MA IN CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: TELLING TALES USING DIGITAL MEDIA

University of East Anglia 19 October 2011

Emreteers 2007 2011 Kathryn Corrick

Introductions
Kathryn Corrick Digital Media Consultant First digital experience: Pong Where on the web:
Kathryncorrick.co.uk Twitter - @kcorrick Flickr kcorrick LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/kcorrick

Introductions
Name Your specialist creative area First experience of digital How you currently use digital media What youre hoping to learn / what would be useful?

Agenda
LECTURE AGENDA Week 1 Whats possible? Week 2 Lets build something Week 3 How do we market it?

THIS MORNING Introductions & learning about you Whats possible? Digital storytelling Set task for the week Time for questions

Its a fantastic time to be a storyteller

Digital media technologies are creating new tools, devices and ways to tell stories that are widely accessible and usable. This gives storytellers potentially a greater reach to new audiences with interactive and collaborative possibilities and the ability to tell stories in realtime.

There are a number of downsides too, but today is about whats possible

Where to begin?
Normally I present other peoples work and show what possible with lots of money and very little/no money. However, when I was thinking about what to share for this course, and what would be useful to you as creative entrepreneurs I realised it might be more applicable to show some of the ways Ive been telling stories recently, and perhaps some other examples along the way. So here goes.

First up
[drum roll]

Powerpoint
(bet you didnt expect that)

And Keynote

How?
This presentation Im giving you is a story. It allows me to tell narratives in a consecutive style, with text, images, animations, audio and video. PowerPoint is renowned for sending executives (and geese) to sleep, but thats not necessarily a fault of the tool. Using Scribd.com or Slideshare.net I can make my slides available on my website to view without the need for people to download anything first.

Like this one

http://kathryncorrick.co.uk/2011/02/17/the-state-of-the-twittersphere-in-february-2011/

By being on Scribd (but the same applies to Slideshare), it enabled this piece of research to be found by a wider number of people too. In fact, I discovered it was read in Brazil more than in any other country. Which I could potentially then use as a business lead.

You can also upload

Word, Excel, PDFs and many other document types They use HTML 5 not Flash, so will work on mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. User manual for Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/scribd101

Other tools in this area

Prezi.com creates zoom-able online presentations, an alternative to PowerPoint. But with unimaginative use equally like to send geese to sleep. Issuu.com similar to Slideshare and Scribd. Enables you to publish documents online and create a platform for them. Used often to create online e-magazines via PDF they look pretty. But be careful to understand peoples screen sizes and the limitations/difficulties of zooming in and out.

Next A story about the creation of a story using photography

A picture is worth a thousand words?

Earlier this year I was at a work type party for social media week
It was lots of fun and I ended up comparing mobile photo apps with a friend. She introduced me to ShakeItPhoto.

As soon as I got away I started to test it out. This was my first shot.
Again, probably not what you expected. I was at Shoreditch Overground station in case youre wondering.

However, I got on my train and continued to experiment. This was my third shot
This led to the start of Feet on the Overground a blog dedicated to the wonders of looking down on a train line in London.

And *only* the Overground line.

Here it is. It also has its own Twitter, email, Disqus and Google Analytics accounts
http://feetontheoverground.tumblr.com/ http://twitter.com/#!/overgroundfeet

Time to look around

Some other examples of storytelling blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts

Pepys Diary blog and Twitter accounts Queen_UK http://twitter.com/#/Queen_UK The Archers characters have their own Twitter accounts Skins (C4) Facebook. More stories from the characters

A few weeks later I was running late for a conference and ended up sitting on the floor. Next to me I could see

Arent they fab. I linked these marvellous boots together with Feet on the Overground and had an idea.

That rather than taking people's faces that day I'd ask to take a pic of their shoes.

All the stories and photos are documented here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kcorrick/sets/72157625955204501/

Responses to such requests varied from delight to puzzlement. However, I got to hear a lovely array of personal stories as a result, from those I knew and those I'd just met, which made the day quite special. The conference was called The Story. So my stories became The Sole of The Story. They became a collaborative document of the day.

