Click Here for More Articles on NEW YORK CITY...

Tribecca Announces Interactive Day, Live Lunch Series with Jason Blum, et al. in April

TRIBECA-ANNOUNCES-PIONEERING-SLATE-OF-PROGRAMS-20010101

Tribeca today announced two new forward-looking events to take place during the Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) that will assemble a first-rate collection of thought leaders spanning the worlds of film, media, gaming, technology and society. The Tribeca Film Institute's Interactive Day will explore the future of storytelling in the digital age, through an all-day conference on April 23, made possible by the Ford Foundation. Tribeca's long-running Future of Film blog will expand its successful online offerings with a Lunchtime Series with daily talks and presentations related to platforms, technology, and trends that are changing the art and business of film.

On April 23, the TFI Interactive Day, programmed with XO Labs, will bring together leading thinkers from the fields of media, entertainment, education and technology to share their insights and inspire content creators to rethink paradigms. The day will explore the digital media ecosystem. Conversations will range from an interactive case study of the multi-platform rollout of HBO's Game of Thrones to the signature insights of The Onion's Digital Director Baratunde Thurston to a conversation about the funding of transmedia projects. The event will take place from 9:30 am – 4:30pm at the IAC Building and is open to all TFF badge holders and invited guests.

"In a world where the lines between audience and creator are increasingly blurred, every sector of the communications industry is undergoing somewhat of an identity crisis. As the only formalized funder of independent, non-fiction transmedia in the US, we are excited to welcome the brightest thinkers and doers from across the spectrum to help us differentiate the substance from the hype," said Beth Janson, Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Institute.

The Future of Film Lunch Series, hosted by and taking place at 92YTribeca, features notable speakers such as Paranormal Activity producer Jason Blum, Tumblr founder David Karp and College Humor and Vimeo founder Ricky Van Veen. The series will take place on April 23-26 from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., with two sessions daily, each 30 minutes followed by an audience Q&A; these events will be highlighted via daily video segments on tribecafilm.com and throughout TFF.

"Our Future of Film blog has been an important tool in nurturing a steady, year-round dialogue on the changes in our industry. As we continue to drive this conversation year round and grow the community of contributors our Future of Film speaker series is a great platform to hear from industry pros who are experiencing the changes first hand," said Matt Spangler , Tribeca Enterprises, EVP Marketing and Content. "The live event and video content created by this terrific lineup of speakers will offer unique perspectives for our audience on where film is headed."

TFI Interactive Day – Program and Schedule

10 a.m. – Keynote speaker: Baratunde Thurston, Comedian and Director of Digital for The Onion – Being human in a digital world

Comedian, author and The Onion Director of Digital Baratunde Thurston pushes the envelope on the latest web platforms. Whether personifying The Swine Flu on Twitter, treating a Foursquare mayor battle as legitimate politics or live-blogging his experience clearing an exit ramp on Lakeshore Drive during Chicago's epic blizzard of 2011, he's found ways to do more than post photos and beg for followers. Far beyond delivering comedy and shock value, Baratunde has also delivered results. On his own behalf, for The Onion, his book How to Be Black (just out from HarperCollins) and other projects, he has proven an ability to engage communities. This will be an entertaining and insightful journey that explores the limits of your favorite digital platforms and gets at the very heart of what it is to be human. Baratunde performs standup comedy regularly in New York City, resides in Brooklyn, lives on Twitter and has over 30 years experience being black.

10:45 a.m. – Panel: The Future of News
From newspapers to broadcast TV, the news industry has had to change the way in which it tells stories. How are news organizations combining popular social tools such as Twitter and interactive storytelling techniques to deliver news in a way that provides value to readers and viewers? This panel brings together the leaders at the forefront of multimedia journalism to explore the changing nature of news.

Moderator:
Calvin Sims, Program Officer for New Media and Journalism, Ford Foundation
Calvin manages a portfolio of grants focused on the development of a free and responsible press worldwide. His work helps foster new and innovative models of reporting, disseminating and financing quality news, with a concentration on social justice issues, diversity of voices, standards and ethics, and press freedoms.

Panelists:
Andrew DeVigal, Multimedia Editor, New York Times
Andrew is an innovative leader in digital journalism. As the multimedia editor at The New York Times, he has pioneered efforts to redefine multimedia journalism and pushed the medium in telling and explaining stories by working collaboratively across the newsroom and recruiting top talent from a wide range of industries, from interactive programmers to radio broadcast journalists and leading award-winning editorial projects.

Gabriel Dance, Interactive Editor, The Guardian, U.S.
Gabriel is the interactive editor for The Guardian, U.S. and previously he was the art director for news at The Daily, and for five years before that he was a multimedia producer at The New York Times.

11:15 a.m. – Spotlight: Your Information Diet
Attention is the new scarce resource in a digital era, putting a premium on new approaches to filtering and curating media. Clay Johnson will share thoughts from his acclaimed book The Information Diet on the changing media consumption habits of interactive users. Is it time to change your information diet?

Speaker: Clay Johnson, Author, The Information Diet
Johnson is best known as the co-founder of Blue State Digital, the firm that built and managed President Obama's online campaign in 2008. After leaving Blue State, Johnson was the director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation, where he built an army of 2000 developers and designers to build open source tools to give people greater access to government data.

