I am a big supporter of new media and the tremendous potential it has for storytelling. The possibilities of creating, telling and sharing stories across multiple platforms really turns me on. In my other life as an Associate Creative Director for an ad agency, I had championed cross-channel ideas for client brands during most pitches and creative sessions. I believe transmedia storytelling is a great way to give an audience a deeper look into the world and content of the story idea as a whole.
With THE BLACK CHURCH project, what I am doing is building a film idea organically. From the ground up. What I want to do is give the audience a glimpse into the backstory of the film world we are creating FIRST. It’s a way to bring the universe and world of the Black Church into focus and engage an audience in different ways right from the beginning; even before the feature film is screened. Could be a short film, could be web content, could be a web site, could be a traditional Mexican folk song, could be a wiki page; could be anything we create that tells the story and breathes life into the idea. This way, we don’t have to rely only on the film itself to do all the heavy lifting to tell all the nuances of what has happened in the past. It will give us all a larger canvas which to paint our story on. It will give an audience more of the story to become engaged in.
So the photographs I took that I’ve been sharing were taken as my production team and I have begun shooting on-location the first layers of THE BLACK CHURCH’s content. Content that will be used and put together to begin to lay the foundation of the mythology and folklore of the Black Church itself.
What I am also doing is getting myself unstuck. As artists, we all have the tendency to get in our own way. I have the habit of over thinking my ideas to the point where the momentum grinds to a screeching halt. With the Black Church, I am tackling it like a painter would a new canvas. A few splotches here and a few there and then over time… I’ll see what I end up with. I want to build it organically and in the moment. I want it to be shorthand. Basically what I am doing is building momentum and giving myself permission to just do the work no mater the outcome.