The tools used in multimedia or film making can easily intimidate anyone. And yet, it is in the best interests of society if people begin to use information and communication technology (ICT) to tell their own stories. Once this begins in a community, the reliance on mainstream media will not be so acute as it is today and society can develop. An informed society is a vibrant democracy and anything that can be done to help in this process of development can and should be done.
Soon after I began dabbling in multimedia, I formed a GoCreat along with Alito Sequeira of the Goa University. And we were amazed at the simplicity of software that could be used to create some powerful digital films. We are very thankful to Aporva Kulkarni for introducing us to PhotoStory from Microsoft – a powerful and free software (for Windows users) that lets a story teller weave a film with still images and audio. It even permits the “Ken Burns” effect of zooming and panning within an image for some great storytelling possibilities.
We combined this with Picasa – the free image editing software from Google and viola! We had a multimedia package that could be used by the housewife in interior Goa to tell her own story.
Armed with this low-technology and the desire to pass on storytelling skills, we began conducting Digital Storytelling (DST) workshops to anyone who was interested. This is the basic purpose of GoCreat – to help people tell their own stories without technology coming in the way. Or rather, to use technology for the development of society. Do go on over to the GoCreat blog – http://gocreat.blogspot.com to check out our work in this area.
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