About Me
This naturally led me to storytelling which was another way of figuring out that I wanted to make movies. I took it upon myself to learn everything I could about making movies. I was an active participant in theater and spent a lot of my time in high school fiddling with cameras and non-linear editors in the mass media department. Even when I was earning my second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, I chose to document the experience on camera and turned it into a promo video for the martial arts school.
In college, I chose to pursue a Marketing/Advertising degree because it was the closest thing to storytelling in the business school. Although film school would’ve been exciting, I decided that I had a knack for storytelling but little understanding of how business works. But even while studying business, I managed to put my talents to use making a 10 minute documentary as part of an internship and starting a small business, with the help of a close friend, where I made short films and video projects for various organizations including The Army, Apple, and Disney.
One of my most valuable learning experiences was when I began working for Apple in 2005. I eventually became one of their Lead Creatives, a title reserved only for those befitting the name, where I learned a great deal about not only technology and art but teamwork and leadership as well. My employment there has arguably been more valuable than my college education because of the amount of knowledge and experience I gained through them.
I choose to pursue the things I’m passionate about so that my discipline and my determination never wavers. I have been an editor, filmmaker, writer, thespian, second degree black belt, college graduate, teacher, business owner, husband, and now a father. I’ve done many things in my lifetime but always maintained a high level of learning agility so that every endeavor builds upon the next. And for me the adventure has always centered around storytelling. I can’t claim to have planned it all out but it has turned out to be an amazing story for me. As with most stories, it’s hard to tell what the outcome will be but I can’t wait to see where my story leads me next.
Alana can be so funny.
Outside a woodpecker bangs on our metallic chimney creating a loud noise through the house. Alana looks at me, startled.
Me: Oh man! What is that Alana?
Alana: Mama?
A Thought Leader's Series episode
Listening to “Secrets at Apple’s Core - Adam Lashinsky (author)” as I go on my morning walk.
To my wife and best friend in the world, Happy Anniversary! I love you. (Taken with instagram)
“When you find me” - one of the films from Project:Imagin8ion on YouTube.
Morning inspiration to get your day going. (Taken with instagram)
New luggage tags (Taken with instagram)
Good morning! (Taken with instagram)
How stories can become greater
Brian Murray, CEO of Harper-Collins, recently spoke at Stanford University about his own journey to becoming CEO and the current opportunities and challenges in the publishing industry. One of the exciting opportunities he talked about was how new technologies like the iPad and Kindle has brought about the convergence of certain types of media.
For example, let’s say you’re reading a book on your iPad in iBooks but while reading chapter 4 you need to go to the gym. Wouldn’t it be great if you could press a button in the book and have it switch to an audiobook version so that you could listen to it in the car and while at the gym so that you don’t have to wait till you get home to start reading it again? That technology exists today. If you’d like hear more of Brian Murray’s lecture, it’s a good listenas there are a lot of hidden gems in his lecture centered around book publishing.
There are in fact many technologies that are already in existence today that allow different forms of media to converge and also allow artists to create more dynamic characters and stories through transmedia storytelling.
One problem that often arises, however, is figuring out the right financial model that accommodates all parties involved so that everyone feels like they’re getting proper compensation. For example, would you, the customer, be willing to pay twice as much for an eBook if the audiobook was included with it? If not, how does the publisher justify keeping the price the same while including twice the media? It’s easy to say that the publisher doesn’t have printing costs so it shouldn’t be a big deal when it’s digital but the publisher also has to maintain relations with other dealers who might not be able to play the audiobook on their device. How does that distributor maintain its competitive advantage and how does the publisher stay platform neutral?
It’ll be interesting to see if there is some uniform standard that wins out with eBooks (ePub or some other variant) or what technologies various distributors (Apple, Amazon, B&N) integrate into their devices to stay competitive.
In the end, of course, stories will be the deciding factor. If a technology or format doesn’t support stories or enhance them, then in the end it will surely die out. It needs to improve the way the story is told. Another problem that we see emerging across the media landscape is the overuse of gimmicky trends and new technologies.
Looking at the film industry, for example, there’s a lot of hype around 3D and various large formats (4K, IMAX, etc) in theaters. Many film makers like us agree that 3D, although it can enhance a story in some cases, is more of a gimmick than something that enhances the story. A movie like “Battleship” can certainly be a lot of fun to watch in 3D (if done correctly). But to say that every movie should be done in 3D from now on, as James Cameron would have us believe, is taking it to whole other extreme. I’m sure we can agree that a film like “The Dictator” does not need to be in 3D in order for us to appreciate how funny it is. Some of us might even argue that other action films like “The Dark Knight Rises” do not need to be in 3D. Indeed, this is why Christopher Nolan chose instead to film it in IMAX.
The point is, the options for telling stories in new and unique ways are expanding every day. The key, however, is for us as storytellers to find those technologies, methods, and financial models that support the story in the end - not just for the sake of doing something because it’s cool. If we can find the right balance, stories will become even greater than they already are.
