the slack daily

Amtrak Famous

One day, kid, one day they're gonna know who you are. One day they're gonna be screaming your name on the red carpet. One day your picture is gonna be in all the papers.

From Amtrak's in-train magazine, Arrive, July/August 2010 Issue.

(h/t Helen who was riding the rails and discovered this gem.)

#CelebratetheWeb

You know how there was that ceremony on Sunday that didn't go so well?

Last night's #CelebratetheWeb was the exact opposite of that.

In just a few days, Jenni Powell and Kim Evey located a venue, compiled a guest list, assembled videos from speakers who couldn't be there in person, printed programs and assembled Streamy winners, nominees and Web Folk for an event that was, by all accounts, pitch perfect.

Names were picked from the center of a Streamy to decide on the order of speakers.

After opening remarks from Sandeep Parikh (who was absolutely charming and prepared enough that he asked me how to pronounce my name should he pick me to speak first), the night was off and running. A little over an hour later, everyone had spoken - either in person or via video. The night was seamlessly, technically and personally. We all had two minutes to speak on why we love working on the web.

While I can be glib naturally, speaking from the heart requires a little more effort. I prepared some notes, which I revised as the evening wore on. Unfortunately I forgot to bring a writing implement, so as my name was called (the second-to-last-speaker of the night, not actually the last) those notes were a smear of violet eyeliner.

You can watch the entire evening above (I'm about 59 minutes in.)

Again, thanks to Kim Evey and Jenni Powell. And thanks to the web community for being like a delicious cake made of awesome.

At Least I Looked Nice.

By now, you've probably heard about the complete, unmitigated disaster that was the 2010 Streamys. Vaginal rejuvenation jokes (planned!), Bud Bundy in a stuffed jockstrap (planned?), and streakers (not planned.)

It was sort of like watching Superbowl ads back in February...except instead of sitting in my sweatpants eating a bowl of chili on my couch I was crammed in a hot theater in my finest with no prayer of food for hours.

Apologies have been made, but no one's taken responsibility yet.

(Is this another case of web trying to ape mainstream media?)

Craft award winners were not invited to walk the red carpet (surprise!) and were relegated to seats in the balcony and no invite to the after-party. Thanks to Electric Farm Entertainment's COO (EFE produced Valemont and Woke Up Dead) I got to sit amongst the "real" nominees and attend the after-party (that offered free Stella but pricey drinks and no food.)

We discovered mid-show that the Craft Award Winners (Valemont won for Best Interactive Experience and Best Mobile Experience) were supposed to appear on stage while we were announced. Technical difficulties resulted in us shuttled onstage like cattle, and then waved off. We were allowed to sit for a quick photo op, but then an escort guided us past the press room and back to the lobby.

I actually thought host Paul Scheer did the best he could with what he had to work with - I don't *think* he wrote most of his material, which is probably why he wasn't all that funny.

I know that pulling these things together is a Herculean feat. However, to plead ignorance at the content of your own show is disingenuous.

At least I looked nice:

Dress by Stop Staring! Pin is vintage.

Felicia Day said in her 2009 Streamys Acceptance speech (I'm paraphrasing from memory) "don't wait around for someone to tell you that you can do something. Go out there and do it." So I wasn't surprised when Jenni Powell and Kim Evey announced that we're going to take back the Streamys.

We'll be streaming LIVE from the ACME Theater starting at 8pm PST. You can follow along here.

I'll see you all tomorrow night. (But I don't need to see all of you. Streakers should probably sit this one out.)

And the winner is...

If you saw me last night, you know the answer to this.

Today's Red Carpet Dress for the Streamys is:

So I'll see you soon, wearing this:

(But I'll have a head.)

You can watch the Streamys LIVE (and cheer on Valemont) at 5:30 PST here!

Edited to add: My head looks something like this:

Pick my Streamys Dress!

Last night, Valemont picked up two Streamys at the Craft Awards, for Best Mobile Experience & Best Interactive Experience. The whole Valemont world grew out of writer Christian Taylor & Electric Farm Entertainment Co-Founder Brent Friedman's brain, and to be invited to expand that world online was a huge honor. Making it happen was EFE Co-Founder Stan Rogow, Katrina Moran, Kelly Spencer, MTV, Verizon, and Fuel Industries (who built the ValemontU.com site) not to mention all of the players who participated along the way.

