Tag: creativity
Here’s what I want to do…
I’ve been thinking about ‘what’s next’ when it comes to my project of releasing one piece of audio a week in 2015. I’ve had some feedback that people like the essays I’ve been releasing via audio and also publishing here so I could continue that.
I am also toying with the idea of recording audio of and publishing on here one of the various novels/novellas I’ve written (or am currently writing). I have a few, Time Skippers, The Cauldron of Hate and the one I’m currently writing which is, as of now, tentatively titled: Agents of The Vault.
It’s the one I’m working on now that most excites me. It is a Western, with a twist, and I’m just finishing it up and I think it’s a really good candidate to release in a weekly/serial fashion. A chapter or two a week until the whole story is ‘out there.’ I’d also record and release the audio each week for those who’d rather listen than read. I could also release it as a PDF/eBook file as well.
The western adventure aspect of the story reminds me of a Dime Novel. Or the way that Stephen King originally released The Green Mile (man, I loved that). Anyway, this got me thinking about how I could do the same with this story. Sending, to those that want it, printed copies of each chapter through the mail. I think that would be a lot of fun and, as long as it was only a handful of people, I would do it at my own expense.
Each week, you’d receive an printed copy of that week’s released chapter(s). I’m thinking they’d be printed in a mini book, a book made out of 8 1/2″ x 11″ pieces of paper folded in half. Maybe they’d have some simple piece of artwork on the front, though maybe not because I’d rather ‘get them out there’ than wait for art to be done. Anyway, this is an idea I’m toying around with.
I’d love to know what you think. Would you want a printed chapter mailed to you each week? Or is this just an idea that I like and nobody else would?
As a kid I loved getting unique things in the mail and, as an adult, I still do. I also completely understand that no one needs more crap around their house and my western adventure novel certainly could be considered crap. But, it 5 to 10 people think it’d be fun, I’d explore figuring out how to do it. If it was a hit, it could continue, The Saturday Morning Media Book Club!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
It’s so good, I want to hate it.
Do you watch Bob’s Burgers on FOX? I got to the show late, probably third season, but it really is a fun show and it really makes me laugh.
One of my favorite moments is when 9 year old Louise goes to a concert with her older sister Tina to see the boy band/One Direction rip off Boyz 4 Now. The entire trip to the concert Louise is ragging on the band and even through the first part of the concert, she’s giving her sister grief about it. But then the Boyz 4 Now member Boo Boo takes the stage and Louise is instantly smitten which leads to this hilarious line…
Besides being hilariously funny, I think we have all felt this feeling or something like it. She’s so in love with Boo Boo but she knows it goes against everything she’s said up to that moment to love him because, in her mind, she’s supposed to hate Boo Boo. So, she combines the two feelings (love/hate) into one. “…he’s so gorgeous. I just wanna slap it, I wanna slap it, I just wanna slap his hideous beautiful face.”
I found myself in a similar situation this week when I stumbled upon the web series Paint By Monster. It’s a web series hosted by a monster puppet monster named Easel Monster and he teachers art and art principles to kids (and adults).
I had seen mention of it on Twitter and checked out and, honestly was not expecting much. From the opening song, though…I was hooked. I loved everything about it. The style, the puppet, the character, the way it is for kids but has an adult edge to it. It really captivated me. There are four episodes of the show out and I’ve watched them several times each. I want to know how every shot was accomplished. Is it a miniature set, if so, how? It’s just really fascinating to me. I would not be surprised at all if we hear about Paint By Monster being picked up and produced as an actual TV show. It’s that good.
It’s so good. It’s so good, I just want to slap it!
Making a web series is not a competition, theres enough bandwidth for us all. But this show was so good, I instantly loved and hated it. Hated it only because, in my opinion, my productions (Uncle Interloper, etc) are nowhere as good as Paint By Monster. Do I want it to fail, no. In fact I’ve promoted it heavily on my Twitter accounts. Do I wish the creator harm? Absolutely not! It’s just one of those things where I know my limitations and, watching this, I know that I can’t do it as good.
The show has a style and I think that’s something my creations lack. A sense of visual style. That’s because while I feel I do come up with good scripts and characters, I lack a sense of visual style. For example, where were putting together Stanley & JAX for Nerd-ament, Russ hit on them both having the same basic colors. That would have never occurred to me. Paint By Monster has such a great visual style and it frustrates me that I couldn’t do something that great.
The thing is though, the show inspires me. It shows me what a good, engaging web series can be and it gives me a goal to strive for. And I will.
So, please go watch Paint By Monster. He deserves your time. You will enjoy it.
And Easel, if I ever meet you, I promise not to slap you.
I love all the episodes released so far of Paint By Monster, but if the opening song in this one doesn’t make you smile, you’re taking life way too seriously.
Creative Mondays #055 – New way to look at things.
One of the greatest things about creative types is that they always seem to have a knack for looking at everyday objects or things made for other purposes and finding new creative ways to use them. Some creative types do this with a little more whimsy and imagination than others, but we are all capable of doing it.
