Happy Christmas
Sometimes I make a little film at Christmas, a summary of the year. It’s kind of a therapy thing. Haven’t done that yet, but here’s a Christmas illustration for you and if you want to see a snippet of my year, then whiz to skip to 37mins and 37 seconds for my MA graduation on 11/11/11 at you’ve guessed it around 11.11 am. What a year.
Group 5 presents
Putting the presentation together has been another hurdle. There are still slight traces of the concept content dichotomy.
Today we arrived to make our rehearsed presentation to the group. For me we had finally become a dynamic team. Everyone had the same aims and goals for the day and without conferring had all worn the same colour clothes. Spooky!
Transmedia storytelling is knowing your message, knowing your audience, knowing your media methods and knowing how to work all of these things together.
To bring the concept www.theartcircles.com alive further and make the experience immersive for our audience I even arranged a surprise guest appearance by our art critic.
Spoof art critic for Art Circles project
Presentation, presentation, presentation
The story has won the day. Even if it didn’t get first billing in the production, it definitely gets its ranking in first place in the production folder. The treatment, description and summary all hold the keys to the concept. The content takes its place next, beautifully produced artifacts. The Arts Circles is a class concept and skillfully produced with all the talents of the team.
Everyone has pulled out all the stops to get the final nips and tucks made. See the results:
The documercial
An example of one of the featured artists
And an example of one of the featured interviews
The final countdown
The products need to be handed in on Tuesday. All the research elements have come together. I think that the jigsaw finally fits together.
I was going to trademark Documercial, but it already exists
I suppose great minds think alike. The Independent, a film magazine, were on to the trend 2 years ago.
www.aivf.org/magazine/2009/09/documercial
and a certain Mr. Obama has been using the format.
Back to the radio studio
Since there is no time to brief a voiceover artist I have taken this role. Actually I’ve loved it.
Working again in team in the studio has been fun. One of the directors Christina is also trained as an actress, so I’ve been coached through the process. My intonation checked, my delivery encouraged.
Now it’s hand over to the editors to work their magic. And if Moby says yes we will have a Moby soundtrack!
Saved in the edit
My writing tutor had told me that writers make good editors, in terms of content. This I have found to be very true.
But I appreciate the skill of the video editors even more than I did at the beginning.
After many hours of listening to audio and looking at pictures, the story is unfolding. I like pithy, fast moving images and this is just what we are producing. I’ve hit on the idea of showcasing the highlights of the content in what I am calling a ‘documercial’. Something that can be used for viral marketing as well as on the website and can be used in our final presentation. A three-point win.
The creative energy in the editing room is exciting and bacon butties are fueling the thinking and activity.
Art Circles is taking shape. I keep telling the team that we could have had this energy from the beginning and I have been waving a book of post-it notes from my bag that I’d brought for brainstorming from the outset of the project. But, the upside of this is that my creativity is being stretched, even if not in the way I had hoped. But, hey maybe it has given the writer’s role credibility and understanding.
The editors definitely earn their keep. It’s been such fun to make the journey together. And, the product that is surfacing. It’s looking great.
From the Iphone
I love it when technology works. I like gadgets if they make life easier, add to and enhance. This is my view of Transmedia too. It has to have a benefit. That benefit has to earn its keep, be a link on a chain. It’s kinda like a cocktail, the mix either works or it doesn’t – chemistry.
Content v concept round 2
Finally I feel that the writer’s role is being understood. Anthony Richmond-Turner is a hit and I am being invited to join the editing. Yeehaa!
Again I’ve said that this is the wrong way round, the script should have been created first, but I am taking on the challenge. I’m not a happy bunny in terms of production route, but a product is arriving, its just not at all the way to work. Perhaps a Caesarean birth!
The aim is produce documentaries of featured artists and their work. I’ve made documentaries for radio and produced and written video before, but this way around is almost editing. I can best describe it a video sculpture.
16 years of press and public relations is the skillset that I am drawing on, nothing that has been part of my MA writing at all. My group is like my client and I have to construct their message. So, it’s back to basics Who? Why? Where? What? When? and How?
But, I am encouraged in my writer’s quest. Thanks to Twitter and my blog posts, I’m now being followed by storylabs.us There are people out there who already understand where I am coming from and they have stretched the hand of camaraderie across the ether.
It’s a small world though. I did some checking and one of my new media tribe used to work at BUmedia school teaching screenwriting. The world is getting smaller!
They love him!
The art critic is a hit! He says all the things that other people may be thinking, mixing wry humour with fact. He is just the human face of the project that is needed. See what you think.
This is what he is sharing his opinions about prideinbournemouth.com