Month: February 2010

While I was in Bateau Bay mentoring for the Indigenous Crossover Lab I also gave a presentation at Reboot: The Documentary Organisation of Canada web conference. Although I wish I could say I have a keyring Tardis, I actually just put online a PPT for the guests. There were a few remote as well as live presentations. Brett Gaylor asked me to do a presentation about cross-platform documentaries, and so here it is:

Check out the main page for great presentations by these wonderful folks: Evan Jones, Lance Weiler, Hunter Weeks, Daniel Cross, Scott Kirsner, Kate Cizek, and Alexandre Brachet. Wohoo!

I’m flying out to mentor at the next Crossover Sydney. Crossover, if you’re not aware, is a UK-based world-leading residential event that aims at facilitating innovation and cross-platform projects through cross-fertilisation. Here is their description:

While TV and film have been dominant forces in 20^th century media, the 21^st century will see moving image content consumed on a vast array of platforms – at a time and a place that is determined by the consumer. Successful individuals and companies will be those who grasp the opportunities offered by this changing landscape; those that confine their operations to a single platform are more likely to struggle, or will certainly limit their growth and creative potential.

The event I’ll be mentoring at is a special one involving Indigenous practitioners, organised for Screen Australia. I’m really looking for to it.

Check out their website: http://www.crossoverlabs.org/

In 2007 I mentored a student in the De Montfort University Online MA in Creative Writing and New Media program. I taught there (remotely) for a few years and now the archive is online. It really was innovative and I am sad to see that it is no-longer online. There will be other courses online I’m sure, now that people are more ready for this kind of model. Anyway, I mentored Alison Norrington on her transmedia story Staying Single (a story she was invited to talk about at O’Reilly). Well, she is a full convert to the transmedia world and has now even started her own online course:

Transmedia storytelling is to fragment stories, offering multiple windows of opportunity to find out more and ‘drill deeper’ into the storyworld. Stories are spreading and migrating from the page and tv/cinema screens to a multitude of platforms, offering choices of how readers and audiences receive the story, participate or collaborate. Publishers are interested in harnessing ‘e’ to give a wider and deeper transmedia experience, writers are now ‘story architects’ and advertising agencies are utilising a transmedia concept to firmly place brands at the heart of story. This is an introduction to transmedia storytelling which is suitable for beginners or writers keen to find new ways to reach readers.

Check it out: http://saeonline.com/course/transmedia-storytelling