Happy 2012!
2011 was a year of challenges, both personally and in business.
In terms of Ahimsa Media, it was a year that saw much growth in the company in a positive way, in which Lori and I really were able to make some informed decisions on the direction we wanted to take the company. It was also a very busy year for the company, in which we:
- Built the social media strategy around a number of television series;
- Managed the digital storytelling, digital audience building and social networking for 6 TV Series and Films;
- Wrote successful funding applications for clients;
- Taught at 3 Post-Secondary Institution across Canada, including a grad school lab;
- Spoke around the World at film festivals and travel conferences on the digital space;
- Launched a new transmedia travel property, Roamancing, with Emme Rogers; and
- Sat on the Advisory Board for Merging Media and the Adhoc Advisory Board for a new Digital Program at a Post-Secondary Institution.
It even ended personally with 2 marriage proposals in 2-days, but then I guess that’s Egypt for you.
As we head into 2012, we look forward to exciting new challenges, growing as speakers around the world, building in the travel industry in addition to the fun we have with the film and television world, and of course, a little Roamancing (before long we shall have this word in everyones vocabulary, as really who doesn’t want to roamance).
Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you a year of love, health, happiness and a whole of fun, wherever your adventures end up taking you.
With love and laughter from,
Erica, Lori and the rest of the Ahimsa Media gang
Burnaby Village Museum – A Storyteller’s Delight
At Ahimsa Media the winter holidays are all about relaxing and spending time laughing and having fun with the folks we love. It is for this reason that Lori and I take a break from the pre-holiday craziness each year to laugh, be silly and shoot our holiday card together.
Erica and Lori captured on camera by Jeremy Lim, enjoying a goofy moment.
This year’s shoot was even more delightful than usual, as we were fortunate enough to shoot at Burnaby Village Museum, which is an absolutely magical place. For two storytellers, this was a wonderful present to the senses as we were surrounded by rich stories from the history of BC . Talk about inspirational!
If you haven’t been, you must go. Burnaby Village Museum is a living history museum, with historic interpretors dressed in period clothing spinning tales of BC’s history. Having worked in such environments in my teens and twenties, I can tell you I have discerning eye and am not easily impressed when it comes to interpretive sites. Burnaby Village Museum impresses me. It is a place of magic.
To experience a bit of the magic for yourself you can visit the Museum from noon until 8 pm each day, up until January 2nd, 2011. Who knows you may even see Rudolph. He was after all created there.
Burnaby Artist Denver Gillen's Illustration of Rudolph.
After that the Museum doesn’t reopen until May 2011, except for special event openings. Hoping they host their scavenger hunt again in February and March.
New Courses for the New Year
We are pleased to be ringing in the New Year with two new Interactive Storytelling Courses for Professionals at BCIT and Capilano University.
Photo Courtesy of John Biehler
The focus of both these courses are to inspire the participants to use digital tools, such as social media, to make your online communications more engaging, build community and to learn to use storytelling elements to impart information, whether about yourself, a brand or a more traditional story, such as a novel or a television series. We will look at the new world of transmedia storytelling and will explore the development of digital media strategies around your properties. The courses are hands-on and the goal is for participants to choose a project to focus on and build over the 8 – 10 weeks.
A review from a past student:
“Erica has the gift of making a very “technological” subject accessible and understandable for everyone… even those who are not quite up to speed yet with all the ins and outs of Social Media. Her wealth of examples and stories infuse what could be an overwhelming topic with a sense of normality and fun. Her willingness to go above and beyond when it comes to encouraging the learning process, creativity and support is highly appreciated and mark her as a very generous educator.” ~ Ina Stockhausen, April 5, 2010
Winter 2011 Interactive Storytelling Courses:
- BCST 1073: Interactive Storytelling (A Credited BCIT Course in Broadcast Communications)
Audiences today want to access media from multiple platforms: online, offline and on the go. Learn the art of interactive storytelling and learn how to use the tools, such as Twitter, WordPress, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, podcasting and blogging, to tell your stories.
