The Book Chook Makes a Movie

I have a preoccupation with story. Most of the things I love have their basis in story: books, blogs, writing fiction for kids, choral music, poetry, improvisation, graphic design, coffee with friends. In fact, we humans have been involved with story since we yarned around fires as cavemen. And as Jason Ohler says, "I know only one thing about the technology that awaits us in the future: We will find ways to tell stories with it."

Over the last year, I have become increasingly aware of how many options we have for sharing our stories with the world. We can tell tales orally, write and publish in print or on the internet, use video and audio - never before has it been so easy for us to express ourselves, and share our opinions with others. As you know, I love to find new ways technology provides for kids to communicate with an authentic audience. I've experimented with PhotoPeach, Animoto, Xtranormal, Storybird, Cartoonist at Creaza, Little Bird Tales, love2read, My Story Maker, Glogster, Myths and Legends, MakeBeliefsComix, all of them online story-makers. I've dabbled with using audio (Blabberize) and video (Dvolver), but never really had time to learn how to use movie-making software.

Pictures and sounds tell stories too. They are fascinating and accessible to kids. Not only that, but there are so many literacy skills involved in creating movies. Looking at the clips people had made about The Spookymen recently gave me a final push. I knew I needed to drag my head out of a book, and into the 21st century. I knew I needed to stop fiddling, and start learning how to make little movies.

Last weekend, I cleared the decks chez Chook, and sat at my desk, determined to grapple with iMovie. I began by sensibly reading the instructions. Ten minutes later, my impatience took over. I decided instructions were for other birds. I would just start.

Perhaps it would have been smarter, and possibly quicker, to stay with the instructions. Hmm, there's a lesson there somewhere, no doubt.

You can see my first movie below. Yeah, I know, don't give up my day job! Blogger also seems to have added pauses which makes it even more disjointed.

Nevertheless, I proved to myself that writing a script based on images, adding voice and sound effects, then turning the images into a movie IS a way for a Book Chook to tell a story. I don't have a video camera, so I used still images. I wrote my captions onto the images, and told the story that way. I think most people would find iMovie accessible, because it allows you to drag and drop your ingredients (pics, sounds, captions etc) into the sequence you want.

What a cool way to involve kids in reading, writing and communicating! If you're like me, and you haven't tried telling a story via movie, I urge you to give it a try. Your kids will learn so much from being involved in the process. If you don't have iMovie, or Windows Movie Maker, you could try Masher, or one of the other online web spaces I mentioned above. When you share your story with the world, don't forget to add me to the list!

PS Here's a link to a great example of a movie, Pink Gloves, that not only gets a message across to an audience, but raises money for a deserving cause. Employees from a hospital got together to raise breast cancer awareness, and this was the result.