This was closest thing I could find to notes on the workshop I facilitated with Dave Mahanes and Brent Gudgel – (Thanks Henry Zonio, you’re a lifesaver)

* 1:25 AM henryjz – visual storytelling is just that… storytelling… you don’t say everything in it
* 1:27 AM henryjz – conversation with Brent Gudgel and Dave Mahnes from Chronicle Project and Dan Portnoy
* 1:28 AM henryjz – dynamic sites make a big difference for ppl to come back
* 1:30 AM henryjz – Q: How do you get a story out there in a short amount of time with limiting resources? Is there a framework or structure you can set up without it becoming boring?
* 1:31 AM henryjz – just because you can tell a story doesn’t mean you should tell it all the time so that you have more time to put a quality story out there
* 1:32 AM henryjz – there is a diconnect between the decision makers and the artists many times… best time is to communicate with each other better
* 1:34 AM henryjz – on ministry websites what should you do and not do?
* 1:35 AM henryjz – don’t do black and white pics to add drama… e.g. “homeless people… awwww”
* 1:35 AM henryjz – don’t try to manipulate
* 1:36 AM henryjz – if you have dynamic engines (like Flash) make sure they are dynamic and get updated
* 1:37 AM henryjz – how do you get ppl to stay on your site?
* 1:38 AM henryjz – got to be clean: visual, white space, good fonts, invest in decent CSS, allow easy access to other areas
* 1:38 AM henryjz – make your site easy to update by those who aren’t “computer savvy”
* 1:42 AM henryjz – website needs to reflect your values… put the important thing on the front page and make clicking through a discovery process
* 1:43 AM henryjz – open source is great!
* 1:44 AM henryjz – what is best/cheapest way to get started when you don’t know computer talk
* 1:50 AM henryjz – figure out what you want first
* 1:50 AM henryjz – that’s called development
* 1:50 AM henryjz – then you can pay someone to build it all the way to using free sources to build yourself
* 1:51 AM henryjz – don’t let tech push your message… let your message push the tech
* 1:51 AM henryjz – if you really don’t do computer… use the money to have someone do it when you can
* 2:00 AM henryjz – work from the simple solution first and work up from there
* 2:05 AM henryjz – how do you promote streaming
* 2:06 AM henryjz – do you promote it, even?
* 2:08 AM henryjz – promoting digital media with traditional media
* 2:09 AM henryjz – business cards… pass them out
* 2:10 AM henryjz – where is your audience? what do they want? go where they are?
* 2:11 AM henryjz – what about twitter? what’s that all about?
* 2:11 AM henryjz – it’s social media so it has to be social
* 2:14 AM henryjz – twitter is like a cocktail party
* 2:18 AM henryjz – in going to twitter, what would be your line?
* 2:24 AM henryjz – when putting together a web presence, you need to find out the relaitonships
* 2:28 AM henryjz – Orbiting the Giant Hairball… book on communicating creative process to management
* 2:31 AM henryjz – there also ways to use mobile to interact with your audience… it’s growing
* 2:33 AM henryjz – Mobile Cause is a way to set up faith-based giving via mobile… because mobile service carriers have waived all fees for non-profit giving

If you’ve got questions on anything touched on – leave them in the comments, I’d be happy to elaborate.

I’m heading down to Idea Camp in Irvine this weekend to connect with a bunch of people that are interested in changing the world for the better and on Saturday I’ll be joining with the super talented Chronicle Project in hosting a session on “How to Tell Your Story Through New Media.”

The Idea Camp will be broadcasting live session online at http://theideacamplive.com including the Friday 7PM screening of the Deidox films!

There’s still room for you at Idea Camp – just register at www.TheIdeaCamp.com To see a comprehensive list of workshops, click here! See you at Idea Camp!

