Kryssy Kocktail was a loner, who dreamed of running away from a troubled family to join the circus. At six years old, she was abandoned by her mother, who suffered from mental illness and drug and alcohol problems. The girl was left to bounce from home to home, never having real roots of her own.
A grown woman now, Kryssy makes her living as a clown in the colorful, kinetic Coney Island Circus Sideshow. She eats fire, lies on a bed of nails, and stands still as the knife-thrower's target.
Amid the lights and the wild circus energy, Kryssy finds what she's never had. "I can't believe I ever made it this far," she says, "and I'm hoping better things come."
Family Kocktail is a product of the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, where participants work alongside MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Learn more about upcoming MediaStorm workshops and online training at mediastorm.com/train.
Special Thanks
Kryssy Kocktail and her family, Donny Vomit, Dick Zigun
Deanne Fitzmaurice, Video and Photography
The quality of the work MediaStorm is producing sets the bar high for multimedia storytelling so it was great to work side by side with MediaStorm producers Eric Maierson and Brian Storm to understand the thought process and the possibilities that goes into one of these stories.
At MediaStorm, integrity and journalistic ethics are paramount as they let the story reveal itself. It became clear that their guiding principals are that the story is truthful and also fair to the subject.
The workshop has given me the confidence to handle any multimedia assignment that comes my way.
Doug Grant, Video, Photography and Interview
The MediaStorm workshop was amazing. They take you through every step of the process in such a way that you come away from the experience with both an incredible understanding of how to bring stories to life and a desire to put the knowledge into action as quickly as possible.
It was a grueling week, but I've come away feeling both confident in my abilities and inspired at the potential. I'd do it again in a heart beat!
Stan Alcorn, Editor
Before I came to the MediaStorm workshop, I didn't know how much I had to learn, or how much I could learn in a single week. I expected technique tips and tricks; I expected a window into the MediaStorm workflow. I didn't expect lucid lessons synthesizing technique with journalistic storytelling; I didn't expect MediaStorm producers showing up early after yet another late night to set up for yet another long day of focused, hands-on teaching-by-doing. And I didn't expect this combination of theory and practice (mostly practice) to so thoroughly change how I looked at not only "multimedia" but storytelling in general. As Brian warned us early on, after the workshop, you can't go back to who you were before. That is definitely a good thing.
The MediaStorm One Day Master Class provides a general, yet precise, overview of documentary video and multimedia storytelling approaches. MediaStorm founder Brian Storm will walk you through specific examples as well as proven tips to improve your interviewing, editing and distribution techniques.
These are the upcoming one day workshop dates:
The MediaStorm Methodology Master Class gives participants a chance to look inside the workings of a successful film and interactive production company, while taking them step-by-step through both the creative and business aspects of digital storytelling.
Founder Brian Storm will share MediaStorm’s workflow and storytelling methods and discuss essential elements of project organization and storytelling concepts.
You can attend the workshop in Los Gatos, CA in person or online via Zoom.
Upcoming date:
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The MediaStorm Platform is an advanced video platform that extends the user experience beyond linear video to include the interactive capabilities of the Internet.
The MediaStorm Platform is an advanced video platform that extends the user experience beyond linear video to include the interactive capabilities of the Internet.
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