If you are the subject of your digital life story - use these tips

If someone else is the subject of your digital life story . . . .

Conduct the interview

If you choose to do an interview you can capture your interviewee's story in whatever way you want – you can film them, make an audio recording of their story, or write notes to turn into text or a voiceover. Be sure to read through the filming tips below for advice about using a camera to record an interview.

TIP: Remember, even if you only want to have audio in your final digital history, you can still use a camera to capture the interview and just use the audio part of it.

TIP: Don’t have access to a camera? Don’t worry! You can use a smart phone or a tablet to film your interview. Just make sure you prop them up steady so it doesn’t move around during the interview.

Setting up your camera

Choose a quiet space, ideally with natural light and a background without distractions. This doesn’t mean you need to have a blank wall behind your interviewee – an interesting background can add to the story.

When filming your interviewee, put the camera at eye level and get in close. Move the camera closer to the subject and avoid using the zoom. If you’re not familiar with shot sizes and movement you might want to check out Lesson Bucket’s cinematography guide.

Follow the rule of thirds and place your interviewee in the left or right third of the frame rather than in the middle.

Avoid horizontal lines if you can. For example, if there are horizontal blinds, don’t use them as a backdrop.

Use a tripod to keep the camera steady.

Lighting

Position your interviewee so there is ample lighting on their face without it being too harsh.

The ideal lighting setup is to have natural light coming from the side.

Avoid backlighting. For example, setting up so sunlight through a window is behind the subject as this will create a silhouette and you won’t be able to clearly see the subject’s face.

Avoid front lighting, which will shine in the subject’s eyes and make them squint.

Consider using a reflector to bounce light into the person’s face – even a white piece of cardboard will do.

Sound

Get in close to your interviewee so the camera’s microphone can pick up sounds. Ideally, use an external microphone and hold it just out of frame, or clip a lapel mic onto your subject’s shirt. Be sure clothing doesn’t rustle against the lapel mic and create noise otherwise you won’t get any usable sound.

Interview techniques

• Be encouraging and supportive to your interviewee. Some people get nervous before an interview. Brief them before you start and ask them if they have any questions.

• Sit next to the camera as close as you can, and ask your interviewee to look at you rather than at the camera.

• Ask your interviewee open ended questions (those that don’t require yes or no answers) and ask them to incorporate the question in their answer. For example, you might ask, “Can you tell me about when you first arrived in Australia?” and your interviewee can response with a detailed answer. This means when you’re editing your interview you can remove your question so the interviewee is telling their story.

• Try to give silent feedback when interviewing. For example, don’t respond with “that’s interesting” when your interviewee says something. Instead just nod your head and use facial expressions to respond.

TIP: Check your equipment to ensure everything is working before you go to the interview. Make sure you have the necessary batteries, power cords and memory cards, etc.

TIP: Learn to make better videos with these lessons and tutorials from Vimeo Video School.

Create a storyboard

It’s time to review your material and think about what story and meaning you want to share in your digital history. Listen to or watch interview again, or read through notes you’ve taken, and ask yourself:

• What was the most interesting part of this person’s story?

• Did they say anything particularly heartfelt, or were they especially passionate about something?

• Were there great quotes and anecdotes that stood out?

• Did any themes emerge, such as family, friendship, identity, belonging?

TIP: Remember it doesn’t have to be a chronological account of someone's life. It can be a story about an object, an experience, an event or what the interviewee’s life is like now, how it was in their past, or both.

Once you know what the story will be about, go through all your material and put aside anything that is not relevant or suitable. You may still have a lot of material left, but that’s okay. You’ll do further editing now it’s time to create a storyboard.

A storyboard is an outline of your digital history from beginning to end that shows what will be included and in what order. It’s a great way to plan your digital history and will make things a lot easier when it comes time to edit. Start by thinking through the following questions:

• What do you want it to look like?

• What footage, audio, photos or animations will you include?

• Will you use a voiceover or narration or text? Maybe a mix of all three?

• What order will everything go in?

• What will be the opening scene? What will be the closing scene?

• Will it be short or will it go for the full three minutes?

 Some ideas include:

• A series of images with the interviewee telling the story in their own voice or a narration of the story read by someone else.

• A series of images with text.

• The interviewee speaking directly to the camera (with or without images shown at relevant parts).

• Using animation software to bring together text and images and footage.

• Any combination of the above – or something completely different. Be creative!

Copy this storyboard template by inserting a table into a Google Doc that has three columns and four rows. 

Here’s how to use the template.

• Each box represents a scene. Draw a basic sketch to show what is happening in each scene. 

• In the space directly below the box there's a section to add the actions. What is happening in this scene? For example, document pans from top to bottom of screen or close up of Mary talking. In this space you should also add the duration - How long will the scene go for?

• In the narration/caption section add the lines of dialogue you need to record or captions you need type for the edit.

• The final section add the names of music tracks or sound effects you're going to use.

TIP: Remember to include title screens and end credits in your storyboard.

TIP: If you need to get lots of information across, consider using text or a voiceover to give a summary. This is a particularly useful way to give background information at the beginning of your digital history.

Edit your digital history

Edit together your digital life story using software you have access to at your school or home. Whichever software you choose, this step is about organising and manipulating images, footage, music and sound effects to mirror the storyboard you created in the previous step.

We suggest you group each component of your digital history in well-organised folders; photos, articles, music, voice-over, sound effects, video footage etc. Labeled these with credit details or start your own table which lists all the credit details of your assets. Being organised at this point makes editing your project much simpler.

When using editing software and tools to organise and sequence your digital assets be sure to follow the storyboard you created in the previous step. There are various software packages available to edit your project. For example:

• iMovie – Available on MAC and iOS devices. You can watch a range of training videos for iMovie on Vimeo Video School.

• Final Cut Pro X – Available on MAC. Training for Final Cut Pro X is available on YouTube from Ripple Training.

• Windows Movie Maker – Available on PC. Windows has created its own software tutorials for Windows Movie Maker.

• Premier Pro – Available on PC and MAC. You can work your way through the Premier Pro tutorials created by Adobe.