Below is a list of the facilitators
Brad Abare www.thinkpersonality.com / www.churchmarketingsucks.com
Greg Atkinson www.gregatkinson.com
Tony Ferraro www.tonyferraro.com / www.360hubs.com
Mike Foster www.ethur.org
Dave Gibbons www.davegibbons.tv
Brent Gudgel www.deidox.com / www.chronicleproject.org
Todd Hiestand www.toddhiestand.com
Scott Hodge www.scotthodge.org
Mark Horvath www.invisiblepeople.tv
Penny Hunter The Revolution
Zach Hunter www.loosechangetoloosenchains
Greg Russinger www.just4one.org
Jeff Shinabarger www.jeffshinabarger.com
Rich Kirkpatrick www.richkirkpatrick.com / www.tehillamusic.com
Charles Lee www.charlestlee.com
Dave Mahanes www.chronicleproject.org / www.deidox.com
Shah Afshar www.shahshankedredemption.blogspot.com
Dwight Watson www.surgance.com / www.dwightgwatson.blogspot.com
Eric Bryant www.ericbryant.org
Spencer Burke www.theooze.com
Chad Mayer www.sharefestinc.org
James Pearson www.jamestravels.com
Cynthia Ware www.thedigitalsanctuary.org
David Ruis www.davidruis.com
Chris Cannon www.kingsharbor.org
Dawn Carter www.decarter.wordpress.com / www.360hubs.com
Eugene Cho www.eugenecho.wordpress.com
DJ Chuang www.djchuang.com / www.digital.leadnet.org
Keith Kall www.worldvision.org
Henry Zonio www.elementalcm.com
Tony Wood www.generatelife.com
Robert Yang www.kindlejoy.com
Dawn Nicole Baldwin www.aspireone.com / www.dawnnicolebaldwin.typepad.com

Last month, the beginning of the short films of DEIDOX launched along with their website. These stories are a great combination of documentary film and Christian media.

My interaction with the Brent Gudgel and Dave Mahanes at Chronicle Project (CP) started almost a year ago and it wasn’t until May that we started kicking around the idea of working together on a web portal that would be different than a lot of other short film download sites.

“These stories help us focus on something bigger than ourselves.” – Brent Gudgel

Early on I was able to see their business plan and being in the same suite of offices got to enjoy the ups and downs along the way to last months launch. This was a great project to work with because we were able to really collaborate on the site. Having worked previously together and continually with Union Rescue Mission’s Stories from Skid Row helped establish a great work flow and exchange of ideas.

In October we really went to work talking about the features they’d like the site to have and came to the conclusion that since Chronicle Project has had great success with Dear Francis (Heartland Film Festival Crystal Heart, Best Documentary at NY AIDS festival) The site had to convey and be on par with the kind of work that they do. We set about making a laundry list of features including making the focus and experience of the site highly visual.

Their initial idea was to develop a site that allowed for easy access, distribution and download the short films that they’d be creating. We took a look at other sites that were distributing on a massive scale in the faith based community (Sermon Spice, Worship House Media, Bluefish.tv) and while they were hitting a massive audience the choice was made to self distribute and augment the process through publicity and working network/contacts for awareness.

In similar fashion to Independent music, independent film (specifically shorts) don’t have a lot of options. Both iTunes and Amazon.com distribute video but unless you’re a major studio, there isn’t an option for distribution due to the length of the piece. What we eventually decided was to use e-junkie.com as a cart due to the fact that they allow a really flexible checkout solution and allow for digital downloads hosted on their servers.

Throughout the process of development, two companies were tapped for their expertise. Domestic Equity, based in Orange County and East Coast based Outthink Group. Prior to this project I’d worked with Greg Crosariol’s design in updating the CP website to be database driven on their back end. Greg is really amazing at conveying different looks and feels with his work. When I saw his design/look/feel of DEIDOX.com I thought it conveyed where the films were headed and communicated to the audience that would be checking out the site. He thought through so much of what would be needed that it was really a joy to work with.

Outthink Group has consistently been my right arm for web development in making the impossible happen. My favorite part about working with them is that they anticipate problems and get really involved in their projects. Tim Grahl was fantastic in bending javascript to his will, making the complex move simply and for general miracles.

Every project has it’s own unique problems/opportunities and since this process was blazing a trail in a cross platform melding of the professional film world, faith based communities and self distribution there was a fair amount to get past. We decided to harness the power of Vimeo HD (I think it’s the best player on the web) and showcasing the trailers by giving them a whopping 900×500 pixels of space above the fold. Everything on this site is designed to engage the viewer with video. Last years reports on web traffic said that 60% of traffic was viewing video; furthering the idea that if a picture tells a thousand words, video tells hundreds of thousands.

Also part of the genius in this business plan/model is the “pay-what-you-want” element. Where the music industry went wrong 10 years ago is where the independent film community can go right. There’s an important balance between having value on your work and creating product that is quality. This way you can see what you’re getting for a relatively low buy in ($2.99 or less) and enjoy the films at lo-resolution for your iPod, iPhone, etc. The dangerous part for the CP guys is the great trust they’re putting in their audience. I totally applaud them for this move but if the support isn’t there.. they won’t be making anymore of these films. Other price points for the SD and HD versions are $19.99 and $24.99 respectively.

DEIDOX.com was a great project to be involved in and I think the guys from Chronicle Project are doing some powerful things with film – check it out.

Deidox tile