I Choose Lemonade

Digital Storytelling is a whole new way to communicate my story in three to five minutes, one topic at a time. My story would use my voice and I decided it should also have my artwork and photography for all of the images. I said yes to the idea, I would make the time to do the editing, given my meeting schedule was a bit lighter at the time.

I was curious, excited to try something new, and ready for a challenge, I thought. I wondered how strangers could come together as a group and work together. We ended up with nine storytellers who all suffered with chronic pain. That was our common ground, and it proved to be the perfect patch of common ground for all of us to gather on, because what occurred among this group of mostly strangers, with different backgrounds, ages, technical skills, writing styles, and vastly different stories, was magic. There was such honest and open acceptance and support for each other that, although we never met in person, I miss each member of the group in different ways. I miss the warmth, caring, understanding, humour, encouragement, excitement, and because we shared pain that had and is still altering our past, present and future in so many ways. We shared painful truths and common threads, a tapestry of Chronic Pain and Identity.

In addition to each of us creating a digital video story, we would also be part of a research project, as Patient Researchers, if we chose to be. When we had completed the stories and begun the research portion, it was time to move on to the video creation. Many of the group were well versed in video editing or at least familiar with the processes and so their ducks all lined up and worked very well together. Sometimes it felt like I was a flightless imposter saying quack and treading water while trying to edit the pictures and voice together on We Video, the professional version. This fake duck got to know Mr. Google very well. I kept asking him to find easy tutorials for the special effects I envisioned in my head but had no idea how to execute. Anyway, many hours later, my digital story was complete.

Watch my story here: https://www.wevideo.com/view/3874644121

If you watched my story, thank you, I hope it resonated with you on some level, and if it did not, that is okay too, as one of the other eight stories surely will and the plan is to gather them into a collection and have them available to view.

My journey through the six group sessions, and three private office hours flew by. At the beginning, I wondered how we could do it in so little time. That answer is easy. We had two inspiring leaders from AbSPORU and a passionate young student researcher who often underestimated her contributions and part in our collective finished product. All three of them brought out the best in me, and not once did they suggest a better way to do or say anything. Through teaching and encouragement, I learned more than I thought possible about video editing and digital storytelling.

In the first lesson I learned that it was possible to bring a group of strangers together and in one two-hour meeting have them agree on an overarching theme for all of our stories. I was amazed by every one of the participants insights. They are an awe-inspiring group!

In the first office hour we recorded my voice telling the story. Writing was not the most challenging part for me. Following a script I had written was not easy though. I am used to talking to groups of people, but with notes, not a script. We recorded it twice, but I liked the first one better so we had time to talk about the technical aspect of video editing. That scared me, a lot. I have never, before this project tried anything remotely like it. In the third to fifth group session, I did a lot of note taking about the We Video program and how to maneuver through it and make it do the magic. My notes were less than complete, but Mr. Google filled in the missing pieces.

The second office hour was all about the visual component and I had chosen all of my own work to illustrate the story with. There was more teaching about video editing and me explaining why I chose certain pictures and only one sound. I was encouraged to do the story the way I saw it, and Mr. Google and I had another late night looking at tutorials.

There is one feature in We Video that I found particularly useful. There was a go-back button to fix mistakes, but sometimes whole sections disappeared and pictures ended up upside down.You could hit it as many times as you needed to get back to your starting point. I really appreciated that button!

If any of you who read this ever have the chance to take the program on Digital Storytelling offered by AbSPORU (Digital Story Telling – Alberta Strategy for Patient Oriented Research SUPPORT Unit (AbSPORU)), I encourage you to try it. It opened a whole new world of possibilities for me. I had never imagined my story or rather a small part of my personal journey with chronic pain as a video, but telling it and showing it are not anywhere close to the same. The impact of stories with the voice of the storyteller and images that fit and show more depth than just voice can is inspiring. I was awed by the other storytellers’ videos. In session six, we watched each others’ videos, and I needed a box of tissues. I have never been so profoundly moved by eight short videos.