January 26, 2011
Peter Guber: How to Use Storytelling to Build Relationships for Life
Film producer and Mandalay Entertainment CEO and Chairman Peter Guber is a man of passion. He inspires people by sharing his stories about success and failures. He's well known for a number of Hollywood successes but most noted ones include Rain Man, Batman, The Color Purple, Midnight Express, Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, The Witches of Eastwick, Missing and Flashdance, all of which have led to more than 50 Academy Award nominations.
"You can't look at failure as something that cripples you, you have to look at failure as your partner, because with it comes great opportunities," says Peter.
"Stories are not the icing on the cake, it's the cake - it's everything," he adds. "Stories are the way we make sense of our world." And what are stories made of? Stories are our dreams he reminds and adds, "hits are not born in the head, they're born in the gut and the heart. The idea is when you're trying to get someone to do something, you need to connect to them viscerally and emotionally."
How do you create relationships for life? he asks. What is key he asserts is telling Purposeful stories. You first must have a purpose, and with conviction and heart, you then "tell" that story in a way that will motivate your audience to action. It's a combination of having great content, passion and purpose.
He then talks about motivation. He quotes Arianna Huffington and says he feels the same way about motivation and getting things done. To really get something done, you must get into the same room with the other person, breathe the same air as the person and then be congruent.
In other words, don't go into the room unless you really show up....show up and be congruent, because if you're not congruent and not in alignment, including the minute details, such as your breathe, your audience will know.
Once you're congruent and you're ready to to motivate, it's key, he says, "to motivate yourself first." "When you walk into the room and before you open your mouth, you're already telling your story. Your intention shows up first, long before your words do."
He encourages us to rethink our roles and what business we're in. He says that we're all in the Emotional Transformation Business. It's our job to transform, motivate and move people to action. Clients don't want to just be called clients, they want relationships. They want connection.
Connection starts with the dance you do the moment you walk in the room. Once you're in the room with an audience, they don't want a conversation, they want an 'experience.' Make the emotional connection first, not second.
He moves into the topic of preparation and presentations, encouraging people not to use notes when they give a presentation. He says he likes notes because they provide a good reference point to refer back to, but not to have it as the basis of your presentation. Once you begin your talk, he says you should speak from the heart and just see what comes out of you, "be spontaneous and let the canvas open up in front of you."
The key to get action from your 'story' is not just to be purposeful but to also have an end goal. All purposeful storytelling has a Goal. Peter says, "your role is not to hide it but to pride it. If you hide it, people will know and not trust it." In other words, the more generous your goals are, goals that include the "we," where they win too, they're much more likely to take the risk and dive in.
He also emphasizes the importance of Transparency in your story. It's important that your goals are completely transparent because people will feel and know what your true intention is.
Peter tells a touching story about a call he received from Nelson Mandela after he got out of prison, who called him directly to ask for his help. Mandela's mission was to come to the states to have two parties, with the following goal in mind: to get businesses and entrepreneurs involved in willingly helping South Africa through their transition.
Peter talks about the transparency and congruency of his pitch and because his pitch was authentic and with purpose, people opened up their wallets and moved to action. He said with conviction that if the world doesn't get involved, that "we" will keep their dreams in prison.
The fourth key component to storytelling is Interactivity. "The best storytelling is interactive," he says. It's not a monologue, it's a dialogue. When it's a dialogue, you metabolize it, you get your audience to own it in their bodies.
He tells people to Surrender Control. Peter says, "you're not in control of what your audience is going to do and how they're going to feel. When you surrender control, magic happens. When they own what you tell them, they pay it forward.
They become advocates for your proposition and then, they become your army. And, when you surrender control, you create space for them to come forward and act on their own. Detach yourself from judgment and just trust that the rest will take care of itself - that's part of the elegance of it, he says.
Now for the Story itself. Finding stories is easy, he says. "They're everywhere. There's no magic in it - stories are everywhere, they're the stories of our lives. They're all around us - use your nose, your eyes and your ears. It's really that easy." He says, "no gift from me to you, you already have it. It's the way we're all wired."
When we discover what our story is or what one we want to use, he says, "ask yourself, is it generous. Is it congruent with who you are? Is it transparent? Is it authentic?"
Stories live in your head - that's an experience. Stories live in your heart - that's an experience. Peter says that when the stories come from your own experience and we are reliving that expeirence in real-time in front of people, they will feel it. That's what I mean by us being in the "emotional transformation business," he says. "If you really own that story, then you will move people." The Methodology of the Tell is What Makes the Difference.
