#Octshowntell #5 Dvolver

For the last day in October I decided to try out another tool for #Octshowntell. So I tried Dvolver as @jobeaz had tried it recently. Like her, my #Octshowntell posts aren't showing up in Twitter search, so I thought I would copy her last tool and tell a pretty poor story about Melbourne weather. The tool was quite easy to use and allowed for three scenes with a variety of backdrops, skies, music and text. I initially chose to do a soliloquy but other options were available such as dialogue. I was a bit confused about how to load it here as you actually had to email the movie to someone befor
re the option was given. But here it is! thanks @jobeaz!





My second go used a couple of characters; they weren't quite right as I had the following person going last but you get the idea!



Now we are all just wondering what we will do in November!!

#Octshowntell #4 Animoto for recipes

For my fourth #Octshowntell, I went back to Animoto to see if it would work for another type of story: a recipe. there are a number of site where you can upload videos of cooking recipes but I have never really liked them or the result. I thought that Animoto might work. In preparation I took step by step photos while I was making basil chicken balls in tomato sauce. This time I loaded the photos directly from my own drive so that I could select them more easily. I then played around with some different formats and different music. Which one do you like best? Do you think Animoto works for recipes? Would it be better with a full length video as opposed to the free 30 seconds?

The first was done with original Animoto style to Mozart's overture to the Marriage of Figaro.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

The second was the same style and music but done with a one click remix.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

The third used the original Animoto style but changed the music to another piece of Mozart.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

The final version used the Color Fold style and the same piece of Mozart.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

#Octshowntell #3 Storybird

As Storybird was one of the sites that I played around with today I thought that it was probably useful to do something with it before I forgot. I really think it is unlikely that I would use this site for work or play again but you never know. It is probably quite useful for a children's librarian or a school librarian and would certainly be useful for kids to learn storytelling skills.

Telling stories is not my forte but I created a short one about my cat Polyxena and her names, called the Story of Polyxena. There are informational videos and it is quite easy to choose a theme or art work to use. The facility to embed it in a blog was supposedly available and weirdly I discovered it seemed to be an option with other stories I read on Storybird. Just not mine! I will be interested to see if others get the option when they link through.

PS This morning when I was on a different computer that didn't recognize me on Storybird I managed to get the code to embed the story. Fingers crossed that this works!

The Story of Polyxena on Storybird

#Octshowntell #2 Voki

I am trying to get up to speed here! I have done my Animoto and I uploaded a couple of Animoto shows to Youtube - a first for me. I have played around with a couple of the other suggested sites but then came across Miss Sophie Mac's Voki and decided to have a go at that. I wasn't particularly creative with it as I just used text to speech and the provided backgrounds. But I had definitely had FUNN playing round and can certainly see it as an eye- and ear- catching thing to put on our library blogs.

The only problem really is that it looks like it hasn't embedded in the blog while doing Preview but then when it is published it is there! You can embed your voki in three sizes: small, medium and large. I have done a medium and a large here.




Get a Voki now!

#Octshowntell Animoto Shanghai April 2010

I am finally getting my first #Octshowntell posted! I decided that I wanted to do an Animoto of my trip to Shanghai in April this year. Despite my having used Animoto before it ended up taking absolutely ages to do as I uploaded my Shanghai photos from Flickr. That was fine except that I had to upload the whole folder and then gradually delete them until I had about 12 photos for the clip. Maybe a lesson forthe future is to upload directly from my own drive. Nonetheless I am happy with the clip and think that using Animoto for travel shots is a great use. I am also glad I have finally got on with this task!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

#Octshowntell

The Flexible Understanding Now Network (FUNN) has set us a new challenge for October, that of telling a story using visuals (show) and audio (tell). Ruth's blogpost gives lots of interesting reading and possibilities of sites to use. We are supposed to do four stories over the month of October and I am behind with the task already.

Last weekend I played around with one of the tools I had used before, Animoto, and rediscovered some short video clips I did a couple of years ago. I enjoyed viewing them and posting them to Twitter. I also realized sadly that though a couple had been posted to this blog others were on a now defunct ning network. So before I go any further with this October task I am going to post them here!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Ruth has suggested a number of tools we can use and I have listed them below. I will be trying to explore and use a few over the coming weeks. But as I am currently in arrears I had better get on with creating something! It will also a good learning for me to upload to my Youtube account as I have never done so before.

Here are some digital storytelling tools which I'll try to explore for a start: Storybird, animoto, xtranormal, glogster, voicethread, animasher, makebelievecomics, vuvox, prezi.

The Atomic Cafe

This an example of a full length movie I have blogged from Youtube movies.

Youtube launches full length movie section

In an interesting move Youtube has added a new section for full length movies. There isn't much on it yet but it is there and divided into categories such as Bollywood, Documentaries, Horror etc.  Apparently deals have been struck with Lionsgate, MGM and Sony in the US and Blinkbox in the UK.  It apparently launched with 400 full-length movies.  Matt Brian over at The Next Web has more details. Given the announcement this week also that Blockbuster seems to be bankrupt, this is an interesting development for film watching in the home.  It appear that you can do the normal things you can do with a Youtube account: favourite, share on Twitter or Facebook, blog. However, they don't seem to come up in Scribefire under the Add a Youtube video.  Well, maybe because they aren't videos.

Hecuba Warholized

It's been a while since I did #6 where we played with Flickr tools but I just enjoyed finding a couple of photos of Hecuba and Warholizing them. Previously I hadn't done one of her, just me and Xena. So here is Heccie Warholized using Pop Art Poster. Which one do you like best?

Mikis Theodorakis - Romiosini (parts 1, 2 and 3 live)

I have been very slack with keeping up with my Greek learning but mashing up my Web 2.0 skills again is helping. Today I have been watching live performances of Mikis Theodorakis, particularly the Romiosyni cycle which he composed from the Ritsos poems. I wonder if I own a translation of Ritsos? I know I have the Greek text but that might just be a bit much for my rusty old Greek. Guess I should get back to Livemocha.

Google Social Search demonstration

This is going to be great fun. I must investigate further.

1960s Australian TV commercials

This is filled with classics like "Things go better with coke" - all lined up in a metal Esky line the model we had - and Graham Kennedy having a gay old time in Gloweave shirts in Fiji! Apparently these were all from an episode of In Melbourne Tonight.

Beatles 3000

This is very funny archaeological take on Beatles. One can only reflect on how this take reflects 21st century knowledge of various forms of earlier music.