Our Family is Growing
We our very pleased to announce that our family has grown!!! We have a few new additions to add to the Hargreave / Yearwood team, on top of our wonderful crew of educational and tech based contractors.
The first new addition to the family is Liz Kearsley, a photographer and journalist hailing from the UK. Liz has already been a nominee in an international photography contest since she joined our ranks and has had a few rather amusing introductions to Canadian culture, having joined us in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, to help tell the Yorkton Film Festival’s story interactively.
3 of our new team members: Bronwyn, Liz and Alyzee
Shortly after Liz’s arrival, we had twins! No, really we welcomed two new interns from UBC’s English Department, Alyzee Lakhani and Bronwyn Malloy. Both have been a welcome addition to the team. They have been getting their feet wet writing on the Yorkton Film Festival Blog and helping Emme Rogers out with her prose. Currently they are busy developing a tween and teen friendly character for Erica Hargreave to talk about in the classroom, and they will be assisting Erica this summer with her programs for Capilano University and the Delta School District.
Liz, Alyzee and Bronwyn Playing with Imagery for the Shaw Rocket Fund
Finally, we are very pleased to have Susan Brinton acting as a business advisor to us on some interactive projects that we are building for the future. With over 20 years experience in film and television, including as an Executive in Charge of Production for CanWest and the Global Television Network, and as a Senior Policy Advisor for Television for both the Canadian Television Fund and Telefilm Canada, Susan’s advice and guidance is absolutely invaluable. We are thrilled to be working with and learning from her.
Emme Out & About Kissing Calendars for Dyslexia
It’s been a year now since we pushed Emme Rogers out from behind her computer screen and out into the real world, and we are proud to see her flourishing in real life as well as cyberspace. Like any proud parents, seeing your kid making their way in this world, and in this case, truly embracing the reality of cross-platform storytelling, is rewarding to see.
Emme at the Launch of Reading is Sexy (Photographer: John Biehler)
This Saturday we will be proudly looking on as Emme makes her debut in Toronto society, kissing calendars for dyslexia! If you are in Toronto, come and meet Emme Rogers from 1 – 3 pm, Saturday December 19th at Ben McNally Books (366 Bay Street). You can also support The International Association of Dyslexia and promote literacy by buying a Reading is Sexy calendar. Calendars are on special for $18 at the event or $20, if you want to kick in an extra $2 to dyslexia. Cash or cheques will be accepted.
Stick around afterwards and Emme will be heading to a pub with anyone that wants to join her. And knowing Emme, she will buy a couple of plates of nachos and a few pitchers of beer for the table.
All in the Name of Literacy
Our sincerest of apologies to the Vancouver Community for any over-inflation we may have done to the following individuals egos, by placing them in a calendar, entitled Reading is Sexy:
- Monique Trottier – @somisguided
- Lori & Richard Yearwood
- Patrick Tubajon – @iheartgudrun
- Raul Pacheco-Vega – @hummingbird604
- Ian A Martin – @atomicfez
- Rayne
- Lorraine Murphy – @raincoaster
- Mark Leiren-Young – @greenpieces
- Monica Hamburg – @monicahamburg
- Ian Ferguson
- Emme Rogers – @EmmeRogers
You see, it is for a good cause and all in the name of literacy. Aside from sadly feeding Emme’s ego and launching her into a new-to-her form of media, the calendar, we are helping her to raise funds for a cause that both she and we believe in - literacy, and more specifically, dyslexia. A healthy portion of the proceeds from the calendar and the photo auction will be going to The International Dyslexia Association to help them get kids (and adults) with dyslexia to overcome their literary hurdles and have fun with words.
As our way of apologizing to the community, for allowing the above individuals to call themselves Miss, Ms, Mrs or Mr (Insert Month here) for the next year, we are helping Emme to throw a Reading is Sexy Literary Celebration this Thursday. Here are the details:
Cost: Free
Local: Gudrun Wine & Cheese Bistro (150-3500 Moncton Street, Steveston, BC)
Date: Thursday December 3, 2009
Time: 7 pm until late
Festivities:
- general revelry and enjoying of Gudrun Goodies (We will buy a few plates for the room, but bring some money with you to enjoy more Gudrun Goodies and some of the delicious wines and beer)
- readings from a few of our authors (Ian Ferguson, Mark Leiren-Young, Lorraine Murphy, Raul, Rayne … to name a few …Emme may even read something from my yet to be finished novel)
- special guest reading by comedian, Kirsten Van Ritzen
- calendar signings by the ‘models’ on hand
- auctioning of some of Robert Shaer’s photos from the shoot for charity
Come, heckle our various months and enjoy a good night of laughter.
