Pre-Boys and Girls Club

This afternoon we are to head over to the Boys and Girls Club and help the students with their digital story projects. Some have done their interviews already--some have not. I am not really sure what to expect since I have never worked with a Boys and Girls club and although we have recently produced a digital stories, I know that the nature of these student's stories is much different than then natures of ours  (the writing process of a professor).

After producing a digital and some extensive class discussion on the new role of digital stories, I think what really makes a story is the presence of a "cohesive message". (If I remember correctly, Julia is the one who coined this term in class so I don't want to take credit for it.) Also, after viewing all of the digital stories in class, I think another important aspect to what makes a story is having a true connection with the audience. The most memorable stories are the ones that catch our attention. I mean think about the stories we remember from childhood books and movies--years and years have passed since we've read those books and seen those movies, yet we can vividly remember the stories they told because we connected deeply with them for some reason. That ties into the question of what makes it interesting? Again, I think a story becomes interesting when the audience is really appealed to that "cohesive message" and some emotion is evoked. (I know for some reason I reference psychology a lot in my blog haha, but there is a psychology concept called mood-congruent memory which basically is the tendency for people to better remember something that has happened when stronger emotions were present at the time it occurred). But that said, I think the digital story needs to also implement the technological features such as music, transition effects, photographs, ect. that contribute to making a strong final product.

So this afternoon, after meeting the student I am going to be working with, I think I'll start by just trying to get the student to talk about what they want to say in their story and maybe even why they chose the person they did. I bet a lot of the students chose someone close to them but haven't thought as to why that person was the one to focus on so maybe that can help generate ideas for an interview if they have yet to conduct their interview. From personal experience, I chose to take a central message and turn it into a digital story but after watching all of the other digital stories in class, I definitely think either strategy can produce a great digital story. As far as how to go about conveying the personality of the person interviewed, how to take lots of information and shape it into a story, and how to chose what central message to take across, and all that stuff--in my opinion, I really think it all just comes down to the actual process. I think as we get working, new ideas come about naturally. I am the kind of person who can make a plan and follow it but when making my digital story, I realized that doing that was actually hurting me. I think when working with the student this afternoon and allowing them an open opportunity to just brain storm will be most beneficial in the end for this type of project.