TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING - THE NEW ENTERTAINMENT PARADIGM

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2010

7:00 to 9:00 pm

Theresa Lang Center

The New School

55 West 13th St. at 6th Ave.

New York City

Refreshments will be served. Members are strongly encouraged to bring qualified

prospective members as their guests.

Special thanks to Terra Fossil for providing premium wines for PGA East events.

To RSVP for this event, please visit:

http://transmedia.eventbrite.com

Event hosted by The Producers Guild of America, New Media Council, New York Chapter.

Transmedia development, production and implementation is now fully in practice at the highest levels of companies such as Disney, Saban, Microsoft and Mattel. Around the world, visionaries are generating stunning multi-platform endeavors based on the principles of transmedia. Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, is the world’s foremost expert at developing entertainment properties and premium brands into highly successful transmedia franchises. He has worked on such properties as Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar, Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory, Halo, Transformers and the upcoming,Tron Legacy. In this, his first Master Class after this September’s revelatory TED talk in Geneva, Switzerland, Jeff will candidly share his latest experiences in the field, expanding upon the vanguard technique of funding, planning, creating and producing highly engaging story worlds that maximize both the creative potential of your work, equity participation and subsequent revenues. Case studies will include analysis of some of the biggest entertainment franchises of today, and the discussion

will include advice on how to apply these concepts to your own projects, large or small, fact or fiction.

JEFF GOMEZ

CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment

Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, is the world’s foremost expert at developing entertainment properties and premium brands into highly successful transmedia franchises. As a creative consultant to Fortune 500 companies, he contributes strategic planning and production for the cross-platform implementation of content.

Jeff conceived, co-wrote and produced one of the most successful transmedia storylines of the decade with Mattel’s Hot Wheels comic books, videogames, web content and animated series. He has gone on to work with such franchises as Pirates of the Caribbean and Tron Legacy for The Walt Disney Company,James Cameron’s Avatar for 20th Century Fox, Halo for Microsoft, Happiness Factory for The Coca-Cola Company, Transformers for Hasbro, and most recently Men in Black 3 for Sony Pictures.

Jeff is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) East Executive Committee and serves on the national board of the PGA New Media Council.

Additional Speaker:

BRENT WEINSTEIN

Head of Digital Media, United Talent Agency

Brent is one of the leading figures in the digital media industry, helping develop content deals for broadband, videogame, and mobile platforms. He formed the digital media practice at United Talent Agency in 2003, where he leads a team of dedicated digital media agents to identify and evaluate opportunities for UTA clients: actors, writers, directors, producers, and recording artists, in addition to many business-to-business and consumer-oriented technology and corporate clients. Brent, with UTA co-founder and partner Jeremy Zimmer, also formed UTA Online, a dedicated broadband division that finds and represents the next generation of web-based content artists. In 2007, Brent served as the CEO of 60Frames, a privately-held, venture backed company dedicated to financing, ad sales and syndication of original professionally produced entertainment content for the internet. The company was incubated by

United Talent Agency and Spot Runner, an innovative internet-based advertising agency.

During his tenure at UTA, Weinstein made digital media deals for many of the best known artists in entertainment, including Johnny Depp, Jack Black, Jim Carrey, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, as well as top digital media artists such as Big Fantastic (“Prom Queen”), AskANinja (askaninja.com), and others.

Prior to joining UTA in 2001, Weinstein practiced corporate and business litigation in Los Angeles and Irvine, California. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he earned a Bachelors degree in Business Administration, and the University of San Diego School of Law.

For the most up-to-date information on the PGA New Media Council East, please visit the blog at

http://pganmc.blogspot.com

For more information about the PGA and to access a membership application, please visit:

http://www.producersguild.org

Previous events from our event series can be accessed in both webcast and podcast format at:

http://www.scribemedia.org/pga

PGA and NYTF Autumn in New York Cocktail Reception

The Producers Guild of America New Media Council East
and the New York Television Festival

PGA NMC

and

New York Television Festival


Invite you to
Autumn in New York Cocktail Reception
Wednesday, September 22nd


7:00-9:00 pm
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick Street

YOU MUST BE A QUALIFY PGA MEMBER TO ATTEND EVENT
For information on becoming a PGA MEMBER please go to Producer's Guild of America Website


Wine provided by Terra Fossil Terra Fossil
Beer provided by Stella Artois Stella Artois

Join industry colleagues and PGA members as we celebrate the new season in New York, the New York TV Festival, and the autumnal equinox*

*the autumnal equinox is officially at 11:09 pm EST on 09/22/10

SOCIAL MEDIA AND NON-FICTION FILM PRODUCTION PANEL:

SOCIAL MEDIA AND NON-FICTION FILM PRODUCTION PANEL:

Thursday, May 6

MPE Penthouse

432 West 45th St. btwn 9th & 10th Aves

7:00pm - Doors Open

7:30pm - Panel Begins

Refreshments will be served

PGA members only
(to become a member of PGA please go to producersguild.org)

Social Media is omnipresent, but is it the new marketing wonder weapon? This panel discussion with

documentary filmmakers and experts in social media will show and tell how filmmakers can use social

media to market and promote their films at all different stages of production.

