Digital Storytelling Experience

When the project of the digital story was presented in class, I was filled with a mixture of feelings.  I was apprehensive about making my own video, but at the same time I was excited to create it as well.  I knew that night that the topic of the video would be about brewing beer.  I had not hashed out the particulars necessarily, but the idea was already ingrained in my mind before class was over.  Later that night, my fiance asked if people would admit me to AA if I used beer as the topic for my digital story.  I told him that since this was our hobby, he would be accompanying me to the sessions if that was the case.
I began the project about a week in advance to give myself ample time.  I am definitely not the most savviest with technology and making a video with audio, narration, etc. made me quite nervous.  Which is why I ran to my tech savvy fiance for assistance.  At first, I started to use Windows Movie Maker on my laptop, but my fiance stopped me and stated that I would only become incensed and suicidal if I used that program.  He then introduced me to the wonderful world of Corel VideoStudio Pro X7.  This amazing tool enabled me to match up my audio, pictures, and music almost effortlessly.  There were also many other tools and animations that Corel offered that one could implement in their project to spice it up.

Here is the link to download a free trial of the updated program yourself or for additional information about the product:

 http://www.videostudiopro.com/en/products/videostudio/ultimate/

The only downside to this was that my personal laptop could not support this program.  I then had to work on my fiance's desktop for the rest of my project.  Which would have been fine except for the fact that his desktop did not have a microphone.  So, I had to record my narration on my laptop and then link it to the desktop.  There were quite a few instances where my narration failed to connect and after hours of working and twiddling with the video, I would only realize the next day that the audio did not save, and I would have to try to link and adjust it again for hours.
 This happened on Sunday night, the night before the project was due.  I had gone on the desktop to download my video onto YouTube, only to discover that my narration audio had disappeared.  You can only imagine the heated and rather base choice of words that I directed towards both computers.  I had worked for many painstaking hours the day before on my digital story, so this was a swift kick in the pants. Knowing me all too well, my fiance handed me a beer and told me that it would work out.  With steam hissing out of my ears, I managed to link the audio, save it, and adjust it to the rest of my story until it was as perfectly timed as the day before.  The rest from then on was smooth sailing.
I was overall pleased with my final product.  The only qualm and difficulty that I struggled with in particular during the creation was the shaky and static sounds that the microphone made during my narration.  I redid my narrative clips many times trying to make that unnatural sound dissipate.   I tried to adjust the volume of my own voice, the location of the microphone, and even used Corel's audio features to try to clean up the audio noise.  In the end, nothing seemed to help and on Sunday night in particular, I was not in the mood to keep trying any longer.
If I had to do this project over again, I would definitely purchase a better quality microphone and add some background music as I instructed my audience on the basics of proper home-brewing. Perhaps I would add some animations or text to the slides as well.  I had also wanted to added a clip of a comedian's skit making fun of New Hampshire and their obsession with drinking, but it would have made the story go over the time limit. However, despite those improvements, I was pleased with the outcome and relieved that it was all over.  I was also very proud of myself that I created my own video and that I now possess the skills to make an even better digital story in the future.   Better stock the fridge with "inspiration" while I am thinking about it now.

Here is the finished product of my digital story on the home-brewing process for your enjoyment:

And for further enjoyment, here is the comedian that I spoke of earlier.  His name is Juston McKinney, and this is his skit on New Hampshire.  Warning: Some rude and crude humor ahead.