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Barrie Stephenson

Barrie Stephenson works on Telling Lives, the English regions Digital Storytelling project at BBC. Here he offers details about organising a digital storytelling project. Read about Digital Storytelling.

If you had to show someone what Digital Storytelling was, and could only recommend one Digital Storytelling project to check out, which one would that be?

Modestly, I would point them to http://www.bbc.co.uk/tellinglives.

After BBC's successful project 'Capture Wales', they extended it to England. Would you be able to describe a typical workshop session? How long are they, what do you do?

There are three main sections. Story circle - where we teach creative writing through participation and develop the script for their digital story (1 day). Image capture - where we select and scan in the images they want to use in their film.(1-2 hours) Production workshop - where we record the script as a soundtrack, process and resize the images and make the film. We hold tutorials on using Photoshop and Premier and work one to one with the participants guiding them through the use of the software and helping them with editorial decisions about the film making process. The last day of the three day workshop includes a film show when they invite their friends and family along to watch all the films and celebrate the successful conclusion of the workshop.

Over how many weeks (or how much time) do you feel a digital storytelling program requires?

From the start of the recruitment process to the end of post production is about two months. A workshop follows workshop the activities overlap. Each team runs a six person workshop each month.

Did you have connections or relationships with your communities prior to starting Digital Storytelling? If not, how did you gain trust and build relationships with your groups?

Our projects are based in BBC Local Radio stations so there is a link with part of the community (the station's audience - mainly over 45). Otherwise we do a lot of phone bashing to promote the workshops, newspaper articles, club and society newsletters, arts groups, photographic clubs etc. We hold a public presentation evening which we advertise in the locality at which we show films and explain the process. People are invited to complete an application form at the event and after a set closing date we select the six participants. The trust between those participants is usually built in the story circle.

What kinds of difficulties or barriers to working did you have with any of the participants?

Most Are fine - keen to learn and enthusiastic. Some are hoovers! They seek lost of attention and "suck up" all your spare time. You have to recognise what they're doing and make sure they work on their own at times - otherwise other participants will be neglected. Some need to gain confidence in their literary skills - we use a non judgmental approach and encourage a system of peer review within the story circle to give the participant confidence in the value of their story. We can only take a small number of people with no computer skills on each workshop - other wise the team become consumed with teaching basic skills. If the majority at least know how to use a word processor they can usually offer mutual help to the less capable in the group.

Concerns are often raised about the 'intangible' aspects of digital work, and also the longevity of such work, i.e., that videotapes degrade in a few years and that storage formats become obsolete so quickly. Would you share some insight into what provisions you're planning for these project outcomes? such as Storage, display, publishing?

Our stories are filed as source files (Adobe Premier), Quicktime, Real Media, VHS and DV. These formats were chosen for the immediate demands for different formats. We haven't given alot of thought to what happens in the future - your prompt is possibly timely!

What role does the Internet play in your projects?

All of the stories are published on BBCi after they have been cleared for copyright. The internet is the ideal retrieval system for communities around the world to access the stories - and as more people are connected with broadband links the quality is increasing. The web also allows us to publish additional information about the storytellers.

Are you broadcasting these on television as well?

A small number have been broadcast in BBC Regional TV evening news programmes. We expect more to be broadcast this autumn.

Have you had any response from the participants (or audience) of their reaction to your program so far?

We evaluate every workshop and approval ratings are very high. We invite storytellers back to talk about the experience at presentation evenings and a number have also featured in local radio programmes. It is our intention to establish digital story telling clubs for past participants and to run master classes to develop their skills further.



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