As a broadcasting teacher I am always trying to find technology to move students into the future. With that being said in broadcasting there is a four step process in creating any production and the first step is preproduction. Preproduction is the most important step in the process of creating. For example going on a road trip without a roadmap to a place you have never been is not a good idea, but instead of a roadmap use of a GPS is the method now. In the case of the roadmap and the GPS in broadcasting the roadmap is the storyboard which gives information on the shots being shot, scenes, actors, and dialog. Storyboarding is mainly done with paper and pencil, but just as the roadmap has evolved now has the storyboard with a web 2.0 Dvolver.
http://www.dvolver.com/live/home.html
Dvolver uses simple steps for the user to be creative and make their own movie and publish the movie via the web. So lets take a look at the tool and the use of it. In my last post I will show you a finished product.
The first step in the process is to create a scene for the movie or in my case the storyboard. You can pick the scene as well as the background to use for the movie. This would be really great if you could create or were given more options for the backgrounds but what is given is proficient.
Once the scene and the background has been created it gives an example of what it will look like and a description of the scene.
Next comes the ability to select the plot of the movie which range from rendez-vous to soliloquy. This can give students the opportunity to create a scene with up to two people at a time but, another draw back is you can only have two people. There are some funny characters to chose from but two may not be appropriate for school.
The next step in the process gives the students the chance to create the dialogue between the characters. Each character can have three lines of dialogue each but there is a limit to the amount they can say.
This next step gives a extra bonus feature not given in traditional storyboarding. Think of this as the voice guide GPS compared to a roadmap with no voice. The step given the ability to and music to the movie. I think it gives a good selection of genres of music.
The last two steps are to create a title for you movie with limited choice, after that is completed you are able to send the movie out to your friends and it also lets you preview the movie and gives and embed code to post it. This lets the students post the video and it would be good for embedding the video to a group or a student's webpage fro teacher grading to approve for shooting.
Overall I think this is a great tool for use in my class for storyborading replacement of the paper and pencil way which can limit the creativity of students that feel the can not draw. For all of you elementary teachers this would be a great tool for use for hands on activities and student story telling.
To see the storyboard that a created please follow this link
http://www.dvolver.com/live/movies-503474
I would have embedded the video but you cant control when it plays :)
Michael - How cute was this. I didn't know what to expect, when I visited the site. This would be a fun activity for younger students, I am sure!. I visited the site and created my own little movie. I found it easy. But I didn't stay around to see advanced options. I am still looking for a web 2.0 tool that offers the consumer the option to make a very easy film for my participants in my action research project. Hopefully there is something out there that is easy and that others don't have too much trouble completing. Thanks for the research on finding this tool.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this post. I wish I taught some type of film or broadcasting course just so I could use this. This seems to make the story writing process come alive and make it more fun, creative, and interesting for students...and maybe even warmed up to shoot the movie. Great job Michael!!!
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