One of the main examples of a creative type using everyday things creatively is Jim Henson. Now, I never got to meet Jim Henson and I haven’t read his autobiography yet (yes, I know, bad Grant) but I’ve been fortunate enough to work with and talk to people who did work with Jim Henson as well as those who’ve researched his life. Something I’ve gleaned from these conversations is that Jim loved technology and loved finding new ways to use this technology in creative ways. He was interested in stop motion so he got his own stop motion set up and made his own films on it. Some of these became pieces that were shown, others were just experiments for him, but he was fascinated with the technology of the time and using it to be creative.
Another great example of Jim using technology creatively (and being decades before his time) was his Handmade Video project. In 1990, with the advent of smaller handheld video cameras, Jim foresaw that soon young filmmakers would go from merely watching TV and Film to making it. So he got three young actors, one a young Dana Gould, and gave them a video camera and let them hit the road and film their adventures. In on fell swoop he’d invented a form of the modern reality show and pretty much the concept for YouTube and internet video. All because he looked at these new fangled video cameras and thought of a new and creative way to use them.
I am in no way comparing myself to Jim Henson but I try to live by that example. When I see a new piece of technology or social media service, the first thing I always do is try to see how I can creatively use it. For example, when I first heard about Twitter, I was deep in production on the Dr. Floyd Podcast and I immediately set up Twitter accounts for all the main characters. Occasionally, I’d send out tweets about the show, but one day I thought it’d be fun for Dr. Steve to start razzing Dr. Floyd on Twitter. People who followed both of them would see it and those that were loved it. They also joined in the conversation.
Then I stumbled on the idea of using Twitter to tell as Dr. Floyd story. It’d be told solely in Tweets and those following all the characters would be able to see it. So on Christmas Eve one year, there was a Twitter-sode all about Dr. Steve and Fidgert trying to capture Santa Claus when he got to their hideout. The fans loved it and I felt it was a really fun and unique experience to test out.
I did the same thing years later when I discovered the Social Media service Tout. Tout lets you put out 15 second videos, much like Instagram does now. I created an account for my character Uncle Interloper on Tout and began trying to find new ways to use their unique video reply feature. One thing I did was start a sing a long. Uncle Interloper sang the first verse of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall and then people replied with the next verses. We got all the way down to one in about a week. It was so much fun and Tout even contact me privately to commend me on the idea. I later went on to create the first Tout series with Uncle Interloper. It was a daily show, Monday through Friday, that told one continuous story in 15 second increments. Again, people loved it and it was all because I looked at a new piece of technology and tried to find a creative way to use it.
Technology is all around us.
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What have you looked at differently and put a creative spin on? Let us know in the comments below.
Creative Mondays #054 – Be a kid again.
My improv teacher, Patrick Bristow, was once telling me about the first trip that Puppet Up! Uncensored took to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As part of the deal with the festival, the troupe had to do shows for families in addition to doing the regular, uncensored, shows. Patrick says that he noticed that while these family friendly shows were well received, they weren’t the laugh riot that the usual, Uncensored, shows are. Now, one might that that the reason for this may have been because the troupe was trying to hard to keep things PG and were therefore off their game, but Patrick has other thoughts.
Patrick feels that the reason those shows weren’t bust a gut funny is because kids do not find improv as funny as adults do. Why? Because kids, for the most part, spend a ton of time during the day improving on their own. It’s called make believe, pretend, playing. Ever see kids playing with dolls or action figures and they are doing the voices and working out scenarios? They are improvising. And while I’m sure they loved seeing improvising with puppets, they just didn’t get how hard it was because the people on stage were doing exactly what they do every day. As adults, we think improv is funny (or at least some of us do) because we don’t get to play every day. We have work and responsibilities and all that other stupid stuff.
Remember how you used to play as a kid? How you could while away hours just…making stuff up? I sure do. I would set up elaborate battle scenarios with my G.I. Joes and then methodically play them all out. That would eat up a whole afternoon, from lunchtime till dinner. If I wasn’t doing that I would be setting up, just as elaborate, shows with my stuffed animals as stars. Or I’d record hours of audio into my little red tape recorder and then play it back. I loved making stuff up.
As an artist, you have to have that same passion for making stuff up. Hopefully it hasn’t been drummed out of you by ‘real life.’ Hopefully you still see the joy in just goofing off and making things up. Playing. Improvising. When I’m out shopping at a CVS or Rite Aid or Target, I get what I came to get, but I always take a small trip down the toy aisle to see what is in stock. The kid in me eta excited to look over all the goodies that are there. I, usually, leave without buying any toys, but that walk down the toy aisle will rekindle the ‘kid’ in me and will remind me to play a little bit. And when I’m playing, I always feel more creative.
So this week, find some time to, simply, play. Take a walk down the toy aisle. Or go somewhere, theme park or special restaurant, that will rekindle that kid inside you and see if it helps kickstart your creativity. This week, take a field trip for that kid inside you.
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Let me know in the comments below how you keep your ‘kid’ alive in your creativity. And if you did take a field trip for the kid inside you, let us know where you went and what happened.