the pictures, my final project is now on YOUTUBE for all the world to see! Or HERE ;)

Here is Billy getting defeated by Galactic Toad. This is what Billy was imagining throughout his evenings by the pond.