Tag / Film

by steelef

Building a Better Story World – Episode 1

It’s been a minute, ain’t it? I know you’ve all been desperate to… no, I can’t even lie like that. But I’ve been working on a LOT of stuff, and this is a part of it: a new podcast dedicated to helping you become better story world designers!

Using the same tools that I’ve brought to Nickelodeon, the Walt Disney Company, Microsoft, Activision, Sony Pictures, and many other clients, I’m going to take listeners on a step-by-step guide to story world creation. Each week, we will be delving into new categories and new content. Those who follow along can use the prompts to help create new narratives, but if you’re just interested in understanding, that’s great, too!

This week, we’re hitting the basics: the five primary elements of every story! From main character to resolution, we’ll build a foundation for any number of multimedia stories. I would embed the episode, but apparently, WordPress doesn’t like such things from Buzzsprout unless you upgrade to the Business platform (no thanks), so here’s the direct download!

Listen in, and if you’d like to submit your work, email helmstarmedia@gmail.com, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter and let me know!

by steelef

A Very Steele Look at Aliens and Isolation

When last we met (many, many moons ago), our talk about passive and active media led to quite a lot of attention. I got record-high viewership totals. My blog got bandied about on the interwebz like a rain-slicked football at a Pop Warner football game. For a split second, I even began to trend. It was heady to receive this attention, and it brought in a lot of work, hence my absence on ye ol’ blogosphere.

But enough about me. Well, no… keep it up with the laudations…

But enough about me. Well, no… keep it up with the laudations…

I did receive a few questions about it all, naturally. People were genuinely interested in talking about some of the more detailed aspects of my missive, which generally fell into the following categories.

  • Can you talk about the franchises you worked on in the past? Alas no.
  • Will you give me writing lessons? If you’re willing to pay.
  • Are you trying to imitate Abe Lincoln? You tell me.

AbeLincoln

So I decided to give you guys a peek into what I mean about the usage of storytelling between platforms. Let’s look at this from a franchise perspective so that the themes are congruent, the characters are similar, and it’s reasonably well known enough for a broad audience to understand.

I’ll save my Farscape fanfiction for another day.

I’ll save my Farscape fanfiction for another day.

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by steelef

The Blue Ruin of an Old Paradigm

This is not about Blue Ruin as a film. It’s not about how it’s paced, or how the thriller works/does not work in an indie environment, or about the statements that it makes, or it’s cast n’ crew. This is about how it is distributed and why this will mean the end of the $14 movie ticket.

That noise you hear is the sound of hundreds of people closing this window.

That noise you hear is the sound of hundreds of people closing this window.

Stay with me, here. This is important.

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