Wherever there is emotion, there's a story. In other words, there must be an emotional palette when you engage with someone. Essentially, you're trying to get people to Go on a Journey with you. He says, "I always look for a place where I can connect to a story I hear."
The stories we hear and that we tell ourselves are bits and pieces of data that we metabolize and soon, we become those stories. The narrative that we tell ourselves over and over again are the reality and belief systems we create. In other words, create empowering stories that inspire and invoke change for the better. "Tell a better story than the stories you hear around you. Don't we owe that to ourselves?" says Peter.
He reaffirms with conviction and passion: do it, enjoy it, own it and tell your story from that place and the story will be paid forward.
Photo Credit: UCLA School of Theatre and Television. Second image credit: http://janecanstant
January 26, 2011 in America The Free, Arts & Creative Stuff, Entertainment/Media, On Branding, On Innovation, WBTW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 19, 2011
Ray Kurzweil's The Transcendent Man
The Transcendent Man, the movie, is previewing starting in early February, beginning on the east coast in New York.
This documentary film is about the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil who continues to travel the world offering his vision of a future in which we will merge with our machines, can live forever, and are billions of times more intelligent...all within the next thirty years.
Each program will include opening remarks or presentation by Ray Kurzweil, the film screening itself, a
Q&A with Ray Kurzweil and director Barry Ptolemy and of course, the program will vary slightly from city-to-city.
The schedule of where and when the movie is playing is below.
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January 19, 2011 in America The Free, Entertainment/Media, On the Future | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 31, 2010
2010: The Year of Multiple Digital Personas
This past year was one of my busiest years, largely because of 4 factors: I re-launched two sites, started shooting more (note: Canon 7D purchase), I seemed to be on the road non-stop and clients expected more than ever and yet they want to pay less for results.
Let's start by looking at some of the technology trends and mindshifts in 2010 which led to such a chaotic schedule.
Social media tools exploded. Living in Silicon Valley, you get hit with more beta trials than anywhere else in the world and testing new shit out is what I do among other things, so it's no surprise that I was hit with more than one person could possibly digest. Yet, some of those tools started to go mainstream, so suddenly things that were on my back burner couldn't go unnoticed anymore. For one, location-based services started to get a lot of attention.
Last January, I found myself in a hotel room in Munich desperate to connect and "check in" before heading out for a stroll in the fresh fallen snow.
How F-Ked up is that? Foursquare doesn't seem to want to acknowledge that I'm in another country when I am, regardless of how decent "connectivity" is, yet I can't seem to give in to technology controlling my environment even when it doesn't work. What's wrong with acknowledging that I'm not an engineer, don't try to fix this.....just let things/it be?"
Sadly, it's as if I try to will technology to conform to my environment and it almost never does.
Later in the year, I went through something similar in Paris. Refer to my blog post: When in Paris, BE in Paris, Disconnect.
That brings me to Part B of this story. Technology DID in fact control my environment more than any year in my life.
I relaunched We Blog the World this year because of its organic growth and growing interest from bloggers around the globe who wanted to contribute.
Launching a site isn't what it used to be because of the fact that a site isn't just a site anymore - it's connected to multiple digital personas on the web.
With the site had to be a Facebook "fan" page or whatever they now call it, a Twitter update to match the look-and-feel of the revamped site, as well as photo and video online personas to go with the rest of it.
Then there's maps, mobile optimization, geo-location, custom RSS feeds, online newsletters and editing to ensure the world sees what you want them to see rather than poorly curated clutter on the web. (see Linda Stone/continuous partial attention -- not new to 2010 but still highly relevant).
Enter the growing focus on curation. We're long overdue for attention on intellectual and relevant curation of content that matters to us most.
Since tools can't curate content automatically in a way that is useful to us yet, human curation needs to be part of the process and for anyone who has spent time curating and tagging content on the web knows, it's bloody time consuming. Pearltrees, a curation tool, was a big part of my life this year and I spent time alerting content creators in various vertical markets about the aspect and value of human curation as an integral part of their workflow.
I switched to Chrome this year as my main browser, suddenly I ended up with three phones, one of which was a Google phone that simplified my local calls and texting when in Europe, and I was nearly tempted to buy an iPad so I could carry around yet another device with me to ensure I was connected 24/7 just in case the three phones and two laptops were not enough.
