dianafilms

John Cleese Holds forth on Creativity--

great video, kind of corporate but interesting.

Are you in open mode or closed mode? I've called this the open focus work style, encouraging directors in development to use their intuition, stay slightly fuzzy and let the work evolve.  That is a luxury we often don't give directors, but when we do, they tend to deliver more authentic and original work.

Can you be more playful and relaxed, even when under deadline pressure to deliver copy, boards, scripts, shots, dialogue, proposals, etc...?

The Last Express has been voted #7 of the top 100 Adventure Games of All Time

This Highly Cinematic Game has just been listed on the top 100 adventure games of all time,
#7:

Where do the accolades start for Smoking Car Productions’ The Last Express? Is it the rotoscoped graphics that give the game a uniquely classy sense of style? Is it the painstaking historical recreation of the final voyage of the Orient Express before World War I? Is it the stunningly immersive real-time progression of gameplay? Or is it the thrilling and extraordinarily literate writing? Why choose? There really isn't anything quite like Jordan Mechner’s 1997 adventure. While the story of American doctor Robert Cath and the international intrigue he encounters on a train journey from Paris to Constantinople does head to some pretty fantastical places, it is equally balanced by a genuine sense of realism and authenticity. Mechner's team went to great lengths to portray everything from foreign languages to daily weather patterns with historical accuracy. The characters portray the broad and tumultuous sociopolitical climate of the era, as Cath encounters everyone from German businessmen to Serbian militants. And in a still-unparalleled design decision, live actors were filmed and then hand-traced in a style reminiscent of early 20th century illustration.

Making things feel even more authentic is the game’s real-time progression: The Last Express doesn't wait for you. The train barrels relentlessly toward Constantinople, stopping at several famous locales along the way. Similarly, the other passengers have their own agendas to attend to; they move around the train, have conversations, go to sleep, eat dinner, conduct secret meetings, and so on. As Cath, players have more or less total freedom to explore the train and observe, interact with fellow passengers, or sneak around trying to find information. This gives the game an astounding level of replayability for an adventure game, since you'll never be able to see everything in a given playthrough; while you're off exploring one car, something else (something probably very interesting) is going on in another. And if you don’t like the direction your recent choices have taken, rather than simply restore an old save file, simply rewind time and begin that segment of the journey all over again. It all adds up to a tense, immersive, and innovative adventure that few other games have equaled.

Read about the other great games here

http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,1401/p,20

conflict resolution

Remove blame, present the problem, express the goal and ask for the best way to go about achieving it collectively and co-responsibly.

 

Big question about Branding, positioning for Start Ups

hey start-ups, do you want to build tools for your community

or

do you want to build a community around your tools?

Do you want to position your brand as a resource and a place to grow and co-create a vision, or do you just want to have people buy your stuff? 

Why not be a resource that sells good stuff, not just your own stuff, but generally good stuff? In the age of the curator, its just as much about having good taste (an eye for talent and good products) as it is about being in good company.  Its about D.I.Y. and becoming increasingly more about D.I.W.O.

How else to we filter through the massive information overload, we rely on curators and tastemakers, we rely on our friends.  So while you might be building a brand, now you're building it with and for others and what they say and do on your site matters more than ever.

So, don't be a tool, be a resource who shares tools, information and is there to be of service to a community. 

Mr. Jobs' original spot

 

L'Shana Tovah

May your work, art, life and love all converge in harmony with your authentic self.

Advice to the budding documentarian

I just answered a question posted by a colleague who is working on her first documentary and I thought this would be useful to some of the folks who visit here as well.  The text is below.

Hey Sabrina,

Great question and open to many answers.  I'll stick to some process oriented bits of guidance:

1) Write a master proposal that you can tailor for different grants and project phases.

i.e. some grantmakers only fund development, others prefer to fund projects at the finishing phase.

 

2) Build a community around your project, find people who want to support you and who would benefit from seeing the film.

         a) Reaching out to this amazing group is a good start, also check out Doculink and folks from IDFA, The Flaherty Seminar

         b) When I think of people who benefit from the film, I think of people who are very familiar with the subject, issues you're dealing with, groups are good for feedback as well as support.

 

3) Find a few mentors who can coach you through your various growth phases: 

         a) One type of great advisor is someone who has made many docs before,  

         b) Another key advisor group you'll need are the people who are subject matter experts.  

 

4) Once you have a clear roadmap for the film, you've identified your target audience; it’s a good idea to make a realistic assessment of who would fund your project.  A great place to start is the Foundation Library, while you're doing that you can also explore indiegogo and kickstarter and build an online campaign for your development phase.  That is the hardest phase to fund since there's not much more than an idea to demonstrate. If you've made a trailer that closely matches your vision and intentions you can create a compelling case and make that idea more tangible as well as showing your ability to craft a good story.

 

Hope this advice is helpful to you.

Patience, perseverance and persistence,

Every day, just move the project forward a little. 

Make a phone call, send an email, do a little research, write up a pitch document when you're good and fired up.  Take risks, make foolish choices and give yourself permission to make mistakes.

You'll get there.

Warmly,

Francesca

building peace

we can either be a bridge to peace and understanding or a block to conflict, one flows, the other merely slows

right speech

Before speaking about something you feel needs correcting (aka criticism), engaging in gossip, you might want to question your motives and intended outcome.  The art of being a good human, a good leader, and a good colleague etc... is learning when to listen, when to observe and when to act/speak.

"Is it true? Is it beneficial? Is this the right time and place to say it? Am I the right person to say this? If you can honestly answer Yes to all four questions, go ahead with your comments. Even then, though, you have to look at their results. If you see that they weren’t actually beneficial or timely, learn from your mistake. That’s how your discernment grows." —Thanissaro Bhikkhu

my addendum to this has been: Is it loving?  Is it Kind?  Is it needed?  Is it useful and to whom?  Will it bring peace, clarity and closure in the long term?  Is it respectfully phrased?  Is your ego attached to the outcome in any way? i.e. do you need to be right about something?  Are you saying this because you need to say it, or because someone needs to hear it?  Would silence preferable? 

LOVE

Keep the focus on the story, enjoy the work, respect the audience and most of all, find joy in the doing. Kvell because of the community y/our project created, think of all the careers you're supporting and the jobs you're creating.  You're very fortunate!

If you can, allow yourself to fall in love with it (the process), just a little.  That bounce in your step and that joy is contagious, that top down happy thing has its own momentum and inteligence.  It makes good projects great and difficulties bearable.

 

excerpt from: Notes to New Producers
© Francesca Prada All Rights Reserved 2010