Canada Remembers

Thanks to Thomega Entertainment and their Canada Remembers Documentary Series, we are reminded every year at Remembrance Day of the importance of this day, and the importance of taking the time for some quiet reflection of the freedoms and safety we enjoy, thanks to those that have faced unimaginable horrors on our behalf.  Tony Towstego has taken the time to help the Veterans to share their stories, before we have lost them, reminding us how important it is to thank these soldiers.

 

Canada Remembers Documentary Series

Thomega Entertainment’s Canada Remembers Documentary Series

 

For us, these stories have touched our souls and impacted our conscience that much more profoundly, as we spent weeks poring over the videos in the making of Educational Guides to accompany the Canada Remembers Documentary Series. That, and with our travels through Roamancing, it is continually driven home for us just how very fortunate we are that our Veterans and present soldiers have fought for the freedoms we enjoy. As a result, we feel it is important on Remembrance Day to both Remember and to Act.  What I mean by Act, is to get out and thank a Veteran or Soldier, and / or to share with our youngsters the importance of the day – Lest We Forget.

This Remembrance Day, Thomega Entertainment has shared with us their latest Canada Remembers Documentary on Henry Beaudry, the Story Keeper  …

 

[youtube z6yx9OfjWVA]

 

You can also catch their 2011 Canada Remembers: Festival for Heroes on City TV Saskatchewan TONIGHT at 11 pm …

 

[youtube tJcSis1R3ig]

 

Thank you Tony for raising our conscience and awareness for Remembrance Day, and for sharing the stories of our Veterans and Soldiers before they are lost forever!

UNWTO Travel & Media Conference: #WeVisitEgypt ‘Real’ Time Digital Travel Storytelling Presentation

For those of you that sadly could not be with Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll of Uncornered Market and I at the UNWTO Tourism and Media Conference last week on Egypt’s Red Sea, here is a slide share of our presentation on our #WeVisitEgypt ‘Real’ Time Digital Travel Storytelling Demonstration.

 

 

With any luck, we will also get our paws on the video that was shot of our presentation to share with all of you too.

 

#WeVisitEgypt ~ A Digital Egyptian Travel Tale

Courtesy of Audrey Scott & Daniel Noll of UnCornered Market

 

We are Roamancing Egypt (again)!

As some of you may be aware we launched Emme Rogers and Brie Mason into their latest digital, interactive transmedia tale this past summer, Roamancing ~  a travel tale in search of those most elusive of creatures: love and romance.  We’ve been having fun with it and for those of you that are familiar with Emme, I am sure you can imagine the silly shenanigans and characters we’ve met along the way, from being presented with a key to City of Yorkton with the fabulous Katrina German to forever bumping into a few delightfully mischievious Blues Men that have wormed their way into our hearts and our stories. With a trip to Egypt this past December to speak at the International Organisation for E-Tourism Conference in Cairo, Lori Yearwood and I decided that like many of the wonderful storytellers that we work with, it was time to weave ourself into our own tales.  I am glad we did, as I had a lot of fun telling a tale or two with Lucy Duck and the Roamancing Red Boots in Egypt, and I am proud to say I am the first of our team to have done the Roamancing strut overseas (even if I looked ridiculous in doing so).

 

Lucy prepares to enter the Mosque

 

One of the realisations from being in Cairo during demonstrations in Tahrir Square, was the impact of mainstream media images on people back home.  I was perfectly safe and having a grand time, yet perceptions from media images in North America were that Egypt was in a state of violence and chaos.  The biggest threat to me?  Too many marriage proposals.  Here are two posts I wrote on the topic, upon returning home:

It struck me that when we’ve seen images of rioting in Canada, no one worries for ones safety in still visiting the country.  That is not the case with Egypt, as the culture is so different from our own.  Yet I felt welcomed and safe in visiting Egypt and saw how damaging the media images from Tahrir Square have been to Egyptian Tourism, a major player in the Egyptian economy.

 

Hmm … Clearly the ‘flat’ aspect of the bread making was lost of me.