The evening was spent high on awards show fumes.

My face, almost as shiny as the Streamy itself!

Sunday is the Streamys main event, where Valemont is up for three more awards: Best Writing (Christian Taylor), Best Drama Series and Best Actor (Eric Balfour.) I'll be there to cheer us on, but I have a serious First World Dilemma. WHAT TO WEAR?

So I'm going to let you dress me. In the sense that I am going to let you pick my dress. I AM NOT ACTUALLY LETTING YOU PHYSICALLY DRESS ME. Pervs.

The nominees for Slackmistress' Streamy Dress are...

 

The Specials Dress, from Stop Staring!

 

The Gathered Ava Dress in red, also from Stop Staring!

The polls close Sunday at 11am. The polls close at 6pm, Saturday, April 10. I'll wear the losing dress to the Streamys launch party on Saturday. VOTE!

Always Forward.

I returned from MIT's Story 3.0 conference with my brain in bits like buckshot. I'm still trying to assemble the bits and pieces as we look towards to future of story.  The Center for Future Storytelling - a part of MIT's Media Lab - is a place I want to set up camp. A bunch of technologists and scientists and storytellers and entertainment professionals and forward-thinking brands gathering together to discuss stories and they are evolving as technology and the audience changes? Yes, please.

I love speaking in public. I was on speech team in high school, people. SPEECH. TEAM. (Scroll down to 1990, Special Occasion Speaking.) But i made a rookie mistake of practicing with my analog notes (aka paper) and then switching to using my computer at the last minute instead. 

I know better.

Alas, I was a wee bit more disjointed than I would have liked as I lost my place on the screen, and then scrolled to catch up. I think I managed to get my point across, or else I was enthusiastic enough where people thought there must be something to this. Thankfully, chatting with the attendees over the next 24 hours, I was better able to elaborate on some of the points I brought up during my part of the presentation. 

I was frustrated, but I was there to listen and learn and share my experiences. What I knew, what I learned, and where I thought we were going.

Always forward.

I returned on Thursday, and Friday morning found me at the vet at 7:45am to drop off Daisy J. Dog, who was having her cancerous lump removed. Since hemangiosarcoma is a cancer of the blood vessel cells, it was important to remove the lump along with the area immediately surrounding it, as well as some lumps that were found under her mammary glands.

The more they could remove, the better chance we have at kicking cancer's ass. So they were aggressive. Daisy returned to us Saturday morning with ten inches of stitches on her belly and minus three nipples. The saggy skin on her belly - a reminder of her earlier life as a breeding dog before someone threw her out like garbage - was gone. Daisy's gone Hollywood and finally gotten that tummy tuck.

Always forward.

She's got a pain patch on her hind leg and tramadol that needs to be given every eight hours. Last night was her first night at home. She spent it a little confused and out of it, which makes her a little whiny, or else not feeling any pain at all, which means she wants to scratch her belly with her hind leg, not caring that it's like Frankenstein's monster down there.

I banished Will to the couch so he could get some sleep (I can grab a nap during the day if I have to) and spent the night getting up every thirty minutes to comfort her and make sure she didn't rip her stitches out (since she scratches with her hind leg, the cone is of little use to prevent this.)

A few sleepless nights could buy us years. I'll take it.

Always forward.

March 27, with her ProCollar.

This is Me, Trying Not to Act Like an Idiot & Failing Miserably.

It's no secret that my career has been laden with more potholes than an LA side street.

When it was good, it was very, very good. But when it was bad, it was horrid.

There have been more than a few times when I thought about packing it up and Doing Something Else. ANYTHING else. Except the economy took a nosedive and suddenly I wasn't the only one unemployed.

Last May, I got a call from Electric Farm Entertainment Co-Founders Brent Friedman and Stan Rogow, who called me in for a project they were getting ready to shoot called Valemont.. There would be some rewriting sessions, and then I'd be let loose on the Internet to create the storyworld there. I was given very few parameters. As long as I could work within the budget, I was pretty much free to do whatever I wanted.

