Just wanted to say an official welcome to that thing with the videos of those storytellers.
Story Lab X is meant to be a collection of online videos documenting a range of storytelling performances, from amateur to professional, from highly choreographed to spontaneous, from documentary-style to YouTube-confessional.
Time to answer a few questions:
Q: Do you shoot all these videos yourself?
A: No. The videos shown here at Story Lab X are hosted elsewhere on the Web. Most online video sites (including YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv, etc) post an embed code which means that with a simple cut and paste I can create a link to that video that plays without you having to leave the Story Lab X site.
Q: Are you working with someone in Europe/the U.K. to find storytellers over there?
A: Nope. Just happened to find them online.
Q: How on earth did you find a video of [________]? I’ve been looking for years and thought they’d never made a video!
A: Just lucky. I’m not prodding anyone in the storytelling community, but it seems like in 2009 and 2010, more and more professional storytellers have taken the leap to put videos of their performances on the Web. Even so, once online, these videos are not always easy to find… but that’s the fun… digging through the chaff to find the— er, whatever it is you’re supposed to separate from the chaff. The good stuff.
Q: Can I let you know about a video I’ve found/created/edited/directed/produced?
A: Sure. Send me an email at storylabx@gmail.com. I won’t guarantee I’ll embed it, but I’ll watch it.
Q: What’s your criteria for including a video on your site?
A: It has to have a story. So I won’t be including promotional videos that talk about festivals or performers that don’t actually include a story in them. Full stories are preferable to excerpts, but occasionally I will post unfinished works.
The audio has to be working. I prefer decent video quality, but if I think a performer or story is interesting enough, I’ll post something that’s hard to watch if the audio is clear.
The video doesn’t have to be of a professional storyteller or a live performance. There’s some really interesting things happening on videoblogs that wouldn’t be considered “performing” in the arts sense, but share a lot in common with the act of storytelling.
If the video is focused on storytelling for early childhood audiences, I probably won’t include it.
Q: Why did you start this site?
A: I’m moving to put some of my own storytelling on the Web, and wanted to survey the range of styles of videos online. I want to experiment and see what works best on the Web— is it different than what works on a DVD or on TV? But rather than just bookmark interesting videos of storytellers, I thought I’d share what I’d found.
Q: Will you post a new video everyday?
A: Not anymore. Look for updates once a week, going forward. If you don’t want to miss an update, subscribe to the site via the RSS feed button down at the bottom of the page.
Q: How Do I Search for Videos?
A: Two ways.
- There is a search text box that will appear if you go to the bottom of the page and click on the magnifying glass icon.
- Scan the archives: http://storylabx.tumblr.com/archive
Don’t know how to use an RSS feed? Try an RSS-to-email tool, like Feed My Inbox (http://www.feedmyinbox.com/). If you set up an account there, you’ll get an email everytime I make an entry on this site.
Feel free to bookmark the site, and come back often. If you’re looking for something I’ve posted before, check the archive: http://storylabx.tumblr.com/archive
Q: Who are you?
A: Oh, right. I’m Tim Ereneta, in Berkeley, California. I’m interested in storytelling:
I’m a professional storyteller in the San Francisco Bay Area
I blog about storytelling at Breaking the Eggs: Performance Storytelling in the 21st Century.
I twitter about storytelling: @tereneta
I volunteer with the Bay Area Storytelling Festival and the National Storytelling Network.
I’m a member of the National Storytelling Network, the Storytelling Association of California, and the Northlands Storytelling Network.
