Catalyst: James Cameron

Everything was going normal until a mysterious stranger arrived. It's insane how many movies are based on the construct of taking a balance and offsetting it with the arrival of a catalyst. I'd never thought about it that much until just hearing James Cameron explain the role of the avatar entering into pandora. He explained the way he used the protagonist as catalyst to create the driving force of the film. You could say that Hero + Obstacle is close to catalyst, but many films like "The Dark Knight" for example use antagonist as catalyst. Regardless of how you use it, it's a very simple way to create the narrative for a video game, a film, an alternate reality game or a tv show. A catalyst can also be an event, but I prefer the idea of a catalyst as an individual within the narrative. This way you can root for the catalyst to bring about the needed change for the resolution of the story.

Flashback: Marco Brambilla

"Flashback weaves together iconographic images sampled from films to create a kinetic video canvas - visualizing the spectrum of human emotion and recall using the principles of cognitive psychology. Perfumes are formulated from distinct notes, each of which represents a particular thought or feeling. They then combine to form a complex fragrance that can vary from individual to individual. Similar to the varying effects a perfume can have on any particular person, Flashback for Six Scents Series Two explores the way an individual might remember thoughts and feelings associated with the experience of each fragrance." -Marco Brambilla

Flashback By Marco Brambilla (Six Scents: Series Two) from Six Scents Fragrance Initiative on Vimeo.

Needs: Abraham Maslow

When someone needs something and has to overcome obstacles in order to get what they need a story is born. Most great stories have a similar construct; a hero is presented, we empathize with the hero, something happens and suddenly the hero needs or wants something. The story is set in motion and the narrative is based on the hero's motivation to overcome everything that gets between him and the need.

When I discovered psychologist Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs I felt like I'd stumbled into storytelling gold. Not only does the hierarchy breakdown all of the major human needs, but it also organizes them so that we understand which are the most immediate and which are based on self-actualization vs. physiological needs. The hierarchy helps tremendously in organizing storylines and understanding how universally relatable the hero's motivation will be. The bottom of the pyramid is clearly about survival whereas the top enters into ideas of meaning and purpose... i.e hollywood action flick or art-house indie film.

Blogs: Obama

Today, Barack Obama suggested we need to bail-out newspapers. He explains, "I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding."

A backwards rational for why we need to bail-out newspapers if you ask me, but then again this blog is all opinion.

Shero: Helen Thomas

I attended a seminar last weekend at the Omega Institute called "Women & Power" where over 600 women came together to listen to 34 trailblazing female innovators present their life and work. It was a bit intimidating at first as I knew I'd be the extreme minority and wasn't sure exactly how I was supposed to act. I planned on being an invisible fly on the wall. The line-up included everyone from, Pat Mitchel, President of PBS to authors Gloria Steinem and Isabel Allende, to award-winning playwright and actress Sarah Jones to "First Lady of The Press" Helen Thomas.

The week before going I had been reading about the lack of women in Hollywood and remembered a statistic...96% of films are made by men. So, with 34 of the best female storytellers on stage I was very curious what I'd hear. It was a very interesting and eye-opening weekend for me to listen to and be surrounded by so many celebrated female thinkers.

Helen Thomas seemed to be the unanimous "shero" and crowd favorite. When you are the first female, middle-eastern, white house correspondent and last 57 years it's pretty inspiring to other women around the world. For those who don't know, she's been asking U.S Presidents the toughest questions since starting as a correspondent during the JFK administration.

When she was asked about the difference between being a correspondent and her new role as a columnist for Hearst, she said it was much easier once she got used to being able to have an opinion and not have to present things objectively. She said that now when she writes she just asks herself "Who do I hate today?"

To be completely honest, I was expecting a little over-the-top feminism and was anticipating feeling uncomfortable, but it never happened. One thing I noticed that was consistent through almost all of the speakers was each woman's ability to put their heart into the story they told. Listening to men at conferences like this I tend to hear people trying to be funny or serious, or authorative. Don't get me wrong, these women were all of the above, especially funny, but they were also able to put their whole self into it in a way that no group of 34 male speakers could ever do.

Of all my takeaways from the weekend, I think my thoughts go back to that initial statistic. We need more female directors in Hollywood telling stories from a woman's perspective. If there are any studio heads reading this now...here's a good reason to hire a female director... Imagine how much money you will save! How? Do you really think their whole plot will revolve around explosions, chase scenes and special effects?

Key Visual: Mario Testino

Last night, while having a drink with my good friend Gabriel Eid, I was asked an interesting question. He's been working as an art director and still life photographer in fashion and luxury advertising for the past 15 years. He explained that in fashion everything is guided by the key visual and generally a star photographer is brought in to create the image. He asked me what I thought was the equivalent to the key visual and the star stature of a "Mario Testino" online. You might at this point be wondering what the F* this has to do with storytelling...a lot. Fashion has lived for a long time without any real story. I worked in fashion advertising for a brief stint and left because it's so dominated by art directors and photographers that there's little need or space for a writer to have any real impact...until now. As fashion brands look to translate their key visual into digital and multimedia communications they are often realizing there is no backstory to their photography. They have a beautiful image shot by a famous photographer with a famous model in amazing clothes. But what do you do with this online?

And so back to Gabe's question... What will the key visual become?
For most fashion agencies it won't become anything. They will keep doing what they are doing because it's all they know.
But, when shit hits the fan, I believe the key visual will become a press release. That is not to say the key visual will no longer exist. Rather, the key visual will not be the end-all. It will be a starting point for a narrative.

Alex Bogusky has been frequently quoted saying that he'd rather hear what the press release would be than what the idea is.
In a world where everything is about empowering bloggers and engaging your community of brand fanatics to spread your message, thinking about what your press release would be allows you to understand what you are creating for people to talk about.

A key visual is pretty, but it ends when someone turns the page of Vogue.
A press release on the other hand is where the conversation around the brand begins...and if it's good enough will spread around the digital world.
The next step is going to be in building a strong enough story into the key visual so that their can be a formidable conversation around more than simply who shot it and which famous model was half naked.

Reading: Aramique

I must apologize for the haitus. I momentarilly disappeared into a lot of reading over the past month. Which reminds me...there are many writers out there who don't read. Wanting to be a writer and not reading is like aspiring to be a musician and refusing to listen to music.

Attack!: DDOS

It's like we are in a straight-to-VHS sci-fi movie. Finally there is a major attack on social media. Seeing facebook and twitter down at the same time is actually really fascinating. People are freaking out. What's going to happen? Could it be that for a day we actually have to talk to human beings in person? OMG.

http://mashable.com/2009/08/06/facebook-down-3/