TDS NEWS Digital
Thornhill
Digital Storytelling (TDS)
Monday, June 11, 2012 -
Week 25
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Digital Storytelling As Documentary Process
Creating Programming For Digital Media
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For Digital Storytelling Weekly Updates: http://digitalstorytellingseminar.blogspot.com/
We are taking a little time to look at our work, our
structure and also our business personality. Where are we headed? What do we think of the last 4 years of
growth? What comes next?
Our personality is our real identity. We are usually remembered fondly by the
seminar participants and the businesses we work with. Given the self-made tasks before us, you can
imagine that we feel that we are literally starting over, but we certainly
don’t want to lose the good vibe.
Our calendar
We are coming to the end of the first quarter of the
calendar year. This seems to be a good
time to check in.
The week
The weekly TDS NEWS Digital
The Month
In May we had a breakfast meeting for administrative
planning. We need a lot of help!
June is perfect. For
the month, our dedication is to a top-to-bottom layout for Thornhill Digital
Storytelling. If you have questions, or want to make
a suggestion, let me know. June 2012 is
dedicated to making our machinery easily available to interested businesses.
We intend to build a schedule with a seminar happening every
month in Seattle. We had a brief
facilities review at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center. The Center has a great events room that could
work well for a monthly gathering.
TDS News each month.
A new editor – a new art director!
This new “hot” property will then voyage to Baltimore for a
July 12 seminar and land in Los Angeles for an exciting day of sharing in the
first week in August.
The Quarter
We are in conversation with interesting locations in New
Jersey and DC/Baltimore to schedule a quarterly seminar in one of these East
Coast sites.
Annual
A three-day experience with exhibits, screenings, speakers,
panels and parties. That is the “The New
Video Marketplace.” This means a new
level of planning and scheduling. We’re
projecting 2013.
Forever
Our main work: Continuing TDS research, grow the
aforementioned Seminars, publish TDS NEWS and distribute the TDS NEWS Digital
via the Internet each week.
Of course this is all for our own benefit, but also for
potential crew members, partners and sponsors.
It is time to put our best foot forward and climb to the next plateau.
We started as a documentary workplan, in the frenzied world
of The Digital Television Report (DTR) National Tour. We simply wanted to answer those piercing
questions posed by potential sponsors and producers for our documentary film,
“DTR Journey, Food & Beverage Stories” about our “digital strategy.”
The answers were gathered together as “50 Steps To
Documentary Success” and the Thornhill Digital Storytelling concept was
born! Since then, we have relied on Kai Zen: Continuous Improvement to build and grow.
Our growth will
include new applications
- The 50 Steps process will help the DTR Journey, Food & Beverage Stories documentary workplan
- A slimmed down version is part of the production schematic form The Digital Television Report, a theatrical documentary film. The essence of the 50 Steps will be used for planning the overall production and to develop the script
- The entire structure of the Thornhill Digital Storytelling manual is being used to create and produce The Fashion Media Project, a true, collaborative, transmedia project.
- There is even talk at the Thornhill Design Lab about a production and training studio based on the precepts of Thornhill Digital Storytelling.
Thanks.
Andrew W. Thornhill
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Thornhill
Digital Storytelling
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In Association
With United Community Access Media and
Instant Karma
Entertainment, LLC. - www.ikellc.com
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Presents
A
Documentary Funding Proposal Seminar
Thursday,
July 12, 2012 – Noon to 4:00 PM
The PNC Bank Meeting Room - Charles Village Branch
12 East 25th
Street, Baltimore, MD 21218
Advance
Registration Is Required
$10.00 Per Person
$25.00 Per Business For Up
To Three Representatives
There Is No Charge For
United Community Access Media Principals
To Register Go
To: http://thornhilldigitalstorytellingseminars22.eventbrite.com
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Documentary
Funding Proposals
What’s
Your Story?
The focus of this leading-edge workshop is showing how to link the
many necessary parts – from inception, through creative, technology and
production, to traditional or digital distribution and real world business
development. These are the elements that
will make your funding proposal rise above all the rest.
The agenda for
this brand of storytelling covers more than 50 items. Each is offered in a way that shows how to be
a winner in the specific category, yet still blend them all into a meld that
guarantees continuity and continuous improvement.
Are you expected to integrate digital assets into your documentary
funding proposal? If you, your
organization, office or company are planning a film, television show, radio
special, Internet presentation or a interactive photo essay, the answer is yes!
To create a digital documentary using a competitive, multiplatform
model, your timeline could be 3 years.
Also, expect that your expenses might creep to $2 Million or more.
As we each grow
beyond web sites and social media, Digital Storytelling is turning into a
hotbed for collaborative development and ever-expanding production crews. Team members learn from one another and your
end product gains from the combined intellect, energy and projections. This means greater expenses.
