I'll see you in the movies!

I never realized how easy it is to make a simple movie. I mean, all these years I could have been producing "high-quality" video journal entries of my life as opposed to simply writing them down. Yesterday, two co-workers and I embarked on a mission to create a movie for a presentation we have to give on April 15th. The movie showcases our major move from three separate service points to one. I got the idea after reading the article on digital storytelling and thought how much more effective a movie would be as opposed to some boring poster with pictures and text. I mean, come on, who would not rather watch a movie?? It turns out that one of my co-workers is very familiar with Movie Maker and we were able to get most of the movie done in two hours. All that is left is the narration which my voice will lend itself to later this week. All in all, I was amazed at how fairly simple and straightforward the process was and was thrilled to learn that Movie Maker is installed on all of our computers in my library's Digital Learning Collaboratory.

I think back to when I was a kid and wrote numerous plays during the summer. I would spend days writing scripts for my friends and sister. We would practice our lines and work on the set designs (which I came up with as well) in order to put on a killer play for my parents and grandparents. Usually we put on one play a week for the duration of the summer. Some of them I simply modified from old literature books but some of them I actually created on my own. I loved the process of writing the dialogue and setting the "stage" for backdrops and costumes. Even if the plays were not award-winning, we had a lot of fun and I am sure my parents were entertained. I mean, my sister was only 6 years old when she performed in these plays. The major obstacle was helping her remember her lines because she could not read yet. Talk about an actor's challenge! The director!! I also hand wrote and created the playbills as well. I mean, I wanted us to get credit for our performances. All these years later, I still have a few of those playbills along with various handwritten scripts and photographs of our performances. This was before my parents could afford a video camera!

I bring this all up because I wonder what I could have created if I had had access to Movie Maker back then. Instead of handwriting plays, I could have actually made a movie! I could have not only starred in the film but wrote it and directed it. All with a simple program. I am envious of children growing up with this kind of technology because it seems such an awesome thing to have at your disposal. All that technology that just lends itself over to creativity!

Now that I know how to manipulate Movie Maker, I think I might play around with some digital storytelling this summer. Maybe create a few movie journal entries, something newsworthy from my past and see how it translates into that form. I think using digital storytelling as a way to create content is useful not only in my personal life but in my professional life as well. Who knows what can be accomplished by applying this technology to the academic library landscape.

I think there is an opportunity here for some great collaboration between various departments and organizations if someone is just willing to take a chance on it. I mean, if my six year old sister could sign up for a play she could not even read, we could at the very least be willing to try something new.

I'll see you in the movies!