Little fictions

// July 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Philadelphia, SF, news, vid

Shadowstories, from Chuck Wendig's Storyverse

Genre-busting storytellers

At DIY Days, you’ll meet with fellow creators of all sorts, from traditional media to emerging, transmedia to media-agnostic. Today’s writers are looking beyond the printed page to spread their stories. Keynote speaker Douglas Rushkoff created a 9-minute video trailer for his book Life Inc. DIY Days speaker Scott Kirsner is distributing his book (Fans, Friends & Followers) as a full-color e-book PDF and Kindle version, in addition to the standard paperback version (all DRM-free, sold at both corporate giant Amazon, and indie-author-friendly CreateSpace).

And then there are the authors of Psychic-Pulp-Noir-Mystery-Road-Novels, which happens to be Chuck Wendig’s latest project. It’s part of a larger goal to “position Internet fiction in a way that doesn’t allow me to, say, starve or go tumbling into foreclosure.”

Speaker spotlight: Chuck Wendig

Chuck, a self-described “30-something freelance penmonkey” writes a lot of stuff — screenplays, published short stories, and books for White Wolf Game Studios. On the web, he partners with other authors to publish short fiction Jet Pack and serialized humorous science fiction The Storyverse.

In a move that can only be described as “transmedia”, Chuck says he’s “thinking about branching out into menus, pamphlets, or witty doormats.”

We caught up with Chuck and asked him about the future and learning things the hard way.

What excites you about the future?

Everything is changing. Old models are shifting, shedding skin. New models are emerging, wet butterflies from dry cocoons. It’s like someone dissembled the puzzle into its requisite pieces, threw them into a box, shook them up, and threw it up in the air. The pieces haven’t landed yet. Everybody’s trying to guess what the puzzle will look like when it hits the carpet.

What’s something you wish you would have known before you found out the hard way?

I don’t value regret much, and this question has a whiff of regret about it—anything I’ve experienced, whether it was the hard way or the easy way, has led up to who I am and where I am, so I’ll take it.

What’s on your playlist, reading list, or in your movie queue?

Dying to see Food, Inc, the documentary about agribusiness. Finally getting around to reading Cormac MacCarthy’s The Road—and am looking forward to the film adaptation. Also, I’m sustaining myself on a diet of serialized Internet fiction (the likes of Mur Lafferty, Cory Doctorow, Max Barry, David Wellington).

What’s a site you couldn’t live without?

The Consumerist. Online consumer watchdog, replete with raw hilarity.

More amazing speakers are confirming attendance at DIY Days 09 in Philadelphia next weekend. Watch this space for more information about the people and projects behind today’s most innovative media projects.

Check out our Lifestream page to jump right into a running dialogue! We’ve aggregated our speakers’ Twitter streams there for a Tweet-peek at the collective conversation, before we break into focused talks and seminars at the conference.

DIY DAYS SF: The Art and Science of Crowdsourcing

// October 13th, 2008 // No Comments » // SF, vid

There is power in the crowd. When they rise up they can fund, create, distribute and promote. But how do you turn an audience into an active community where members become collaborators? Panelists: Slava Rubin (indieGoGo), Skot Leach (Lost Zombie), Jason Harris (Mekanism), Bryan Kennedy (Mobmov.org), Blair Erickson (Millions of Us) Discussion Leader: Lance Weiler

fund, create, distribute and sustain

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DIY DAYS – San Francisco

// August 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // SF

This event is FREE thanks to

Current TV, From Here to Awesome and the Workbook Project

SAN FRANCISCO
Sunday, August 17th
111 Minna Gallery
111 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
http://www.111minnagallery.com

Schedule for the day

10am
Doors Open / Registration

10:30am to 10:50am
INTRO: Open source filmmaking
An overview of the current landscape presented by Lance Weiler

11:00am to 11:30am
CASE STUDY: The Tribe
Tiffany Slain on the production and distribution of her short .

11:45am to noon
CONVERSATION: What are you working on?
Open discussion & networking

Noon to 1pm
LUNCH

1pm to 2pm
ONE ON ONE: War Stories
Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and Caveh Zahedi (I’m a Sex Addict) have a candid discussion about the process of getting their films made and distributed. What really goes on behind the scenes? Join us as Arin and Caveh compare battle scars.

2pm to 2:15pm
CONVERSATION: What are you looking for?
Open discussion & networking

2:15 to 3:15pm
PANEL: The art and science of crowdsourcing
There is power in the crowd. When they rise up they can fund, create, distribute and promote. But how do you turn an audience into an active community where members become collaborators? Panelists: Slava Rubin (indieGoGo), Skot Leach (Lost Zombie), Jason Harris (Mekanism), Bryan Kennedy (Mobmov.org), Blair Erickson (Millions of Us) Discussion Leader: Lance Weiler

3:15 to 3:30pm
BREAK

3:30 to 4:15pm
CASE STUDY: Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea
Chris Metzler & Jeff Springer on the production and distribution of their feature.

4:15 to 4:45pm
ONE ON ONE: Cinema and the singularity
Exponential growth of technology has brought on a paradigm shift in the nature of cinema that has yet to be fully understood. How can we anticipate changes in the coming years, and what can media artists do to take an active role in innovation that shapes the art and business of storytelling?
Brian Chirls and Jerry Paffendorf discuss.

4:45 to 5pm
CONVERSATION: How can you help?
Open discussion & networking

5:00 to 6pm
PANEL: Content is King but are the outlets and services listening?
As the landscape changes new outlets and services are emerging. With so many choices what is a filmmaker to do? But most importantly what are they going to do for you? The system is in flux and there are no rules. This is your chance to let your voice be heard: have a say in how outlets and services think about working with you and for you. Panelists: Scilla Andreen (indieFlix) Alex Afterman (Heretic Films), Sara Pollack (youTube), Tom Hicks (Caachi), Saskia Wilson-Brown (Current TV), Mark Rotblat (TubeMogul) – Discussion Leader: Arin Crumley

6:15pm
BAR OPENS

6:15 to 6:45pm
HOT SEAT: M Dot Strange
M dot Strange takes to the hot seat to go one on one with random people from the audience.

6:45 to 8pm
SPEECH BLITZ
Attendees stand up and talk for 3 minutes to offer their insight on how we take the industry “from here to awesome.” In other words, what’s broken and how do we all fix it?

FHTA experiment – Theatrical on-demand

// August 9th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // FHTA, SF

*SPECIAL screening event

The fate of 12 feature films rests in your hands.

Friday August 15th in San Francisco – 3 feature films will screen at Mint Plaza and the Mezzanine located at 444 Jessie Street.




YOU’RE THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMMER – you decide what shows that night. To cast your selections click HERE then watch, comment, rate and favorite the films that you feel should screen. The event is FREE click HERE to secure tickets.


FHTA invades San Francisco – Screenings and DIY DAYS