A social media consultant will provide a brief 101 of social media, including the most important

social media sites, demographics and statistics, and offer some tips and tricks to set the scene for

the panel discussion to follow.

Using examples from different documentary and non-fiction productions, the audience will hear first

hand how filmmakers:

Tap into existing fan bases, create new fans, and build engagement and awareness.

Help find financing for their film and reach out to potential audiences.

Get the message of their film out across the country and into the world, beyond the traditional film community.

Create buzz and revenue opportunities.

Moderator

CRIS POPENOE: Producer, New Media Council

Cris Popenoe is a creative executive and entrepreneur who over more than 30 years, has innovatively combined content, commerce, and social engagement into media. She has produced numerous award-winning digital media projects, including online videos, mobile and online apps, and games. She's been a digital media maven for as long as there's been digital media and in recent years has focused on the intersection of video, social media, and monetization. See her website, www.dawn-productions.com, for details.

Panelists
AMY KALAFA: Filmmaker, Producer
Amy Kalafa is an award-winning filmmaker specializing in health and wellness communication. She's also a certified health coach, organic farmer and mother of two. Amy's production credits include Dr. T. Berry Brazelton's parenting show, "What Every Baby Knows", PBS specials, "Our Nation's Health: A Matter of Choice" and "Healthy Aging", as well as the Reiner Foundation's, "The First Years Last Forever". She has produced food and health segments for the Emmy nominated "Martha Stewart Living" series and has appeared as a guest chef on PBS's, "Cultivating Life." 
She also worked as a writer / producer / editor on the past three seasons of the James Beard award-winning series, "Lidia's Italy". Since 2005, she has spent her "spare time" spearheading a project that is both a movie and a movement, "Two Angry Moms," a documentary about greening the school food environment that has received numerous festival awards and major national media coverage. www.angrymoms.org, www.angrymoms.groupsite.com

SHALINI KANTAYYA: Filmmaker, Producer
Combining biting social commentary with a dash of commercial appeal, filmmaker and eco-activist Shalini Kantayya finished in the top 10 out of over 12,000 filmmakers ON THE LOT, a Steven Spielberg Fox television show in search of Hollywood's next great director. The mission of her production company, 7th Empire Media, is to create a culture of human rights and a sustainable planet through a wildly imaginative media of the highest professional quality. A William D Fulbright Scholar, her award-winning film, a DROP of LIFE, a futuristic sci-fi flick about the mounting global water crisis, has been used as an organizing tool in over 40 villages across Africa. www.7thempiremedia.com

MARK MORI: Filmmaker, Producer
Mark Mori is an Academy Award® nominated documentary filmmaker and Emmy Award® winning TV producer. Through his shingle, Single Spark Pictures, Mori has produced hard-hitting and memorable documentaries and television series, garnered film festival screenings, theatrical distribution and television broadcast worldwide. Mori's latest project, the documentary film Bettie Page Reveals All is the authorized bio of the pin-up legend and is currently in post-production. Mori is using Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, myspace, flickr and other social media sites to reach Bettie Page fans worldwide, drive traffic to his website and build an audience for and monetize the film. He’s also using social media and online distributors including Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, Neoflix, Indieflix to advertise and distribute his Emmy winning doc, Kent State: The Day The War Came Home and his Academy Award nominated doc, Building Bombs. www.bettiepagemovie.com

MARISELA RIVEROS: Multimedia Producer, Social Media Consultant
Marisela Riveros is an award-winning producer with ten years of experience in broadcast journalism. She transitioned into developing social media strategies through her company, Reverie Media, when colleagues asked her to better understand Facebook, Twitter, Digg, blogs, etc., and build their online presence. She is a twitterer with a strong know-how of building communities and engaging audiences online. Her social media work focuses on designing social media strategies for clients like journalists, musicians, non-for-profits and small business, to maximize ROI and build brand equity. www.mariselariveros.com

GAMES FOR CHANGE: PRODUCING TRANSFORMATIONAL VIDEOGAMES

The PGA New Media Council East Presents
GAMES FOR CHANGE: PRODUCING TRANSFORMATIONAL VIDEOGAMES

Monday, May 3, 2010 at 7:00pm
This Event Is Open To Everyone.

Theresa Lang Auditorium
The New School
55 West 13th St. at 6th Ave.

The Games for Change movement – spurred by the growth in ‘Serious Games’ and intelligent conflict-resolution games – is now a full-fledged subgenre that has backing from the United Nations and other international bodies. Games for Change – or G4C – is a movement and community of practice dedicated to using videogames for social change. Games for Change is also the name for the non-profit organization which builds a support framework and shared resources for individuals and organizations using digital games for social change.

This session will include some of the leaders in the Games for Change movement, who will demonstrate some of their works, as well as discuss how G4C producers can join in with a growing community of online, console, and mobile developers for the next generation of progressive videogame creativity.

