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Flash

FIRST STEPS
FLASH TUTORIALS
     CREATE FLASH MOVIE (Courtesy of the Lovely and Gracious Mrs. Dodge)
     DRAWING (Courtesy of the Lovely and Gracious Mrs. Dodge)
     GETTING STARTED (Courtesy of the Lovely and Gracious Mrs. Dodge)
     HOT SPOT ON PHOTO (Courtesy of the Lovely and Gracious Mrs. Dodge)
     MAP (Courtesy of the Lovely and Gracious Mrs. Dodge)
     TIMELINE (Courtesy of the Lovely and Gracious Mrs. Dodge)
     QUIZ PART 1 (Courtesy of the Lovely and Gracious Mrs. Dodge)
     QUIZ PART 2 (Courtesy of the Lovely and Gracious Mrs. Dodge)
MINDY McADAMS TUTORIALS (Thanks to Mindy McAdams at the University of Florida)
PROFESSIONAL EXAMPLES
STUDENT EXAMPLES
       SITES
       MISCELLANEOUS
       TIMELINES
STOVES FOR GUATEMALA
USING FLASH TO CREATE A NARRATED SLIDESHOW

STOVES FOR GUATEMALA

Stoves for Guatemala You do NOT need to be a Flash expert to produce something basic like this. Be prepared to discuss in class what would you add to this package to improve it.

Stoves for Guatemala (Houston Chronicle) is a simple three-part package about the Onil stove made by a nonprofit group in Addison, Texas. This stove has hugely improved the lives of many poor rural Guatemalans, who can acquire the stove for only $26.

The 3-D animation (“How It Works”) shows how the stove works, with just a little text. Pictures can be worth a thousand words!

The two-frame intro (“Overview”) is inviting, although the text is blurry because of anti-aliasing. Note the mask-in effect.

Pay special attention to the narration of the slide show at the heart of the package, which provides the who, what, where and why of this story. The natural sound works well, and the voiceover by reporter Jenalia Moreno is clean and to the point. It’s one of those rare examples where a reporter’s voiceover engages us (instead of boring us to death because it sounds like someone reading her own words).

All the content (including Moreno’s audio track) is also available in Spanish.

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PROFESSIONAL EXAMPLES

  • Boston Homicides
  • New Stadium in Dallas
  • Touching Hearts (Herald Sun, N.C.) Photographer Joe Weiss took a still camera and an audio recorder to Nicaragua, where he documented American medical specialists trying to save desperately sick children. Weiss shot the pictures, recorded voices and natural sounds, and wrote the text. Oscar’s story, which is one chapter in “Touching Hearts,” portrays the death of a young boy in just 11 photos, 440 audio words and 200 text words. The still images are more powerful than quick-moving video.
  • Gods of Chinatown
    This has some interface issues, but the drag-and-slide person is always wearing something fun. You get to do more than just click a button. Isabel Chang, the Flash artist, has done some nice multimedia work for P.O.V. in the past.

    • Will Kirkland Winter on the Equator: A flame tree sheds its leaves in Puerto Ayora.
  • CROP: Up Close - Donovan State Prison
    SignOnSanDiego.com published this Flash documentary, which features audio-narrated still images mixed with video clips plus text.

STUDENT EXAMPLES: TIMELINES

STUDENT EXAMPLES: MISCELLANEOUS

STUDENT EXAMPLES: SITES

  • Virtual Fence (mini-site)
  • Defining Change
  • Digital Trails
    IMPORTANT! Click on Launch Interactive AND Video. Students at the Medill School of Journalism produced this documentary about the digital trails we leave behind every day with our cell phones, credit cards and more. Two students follow a 27-year-old woman from Arlington, Va., on an average summer day. Watch as she sprinkles her digital bread crumbs and find out who is picking them up.
  • So Close to Home
    Eight journalism students at the University of Florida produced this award-winning Web site about homelessness people in Gainesville, a Florida college town with nearly 100,000 residents. The students had six weeks to research, report, write, edit, and produce a Flash presentation for the Web. This is a really good example of interactive storytelling, where the students determined which medium (video, photos, audio or words) best told which parts of a nonlinear story. The site features nine different stories, mainly in video, audio and photos. This student-produced multimedia feature was a finalist in the Society of News Designers contest.

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FIRST STEPS
Familiarize yourself with the following:

FLASH TUTORIALS

USING FLASH TO CREATE A NARRATED SLIDESHOW

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© 2008-2009 Carol B. Schwalbe