If your associates can’t relate to
Digital Storytelling as a genre, try Multimedia, Transmedia, Webisodes, Branded
Content or even Branded Entertainment.
We offer these and many subcategories in the Thornhill Digital
Storytelling Seminar.
·
TDS NEWS, our detailed event program, is available only at
the seminar and includes:
·
The Thornhill Digital Storytelling “50 Steps To Documentary
Success” checklist and
up-to-date
industry examples and news links.
·
The publication lists “Everyday Resources” a slate of
industry stalwarts providing no-cost,
e-mailed, daily
information reports on individuals, companies and trends in digital media.
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Coming to your town…
In order to have an event occur, we truly rely on the
support of our Event Partners in each city.
The local team must be dedicated, great communicators and willing to
help with every level of prep, promotion and review. In our next meeting, with the files, we will
look very closely at our track record and list those things we believe are
important to make every trip and presentation giantly successful.
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Ask About The
Maui Video Marketplace
Our marketplace concept brings
together all parts needed to build a film, or a production studio or a collaborative
cluster of film-related businesses to grow the region.
We start with a seminar series,
printed programs and access to information supporting the global transition
from analog to digital product distribution.
From Internet applications to digital television to digital channels,
your career in the industry will be given a major boost by participating in the
Thornhill Digital Storytelling seminar.
The Maui Video Marketplace will
grow from an idea to a location for training, serving clients and developing
proprietary and contract media products.
The choices will include live events, classes, print media, audio and
radio, video and television, digital and Internet, plus film industry
connections.
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Product
Development
- Research continues everyday.
As we
make this primary product better, we are really following a game plan that will
keep us on the right track for years.
So many facets of the
communications industry are finding new value in the basic skills of
storytelling.
Next will be the distribution
companies and the device manufacturers.
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- Thornhill Digital Storytelling Documentary Proposal Seminars
Our Thornhill Digital Storytelling
Documentary Proposal seminars are getting sufficient attention. Production values will now get the big
push. Screens are being considered. Facilities and hospitality must be next.
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- The New Video Marketplace
Think Maui In January. We are willing to consider other locations,
but this would be ideal.
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- TDS NEWS
TDS NEWS has proven itself as a
beneficial publication. The print
version serves as our program for each seminar, being updated for every single
date. One of the sections, Branded Content
/ Entertainment has grown so fast, that the issue now floats between 32 and 36
pages. Hurray for continued
research. Do you remember when it was
only 2 pages and carried a brief introduction and the “50 Steps To Documentary
Success?”
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- TDS NEWS Digital
The safe start for our digital
entry is the TDS blog. Every Monday,
up-to-date, sometimes with repeat information.
Before the print version swells to
become magazine-like, a big question has been bandied about. Should we synchronize the editorial from the
print with the digital version? What
about multi-platform design?
And then, should we answer the
market by adding E-book or tablet apps and hardware?
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- Digital Media Devices
No matter what we do in the middle,
we are aiming to put this whole digital approach on a tablet.
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- Digital Metropolis
There
will be a cluster of buildings – planned for owner or tenants with a mutual
interest in digital development.
- Continuity
Alignment can only continue with
hard work. Building, testing, review
dates and rebuilding is the model.
Seattle has been selected for the testing of our new planning, research
and design.
Once we find the appropriate venue,
we will initiate a series of local presentations designed to make the whole
system even better. There is certainly
sufficient talent in Western Washington, but we will not stop there.
Key to the success of this test
will be the participation of local support.
The involved industries, the creative community and sponsors will be
called upon to help make the plan work.
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Administration Update
We had a casual planning meeting
on Friday, May 11, 2012 at Café Racer, Seattle, Washington. That was productive in that most of the time
was spent reviewing current files and making sure that we had a beginning
timeline for all of 2012.
Thornhill Digital Storytelling has
survived two upgrades and amazing shifts in the documentary, non-fiction,
journalism and advertising worlds over the last three years.
This time, for our upgrade, we
opened the doors to input from friends, associates and communications
professionals to get a broad range of thought, ideas and needs. However, we are still in the process, so
let’s not declare victory yet.
So now we can call on planners, potential administrative
assistants and project managers. We need
these good folks to make our aggressive program complete. Administrative services interested in
partnering for development of businesses, events, publications and
documentation might want to get their information to me.
Duties as basic as maintaining the project calendar and as
difficult as database management will be offered to professional services.
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Bravado
Is It time to think about a national profile? so far, we are in different locations across
the map for the business and for events and meetings. Would establishing a a bigger footprint in
our ambitious planning work for us? Your
thoughts?