I had never worked on this type of project before. But I had spent nearly fifteen years, living and working and socializing online. It's not that I was an "Expert" or a "Guru" any more than my 17-year old self was a Guru on being a High School Senior. It was something that I didn't think about.

And now I was going to.

While creating for the screen can be a static experience, the Internet is a living, breathing thing. You cannot hope to control it.

You don't want to.

The experience was enlightening and exhausting and terrifying and frustrating and amazing. And having Brent was more Spirit Guide than boss. He'd give feedback and suggestions, but I was never told no, or that something was wrong. I was trusted to do my part.

Today, Valemont was nominated for multiple Streamy Awards including:

Best Drama Series
Best Writing (Christian Taylor!)
Best Interactive Experience (that's me!)

I know that it shouldn't matter and work should stand for itself and I should be way more nonchalant about such things. But I saw "Best Interactive Experience" and I may have started to get a little choked up.*

So I ask for your patience while I be crass and shout this from the rooftops. Looking back on the lean years of this blog, when I was filled with despair, it's a nice feeling to celebrate. Even if it's for a day.

*Okay, I cried. Like a little girl.

Square Pegs, aka New Media & the WGA.

(For first-time readers: I've written for TV, Web, Mobile platforms and been a member of the WGAw since 2000. You can read more about my background and work experience here.)

This afternoon I attended the WGAw/MEF panel "Content Creation for Mobile Devices."  There were some incredibly informed people on the first panel*, including Ryan Stoner of Omelet LA and Steven Hein of FOX.

While it was clear that the panelists all were not only knowledgeable but also successful in their fields, I wondered about the audience. The panel was open only to WGAw and WGA Caucus members; the 75-person venue was sold out, and there was an "overflow room" which housed another fifty or so members.  We all know that digital content creation - whether used as a tool to further extend conventional TV and film narratives, or as a primary distribution method - is where we're all headed. I applaud the WGA for recognizing this and attempting to create a forum for its members to learn more about storytelling on different platforms.

However, what was shocking to me is the lack of participation on those platforms.

Prior to attending the panel, I searched twitter for "mobile" and "WGA." I saw one hit - one of the panel members, Steven Hein. I arrived a few minutes early and had the opportunity to speak with Steven and told him that if there wasn't an agreed-upon hashtag for the conference, I'd be using #WGAmob.

As we all took our seats, we were told by WGA's New Media Project Manager Tamara Krinsky to use the hashtag #MEFWGA (I was impressed they were on top of it!), and we were encouraged to ask questions using this hashtag on Twitter.

Again, the panel was incredibly informative, and I imagine if I hadn't already worked on New Media projects like Woke Up Dead and Valemont that I would have learned more. But what shocked me was that, in the 100+ person audience, there appeared to only be 3-5 of us on Twitter. As I followed the #MEFWGA hashtag, I realized that it was...pretty much just me.

We were at a panel discussing creating content for mobile devices. While not solely mobile, Twitter is a popular mobile application. And yet...no one used it. Which got me to wondering if anyone used it?

How can one expect to create content for platforms we know nothing about?

I discussed this briefly with Miss Krinksy, who said that she thought people needed a reason to use platforms. And I don't disagree. At the inaugural Transmedia-LA meeting, we discussed how there seems to be a rush to tick off boxes on transmedia projects. (Don't know what transmedia storytelling is? Click here.)

However, if we expect to create for those platforms, shouldn't we understand what they're capable of? Social media isn't just media. It's SOCIAL.  You don't tell the same stories at a job interview that you do at a cocktail party. Each nugget of social interaction is governed by sometimes specific, sometimes general rules. 

The first time I had dinner at the Hotel Bel Air, I was terrified that I would use the wrong fork or speak too loudly or pronounce my entree incorrectly even though I had taken seven years of French. I wasn't comfortable with the social rules, so I listened, I watched, and I "got it" by the time dessert was served. (In fact, I became so comfortable that the second time I had dinner at the Hotel Bel Air, I passed out in the restaurant's plush bathroom. Back medication and martinis don't mix, kids.)