Panelists include:

Asi Burak, executive producer, Games for Change
Eric Zimmerman, independent game developer (and founder, GameLab)
David Martz, Vice President of Business Development, Muzzy Lane

Panel moderated by Chris Pfaff, Chapter Chairman, PGA New Media Council East

Wine and refreshments will be provided.

RESERVATION INSTRUCTIONS
-RSVP by visiting pganmceast2.eventbrite.com

BRICK CITY – A NEW MEDIA MARKETING CASE STUDY Wednesday, February 3

BRICK CITY – A NEW MEDIA MARKETING CASE STUDY

Wednesday, February 3
6:00pm - Networking mixer with wine and light refreshments
7:00pm - Programming begins
57th Street Screening Room
140 W. 57th St. btwn 6th and 7th Ave
PGA members only
(to become a member of PGA please go to producersguild.org)

The PGA East Diversity Committee; Documentary Committee and NMC East celebrate Black History Month with the team behind the groundbreaking Sundance Channel documentary BRICK CITY. Originally aired in September, 2009 as a five-part documentary series, it examines the city of Newark, New Jersey during a pivotal year in the renaissance mayoral administration of Cory A. Booker, whose 2006 election signaled a new chapter in the city’s fortunes. As the mayor and his allies fight to make the city safer and stronger, the lives of Booker, citizens on the front lines, and key figures re-making the city – from developers to reformed gang members and youth mentors – create a compelling portrait of a critical moment in American urban history.

BRICK CITY (recently nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special) featured a bold new media marketing campaign - spearheaded by Sundance Channel VP Digital Media & Creative Development Jeff Kunken - that created a virtual community around the bold project, which was created and directed by award-winning filmmakers Mark Benjamin and Marc Levin.

Panelists:
MARK BENJAMIN and MARC LEVIN – Executive Producers/Directors, ‘Brick City’
JEFF KUNKEN, VP Digital Media & Creative Development, Sundance Channel
KEITH MCQUIRTER, Co-Producer, ‘Brick City’ (PGA East member)
DESIREE PETERKIN-BELL, Director of Communications for the City of Newark, Mayor Cory A. Booker
JOHN STAUB, EVP of Marketing at Cornerstone Media

Moderator:
JENNIE BOURNE, PGA NMC East member

BRAVE NEW (OPEN) WORLD: A PRODUCER’S PRIMER ON THE LATEST OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

From Wikis to Ruby on Rails; How to Produce Content the Open Source Way

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 from 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Theresa Lang Auditorium
The New School
55 W. 13th Street
New York, NY 10011

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE CLICK HERE

The Open Source software revolution, long the province of computer

scientists and software developers (e.g., LINUX, Mozilla), now offers a

wide spectrum of free, open source tools ranging from wiki builders to

video and audio packages. Companies ranging from Ning and KickApps have

benefited from the move to flexible, modular applications. New media

producers are now the beneficiaries of an innovative movement that

offers continuously improved software – thanks to the open source

community – that can deliver lower costs and high-quality features for

web and mobile apps; video editing and distribution; audio recording,

and collaborative applications.

This session will provide a snapshot of the open source software

movement’s key features for those producing in the virtual world.

Panelists include:

• Ron Yetkutiel, Kaltura (open source video)

• Tatum Lade, Diversion Media (open source web; Ruby on Rails)

• Ted Metcalfe, Lime Bits (open source audio)

• Rony Greenberg, Funambol (open source mobile)

Panel moderated by Chris Pfaff, Chapter Chairman, PGA New Media Council

East

Wine and refreshments will be provided.

For more information about the PGA New Media Council and to access a membership application, please visit:http://www.pganewmedia.org

For more information about the PGA and to access a membership application, please visit:http://www.producersguild.org

Previous events from our 2005-2009 event series can be accessed in webcast format at:http://www.scribemedia.org/pga

5th season of NMC East programming begins CORE CLUB EVENT Magnify.net founder and CEO Steve Rosenbaum

This coming year – 2009-2010 – marks our 5th season of NMC East programming, and we are very pleased to bring our membership and guests some of the leading digital media producers, executives, and industr gurus through our event series which, as always, is recorded and webcast for posterity by Scribe Media (www.scribemedia.org/pga).

A Conversation with Steven Rosenbaum, Documentary Filmmaker and CEO of

Magnify.net.

Wednesday, September 30 at 7:00pm

The Core Club

66 East 55 Street, between Madison and Park Aves.

The explosion of user-generated video content both professional and amateur has spawned a new generation of video archive and curation tools that offer a wide range of filters for producers and viewers alike. The melding of editorial and filtering has created a new metric for how the public views news and actualities today, the most discussed piece of video may not be shot by a professional news crew, but produced and or captured by an amateur. As the mainstream media races to catch up to the shifting video viewing habits of a voracious public appetite for video,companies ranging from Mediaite to Weather.com offer new ways to

syndicate and cull video for a wide range of tastes and applications.

