I’ve trained hundreds of people to write effectively for the web. And I read a lot on the web — the good and the bad. As this year wraps up, I’ve concluded good web writing isn’t a common skill.
Because we;re in the holiday giving season, here are a handful of free tips, hints, and pointers. (The next session will be a charge…)
The fundamental truth:
• People don’t read online. They scan online. Your site visitors survey the page layout. They read down the middle. If they don’t find what they’re looking for, quickly, they move off your site.
Corollaries to the truth:
• Be direct. Be powerful. State your point. Don’t hold back the punch line.
• Make copy “scannable.” Use bulleted lists, hyperlinks, and subheaders to boost readability for basic page content.
• Use short paragraphs. Short paragraphs are scannable. Long paragraphs aren’t. If you burden visitors with long paragraphs, you’ll lose them.
• Use subheads, section titles, and anchors for longer content pages. If you have to pour a lot of information on a single page, create anchor links so readers can go to the relevant section. (Example: every FAQ page you’ve ever read.)
• “Phrase” hyperlinks. That means avoid linking to your favorite blog. Do link to your favorite blog, The Huffington Post. It’s easier to spot a linked phrase than a single word.
• Avoid Web clichés. I still see this one: “Click here to find out more!” Why? Embed the hyperlink in text. People know what it is.
• Use the serial comma before the “and.” This slows down the reader and gets their attention.
I’m standing in my favorite coffeehouse in the world (Open Eye, Carrboro NC), innocently waiting for my drink. Minding my own business.
In walks a friend, someone I hadn’t seen in weeks, possibly months.
There’s something different about him. Oh, that would be the sterile pad covering the lower part of his throat.
Almost as if it were covering… a tracheotomy scar?
“What’s up?” I say. And did I mention my buddy was a little wild-eyed?
“Not much,” my friend rasps.
Dammit. He HAS had a tracheotomy.
“How things by you?” he asks.
Oh my God. He’s not only held back his story, he’s just checked me (think chess).
I have to respond. And ss a storyteller myself, i know I have two options, neither of them great:
1. I can blow him off as politely as possible, and try to get the condensed version of whatever has happened either from other friends, or from the man himself when I have more time or he has less time.
2. I can open myself up for the narrative, right there. And this is tricky, because there’s a code of conduct involved. Once I open myself up, I have to let him tell the story in full, as he sees fit.
It could be five minutes, or it could be an hour and five minutes. It could be as straightforward as Hemingway or as ornate as Faulkner. It could be as clean as… well, no Southern writer I know of, but it could be clean. Or it could be as profanity-filled as a Navy riot, possibly describing things I didn’t know were physically possible or even part of the human imagination.
You just never know with these things. You also never know if it’ll be worth the effort, or if it’ll be something you immediately want to scrub out of your mind.
But that’s the chance you take.
Once you start, you can’t stop the story. It’s worse than hitting someone’s Mom. They can hit back. But once you cut a story short, you’ve essentially killed it, and wounded the storyteller.
And there will be payback.
So… what to do?
“It’s just been a lot of hurry up and wait. You know,” I reply.
The coward’s way.
“Boy do I,” his rasp now even more pronounced.
Is he doing that on purpose? Can he modulate with that scar? How long do they stay open? I could ask, but…
“I gotta run,” I say, coffee now firmly in hand. “But call me, let’s catch up.”
He gives me the look. The look that says, ‘Next time, I own you.’
“Yeah, my brother, we’ll catch up,” he wheezes.
I turn and shuffle out the door, in shame.
I’ve let a good storyteller down, and I’ve left a possible great story hanging out there. But next time. Next time.
Maybe even with a drink or two. I wonder. What happens if you slam a beer with a reasonably fresh tracheotomy scar?
So many questions…
And because it might save a life, here’s this clip:
Quick hits, because local wireless is overwhelmed by Sundance attendees:
“HERE” is gorgeously shot, but an inexplicable two full hours. The male and female leads are compelling, and good actors.
The story is incredibly thin, and so little happens you wonder if a 90-minute version would have saved this.
“Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest” is directed by Michael Rapaport. Yes, that actor.
And it’s good! The first half is raucous and fun. The second half drags with some extended personal drama, but as a whole, this is well worth checking out.
But I concede that — apart from Virginia being impossibly cute, adorable and brave — this teaser doesn’t say much about the “Life in a Day” feature. Let’s try one more:
For the rest of us, YouTube will make it possible to collectively share the world premier of the “Life in a Day” documentary as it’s screened in Park City, Utah.
