Reflections on “Turning 50”
Keta R. Paulson
Psych 767
“Turning 50” is a short digital story (review) about my experience climbing Mt. Shasta in honor of my 50th birthday. It describes some of the physical encounters and emotionals that I observed during the climb.
I created this piece not only to inform my readers about the climb, and its’ difficult challenges, but also to communicate the pride I felt in executing the climb. I wanted to share the experience with those who watched my story.
With the use of images I believe I accomplished my goal in giving my readers an experience of the climb beyond the simple words that I used to describe it. My obsessive compulsive disorder comes out when I’m looking for on-line images (i.e. Google and Getty) as I enjoy the sense of finding just the right shot to assist in communicating the meaning of my words. Doing so took many hours of sifting through various images and web sites.
I chose to use images for this digital story rather than an actual video of climbing up Mt. Shasta for three reasons. First and foremost was because I’m in the process of learning how to create digital stories and therefore, wanted to learn from the ground up. Second, I felt it would take more time and be more complicated to use an actual video for this project. And lastly, I chose to go with the “picture says 1000 words” idea. I found it more interesting to use the various images that I chose because they actually said more than words. Therefore I was able to express a deeper experience both physically and emotionally of the climb.
Now that I have completed the task of making “my first video” I believe I am better prepared to go the next step and use video clips, images, and, hopefully, music for my next project. It was very tedious aligning the images with my words/voice. However, after several frames I got the hang of it and could actually sense just how long an image needed to appear to coincide with my words. Other technical factors that contributed to my learning were figuring out how to better navigate on my Blog. This included uploading and editing my video. In addition, I developed a better sense of what actually needed to be edited or deleted. Lastly, I developed a bit of confidence in creating, structuring, and producing a video. But, there is far more to learn so onward to video #2!
