Thornhill
Digital Storytelling (TDS)
For Digital Storytelling Weekly Updates: http://digitalstorytellingseminar.blogspot.com/
Monday, June 4, 2012
How do to you! Just like in the movies, this first section is
a preview of coming attractions before we get to the main feature. It isn’t long, but since we are coming to the
end of the first quarter of the calendar year, this seemed to be a good time to
check in.
And why now you ask?
June is
perfect. There have been three TDS Documentary
Proposal seminars thus far this year. We
started with Maui, swung into Seattle and made great new friends with a
presentation in Pittsburgh.
In May we had a
breakfast meeting to thumb through the administrative planning. We need a lot of help! Next will be a Brainstorming Meeting,
scheduled for Thursday, June 7, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM in Columbia City. This is specifically scheduled to allow for
those who can only get out during the lunch hour to participate.
Also, we usually set our calendar to follow the dates for
the Thornhill Digital Storytelling Documentary Proposal Seminars. There are other elements, but this is the one
that takes the most work – and certainly gets the most attention. But now there might be a rival. Imagine one full-day seminar on
steroids. Then imagine 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.
Convenient to the June 7 Brainstorming, we will have a brief
facilities review at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
on the same day. The Center has a great
events room that could work well for a monthly gathering.
Other answers to why now…
TDS has an amazingly busy schedule now – and most of it will continue
after the June evaluation.
Our blog appears every Monday. We intend to build a schedule with a seminar
happening every month in Seattle. We are
negotiating with interesting locations in New Jersey and DC/Baltimore to
schedule a quarterly seminar in one of these east coast sites. We might even be in New Jersey in June.
And after this
soul-searching month, I am expecting a much more refined Thornhill Digital
Storytelling. 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 Los Angeles.
Our main work:
Continuing TDS research, grow the aforementioned Seminars, publish TDS NEWS and
distribute the TDS NEWS Digital via the Internet each week.
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.
Thanks.
Andrew
W. Thornhill
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TDS NEWS Digital
Thornhill
Digital Storytelling (TDS)
Monday, June 4, 2012 - Week 24
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Digital Storytelling As Documentary Process
Creating Programming For Digital Media
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Thornhill Digital Storytelling
For the month of
June, our dedication is to a top-to-bottom layout for Thornhill Digital Storytelling.
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?
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.
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.
As you might know,
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.
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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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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 Administration, Brainstorming Meeting
Rainier Presentation Possibilities
Testing in Seattle
June New Jersey Is Being Evaluated
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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
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
Sponsors $100
TDS NEWS $10
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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 might look 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 last month 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.
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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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July 2012
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Andrew W. Thornhill
Copyright © 1971 - 2012, Andrew W. Thornhill, All Rights Reserved