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'From a Copy Economy to an Access Economy': Gerd Leonhard on the Future of Media

09.14.11 @ 11:40AM Tags : distribution, media, presentation, sharing, socialmedia

Media futurist Gerg Leonhard’s presentation at DES may not concern filmmakers in the sense that he’s talking about how to make movies in the future. But he is talking about the way media will be distributed and consumed going forward. You can look at this presentation a couple of ways: “none of this has anything to do with being a DIY filmmaker” — or, in the era of the artist-entrepeneur, all of this has to do with being a DIY filmmaker (as both a content creator and a distributor). I think it’s worth a watch: More »

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Transmedia and the independent filmmaker

04.27.10 @ 12:00PM Tags : development, marketing, presentation, transmedia, workbookproject

This video by Robert Pratten is a great introduction to what transmedia is and how it can be employed by the independent filmmaker (he also has a refreshing perspective on the “technological fetish” of our obsession with new camera technologies!). It’s a 45-minute presentation full of brain candy and should be required viewing for anyone thinking about telling stories across mediums. As Pratten stresses, “transmedia plays to indie’s strengths,” because delivering a consistency of story across platforms is possible for independent creators — not large studios made up of divided teams. In my opinion, his point about authenticity is even more important, because: I could care less about playing a social game if the original auteur had nothing to do with it, and I could care even less about buying a DVD if I suspect only 65 cents of a $15 purchase is going to find its way back to the original filmmaker. Creating our own cross-platform projects and retaining ownership not only gives us more creative control on all of the different incarnations of our story, it can also motivate fans to make purchases because they know we’re the ones benefiting from their support.

In addition to the above presentation, however, Pratten has written some very helpful articles at the Workbook Project on the process of developing transmedia projects: More »

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Presentation: Design Outside the Box

03.8.10 @ 12:00PM Tags : games, gaming, presentation

I have played one video game in four years; I’m not a gamer per se. But the ongoing revolution in social and casual games has been hard to miss, from watching my little cousins playing Club Penguin to the irrepressible Facebook invites I’m always getting for Mafia Wars. To date social games have been used as part of a feature film’s marketing campaign (most recent example: The Crazies), but they will become increasingly integrated into the core story. I’m already working on a social game as an integral component of my next project.

For the future of (social) gaming in one entertaining 30-minute presentation, here’s Jessie Schell’s invaluable primer from DICE 2010.

Watch it all the way to the end, as his final point is worth the half hour on its own. And if you think it’s just a thrown-in feel-good ending, the success of Nike Plus (sidebar) and more recent entrant Fitbit is living proof of socialization’s effectiveness when it comes to modifying real-world behavior.