Social Media Case Study?

The story of the Banff Mountain Film Festival spoof video I made a while back continues with an awesome post from the BMFF over on their world tour blog. I started thinking about how this whole thing played out and I think there are a few things that I've learned here for both fans like me and organizations like the Banff Mountain Film Festival.

1. Mashups are easy to make. Organizations can't controll our own media any more and anyone with a relatively small amount of money and skill can take official media and mash it up. Witness my little spoof movie: as recently as a few years ago it would have been impossible or highly cumbersome to make. Now anybody with a Mac and an internet connection can do this.
2. There is no such thing as a little engagement. If organizations want to get into the social media game and post stuff on YouTube or be on Facebook we need to understand that we are inviting participation. We might not always like the outcome but we're agreeing with the participation when we engage.
3. Organizations have a choice. To crack try to crack down on media they didn't create, or to foster and channel it. In this case BMFF fostered it because the media was basically funny and harmless and spoke to the kind of people who go to the festival to begin with.
4. Make yourself findable. It's pretty easy to find me through my YouTube channel. I link from there to my blog and from the blog to my online portfolio which has contact information for me and I respond to comments. This allowed us to dialog and determine the intentions of the other relatively quickly.
5. Generosity pays. Every step of the way the BMFF has been incredibly generous. They have asked my permission to re-post the video (more than I did when I made it!), left comments, checked in and sent dozens of emails. I've responded by posting links to their work on the YouTube channel, blogging about it, FaceBooking about it and bringing a friend with me to the tour show.
6. ROI? What's that? I'm not sure how preoccupied anyone has been here with return on investment. I made the mashup for fun in my free time and never thought about what I would get back from it other than a funny video. BMFF has spent at least some time working on this, emailing me, checking in with the composer etc, that they could have been doing something else. I'm not sure what the net gain of this is for them in terms of fans, exposure and ticket sales, I guess they will have to answer that question. For me as a professional I've gained wider exposure to me and my work and that's priceless!
   

Many thanks to Shannon, Meagan, wanderingscout, charlamae and everyone else for this facinating experience.

This is so fricking cool

There have been a couple of experiences and people in my life that have just been so profoundly cool that they have changed my world view forever.

The first time this happened was when I studied in Salzburg, Austria. There, at the foothills of the Alps, I climbed peaks I had previously only imagined. But more than that, by experiencing different cultures, points of view and traditions I came to have a very different perspective on myself and my own part of the world.

Later I would stumble more than stride into a career in adventure education. But this choice, or series of choices, would allow me entry into a comunity of passionate educators, skilled outdoors people and thoughtful stewards. Norbert at Outward Bound Germany was an early mentor as was Franz with OB in the US. There are amazing people in this field!

Lately I've been discovering that technology, once something I actively avoided, has contributed to the richness of my personal and professional life in tangible ways. This blog has built connections with educators in other countries, exploring wikis connected me to Noelle's work, ultimately leading to friendships with Wendy, Avinash, Atila, and many others around the world!

More recently this whole series of interactions with the Banff Film Festival people has been so fricking cool! How sweet is it that the creative toolbox is cheap enough that mere mortals like me can pick it up and play with it?! How cool is it that my work of homage can be shared with the people that I'm honoring and they can interact with it too?!

In many ways, I now realize, I've been focusing the last few years on passing it on. Maybe I can be a catalyst for my students? I'm not sure, but so far the ride has been pretty amazing, and I can't wait to see where it leads next.

Banff Bad Mountain Movies

I really have enjoyed the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Not that I've been to Banff, but the traveling 'best of' show has come to New Hampshire and I've gone the last few years. Its an amazing collection of great mountain movies and I really recommend it.

A while back I started wondering what my favorite bad mountain movies were. These are mostly Hollywood productions that attempt to use rock climbing or mountaineering as a vehicle to spin some sort of a yarn. Usually the films fail to portray mountaineering well, and usually don't do a good job of telling the story either. And yet, I can't help but loving these movies!

In homage to these bad films and to the Banff Mountain Film Festival I put together this 'best of the worst.' I hope you enjoy.

Strangely enough the editor of the real Banff trailer found it and left some positive comments. That just totally and completely made my day.

Update 1/16: The person who edits the real Banff Trailer isn't a 'guy,' my apologies!
Update 1/30: I had a very nice email exchange with Shannon from the Banff Center who let me know that Jacques Blackstone, the composer of the theme music for the Banff trailer is okay with my unlicensed use of his music in my spoof trailer. How crazy is that? Run, don't walk, to his Web site and buy some of his music now!