What's important to note is how the 'always on' part of my life which used to largely happen in my office and to and from meetings during my work day migrated into every aspect of my life.
Not only were my digital personas growing in numbers, but so was my attention to them. Suddenly I had a flash page (see about.me, currently still in beta), 3 new sites, 3 new Facebook pages, 4 new Twitter personas, Foursquare and a growing number of international connections to "manage."
By summer, I was seriously feeling the effect of The Shallows (see Nicholas Carr's book: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains). In synthesizing recent cognitive research, he shares his own experiences, something that I could personally relate to. Carr writes "I've had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something has been tinkering iwth my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn't going -- so far as I can tell -- but it's changing."
By late July, I found that I couldn't sit still when I was out without a device and moreso, my attention span had shortened dramatically. The same thing was happening to others around me. We couldn't concentrate for long without new digital stimuli, even if that be a simple text message. My reading moved from reading whole books to skimming them, the rest left for online editorial only.
Reading and re-reading books have always brought a sense of calm to my otherwise chaotic world and yet, I had stopped reading novels for awhile. Instead, my reading time was filled with learning how social media was changing our lives and the impact it was having and will continue to have on business and the world. I read about new tools, solutions and trends. Of course, none of it had heart and soul but it was great insight for what to adopt early on.
Carr asserts that "every technology is an expression of human will. Through our tools, we seek to expand our power and control over our circumstances -- over nature, over time and distance, over one another."
And so, with this growing tension between feeling and fearing that my brain was actually changing chemically and the need to be "always" be connected to some device at any given time, I decided to leave the country in August without a device.
Off to South America I went with a friend who brought a Blackberry with her and I, a netbook, largely to be used for checking email once every couple of days, but moreso to offload photos from camera to hard drive. So, while technology wasn't off limits for me, having a device in my hands so I could be reachable and in turn reach out whenever and wherever, was not an option.
When you have close to ten online digital personas you are 'managing' at any given time, not being connected for a few weeks is highly uncomfortable. As I was boarding a plane from Miami to Guyaquil, I noticed how many people fidgeted when the pilot told them to turn their electronic devices off.
Some people stared down at their devices as if they would give them something stimulating even though the screen was blank. A few picked up magazines but flipped through as if bored without the energy of their device, their "adult" pacifier.
I found myself going through the same awkwardness, yet because the device was "home" and not an option when we landed, I was forced to find both my energy and my calm from a static page of a book or an old fashioned notebook which I brought to record thoughts using an actual physical pen.
Since I was with someone who had not made the same choice, I was somewhat forced into the digital world by watching her fiddle with her Blackberry, nose down into its addictive energy while we were driving past the Amazon jungle. It was astonishing that she could get a connection up there and because she 'could,' she did.
There was a moment where I felt like asking her for "it" to check into the Amazon on Foursquare for the world to see, as somewhat of a novelty. There was a moment where I felt like asking her for "it" to tweet out to the world that the Amazon was in trouble and attach a photo of chain saws on the side of the road with piles of timber lined up in rows a couple hundred miles away from the nearest big town.
I had to refocus my energy away from the device and her fingers upon it and onto the lush green wildness out my right window and as soon as I did, slowly but surely, my center found calm. It found presence. It found wonder. It found marvel. It found gratitude. It found wow. It found real physical life that was breathing its beauty into me as I decided to participate IN IT rather than watch or engage with it on a screen.
I didn't blog about my experience that week since we were camping in the middle of the jungle, but I also decided not to blog about it as soon as we were connected in another town. I waited until I returned to the states, and for multiple reasons, it was the right thing to do. Reflections followed - here, here and here. I also wrote about my detaching experience called Hey Digital Maven, How Okay Are You With Silence?
Being present and recalling that presence later on because I had time to reflect on gratitude was key. Being constantly connected doesn't give us the time or more importantly, the 'space' to reflect and go deeper. Our ability to go deeper is limited because of what this constant digital stimuli is doing to our brains, and in turn, our behavior.
As Carr reflects from the discovery he made through his research, "while we know that our brain is an exquisitely sensitive monitor of experience, we want to believe that it lies beyond the influence of experience.
We want to believe that the impressions our brain records as sensations and stores as memories leave no physical imprint on its own structure. To believe otherwise would, we feel, call into question the integrity of the self."