 

It is for this reason that we have been consulting with the Egyptian Tourism Authority on using digital storytelling to share the wonderful and exciting travel experiences that you can have in Egypt in ‘real’ time. I am also pleased to share that the Egyptian Tourism Authority has similarly been consulting with two of the wonderful digital storytellers and fellow speakers that I recently met in Cairo, Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott. Daniel and Audrey are the husband-and-wife storytelling team behind the award winning travel blog, Uncornered Market. For over five years, they have continuously travelled around the world, inspiring others to create their own life and travel experiences.

Together with Audrey and Dan, I will be heading to Egypt from April 21 – 29, 2012 with Emme Rogers, Lucy Duck, and the Roamancing Red Boots in tow to share our adventures in Egypt in ‘real’ time and demonstrate for the World Tourism Organisation (UNTWO) Conference on Media and Tourism: Partnering with the Media in Challenging Times how digital media and travel bloggers can be used to change the conversation about tourist destinations challenged by negative perceptions related to current events.  As a part of this, Dan, Audrey and I will be hosting an informal session with the Egyptian Tourism Authority at the beginning of the  Conference on Thursday April 26th, 2012 to demonstrate our #WeVisitEgypt digital storytelling campaign.

 

Audrey Scott & Daniel Noll of Uncornered Market in Cairo

 

We invite you to join us on our Digital Egyptian Adventure by following along with the hastag #WeVisitEgypt on your social networking feeds, as well as through uncorneredmarket.comroamancing.com and emmerogers.com.  Furthermore, we invite you to join us in demonstrating to Tourism how effective digital media, including social media and blogging can be in sharing a message. Here are some ways that you can become involved in the #WeVisitEgypt Campaign:

  • Share what we are doing in Egypt and the #WeVisitEgypt hashtag to your media channels;
  • Follow #WeVisitEgypt on your social networking channels and retweet content that appeals to you;
  • Interact with us on our adventure at @UMarket@Roamancing@EmmeRogers and @EricaHargreave; and
  • Share your own photos, video and blog posts from Egypt with the #WeVisitEgypt hashtag (and we will do our best to retweet them).

Thank you in advance for whatever ways you decide to join in the #WeVisitEgypt Adventure.

Best wishes,

Erica Hargreave

A Very Cool Example of Innovative Transmedia Storytelling from a Chronicle YouTube Post

With having worked extensively with film and television, in training, strategizing and implementing digital and transmedia storytelling, we are aware that it’s been a struggle to get filmmakers to think in advance of how to tell their stories to multiple platforms and to leave a budget for it to be done properly.  Our Message? Remembering that we are storytellers and telling a story, and that this is just as important to your digital feeds, as it is to the screen, to engage and titillate the audience’s imagination. It is for this reason that we get so excited when we see innovative examples of transmedia storytelling from films and television series.

This is exactly what we found recently with this youtube video and real world event, acting as a teaser for the movie Chronicle:

 

[youtube dcDN409ZBv4]

 

Thanks to the Roam Mobility Blog for sharing this!

Wish we’d been following this through from the start to have seen how the full campaign transpired.

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

Meet Ahimsa’s New Summer Interns!

It’s summertime again, that glorious moment when Ahimsa Media gets to pull new talent onto our team. Two new talents, actually, fresh out of the school year and willing to lend us their creative energies for the summer. Meet Ahimsa’s summer interns for 2011, Kelly Lui and Kino Zhao!

Kino and her cat, “Mister”

Kino Zhao is a 3rd-year double major in philosophy and psychology at UBC, with strong interests in social psychology, storytelling and travel. She is an avid blogger and has lived in five cities so far, beginning with Beijing and currently resides – for now – in Vancouver. Restless for new experiences and full of wanderlust, Kino enjoys hopping on the bus in new cities and going where the wind blows her. She tries – without much success, she says – to convince others how important and interesting philosophy really is. Kino’s new companion is her recently acquired car, whom she affectionately calls May.