Steve Rosenbaum, a noted documentary filmmaker and CEO of New York based

Magnify.net, will discuss the landscape for video curation, and talk

about his company's video publishing platform, which enables the integration of user generated video into company websites and provides tools for building video communities.

STEVEN ROSENBAUM, CEO, MAGNIFY.NET

Steve Rosenbaum is an award winning documentary film director and producer who, together with his wife and business partner Pamela Yoder, has also created the CameraPlanet Archive, the largest compendium of 911 related images and videos, which was recently contributed to the September 11th Memorial and Museum. Steve directed the acclaimed 7 Days in September, a documentary that examined the effects of the World Trade Center attacks on New Yorkers.

Steve created the first audience participation TV series of its kind MTV Unfiltered and was an early proponent of merging off line and online content. He has produced a wide range of films, documentaries, and web projects for the likes of A&E, CNN, Discovery, HBO, MSNBC, and many others.

As CEO of Magnify.net, Steve has helped develop tools that engage,embrace and facilitate media creation, sharing, and discussion. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America New Media Council East.

Moderator: CHRIS PFAFF, President, Chris Pfaff Tech/Media LLC; board delegate, PGA New Media Council

BUILDING DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS: HOW TO PROFIT IN THE MULTI-PLATFORM UNIVERSE

Producers Guild of America New Media Council East Presents the 2008-2009 Panel and Salon Series

***EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS ONLY EVENT***

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

BUILDING DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS: HOW TO PROFIT IN THE MULTI-PLATFORM UNIVERSE

A Conversation With Fred Seibert, President & Executive Producer, Frederator Studios

The development of profitable digital media ventures relies as much on knowing when the next wave will hit as it does on creating sustainable revenue models. In some respects, the first decade of the 21^st-century belongs to the media entrepreneurs who have the foresight to create new digital brands that build a trusted, satisfied audience that can attract revolving advertising and syndication revenue streams.

Fred Seibert is a hyphenate producer who has done as much to create today’s New York media landscape as any single individual: music producer, cable television programming pioneer, agency executive, cartoon producer, and Internet television executive. Frederator Studios has produced award-winning hits such as ‘The Fairly Oddparents,’ ‘ChalkZone,’ and My Life as a Teenage Robot, while creating hundreds of new characters for Nickeloden at the Random! Cartoons and Oh Yeah! Cartoons sites. His latest venture, Next New Networks, has aggregated micro-networks – including the likes of BarelyPolitical.com – with the stated goal of creating 101 new networks over the next three years.

He has helped launch brands as massive as MTV, rekindled such cherished icons as Hanna-Barbera, and produced Grammy-nominated jazz records while developing a portfolio of work that continues to evolve. In his own words, he “just can’t seem to stop living!”

Fred Seibert, President & Executive Producer, Frederator Studios

Fred Seibert makes cartoons and television networks.

In 1998 former Hanna-Barbera Cartoons president Fred Seibert formed Frederator Studios, an independent television production company. He is the executive producer of seven animated series on Nickelodeon’s networks: The Fairly Oddparents, ChalkZone, My Life as a Teenage Robot, The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! (with Susan Miller), Oh Yeah! Cartoons, and Random! Cartoons. He is a founder of Channel Frederator, the world’s first cartoon podcast, and Next New Networks, a company launching 101 micro-TV networks.

Seibert began his career in college radio, produced jazz records, and started in television as the first creative director of MTV: Music Television. He co-founded Fred/Alan Inc. with Alan Goodman as the first branding agency in television, where they created Nick-at-Nite and relaunched Nickelodeon as the #1 network in cable television.

Moderator: Chris Pfaff, President, Chris Pfaff Tech/Media LLC; board delegate, PGA New Media Council

This event takes place at The Core Club in New York City.

***YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF THE PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA TO ATTEND THIS EVENT!***

CLICK HERE INFORMATION ON BECOMING A MEMBER OF THE PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA

Previous events from our 2005-2008 event series can be accessed in both webcast and podcast format at: http://www.scribemedia.org/pga

HOW TO PROFIT IN THE MULTI-PLATFORM UNIVERSE

Producers Guild of America New Media Council East Presents the 2008-2009 Panel and Salon Series

***EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS ONLY EVENT***

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

BUILDING DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS: HOW TO PROFIT IN THE MULTI-PLATFORM UNIVERSE
A Conversation With Fred Seibert, President & Executive Producer, Frederator Studios

The development of profitable digital media ventures relies as much on knowing when the next wave will hit as it does on creating sustainable revenue models. In some respects, the first decade of the 21st-century belongs to the media entrepreneurs who have the foresight to create new digital brands that build a trusted, satisfied audience that can attract revolving advertising and syndication revenue streams.

Fred Seibert is a hyphenate producer who has done as much to create today’s New York media landscape as any single individual: music producer, cable television programming pioneer, agency executive, cartoon producer, and Internet television executive. Frederator Studios has produced award-winning hits such as ‘The Fairly Oddparents,’ ‘ChalkZone,’ and My Life as a Teenage Robot, while creating hundreds of new characters for Nickeloden at the Random! Cartoons and Oh Yeah! Cartoons sites. His latest venture, Next New Networks, has aggregated micro-networks – including the likes of BarelyPolitical.com – with the stated goal of creating 101 new networks over the next three years.

