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I AM A WRITER!

It felt like yesterday when I got accepted into this crazy journey with Full Sail University, and now there’s only one more month left. It’s been hard, fun, stressful, enlightening, shoot, I’ve even cried a few times, but now I can officially say that I AM A WRITER!

P.S. My boyfriend is just as excited about this as I am, which is cool!

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Strong Branding

Having an effective brand as a writer can make a difference when it comes to finding success. Your brand is a way for potential clients and employers to get to know you before actually meeting you. It’s the first impression before the first impression and it is the last impression that will make people remember you forever. It’s the badge that identifies you.

There are two writers/artists and one company that exhibit a strong and effective brand. From the get-go you know exactly what they’re about and if you saw their work out in the world you can easily identify it as theirs.

Pendleton Ward 

Pendleton Ward is the creator of Adventure Time. This piece of work has such unique attributes (i.e., the way the characters interact, how they move, the style they’re drawn in) that you wouldn’t mistake any of it’s characters or settings as being apart of any other animation. He has also done a great job of portraying that same style of animation in his own portfolio on his website. There is a consistent fluency with all of his creations and that’s what makes his brand effective.

Photo source: Jupa1128

Photo source: Bueno The Bear

Photo source: The Verge

Neil Gaiman

Right from the start you can tell that Neil Gaiman specializes in the dark and alternative styles of writing and art. You can see that is just as talented of an artist as he is a writer. Just like Pendleton Ward, Neil Gaiman is fluent in his style across many of his works and there’s no mistaking what style belongs to him. Personally, I think he even looks like the characters he creates, with his scraggly hair and thin face. He even has an impressive journal/blog that updates with things that happen within his day and it helps to amplify the brand of writing that he is trying to portray. It’s a way for fans and clients to get to knwo him on another level beyond his writing. 

Photo source: Nail Gaiman

Photo source: Good Illustration 

Photo source: Daily Dot

Photo source: Wired

Pokemon

The Pokemon empire has created one of the strongest entertainmenet brands known to the human race. They have done an excellent job growing with their audience, as well as reaching out to new fans outside of their initial generation of followers. Their strongest attribute to their brand is their commitment to their iconic artistic style. When you look at their video games specifically, you can see that even with the advancement of gaming techinology and graphics, their style has essentially stayed the same. Pokemon recognizes that their beginning demographic (now in their mid-twenties) has a large interest in nostalgic media and entertainment and they are doing an effective job of supplying that to them while still creating new and exciting features that attract younger audiences as well. Pokemon is a that has carried on for years and will continue to do so for years to come.

Photo source: Pokemon

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But really, though. Biggest accomplishment ever when it comes to writing short film scripts.

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Storyboarding for The Legend of Sassy

The Legend of Sassy is a short animation about a nine foot tall Sasquatch works to reclaim his lost job through hilarious efforts at creating his own company with his best friend.

https://scafellpikeco.com/products/liberty-water-bottle

This short was written to serve as a public relations piece for an American bottle manufacturing company called Liberty Bottleworks. Through the short the audience can take away the lesson of creating, buying, and selling local products can help entire communities. 

Sassy and his forests friends and neighbors are in danger when they lose their jobs to competitors from a far away place. Together they are able to stand up on their own and find a solution, and Sassy himself faces his own willingness to shake things up when it’s for the right cause.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P5Q6594?redirect=true&psc=1&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

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Gamification and Media Convergence

Gamification and media convergence have been around for years in forms like simple competition in everyday tasks, ways to get kids motivated to do chores, etc. In today’s world gamification and transmedia has proven to be useful and beneficial in hundreds of ways. Gaming and the mixing of media outlets have been fused with many facets of life thanks to companies like Apple, Google, Pokemon, Code Spark, and millions more.

One major way that companies are using gamification is to educate. Education programs and companies are using the motivational sway of video games to help teach kids subjects that have previously only been taught to teens and adults. A great example of this is Code Spark’s, The Foos. They created a game that helped teach young kids about computer science and coding. Previously, coding has only been a subject taught to adults in higher education settings or in high schools who are able to afford such a program. This educational game presents to process and tasks it takes to create a game in a way that’s interactive and has a high-reward, to low-risk ratio.

The Foos by Code Spark 

Physical activity and working towards a healthy lifestyle has also gone through gamification outside of the sports world. Not everyone has the capability to compete and commit themselves to a sport like some and Apple and Google has realized this. With every Apple and Andriod device comes a program for setting workout goals and even keeps track of specific data like your incline for the day, your heart rate patterns, and sleeping patterns. Andriod has even taken it one step further by recently updating their S Health app to a game friendly usability so that those who struggle with finding a healthy lifestyle can become more motivated through easier to reach goals that have high rewards and low risks.

S Health by Andriod 

When it comes to media convergence, we have been going through a major convergence for all media outlets for the past nine years. Media can be accessed, read, and experienced in many different ways. Those like Nintendo, Apple, and Google have found ways to deliver news, advertisements, education, etc. to people in new and interactive ways. Even now, during the 2016 election both political parties have created free apps to deliver their news, videos, interviews, event calendars, and more to people in a fun and interactive way.

