Transmedia and Mr. Morris Lessmore

It isn't often that an animated film about books gets any kind of attention. As bookaholics and library students you should know about the 2012 winner of an Oscar® for Best Animated Short film.

The Fantastic Flying Adventures of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a touching film about a man's adventures with books. The movie does not contain dialog but there is an expressive musical track.  If you haven't seen the movie take a look at the trailer.



You can watch the full authorized version of the movie on iTunes. There are bootleg versions in other locations. We all need to make a better effort to respect copyright. I won't link to those versions.

For me, the movie operates on many levels. I can appreciate it as a love poem to reading and traditional books. According to the producers of the film, it is also an homage to the great silent film start Buster Keaton. I can clearly seen Buster's spirit giving the okay on this honor.

Transmedia

It is also one of many growing examples of transmedia. Think of transmedia as a tree with many branches. You have your source material that can be extended with new content to other platforms.

This isn't new. Spiderman started out as a comic book. Then an animated series, a live action television show, a movie series and a theatrical show on Broadway.  This is the digital version of transmedia.

Mr. Morris Lessmore's adventures will be converted to a picture book based on the movie. There is a supporting iTunes application where users can explore the world of Mr. Morris Lessmore and interact with some of the characters.

What Does This Mean?

Well, it could mean that when you get a request for a book you might need to consider offering related content. There might be a physical book, a recording, and an app on Android, iOS or Windows smartphones and tables. (Trust me, there will be an Windows tablet.)

There could be a web site that supports the book or a fan community that is adding content to their shared experiences. Or an electronic book that is only located in the Nook, Kobo, Google or Kindles stores.

This is an extension of knowing your collection. Collections, as the trailer and movie demonstrate, have a life of their own.

Video of The Walker Library of Human Imagination

Personal libraries can range from a pile beside the bed or extraordinary works of art and science. The Walker Library is the personal library of Jay Walker and it is a stunning collection that was built in 2002.

Unfortunately I can't seem to embed the video but this is something any book junkie will want to take a peep at. You can visit Walker Digital to view the video and more information about the library or visit filmmaker David Hoffman's YouTube channel for a bandwidth friendly version.

Even from a distance it is a stunning visual of one man's need to collect information.

RSS In Plain English - Captioned Version

For those of you that don't have audio, headphone or a decent audio card this is a captioned version of RSS in Plain English.



What that you say, you have a banana in your ear and still can't see the video. No problem. Here is a transcript:

Common Craft Presents...RSS in Plain English

The Internet has problems. Technorati says there are 50 million blogs, and you can see, it's going up. This is overwhelming. Today's show is about a new and efficient way to keep up...
...with all this cool stuff that's happening on the Internet.

so I'm going to talk about two ways that you can keep up with what's happening on the Web.
There's the old slow way - Boo!!! Then, there's the new and fast way - Yay!

Here's the difference between the new and the old way. This is you, and here are your favorite websites. You log on to your computer, and you're looking for something new. So you go out to your favorite blogs.Is there anything new there? No. You go out to your favorite news sites. Is there anything new? No.

Every time you look for something new and its not there, you've wasted valuable time.
This is the old way. Now, let's consider the new and fast way, ...which is simply taking these arrows...and turning them the other way.

This means the new things from blogs and new things from your news sites come to you instead.
It's like Netflix compared to going to the video store. So, what we're talking about is using a single website that becomes your home for reading......all the new stuff that's coming from your favorite websites.

There are two steps to getting started. The first step is you need a "home" for reading new posts. This is a website called a reader. It is free and all you need is an account. I use a site called Google Reader It looks like this...

My favorite sites are listed on the left...and on the right I can scroll through all the new posts from my favorite sites in a single place. So, to complete step one...
You need to go sign up for a reader. Google Reader, Bloglines, Newsgator and My Yahoo!
... are good places to start.

Step number two...is to set up a connection between your reader and your favorite websites.
Setting up these connections is called subscribing, and it's really important. Nearly every blog and news site offers the ability for you to subscribe...so updates in these sites show up here in your reader.

To set up these subscriptions, you just need to look for funny little icons. This is the standard one using the standard orange color. You may also see these.

These little icons say, "Hey look! Subscribe to me! I can save you time!" Once you find one of these buttons on your favorite site......click on it....and the page that appears will give you everything you need for subscribing.

After you click that button, one of two types of pages will appear. This is one that provides one click access to subscribing in your reader. The other page you're likely to see looks like this...
...with code on it.

If you see this page, copy the URL at the top of the page....go to your reader and look for a link that says "Add Subscription" or "Add Feed." Click on that, and paste the address into your reader. So, once you've added your subscriptions and the connection is there...
...new posts begin arriving in your reader...and you'll see why this is the new, faster way to read the web. It's addictive, so be careful!

So a quick recap. There are two things you need to do... Number one is go sign up for a reader.
Number two, go to your favorite websites... ...click on the icon and subscribe.

I'm Lee LeFever and this has been RSS in Plain English...on The Common Craft Show.

For more captioned videos you should visit DotSub

The Dark Librarian - Call of the Dewey

Librarian videos crack me up. There are a lot more of them than there use to be and getting funnier all the time.

Who needs The Dark Knight when you have "The Dark Librarian."



This one is mostly silent with title cards so all can enjoy.

Creating Tutorials & Demos - Storyboards 3

Just a few more words abut storyboards and then we'll dive into the image, animation, screencasting and web based tutorial building tools.

For some of your digital is the way to go. I know that many of you will never touch a pencil and haven't for seven years. I got you covered with two free tools to help you create storyboards.

If you like the idea of 3x5 card there is a web site that can help you organize your thoughts. My Idea Map is an on-line 3x5 card generator. It works with all major browsers. It is easy to use. You type in the idea and the description of the idea.

You can select the pin color and use that as a means of filtering the card that you want to see. It is not perfect. I can't lay the cards out on the board the way I could in real life but it does what is it suppose to do. And it is free. http://www.myideamap.com.

The other option is an application for Mac and Window users. It is Storyboard Pro. You can download the software and install it on your system.

It will take you step by step in setting up a storyboard for your project. You can set the time for each shot and it will keep track of the total time of your project.

But wait, there is more. On the site there are tutorial movies to help you learn how to use the program and how to print out your storyboard. The price is right, the software and the tutorial movies are free for personal and commercial use.
http://www.atomiclearning.com/storyboardpro

Next - Photos, photo web hosts and photo editing software for tutorials.

Visual Thesaurus - Seeing The Connections

What if you could see the connections between words? Visual Thesaurus is a cross between a thesaurus and a computer mind mapping program.

Who uses a product like this? Advertisers, writers, word junkies or those that want to build their crossword/anagram skills.

You can try out the program by typing a word at the top of the web page. The results will be displayed with the links to the associations with the word in question. In addition to the program this website contains

Virtual Thesaurus can be rotated to show 3D views of the relationship with other words, additional languages and access to the magazine articles that are teased on the front page.
These features are not available in the online sample version.

This is not a free program. There are purchase options. You can buy the program or purchase a monthly subscription access online. http://www.visualthesaurus.com