Kelly Lui

Kelly Lui

Kelly Lui is an English Literature major at UBC considering a minor in Sociology or Creative Writing. She had her appetite  for poetry whetted this year by Milton and Marvell. She loves getting into the psychology of fairy tale characters and superheroes, and re-telling the stories with a psychological twist. She is currently working on a story about superheroes, which she hopes to turn into a graphic novel with a friend. She is a big fan of the Canucks, and anything made with potatoes. She lived in Hong Kong until she was fifteen, has been living in Vancouver since grade 10, and, like Kino, is very well-traveled.

AhimsaMedia is fortunate to have these two creatives on board for the summer. We look forward to featuring their voices on our upcoming projects. A warm welcome to Kino and Kelly!

http://www.ubc.caKelly Lui is an English Literature major considering a minor in Sociology or Creative Writing. She had her appetite for poetry whetted this year by Milton and Marvell. She loves getting into the psychology of fairy tale characters and superheroes, and re-telling the stories with a psychological twist. She is currently working on a story about superheroes, which she hopes to turn into a graphic novel with a friend. She is a big fan of the Canucks, and anything made with potatoes (thus the futile marshmallow trail). She lived in Hong Kong till she was fifteen, has been living in Vancouver since grade 10, and is very well-traveled./Kelly Lui is an English Literature major considering a minor in Sociology or Creative Writing. She had her appetite for poetry whetted this year by Milton and Marvell. She loves getting into the psychology of fairy tale characters and superheroes, and re-telling the stories with a psychological twist. She is currently working on a story about superheroes, which she hopes to turn into a graphic novel with a friend. She is a big fan of the Canucks, and anything made with potatoes (thus the futile marshmallow trail). She lived in Hong Kong till she was fifteen, has been living in Vancouver since grade 10, and is very well-traveled.

We Are Canadian!

A fine example of some brand storytelling that you can’t help but love:

[youtube zWDXE9Pbjic]

Happy Canada Day!

Some Exciting Opportunities With Paperny Films

Storytelling excites us.  We have fun with it!  It’s how we get are kicks, and as such we are pretty pleased about our latest client, Paperny Films, as they are all about stories too and are telling some entertaining ones, from foodie adventures with true to life characters like Bob Blumer to the legends of music greats like Ron Sexsmith. No issues with getting out of bed in the morning around here.

Paperny has a couple of exciting opportunities for the filmmaking community coming up, that we wanted to highlight:

Opportunities for Television Writers and Story Editors

The deadline is fast approaching for this posting.  If you have experience as a story editor or writer on Doc. Series or Doc Soap genre programs and are available to work in Vancouver, then don’t delay, get your CV and list of references in.  All the details on who Paperny is looking for can be found on Media Job Search Canada.  The application deadline is Friday February 25th, 2011.

So You Think You Can Make TV? Contest

Paperny has just launched a pretty cool opportunity for young Canadian filmmakers aged 19-30.  Basically, they are challenging young filmmakers to have fun showing off their creativity and skill by creating a 2-minute or less trailer for a lifestyle or factual series.  The Prize?  $3000 and a one month unpaid internship at Paperny Films in Vancouver.  For all the details, check out Paperny’s contest page and be sure to get your submission in by the entry deadline on April 15, 2011.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh 21st Century (Christmas, Local Anxiety Style)

It wouldn’t be right to let the holidays pass without our annual tradition of a little bit of green, and since this year’s holiday activity was a little more slanted to relaxation, I thought we’d share a little music video our pals Mark Leiren-Young and Kevin Crofton of Local Anxiety made to ring in the season.  Besides which, our gal Emme Rogers helped them out and has been hounding us to post this.  As best we can tell, her shoulder starred in the street scene.  If Mark gets this on a CD, I am sure she’d be happy to kiss a few more autographs.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ErxSXlKQsg]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlyA9BXy7DM]

Now if you buggered up the whole green Christmas thing, no worries, just use the words of Mark’s niece, Emma (not to be confused with Emme – this kids got way more talent), as an inspiration for a socially conscious New Year. Either that or go get a glass of wine and go back to the bath bubbles.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1BrFs-w1_I]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByYt5e2h5KA]

Oh and if Emma made you feel worse for wear at the beginning of your New Year, don’t fret, this should put the kid in perspective:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLYXTu1Pp_o]

Happy New Year!

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.