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.

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.

NPPA's Best of Photojournalism

Year: 2010

Place: First

Category: Feature Video

MediaStorm online training videos provide essential tools and techniques proven to enhance production and post-production. Created from years of live training experience, the online training videos provide useful tips no matter what your role.

MediaStorm's award-winning team of producers and cinematographers lead the online training videos with lessons learned from their experience producing films and training groups and organizations around the world.