He has helped launch brands as massive as MTV, rekindled such cherished icons as Hanna-Barbera, and produced Grammy-nominated jazz records while developing a portfolio of work that continues to evolve. In his own words, he “just can’t seem to stop living!”

Fred Seibert, President & Executive Producer, Frederator Studios

Fred Seibert makes cartoons and television networks.

In 1998 former Hanna-Barbera Cartoons president Fred Seibert formed Frederator Studios, an independent television production company. He is the executive producer of seven animated series on Nickelodeon’s networks: The Fairly Oddparents, ChalkZone, My Life as a Teenage Robot, The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! (with Susan Miller), Oh Yeah! Cartoons, and Random! Cartoons. He is a founder of Channel Frederator, the world’s first cartoon podcast, and Next New Networks, a company launching 101 micro-TV networks.

Seibert began his career in college radio, produced jazz records, and started in television as the first creative director of MTV: Music Television. He co-founded Fred/Alan Inc. with Alan Goodman as the first branding agency in television, where they created Nick-at-Nite and relaunched Nickelodeon as the #1 network in cable television.

Moderator: Chris Pfaff, President, Chris Pfaff Tech/Media LLC; board delegate, PGA New Media Council

This event takes place at The Core Club in New York City.

***YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF THE PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA TO ATTEND THIS EVENT!***

Previous events from our 2005-2008 event series can be accessed in both webcast and podcast format at: http://www.scribemedia.org/pga

For more information about ScribeStudio Productions, please visit: http://www.scribestudio.com.

New York Web TV Meetup - April 2009

New York Web TV Meetup - April 2009 - A Conversation with Fred Seibert of Frederator and Next New Networks

The New York Web TV Meetup is a monthly event devoted to celebrating and supporting innovation in the exploding digital entertainment industry and bringing together the dynamic web television community. Each month, we’ll take an in-depth look at the processes and people behind some of the most successful entertainment products created for broadband distribution, followed by networking with industry peers, artists, executives, producers, and up-and-comers.

Stay up-to-date on Web TV happenings in New York City by joining their Facebook Group.

April 2009 Event
Fred Seibert is a media and marketing sensation whose influence has shaped the future of entertainment. He's also a good friend to Tilzy.TV.We're excited for an in-depth conversation followed by mixing and mingling with some of New York City's movers and shakers of online video and Web TV.

When: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 6:30 PM

Where: NYU's Cantor Film Center - 36 E. 8th St.

More about Fred Seibert
As MTV's first creative director who went on to remake Nickelodeon, run famed animation studio Hannah Barbara, create digital and television animation studio Frederator and found a next generation television network, Next New Networks, Fred is a creative visionary with big insights and a bigger personality.

Fred's career in his words:

Does it seem strange for a former jazz cat to morph into a TV executive, and then turn into a cartoon producer who sets out to pioneer the new frontier of video on the Internet?

Not to me.For me it's all part of a very clear continuum. I'm attracted to community, to places where disenfranchised people find what they love, and find each other and get creative. I'm attracted to heart and soul and humor, and to things that are wild, weird and unpredictable.

I guess you could say I'm attracted to crazy. With any luck I'll have a few more crazy lives to add to this document in the years ahead.

We're looking forward to seeing you there, and meeting and talking with you and other members of the NYC's dynamic online video community.

Producers Guild of America
New Media Council East
Presents the
2008-2009 Panel and Salon Series
****EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS ONLY EVENT****

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

HARVESTING A GREEN CHANNEL IN THE MULTI-PLATFORM AGE

A Conversation With Laura Michalchysyn, President and
General Manager, Discovery Communication’s Planet Green

The urgencies represented by rapid climate change have created a veritable flood of media addressing solutions to the problems wrought by greenhouse-gas emissions. However, to date, only one major cable television network represents the growing eco-lifestyle community. Launched in June, 2008, Discovery Communication’s Planet Green delivers multi-platform content – ranging from expert tips on how to go green and online forums – from a
24-hour cable channel with more than 250 hours of original green lifestyle programming and the web sites PlanetGreen.com and TreeHugger.com.

Laura Michalchyshyn, President and General Manager, Discovery Communications’ Planet Green

Laura Michalchyshyn is responsible for all aspects of the creative and business strategy for Planet Green, Discovery Communications’ multi-platform businesses including the 24-hour television network. As chief editorial executive, she manages the overall direction of the network, including programming, operations and content development, as well as interfacing with ad sales and affiliate sales to further develop the brand and its appeal to advertisers, operators and viewers.

Prior to Discovery, Michalchyshyn served as executive vice president and general manager of Sundance Channel where she was responsible for day-to-day operations, including program development, creative strategy scheduling and marketing both on- and off-channel. Since joining Sundance Channel in 1995, Michalchyshyn doubled original programming hours and tripled the number of programming hours on the network overall. Under her leadership Sundance Channel was the largest aggregator of independent films on television acquiring as many as 250 films in a given year.

