MEET GUS

Gus Hayden – chef, snowboarder & entrepreneur, established Augustines of Central in 2013 and hasn’t looked back.

“Do you cook apricots full time?”
“When not preserving apricots I am a Private Chef at Venator Cardrona Safaris NZ, cooking seasonal menus for guests from all over the world using Central Otago produce… and in the winter Snowboarding takes precedence”

“How long have you been a chef?”
“I have cooked for a while, being inspired by my foodie mother Jeannie (see Jeannie’s blog here), but I officially trained in Chamonix France in 2008, I worked and snowboarded in France and Canada until I came back to live in Wanaka in 2010.

“When did you first start preserving?”
In 2012 I first sourced tree-ripened apricots from a spray free orchard. They were like no other apricots I had ever tasted. I set about learning the art of preserving, to capture in a jar the unique flavour of apricots ripened by the Central Otago summer sun.

Over the next three years, I perfected my preserving skills and recipes. To find out if I was on the right track, I entered the Upper Clutha A&P Show and won Best Bottled Fruit in 2012, then went on to own that title for 2013 and 2014 :). Recently (in 2019), my Sundrop Apricots won the gold medal at the Outstanding “New Zealand Food Producer Award” and my Quince Paste won a bronze medal.

“How long have you been selling your product?”
I established “Augustines of Central” in 2015 selling out my total production of 550 jars of apricots. Mostly sold in the South Island but I got XX jars into Moore Wilsons in Wellington and XX jars in Farro Fresh Food in Auckland.

How many jars did you make this year? 
For the 2016 bottling season, I secured contracts with more growers of spray-free apricots to meet the growing demand for my product. In February over a period of 3 weeks, I produced 2,700 jars of apricots… It was intense but a great challenge with the increase of production.

What do you love about your Apricots?
Preserved Apricots evoke memories of delicious childhood desserts, but with the added sophistication of a light sugar syrup flavoured with Central Otago Riesling.

“What else is in your product line?”
This season, for the first time, I am offering preserved apricots in two different sized jars … and launching two new products, Apricot Jam and Quince Paste.

Do you do all this by yourself?
I am proud to have my family and friends support in developing and growing Augustines of Central.

[layerslider id=”1″]

Nutrition and apricot varieties

Nutrition

• Apricots not only taste good, they are an excellent source of vitamins and antioxidants that help boost your immune system. When apricots are cooked vitamins A and B are made easier for our bodies to access.
• Augustines of Central apricots have maximum available antioxidants because the fruit is tree ripened and processed quickly after picking.   
• Apricots have lots of fibre, a good amount of potassium, iron and copper and few calories.

Apricot Varieties

Sundrop

The Sundrop is an aromatic apricot tasting sweet with a hint of tartness. This delicate fruit is best enjoyed in pies, smoothies, sweet desserts and sauces.

Vulcan

The Vulcan is the king of preserved fruit. With its firm texture, large size and deep orange colour with a red blush.  The balance of sweet and tart has made this my favourite Central Otago stone fruit. Best enjoyed in savoury dishes, salads, tarts or to accompany a favourite winter cake.

The Power of a Good Story

“A story can put your whole brain to work”

In this article: What Storytelling Does to Our Brains It explains how we are hard-wired for storytelling; we listen more effectively, emote and learn empathy of experience by another relaying their experience, engage and more importantly remember.

“Personal stories and gossip make up 65% of our conversations.”… I would say with some on social media that number would be creeping toward 90%

So the power that holds in marketing is unfathomable, get someone to care and you have them hooked.

An interesting article on a the game, Ico, being turned into a novel:

“…any video game that can effectively be translated into a book is not pushing the storytelling to its full potential…By their very nature, games change the way we relate to the tales we are no longer hearing but experiencing. It parallels the differences between sympathy and empathy. “That seems sad” versus “I’ve experienced that, and I know how that sadness feels.”

