A Walking Contradiction? Nah, You're Just Creative.

We all like to think of ourselves as creative, be it our ability to strum Jason Mraz tunes on our fancy new $70 ukulele or make a plate of Publix noodles and Paul Newman Sockarooni Marinara Sauce look like it was prepared by Gordon Ramsay.

Whether your livelihood encompasses creative endeavors, or you find your artistic outlet in your leisure hours, we've all got a bit of that imaginative lifeforce pulsing through our veins.

If you've ever doubted your creative potential because you're not "one of those people" - you know, the ones who sip Americano at Starbucks and toss off socially relevant haikus on Facebook with hourly precision - then maybe you should read this article from Fast Company.

Creative types are more complicated than we realize, and much harder to pigeonhole, mostly because they are rife with internal contradictions.  Most of the people I've met, once I've gotten to know them, are rife with those same contradictions.  It's in those contradictions that we find the grit that makes the occasional pearl.

So, dive in.  You just may find you've got more DaVinci in your DNA than you gave yourself credit for.


http://www.fastcompany.com/3016689/leadership-now/10-paradoxical-traits-of-creative-people?utm_source=facebook

Our Foray into...(gasp!) Television

The corporate world has long been our bread and butter, for twenty-two years and counting.  We confess, we love helping companies tell their stories.  However, when given the opportunity to write a television series, well, we couldn't say "yes" quickly enough.

It was the right project, with the right people, at the right time.  The talented team at Crazy Legs Productions brought us in to create an all-vegan show for the Cooking Channel.  The program, devoted to helping people live longer and healthier, is aptly titled How to Live to 100.  The pilot premiered in January of 2013 and received rave reviews.  So much so that four more episodes are headed your way in January of 2014.  After that, who knows?

The show is half sitcom, half cooking show, with spoonfuls of amazing tips and recipes offered up in each episode.

While the pilot (nor the unaired episodes, of course) is not available online, you can see a segment of it here.  This is Jason - a true wise and wild spirit - taking you through one of his killa recipes.

Look for more episodes in early 2014, and don't think we've betrayed Corporate America for Hollywood.  Not yet anyway.

Link:
http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/shows/how-to-live-to-100/how-to-live-to-100.html

We Do Our Best Work in the Restroom...

Hey, who doesn't?  Some of the best ideas ever hatched came about in the midst and mist of a morning shower.   I'm certain Richard Branson makes Wall Street altering investment decisions while combing his mane in the mirror.

As for 7 Course, we were invited into the proverbial bathroom by our longtime friends and client Blue Marble Media.  They enlisted us to script and cast talent for a Georgia Pacific video that helped explain why their paper towels are actually a much healthier alternative to those restroom blow dryers when it comes to getting one's hands clean.

So, when you put 7 Course actor Dan Triandiflou, the wickedly creative folks at Blue Marble, and resident writer Tommy Housworth in a public restroom, this is what you get.

Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jSWbtP_78I&list=FLsGZR4icXS47OO_NeyE2WgA

This Is What We Do. (No, You Can't See It.)

One of the bigger challenges in our industry is that we write a lot of video scripts for corporations.  Videos that are shown at annual meetings, that are used as training modules, that are shared on the companies' intranets.  What doesn't happen as often is a situation where the videos we script - and sometimes help cast - are available for public consumption.

Naturally, no company worth their salt wants to give away their cookies by showing videos that highlight procedures, internal messaging, or competitive strategies on the web.  So, getting permission to obtain and share these videos is quite often a challenge.  One of the goals for our new site is to have a private page for clients to access so they can view the work we've done without anyone else having access to them.

In the meantime, a number of video projects we've worked on are marketing pieces and, thus, have made their way onto YouTube.  The next few posts offered on this blog will feature some of those videos.

For starters, here's an episodic series Tommy Housworth & Steve Coulter wrote for the ACVB.  Green Media produced the project.  The goal was to create videos that would play at event planner gatherings across the country, platforming Atlanta as THE destination for company meetings and events.  We developed a concept that fit into the familiar crime-drama genre, sort of a "CSI" for the ATL.  It's called  "The ATL Files" and it was a huge hit with the industry audiences.  So much so, that the ACVB requested we create an additional epilogue to further the story.

You can check out the videos, the cast (including 7 Course's Mary Kraft, Rob Cleveland, Vince Canlas, and Laparee Young), and the behind the scenes stories here:

LINKS:

http://www.atlfiles.com/videos

http://www.theatlfiles.com

Why We're Here...

Starting a blog for your business in 2013 is a little like deciding it's time to break out the disco ball and polyester slacks in the era of Mumford & Sons.  Not exactly what we'd call blazing a trail.  We aren't gonna make the cover of Fast Company for this move.  But while we're a tad behind the times on leaping into the blogosphere, it's with good reason.

Blogs are a slippery thing.  The rule of thumb being that a business that blogs should make a viable contribution to its readership.  The chief request being, "tell me some things that might help MY business, rather than just what you've been up to."   On the other hand, in today's blink-and-you-miss-it landscape, you sometimes have to point people toward the work you've been up to so you stay on their radar as a resource and a collaborator.

We've been using the excuse of being a happy victim of the cobbler's son syndrome for quite a while;  thankfully too busy creating for clients to market ourselves, share insights, or just plain keep a steady correspondence going across the web.  But with a new website (Thanks, Kristen Leigh!) to share, the time seemed right to add a blog into the mix.

Our hope is to share whatever wisdom we stumble across as well as the work we're engaged in, ideas to get your creative engines in overdrive and, of course, some self-effacing humor about our industry.

So strap in.  It's about to get real up in this blog thing.  Finally.