Feet on the Overground may have further adventures

Whilst this may just sound like fun (and it is lots of fun) this style of storytelling using mobile and real-time technology can be applied to lots of scenarios, stories and work. Not just light-hearted ones. If I were determined I could also use the blog more professionally, aim to grow traffic to sell advertising (it ticks local, shoe and transport boxes) and sell event services.

And theres always the possibility your blog could become a book
Thats not something Im working on for Feet on the Overground by the way.

Other opportunities. Photo News sites Share and sell your news images and stories

Demotix.com Citizenside.com

Other apps and things to try

Tumblr.com easy to use micro-blogging platform, has dedicated mobile app, and community of photographers and people who like photography Instagram.com an iPhone photo processing and sharing app, with a dedicated community. Its a bit like Twitter for photos. Path.com A private, just for friends, mobile app for sharing photos and stories. Flickr iPhone/Andriod app upload photos straight to your phone, option to share immediately on Twitter.

And I should also briefly mention live casting, blogging and Tweeting

Demonstrations

Telling stories with data

Yup, numbers, spreadsheets, data bases, raw information.

Where Does My Money Go?

http://www.wheredoesmymoneygo.org This site lead to the idea of Spending Stories, which has won Knight Foundation funding, and is soon to launch.

Exercise and other examples

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations / http://www.coolinfographics.com/

But what about books?

All this stuff is ephemeral its books that count isnt it?

This is Barefoot into Cyberspace by Becky Hogge, which she Flash Published in the summer with help from friends
Its available on Amazon in print (8.99) or on the Kindle (2.29) You can buy and order it in Blackwells. Becky also made it available for free in HTML, PDF (so you could read it on your favourite mobile device or your PC) and ePub, under a CC-BY-SA license.
http://barefootintocyberspace.com/book/

Tools used to publish the book and others worth a look

Lightening Source Print on demand, and sales fulfillment, sends book data for sales to distribution partners including Amazon, manage wholesale price deducting print cost paying publisher (you) the difference http://www1.lightningsource.com/ Kindle Direct Publishing Self publish your work for the Kindle (70% royalty to the publisher) https://kdp.amazon.com/

Other tools to be aware of

Lulu One stop publishing and print on demand. Many sizes of books, different paper qualities, free ePub conversion, ebooks via iPad and Nook (Barnes & Nobles ebook device) http://www.lulu.com/ Submishmash submission and work flow manager, suitable for multi-author works, magazines and newspapers http://www.submishmash.com/

Self-published success stories

G P Taylor Childrens writer and now New York Times best selling author http://www.gptaylor.info/ John Locke trash crime fiction writer, first self-published author to sell over a million Kindle ebooks. Has recently signed deal with Simon & Schuster http://lethalbooks.com/ Louise Voss and Mark Edwards - co-wrote Killing Cupid, optioned by the BBC for a two-part drama http://indieiq.com
More here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/24/self-publishing

Or pitch your book idea to readers for support to write and publish it

http://www.unbound.co.uk Also see Authonomy by Harper Collins - http://www.authonomy.com

Finally authors are taking more control over their work online creating further stories and experiences with dedicated sites. Or are they?

http://www.pottermore.com/ http://twimore.com/ (Parody site of Pottermore for Twilight fans)

Many of these ways of storytelling can be brought together using a blog

Which is what well look at and build next week.

Conclusion
There are many, many, many other ways of storytelling using digital technologies I could have showed you. Ive not really looked at video, audio or games, or curation and archiving tools that create further stories. But I hope what these examples show is that any media can be used for telling stories. All thats required is your imagination and sometimes some technical help or understanding.

What to bear in mind

Digital media may not be the best platform(s) for your story Do not expect high engagement from your audience most people watch, most people dont like puzzles Keep things simple (and playful where appropriate) Consider how people will enter and leave the story Make it possible to easily catch-up if the story is in installments Think about what you could do with location and mobile Experiment and enjoy!

Task for next time

In pairs, tell me a story using any digital media based on one of the following images:

Questions and enquiries

Kathryn Corrick www.kathryncorrick.co.uk @kcorrick admin@kathryncorrick.co.uk

Photograph credits
All photographs used in this presentation are Kathryn Corrick 2011 If you would like to use any of these photographs please get in touch.