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/13/ico-and-the-power-of-video-games/#DLvyHwj8vejrpLj5.99

 

So in my game I aim to turn a highly evocative time spanning novel, into a game.  Does  this work when the shoe is on the other foot? …I say yes… Why?  Because you have the story there:  The bones , the structure and narrative are all planned out and characters are realised.

I think a game can add to,  not detract from the novel. can add beautiful experiences and detail and enhance messages within the storyline. For example the tale of Beauty, her travels take her to various time periods, places and she encounters different challenges in each. She even reaches as far as Hell and another Fairy realm called Ylles.  All these places and times could be expanded and developed through the game.

My concept is just focusing on unravelling the story slowly, the world of chapters 1-3. Two reasons, One, I aim this to a highly fan feed project. Starting the project slowly to gauge how the audience want it to proceed is fun. Number two, the novel is vast… and I am only one person …with a assignment deadline:)

“Fan Herding”

“Fan Herding” Copyright Tansmedia 2013

a person who is enthusiastically devoted to something & the act of bringing individual animals together into a group  

The Power of the Many

Fandom

Wikipedia Definition: Fandom (consisting of fan [fanatic] plus the suffix -dom, as in kingdom, freedom, etc.) is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the object(s) of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a social network with particular practices (a fandom); this is what differentiates “fannish” (fandom-affiliated) fans from those with only a casual interest.

 

Case Study: The Hunger Games 

Participatory Culture to Activism 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New York Times, Article: Fan Power: Hunger is Not a Game

Truly inspiring story and a testament to fan power. The beauty of Transmedia is that it’s owned by the people- the fans decide. The fact that it can be used to create a movement and insight social change should be embraced by big corporations.

As the Harry Potter Alliance has helped out in society, making the fans realise they can use there desire to change  the status quo, not just in the imaginary world, but use that desire to make a difference here and now:

How can we make the stories people want to follow?I believe it is as simple as:

• Relatability to character.
• An Interesting twist in narrative.
• Story has relationship to real world themes/events/happenings

People need to feel they are a part of the telling of these stories too not just being told how they must interact.

As stated in this study: Design Elements of Transmedia Branding

“Most importantly, such stories are passed along when people find these narratives meaningful and emotionally engaging. Spreadability is a key enabler of transmedia branding.”

BRAINSTORM

STORYTELLING

–       Storytelling A new engaging way.

–       Multi platform not just covering bases on digital platforms really taking advantage and using the different platforms for different angles on the narrative.

–       Not cross-medium, It s a large story fractured into component parts, tailored for each platform.

–       Strong context, suspend disbelief to become involved in story

 

Alison Norrington at TEDx Transmedia 2012

–       Audience investment is key then letting them collaborate.

–       New ways to engage your audience across all platforms

How to Build a Transmedia Story World (2010) – Brent Friedman, Electric Farm Entertainment

–       Customisable, Engagement, deeper level of following

–       Inspiring to take action…Also take social action

–       Transmedia will become a complex behavioural language.

–       Switching audience from being passive observers to active participants

• Playing – not just for kids as a principle of human interaction
• Hoaxing – Taking fiction for reality, No such thing a permanent and objective- it is always changing physical dimensions of realities become more real that the old physical world
• Sharing – The power of the many rather than the weakness of the one

Twice upon a time: Michel Reilhac at TEDxTransmedia2011

HYBRID ENTERTAINMENT

–       Play in the gaps in the spaces of story

–       Layers of information, adding to the experience

–       How are they finding out about your story? and how to keep them engaged

–       Gamifiction.

THE WORLD I WANT TO CREATE

Themes: Feminism, Enviromentalism.

 

Platform- Theatrics:

• Mini Doco Clips: “What’s happened to the ‘Beauty’ in your world?“ Because the novel has strong messages about environmentalism, I want to create a tapestry of mini doco’s that fans can send in and explain and show what has happened environmentally to something in their area.

Platforms- Twitter, FB, Tumbler, & Website:

• Profiles for Fairy-tale characters- very empowering for woman
• give them real lives-eg.fashion, fun and relationships.
• Create personas that will interact with other characters.