Following the screening there will also be a live Q&A with the documentary’s director, Kevin MacDonald, along with a small group of specially-invited contributors to “Live in a Day”. (Impressive stats: this project drew more than 80,000 clips, and uses 1,125 of them. I’m sure the project probably shortened the lives of about 10 editors…)
Note, though, that the film WON’T be freely available on YouTube after that (it still has a theatrical run coming up this year), although you’ll be able to see a re-broadcast 7pm on Friday, January 28, in your local time zone.
But Sundance and YouTube have worked out something else that can keep you captivated through the rest of the long winter months.
Check out The YouTube Screening Room, which is showing a total of 12 shorts from Sundance 2011, plus four “career-starting” shorts from past festivals (!), and four shorts from the Sundance Directors Lab* (*no guarantee these won’t suck…). And they’ll add more on January 27 and February 3.
Meanwhile, here’s a loving tribute to 8-bit video game heros:
Want something a little more significant from your short films?
Oh, and full disclosure — I’m not at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival YET. We get there Tuesday, and I prefer to avoid the insanity and overhype of the opening weekend blitzkrieg, and focus instead on the week that follows (including the awards). I feel compelled to note this because Friday I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in several years, and the first thing he said was “What are you doing in town? I was reading your blog and thought you were already at Sundance.” I have no idea how his wife and kids are doing, but my bad — I’ll slap up a dateline when I’m in Park City.
Five feature films with early buzz:
All that said, early word of mouth — which still has to be filtered through the reality of aggressive publicists pushing and tugging to get their spin out before multiple screenings and hundreds, even thousands of festivalgoers have had a chance to separate the good from the merely well-publicized — is placing a few feature films into the spotlight. (I’ll have something on docs next time.)
Again, early going. This could be laughable in one week, but here we have it:
Red State —
I’m still holding out hope for Kevin Smith. I love the guy, but I don’t think he’s honed his directorial skills in terms of cinematic eye and character motivation.
But I will stand on Ben Affleck’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and declare that “Dogma” is not only Smith’s best film, it’s also a great film, period. My many reasons are a whole other discussion, but at the core I believe Smith loves the idea of all the good religion can do, and is horrified by how we mere mortals actually use religion for our petty power/control issues. This passionate belief might also make “Red State” stand out from his usual work. Here’s hoping.
Oh, and JOHN GOODMAN!! Melissa Leo! Kevin Pollack. The acting talent is there.
Higher Ground — I previewed this earlier — it’s Vera Farmiga’s directorical debut, and she’s acting in it as well. (She starred next to George Clooney in “Up in the Air”, and played the counselor/girlfriend in “The Departed”.) This film has a good pedigree.
Like Crazy — Directed by Drake Doremus (“Douchebag”, 2010), it’s a dramatic romantic about first love. Awww.
But the buzz is far less about the film itself, and far more about the female lead, British actress Felicity Jones. She’s been in Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest”, Stephen Frears’ “Cheri'” (with Michelle Pfeiffer), and a lot of BBC productions. But word is she burns up the screen.
The Future — It’s a “quirky” “offbeat” romantic comedy written, directed and starring Miranda July, who did “Me and You and Everyone We Know” (2005). Which I liked, and I didn’t expect to.
One of the twists of “The Future” is that the couple in the story are brought together by the woman’s cat — who also narrates the film. And, wait for it — Miranda July also provides the voice of the cat.
Yes, I know. On paper, enough to have me running screaming out of the theater. But this is Miranda July. I like her work. She might nail this one.
And please God, let’s just hope it’s not a misfire on scale with Cindy Sherman’s “Office Killer”… speaking of cool artists that completely failed on film.
Martha Marcy May Marlene — I also previewed this earlier, as another Sundance Institute “homegrown” project in this year’s competition.It stars a THIRD Olsen sister, Elizabeth, who by all accounts does pretty well. It could be the next “Winter’s Bone,” down to a shared actor, the always-good John Hawkes (I know; great name for an actor!). He’s also been in “Deadwood”, the previously-mentioned “Higher Ground,” and was in “You, Me and Everyone We Know.” That dude is all over this year’s Sundance.
Anyway, another religious-folks-gone-bad theme, which is yet another current of the 2011 festival. Keep an eye on this one in terms of jury voting, but it may not make it through the clutter of the audience award.
Also keep in mind not all these films are in competition. “Red State” and “The Future” are premiers, so the only awards they’ll be going after are distribution and ticket sales this year, but they may arrive at your local arthouse sooner than the three on this list that are in competition.
For a film placed in the documentary category, it’s done well at the box office: nearly $5 million worldwide so far, which places it in the Top 40 gross of all documentaries released theatrically. (Trivia: “Farenheit 9/11”, “March of the Penguins” and “Earth” are the top performing docs. I knew you’d wonder…)
I got on the “Exit” tangent because I mentioned to a friend recently that I’d hoped to be blown away by “The Philosopher Kings” — but wasn’t.
