Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts

Keep It Simple Stupid



We won! 

What a way to start 2021.

Over the years, on my journey in the Game Development Industry, I have been blessed with great friends. So when I found out that we as the Moran StoryLab would be participating in an all-female XR Hackathon this month I reached out to my friend Roy for some advice. 

Roy had participated in the previous XR (extended reality) Hackathon by the same company BlackRhinoVR and their team had won an award. I went through some ideas with Roy after which he gave me a task to research a few things. And one of those was the parable of the talents in the Bible.

I found this a strange way to approach finding Tech solutions but I trust Roy so I went ahead and looked for the parable to refresh my memory. That is when I saw the correlation between the message of the parable and the theme of the XR Hackathon which was "Eradication of Systemic Corruption using VR/AR Solutions".

The Parable of the Talents Matthew 25:14-30

For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. 

Then he went away. He who had received the five talents made five talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.

Now after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, "Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more."

His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master."

He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying. "Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours."

But his master answered him, " You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.

For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

The overarching issue we noted as a team when it comes to corruption is mismanagement of funds so this parable resonated. However, while we went through our ideas as the Moran StoryLab team, we realized there is a need for people to be educated on various important issues such as the fact that we have paid taxes since we were children through everyday goods. Therefore even if some of us don't pay taxes directly from our salary, we still need to care how the funds are used. 

Another learning opportunity was that there are ways unknown by most that one can report corrupt officials anonymously while protecting themselves and their loved ones.

At first, our idea was jumbled up. We had so many problems we wanted the solution to solve. But thanks to the witty message by Brian Afande the Managing Director of BlackRhinoVR keep it simple stupid we decided to simplify our solution. So on the first day of the Hackathon when all the other teams hacked away, we went back to the drawing board to simplify our solution and bring some form of clarity.


The team going back to the drawing board

These were the most trying moments during the Hackathon but we somehow pulled through. Using the resources we had at our disposal, we saw it fit to make an educational augmented reality experience that teaches the user how to report corruption cases anonymously so as to protect their identities as witnesses.


We called our solution Whistle Blowing 101

As we've learnt from the parable we are all given responsibilities according to our abilities. We as a team,  after the short training we had received from BlackRhinoVR mentors, were able to come up with a simple solution that would help in solving a crucial problem. A problem so crucial that lives have been lost as a result.

During the presentation of our solutions, we made sure to mention a few of the many lives that were affected due to lack of knowledge on how to protect themselves. Those examples included John Githongo, David Munyakei and Boniface Mwangi who upon revealing corruption underwent some grave repercussions. 

Upon revealing the Anglo Leasing scandal, John Githongo sought exile in the UK due to claims of a threat to his life. After exposing the Goldenberg scandal, David Munyakei was sacked from his job at the Central Bank of Kenya. As a result, he was not able to buy some medicine he needed and later succumbed to the illness. 

Boniface Mwangi, on the other hand, had to send his family to the United States because his activism against corruption put them all in danger. As seen in his award-winning documentary film Softie the move affected his relationship with his family including his firstborn son almost denouncing him as a father.

It is as a result of such stories that people turn a blind eye to corruption because we do not know how to protect ourselves. There is so much to lose as individuals. However, now with our solution, people will know there are more secure ways of reporting corruption cases such as going through the Ethics and Anti-Corruption (EACC) website and filling in forms anonymously. 

In the parable, the "unfaithful servant" accused their master of some form of impunity but did not seem to have any evidence. Such accusations even to date fall on deaf ears; that is why to further our solutions upon funding, we would like to come up with a platform where people can upload videos and photos as evidence which will go through some form of fact-checking among other procedures.

In the spirit of keeping things simple stupid, we made our prototype the simplest and most straight forward way we could. We avoided making a prototype of how we envisioned the future software solution to look and resorted to stating it during the presentation. I loved how easy it was to explain what our solution was about and how when the judges sent questions our way we were all able to assist one another in answering them. 

The synergy throughout the Hackathon was amazing. Our bond as a team grew in leaps and bounds and now I look forward to working on a 360-degree video shoot together later this year. 

After the Hackathon, we had a Protecting Your Intellectual Property talk organized by BlackRhinoVR on the following Tuesday to prepare us for the future should our projects get funding for further development. 





We won 600 dollars by practising simplicity and now our 2021 is off to a great start. I would like to challenge you to find ways to simplify the things you do. Ease into them and find ways to relieve stress. Simplify the goals you have so that you have tiny little habits you do regularly towards the achievement of the larger goal. When you get the chance read the book Atomic Habits. And on that note. I wish you the very best this new year and remember to keep it simple stupid

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8 Team Building Lessons from the Internationally Acclaimed Netflix show Money Heist



Image source

In an ideal world of team building, each person each day is excited to be involved in the project or work they do. Are you?

