What I like about TED (wow, now I was thinking of a parody of the song by the Romantics…) is the surprise factor of getting something out of a speaker or subject I did not expect. I typically download a few almost by random choice, as videos I can watch on my iphone during long plane flights.

On my flight to New Orleans last week, I was completely, blown away by this guitar performance by Kaki King

Whether you buy that she has been called “the next guitar god” (and wow, the comment flow on the TED site form the video above read like highbrow versions of YouTube comment bashing), it is amazing to watch her play– because, especially in that opening song– she turns everything that is conventional about playing guitar and turns it upside down, inside out, and produces something beautiful.

And this leads my mind to wander down paths of wondering where in other places, there is room and acceptance for the unconventional- in education school systems, standards, programs, degrees, are all designed for performing to a norm. There are reasons for this, to set goals, to give many people a path, but are there rigid walls on that path or are there alt paths?

Plus, maybe this is how it should be; if the unconventional were to be conventional, then, well, um… then… uh…. I’m going down some spinning logic hole drain. So perhaps it is best for the “crazy ones” (sad thar crazyone.com uses this video to sell stuff, oh well) to be on the edges.

So maybe now I find this video as a reminder to look where possible in the bounds of a conventional world, where one can go beyond the walls- this is the place of creativity where I, personally, find the most energy in world of convention and rules (Yes, Mrs Tharpe, in your 12th grade English class, when you played Shakespeare on the record player, my head down on the desk was not looking at the book on my lap, I was sleeping).

Look for places where you can turn the status quo inside out, it makes the world that more interesting.

Xtranormal’s mission is to bring movie-making to the people. Everyone watches movies and we believe everyone can make movies. Movie-making, short and long, online and on-screen, private and public, will be the most important communications process of the 21st century and its democratization is a massive business opportunity. Our revolutionary approach to movie-making builds on an almost universally held skill—typing. You type something; we turn it into a movie. On the web and on the desktop.

And all of this rang as 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story material. As I am preparing to do a remote online intro for Dean Shareski’s class this Monday, I am spiffing up the site and re-acquainting myself with old and new tools.

After an hour’s play, I am amazed as this little app, which almost belongs n a category of its own. Again, it’s tagline is “If You Can Type Text, You Can Create a Movie” which is not quite true. You also have to know how to click your mouse. So when you create a movie, you get to choose if it will be one or two characters, pick a set, music, and avatars for the characters. Now at first reaction, you are going to find it limiting, because there are fixed choices for everything.

But step back- this is another example where limited tools (being boxed in) should make you dig deeper into your creativity, of creating something inside the box, rather than whining about the box.

What you get then are more icon/tools you can drag into a script box, to change the camera angel, to add sound effects, to animate your character, etc. And then you simply type in the dialogue, then create a new box, lather, rinse, repeat:

When it renders as a movie, it uses text to speech, and the character’s lips move. Okay, so it is not Hollywood, or anything close, but it is damned easy. So I used it to do another version of the Dominoe story — and lacking dog character and an ability to do multiple scenes, I made it so the person was just telling the story i his room. It is quirky, and I am not exactly sure why the American male chose is wearing something that looks like a halter, but that is beside the point.

You get your expected embed and URL direct links, but another nifty feature (starting to be part of more tools) is a direct export to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6MsI7rkh50.

In Xtranormal, you can group your movies into a “Series” suggesting it’s best use is serialized shorts. And I have not explored the “remix” option, but am thinking that would be the way to do multiscene movies (or just put it in a series).

But this is besides the point- there are some nifty things you can do with creativity, in teaching camera angles, script writing (could be used to block out a dialogue?), and likely more.

But I just think it is an amazing tool, and when/if the creators get word of this post on their various keyword alerts- plea se please please leaveat least some version of this as free for educators!

(sideline complaint- I installed a new version flash and now about 20% of the web sites, including my own, cannot load the content, WTF?)

You know how the motivational thinkers trot out the “thinking outside of the box” phrase (nod nod nod)? For creativity, there are almost interesting things that happen when you are being “creative inside the box” (I made that one up) — when you find a creative way to tell a story in a limited expression form, say the keys on your keyboard.

Now the example above really does not fall into that, because what makes it work as much as anything is the live performance. I’m interested in collecting some more things like this, one might chalk ASCII art (now I am showing my generational colors).

The Flickr Tell a Story in Five Frames or Six Word Stories count (all of which nudged me to create the Five Card Stories site).

Help me out! Give me some more things that demonstrate creativity within a constrained tool set.

But I am waiting for my own submission to be portrayed, based on a recent blog post of my own.

But for now, cue up that CD track that starts with scratchy vinyl sounds and get the funk toes tapping:

more graph humor and song chart memes

GraphJam even give you the video!

GraphJam! (Where It’s At!)
GraphJam! (Where It’s At!)
GraphJam! (Where It’s At!)