They followed with “Hey, you know what’s a great documentary? ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’. That was a great documentary.”
After I stopped pulling out my hair, I mustered a “You really thought that was a straight-up doc?”, and got just a quizzical look in return.
— Don’t get me wrong. If you haven’t seen this film, definitely check it out. It’s incredibly entertaining. But while the filmmakers themselves will be loathe to ever tell the whole and full story about how it was made, I’ll bet everything in my 401(k) that it ain’t what many believe it to be: a real documentary.
It IS a fascinating look at the history of street art (think Banksy, of course, but also Shepard Fairey, Space Invader and Zevs, to name a few); Andy Warhol and his continued influence on contemporary art and contemporary society; and then, essentially a one-sided pissing match between the street-art community and contemporary, famous and well-paid “established” artists. Guess who comes out on top?
Oh, and this fight is cleverly wrapped inside another “fight” between alleged original director
“Thierry Guetta” and Banksy himself — who claims he had to take the project over because of “Guetta’s” incompetence as a filmmaker. Incompetence like this, which I challenge you to match yourselves:
Anyway, Banksy says you can, at home, in a couple hours or so. and that’s why he took over the project.
But let’s move on to the REAL controversy.
— Will “Exit Through the Gift Shop” get nominated in the Best Documentary category at this year’s Oscars? (It’s on the short list of 15 docs, although only 5 will make the final selection…)
— If it does, is that like Milli Vanilli getting nominated for and winning a Grammy? Okay, assume Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus actually were self-aware and in control of their careers, if you wanted to make it a better comparison.
It could win (the event is Feb. 26), but if I were Banksy, I’d keep a wide berth from Sebastian Junger if “Restrepro” loses to him. Something about all that time spent at a forward operation base in Afghanistan, real bullets, real death, etc…
Get ready for the hype overload that will be the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. It officially kicks off Thursday, Jan. 20, opens for business Friday, Jan. 21 and continues for 10 days, with winners announced Saturday, Jan. 29.
Between now and the first of February, it will be hard to get away from the media coverage. That said, here’s a discussion by actress Vera Farmiga, who’s starring in “Higher Ground,” a film in the U.S. Dramatic Competition produced by my friend and indie film legend, Gill Holland:
To see this particular film during the next two weeks, though, you have to be in Park City, Utah.
— But don’t despair if you don’t have an incredibly overpriced hotel room booked for the gala.
*If you live in Ann Arbor, MI; Brookline, MA; Brooklyn; Chicago; Los Angeles; Madison, WI; Nashville; San Francisco or Seattle — the Sundance 2011 festival comes to you.
This is the second year Sundance has managed this event, and its intent is to promote the Institute, the individual films and filmmakers, and the independent, arthouse theaters where the screenings are held.
And Park City will be directly involved: the “Life In A Day” documentary that kicked off on YouTube this summer — inviting submissions for ordinary people to record what was happening on July 24 around the globe — will be shown there as part of the connected, nationwide experience.
“A major component of the Sundance Institute mission is to expand and engage audiences for independent storytelling,” Keri Putnam, Sundance Institute Executive Director, said. “Sundance Film Festival USA is an extension of the Institute’s year-round support of independent theaters across the country – designed both to provide people with access to films premiering at the Festival, and to encourage interaction between artists and audiences.”
Oh, and the Sundance Channel might possibly provide some information about what’s going on during the festival. Plus CNN, MSNBC, Fox, USA Today, the New York Times, etc etc etc. And let’s not forget US Weekly.
If you work in higher education, you should take the time to watch “The Philosopher Kings” documentary. It’s available on iTunes and Netflix (streaming and DVD). Consider it a homework assignment, or a continuing-education requirement.
For those not in the sector, I’m somewhat torn about recommending this documentary, which focuses on the lives of janitors and custodians at a handful of prestigeous, well known universities — including Caltech, Cornell University, Duke University, Princeton University and U.C. Berkeley, to name most of them.
I was led to this doc by a friend who knew about the Duke University connection: one of the people profiled is Oscar Dantzler, who takes care of Duke Chapel itself.
Don’t get me wrong — it’s certainly well shot (in fact, some of the visuals are absolutely gorgeous), has a fantastic music score, is well edited, and the people featured have interesting life stories (but of course; otherwise, they wouldn’t have made the final cut).
In my opinion, while “The Philosopher Kings” is a good documentary — it simply isn’t a GREAT documentary.
And that’s problematic.