Having a break from managing digital personas for a few weeks reminded me of the essential need for balance -- not just life/play and work balance but digital balance.
While I found that others were going through the same thing, the addictive quality of the lifestyle shift is gradual, and people often find it hard to talk about or perhaps explain.
When I first picked up the iPad and browsed through my blog using Flipboard, a wave of excitement flew through me as the pictures I created in the real world came to life on the screen. A beautiful screen.
The display was magical and an actual device was re-sorting or curating if you like, the content....my content. It was telling my story in its own way and the stories of other bloggers I knew and respected. I thought about how "cool" it would be to have this experience with me at all times, so wherever I was, I could have that dynamic engaging experience rather than a much blander web page.
Yet, when all I sometimes need is the information on the web, having that extra visual pleasure brings me into the web experience more than it does my physical surroundings. When I choose "it" more often than the people around me in the physical world, I'm losing something valuable as well am I not?
Digital addicts will argue not of course since for them, the additional dimension of what these devices bring to their online life (where they spend 90% of their time) is so much greater that they would argue making another choice is 'halting a change' that is not only inevitable but critical.
Inevitable as it is, it doesn't mean we can't be more aware on the impact it is having on our daily lives and decide with our human brains during this explosive evolution and revolution, that human interaction without a digital pacifier at our side, does still hold tremendous value.
Being present without anything in our hands or a list of "online to dos" on our mind makes us so much more aware of a friend's breath across the table as they listen to our words and the intensity in their eyes as they dance with a story they're sharing.
As more and more moves online and away from physical paper and objects, we're reminded of privacy concerns and location-based services knowing our every move and offering products to us as soon as we walk into a store or cafe.
We're reminded that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was a runner-up for Time’s most important Person of the Year regardless of whether you see him as a hero or a villain.
We're reminded that the world has changed as we know it and there's no moving back in time.
While I'm certainly not proposing that we fight the inevitable, or stop technological progress and advancement, I'd like to offer some suggestions as a way to have more physical experiences in our lives amidst the growth of all things digital:
1. Pick a Day a Week to Disconnect from the Digital World: Remember we're talking about only one day a week. Use that day to engage with the physical world - trust me, it still exists. Choose something you're passionate about that is physical and doesn't have a digital extension to it, i.e., skiing down a mountain, cycling through a forest without your cell in your pocket, playing with a child on the beach, or discussing philosophy over dinner at the table with a friend without your iPad or iPhone in a bag by your feet.
2. Practice Using Your Brain Not Just Your Digital Pacifier: When you're tempted to rely on something digital to get you through an experience, choose a time when you don't need to rely on it and use your brain instead. A great example is your car navigation system.
The time to do this is obviously when you're not in a hurry to get from A to B. It's an interesting exercise for those who have relied on a nav system for awhile now. Male friends have commented that they have lost their acute directional sense since they put that part of their brain to rest for awhile. It's not unlike what happened with the introduction of calculators and over time, discovering how hard it was to do math on the fly.
3. Automate some of your Digital Life: While it's important to have a presence on the web if you run a company or work for one, and as part of it, engage, engage, engage, some of it can be automated. Focus on the voices and conversations that matter to you most and automate the rest.
The more scattered your presence, the less you can truly engage and prioritize on the people and passions you most identify with. It's not just about numbers. Quality matters and quality takes time, concerted time and effort.
4. Become the Artist you're Designed to be and Backburner the Rest: Create don't react. Remember that you don't have to respond to everything and everyone all the time. When we're constantly responding to things on our screen, the "lizard brain" is taking over, not the genius inside us. When we're reacting to online chatter, there's less time to "create our true art," which is our gift to the planet while we're alive to share it. In other words, our purpose.
As Seth Godin writes in Linchpins, one of my favorite books this year, "the Lizard Brain often sabotages the progress we have made and stops us from creating our best work." Refer to a great post Seth wrote on 'quieting the lizard brain.'
In my opinion, albeit one of the most useful things to hit this decade, social media has given us so many distractions, that it's difficult to take a step back and realize that we don't have to choose and use it all.
Make the time to create the art you're designed to create and the life you want to have.
Once we realize that we have a choice to pick and choose what's most useful for us and leave the rest, we'll create an opening to create our best art. Let's remember that our digital personas are not the whole picture of our lives, just a piece of it.