- 10 Wednesday Evenings, January 12 – March 16
- 6:30 – 10:00 pm
- Instructor: Erica Hargreave
- 3 Credits
- Burnaby Campus
- CRN: 77465
- $349.30
- Interactive Storytelling (A Capilano University Continuing Studies Course)
The face of media is rapidly changing. Join traditional and digital storyteller, Erica Hargreave, as she introduces you to the art of interactive storytelling and how to use tools such as Twitter, WordPress, Flicker, YouTube, Facebook, podcasting and blogging to tell your stories. Audiences want to access media from multiple platforms: online, offline and on the go. More and more audiences are demanding the ability to interact within the story, and with the characters and authors. The collective “voice” of media is changing, audiences desire a much more personal tone in what they read and interact with. This personal tone and voice extends beyond the story to the corporate brand as well. Audiences want the story behind the story, to feel that they are part of the story, the creators and the brand itself.
- 8 Tuesday Evenings, January 25 – March 15
- 6:30 – 9:30 pm
- Instructor: Erica Hargreave
- North Vancouver Campus
- CRN: 10047
- $329
The Vancouver Sun asks: Can Technology Improve Literacy Skills?
Last week The Vancouver Sun‘s digital life writer Gillian Shaw approached Erica Hargreave to discuss the effect technology is having on literacy skills. An issue often discussed in the Ahimsa Media office and, it would seem, many other offices too. Gillian’s article went to press on Saturday, and it was fascinating to read the full analysis, and hear other opinions.
Gillian discusses the use of technology in our schools and the changing face of learning at home. Many, myself included, were initially fearful, of social media’s growth, particularly amongst children and teens. Spelling seemed to go out the window, closely followed by sentence structure and even sentences themselves. But Erica makes a great point about twitter’s 140 character rule: “with young people having to tighten up what they say, they are learning to write very precisely, to focus on what they want to say.”
Another educational tool which I had not previously considered is the ipad, Gillian writes: “Today’s preschoolers can read books on an iPad that brings the touch features of a traditional print book: they can flip pages and read it sitting on their laps in the back seat of the car, not only at a desktop or laptop computer. The digital version also brings enhancements, from Alice literally tumbling down the rabbit hole on the screen in Alice in Wonderland to books that read aloud and let children take part in the story creation and other features.”
Photo by Tim Bishop for Weber Shandwick Worldwide
One of the reasons we, at Ahimsa Media, love technology is the ease with which it allows us to interact with ease, and The Vancouver Sun piece reflected this. Less than a day after publication, an email popped into our inbox, from retired news reporter Alexander Young. He had just read the article and found us through it. It was timely as he has recently taken his first step into personal publication by beginning a blog, and he too has been pondering the issue of literacy.
He said: “As far as faulty spelling and grammar may be concerned, the point is whether the viewers of the writer can be understood. Take a look at usage in e-mail and facebook and twitter. It’s a fright if you insist on perfect spelling and grammar. But that, as I see it, is mainly because the people, especially the younger generations, who use those avenues of expression are in a hurry, they have little time for worrying about typos and grammatical niceties, and they comfortably use multitudes of abbreviations and graphic symbols. So cut them a little slack.”
So, as Gillian concludes that if technology is used correctly it can improve literacy. Please enjoy the full article here: Can technology improve literacy skills? Yes, if done right.
And in true interactive style we want to hear from you, do you agree or disagree?
Back to School With Ahimsa Media – An Interactive Classroom This Fall
It never fails, since my third birthday the autumn still means it time to head back into the classroom for me, some more conventional, some a little less so. This is probably why in my mind the year runs from September to June and the new year starts for me afresh every September. With a life long love for learning, the autumn also bring with it a sense of readiness and anticipation.
