The times they are a-changin’.
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Creative people seldom have time to do the press they need to, too busy creating. My focus is technology and Creativity especially in the local realm, and I seek to test how it can be leveraged. Since 2003 that has meant a self funded project, a focus on what locals have access to and little room for Press agents. It’s easier to scale up.
In November 2011, we Livedstreamd & Livecast a Collaborative live improve unto the screen at Kumble Theater at long Island University’s Main stage and to viewer around the world. We connected Dancers in a room off the theater to and live streamed dancers from Ghana (Africa), St.Lucia (Caribbean) and Vermont (USA) The all danced to a live “realtime” simultcast of music contributed by local musicians. what happened in that room that day left many speechless for a week and redefined how we saw entertainment and theater. I run a self funded projected that helps creative explore technology. as a Creative Industrialist,my scope goes beyond the Social media sphere; I explore using technology to affect the way creatives, learn, explore teach present and ultimately
I brought in two teenagers to tweet the event but no one did. We were all simply engrossed in the magic that unfolded. What we noted was that these dancers were able to make the same connection as though they were on the same stage. We’d love to explore more and build out the necessary technology and I will definitely encourage Marlies to present at the next TEDX Broadway
In this case I collaborated with Ms Marlies Yearby the Award nominated Director of the original Broadway Musical “RENT” for what we called Dancehackit. as the tech end of this i was introduced to “the Backend”, which is where I saw that technology could really contribute. we used a Posterous9now defunct) Google docs and groups to collaborate but there was so much back-end stuff, which kept taking up so much time and honestly is part of the reason I have NOT revisited this project.
I’ve had the opportunity to test many theories of technology and creativity.This type of hands on exploration also needs to be supported. what we discovered is invaluable to the shaping of a final product. We used live stream see some of the highlights here and a quick overview of our other endeavors below.
Someone shared a post this morning that looked at technology in Theater, I was a bit concerned about the limited scope of use cited. See post here That said i’m definitely encouraging Marlies to present at the next TedX
DANCEHACKIT™ brought together dancers from the Gambia (West Africa), St.Lucia (Caribbean), Vermont and Brooklyn, NY (USA) Live and in realtime to dance to the same music stream from the Brooklyn NY Mother LaunchPad! Dancehackit’s first presentation was a simultaneous freestyle dance improvisation that launched exploration of a virtual Live Performance Stage and we hoped would serves as the stepping stone to a digital startup for live entertainment on the world wide web! Marlies yearby and I envisioned a platform that would generate new working relationships globally, create jobs, attract funding for projects that inspire creativity and showcase fresh ideas. All while removing the limitations of location by being virtual and globally accessible to everyone. In short this was the beginning of developing a virtual theater where artist and works by both professionals and performers on many levels can be experienced by the viewer without geographic concern. See more here
With longtime Veteran actor of stage and screen Victor Arnez teh exploration was much quiter and more intimate… a former video production instructor at The local (Brooklyn) public Access Tv responsible for training producers at some of NY’s leading television channels, his involvement meant exploring the possibility for local theater, turning living room and lofts into “stages” for show, tell and sale. were were able to look towards equipment and props and truly look at the scalability of the event.
With the other two experience I came it was the use of marketing expertise that was identified as needed. In the first case, fully backed nY leg of a tour, $50000 had already been spent in Burlesque to Broadway(tm) marketing with less than 1 month and only 20 tickets sold I first did a postmortem on their present strategy even before pulling together any sort of solution. too often it is the INCORRECT deployment of a campaign that affects it’s success in this case there was no effective landing strategy , the wrong message to the wrong community in the wrong side of town. All marketing simply led to dead air. They were active on Your tube, tweeting on Facebook, Had a huge billboard yet few sales. I had to plug the holes and point all efforts DIRECTLY to the sales page… Any thicket sold after our launch could be attributed to our efforts. Lesson learned… correct business strategy BEFORE supercedes technologies magic wand. I was honest with the team and promised to lay a strong foundation that they themselves could continue through the end of the run. We brought them in as a Parner at www.internetweekny (free) made the download of the music available added a dinner special with local restaurants. see more here
The final case was a local off Broadway production. This Time I was approached about 3-6 weeks before the event You need six months to fully plan and execute a strong social media strategy. here technology was used to make up for lack… The site (A responsive wordpress theme, became a digital playbill and was accessible by mobile. They set up a FB group vs a page which allowed cast to share and become active in spread the word and building support. We used Eventbrite as a digital ticketing system. The did a trailer ad on Youtube and took to tweeting. Small productions have a manpower challenge and so Social media may not be a natural fit unless it’s on a volunteer basis as EVERYONE was too involved with production to tweet.
I’ve discussed streaming and on demand video for preparation, performance and archiving and merchandising. In most cases it is “CULTURE”, what’s traditional in that niche that is a challenge. These as well as revenue models need to be written into contracts at the time cast is signed on The language of many of the current social media sites also make IP conscious creative uncomfortable.
The question I asked Marlies and other creative.. what would you do with technology if you could
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