As a wise Nepalese elderly man once said to me on my way up a long Annapurna trail many years ago, Patience on your journey grasshopper, patience.
December 31, 2010 in America The Free, Books, Entertainment/Media, Europe, On Blogging, On Branding, On Geo-Location, On Mobile & Wireless, On People & Life, On RSS, On Science, On Technology, On the Future, Reflections, Social Media, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 11, 2010
Tunepresto's Video Music Maker
I met with Tunepresto's marketing guru Owen Cooney in Dublin and our briefing was a bit scattered, but in a good way: partly over food and partly under an umbrella on a walk through Dublin. The guy knows more about the history and myths of Ireland than the last country tour guide I encountered. And, more importantly, is passionate about it. (graffiti, art, legends, and murals too).
Currently, Tunepresto, a video 'music maker,' is a Mac download only, although it is slated to be a web-based solution later this month. Essentially, Tunepresto uses the colors in your video to create royalty free music, perfectly timed to your video or slideshow. I can think of tons of places where you could use a solution like this, so the value-add for me was immediate.
While I haven't tried it yet (waiting for the web version), it's so damn easy to understand the benefits. Additionally, their website walks you through every possible scenario where adding music via Tunepresto would give you a 'win' to a creation you're working on. Refreshing.How many times do you go to a website and know immediately what the company is about and how to use their product? Tunepresto's site makes it incredibly easy to figure out: left is a download, right is a learn more video. Also, they have this fabulous screenshot which walks you through different ways to use their product.
More when the web version is ready. I'm eager to try it out.
November 11, 2010 in America The Free, Entertainment/Media, Europe, Music, On Australia, On Blogging, On Education, On Technology, On Video, Social Gigs & Parties, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 07, 2010
Amulet Remote to Record/Watch TV, Listen to Music & More Using Voice
I took a shining to Dublin-based Amulet Devices after a chat and a demo in Dublin last week. Many will remember my days with Dragon Systems/L&H and thereafter a handful of other speech-related companies, so it's no surprise when presented with a slick voice remote that controls your Windows Media Center, my ears might just perk up.
Dublin-based, five people are based on home turf and one person is based in of all places, Boise, Idaho. The company has been showing prototypes at the last two CES's although they just started shipping this past September.
They are currently being funded by Enterprise Ireland and some angel investors. Co-founder Eddy Carroll tells me more in an interview I did with him in a Dublin conference room, which unlike an American west coast one, had tons of mahogany, Victorian-colored carpets, drapes and leather couches.
Today, they're both a hardware and software company, although for anyone who has been in the hardware business, they know its much harder and more expensive than a software download or a SaaS solution.
They’ve been working on building a reseller network in the states and it looks like from their State Dealer Index, that they're well on their way to some serious distribution.
Interestingly enough, they're not using Nuance, the dominating speech recognition leader who has been gobbling up voice companies for years.
The engine behind the voice commands is from Microsoft, which frankly, given its limited vocabulary and the fact that it only needs to tap into a database of 200-300 base control commands, it doesn't have to be the most robust solution on the market. The main questions for consumers will be: is it accurate, respond to me quickly and easy-to-use?
While the full vocabulary may include anywhere from 5,000-10,000 individual matches, most people will end up using the same commands to control their entertainment center again and again.
Furthermore, the system learns from your voice over time, improving the accuracy and tweaking the acoustic model every time you use it.
You can record and watch TV, listen to your favorite music, and view DVDs, videos and photos, all using simple voice commands. For example, you could simply say "Watch Channel NBC" to change the TV channel to NBC. To view an episode of Mad Men recorded last night, say "Watch Program Mad Men". If you want to listen to music, could simply say "Play Artist U2".
They're exploring the set-top market and cloud computing space to see what kind of opportunities lie there in the future. For now, it's about distribution and getting new customers. Below, Eddy talks about some of the features and shows us how easy it is to get set up and use. Initial price point is $259.
November 7, 2010 in Entertainment/Media, Europe, On Innovation, On Technology, Videos | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 20, 2010
Barnett, Carolla, Jillette, Hayzlett and Lewis on New Media & Success: #BWE10
October 20, 2010 in America The Free, Conference Highlights, Entertainment/Media, Events, On Blogging, On Branding, Social Media, Videos, WBTW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 18, 2010
Digital Hollywood's Monetizing Original Media
On Thursday, October 21, 2010, there's a monetizing digital panel at Digital Hollywood in Los Angeles. The event will be held at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, 1700 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, California. In a session entitled: Monetizing Original Media: Broadband, Viral, Episodic Programming, Content & Advertising, Robin Rowe will moderate the following panelist line up.....
