A six year old was asked to create a story for her homework project using “The Story Telling Game.” This simple game has profound application to anyone who wants to write a compelling screenplay or novel.

The child was instructed to ask family members to play along. To create a story each person was supposed to say a sentence in turn starting with following words:

ONCE UPON A TIME…

THEN ONE DAY…

BUT SUDDENLY…

AND NEXT, UNFORTUNATELY…

THEN THINGS GOT MUCH WORSE BECAUSE…

FINALLY IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT…

AND LUCKILY IN THE END…

Simple and effective! Story and structure comes innately to children. The child got the concept immediately and was able to create any number of stories.

Sometimes we need to think like children and remember that storytelling is all about the excitement and joy of discovery. It is the delight in finding out what happens next, who it affects, and learning how it all comes out in the end.

Here is another version of the same idea–

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This month on the CineStory podcast we bring you a conversation between three pros working in TV. From producing to writing to repping, our mentors have all the bases covered. So tune in to learn what’s going on in the world of TV and what this means for people trying to break in right now.

http://cinestory.podomatic.com/entry/2012-04-24T14_13_24-07_00

In these clips Gary Carter talks about his company in the changing landscape of digital storytelling.  He is a real visionary about media and is speaking at the nextMEDIA conference in Banff, where the world’s leading edge content creators, aggregators, broadcasters, agencies, advertisers, and solution-providers meet annually to discuss the business of the business.

PART ONE

Fremantle Media. The company’s history mirrors the history of screen-based media itself. Gary Carter tells the story of Fremantle from its earliest days to the present age of format wars and reality television.

PART TWO

Gary Carter talks about the run-up to the digital revolution from an age of distribution, talent and technology scarcity to our now ubiquitous ability to produce content and distribute it freely over the internet.

PART THREE

Gary Carter discusses the repercussions of the digital revolution for an old-media company like Fremantle, bound to the traditional models of content production, distribution and strorytelling.

PART FOUR

Gary Carter talks about the collapse of the advertising economy and its impact on screen-based content production. According to Carter, it’s a crisis of platform which is being solved by the millions of individuals with access to cheap digital recording technology and zero-cost distribution channels.

PART FIVE

Q & A:  Gary Carter talks about broadcasters’ unhealthy addiction to the advertising model, and what lies ahead for traditional television.

I will be there and hope to see some of you too!

.WHAT: AFI DigiFest 2009

WHEN: Wednesday, November 4th & Thursday, November 5th

WHERE: Mann Chinese Theater, Hollywood CA

COST: Free of Charge. You must register.

REGISTER: http://www.afi.com/education/dcl/

DAY ONE – November 4

10 am – 5 pm

DAY ONE of AFI DigiFest showcases cutting-edge digital media prototypes incubated in the AFI Digital Content Lab during the previous year. For eleven years, the Lab has convened teams of industry experts who brainstorm solutions to cross-platform challenges. This year’s projects illustrate the ever-widening spectrum of development and distribution options open to today’s creators while optimizing for the consumers’ eagerness to view and interact with content across a variety of screens.

This year, featured projects include:

• a social network and proposed marketing plan for INTERVIEW PROJECT PRESENTED BY DAVIDLYNCH.COM;

• a proposed online strategy for engaging youth in a series of relevant environmental action challenges for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation;

• a mobile application that provide an interactive past-to-future timeline for an innovative ITVS cross-platform micro-series;

• an interactive mentoring environment for One Economy that encourages students from low-income families to learn more about science as a career;

• a MOBILE STORY MAKER session with longtime filmmaker L.M. Kit Carson, who shot the deeply moving micro-series AFRICA DIARY using a Nokia mobile phone as camera. The series will soon air on the Sundance Channel.

Cocktail party and poolside screening of select short films at the historic Roosevelt Hotel to follow.

DAY TWO – November 5

10 am – 5 pm

DAY TWO of AFI DigiFest offers a curated look at the most innovative digital media productions released during the past year. An eye-opening window onto the emerging digital media landscape, the productions highlighted during AFI DigiFest are consistently dynamic, aggressively cross-platform, and always inventive.

Among the invited presenters this year are:

• DISTRICT 9, a behind-the scenes look at games and an augmented reality application created by production house Trigger;

• LIVE MUSIC, a 3D animation pieced together from contributions by thousands of animators from around the world, masterminded by Mass Animation’s Yair Landau, former vice-chair of Sony Pictures;

• URBAN WOLF, a surveillance camera-based micro-series drama by Parisian director Laurent Touil Tartour;

• MANOBI, an innovative mobile phone application that has helped raise the standard of living for Senegalese farmers and fishermen;

• FIRST THINGS LAST, a dynamic and visual storytelling application for the iPhone created by ScrollMotion;

• ESCAPE FROM CITY 17, a stunning meld of machinima and live action created by the multi-talented Purchase Brothers for less than $500;

• NAKED SKY ENTERTAINMENT, a surprising look at what our collective augmented reality may well look like a year from now;

• MR. HULOT’S HOLIDAY, a restoration of Jacques Tati’s 1953 whimsical tale presented by Thomson/Technicolor;

• and more!

Cocktail party in celebration of Planet Illogica in the historic Roosevelt Hotel Ballroom (home to the first Academy Awards).

Register: http://www.afi.com/education/dcl/