Moderator: Kendall Allen, PGA NMC East Executive Committee Member; Founder, Influence Collective, LLC

A leading digital media and marketing executive, and a member of the PGA NMC East’s executive committee, Kendall has led online content development and campaigns since the web’s inception. She helped found Thrive, an AOL/Time Inc. joint online venture in the mid-‘90s, and held top positions at USWeb/CKS and EuroRSCG Circle, while based in San Francisco. Kendall was a founder of Fathom Online and a director at iCrossing. She recently built out the agency and creative studio at Incognito Digital and has gone on to establish her own business advising publishers and agencies in digital channel development – Influence Collective, LLC. Her career roster of clients includes Ask Jeeves, Chandon, Intel, Intuit, VOOM, American Express, Fairmont, Colgate-Palmolive, Bloomberg, Haier America, OKI, Fox, FX, Carolyn & Co. Media and ‘mktg.’

Recognized as a leader in media circles, Kendall is a weekly contributor to MediaPost, as well as a regular speaker at digital media and marketing conferences, including Search Engine Strategies and Ad:Tech. She is a periodic lecturer at New York University and serves on the board of the Ad Club of New York Digital Marketing and Media Council and on the Ad Council for the Association for Downloadable Media. Kendall also serves on the Board of Directors of 212NYC, where she oversees the Professional Development programming series.
Wine and light refreshments will be served during a networking mixer prior to the programming.

This event will take place at the Core Club in New York City.

****YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF THE PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA TO ATTEND THIS EVENT.****

Previous events from our 2005-2009 event series can be accessed on the web at:

http://www.scribemedia.org/pga

For more information about ScribeStudio Productions, please visit: http://http://www.scribestudio.com/.

Curated Screening with College Humor TV

Big Screen Little Screen - The New York Web TV Meetup

Curated Screening with College Humor TV…

featuring…
Ricky Van Veen, Founder and Editor
Sam Reich, Director of Original Programming
Jake Hurwitz, Writer and Star
Amir Blumenfield, Writer and Star

When: March 19, 2009 6:30 PM

Where: DROM @ 85 Avenue A

Presented by Tilzy.TV in association with 10Ton, The Producers Guild of America New Media Council, and For Your Imagination, the event is an opportunity to meet and engage movers and shakers in the digital entertainment industry, a community dedicated to growing, exploring, and innovating with a dynamic new medium.

If you’d like to present at or host Big Screen Little Screen, please email us at info(at)tilzy(dot)tv.
PLEASE RSVP AT THE BIG SCREEN LITTLE SCREEN - NY WEB TV MEETUP PAGE

The Power of Transmedia

PGA NMC East member Jeff Gomez featured on forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/03/jeff-gomez-advertising-leadership-cmo-network_starlight_runner.html

On the Record with…
JEFF GOMEZ
The Power of Transmedia
Interview by Laurie Burkitt

Though these may be dark economic times, there are certain executives with extraordinary insight and unique approaches who are achieving striking results for their companies. Each week, Forbes.CMO will spotlight one of these visionaries and fire off questions designed to keep you ahead of the curve.

Transmedia is a word that has been buzzing both Hollywood and Madison Avenue, but very few seem to have a handle on what it means, or the potential of its value proposition. For our premiere column, we turn to Jeff Gomez, CEO of New York-based Starlight Runner Entertainment for answers.

A self-described “transmedia storyteller,” Gomez is a producer who specializes in developing and extending entertainment and advertising properties across multiple media platforms. His clients include The Walt Disney Company, Microsoft, Hasbro and perhaps most notably, the Coca-Cola Company.

What exactly is transmedia and how did you become interested in it?

Simply put, transmedia is the art of conveying a rich message, theme or storyline to a mass audience using multiple media platforms in concert. Each part of the story is unique and plays to the strengths of each medium, and the audience is often invited to participate and somehow interact with the narrative. We first saw the term used in this way by M.I.T. professor Henry Jenkins in his book Convergence Culture.

In today’s interconnected world, young adults, teens and even kids have become so comfortable with media technology that they seem to flow from one platform to the next. The problem is that their content is not flowing with them. As a discipline, transmedia provides us with a foundation for the development, production and rollout of entertainment properties or consumer brands across all of these platforms. Transmedia creates the flow.

As a mass audience we’re too savvy and too impatient to experience the same content over and over again. There’s too much out there to enjoy. Repurposing sucks! I actually learned this as a kid living in Hawaii in the 1970s, and being exposed to psychedelic Japanese pop culture. The creators of cartoons and kidvid like Ultra 7, Kikaida and Galaxy Express 999 were allowed to turn their stories into animated TV series, toy lines, live events and feature films.

But instead of repeating the plots over and over again for each medium, the creators would continue and expanded their storylines, generating dazzling mythologies and complex narratives. The act of chasing, collecting and searching for new parts of the story made me a participant. I became immersed in these worlds. This was early transmedia storytelling, and man, I knew right there what I wanted to do when I grew up!

