My live-tweet story is Big Timber’s Season 2: Episode 1 “Ready to Begin.” My story has 12 tweets; hashtags are #BigTimber and #EXSM3989. This episode is streaming in Stack TV, but I pretended it was a live TV show. As I was watching it for the first time, it felt like a live story to me.
The Beginning
This is the continuing documentary of everyday life (stasis) of Vancouver Island entrepreneur Ken Wenstob and his family who own and run Wenstob Timber Resources. As this episode begins, we learn it is springtime, but the snow has not melted on the mountain where Wenstob Resources has their new logging claim. The weather, a trigger beyond their control, makes it too dangerous to try to get their massive equipment up the mountain. Then there is a second trigger. Ken, our protagonist, learns that he has been fined $1M by the government for leaving logs on the mountain last year when the logging season shut down early due to forest fires and then snow and he could not get the logs out. He has only 16 weeks to pay this fine or his operations will be shut down. And so, Ken begins his quest to find another source of cedar logs to fill the spring orders coming into the mill.
The Middle
As we move into the middle of the story, there are surprises. Ken decides to enlist a couple of his old boats to beachcomb for huge cedar logs on the beaches. These logs are free to take but very had to get to due to remote locations. There are more surprises as Ken’s team works on the boat strategy to access the logs. First, there is Seacrest, a very old landing barge that has two powerful diesel motors but only one will start. The mechanic works hard and finally it starts. Second, the digital engine of a new boat carrying the crew will not start. The mechanic does not know this type of motor, but he does figure it out while patience between the workers has worn very thin. The third surprise is the tide is going out and they are losing opportunity to begin yarding logs.
But Ken’s critical choice is that he never thinks of giving up on anything. He calls in a reinforcement, his cousin who comes via his own boat, to help the team start yarding the logs. This is the climax. Ken’s cousin brings expertise and equipment which pushes the rest of the crew to get to the site and start logging. They try to pull the huge logs off the beach without cutting them which would give them highest value per log. But, another surprise, none of their pulling equipment can withstand the pressure. So, ultimately, they are forced to cut the logs into pieces to yard them.
The End
As the episode ends, there are major changes (reversals) for the entire team. Ken, the protagonist, has created a new stasis (resolution), to get the cedar logs he needs for his mill to make boards and generate revenues to pay his $1M fine. Instead of using logging trucks on mountain roads to log his claim, he uses barges on the ocean to yard free cedar logs from the beach. This episode is a perfect story arc.
In Conclusion
Live tweeting is a new experience for me. It was challenging to absorb the information and write posts that quickly without losing the ongoing storyline. I was very busy for the full 45 minutes of the episode, a few minutes before, and a few minutes after. Thank goodness for the commercials that gave me a minute or two to catch up. I had prepared some images in advance that I used as I tweeted. Rereading my tweets today, I think there is an engaging story arc that has clear structure and purpose; that generates feelings and emotions; that is simple; and that gives us a character, Ken Wenstob, to root for. I also think there’s room for me to improve. Next time I will work to make the tweets shorter and remember Gary Vaynerchuk’s hack that I’m documenting, not creating. #BigTimber is a Canadian documentary. The storyline is as large as Ken Wenstob’s life.
EXSM 3989 - Digital Storytelling Class Blog 