Transmedia
Filmmaking - Transmedia
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Audio Watermarks for the Second Screen
Buzz about the second screen is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, as this recent (and, for me, incredibly thought-provoking) Filmmaker article by Scott Macaulay shows. Coordinating content on two devices to play (in any sense of that word) simultaneously, which some have called “orchestrated media,” is one of the next big things, and it’s causing content creators to search for new ways to make their dual-screen programs stand out. First, as that article points out, it requires new mental paradigms for filmmakers/digital storytellers as they plan and execute their work. But second, and just as important, it requires the technological means to […]
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The Emmys Create New Interactive Media Awards
One sign of transmedia’s inevitable movement to the center of mainstream media–not just technophile or indie fare–is its representation in the major awards. And while a film released on iTunes still may not be Oscar-eligible, digital media awards have been progressing far beyond the Webbys for years, with more popping up all the time. The Emmys are particularly interesting, though, because in a way they represent the heart of what mainstream television audiences are watching and praising. It’s notable, then, that the International Digital Emmy Awards will reach their eighth year at MIPTV in Cannes with the ceremony on April […]
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The New Digital Storytelling Series: Kamal Sinclair
The Senior Manager at the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Story Lab, Kamal Sinclair came to interactive via an unlikely, but, in many ways, appropriate route. While many in the interactive and new media fields hail from technology and filmmaking, Sinclair began her career in a medium where she received direct feedback from audience members every night — the theater. A trained dancer, choreographer and actress, Sinclair joined the Off-Broadway production STOMP at only 18, spending the next six years on their stages. In the below interview, Sinclair describes how she went from nightly performing to Sundance, a journey that also […]
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Jason Brush and Michel Reilhac Discuss the Second Screen and New Interactive Cinema at SXSW
Two of the events I was most looking forward to seeing this year at SXSW Interactive were Jason Brush’s talk, Filmmaking as User Experience and Michel Reilhac’s “Meet the Insiders” panel, “Storytelling + Interactive.” Brush teaches at UCLA’s Department of Film, Television and Visual Media and is Executive Vice President of Creative & UX at POSSIBLE. Reilhac, who I have written about before at Filmmaker, is an independent transmedia director, story writer and consultant, and one of the most passionate and eloquent voices for new forms of interactive storytelling. Unfortunately, as is often the case at SXSW, once I put […]
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Trailer Watch: A Journal of Insomnia
One of the Storyscapes projects I’m looking forward to at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival is A Journal of Insomnia, an “interactive fresco” combining confessions from insomniacs the world over and gathered since 2012. The “unique nocturnal premiere” happens April 18. From the press release: The original idea for the project comes from Hugues Sweeney, Executive Producer of NFB French Program’s Digital Studio in Montreal. Hugues explains that, “This is not a traditional Web documentary. It is a genuine attempt to push the boundaries of the genre by merging art and design with technology and social media, to create a […]
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FilmAid Launches Multimedia Doc, Dadaab Stories
Dadaab lies in eastern Kenya, not far from the Somali border. The area hosts the largest complex of refugee camps in the world, with over 474,000 people, primarily Somalis, living in the combined Dadaab and Alinjugur camps, making it larger than Atlanta, Miami, Oakland, or New Orleans. The sheer size of the camp makes life difficult, causing most residents to stay there long-term as well; the camp has just turned 20, and many children have never lived anywhere else. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, events in Somalia since 2011 have forced many more people across the […]
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Storytelling for Social Change at Facebook
Tuesday night Facebook hosted a panel discussion about social issue-oriented transmedia at their office in midtown Manhattan. The event was co-sponsored by the Tides Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit that funds philanthropic ventures, and featured Beth Janson, executive director of the Tribeca Film Institute and representing its All Access program, Didi Bethurum of the social action campaign 10×10 and the documentary Girl Rising, Michelle Byrd of Games for Change, and Libby Leffler, Facebook’s Strategic Partner Manager who interfaces with nonprofits, charities, and philanthropic causes. A lot of the work discussed by the panel comes in the wake of the Half […]
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The New Digital Storytelling Series: Hugues Sweeney
In the third part of Filmmaker‘s interview project with prominent figures from the world of transmedia, conducted through the MIT Open Documentary Lab, the executive producer of interactive production at the National Film Board of Canada, Hugues Sweeney, answers our questions. For an introduction to this entire series, check out “Should Filmmakers Learn to Code,” by MIT Open Documentary Lab’s Sarah Wolozin. MIT Open Documentary Lab: How do you see people making the transition to digital interactive storytelling? Sweeney: If you look at the music industry at the end of the 90s and the begin of 2000s, the smaller the labels/bands/publishers were, the faster they […]
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The New Digital Storytelling Series: Elaine McMillion
Last week, Filmmaker and the MIT Open Documentary Lab kicked off their collaborative series of interviews with digital storytellers with a conversation with Zeega. (For an introduction to this entire series, read “Should Filmmakers Learn to Code,” by MIT Open Documentary Lab’s Sarah Wolozin.) In the second part in this series, Elaine McMillion talks about her work, mainly focusing on her interactive documentary Hollow, a “hybrid community participatory project and interactive documentary” that uses HTML5 to depict a West Virginia community via video, photography, soundscapes and interactive data. From her website, McMillion describes herself thusly: Elaine McMillion is a documentary storyteller […]
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The New Digital Storytelling Series: Zeega
The first our series of interviews with digital storytellers, realized in collaboration with Filmmaker, here are the team behind the interactive storytelling platform Zeega. From the group’s mission statement: Zeega is revolutionizing web publishing and interactive storytelling for a future beyond blogs. With Zeega, you can use any media in the cloud, transform the entire screen into your playground, and share your interactive creations with the world. We’re living in a unique moment. More media than ever is recorded and shared. But the web today is dominated by a few platforms – all stories start to feel the same, trapped […]
