This past June, I was one of several folks who nominated Angela Shelton to speak at TEDxAsheville. One reason is that I’ve been impressed with her use of social media technology to connect with her audience.

The other reason is much bigger than that: Her message is huge.

This comment from angelashelton.org explains it much better than I can.

Post from Amber,  April 23, 2010 at 7:52 am

I just wanted to let you know that what you did, making the film and what your doing now is amazing. Not enough people speak out about this kind of thing and I am so happy that you were able to find the courage to speak out against abuse. I myself am a victim of sexual and physical abuse and you have given me a whole new way of being able to cope with it instead of letting it fester in the back of my mind. You are an incredible woman Angela, and I believe that you have something very special inside your soul. Not too many people could have been able to do what you have set out to do. So thank you so much for making that film and standing by your convictions.

Amber is one of over forty thousand people who have contacted Angela to say “Thanks”. Thanks for the courage, for the humor, for the motivation, for the bravery. Thanks for sharing her own personal story of sexual and physical abuse. And most of all, thanks for leading a movement to bring it out of secrecy and do something about it.

So I want to add my “Thanks’ to Angela, for showing us how to lead and how to be committed to a cause.

Learn about her use of social media at her home base, AngelaShelton.com

More information is good. Get your friends (and maybe your mom?) on YouTube, the right way.

From the YouTube Blog

If you subscribe to the YouTube channel, you may have noticed a slew of new videos uploaded recently. They’re part of an initiative called “YouTube 101,” a series that explains basic features to new users. With hundreds of thousands of people creating new YouTube channels every day, there are a lot of folks out there who may not know that they can share a video privately, customize their channel or even how to upload a video — in full HD, no less.

I’m a big fan of Evernote. You should check it out.  I just learned I can publish one of my notebooks online. Pretty cool.

Here is my public Evernote notebook:

My friend Sarah Brown put a video to encourage people to vote.  It was made in Asheville with the production help of D Smith.

Way to go Sarah and D!

On a similar vein, check out the preview for “A Call to Action” which Bourne Media edited in the summer of 2007.

We will see a huge voter turnout from the American youth in this election, and it will make a difference.

I just got back from Haiti a few days ago. I was acting as a filmmaker for Mission MANNA, a non-profit based in Asheville, NC that sends two medical teams to Haiti each year. MM also just started a year-round feeding program for 30 of the most malnourished kids in the region. The program could serve more malnourished kids with your help. See MissionManna.org

It was a great trip. We saw over 1100 kids, treating most of them for intestinal worms, and many for the effects of malnutrition.

See the travel blog for details (and pics)!

CONSIDER HAITI .COM

I added an image player on this site to play images I send via email on my phone. You can see it at the link called “webstream”. Hey, maybe I will post it to the front page here.

If you can’t see the player, go see them on FLICKR.

Once again, I am reminded that STORY is king in my business. If you want to see what I mean, go watch OCTOCAT ADVENTURE, a funny, sick, loud, but ultimately deeply moving animation. It was mostly made in  MS Paint, which is a very basic image editor.

I’ve made a few comments below the video, (with spoilers, so don’t read it yet - watch first).

So…

When I first saw, Octocat Adventure, I already knew that it was created under a the guise that the creator was a 14 year old in Chicago named, Randy Peters. Visually and thematically, it does look like a 14 year old could have made it. It certainly resonates with my 8th grade sense of humor which, much to my wife’s chagrin, has stuck with me.

So why do I think this is a big deal? Because, I think we all need to be reminded that high production values don’t matter as much as story, in the end. In my business, I put a lot of emphasis on making good visuals, and good sound. Don’t get me wrong - these matter. A lot. But story and the characters that create them matter more.

In the case of Octocat Adventure, a very talented person (David OReilly) made something that LOOKS pretty bad but IS very good. Why do I think it’s so good? Well, like I said, it’s funny, sad, annoying, cute, gross and touching - all at the same time. I also like it because of the extremes between the bad visuals and the good story. But OReilly has a real talent that shines though the rough of this piece.

The synopsis of the work is that a weird looking cat has lost his parents. He looks in doors and boxes which make odd things happen. He jumps fences and bludgeons a giant worm. When he sees his parents, they get carried away by a big, black monster.

So far it sounds like the imaginings of a 14 year old mind, but it still hits me in a deep place: a kid loses his parents. We have all been there, and on many levels we will be there again and again.

In the end, the creator of Octocat Adventure reminds me that a good story uses deep psychology and myth to make a mark on us. And that’s something I wish I could do in every project.

Go see more of David OReilly’s work, as most of it is equally mythic AND very cool looking to boot.