The man who invented the Hollywood schlock machine The Proposal is formulaic. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is formulaic. Imagine That is formulaic. Even Up is … "progressively more formulaic." But who came up with the formula? If you want the human embodiment of Hollywood predictability, you can't do better than Wycliffe A. It was a notion borne of failure. DeMille's prodding was perfectly timed; Hill wandered into a bookshop and found the new translation of French critic Georges Polti's Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. What if together they made … a formula? Hill's Ten Million Photoplay Plots: The Master Key to All Dramatic Plots, a byzantine matrix of characters and conflicts designed to create endless plot combinations, was so novel when it debuted in 1919 that the slim guide sold for an eye-popping $5. There's plenty of quaint advice: Throw a punch in the first 200 feet of film; introduce a love interest within 500 feet. Hill wasn't about to lie down and take … well, whatever the hell this was. Perhaps that just proves his point.
Digital Storytelling I have just come back from IATEFL Glasgow 2012, where I presented on Digital Storytelling for the Technology and Teens Symposium organised by Graham Stanley. Digital Storytelling is any combination of images, text, audio and music to create a digital story, either fictional or non-fictional. The presentation focused on ways of implementing digital storytelling with teens. I described what I believe are its benefits and then showed three examples of projects I did with my students from Instituto San Francisco de Asis in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Some digital storytelling tools you can use: Powerpoint and Windows Movie Maker allow you to combine images, text, music and audio to create digital stories. Animoto allows you to upload images and combines them automatically with a selection of background music available on the website. Xtranormal allows you to create text to speech animations. Voicethread is a slide show creator, in which you can type or record comments around each slide.
10 Insanely Awesome Inspirational Manifestos There are certain messages that serve to get you “back to one” when you find you’re going off course. Whether you use tools such as a manifesto, a personal mission statement, a vision board or a list similar to Benjamin Franklin’s “13 Virtues”, taking the time to identify with one and then keeping it handy is worthwhile – and perhaps even imperative. But in a lot of cases you don’t have to “reinvent the wheel”; there are some awesome inspirational manifestos that have already put out there for you to look at and use as a means to set you back on course. 1. This is one of the best known ones on the web. 2. Baz Luhrman, best known as the director of films like “Strictly Ballroom” and “Moulin Rouge!” 3. the lululemon manifesto The corporate manifesto for thsi athletic wear company may very well be a bellwether for a shift in the culture of the new enterprising set. 4. While this one may be directed at women in business, it certainly can apply to a much larger demographic. 5. 6. 8. 9. focus
iTouchJourney - Digital Storytelling This activity is based on using the iPod Touch as a creative and authentic means of storytelling.Looking at a basic skill such as:How to catch public transport.Where to find the closest medical service.How to use a timetable/find your classes.Brief:You are going to work in either pairs, a trio or by yourself.Choose ONE topic to work on.You are going to create a 10 step process on how to do these tasks.Brainstorm and write down steps via a mindmapping tool or a journal app on the iPod Touch.Then using ONE of the applications, tell your story. (Think outside the square!)To enhance the learning, please add pictures to your story. (via screenshots and saved images).Share and publish your story.MindMap / EvernoteStep 1: Set up an evernote account if you don't already have one: Evernote official website Tap on the Evernote or Notes tool to open the App.Step 2: Select " New Note" for Evernote. Storybook Format: Storykit (free) Download from the App Store. Step 1: Tap on the App to open it.
iA Writer My Writing Spot for iPad Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck By Maria Popova If this is indeed the year of reading more and writing better, we’ve been right on course with David Ogilvy’s 10 no-nonsense tips, Henry Miller’s 11 commandments, and various invaluable advice from other great writers. Now comes Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel laureate John Steinbeck (February 27, 1902–December 20, 1968) with six tips on writing, originally set down in a 1962 letter to the actor and writer Robert Wallsten included in Steinbeck: A Life in Letters (public library) — the same magnificent volume that gave us Steinbeck’s advice on falling in love. Steinbeck counsels: Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. But perhaps most paradoxically yet poetically, twelve years prior — in 1963, immediately after receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception” — Steinbeck issued a thoughtful disclaimer to all such advice: ↬ Open Culture
Henry Miller's 11 Commandments of Writing & Daily Creative Routine After David Ogilvy’s wildly popular 10 tips on writing and a selection of advice from modernity’s greatest writers, here comes some from the prolific writer and painter Henry Miller (December 26, 1891–June 7, 1980) COMMANDMENTSWork on one thing at a time until finished.Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!When you can’t create you can work.Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.Keep human! Under a part titled Daily Program, his routine also featured the following wonderful blueprint for productivity, inspiration, and mental health: MORNINGS: If groggy, type notes and allocate, as stimulus.If in fine fettle, write.AFTERNOONS:Work of section in hand, following plan of section scrupulously. HT Lists of Note
Bev's Learning & Instructional Design BaseCamp Create A Plot Outline In 8 Easy Steps By Glen C. Strathy How would you like to create a plot outline for your novel in less than an hour that is emotionally compelling and dramatically sound? It's easier than you think. The secret is to incorporate the 8 Basic Plot Elements. Starting with your story idea, you only need to make eight choices to ensure the plot of your future novel hangs together in a meaningful way. Sound intriguing? I'll describe each of the eight elements in turn. On the other hand, if you already have a draft for a novel, that you're looking to revise, then ask yourself, as we go through these elements, whether you have included them in your story. 1. 15K+Save The first element to include in your plot outline is the Story Goal, which we covered in detail in the previous article, The Key to a Solid Plot: Choosing a Story Goal. There are many ways we could involve other characters in this goal. ... a mother who wants her to be happier. ... a jealous ex-boyfriend who tries to sabotage her love life. 2. 3. 4. 6.
Amazon aren't destroying publishing, they're reshaping it The debate about Amazon v the publishing industry is getting so heated and so polarised that quite soon it's going to need its own version of Godwin's law. The passion is almost religious. On the one hand, you have those who say Amazon is a kind of new publishing messiah, casting out the old gatekeepers and ushering in a democratised, consumer-centric book trade. Amazon makes money differently from a conventional publisher. It's perfectly true that Amazon's approach is, for the moment, mostly cheaper for the consumer than the now-endangered agency model favoured by publishers. Before agency was introduced, Amazon boasted of controlling 90% of the ebook market. And why is competition important? Digitisation was supposed to lead to a great democratisation of access to creative work. So Amazon, Google and Apple are gatekeepers. Amazon is a corporation, not a philanthropic trust dedicated to the production of works of art and literature. Traditional publishing is far from blameless.