Social Network Storytelling

Sunday, February 12, 12

Justin Oliphant

* obligatory shot of me “directing”

Filmmaker

Photographer

Editor

Storyteller

enjoy watching roller

derby and baseball

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Personal Projects

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Worked at ImageMovers Digital

2007-2010

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How far can social media networking take me and can I use it to tell a story?

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How far can my social network take me?

• Travel from place to place based on friends and friends of friends suggestions

• Places I would go in a city were based on suggestions by friends

• Things I ate and experienced were based on what was my hosts favorites were

• Say “yes”

Guidelines:

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Typical interaction

Current city status changes

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Typical interaction

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So how far can my social network take me?

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Feb 2010 - Aug 2010

6 months, over 50 cities

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Met over 80 hosts and personal guides.

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Can social networking tell a story?

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Storytelling Tools

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•Each tool had pros and cons and were good at telling different aspects of the story.•The audience would fill the missing parts not updated.

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So can social networking tell a story?

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Success with Friend of a Friend Project

• Social networks connect users to the story and characters closely.

• Finding the right tools can help tell the story.

• Marketing tool was your storytelling tool.

• Characters can be tied to real people and places.

• Ended due to FoaF Project more of a documentary, but I wanted to create a fictional worlds.

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San Francisco became my home baseand I immediately began work on taking the

lessons learned into my next project.

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Zoetic LabsSunday, February 12, 12

Zoetic Structure

• Take lessons learned from FoaF.

• Theme based storytelling.

• Let the audience experience the magic first hand.

• Engage the potential audience more thoroughly than traditional/passive media

• Create story and touch points to be released over time.

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BasicStoryline

• Modern day, 2012

• Prof. Henry Lightman asked to figure out if the world is going to end and if so how.

• He and his wife create 3 little robot travelers to document the best things in life (just in case the world does end)

• Henry is also dealing with his wife being terminally ill

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Zoetic Guideline 1: FoaF Lessons

• Use social networks to connect users to the story and characters closely.

• Utilize specific tools available for the right story points.

• Use the storytelling platform to market the project.

• Tie characters to real people and places.

• Create a rich fictional world.

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Tools for the Characters

• Facebook

• Google+

• Twitter

• Tumblr

• Youtube

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Zoetic Guideline 2:What’s the theme?

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Theme Based Storytelling

“Discovering the Best of Human Life”

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Zoetic Guideline 3:First hand magic

Give people outside the story the choice to be the hero

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“Help me Obi-wan Kenobi”

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Thadeus

SF

Los Angeles, CANew York, NY

Shewsbury, MA

facebook.com/ThadeusBotmanSunday, February 12, 12

Hubert

Vancouver, BC

Carson City, NV

Sausalito, CA

SF

facebook.com/HubertBotmanSunday, February 12, 12

Nova

SF

San Francisco, CA

Boston, MA

Charlotte, NC

Austin, TX

facebook.com/NovaBotmanSunday, February 12, 12

Zoetic Guideline 4:Engaging the Audience

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Design a little traveler robot

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#Zoetic“Discovering the

Best of Human Life”

Twitter.com/ZoeticLabs

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Zoetic Guideline 5:Releasing story and touch

points over time

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Time

• Develop a strong foundation

• Get the story going

• Build on top of the foundation over time by adding more features that enhance the theme

• Grow the community

• Story and features are released over the course of 1 year

It’s an advantage

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Next few monthsfor Zoetic Labs

• Henry’s Story Progresses

• Printable Robots

• Creating Camera App

• Reveal of Emily’s story

• Youtube Channel

• Quarterly Ebook - Curation

• Continued travels

• A few surprises...

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Complexity is a Beautiful thing

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Special Thanks

• Paul Garber

• Fon Davis

• Allison Murphy

• Fonco Creative

• Maya Zuckerman

• All the hosts

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Transmedia SF

Hope to see collaborationeducation and development of

new stories in the Bay Area.

JustinAOliphant@gmail.com

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@ZoeticLabs

ZoeticLabs.com

facebook.com/ZoeticLabsSunday, February 12, 12