Archives: Projects

As the old proverb tells us:

Every great journey begins with a single step…

Today, my great journey to summit the 3 highest peaks in the UK within 24 hours began with the single, simple step of inducting myself at the gym.

I’ve been lucky enough to be sponsored by Topnotch Healthclubs with a gym membership and, if you’ll pardon the pun, top-notch training advice and personalised programmes to get me ship-shape and walking-fashioned in time for the challenge in June.

This blog, in what must been its umpteenth iteration ((having followed pre- and post-transplant journey and a short “trial” stint at university)), will become home to OLI’S 3 PEAKS – the online diary of my build-up, training, highs and lows of my bid to raise awareness of organ donation by attempting a frankly very silly challenge for someone with a) a total lack of any kind of physical fitness and b) a very low tolerance for pain or discomfort.

Here, as they say, goes nothing….

It doesn’t take a genius to work out the value of “Event TV”. Take last night’s Superbowl: people all over the world tuned in and felt compelled to take part in the chatter, bantering back-and-forth with friends, followers and random strangers.

In the age of the DVR ((be it TiVo, Sky+ or whatever the dominant service in your area is)), VOD and online catch-up services ((like the BBC’s iPlayer)) more and more of us are watching our TV content time-shifted to suit ourselves. But if you want to be part of a conversation – if you want to experience the feedback as it happens – you need to be watching live.

The LOST finale is the obvious fictional TV reference ((just check out the spike in Twitter traffic as recorded here by the NY Post)). Although it’s easily dismissed as a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence for fans of one particular show and thus something of an exception, it’s still worth noting that the LOST team had spent 6 years working up to this moment, carefully building their following and fanaticism to the point when it became not only “must-see TV” but “must-see-at-the-same-time-as-everyone-else TV”, the very definition of “event TV”.

Can we, as independent filmmakers and creators, produce the kind of content that is best experienced live and as it happens? Can we create “event” content?

The closest we have to it right now is probably The Production Office Live and Film Snobbery, shows that are available almost immediately after airing on the ‘net for anyone to view it at their leisure, but which the vast majority of the audience wants to see live so they can engage in the chat and discussion, whether on the website chat or via Twitter.  Even this, though, is factual content rather than fictional.

If they key to it is interaction and immediacy, is it possible – or even realistic – for us to create “event TV” in a fictional format? Or are we foolish to even aspire to such heights? Do the indie forms of distribution (VOD, digital download etc) inevitably mean it’s beyond our reach, or can we create content that will get people buzzing across platforms as they all watch our product together?

What do you think?

For years the iconic sports brand have been telling us to ‘Just Do It‘. It works as a slogan because it’s short, it’s snappy and it’s easy to remember.

It also works because it’s true; the single best way to make anything happen is just to do it.

If you’re sitting around thinking of all the things you ought to be doing, you’ll never get anywhere. If there’s something to be done just get up and get on with it. The sooner you do, the sooner it’ll be done and you can get back to the other tasks on your To Do list ((or just chilling out)).

Even when it comes to big things, although you made need to break them down into smaller, more achievable chunks, you start down the road by simply taking that first step.

Yesterday, after much delay and dilly-dallying, I finally committed myself to attacking the 3 Peaks Challenge later this year. How? I contacted a journalist friend at my local paper and got them to run this piece on me to help me find a trainer.

Not only will I hopefully get some expert supervision and advice, but I’ve also announced the trip to the world in a way that will keep me honest, make me stick to my goals and motivate me to achieve what I’ve set out to do.

Expect more on the 3 Peaks and my journey towards it in the coming weeks. But, right now, what are you doing to “just do” today”?

This week’s most popular post on the blog was my Pick of the Web featuring Lucy V. Hay and Daniel Martin Eckhart‘s cross-talking posts on what it takes to succeed as a writer. You can read it here.

Today’s Sunday video for your viewing (and educational) pleasure it this fantastic piece by Turnstyle News on Lance Weiler‘s Pandemic 1.0 project that’s been running all week. Watch this video ((you can also see it on Vimeo here)) and learn how transmedia should be done. Spectacular; and makes me even more gutted that I wasn’t at Sundance this year to be able to participate.

I heard someone yesterday say that the most important thing in starting a project is making the decision to do it. I beg to differ.

We frequently make decisions and resolve to start things that we don’t see through, just see my pair posts about Mondays (Don’t Start on Monday and Why I’m Right). How many times have you heard someone is starting their diet, stopping smoking, beginning a new health kick, but they’re always doing it “next week” or “on Monday”?

Committing to starting a project is the most important step. Once you’ve committed – be it public or private ((although we all know that doing it publicly makes you far more accountable, even if it’s only to your friends)) – you’ve taken the first step towards making it happen.

Don’t sit back and relax in the knowledge that you’ve decided to do something so therefore it will happen; unless you fully commit, it simply won’t.

Just before Christmas, Seth Godin, über-leader of tribes and the man behind the seminal ideavirus revolution, created the website for a new publishing project aiming to launch in early 2011, in association with Amazon.

If you haven’t already, go subscribe to their newsletter and have a look around the site. The Domino Project is, in their own words ((and I emphasise the “their” in that sentence – it’s truly a collaborative effort)), “reinventing what it means to be a publisher”.

These are exciting times for global publishing; when someone with Seth’s ability, influence and forward-thinking partners up with such a global powerhouse as Amazon something exciting is likely to happen, whatever it may eventually be.

If you want to be a part of it, they’re also looking for a Domino Street Team across the world to help them roll out their plans throughout the next 6 months or so. You can read more about the role and the people they’re looking for here or head straight over to the application form and dive right in ((you’ve got until this Friday, 28th Jan 2011)); I already have.

The Domino Project is named after the domino effect—one powerful idea spreads down the line, pushing from person to person. The Project represents a fundamental shift in the way books (and digital media based on books) have always been published. Eventually consisting of a small cadre of stellar authors, this is a publishing house organized around a new distribution channel, one that wasn’t even a fantasy when most publishers began.

The Domino Project, thedominoproject.com

When we take on new things – from launching a new project to starting a new health kick – we almost universally choose to kick off “on Monday”.

Monday is convenient because it’s the start of the week and we imagine we’ll be as fresh as a daisy and raring to go.

Ask around, though, and general wisdom will suggest people hate Mondays ((try Googling ‘Monday’ and see how many of the results are positive)). Why choose to start something fresh and exciting on such an energy-draining day?

If you genuinely want to start something new, start it today. Or Wednesday. Or Tuesday. Or any day of the week that will allow you to start with a bang. Don’t put it off ’til Monday.