Gazing into the crystal ball of digital media

Digital platform focus

 

Only a few years ago, gazing into the foggy mist of the digital crystal ball would merely have revealed a skateboarding cat! But today your biggest problem will be choosing between higher quality output - from music vids, short dramas and comedies to cartoons and cult animation.And all on a choice of platforms - there's HD, IPTV, video streaming, GPS content, uploads, downloads, viral campaigns and pervasive media. Enter the Encounters panel of experts to make sense of it all.

Three separate panels, film industry representatives and new online market entrants, led by Shooting People and Wonky, used the space of a day to examine the new opportunities and challenges presented by the changing digital landscape. It was essential sustenance for those filmmakers hungry for new ideas about content, funding and distribution.

Brands and filmmakers

With TV advertising in a slump, brands are moving online and getting creative. They are sponsoring everything from catering, props and costumes to complete films. All for the devilish price of 'product placement'. Industry experts from The Big Film Group (who specialise in product placement), Big Balls Films (producers of online drama, Kate Modern, and Conquering Demons) and filmmaker Daniel Cormack, discussed how filmmakers and 'creative narrative artists' can shave their budgets without necessarily selling their souls. They even concluded that the placement parameters can help to push creativity to higher limits.

See more at:

Shooting People - www.shootingpeople.org
Big Film Group - www.bigfilmgroup.co.uk
Big Balls Films - www.bigballsfilms.com
Daniel Cormack - Acteon Films - www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2263066689

Contentertainment

New technology is being embraced by brands, companies and media to create more content-driven online presences. They need words, they need interaction, they need images, they need animation and sound.

Panel reps from AnalogFolk, BBC Radio 1 and Bristol-based ANTIVJ discussed new ideas and new opportunities for filmmakers to practise their craft. These included purely commercial ventures such as sponsored sporting goods websites using mini-documentary content, to the BBC's use of mobile phones to film 'Shoot the summer', and pervasive media to create spectacular shows with lighting, outdoor projections and creative software such as architectural mapping and 3D tracking (incidentally being developed right here in Bristol for an international audience).

Interestingly, these new avenues are bringing along their own new funding streams too.

For more see:

Wonky - www.wonkyfilms.com
AnalogFolk - www.analogfolk.com
BBC Shoot the summer - www.bbc.co.uk/shootthesummer
ANTIVJ - www.antivj.com

Digital distribution

Keep gazing into that crystal ball - how will short films be seen in the future? On your mobile phone? Online? At festivals? In the pub?

While the panel (Shooting People, London Short Film Festival, Daily Motion, Shorts International) agreed that there had been a digital revolution in distribution, it seemed there is still a universal ambition for filmmakers to view their films in a cinema, on a big screen, with an audience. So, it may be a case of going 'back to the future' when film companies used to produce shorts to foster new talent and screen them before the feature. Back in the day this was par for the course. Could it be tomorrow's revolutionary new big idea?

So, yes, there is a new digital landscape out there for filmmakers to explore. It is exciting and fresh with spaces to be as creative as possible. At the end of the storyboard, content is still king and ideas are still the creative currency, ensuring that talent will always find a way to be seen.

For more inspiration, see:

Shooting People - www.shootingpeople.org
London Short Film Festival - www.shortfilms.org.uk
Daily Motion - www.dailymotion.com
Shorts International - www.britshorts.com
Britfilms - www.britfilms.com