Lumbermans Museum Media Room Media Proposal

Abstract
I intend to use the skills and ideas I have learned through my years in New Media to help the Lumberman’s Museum in my hometown in Patten develop a multimedia center and a variety of media content.

Why/Where
This opportunity to work with the museum is once-in-a-lifetime, a chance that just happened to come to me through talking with the museum curator. Thanks to a grant, they have a certain amount of money available to purchase content for a new media area. Patten and the museum itself is not a very media-savvy area, and this is a big step for the Lumberman’s Museum. This is an opportunity to give the museum a great beginning and the ideas and help they need to get started on producing their own content (or hiring out for content).

Proposal
I propose first to act as the “technical advisor” for the museum, giving advice on what types of equipment to purchase with their grant. While this process goes on, I will work with the material available at the museum as well as developing ideas of my own to produce several different types of content for the media center. At the moment, I am envisioning several short films on different subjects, such as the museum’s history and the vast amounts of stories and poems and songs that the Museum and the people in the area who worked in the woods have. I would also like to produce a humorous short or two. Beyond this, I would also like to aid in spreading the word about the museum through giving it a presence in social media (Facebook), and possibly re-working the museum’s website. Finally, I would also like to attempt to educate the museum board and/or the community on the process of the creation of my media pieces, perhaps through a short “class” on media creation in the spring.

Timeline

See Gantt Project timeline here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4090/4951429890_4f8335c9b6_b_d.jpg


Resources/Costs
See tentative budget here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/4951429908_1e21d374e6_b_d.jpg

Getting the Word Out
CREATING WEBSITE
The Lumberman’s Museum website is very static and boring. In the course of this project, I would create a new and much more dynamic website for them, including ways to post museum news and goings-on. Their store section seems to work well enough at present, but to this I would add a blog, a much-expanded history/educational section, and perhaps a calendar application to post their upcoming events.

PROMOTING WEBSITE
After this was completed, I would begin to promote the website, as well as the changes to the museum through the new website. They already have a good domain and show in the major search engines, so that element of promotion is taken care of. I feel my promotion would be mainly to alert people to the existence of the website, and the new features it has. I would instruct the museum curator to put the URL on all future museum material, especially promotional material. I would also ensure there was a link back to the museum page from the Facebook group I intend to create, as well as attempting to share links with other museums in the area.

GET PRESS
Once the media room is complete and ready to function, I would send letters to the local papers (Bangor Daily, Houlton Pioneer Times, Katahdin Times) to alert them to the news. Hopefully at least one of them would send a reporter up to get a story on the fancy new equipment and media I would be producing. I would also mention it to the campus newspaper, in case they thought it might make a good story.

PUT UP FLYERS
Near the point when the media room is set to open, I would begin to put up posters advertising it around Patten. Good places to do so would be on telephone poles in and around town, as well as the large bulletin board outside Ellis Family Market. I would also try to put a bunch of posters up around the museum itself.

SAMPLER/TEASER
While I can’t really give a “teaser” of the media room itself, I could most certainly put up teasers of my media work. Once my documentary video begins to take shape, I could post a small portion of it on Youtube and link it on the museum website, to get people interested. If I end up doing a video tour, I could also post an abridged version to Youtube for people to get a very quick overview of the interesting things at the museum.

Annotated Bibliography
Available here.