Category: Storying

Real News for iPads and Filmmakers?

It goes way beyond guys using iPads to read e-mails, rehearse scripts, and watch demo reels. Here’s how…

I am getting to the point where I yawn when I read another article about how the iPad is taking over some new industry niche. Are there still people for whom it’s news that people in Hollywood are embracing iPads? I guess this article in the NY Times: Pitching Movies or Filming Shows, Hollywood Is Hooked on iPads is still news to some people.

Stephen Elliot, author of "Adderall Diaries" on iPad

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a filmmaker and I love my iPad. But I think the real news goes way beyond guys using iPads to read e-mails, rehearse scripts, and watch demo reels. Another article in the NY Times got me thinking much more about the paradigm shift brought on by mobile devices – and it wasn’t even talking about films. Here’s the article in the NY Times: Blurring the Line Between Apps and Books.

The article describes some new book publishing paradigms that have come out of what I think of as a synergy between e-books and social media. What authors are now able to do is publish their work in apps rather than ‘traditional’ e-book formats. By ‘traditional’, I mean Kindle, Nook, and the like. By making the book an app – a standalone application rather than part of an e-reader library – they are able to connect more solidly with their readers. They can do things like add conversation groups directly to the book in the app, rather than on scattered web sites and blogs. They can connect with reader fans to let them know what they are working on, etc. Especially for authors who write for smaller ‘tribes’ of readers (not the NY Times Bestseller authors) it means they have a way to understand and connect with their readers and vice versa.

For a filmmaker, what’s more exciting, guys reading scripts on iPads, or the potential for filmmakers (like the authors in the second article) distributing their work in a way that gathers a community around them? I was reading the article this morning and imagining a small consortium of filmmakers who produce films of a similar genre – let’s say short thrillers. What if they got together and wrote an app to deliver their films and connect with their audiences? The app gives them connection and control that other on-line delivery methods don’t. Maybe this is happening but I know mostly about the various web communities who are trying this.

Touching Stories from Tool

I did download an app that is a set of short films called: Touching Stories that brings together four short films by a group of filmmakers. Perhaps this is the kind of thing that will become more common. It got some press when it was released earlier this year, but not much. Their shtick is interactive movies. They work OK, but I wasn’t overwhelmed by them to the point I’d want to become a fan or anything. I think some of the filmmakers have real talent, but these films felt like novelties. And, the app didn’t take the important step to gather followers or begin conversation or connection. I think that was a missed opportunity.

What would you do if you could distribute your film as an app rather than merely a download or DVD? What opportunities would that present?

Fingerprints of God in ‘Secular’ Film – Article

Can we find the fingerprints of God in the stories of our culture?

There is a great book by Don Richardson called “Eternity In Their Hearts” that talks about the ways every culture has remnants of God’s truth remaining from creation. The book approaches the subject from a point-of-view of cross-cultural missions, but I find that it helps me to think about how my own multi-faceted culture also bears the fingerprints of God in its stories, even if God is rejected on the surface.

TEG PosterOur film, The Enemy God, tells the story of the Yanomamö people in the Amazon and  how there were seeds of truth about God present in their own traditional stories. However, these truths were twisted until they became a curse to the people.

Rather than merely react and shun the creative work of our culture, is it possible to use the stories and myths and passions that we find in Hollywood and independent films to point people to Christ? The article below by Garrett Brown encourages us to look into popular film to see the points of connection, the ways ‘Common Grace’ may be found, as a means to build understanding and relationship. These conversations, in relationship, may be the beginning of a journey to faith, even if the starting point of the story is despair. Perhaps, especially when the story begins with despair?

Article: Temple of the Unknown God

What ways do you see bridges to conversations about God in the popular culture around you, in the lives of your neighbors and friends?

Nollywood – There is no life without Stories

In this TED presentation, a filmmaker looks at the key to healthy society … a thriving community of storytellers

Zambia-born filmmaker Franco Sacchi discusses Nollywood, Nigeria’s booming film industry (the world’s 3rd largest) in a TED talk in Arusha, Tanzania. He created a documentary that follows a number of Nigerian filmmakers and highlights the unique voice that filmmakers have found in this developing country. His insights into the role and power of visual storytelling are intriguing to me.

“Try to imagine a world where the only goal is food and a shelter, but no stories – no stories around a campfire…It’s meaningless… I think that the key to healthy society is a thriving community of storytellers. And I think that the Nigerian filmmakers really have proved this.

Storytelling is a commodity, a staple; there is no life without stories”

Sacchi says the key to a healthy culture is the storyteller. What are we doing to bring stories to our people? What kinds of stories are we telling – stories of despair, complicity, and oppression, or justice, hope, and freedom?

Tanzania Project Wrap-Up « Cross-Cultural Storytellers

Me, filming Maasai dancers for their music video

…our recent trip to Tanzania was everything we had hoped it would be. We planned, filmed, shot, and edited two complete music videos, with two different groups in two very different settings. And we were able to mentor and train folks there in production techniques that will help them create better media resources in the future.

Here’s a link to my more complete report (on our org site): Tanzania Project Wrap-Up « Cross-Cultural Storytellers.

Ten Steps In Screenwriting

I follow this blog By Scott Meyer on Twitter and often find valuable and practical tips for screenwriting. Here is a series that gives a good overview of one writer’s process.

How I Write A Script at GoIntoTheStory

My personal writing process is much less thought-out, so I appreciate Scott’s way of defining steps, and the discipline and intentionality that is so important for a working writer.