Tell us about your business.
I call my company KijiK Multimedia, a storytelling company under the guise of a multi-media company. On one side of the company we do integrated, branded, convergent and strategic media: production from concept to completion. Everything from conceptualizing media campaigns, logo design, web development (web site, social, SEO), branded content (film, commercial, animation, etc…), apps, designing events and covering them, as well. We’ll do anything for our clients really, to tell their story to the world. If it’s a hat, t-shirt, banner, just about any product or media tool, we’ll make it happen.
You have been an entrepreneur for many years. How have you stayed in demand?
Constantly evolving. The [motto] at KijiK is “Creativity Fueled By Innovation” and inversely “Innovation Fueled By Creativity.” We’ve been doing what’s now called “transmedia” for many years, long before it was a term, which is utilizing many media platforms to get our clients’ message to their audience. In order to do that, we are constantly looking for new methods of delivery, whether a new web tool, social site, app or product. An example is our foray now into exploring virtual reality.
Additionally, we’re always looking for ways to tell a story and more importantly an interesting story. We’ve seen the evolution from film and tape to digital to now even having camera phones with quality good enough to shoot a film, like the movie Tangerine, which was a hit at the last Sundance film festival and was shot using an iPhone. That’s not to say we don’t utilize the latest tools, 5K cameras, drones (responsibly), the latest in effects, graphics, etc… An example of the evolving tools and one we love is the Adobe line of products, which are now online and constantly updated from a simple and quick download. Evolution never ends and neither do we.
And as far as telling interesting stories, ask anyone in the business and they’ll tell you it starts and ends with the story. If it’s not good to start, it won’t be good to end, no matter what you do.
What has been your biggest obstacle, thus far?
I’ve fought hard to push for social responsibility in every facet of what we do and to do projects that mean something to the world. Often times these types of projects are not as easy to garner attention, to get them made, especially when you want to do them in a way that is true to your heart and soul. So trying to accomplish a balance between getting these stories out to the world, getting clients projects done and juggling other projects and responsibilities can be like navigating an obstacle course through a jungle on the hottest, rainiest day of the year.
Tell us about your most exciting project.
Right now it’s my company’s project “The Beach Chronicles” (www.thebeachchronicles.com). It’s pretty much everything I believe in as far as storytelling goes, the multi-media aspect of it, but also a reflection of my ideologies and influences from many areas, films, television, art in general, literature, science, culture, even the incredibly talented people I’m working with. I’ve been able to work with so many I’ve longed to work with and so many that I respect. I literally love everyone that is involved with this project, there are so many talented people both in front and behind the scenes.
In this the multi-media aspect of telling a story in many ways, across many platforms is liberating as a storyteller. It allows me to tell this big story, which is essentially about the circle of life, in a way that is as all encompassing as I can make it, I can imagine it. And I have days where my mind won’t stop, it just keeps going and going, so I channel that into the story and it allows me to tell it in a 360 degree manner.
Where do you see your business in the next five years?
Of course a bigger client base in that we see the evolution of our clients interaction with KijiK being a movement toward multi-platform organic outreach. That is reaching an audience with their core story, the heart and soul of their message and utilizing whatever platform and/or platforms that work best for their message. Essentially KijiK Multimedia as a true one stop shop in which we can outreach even utilizing our own platforms such as films, episodic shows and more.
We’re working on other things, a community center to teach underserved youth multi-media in which we’ve already retrofitted a building for that purpose, an online destination to view some of our projects and others we have a hand in producing both in episodic and in film format. We’re moving to have a full service studio space as we develop many more of our properties and continue to develop projects which in turn get placed on network, in theaters or on our own online platform.
In that I look for KijiK Multimedia to reach a diverse and varied audience in many forms; film, television, online, mobile, virtual reality, gaming, events and more. We’ll continue to tell stories, just more, across the ever evolving media landscape and bigger than ever before. You can check our evolution at www.kijikmultimedia.com, we have some great interviews on there like a candid with Eddie Griffin, projects, you can check out our blogs and more.