This piece is inspired by the Netflix series Money Heist and a business training I attended on building an awesome team by IE International University. As a viewer of Money Heist, I was impressed with how the heisters were able to make the general public join them in a rebellion all thanks to the remarkable team they had built.

As a writer in the entertainment industry, I have realized that collaboration is important and in order to collaborate well, great teams need to be built. 

The essentials of team building are purpose, mastery and autonomy. Businesses around the world that are able to successfully achieve these 3 goals usually also succeed in providing motivation, allowing for creativity and improving productivity in their teams. In addition to these 3 essential elements to team building are gender representations, adapting to changepersuasion, recruitment and networking.

Let's talk about all the essentials as inspired by this internationally acclaimed Netflix show.

1. Purpose

The Money Heist's team purpose is to print 24 billion euros and also to complete the greatest heist ever. The fact that they plan to print the money means that they will not steal; that is how they get the protestors on their side.

In a team, things happen and goals change but the larger goal should never change. In order to have a great team like the professor, it is important to educate the team into their behaviour and purpose as individuals and as teammates.

2. Mastery

Education should make sure that each team member has a high level of mastery in their area of expertise. In Money Heist, the person digging the escape tunnel, the person printing the money and the person keeping the hostages in check were the best at what they did.

We like to work in teams when we believe that we're going to get better at what we do or what we like to do. This is highly motivating. 

As a team leader, if you assign a role to someone and they act hesitant or say they don't want it, it's important to help that person understand that they are going to be incredibly valuable - not only in this team but also to themselves as they build towards greater competency for the future.


Nairobi: Image source

Aspiration for greatness inspires mastery. In Money Heist, the aspiration is to a great robbery, freedom, breaking away from traditional society, and its requirements. This aspiration for greatness gives an opportunity for mastery through practice. 

For instance, Nairobi is good at printing money but she goes to become an even greater master when she prints 24 billion euros in the greatest money heist in history. 

Berlin is a master of social, emotional and cultural intelligence. He understands people very well. He knows what makes them tick enough to know what and how to say things in order to persuade them to do what he wants them to do.

3. Autonomy

Money Heist highlights the power of a team that is formed by autonomous people who can make decisions within the guidelines of the culture of the group. Everyone was able to make decisions in order to change and adapt the plan to changing conditions on the ground. There's a culture of instant communication especially when it comes to who is in charge when the professor is not around.

It is important to remember that everything is derived from culture. The professor taught them to have shared values which included spilling no blood, making the money, and getting the money out so that they could improve everyone's lives. 


Denver: Image Source

Team leaders are meant to be driven and passionate about what they do so that the team members can learn by example. Each team member should be self-aware enough to know what drives them personally.

In one episode, the team leader Berlin who was not in full possession of his mental faculties ordered Denver to take Monica's life. When met with the dilemma of shooting her or being killed himself, Denver made a rather clever decision that saved both their lives and led to their love affair. This goes on to show the power of autonomy versus blindly following of leaders even when they are clearly on the wrong.


Berlin: Image Source

Therefore, in order to form a good team, it's important to foster a feeling of autonomy and ownership in each individual so that they can act in accordance with the purpose of the team.

Hierarchy also determines culture: the money heisters hierarchy was that of peer relations except for the professor who was slightly above. This contributed to the openness of the members when it came to communication. There are many moments in the series where different people became the boss. 

4. Gender representation

In Money Heist, there is a balance in gender representation; we see powerful female figures in Raquel and Alicia who represent the former and current head of the police. While Raquel allows for moral ambiguity and questions what the police do, Alicia does not. She is a member of law enforcement with questionable ethics and morality. She will torture and harm people in order to get what she wants. Although they were both in the same team, to begin with, they no longer are because they do not share the same values of good and bad.

Raquel shows her autonomy when she joins the heisters, a team she was once against. This is the beginning of her transformation into developing her own power and her own set of ethics and values. She becomes completely revolutionized, even wearing different kinds of clothing like shown in the picture below. She carries with her all the knowledge she has of law enforcement and becomes a crucial member of the heisters team. 


Raquel: Image source

5. Adapting to change

It is important to note that in every team there will be conflict and resistance. The reasons for resistance are fear, loss of control, uncertainty, surprises and unfamiliar things - all of which stem from change. One of the key features of teams is that they can change' this is highlighted by how the law enforcement team changed once Raquel left.

A radical change also occurred among the hostages when Monica joined the heisters. This is after Arthur dismissed her when she told him that she was carrying his child. The painful dismissal leads Monica to the arms of Denver her captor and eventual lover (Stockholm syndrome). Monica fully embraces her new team and even goes on to take on the name of a city and what better city for her than Stockholm. 