And once again, our sincerest apologies, and please don’t blame the photographers, Robert Shaer and Tris Hussey, for this.
Oh and if you can’t make Thursday, but do want a calendar, you can order one here. (If you are in and around Vancouver, ignore the shipping costs as we or Emme can figure out physically getting it to you. Similary, you can ignore shipping costs and pick up a calendar directly from the Canadian Branch of The International Association of Dyslexia, if you are in Toronto.)
The Yorkton Film Festival Goes Interactive
Most excited to be heading off to the Yorkton Film Festival this week with Tris Hussey (from m2o) and Emme Rogers.
The three of us, along with locals, Richard Gustin, Karen Brownlee, and Lee Robertson will be demoing Interactive Storytelling to the Festival by telling the Festivals story through tweets, snapping pics, blogging and possibly even shooting a bit of video. Much of this is very new to both the film world and Saskatchewan, so we will be posting some basic how-to set-up various social media platform posts on Bridging Media. We will also be talking a fair bit about characters on the web there. We even did a podcast with @SookieBonTemps (the True Blood character Sookie Stackhouse on Twitter) that you should be able to find there later this week. For the lighter side of the Festival (or as Emme likes to call them festivities) check out Emme’s posts on Being Emme.
Designed by Mitch Doll
The main highlight of the festival for us is the Interactive Storytelling Panel on Friday May 22 from 1:30 – 4 pm Saskatchewan time, 12:30 – 3 pm PST. Very excited about this panel as it is all about what I am passionate about – Interactive Storytelling. We will be talking about building stories and characters interactively with the audience, using social media tools to effectively tell stories and further your projects, and discuss the future of media. Joining me on the panel is Richard Gustin (former head storyteller at SCN), Gresham Bradley (Director of On-line Development at e-cast in New Zealand), and Peter Raymont (Executive Producer of the Border). Emme is also insisting that she’s going to be making an appearance (apparently the lack of an invitation hasn’t dissuaded her) and Tris will be our in the audience online panelist driving the traffic and conversation online along with Lee Robertson and Karen Brownlee. We are really hoping some of our social media savvy friends from Vancouver and elsewhere will jump into the online conversation during the panel – the tag is #yff09 – as we want to highlight the sort of talent out there that the producers and broadcasters in the room should be bringing on to their projects. I know for sure that both @SookieBonTemps and @LordLikely are planning on hopping into the conversation.
Stay Tuned for more from Yorkton (mainly on Bridging Media, m2o, A View from the Isle and Being Emme)!
Launching Ahimsa Media 2.0
Welcome everyone to the new and improved Ahimsa Media!!
As many of you are aware, Ahimsa Media has been undergoing some changes over the past year and a half, shifting our focus from Traditional Broadcast and Video Production to New, Social and Emerging Media Storytelling and we are loving it! In the busyness, it’s taken a while to update and rebuild the Ahimsa Media site to reflect our current focus and work, but here it is at long last!!!
So what are we up to these days?
Our main focus is on New, Emerging and Social Media Storytelling.
What does that mean? Well, that we consult with Traditional Media (films, tv series, video, books, magazines, writers, directors, advertisers ..etc), Businesses and Corporations to help them tell their stories to the new and interactive Social Media space. This involves building aspects of their stories online in an interactive manner or telling the behind the scenes story of the making of. An example of this would be Being Emme, one author’s adventures in the writing of her novels. We also built the original Sexy In Van City (2008), helped with the online promotion of the Vancouver Theatrical Release of Mark Leiren-Young’s The Green Chain, and are currently consulting on menvent.
Being Emme
As an accompaniment to New, Emerging and Social Media Storytelling Consulting, we are also busy educating on New, Emerging and Social Media Storytelling.
Photo Taken by Invoke Media at WIFF New Media Day 2009
Educational Initiatives have included:
- building Bridging Media with Megan Cole
- helping Achilles Media tell the stories of the 2008 nextMEDIA and the BANFF Television Festival online
- co-producing the 2009 WIFF New Media Day with Maayan Cohen and Danika Dinsmore.
Upcoming educational initiatives include:
- New, Emerging and Social Media Classes and Workshops taught by Tris Hussey and Erica Hargreave
- participating on a panel on Interactive Storytelling at the Yorkton Film Festival
- teaching two Social Media Storytelling Classes to teens through the Delta School District
Aside from that, we are busy as always with a few Traditional Media Projects. The current projects include:
- writing the scripts and education packages for four BC Health related ESL Videos for ELSA Net
- writing the educational package for the movie, The Green Chain
- regularly contributing to Cloverleaf Country Magazine