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Design Thinking
Our digital storytelling initiative is now a part of The
Thornhill Design Laboratory. As such,
the planning, development and operation has the resources and skills of a unit
dedicated to business and communications design. Form and function are a part of everything we
think about.
And we are not alone…
Forbes Magazine says “Welcome To The Era of Design.”
www.forbes.com/sites/gyro/2012/05/03/welcome-to-the-era-of-design/
In checking where we are now, we could take the proverbial 2
steps back and look at the last two Thornhill Digital Storytelling Documentary
Proposal Seminars.
In Seattle TDS presented on April 12, 2012 in Columbia City,
a distinct neighborhood in Seattle. This
validated the real need for a redesign of the seminar / publication
combination.
On April 27, a completely updated seminar was presented in
the East Liberty section of Pittsburgh, in association with Homewood Nation, a
compelling, neighborhood-based, multi-platform marvel operated by Elwin Green,
formerly a journalist with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
This the best time for a tune-up. With our sparkling new look and feel, we will
offer ourselves to a sophisticated audience in July in Baltimore and the
toughest audience of them all, Los Angeles in August.
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The Thornhill Design Laboratory
Now the mission can move on.
Strategy and management is the province of The Thornhill Design
Laboratory.
So many facets of the communications industry are finding
new value in the basic skills of storytelling.
We find that the products from TDS are used to stimulate awareness
through our resource lists, to add practical training to existing programs and
to help build proposals for film, television and radio documentaries.
The process in our 50 steps now gets appreciative comments
from events producers, photo essayists, corporate communications professionals
and certainly production crews working on branded entertainment films.
More and more we appreciate the flexibility of our
proprietary Thornhill Digital Storytelling process as a tool and the respect
given by media management. You might
enjoy this Washington Post interview with Larry
Kramer, the new publisher for USA Today.
Go to www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/at-usa-today-larry-kramer-jumps-back-into-fray-of-digital-journalism/2012/05/15/gIQAiHFNSU_story.html
Digital storytelling has certainly influenced ad agencies,
producers of every stripe and the mainstays of entertainment in Hollywood. Next will be the distribution companies and
the device manufacturers.
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We need a new calendar to fit the current statement. The new schedule will start with Annual and
Quarterly review programs. We want a
monthly event in Seattle and to continue with the weekly blog.
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2012
January Maui
Annual
Publication - Portfolio
February Quarterly
March
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April Pittsburgh
May Quarterly
Design Review
June 7 Rainier
Presentation Possibilities
Testing
in Seattle
June A
possible next event in Los Angeles?
People are talking...
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July 12 Baltimore
Upgraded
Seminar & DTR NEWS
In
Association With United Community Access Media and
Instant Karma Entertainment, LLC. -
www.ikellc.com/
Postponed
From Friday, June 8, 2012
A
Casual Reception Will Follow
July New
Jersey Is Being Evaluated
August Los
Angeles Seminar
More dates will be added in the next two weeks. Look for Eastern Washington and Phoenix.
August 5 Quarterly
Bernard
Hoyes
September
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October 12 Maui
Business Festival
November Quarterly
Design Review
December
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Financial Planning
Event Registration $50
per person for a seminar outside of Seattle
Sponsors $100
per seminar, with many benefits, including a page in TDS News
TDS NEWS $10
per unit, includes postage
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Crew Additions
Busy says it all. I think we’re ready to search for partners
to help. Administration still includes
scheduling, calendaring, database management and preparing all documents.
And while the searchlight is on, help with financial
planning, diligent producers, capable designers, and nimble local promoters are
needed as well.
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Business Development
Seminar production values will be upgraded to keep up with
the higher registration fees
TDS NEWS at the seminar
TDS NEWS Digital deserves a crew
A subscriber model will be adopted
New Partners
Our co-working arrangement in Culver City is also considered
a vital part of our business development strategy. It places us in the midst of the motion
picture community as we learn and
grow.
Search for our first sponsors
We will investigate the incubator pool to see if there is a
relationship to pursue.
Services
Now that we have opened the door on products and services,
pricing is next.
To test the waters and to have a real audience for our work,
we have offered the Seminar and TDS News combination at minimal cost and in
some cases for free.
Before we end that practice, we are looking into additional
revenues through the subscription option as well as advertising and
sponsorship.
Partners assist in offsetting ordinary charges and sponsors
pay for the alignment with our products.
As you might recall, we met to discuss the possible addition
of subscriber and/or membership services to our offer sheet. Currently our only products are seminars, TDS
NEWS and TDS NEWS Digital.
The more conservative players suggest that we simply work
this limited inventory and make it more attractive. The swifter folks want more growth in the
product line. Interestingly, they both
feel that we should think about operating weekly.
This could be for meetings to start – and then seminars and
publications.