This autumn is no different, although over the years my classrooms have changed as has my role within them. The classroom brings two most exciting educational opportunities for me this autumn. The first is my second Interactive Storytelling Course for Industry Professionals and other adults through Capilano University’s Continuing Studies Department. This promises to be 10 thought-provoking and inspiring Tuesday nights, in which we learn from one another and all come out of the course with the beginnings of our own online storytelling for self, business or a creative endeavour. Here’s a description of the course:
Interactive Storytelling (A Capilano University Continuing Studies Course)
The face of media is rapidly changing. Join traditional and digital storyteller, Erica Hargreave, as she introduces you to the art of interactive storytelling and how to use tools such as Twitter, WordPress, Flicker, YouTube, Facebook, podcasting and blogging to tell your stories. Audiences want to access media from multiple platforms: online, offline and on the go. More and more audiences are demanding the ability to interact within the story, and with the characters and authors. The collective “voice” of media is changing, audiences desire a much more personal tone in what they read and interact with. This personal tone and voice extends beyond the story to the corporate brand as well. Audiences want the story behind the story, to feel that they are part of the story, the creators and the brand itself.
- 10 Tuesday Evenings September 21 – November 23 6:30 – 9:30 pm
- Instructor: Erica Hargreave
- North Vancouver
- CRN: 30049
- $329
The second classroom is at the Merging+Media Conference that is being hosted by CMPA. I have had the honour of being invited to sit on the Advisory Board for the Conference and will be speaking on one of the panel. Its shaping up to be an interesting conference, exploring the worlds of transmedia and convergence and how we build stories to cross platforms. It has speakers from current transmedia projects, gaming, ARGs, technology, viral marketing and broadcast media. Promises to be an interesting conversation. Take a peek at the agenda. The dates to keep open are October 28th (Masterclass) and October 29th (Conference).
Hope to see you in the classroom!
The NSI speaks to Ahimsa Media (part 2)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
As promised, please enjoy installment two of Liz Hover’s NSI interview with Erica Hargreave and Susan Brinton. Here, the conversation turns to the unknown elements of applying to a brand new funding stream and our project’s future should the application be successful. Erica also takes the time to briefly discuss the funding changes within the convergent branch of the CMF. Since the podcast went live the CMF have announced an overwhelming number of applications, pushing back decision dates to October 2010.
Emme Rogers sets her sights on the CMF Experimental Stream
That means that Emme will have to wait a little longer to begin development on her travel adventures. We will keep you updated on the project’s progress as we learn more and if we forget, I’m sure Emme will shout about it all on her site.
The NSI speaks to Ahimsa Media (part 1)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Ahimsa Media office began this summer abuzz with application preparations for The Canada Media Fund’s (CMF) first ever Experimental Funding Stream. As the printer fell silent, the regular working day returned and the waiting game began, our phone rang. Liz Hover, Digital Media Manager for the National Screen Institute (NSI), was calling to set up an interview with Erica Hargreave and Susan Brinton to discuss the application process as it related to our pitch. Already familiar with our character Emme Rogers, Liz was interested to hear how the development pitch for Emme’s Travel Adventures had gone.
Unsurprisingly, when the questions began to flow, the topics of industry changes and application insights became so engrossing that the conversation generated too much content for one interview. Therefore, two podcasts were created with the first focusing on Emme, the growing collaboration between the broadcast and digital world. As well as logistical tips alongside an insight into the lessons that we learned throughout the application process. Please enjoy the first instalment…the second half will not be far behind.
Tips for Creating a Personalized YouTube Channel
In July my knowledge of personalizing YouTube Channel pages went up by about 100 percent. Erica assigned Liz and I the task of creating and personalizing YT Channels for Ahimsa characters Shawnee and Shawn Rockett (of the Shaw Rocket Fund), and for Shea, Ahimsa’s teenage character online.
I’d never tried my hand with personalizing YT Channels before and thought it should be easy, just like personalizing one’s desktop background. To my surprise, I found that just learning the ropes of YT Channel personalization takes a significant amount of time and experimentation. After spending many an ungainly hour on the project I thought I must just be YouTube-challenged, and so sought Liz’s help to speed things along. I was relieved to find that Liz – talented as she is with manipulating digital photos – uttered as many expletives as I did while we worked on getting the YT background image just right. Erica calmed us both by assuring us that personalizing the web page takes much longer than you’d think it would, and that after it’s completed, things move much more smoothly. (They do. And it’s such a pleasure to admire the finished product in the end).
