..a cutting edge initiative aimed at fostering collaborations and business partnerships between interactive media producers and documentary filmmakers. We are currently seeking applicants interested in participating in a 2-day weekend workshop facilitated by the UK's Frank Boyd. Frank is the past BBC Director of Creative Development and the visionary behind world-renowned Crossover Labs. If you are an experienced interactive digital media professional (games, mobile, web, AR) looking for opportunities in the burgeoning interactive documentary genre, this weekend is not to be missed! Through participatory creative group exercises, the workshop is designed to break down walls between professional silos, develop common languages and perspectives and establish best practices for working together and ensuring success.
The docSHIFT Crossover Weekend is a pre-cursor to a five-day residential lab this Fall where select interactive documentary project ideas will move into development with incubation support by the CFC Media Lab and Ryerson University. While it is not mandatory that people apply for and attend the May 8/9th docSHIFT Crossover Weekend in order to be eligible for the docShift- CFC Media Lab 5 day residential program this Fall 2010 --it is strongly advised.
There isn't a whole hell of a lot to the application. In two pages (max) tell them about your professional background and why you want to participate. There's more info on the docSHIFT sit.
I've been to Crossover and all I can say is do it!
docSHIFT is a two year project run by DOC Toronto with funding from OMDC's Creative Cluster Partnership Fund.
docSHIFT: Real Stories to Multiple Platforms will create new business opportunities by bringing Ontario documentary filmmakers together with new-media producers. It will facilitate new creative partnerships and help develop innovative interactive documentary projects.
Monday night at the Gladstone's networking event is a chance for documentary filmmakers and interactive digital media producers to hang out, have a drink and also to hear a little bit about the first of the docSHIFT initiatives: the docSHIFT Crossover Lab which will be taking place May 8-13.
If you're read this blog over the last year and a bit, you know I am a huge fan of Crossover. It's a brilliant creative experience. It's an inspirational experience that gives you the opportunity to begin thinking creatively about working in the digital and interactive space. Crossover labs are attended by a mix of people -- some from traditional media and some from a digital-interactive background. Not only do you get to meet and work with potential collaborators with a complementary skill set but of the course of the lab you develop a vocabulary for working together. Plus it's a magical creative experience.
I'll be at the Gladstone Monday night - March 22, 2010 - to sing the praises of Crossover and encourage everyone to apply for the lab in May. Maybe I'll see you there. The Gladstone is at 1214 Queen West in Toronto and the event runs from 6 to 8 pm. Free for DOC members and $10 at the door for everyone else. RSVP online here.
While I'm on the topic of documentary and Crossover, I should mention that when I attended the lab last March, I met a fabulous documentary producer named Liz Marshall. Her documentary, WATER ON THE TABLE, airs March 24th at 10:01 pm on TVO. Don't miss it.
It seems to be my media coverage day because Google alerts turned up two quotes for me this morning.
I'm quoted in a Hollywood Reporter article on the Canadian Film Centre talking about the NBC Universal MultiPlatform Matchmaking Program:
NBC Universal, which, like rival U.S. networks, has looked abroad for content, is also backing the CFC's multiplatform matchmaking program. Here Canadian industry veterans challenge tradition by hot-housing new crossover digital media product in the course of one week. Story2.OH creator Jill Golick, a previous participant in the CFC multiplatform program, says each experimental lab immerses professionals from diverse fields in an alternative universe free of commercial constraints to collaborate on next-generation creative ventures.
"We will all have to work together one day, so the time to develop a new creative language and ways to work together might as well be now," she says.
Close enough. When Etan Vlessing interviewed me about the program I took last March, I told him that it was the best creative experience of my life. Sponsored by NBC Universal under the auspices of the CFC, the lab is run by the amazing Frank Boyd of Crossover UK. The participants usually come from distinctly different backgrounds -- half from an interactive/digital environment and the other half from the tv/film world. Over the course of a week, the two groups become one, first mapping out their shared understanding of the current media landscape and then working together to develop projects which draw on their shared skill sets. One of the most important features of the program is that it gives participants -- who have completely different work experiences -- a method for working together and communicating. I'm not quite sure I said the words "one day" or "might as well be now", but I did mention the importance of developing a creative language to help us all work together.
MMP is just one of the many great programs running at the CFC that Etan's piece describes. Well worth the read and it's international recognition that the CFC definitely deserves.
The other article which quotes me is in ITbusiness.ca and it covers my participation in Interactive Ontario's iLunch on February 16, 2010:
Screenwriter Jill Golick, another panellist, has more than 200 hours of TV work behind her. Now working as a digital strategist for organizations, she explores the edges of new media through her [company] Story2.OH.
For this month's social media week in Toronto, Golick and colleagues created a "live comedy soap opera" as a learning experience called Crushing It, which also illustrates the potential of new media.
Quite a few of the details about the Crushing It story are wrong ("The plot line included a mother, her daughter, a pregnant girl wondering who the father is and assorted friends.") but the gist of the quotes are bang on:
"The really cool thing was that you could talk to the characters, and they would talk back to you," Golick said. "You could give them advice … and if they had a good suggestion the characters would put it into action." In addition, the creators could ask for ideas to encourage readers to join in, such as asking what to name the baby and whether the parent should get married.
"There was a real sense from the audience they could influence the story."
Now that I've done my star turn, I suppose I should go back to shoveling snow.
As part of the Sheffield Doc Festival, the Crossover Summit raised asked how we make money from digital innovations in the entertainment world. This is the first of several videos of the event.