Well, it turns out that yesterday’s “cult” is today’s cool.

What gives transmedia its unique power? How do you distinguish it from concepts such as branded entertainment?

What’s so powerful about transmedia implementation is that it maximizes the potential of your story or message, while both building intense brand loyalty and opening up multiple revenue streams.

The loyalty is derived from giving fans more of what they want from your story: more character background, more story mythology, more opportunities to dialog with the story’s creators and with one another. When you know that Samuel L. Jackson will be playing Nick Fury in the next nine Marvel super hero movies, you’re delighted because this ties that whole universe together. It’s a richer and deeper entertainment experience for the fan.

Revenues may be increased dramatically, because you are furnishing fans with more product. The storylines of major films like The Dark Knight, Wolverine and Watchmen are being supplemented by direct-to-DVD animation releases, each of which are selling quite well. The Watchmen videogame serves as a prequel to the movie and contains “valuable” story developments that fans want to know about. New stories set in the same world are alluring, as opposed to repurposed content, so the products become more attractive and in many cases more lucrative.

We’ve seen this with such properties as Hannah Montana, Lost and Heroes, but we’re also seeing it with Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble. It’s a growth industry, and it’s an exciting time to be a part of it.

I think it’s important to point out that transmedia storytelling is not branded entertainment. Branded entertainment drives product awareness by sort of tacking the brand onto something else, like whatever brands you’re seeing on The Apprentice. On the other hand, transmedia builds brand mythology, placing the brand front and center and building narrative around it, like the various tie-ins we saw around The Matrix franchise several years ago. Branded entertainment comes and goes in a flash, but transmedia storylines are timeless because they are built on a foundation of classic narrative structure. They’re good stories. Finally, the owner of the brand pays for branded content, but transmedia entertainment is designed to generate revenue because it’s content that the audience wants.

What’s the short history of transmedia?

After the Industrial Revolution, the printing press allowed for ideas and stories to be spread to much larger populations. Thousands of people were reading Stoker’s Dracula or Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. With radio, new elements were introduced into the mythos of these narratives. Perry White, Kryptonite and the term “faster than a speeding bullet,” for example, all became a part of Superman from the 1938 radio serial.

After World War II, the Japanese government promoted the cooperation of manufacturers, suppliers and distributors to spur economic recovery. They called this keiretsu. This is what allowed for popular comic strip characters to easily jump across various kinds of media in a concerted fashion. By the ‘60s and ‘70s, this became a sleek machine that exported pop entertainment globally from Godzilla to Gigantor to Speed Racer.

I wouldn’t be the only one to be turned onto this. George Lucas has often acknowledged Japanese cinema for inspiring Star Wars, but I dare say he was also fascinated by keiretsu and Nippon’s pension for celebrating and rewarding creators of cross-platform story epics. He shrewdly held back the rights to his characters and merchandising from 20th Century Fox and launched what would become the prototype for transmedia storytelling in America.

But the true actualization of transmedia arrived in 1998 with a weird website called The Blair Witch Project, nearly a year before the release of the film. Was it real? A hoax? Our curiosity and our dialog made us participants in the narrative, and the whole thing exploded, making the film one of the most profitable in history. Transmedia requires an interactive component.

Transmedia has often been used to promote TV shows and movies, things that already have a story built into them, but how does it work with products?

It’s true, since Blair Witch we’ve seen some progressive television and film execs and producers use transmedia techniques to engage mass audiences. JJ Abrams used the Internet, books and comics to build on the storylines of Lost and Cloverfield, as did Tim Kring on Heroes and Warner Bros. on The Dark Knight. All of these had strong stories to start with, and fans were offered (and often paid for) a “deeper dive” with this additional content.

We’ve also seen companies like Procter & Gamble use transmedia techniques such as extending soap opera narrative. In 2007, P&G commissioned Guiding Light: Jonathan’s Story, a novel that revealed the adventures of a major character that had been mysteriously absent from the show. The book was a media sensation and became a New York Times best seller.

But we’re also seeing transmedia elements in the marketing of consumer products and advertising. With “The King” campaign from Burger King a few years back, for example, audiences became engaged with this bizarre character, watching the commercials, purchasing and playing the videogames. Profits soared for the chain.


Then there’s Victoria’s Secret, a somewhat looser but still quite valid example of transmedia narrative. We start with the mystique of the original catalog, but then the models take on personas all their own. We follow their glamorous and sometimes scandalous lives through the tabloids, on the web and on television. Like living fantasies they’re adorned with the iconography of the angel wings in print ads and commercials. We follow them into their own annual TV specials, and ultimately back into the catalogs and retail stores. A thriving empire has been built here not so much on lingerie, but on story.

In 2002, my company Starlight Runner was tasked to create a storyline around 35 die-cast metal Hot Wheels cars for Mattel in tandem with the line’s 35th anniversary. It had never really been done before. We worked with the company to discern the essence of the brand and watched how kids played with the toys before inventing an elaborate racing universe and driver characters that embodied the messages and themes of the brand. The story was successful, sales across the entire line increased dramatically, and over the next three years five computer-animated movies were released, a videogame, a comic book series, new playsets and an elaborate web site.

