A little while ago I got to participate in a great discussion at Google, centered around Frank Rose’s must-read book The Art Of Immersion. Joining Frank and I were Chris Di Cesare, Director of Creative Programming at Google Creative Lab, i Paul Woolmington, Founding Partner of Naked Communications, and Susan Bonds of 42 Entertainment. If you want to know where it is all headed, I suggest you read Frank’s book and listen to our talk, posted below.
Tag: transmedia
Lance Weiler was the Keynote speaker at the Darklight Festival recently. He shares his journey into transmedia and why he is so optimistic about the world before us. It is nothing short of a state of the union address on Transmedia — both how we got here and where we are. It includes a pretty solid survey of transmedia projects. Check out his video below if you are one of those types who actually want to know the world you are living in (and not just the one that once was).
Why does it still feel amazing that a whole group of people come together to share knowledge, organize that gathering, and take the resulting inspiration out into the world — and that they do it for free? That question is worthy of a future post, but for now we are here to celebrate DIY DAYS, the event that we must now ordain as a necessary institution. I was a keynote speaker last year. This year Christine Vachon and I discussed our past and hopes for the future. Earlier I ran a post on Chuck Wendig’s presentation he did this year on “Where Storytelling & Gaming Collide” . Today we are happy to offer you Zeke Zelker’s overview of the event, which at the very least should make sure you plan on joining us next year. Check it out. I promise you will leave wiser and inspired.
It is always exciting going to DIY Days, It’s like main lining a shot of learn-to-know-how adrenaline straight to the heart. There were many things that I took away from last week’s conference, many of which we will be implementing for WTYT960.com as we push out the site. WTYT960.com is a virtual radio station where bands submit their music to be a part of the playlist, the playlist is created by fan interaction on social media sites and votes.
A couple of highlights from DIY Days that still resonate. Newman’s tell it like it is approach to reclaiming DIY, I just sewed new patches on my britches and am rolling up my sleeves, getting down and dirty with making stuff. Hope and Vachon’s fireside chat on their amazingly prolific careers as the top indie producers, that’s right, each of them have produced 70 films. That’s absolutely amazing. Johnson’s chat about NFC technology that I feel will be another outlet for filmmakers to further expand their storyscape. Weiler’s review of Pandemic 1.0 that we produced at this past year’s Sundance. Chirls introduction of html 5, I’m still wrapping my head around the possibilities of this new programming tool and Clark’s discussion on how he has worked with brands in the past, this opportunity needs to be explored further. There were many others who presented and their insight was worth much more than the price of admission.
The only thing I wish is that more presenters would have been more straight forward on how they do/did things not what they did. I think this would be extremely valuable to those who attend these types of conferences.
When it was my turn with Vlad, who has a really great project, Zenith, it was interesting to see people’s reactions as we discussed our transmedia projects, Vlad’s is wrapping up, mine is just getting started. I take the capitalist money making approach to my filmmaking efforts, where I always encounter push back from the indie film/DIY community. I never understand this. This is show Business people, with a capital B, which is a true balance of art and commerce. Shouldn’t we all take more of a money making approach to our filmmaking? It is truly empowering. Instead of playing the “I hope I can sell my film for big bucks at a festival that I hope I can get into lottery.” Shouldn’t we be more fiscally responsible to our funders? Really. I fund my projects by whatever means possible. Right now I am raising equity, seeking donations, and forging brand partnerships.
I believe that the story telling experience can be augmented for the better with brand interaction. Brands can enable artists to further their storyscape, something that I’m doing with Billboard an Uncommon Contest for Common People! as well as my next three projects. I like giving a big fat hug to responsible corporate brands who can help me further tell my story. We all have those products we love, why not make them a part of, and a device in, the story telling experience? For instance I love my Radius toothbrush, a company with ergonomically correct handles made out of recycled material. Right now I’m brushing my pearly whites with a handle made from recycled U.S. currency. Just living the dream! The company is also from my hometown and these types of things excite me. A great product from my hometown that I’ve partnered with to help tell a story. You can’t get any better than that. How does a toothbrush support a story? Just wait. You’ll see.
Newman http://springboardmedia.blogspot.com/
Johnson www.kineticfin.com/ –
Hope now here on IndieWire. Archives at http://hopeforfilm.com
Vachon http://www.killerfilms.com/
Weiler http://lanceweiler.com/
Chirls http://chirls.com/
Zenith zeniththefilm.com/
Radius http://www.radiustoothbrush.com/
– Zeke Zelker
Zeke Zelker, filmmaker/entrepreneur, has embarked on his latest transmedia project, Billboard an Uncommon Contest for Common People! a story that transcends various medias as it empowers various artists to be a part of the story telling experience.
PS. If you need a bigger fix, before the DIY DAYS NYC event, way back in 2008, Lance Weiler hosted a DIY DAYS DINNER. I was there and we had the camera running. Check it out here.
Well… Tribeca is helping that heaven get a tad closer to your daily existence. The deadline to help shape it is coming up fast, so in case you missed it…
Tribeca has launched a new media fund and they want your input now on how to shape it, guide it, and make it work best for your needs. How sweet is that? As their site informs us:
We are really excited about this new fund at the Tribeca Film Institute. New technologies are allowing filmmakers to tell stories in new ways and to reach audiences in direct and dynamic ways. Submissions will open April 4, 2011 but before that we have decided to solicit feedback on how to shape our submission guidelines. Why?
Because we want to create an open dialog about what is possible in this new field. In this same spirit of collaboration, we will soon be launching an online resource for media producers and seasoned cross-platform practitioners to share best practices, case studies and discoveries in this field.
Categories
This Is Transmedia
I am producing Lance Weiler‘s HOPE IS MISSING (with Anne Carey). It’s hard to call it just another feature film when Lance does so much more to expand the story world. In the past, I have encouraged filmmakers to make a short to demonstrate their skills or help clarify the world they want to create. Yes, Lance made a short for HopeIsMissing (aka H.i.M.), and you can watch it at the bottom of this post, but that’s just a tip of the iceberg.
When I speak about it to studio execs, most still don’t know what I mean when I say it is a transmedia project. Hopefully that will never be the case again once we make the feature. One would think that this would have already changed though by what has been done already.
Perhaps you were at Sundance and encountered the PANDEMIC. It was an installation at New Frontier. It was an online experience. It was location-based ARG. It was story R&D. Lance explains:
How I Learned to Start a Pandemic from Turnstyle Video on Vimeo.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Lance Weiler for maybe two years now. I love how he thinks. I love how he takes that thought and transforms it into action. Process is more key to what he does, than virtually anyone else I have worked with. The journey is the destination. He is willing to walk without knowing where it all might be going. He is collaborative to the Nth the degree. His vision for cinema truly knows no limits.
Wired Magazine singled him out this summer as one of the fathers of transmedia. BusinessWeek credited him with changing cinema alongside Thomas Edison, The Warner Bros., and James Cameron. Between his features, The Workbook Project, & DIY Days, the man is profoundly generative.
If you were in Sundance this past week (and even if you weren’t), you probably witnessed how he infected Park City with
Frankly, this made me want to watch the film again — and isn’t that a lot of the point.