Platforms live and breathe the same way. Blogging is different that SMS messaging is different than Twitter is different than Facebook is different than email is different than voicemail  I don't know, if as the brilliant and forward-thinking Jan Libby mused, that people are expecting to "wing it" when it comes to these options, or if they're afraid of the technology.

As a writer, I'm attempting to take advantage of the unique properties of each platform** to create, as my boss and mentor Brent Friedman*** likes to say, "universes worthy of devotion..." You don't need a WGA card to tell stories across these platforms. (See Jay Bushman's CtHalloween, or my husband's 3 Tweet Stories.)

Writers would do themselves a huge favor by learning about these platforms, at the very least becoming an observer if not an active participant. It's not difficult, but it is different.

And if we want to write in New Media, we have to be prepared to experience and embrace the part that's "New."

*I did not stay for the second panel.
**You can see my talk at the 140# conference "How I Became a Zombie on Twitter" (on the benefit of Twitter for characters) here.
***He may have been quoting someone else. Not that you're not a smartypants, Brent!

HAVING PROBLEMS

Over the weekend, I started to map out my writing goals for 2010.

Last year's were derailed, but they were derailed by something known in the business as "a job." Although I did ghostwrite two books, create an entire online universe that I maintained for months as well as a blog and online presence for another show. So it's not like I was home picking my nose.

Anyway, hopefully this "job" will return, but now that I recall what "jobs" of their kind entail, I'm ready to attack my problem* in a calculated fashion.

When I'm working on a project, I don't generally let the universe know the steps I'm taking. Some writers like to talk about their projects, working them out in front of a studio audience. I've never done that, unless it's a HIYOUWONTHEARFROMMEFORABITBECAUSEIHAFTAGETTHISDONE and then I disappear to, y'know, get it done.

On occasion I find it useful to take a class to finish a project. My first screenplay was completed in Writers' Boot Camp back in 2003, and as I look down the road to finish my second (as well as multiple TV specs and a novel, oh my!) I was considering going back.

In a bizarre twist of fate, I received an email from them in the last weeks of 2009. It turns out that I can still log into the site as an alumna, and while my password was emailed to immediately, I didn't log into the site until today.

My correspondence from my 2003 class is sitting in my inbox, just where i left it. I scanned the subject lines and clicked on an email labeled "HAVING PROBLEMS" where a classmate was worried that they didn't understand the assignment as given. One of the answers was as follows:

Personally, I wouldn't get too worked up about it. My guess is that this is simply to clarify what it is that makes our project unique rather than something that has to wholly make sense at this juncture.

From my experience in the writing world, I've found that many writers fall back on stock experiences and canned characters that leave a "been there, done that" taste in my mouth.

Even if one has a stock sitation or canned character, it's how you as the writer interpret their world that makes them unique. Fr'example, I saw Kissing Jessica Stein last night (ah, cable!). Her mom seemed like the "Stock Jewish Mom Character" and was written that way through out most of the movie until she let on that she knew Jessica was having a lesbian affair and that it was okay. But she still did it in the "Stock Jewish Mom Character" way. So the character you've seen a billion times, the reaction that you're not expecting that colors it in a whole new way. That's what I'd consider a character conceit.

If you were approaching a TV script, then I'd look for story conceits, simply because you're given a cast of characters that you already have to work with. Even the "Same Old Stories" can get a new breath of life when they're being inhabited by different sets of characters.

I don't know if this is what you were looking for, or even remotely helpful. My only advice is not to get so wrapped up in the nomeclature that you become paralyzed and what's "right" and "wrong." It's just an exercise to help you focus. At least, that's how I'm approaching it.

That's good advice, I though. I scrolled down to see who had written it, wondering what this person had been doing for the last seven years.

Cheers,
Nina 

Okay, so we all don't  get wiser with age. But I'm off to try.

*This is a good kind of problem. Like too much candy.

Remix Fiction!

Miss my face? Then tune in tomorrow (Tuesday, December 22) at 5pm PST to Martin Aggett's Remix Fiction TV, where he'll interview me about Valemont!

You can tune in here.