Platform -YouTube:

• Videos Created as a secret recorded diary entry explaining the lead characters history… Later as the character travels time thse will still continue, perhaps even a link on the series screen once filmed as to what      part of the story they were entered. Also twitter hashtags and every webisode has a clip from te beauty in your world campaign.

Platform: Games

• Online Game: The game world will be developed as a series of worlds that will be unlocked as each film is realised.
• Wii game:  Self defence classes taught by kick ass princesses

Platform- Netflicks: 

• Web Trilogy The eventuation point of all the stratergy. Only once the strategy has reached target audience and interest will it be released. This will be helped by videos being made as a plead for funding (by Beauty herself) for her to be unlocked from her world.

Lil Gems

‘Scoop.it’ pages I follow:

The Digital Rocking Chair 

Transmedia and Story telling

Article: 25 Things You should know about Transmedia Storytelling

Highlights from article below:

“The current and straightest-forwardest (not a word) definition of transmedia is when you take a single story or storyworld and break it apart like hard toffee so that each of its pieces can live across multiple formats.”

“For me, what makes true transmedia unique and beyond the buzzword, past the gimmick, is when it carries two corollaries to that earlier definition: first, it offers audience investment and lets them act as collaborators; two, the story was intended to be a transmedia experiment from the very beginning.” (Tick ,…Tick)

“ BUT PLEASE DON’T SAY THE WORD “GAMIFICATION”:   This probably doesn’t deserve its own list item but fuck it, it’s my list and I’ll rant if I want to. I hate that word: “gamification.” I like games. I like to play. I like putting game elements into play where appropriate. But gamification often relies on shoddy collection mechanics to beef up an already un-fun idea. “We just gamified your gynecology appointment! You just got seven cervical coins! Ding. You’re now mayor of vagina-town! You just collected the Speculum Is Colder Than An Ice Cube In A Yeti’s Mouth badge!”    (….hahaha)

Blog Article: What Makes a Good Story

(Jason Thibeault-  Sr. Director, Marketing Strategy at Limelight Networks)

“Today’s Digital Marketer (aka, God of Engagement) These people are still hard to find but when you do, you know it almost immediately. They don’t have checklists. They have numbers that tell them the effectiveness of their efforts, numbers that speak about depth of engagement, metrics that illustrate the impact of their marketing effort. And they aren’t telling customers about their product. They are using different channels to create an emotional connection between customers and their brand so that when they need to launch a new product or change its messaging, it’s not like trying to roll that rock uphill because they’ve already done the REALLY hard work: creating the connection between the customer and what’s really important. How do they do this? Through storytelling.”

7 CORE CONCEPTS – Henry Jenkins

Company Profile – Starlight Runner Entertainment

Starlight Runner Entertainment, Inc., founded by Jeff Gomez and Mark Pensavalle, is a leading creator and producer of highly successful transmedia franchises, maximizing the value of entertainment properties and consumer brands by preparing them for extension across multiple media platforms. Starlight Runner Entertainment also produces animated and live-action feature films, as well as digital content.

http://www.starlightrunner.com/transmedia

“Transmedia immerses an audience in a story’s universe through a number of dispersed entry points, providing a comprehensive and coordinated experience of a complex story…”

“positively reinforcing personal participation in the narrative.”

Starlight runners: ‘Action Drive System™’

Immersion, where we deeply explore the brand and interview the marketers and visionaries behind it;

Innovation, where we build or repair the narrative and underlying mythology of the brand and recommend development procedures that will allow for its extension across an array of distribution platforms;

Expansion, where we are actually building out, enriching and deepening the fiction of the brand, creating franchise bibles and guidelines for it; and

Planning, where we work with the brand owner to strategize a rollout over a certain period of time, often over the course of years, which utilizes multiple media platforms in concert.

JEFF GOMEZ:

 

INSPIRATION

When I look back on my life I don’t want to have regrets, I want to know I tried the hardest I could at every step or challenge. So undertaking this project I dreamt big…It may never become a reality but at least I dreamed it. And if you can dream it you can be it right?