* Nathan Anderson, Managing Director, Envelop Entertainment (Australia)
* Joe Ferreira, SVP network and Studio Liaison, CBS Interactive
* Todd Green, digital media guru
* Burnes Hollyman, President and & CEO, the digital entertainment alliance
* Christopher Kubasik, Creator The Booth
* Jason Peterson, founder and president, GoDigital
October 18, 2010 in America The Free, Conference Highlights, Entertainment/Media, Events, Social Media, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Recap of the 2010 Tudou Video Festival
Tudou.com (which means “couch potato” in Chinese) is China’s first, and now one of the country’s largest (aside from rival Youku.com), video sharing portals. Launched in 2005, Tudou follows a similar model to Google Inc.’s video Web site, YouTube.
Tudou also hosts videos that push the boundaries of sensitivity on the country’s censored Internet. It was the first portal, for example, to show the “War of Internet Addiction,” a 64-minute computer animation film on government Web controls, Tudou co-founder Gary Wang said. The film, produced by a network engineer who goes by the name “Sexy Corn,” won the top award at this year's festival.
Aspiring filmmakers, actresses and actors, animators and amateur videographers from around China (all mostly in their mid- to late-20s) showcased their work at the festival held at an art complex in Beijing, with aorund one thousand people in attendance.
Of the more than 5,000 entries, 94 made it to the final round of nominations.
“Two to three years ago, the works were really amateur,” Wang said. “Now people are taking it much more seriously.”
Now, traditional media along with advertisers are starting to take the content on Tudou much more seriously, too. Hung Huang, a blogge experiences working as a journalist in China won the “Golden Camera Award," and Hitch-hike Diary won the documentary category. The film, by a video blogger who goes by the name Tomato-Han Da Ka, is the story of a hiking trip on the border regions of Sichuan province and Tibet.
Sexy Corn
He is the producer of the “War of Internet Addiction,” an animated film shot entirely within the video game, World of Warcraft (it is a filming technique known as machinima, which involves making animated movies using real-time images recorded from video games). The movie won the top award at the Tudou festival.
The film centers on World of Warcraft gamers who are frustrated that a new version of the game was banned in China. However it also contains deeper themes about Internet freedom in the country. It has been viewed millions of times.
Video Link: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/8w0z0Q_TAQI/
Cai Chen-Shu (Video Blogger Name: Love Vacation)
“It Seems to Rain” centers on a high school boy and his struggles to accept himself as a homosexual. “I have always wanted to make a movie about same sex relationships and how a teenager becomes comfortable with his own identity.
Cai said the film received a lot of criticism when it was first posted online in China because “the movie is from Taiwan and those kinds of things.” He now works for a film production company in Taipei. “I don’t consider myself a movie producer at all,” he said. “It was just an assignment.” However Cai says one day he does hope to become a famous director of a disaster film.
Video Link: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/O_GQhEIvCsA/
Zhou Nan
Zhou ended up pursuing his filmmaking dream. He is now studying at the Beijing Film Academy. And his 22-minute film, “Lost in Paradise,” was nominated for best drama at the Tudou awards ceremony. The film is about a driver who loses 10 patients he is taking to a mental institution when he stops to see a prostitute along the way.
Zhou says his next film will center on love between parents and their son in honor of the support his family eventually gave him to pursue his dream. “Crying is not weak,” he said. “”Crying is because we are moved by each other.”
Read more: 2010 Tudou Video Festival awards: The best of China's online films | CNNGo.com http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/none/chinese-video-portal-tudoucom-holds-annual-awards-beijing-706382#ixzz12mBMxeHL
October 18, 2010 in Entertainment/Media, Events, On Blogging, On Branding, On China, On Innovation, On People & Life, On Video, Photography, Social Media, Travel, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 09, 2010
Comedian Jason Pollock Talks About Life: Then, Now & The Future
October 9, 2010 in America The Free, Conference Highlights, Entertainment/Media, Events, Social Media, Videos, WBTW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 07, 2010
CandyMan Tells His Story at 140Conf
October 7, 2010 in America The Free, Conference Highlights, Entertainment/Media, Events, Music, Videos, WBTW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
