Screen Australia and StoryLabs have put together a practical one-day seminar for feature film, TV drama, documentary, game and web professionals on how and why to develop a project across multiple platforms. The speakers are world-class, including renowned transmedia pioneer Lance Weiler (US) on his first trip to Australia.
Taking a production across multiple media platforms provides opportunities to connect with a wider, more involved audience and make the project more commercially viable. However, it’s an intensive creative process requiring new ways of thinking, complex production management and knowledge of the media landscape.
Lance Weiler will keynote the seminar with ‘Story R&D’, looking at long-term, sustainable production. A storyteller, entrepreneur and thought leader, named by WIRED magazine as ‘one of the 25 people helping to reinvent entertainment’, Lance is the creator of some of the world’s most original cinematic transmedia projects, including Head Trauma and Pandemic, which was selected for Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontiers.
StoryLabs founder Gary Hayes, newly appointed as Executive Producer for ABC Multi-platform TV, will chair the event and present aspects of his Transmedia Production Bible, published recently by Screen Australia.
Other speakers will cover the core aspects of delivering multi-platform projects, including story, business, community, technology, interaction and design, to help practitioners take their idea from page to screen.
Matt Costello, a US games, film and novel writer with game credits including Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Doom 3 and The Italian Job, will case study his game Rage to demonstrate practical ways of developing cross media intellectual properties. UK TV and alternate reality game producer David Varela will use his successful Sony Xi, Perplex City and Lewis Hamilton: Secret Life projects to illustrate how to meld story to platforms and users. Canada’s Anthea Foyer will show how to develop user interaction and create loyalty against film and TV properties, and UK game and TV writer Neil Richards will speak on writing and developing functionality on multi-stakeholder projects including Nightmare High for broadcaster Channel 4.
Tony Reed, CEO of the Game Developers’ Association of Australia, will speak on the process of design, consumer testing, and commercialisation of game-based services. The Project Factory’s Jennifer Wilson will explore sustainable digital business models, and social media guru Laurel Papworth will demonstrate how to manage, grow and monetise communities through platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
It’s an unmissable line-up, whether you’re actively considering a transmedia or multi-platform project, or just want to understand what the buzz is all about.
Multi-platform Storytelling: From Idea to Market will be held in Melbourne on Tuesday 29 November. Tickets are $50. You can find out more and book online.
