The changing face of celebrity

Check out this excellent interview Chris Brogan did with Brea Grant, star of Heroes (which I've got to admit, I haven't watched yet, despite a slight resemblance to Sylar).

It covers the issues facing celebrities using social media who genuinely want to maintain a connection with their fans. It's an issue that's relevant for anyone who wants to build a personal brand - and in fact small businesses too.

Meanwhile, Megan Maguire writes about why Gen Ys don't get the business applications of social media. It makes eminent sense that, while Gen Ys understand the technology, they often don't understand the business environment.

When we spoke to students who were part of the yMedia challenge, we expected them to be confident with their online presence, and honestly, we wondered where we could add value. We were surprised to hear 18-year-olds expressing the same fears and questions as large corporates - largely around how to manage their reputation (for potential employers, or for customers) and how to manage information overload.

There's a lot of work ahead! These are exciting times to be involved with social media.

Technorati Tags: social media, personal branding, heroes, celebrity, film, movies, tv

Sapphire and Steel

Like many of my generation, YouTube has given me the ability to analyse some of the key media experiences of my childhood - experiences like Sapphire and Steel.

That program used to give me the willies! Whether it was the music, the weird storylines, the sense of muted discomfort - it was just such a well-done show.

Sometimes when you look up a show from your childhood, you find that your imagination was doing all the work, and it was actually poorly done (a lot of Doctor Who's special effects come to mind here!).

But with Sapphire and Steel (as well as The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy) it was just as good as the memory. And even better, consumed as a grownup.

I wonder if JJ Abrams ever watched Sapphire and Steel? They put into practice the idea of a Mystery Box like no-one else I've seen. We viewers didn't have a clue who Sapphire and Steel actually were, or why they were doing what they did, but we sure wanted to find out what happened next!

After staying up way too late last night watching Sapphire and Steel on YouTube, I'm going to take some of that mystery and incorporate that into today's writing projects. Will it help me? You'll just have to find out ...

Young people these days

Just finished watching The Outlook for Someday, an awesome example of Generation C in action, with some old media help.

The competition gave young filmmakers a chance to get their view across on sustainability, and - this is the genius part - present their film personally to a famous person of their choice.

Watching this, I quickly realised I am getting old. Not because the young filmmakers looked young, but because their messaging seemed so unsubtle.

Most of the videos were full of words. Numbers, facts and direct challenges that absolutely failed to move me. They did, however, make me feel vaguely uneasy, which is what a lot of green messaging unwittingly does.

The best ones told a story. As Steve Denning proved to me (by telling a story) numbers, statistics, directives, boxes and arrows don't create change, but stories do. Why? Because when we hear a story, we can't help but put ourselves into that story and ask "what would I do?" Admittedly my favourite films didn't get into that level of detail, but they did get into the emotional territory that helps move us towards feeling inspired enough to take action.

I've got to take a step back and give kudos to one of the films that took more of a journalistic approach. Instead of just stating bare facts, Ally Palmer talked to a whole bunch of key players, including "the bad guys", Genesis Energy. I thought that was a step in the right direction - getting all the viewpoints on the table so we can make an informed decision.

Coming back to my main point, if stories change things, why aren't our young people telling stories? The obvious answer is, it takes time and life experience to get stories that feel real. But there's something else. This generation is faced with problems more potentially disempowering than any generation before. This is bigger than the depression, bigger than world war II, and slightly bigger than the threat of nuclear holocaust. Global warming has the potential to suck your spirit dry of hope and resources. Or it can energise you. So, nitpicking about storytelling style aside, it was awesome to see and feel the energy, drive and passion of these young filmmakers, expressing themselves authentically.

Big ups to Ilai, who did most of the documentary camera work and worked some really, really long hours on the project!

I'm a freaking Marxist!

GrouchoLisa
Originally uploaded by sandrino

I've started to realise I am becoming a closet lefty. It all started when I was watching Wheel of Fortune with Nofo, my father in law.

Nofo's not an intellectual. English is not his first language. His passions are gambling and gardening.

Nofo didn't see that the words on Wheel of Fortune were forming "The Roman Colloseum". In fact, I'm almost sure he doesn't know what the Roman Colloseum is.

Wouldn't it be great, I thought to myself, if Wheel of Fortune could be an educational programme. Just a little bit. I mean, just a photo of the Colloseum, so you know what it is. Where it is. What happened there.

But no, we just see appliance porn - lovingly crafted shots of fridges, washing machines and wide screen TVs.

All this is, I continued to think to myself, is a conditioning device. Conditioning people like Nofo and like me into knowing the right pieces of information - popular culture - in order to receive the right rewards - consumer appliances. It's all a plot by the capitalists to make us want their things.

Religion is not the opiate of the people. TV is.

I felt a bit better after dinner, but these thoughts kind of stay with you.

What next? Conga dancing in a public place? Or is it public? The security guard seemed pretty sure it was private property - no conga dancing allowed here. Interesting!

(PS: Maybe here's where it really started...)

Fox wants you

Fancy a quick entry into Hollywood? Fox is asking for your story ideas on MySpace.

Sounds like a good idea - unfortunately one I don't have time or mental space to participate in at the moment. A bit of advice: check out what they do with submissions that don't win. Do you as the creator retain copyright? This is a great opportunity, but it would help you to be very clued up about the legal ownership aspects.

Hat tip: Heather Shepherd from Skip's Hollywood Hangout.

Blogs meet mainstream TV

In the US, they're bringing bloggers and TV together with the from-the-front stories of soldiers in Band of Bloggers.

Meanwhile in New Zealand, Gibson Group is experimenting with fictional characters blogging with their mini-soap MyStory.

Bad, naughty TV3

Naughty TV3.

It started a while back, when I wanted to enter a competition for Campbell Live. To enter, just register on the site - it's easy and you can unregister whenever you want. Ok.

Months later, they decide to send me - without me asking - news headlines by email. I get enough email and I don't want any more. I already get TV3's headlines via RSS and that's the way I like it.

Thankfully, there is info on how to unsubscribe at the bottom. But I - and many other users - don't want info, we want a link that... just... unsubscribes... us!

As it is, I had to retrieve my long-ago forgotten password, then login and check the "don't send me stuff" box.

It doesn't sound like much but boy, adding that kind of incremental workload and information load is not a way to win friends and influence people. It's a way of spreading ill will about your brand.

TV3, are you listening?

Good news all around for TV/film production industry

NZ Creative Circle Blog: OMNILAB ACQUIRES OKTOBOR

Although some of the commenters on the blog are struggling to understand what "vertically integrated content development and media service" means.

Duh. It obviously means...


...umm...

...hm.

Sounds interesting, anyway.

TVNZ OnDemand officially launches

More here.