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I am a slacker!
3 July, 2009 – 7:57 am
“I wanna blow you… up!”
19 June, 2009 – 1:28 pm
Funny, but not.
12 June, 2009 – 11:13 am
My friend Dagmar sent me this link a couple of weeks ago. Below is what’s on the page. The top line is especially spot on I find.
I am not on f***ing Facebook
25 May, 2009 – 5:31 am
Great expectations
13 May, 2009 – 5:04 am
I have a wee problem. In my everyday life as a teacher (I have somehow become a teacher. Not just at Universities, but also in other contexts) I am sometimes encountering different expectations and/or different levels of pre-existing knowledge of what I am talking about in the same room.
Here’s an example of such an event: on Monday I gave a half hour introduction into social and new media to a bunch of people who work in one way or another in the Austrian film industry. There were about 80 people in the room. Many of them knew very little about what I was on about. They had all used YouTube before, a significant number was on Facebook, and a few even used Twitter. But generally, the majority needed an introduction into the sphere. So, I gave one.
After the event I got loads of feedback, which can roughly be divided into the following categories:
1. “You opened my eyes! The world will never be the same again.”
2. “I knew some of this stuff, but it was really great to get an additional perspective on it.”
3. “I think this was really inspiring (even though it wasn’t news to me).”
4. “I know all that already, and you weren’t specific/groundbreaking enough. Tell me more!”
I love all four kinds of feedback, because they make me think about who needs to know what. The vast majority fell into categories 1 and 2. Some of my co-fighters for the same cause (raising awareness for social media and their importance to filmmakers) said something along the lines of category 3. And two guys said something along the lines of category 4.
Now, here is my problem: how do I satisfy all of these guys’ expectations in one short half hour? I can be very inspirational in 30 minutes, for sure. I can teach newbies something - if not a lot - about social media as well. But can I satisfy the craving of people like me (people who know their sh*t in that sphere) at the same time as giving an introduction to the wonderful world of new media? Not yet.
In the next weeks I will be lecturing more, mostly in front of more homogenous crowds (University students, or filmmakers who all have the same level of knowledge in that area). But I will simultaneously develop a new mini-curriculum that tries to do the impossible: exceed all these folks expectations. Maybe I will succeed, maybe not. Only time will tell.
What is definitely going to work though is planning these gigs in a manner that makes sure that the audience is more homogenous. Making sure that everybody is on roughly the same page and has similar expectations is going to make everybody’s experience a better one, where great expectations (mine as well as the participants’) are not just met, but exceeded. That should solve that wee problem I encountered. I’ll let you know how it all works out.
British food: yum-my!
20 April, 2009 – 8:08 am
I love British food. Britain is Nirvana cuisine-wise to me. To me, traditional British fare is Indian, followed by Chinese, chased by scruptous breakfast (full cooked English Breakfast with bangers and hash browns as well as my all-time favourite Porridge), meat and three veggie dinners, and of course fish’n'chips (or fush’n'chups, as we Kiwis say). Yum-my! Can’t wait to move there to significantly increase my intake of Indian food.
Good thing for me then that apparantly 26% of Britons know how to make a curry by heart, without consulting a recipe book or nana. Roast dinner also ranks real high, with 54% of people knowing how to assemble that from scratch without help. I will be moving in a few weeks, so my British friends (and friends and family to be): stock up on groceries, get out your best china, and make me dinner! I will bring the Austrian (and New Zealand) wine.
You are not from Brighton
25 March, 2009 – 7:09 am
is another fun song by Fatboy Slim. I am not from Brighton either, but I will be living there from May! Yay! Sun, beaches, palmtrees, cafes, Wellington feel - but all within 52 minute reach of London. Far out!
Not that I won’t be coming to Vienna any more, we have a business there, and I also hold lectures at a couple of universities. But there is heaps to do for me in the UK, so it makes perfect sense to be there. Also, I get to speak English most of the time, eat heaps of local fare (Indian food) and enjoy the company of new and beautiful people. Also, I’ll have lots of visitors by the looks of it.
That’s pretty good!
23 February, 2009 – 9:33 am
So this whole blackout thing seems to have had a positive effect. Apparantly the law has been delayed… and if there is no resolution until 27 March, it will not take effect at all.
Cheers to everybody who supported this!
ProTest
21 February, 2009 – 4:23 pm
Read this. And you’ll know why I’ll be blacking out this site on Monday as well.
This legislation is - frankly spoken - major BS! Join in the protest!
FilmTiki is live!
26 January, 2009 – 11:36 am
Finally… the fruit of our labour can be seen on www.filmtiki.com! We just went live today. I am very humbled and grateful for this.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about: the last 9 months I have been working pretty much day and night on the development of my brainchild FilmTiki - a platform for filmmakers to give them strategic advice on how to best market and promote their films. It has been an intense time, and I am very much looking forward to the weeks ahead when we get to talk to people and work with feedback and get it out there. My favourite part!
We are giving away free 1-year-subscriptions for a year - so go on and check it out, and tell me what you think!






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