Found Storytelling

Guideposts

Linda Henry — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:49:07 GMT

I’ve been anxious for today to come so I could restart my blog. I was planning to talk about how, after three years of evangelizing Transmedia Storytelling at my company, we’d finally laid the foundation for a Transmedia Story to guide our audience through a connected narrative across our digital touch points. Not quite yet a completely realized Storyworld, but the framework to get us there. Like most things that require a new way of thinking, Transmedia Storytelling is hard, especially inside a B2B organization. It takes a leap of faith to trust that if you focus on storytelling, the rest will fall into place. Three years ago, when I first proposed a Transmedia strategy, I might as well have been a creature from some far away galaxy, speaking an alien tongue. But the world of media has changed. And so, as we prepared for today’s launch, we took that leap together as a team. But at the 11th hour, a decision was made to revert to the way we’ve always done things – leaving a hole in our narrative path. It’s a bit like hiking the Inca Trail only to come upon a spot where some tropical storm has destroyed the path and you’re not sure which way to go. But … you know at the end of the trail is Machu Picchu – a mystical, magical place where you feel like you’ve reached the center of the universe. And so you plod on. Thus, instead ...

Sharing Sundance 2011, Part 1

Linda Henry — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 02:21:00 GMT

Last Saturday, I received a message from a friend who lives in the UK, a former neighbor from Pittsburgh, PA. I was up until 4:30 a.m., switching back and forth between knitting and working on a presentation. Awake and online when Barb posted a comment about a photo I’d uploaded when I was at the Sundance film festival in January, I was transported in an instant back to the day I reveled in the utter peace that permeates the Sundance Resort.

Barb’s comment inspired me ...

Resolve

Linda Henry — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:00:00 GMT

As promised, a quick photo connecting yesterday's post with New Year's Eve.

I'm about to hunker down with my knitting and watch a movie or two. I'll toast the annual

calendar swap with my favorite pink goblet when the cacophony of fireworks blare at midnight.

My singular resolve (I take them one at a time these days) is to get my "opening night" vest finished

before I go back to work on Tuesday.

The vest has already traveled across the country and back a few times in the

making. I can only ...

2010: A Sans Nose Muse

Linda Henry — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:35:00 GMT

Time to part ways with 2010. Phew, what an interesting year it's been. Eleven months ago, the surgery that removed an aggressive tumor growing between my eyes left a hole in the middle of my face.

As daunting as it may sound to all-of-a-sudden come face-to-face in the mirror each morning with such a radical reflection, the surgery was a medical success. The cancer is gone. And heck, my beauty pageant days were long past anyway, so in truth, it hasn't been that bad to deal with and at ...

Reflections on the Nose

Linda Henry — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:11:00 GMT

Wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here! I’d planned to start talking about the concept of micro-filmmaking last Summer, but I got too busy and, more to the point, my body started playing tricks on me. My energy waned and I began to feel a general sense of malaise. I kept pressing on though, travelling, enjoying my family, work, work, work. My creative self retreated to the back burner - in fact it felt like that burner had blown out. Long story short: it turned out I had a tumor laying dormant between my eyes, near my brain. And then suddenly it began to grow and by the Holiday season, became aggressive in its pursuit to take over. I got my cancer diagnosis on January 6th. After my surgery on February 2nd my surgeon described my tumor as "massive with tendrils extending into my brain." Thankfully, they were able to remove it all, but as the joke goes, they also had to remove my nose. All of it. Cartilage, nasal bone, three sinuses - basically I now have a big hole in the middle of my face. But I digress ... I want to get back to my original intent here on this blog: exploring Found Storytelling and my new passion of micro-filmmaking. A few weeks ago, Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald announced the "Life in a Day" project in collaboration with Sundance, soliciting video footage from around the world all shot ...

Transmedia Adventure

Linda Henry — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:53:00 GMT

On Saturday, June 27th, I'm going on a storytelling adventure. What started out as my annual "where should I go this year to get away and write" travel planning exercise, has turned into a full blown on-the-go, transmedia story development trip. For the past few months I've been changing my hair cut and color until becoming the platinum pixie of my alter ego, Gloria Hankshaw and I'll be travelling as Gloria on this trip.Gloria (formerly known as Samsa) Hankshaw has been hiding out in the Santa Cruz underground since her dot com went belly up in 2001, all the while continuing product development on her elixir code-named FuNshine. Gloria decided she needs to get back in the proverbial saddle, and is embarking on a road trip to reclaim her inner cowgirl and product test FuNshine. Designed to restore fun to the planet, this potion now comes in two form: a thick goo for use with bubble wands and a lighter aromatherapy spray. For eight days she'll be travelling across North-Central California, with bottles of her ylang ylang scented elixir on hand to distribute while parking herself on benches to conduct user-testing interviews. There are multiple channels to follow her adventures:Gloria's blog: http://cowgirl-incognito.com/Facebook fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/pages/httpwwwcowgirl-incognitocom/63750084620Road trip music playlist: http://blip.fm/cowgirl_incognitoVideo channel: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5233CF623B197607And I'll be tweeting as Gloria here: http://twitter.com/lindaghenryI hope you'll join the fun! ...

Quick Impressions

Linda Henry — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:56:00 GMT

Sundance Film Reviews

I saw 10 films, which isn't a lot, but I was only there for the second half of the festival and wanted to spend time exploring Park City. Below are my impressions of the films I saw:

Barking Water

When people ask me "what was your favorite film" -- this is the one I tell them. It may have been that it was my first film ...

Bear & Butterflies

Linda Henry — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:02:00 GMT

Finding Stories at Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival experience is all about finding stories. From the discovery of artistic innovation, to inspiration that comes from accidental encounters with strangers, each impression has the potential to materialize in some enduring form. Or at the very least, to provoke a new blog posting.

Cranes, clock towers and park benches were among the Park City images I ...

Beginnings

Linda Henry — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:19:00 GMT

It's about time.For years people have asked me, usually in a rhetorical tone, "Do you blog?" A logical assumption. As a writer and Web pro: Webmaster back in '94, dot com entrepreneur of an interactive video series from 1999 - 2001, various new media roles along the way, and now a digital content strategist for a Fortune 1000 company, a more reasonable question might have been, "What do you blog about?"My typical response: I have no time. And, as a single mom of three with a Silicon Valley career, yes, there was plenty to write about but I wanted a focus to my ramblings. An overarching theme. And my life kept taking me in unexpected directions so I couldn't make up my mind about what that might be. Then recently, it came to me. Write about storytelling.After all, I'm always inventing stories. Characters run around my head daily during my commute through the Santa Cruz Mountains on Highway 17. I'm a notorious eavesdropper, listening in on conversations at restaurants, queued up for movies, wandering around vineyards during wine festivals, browsing shelves in yarn stores, and of course, while flying. Oh the things you hear if you listen carefully. But I don't just listen -- I imagine full blown storylines based on these snippets of conversation.And then there are the visual inspirations of landscapes and strangers, architecture and food. Or surprises discovered when reviewing moments captured in photographs. Like this one:Observing Signs When I took this shot in Biarritz, France, ...