“The Philosopher Kings” was initially pitched to me as a story about these custodians/janitors, who worked at these great colleges and universities — and described what THEY learned while at work.
The documentary barely touches on that theme before pulling back and showing the real story, which is the disconnect between these people who are seen every day by faculty, staff and students — but aren’t really seen by them at all.
Where this project falls short is its nearly complete lack of interviews with some of these same faculty, staff and students, to find out what they know, if anything, about the lives of those also in service to the institution, and whose daily efforts make the offices, restrooms, lecture halls and labs habitable and useable.
In fact, if it weren’t for a sound bite delivered by former President Bill Clinton, who spoke at Duke University about this exact subject — but as part of a speech a different focus — there may not have been such a concise summary of this theme of seen but not really seen.
The exploration of the lives of the subjects is astounding. Most all of them have heartbreak in their past, and seem to have conquered that as they sought out normal lives.
It also seemed readily apparent that few if any people at these universities knew anything about these personal struggles and triumphs. Maybe that’s appropriate to a point — work is work, personal is personal, right?
But a university, a college, a place of higher learning is supposed to be about sharing ideas and experiences, building on knowledge from the past and the present, and moving society into the future with this foundation.
In a way, though, I want to promote “The Philosopher Kings” because it actively (and perhaps unknowingly) demonstrates a theme that I’ve been promoting for years. (And yes, I’ve worked in the higher education sector for a number of years, so I’m not simply shouting from the bleachers here).
Most colleges and universities are loaded with great stories, generated by their own people — faculty, staff, students, alumni and local residents.
And most colleges and universities do a poor job of identifying all but the most obvious stories (superstar faculty, high-achieving students, successful/famous alum) and getting these great stories out into the world.
Technological restrictions have fallen. True, budgetary constraints in this economy may be real factors.
But the limitations of imagination, the focus on how things have traditionally been done, and the will to move past categories, class and caste designations seem to be very real, if usually unspoken, barriers.
And it doesn’t require a philosopher king to realize that’s a shame.
There are a lot of projects on my short list, but it’s the usual excuses of too long a list, and not enough money or time.
But excuses just don’t cut it anymore, so my plan to get this documentary project going is to just do it — and structure the plan in such a way that all the shooting can be done on incredibly flexible schedules, and the budget can remain miniscule (for now, at least).
So here’s “One True Thing”. The idea is that our team sits down with someone at their preferred location, and once everything’s set up, all we do is ask for your first name, and to tell us one true thing.
It can be anything, from trivial to profound. So long as it’s true to you.
We also have some ground rules for ourselves/the project:
— First name only
— We won’t edit your response once you start on your true thing. That means once you being, we’ll run until you stop. So, no edits to make you look better, worse, or more concise.
— You can have more than one thing to say. We’ll just treat them separately.
— Don’t pressure yourself. We don’t expect Dalai Lama-league answers, so no worries. Something about your cat is acceptable…
What do WE get out of all this? Good question.
Expectations:
Sure, the first clip is three guys of various ages working in various levels of seriousness.
The real payoff should be when we reach a certain critical mass and broader themes emerge. Personally, I fully expect this to start focusing on religion, relationships and philosophy — but I could be completely wrong.
Maybe folks hone in on sports and cosmology, who knows?
If I were to point to an existing model for how I expect this to turn out, I’m going to reference one of my all-time favorite books and life guides: Directing the Film: Film Directors on Their Art, edited by Eric Sherman.
Yes, you’ll find a lot of practical advice on nearly every aspect of filmmaking by some of the greatest in the field — but that’s essentially a bonus.
What I find great is that within Sherman’s 352 pages of collected wisdom, you can read one absolutely sterling, profound and compelling piece of advice put forth by an absolute master of their craft — and on the next page, there’s another absolutely sterling, profound, and compelling piece of advice from yet ANOTHER master, completely and absolutely contradicting the first.
Example: Think about rehearsing your actors. There are a number of directors that weigh in on how their actors must be absolutely well rehearsed and prepared, so there’s no doubt about the lines, nuances or inflections before the cameras roll.
And there are a number of directors that talk about why anything beyond nominal rehearsal kills the energy and dampens the creative sparks from fresh discovery.
Who’s right? They all are. And that’s the point — the truths within this book are the truths that work for each person.
So that’s where I personally see “One True Thing”‘s potential. But we’ll see.
Technical Points:
As we add in clips, we’ll update the master video, and keep individual clips for easy reference.
We’re also COMPLETELY OPEN AND ENCOURAGING of outside submissions. So feel free to crank up your webcam or video recorder, work up a segment, and send it on.
James Hyatt 