RNC 2016 Cleveland

DNC Official App

Gamification and media convergence is only getting bigger and better. More than just entertainment companies are taking notice of the benefits of gamification and transmedia and we can anticipate to see it in almost every facet of our lives.

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PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Game to release behind-the-scenes content

A peak into the making of Gunner

Selah, WA 25th July 2016

The creators of Gunner, a new action game to hit Play Station 4, Xbox One and PC, will be releasing a behind-the-scenes preview into some of the work that is going into the highly anticipated game. On July 5th of this year, gamers and future game creators alike can visit Gunner’s main writer, Kayla Dexter’s, Tumblr page to see exclusive features, concepts, and storylines that will be going into the game.

In December 2015, the production of Gunner was announced and since then the game’s team has been working tirelessly to make this new action game a reality. “It’s a very exciting process [creating Gunner] and it’ll definitely be something to celebrate once it premiers,” says Kayla. The excitement around the game is proving to be overwhelming even with the release date still unannounced. With behind-the-scene content available in the next few days, there’s hope that the growing audience will become involved in the process of creating Gunner.

For Kayla, Gunner is the first video game production that she is writing and helping to develop. “This certainly isn’t the first baby [game] that I’ve came up with and tried to make a reality, but that’s the name of the game when you’re trying to create something people will love. I’m elated that Gunner was the story that was chosen to take off. We’re all going to be in a wild ride—creators and players alike,” Kayla says. To see exclusive content on the Gunner production visit www.kayla-dexter.tumblr.com.

Kayla Dexter

Selah, WA http://kayla-dexter.tumblr.com - kedexter@fullsail.edu

**This is a press release written for an assignment. Although not in the full swing of production or being addressed by a team of creators, Gunner is, however, a reality of mine that will hopefully one day be a much greater reality. 

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We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.

E.O. Wilson (via quotemadness)

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Team Work Makes The Dream Work

Working in an ad-hoc writing team really goes to show the power of two (or more) minds are better than one. When looking at our own work we tend to skim read everything we wrote because we already know what it says and we tend to glaze over any mistakes we may have made. With a team of writers all working together, even the toughest of mistakes can be fixed, or the most complicated of ideas can be made understandable.

For someone like myself who wants to be a successful writer, it helped to see the potential that can be brought out in myself and others. Working to further a creation that wasn't conceived by you can be a challenge. Trying to encompass and a premise and an entire style created by someone else is difficult, but when you have the help of others working with your goals can easily be met. For me, writing humor is not the easiest thing to do (I'm really bad at being funny) and when we had to work with the web series "No Good Deeds" I was a little weary of what kind of material I could produce that would fit the show. With the help of my "team" of classmates, I was able to iron out ideas that may have only made sense to me at the time and I was able to distinguish between what dialogue, actions, etc. should be kept in my script and which ones should be tossed.

 Writing within a team is different from what I have been used to. All of your creative ideas are naked and out on the table and are open for anyone to rip them apart. The most important thing that I learned is that you have to take whatever critique comes to you and your writing because at the end of the day it’s for the better. There is something to be said about how well you take critique, especially when it comes to your own creative work, but there’s also something to be said about how you decipher which critique actually apply to your work. I know when it comes to my work and the future of it, I will be taking the knowledge I gained from working within our team this month to help further my career in writing.

References:

https://www.dbsquaredinc.com/teamwork-quotes930

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A short film idea that I am currently working on called ‘Seasons’.

Take a look at my Pinterest page to see what kind of inspiration I’m pulling together for my protagonist, Spring!

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A new short film idea that I am working on. Check out the Pinterest page to see what kind of inspiration I am looking at for my antagonist!

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What can you do TODAY to improve your writing resume?

Gather together a list of all literary magazines, journals, and contests that interest you. Already having your go-to publishers makes submitting your work a lot faster and easier, and whether your work gets published or not you’re still putting your name out there!

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What can you do TODAY to improve your writing resume?

During small breaks throughout the day, challenge yourself with a writing prompt. Practice makes perfect, and you never know what nugget of gold you might come up with.

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What can you do TODAY to improve your writing resume?

Every night before bed, write one page of anything! A page of plot line, character descriptions, act structure, or even better - an actual page of narrative for your story. 

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Even if I told you that the snow, the rain, and I get along just fine, would you still offer to lend me a little of your sunshine?

J.a.Lear (via wnq-writers)

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Orphans of Time Rebecca Bathory

A fashion photographer turned urban explorer has swapped modelling shoots for the allure of abandoned buildings. Rebecca Lillith Bathory, from London, travels around the world documenting haunting spaces such as derelict hospitals, schools and villas. The fine art photographer has been capturing abandoned locations since 2012 and her work has been a big hit on social media, attracting nearly 100,000 dedicated followers across her accounts. But despite the beauty of her images, she refuses to disclose the exact locations of her photographs in order to protect the space for other explorers and avoid tipping off security.

Images and text via

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Real life magic right there!

A garden fit for a Queen Windsor Great Park, Windsor, England

Explore 5,000 acres of Berkshire countryside shrouded in mystery and legend. Photo by Colin Roberts - More info