by Salil Konkar
As mentioned in previous posts, the GoCreat and Siolim Diaries groups had merged sometime in January to learn and explore multimedia techniques; as one of the outcomes of this, we had decided to learn Digital Storytelling, with the objective of providing the group with a platform to learn and experiment with basic film-making techniques as well as to build capabilities within the group to document village stories in an audiovisual format, something that has been one of the main interests of the Siolim Diaries group.
For the Digital Storytelling workshops, Milan, Gasper and I planned some sessions and we conducted them first over two consecutive days in February (27th and 28th) and then at regular intervals based on the availability of the participants and the progress made by the participants with their individual stories. Though we started out with around 9 people in the group, the number started dwindling as participants found it more and more difficult to devote time for this, mostly due to academic or work pressures, though some may also not have found the whole concept very interesting. We finally ended with just two participants – Sammit and Preeti – who finished scripting and storyboarding their digital stories by April. Preeti managed to collect all the visual material as well, and we recorded her voice-over on April 11. After that, we spent a few more sessions working on her ideas for the film and finalising how it should be made. With all the material that we had on Preeti’s story, I spent a couple of days putting it together in the editing software and producing the film. So by the first week of May, we had our first digital story ready! The group met on May 6th for a screening of Preeti’s short three minute film, and discussed it while playing it over and over again.
Click below to see Preeti's film.