Stockholm: Image source

6. Persuasion

Persuasion is a key skill in team building. And it requires a show of evidence and credibility. You are more likely to persuade people if you show them evidence that you believe they should do the thing you say and you have credibility in it. One should also have emotional, social and cultural intelligence in interacting with a group to increase the chances of successful persuasion. 

The professor is great at persuasion, an example is how he got Tokyo to the team by saving her from a trap the police had placed to arrest her. He also revealed some details about her life that no one else knew and explained how he was going to help her change her life.

7. Recruitment

Hiring is dependent on culture: what culture do you want to create, and who are the people who can help you create this culture? It is important to ask yourself questions such as

  • Will you have a shared purpose with the new member of the team? 
  • Will they be accepting of responsibility and autonomy? 
  • Will they be able to make decisions much like the ones the leader would?
  • What role will they take?
  • How will they fit with the other members? 
  • Will they be able to communicate easily in the group and will their addition be useful?

Mastery should be taken into consideration too because you want to hire people who are capable. For instance, the  Professor hired Tokyo because she was good with a gun and great at being a thief.



New Recruit Bogota: Image Source

8. Networking

Who is in your network? What are the networks of the people who are in your network? Networking helps us access expertise that we don't have and get our goals achieved as a result.

We should all be like the Professor who was a connector connecting networks. He had done his research and figured out a network of thieves with specific skills that he needed for this particular heist. He was so good at networking that he was able to bring Raquel who was once against the team to his side and into his network. 

Thanks to Money Heist we have seen the power of autonomy, mastery and purpose in accessing the drive and motivation of people to really want to be engaged in their work. People seek meaning and a sense of accomplishment as a primary motivation. 

Giving room for gender representation in our teams is also a great way to build healthy teams. We also need to improve our persuasion, recruiting and networking skills because after all, we all need each other. 

Have you watched Money Heist? What was your biggest takeaway lesson from it?



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African Creatives to the World with Africacomicade's Gamathon


Did you know that the Video Game Industry is bigger than Hollywood? Well, it is and in 2020, the global games market is set to generate more than $160 billion and increase by 7.3% year on year. In Africa, the market for games has risen from $105 million to $570 million in just four years! The African population is young with the average age being 20 years. This will form the labour force of the future, as well as the gaming community that will raise the user base for games.

Africacomicade Founders

Oscar and Oluwatosin the Co-Founders. Their talk can be found
here.


The Africacomicade Gamathon is a virtual event that is hosted on itch.io. It is an initiative that was started by Oscar Micheal and Oluwatosin Ogunyebi to showcase African Creatives to the World. This is not only limited to the Creatives in the Gaming Industry but also those in the wider Entertainment Industry like film, music and content creation. Gaming is an industry that brings other industries together and this will become even more evident once you register for free and attend the training sessions and talks. 



The aim of Africacomicade is to let the world know we have African Game Developers who are doing well. And to invite Creatives of all kinds from Storytellers to Illustrators, Marketers to Animators, Musicians to Sound Technicians and more to learn how they can plug into this inclusive Industry. It is a chance to show all these people the job opportunities they can leverage.

The Gamathon started on the 24th and will be running till the 30th of this month August 2020. The first 5 days are dedicated to training through talks and panel discussions. A lot of insight into the gaming industry will be shared by Industry leaders. Then on the final two days, Creatives from different African Countries will team up and create games for 48 hours in the exciting Africacomicade Game Jam.

If you are a newbie, not to worry. There will be training sessions in the program such as using platforms like Buildbox which requires no coding to create a game but focusses more on logic. Communication about all these training opportunities will be done through the Africacomicade Discord channel. Gaming and Game Publishing companies will also come in and inform new as well as established Game Developers what they have to offer.

The training sessions are in an effort to assist in the education needed in the Gaming Industry. It seeks to highlight how there are endless opportunities for what one can do with their gaming skills. 

As a player you can become a professional game tester and assist Game Developers with the much-needed feedback during the different development phases of their games. You can also become a Professional Esports Athlete and stand a chance to earn just as much as the professional football players do.

So as you can see there will be lots of activities before the Game Jam this weekend. If you are a Creative and, to be honest, I believe we all are, you may want to register and learn how you can offer your skills in this fast-growing Industry. Also, note that there are lots of prizes to be won. I look forward to seeing more African Creatives building their networks and growing in the Industry. And I hope you will be one of them.



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My Little Miracle


My little Miracle.  I had been distressed and in constant search before I found her. Long hours spent on YouTube trying to figure things out left me tired and with a slight headache. Then I  received a message, a sign I believe was from my angels.

