For this assignment, for 5 stars, I did the Storytelling through text assignment. For this, I used my laptop and my phone, which ultimately didn’t let me see it as from another user unfortunately, to text about the Beetlejuice movie. I thought this would fit well with our theme considering it was unveiled around 1988! For this, I used a plot summary of Beetlejuice and told “a friend” about it using the synopsis while the other person reacted to it. I used screen record on my phone to take it, and then saved it onto my phone. From there, I airdropped it to my laptop, and then uploaded it to vimeo. I don’t know the exact way I could have sped it up so that it isn’t as pausy or long, but maybe that is something I can correct in the future. Overall, I’ve seen this done a lot on apps and storytelling videos, so I thought It would be fun to give it a go!

Are you having trouble on figuring out how to create a story told through text? Read this tutorial and maybe it’ll help!

This comes down to a couple steps:
1) Figure out your story
2) Figure out how you’re doing this
3) Find a friend(s)
4) Do the assignment
5) Edit and upload!

For the first three steps, it’s all about planning. You first should know what you want your conversation to be about. You have to remember that you’re telling a story, so there needs to be a point to the conversation and an ending to it. It doesn’t have to be spectacular, but it could be funny, jaw-dropping, leaves the readers on the edge of their seats, etc. It just cannot be pointless. No one don’t want to read a story and realize there was no real reason to read it.

What I did to figure out what story to tell was look for inspiration through short stories I found online. I then created a story based on one. I gave the character names, I gave them lines, and I created a hook and an ending to the story. The picture on the right shows what I did. As a side note, while doing this assignment, I didn’t copy what I wrote verbatim. It was mostly just used it as a guideline to what should be said.

On the second step, you should figure out how you’re doing this. Now, on iPhones, we’re lucky enough to come with a setting “screen recording” where we can record the screen. An Android user will have to download an app that will allow screen recording. If you’re an Android user, here’s a link to 8 different apps to screen record. You can also do computers as well, though that’s not very common.

Once you know how you’re going to record, you should figure out what software are you going to use to text through. The classic is just the normal text message system that comes with every phone, but you can use other things. For instance, I used Snapchat. There is also Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Discord, etc. With all of the social media that is out there, there is bound to be something! Use whatever you want to! Be creative!

Now, this story is told between two or more people. Therefore, there should be a second party helping you with this project. This can be completed alone, but it is more difficult doing it that way. You would need two electronics (like two phones or two computers or one of each) and text with yourself. Having a friend or friends to help would be easier and honestly more fun! Find people or a person to help you with the project, and you can start the project!

Lastly, you have to do the project! Get the software you’re using ready, start the recording, and begin texting! Don’t forget to have fun with it!

When you finish completing it, all you have to do is edit and upload it. Most clips of stories told through text usually have the texting speed up to 200x faster. For my clip, that’s also the setting I used. I also added music ontop of it, but that was a personal preference.

For this DS106, we do upload onto Youtube mostly. But upload wherever works best for you!

And then after that, you’re done! You just finished your assignment!

This is the video I created:

and here’s my blog about the assignment I did:

Lastly, here’s the assignment from the assignment bank:

I hope you guys got something out of this tutorial! Please hyperlink this blog post in your assignment, so I know this tutorial helped you and I could see what you made!