I always admire the colours on Shawnee Rockett's YouTube channel
So to save all of you some time when personalizing your own YT Channels, here are some good-to-know tips:
1.There is no real ideal size for a YT background image, so don’t bother Googling it to see what size picture other YT users are using. This is because as you add more material to the Channel, the page will grow longer but your image will not. You can cope with this setback by choosing a background colour that will soften the line where the text exceeds the picture. The width that Liz and I found worked best for her photos was 1300 pixels.
We chose a deep grey background to blend in with Shawn Rockett's teal and deep blue channel colours.
2. Depending on the size of the computer screen being used, the sides of the image displayed may be cut off. So while the edges of the image may show up on your screen, they may be lost on smaller monitors. For this reason, don’t pick images that have a lot of the subject on the extreme edges of the screen as they might become invisible to other viewers.
3. This restriction poses the problem of having a very small margin in which to display your subject on the Channel page. Pushing the subject too far towards the centre of the page will make the image disappear behind the wrapper, and moving it too far towards the edges is risky as well (see tip 2). You can increase how much of the background image is visible by making the wrapper totally or partially transparent. Do this by clicking “advanced options” under the Themes and Colours tab and adjusting the “Wrapper Transparency” option with the drop-down menu given.
We made the outer wrapper 100% transparent and the inner wrapper 40% transparent so that more of the background picture would appear.
4. When you’re picking the colours to go in the fields in “advanced options”, you need not be limited to the 56 colours offered in the YT grid. There are 216 html colour codes you can find online. Enter the codes for the colours you like in the grids to give yourself more freedom when designing your page. Name and save the combination of colours you decide on in the top left field of “advanced options” so that you can apply this palette with a single click on other YT Channels you might personalize.
5. Now comes the easy part. When you’re done with setting up the background and visuals, you can start favouriting videos, creating playlists and putting in a channel description. To display your playlists, you need to click the “Videos and Playlists” tab and select which playlists you want displayed. You have to do this every time you create a new playlist and want it on your channel page.
Under the “Videos and Playlists” tab, click on “Playlists” and then “Arrange Playlists” to decide what order you want your playlists shown in.
You can click "Arrange Playlists" to edit the order of your YT playlists
You can also edit your playlists and arrange the order of individual videos by clicking on one of the playlist icons and then clicking “edit my playlist” (this last one took me a while to figure out).
I hope these nitty gritties are useful to any enterprising YT users out there. Good luck creating your personalized YouTube Channel page!
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.
Bluepoint Wins the SCN Licence!
Saskatchewan Communcations Network (SCN) has always been close to our heart’s here at Ahimsa. They (and Joanne McDonald) were the first to spot Erica Hargreave‘s talents as a creative producer and aired our first educational series, The Magic Backpack. Therefore, we have kept a keen eye on the bidding process of the network’s license and were pleased to hear today’s announcement by Saskatchewan Government that Bluepoint Investment Corporation won the contract.
© Liz Kearsley 2010 Richard Gustin (left) and Marcus Guske (right) of Bluepoint Investment Corp pictured at this year's Yorkton Film Festival with Minister Dustin Duncan and Valerie Creighton.
“Bluepoint offered the best bid,” Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Dustin Duncan said. “Along with buying the assets there is also a commitment to buy new Saskatchewan programming content that will support the film industry and to develop digital content.”
© Liz Kearsley 2010 Dustin Duncan, Minister of tourism, parks, culture and sport, Saskatchewan speaking at this year's Yorkton Film Festival lunch in his honour.
Bluepoint are planning to ensure a community focus is alongside growing as a broadcaster, and the government felt they were the best fit to ensure a continuation of a Saskatchewan educational broadcaster.
CEO and founder of Bluepoint Investment Corporation Bruce Claassen reiterated that by saying: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to operate SCN in the spirit of its original vision, yet with a real chance to grow its audience base with additional programming.”
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