The sign I saw was a recurring number, only I do not remember which number specifically. This number's meaning reminded me to ask for what I needed, to let go, and to allow the help I needed into my life. So I did and in letting go I let her, my little Miracle, into my life easily.

I also opened up a flood gate of uplifting messages from my loved ones too - something we all need when we've been pushing ourselves too hard.

Anyway, enough with the suspense already, right? Thanks to Mavis Beacon, I am touch typing on her right now. These words are manifesting in my little Miracle with the ease with which she manifested into my life. She is a lovely 17inch MacBook Pro that has aged with such amazing grace under the care of her previous loving Guardian.



Ng'endo holding up my little Miracle.


Her previous Guardian is my Mentor and a beautiful soul called Ng'endo.  I wrote a little about her here. She has been my human Guardian Angel ever since I met her, guiding me through so many important stages in my life. 

So here's what happened. I had sent her a funny cat video that reminded me of her cat Chairman. The kitten was biting a laptop screen and somehow the conversation led to me casually telling her about my poor laptop.

My previous laptop crashed right after I got a new job as an Online Art Instructor, an opportunity which I also have Ng'endo to thank for recommending me. Before letting go as my angels suggested, I had taken to obsessively researching online to find a laptop with great specs so that when I go to do my Masters in Animation, it will still perform well under the weight of the heavy animation software I'd be using.

I had everything planned out: I would send money to my sister who is scheduled to come back soon from her studies in China. She would buy me a cost effective laptop on her way back. I would send her the specifications of the kind of laptop I needed and she would be my go between with the Chinese laptop dealers. It was perfect.

It is interesting how things unfold, because her first contact whom she had dealt with for long and had built trust with did not have the kind of laptop I needed. Then she met an English-speaking laptop dealer and I could tell from her texts that she was excited; she had a good feeling about him helping us. My spirits naturally rose as well and my hope was renewed. Fast forward to a few days later, he stopped responding to my sisters' texts so again we went back to ground zero.

This is where the overwhelm escalated. And in the nick of time, my angels came to my rescue with the uplifting message I mentioned before. So I let go.

After casually mentioning my predicament to Ng'endo, she texted me a few days later offering to sell me her old MacBook Pro. For how much you ask? 7 Kenyan thousand shillings only. Where on this earth can you get that kind of an offer on a MacBook? To add onto that, she also mentioned that I could return it if it had any issues in 3 months and get my money back. Talk about a warranty.

So we made a deal and the transaction happened. My little Miracle which had helped her make some of her great films was still in good shape. 

Now to take you back to my belief in angels and how they are always communicating with me through various ways, another interesting thing happened when I went to collect my little Miracle. When we were catching up, maintaining social distance of course,  Ng'endo mentioned she had been watching this series and had seen someone that looked familiar.


Sasha Compere from Miracle Workers


After watching it a couple of times, her boyfriend told her the TV character looked like me but she had a slightly different perception. Usually people tell you that they saw someone who looked like you. Never had I met someone before Ng'endo who told me they saw someone who looked like they could be related to me.

To make things even more interesting, the series she was watching is called Miracle Workers. I mean, what are the odds? And when she sent me the picture of the character she was talking about, I saw my Aunty Kamene at first glance. 


My Aunty Kamene and I enjoying a selfie moment.


I was so excited and went round the house asking my Mum and Sister who they thought this character looked like. They both agreed that she looked like my Aunty Kamene who I have been told a couple of times I resemble.

So I sent a picture of my aunty and I alongside this character's picture to Ng'endo just to let her know that she was right in thinking that way. And when I narrated this story to my friend, she told me she had recently watched a TED talk about how to become a Miracle Worker.




See? That is why I have a strong belief in angels and miracles. I am always receiving these amazing manifestations and experiences that feel guided. I wanted to share this with you because I made a vow to share more positive and uplifting stories with as many people as I can. We always need inspiring stories but I feel like we need them even more nowadays with Rona's menacing pandemic. 

So that was my little Miracle. Thanks for reading all through. Do you have a positive story about something amazing that happened to you? Please feel free to share below in the comment section. Let's keep each other's spirits high.
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15 Uplifting Animations Guaranteed to Leave You Feeling Good


I am sharing this in a bid to send some positivity into the world and I invite you to do the same in your own small way. I have arranged the trailers starting with those of the animations made on the African continent. I am wishing you and your loved ones good health and peace of mind as we all stay home, stay safe, and keep our spirits high. Happy watching and rewatching!

1. Liyana


2. The Snail and the Whale


3. Home



4. The Emperors New Groove



5. Bolt

6. Despicable Me 1,2,3



7. Sing



8. Coco



9. Moana



10. Wonder Park



11. Smallfoot



12. Rio 1,2



13. The Crood 1,2



14. How to Train Your Dragon 1,2,3



15. Angry birds


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