11:30 a.m. – Extended Spotlight: Bear 71: Interactive Storytelling
An interactive case study of the National Film of Board Canada's Bear 71 from one of the creators of this online experience. The project blurs the line between the wilderness and the wired through an exciting and innovative approach to exploring the story of the grizzly known as Bear 71.

Speaker: Loc Dao, Executive Producer and Creative Technologist, National Film Board of Canada
Dao heads up digital content and strategy for English programming at the National Film Board of Canada, overseeing its slate of digital projects and leading its digital team.

1 p.m. – Spotlight: IDEO: Designing the Perfect Experience
You have the story, you have the platforms, you have the budget and you have the team – but have you thought about the experience? UXD is an abbreviation you need to know and understand. How are organizations re-thinking user experience from the perspective of new platforms and technologies and the emergence of the multi-screen experience?

Speaker: Dario Buzzini, Design Director, IDEO NY
Dario Buzzini is a Design Director in IDEO's New York office. His day-to-day job involves consulting and helping Fortune 500 clients to address complex challenges related to interaction design, from telecommunications and financial services to automotive and consumer electronics products. Over the past eight years, Dario has collaborated with multiple international companies, including Artemide, AT&T, Eli Lilly, Fiat, Ford, Motorola, Novartis, Philips, Prada, Tecno, and Telecom Italia.

1:15 p.m. – Spotlight: Local Projects: Designing for the World We Live In
Connecting with the world around us. How do you design for physical spaces and participant interaction?

Speaker: Jake Barton, Principal, Local Projects
Barton is Founder and Principal of Local Projects, an award-winning media design firm for museums and public spaces. He is recognized as a leader in the field of interaction design for physical spaces, and in the creation of collaborative storytelling projects where participants generate content.

1:30 p.m. Discussion: HBO's Game of Thrones: An Interactive Case Study
In today's marketplace, transmedia storytelling is becoming the key to engaging audiences across a proliferating number of digital platforms. When it came to introducing its new television series Game of Thrones, HBO turned to Campfire to create a visceral, multi-sensory fan engagement program that immersed people in the world of the new show, where they could smell, hear, see, touch and taste their way to the premiere. It is not just Hollywood production studios that have embraced transmedia – any digital creator needs to consider how to reach and scale an audience across several platforms simultaneously. Find out how applying old storytelling techniques across new media channels creates experiences that can be shared and amplified.

Speaker: Steve Coulson, Creative Director, Campfire
Steve Coulson is Partner and Creative Director at Campfire, where he leads the creation of marketing solutions that launch products and change perceptions through storytelling. Steve's award-winning, hands-on immersive brand experiences bridge the physical and digital worlds to ignite the fan cultures and communities that drive the business of clients such as HBO, Discovery Channel, Harley-Davidson, Verizon FiOS, American Eagle Outfitters and Sony Entertainment.

2:15 p.m. – Panel: Take Your Digital Ideas to the Bank
So you have the idea, can find your audience, and know you want to make it happen – but don't have a spare million in the bank? This panel takes a closer look at three leading funds that are pioneering the funding of interactive content, giving you an insight into what they are funding, why, and, most crucially, what they are looking for.

Moderator:
Ingrid Kopp, Tribeca New Media Fund Consultant
Ingrid Kopp is the New Media Consultant for the TFI New Media Fund at the Tribeca Film Institute. She writes about film, social media and technology for various publications and teaches Digital Bootcamp workshops for filmmakers, focusing on audience engagement and harnessing the web for storytelling. Ingrid is also Editor-in-Chief of Shooting People in the US – an international networking organization for independent filmmakers with over 38,000 members. Ingrid speaks regularly on interactive storytelling and digital media. She loves documentaries and she loves the web.

Panelists:
Alyce Myatt, Media Arts Director, NEA
Alyce Myatt is the Director of Media Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts. She previously served as the founding executive director of Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media after working as a consultant to independent media organizations and the philanthropic community. As a consultant her clients included the Center for Digital Democracy, the Council on Foundations, Free Speech TV, the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, Emerson College, TVE Brasil, the Heinz Endowments, and the Annie E. Casey and Skillman Foundations. Prior to her return to consulting, she was vice president of programming for PBS and was a program officer for media at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Over the years she has provided program development, production and planning services to a variety of clients in television, radio, and digital media. Her production credits include the Smithsonian Institution, Nickelodeon, and the ABC News magazine, "20/20."

Karim Ahmed, Senior Programming Manager, ITVS
Mr. Ahmad oversees several media funding initiatives at ITVS including the Open Call and the innovative web series FUTURESTATES, for which he reviews projects for funding and works with greenlit filmmakers to develop both non-fiction and fiction content from conception to completion. Mr. Ahmad previously served as Feature Development Director at San Francisco Production Company Momentum Cinema, where he wrote and produced the award-winning narrative feature film Harrison
Montgomery, starring Martin Landau. Mr. Ahmad has served as a panelist for numerous film funders and festivals, worked extensively as an independent story consultant, and received his BA from Pomona College

Page 2 >>