Mr. Adams's Teaching Site

If you have already planned your digital story, gathered images, and started adding images to your iMovie project, you are ALMOST ready to add voice over.

1. Your images should already be inserted in the order that suits your story plan. You will still be able to change your images later, but it’s easier to do a good job on your voice over if your images are placed according to plan.
2. Review your assignment’s length requirements. The default setting for iMovie allots four seconds for each image you insert, but iMovie will stop recording your voice when you get to the end of the allotted time for your images. Here’s how to make sure you have enough image time for the narration you’ve planned in your storyboard.
   1. Find the clock icon in the bottom left corner of the last image you have placed in your story. If the clock icon does not appear, just click in the bottom left corner where the clock should be (see following image). Click on it to adjust the length of time the image will appear in the story.
      
   2. Type a length into the form field in the pop-up box. Sixty seconds is the maximum. The length you choose should be within the length parameters for your DST assignment. The EAHS Core Comm. DST should have a voiceover length of 42-84 seconds, TOTAL.
      
   3. For example, if the assignment requirements say “60-90 seconds long,” it would be wise to add enough length to make your story 90 seconds long, so that your voice over does not get interrupted while you are recording it.
3. Practice your voice over with a timer or stopwatch. Have a partner or classmate listen and give you feedback on your clarity, tone, and speed.

   Before you may add voice over, you must practice reading your script out loud, until you can read it straight through, with some expression in your voice, without stumbling on words or making other mistakes. Plan on practicing it 6-10 times before beginning recording.

4. Find a quiet place with no distractions. You must record your story straight through with no mistakes and no audio editing later, so you need to have no distracting noises in the background when you record. Ask your teacher if there are microphones available to improve sound quality.
5. Click on the voiceover icon in the middle of the iMovie interface. It looks like a little microphone.
   
6. Be sure that NO images are selected (outlined in yellow). Click just before the first image to start recording.
   
   iMovie will count you down “3-2-1 … recording” in the preview window in the top right.
7. Begin your voice over. Speak loudly, clearly, consistently, and calmly throughout the storyboard. Do not worry about the lengths of the images, yet. Once your narration is complete, tap the space bar to stop the recording. Your voice over will appear as a colored bar along with your images.
   
   Expect your voice over to require multiple (perhaps many) attempts. Even when you read through your story smoothly, you may not like your pacing, or you may discover that there is an erroneous background noise that you hadn’t heard. Be patient and start over if you are not satisfied with your recording.If your recording is not satisfactory, click on its colored bar and click the “delete” key on your keyboard. If your recording is satisfactory, click on the microphone button again to exit the voice over mode.
8. Line up your images with your voice over by adjusting the length (see #2 above) of the first image to end it when the second one should appear. You’ll need to listen to your voice over while watching the images, and it may take a couple tries for each image. After the first image, move on to the second, and continue as such until all of your images line up with the narration. If you add more images after this step, you’ll need to adjust the timing again.

It’s time to move on to creating text slides.