A balance could be achieved by raising the rate of
registration to $50, once we complete all dates on the schedule.
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Distribution
We help others make their product. We could spend additional energy providing
detailed information on digital distribution.
Beyond the obvious options via the Internet, there is the expansive world
of Digital Channels. Perhaps this
premise warrants our attention – finally!
And in the engineering world, communications engineers are
advancing the notion of a World Standard to facilitate greater ease to have our
digital stories zipped around the world.
See The Future of Broadcast Television (FoBTV) at
Or
try this article from Harry A. Jessell, editor of TVNewsCheck.
www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2012/03/30/58452/the-future-of-broadcast-tv-is-next-month?utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=The+Future+Of+Broadcast+TV+Is+Next+Month&utm_campaign=Jessell%3a+The+Future+Of+Broadcast+TV+Is+Next+Month
Spaces
Our address at NextSpace serves as the official mailing
address and an attractive place for hosting meetings and conducting training
for our new crew members.
Three venues are first in line as we consider a broad
variety for our monthly event space for the Seattle-based seminars. They are LUCID Jazz Lounge, The Rainer Valley
Cultural Center in Columbia City and The Northwest
Film Forum.
With great luck we will strengthen our facilities planning
with a crew to start on Proposals and eventually a presentation.
In the meantime, I am always searching for space to host
meetings, conduct training for our new friends and to establish an office. We can build a template for seeking support
for documentary filmmakers and refine the protocol from our simple list to full
automation.
Recently, to further this quest, I have attended meetings
with writers, toured possible meeting spaces and delved deeply into the new
co-working model
Digital Facilities…
Are facilities important enough to
create a true digital hub? The
presentation would be fantastic with internet connections, cable connections, a
satellite dish, large monitors, comfortable seating and hospitality. How expensive are these digital facilities
and who would build or outfit them? This
will certainly take additional research.
Production and Learning Studio
The TDS seminars have survived
interesting venues. There has been a
photography center meeting room, a music studio, library meeting rooms,
classrooms, a beautiful visual art gallery, a bar, a car dealership showroom
and a technology center.
Would such an environment result
in actual contracts? Could it start with
a training schedule? What design and
environment questions do we start with?
Digital
Metropolis
A much more efficient process
would be to start with a design for a cluster of buildings – planned for owner
or tenants with a mutual interest in digital development. Is there a plank in the local economic
development platform to address such issues?
An exciting option like this takes
about three years to evolve. Please
don’t think that immediate answers are required, but paying attention would be
a good idea.
Partner recruiting will not be easy. We continue to grow in sophistication – and
each year is better than the last. Our
upgrades are reasonable and we love our work.
It will happen
Thornhill Digital Storytelling
(TDS) is maturing very nicely in so many ways.
Of course the piece that keeps making new friends for the package – and
keeps the veterans coming back – is our concept of Kai Zen; Continuous
Improvement. This is most visible in
product development.
You
Can Participate
- Let me know
that you are interested in this or similar projects
- Refer this
information to everyone you know who needs to be enlightened
- Attend
(Usually $20 each), or sponsor ($100 each) a seminar
- Attend, or
sponsor, one or more of the social events
If you are interested in becoming
a sponsor, send your e-mail indicating what part of our package has your
attention. You can pledge with an e-mail
or a phone call to (206) 265-2279.
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For Digital Storytelling Weekly Updates: http://digitalstorytellingseminar.blogspot.com/
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The Thornhill
Design Laboratory
Business,
Communications Design
(1) Thornhill Design Lab Workshop
Design Review / Kai Zen
What is design? Aesthetics for inspiration, product
development, financial planning and real-world
case studies are included -
create using function and form. Design
efficient operations structures,
work processes, digital
networks, multi-platform media programming and manufacturing to
proceed aggressively in the
digital-led economy. You will better
understand and
appreciate the talents of
designers, storytellers, planners and artists.
(2) Thornhill Digital Storytelling (TDS)
TDS Digital Storytelling
Proposal Seminars – Series & Special Events
TDS NEWS - Subscribers /
Subscription Management
TDS NEWS Digital -
http://digitalstorytellingseminar.blogspot.com/
Digital Media Devices
(3) The Fashion Media Project
Research, Radio, Television
The Fashion Bloggers
Connection
(4) Client Services
Case Studies / Digital
Strategy / Extensions
(5 Development
Editorial, Design
Continuity, Administration, Database Management
Financial Planning,
Integrated Marketing Planning, Partners, Sponsor Presentations
(6) Production & Learning Studio
Schedule, Research, Internet
Presence
Facilities / Environment,
Library / Archives
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June 2012
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Andrew W.
Thornhill
Copyright © 1971
- 2012, Andrew W. Thornhill, All Rights Reserved