How do you know transmedia works? What numbers do you have to prove it?

Well, Mattel sold an awful lot of Hot Wheels DVDs! The entire product line derived a significant revenue bump over those three years. These are hundreds of millions of additional dollars for a franchise that had frankly gotten a bit dusty in the past decade.

Heroes 360, the online component of the Heroes TV series multi-platform campaign, generated an additional $50 million in advertising revenue for NBC-Universal, according to Fast Company magazine, and that doesn’t include sales of hundreds of thousands of hard copy graphic novels and prose fiction all set in the universe of the show.

Then there is Happiness Factory from the Coca-Cola Company. A few years back, Coke consolidated its global advertising with Wieden+Kennedy. The agency’s Amsterdam office came up with “The Coke Side of Life” campaign and one of the commercials featured a wild fantasy world of characters and creatures that existed inside a Coke machine. The computer animation by PsyOp was gorgeous, hilarious and a tiny bit subversive.

The commercial was called Happiness Factory and it was the highest rated Coke commercial in history. People loved it, and Coke wanted to somehow continue working with the premise. Starlight Runner was called in to do some of this creative development and generate multiple touchpoints for the property. Coke had us come up with a transmedia storyline designed to last for years.

The initial rollout in the later half of 2007 was a smash. A second, extra-long commercial was created that vastly expanded the world of Happiness Factory and gave us characters we could connect with. We worked on an elaborate international web site with AKQA that allowed you to become an employee of the factory. Coke joined with its distributors in countries around the world to customize the way people would connect to the property based on culture and budget. There were comics in Brazil, mechanical installations at shopping malls in Denmark, costumed characters lumbering around in Japanese supermarkets, all tied into “event” airings of the four-minute narrative on television.

At last year’s Media 360 conference keynote, Jonathan Mildenhall, Coke’s VP Global Advertising and Creative Excellence, announced the campaign had boosted global volume sales of Coke by 4% and Coca-Cola’s share price from $42 to $60 over Happiness Factory’s initial transmedia rollout period. Although “The Coke Side of Life” campaign is now over, Happiness Factory is tapped to play a central role in the company’s new “Open Happiness” campaign. So the Kissy Puppies will be back!

[Editor’s note: You can see the Happiness Factory commercials at http://www.coca-cola.com/hf]

Why was Coke interested in transmedia?

Mildenhall has said that he was searching for ways move away from brand interruption and boost brand engagement for his company’s flagship product. After the original Happiness Factory scored so well, he started looking for ways to extend the property. But right now, advertising is not built to stretch a story beyond a minute or two.

After learning about our work, Mildenhall had Starlight Runner present our “Blockbuster Worlds” seminar to his exec team in Atlanta, and he immediately embraced transmedia as a strategy for Coca-Cola. The results have made him one of the most vocal and articulate advocates of the process.

Tell us about your work for Coca-Cola and where it is going. How are we going to see Coke’s narrative develop and in what forms of media?

Working on Happiness Factory for Coke was both challenging and quite a thrill. All we had to start with was the commercial, and we were tasked with building an entire fictional universe around it, with a rich history, dozens of characters and wild adventures yet to come.

Starlight Runner has a proprietary technology that facilitates the rapid development and implementation of transmedia properties, and we put it to use on all fronts here. Our first task was to immerse ourselves in the brand. Coke is a part of Americana, with its own archetype and mythos. We needed to make certain that was reflected in all aspects of the narrative. Wieden+Kennedy then showed us about how their “Coke Side of Life” campaign romanced the brand, and we took those themes and imagery into account.

As with most of our clients, our first major milestone for Coke was a franchise Mythology. This is a visually impressive guide to the people, places, history and devices of the fictional universe. We get into the cultures and mysticism, messages and themes, everything you need to know to produce dozens, even hundreds of hours of content from this world.

For Coke we also produced a transmedia rollout “blueprint,” strategizing how Happiness Factory can play across comic books, videogames, outdoor interactive ads and other media across the globe over the course of the next several years. We’re only scratching the surface so far, but the vision is truly ambitious. I’m also hoping we’ll see a stronger presence here in the U.S. soon.

Where else are we likely to see your work in the future?

We’re tremendously fortunate to be working with some of the biggest properties in the world. We’ve worked on Avatar, the upcoming James Cameron science fiction, which is going to blow people away. We have a great client in Disney, where we’re working on the Bruckheimer film Prince of Persia and will hopefully be returning to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise with the fourth film. There is Halo for Microsoft.

Starlight Runner is also expanding its consumer product work. We’ll be speaking with the CMO’s of major brand owners, as well as with the big agencies here in New York as more of them convince their clients that transmedia narrative is both inevitable and, if done right, can be hugely profitable.

As for the future of transmedia storytelling, I think it’s going to become a true art form. If movies are a grand piano, that’s fantastic, you can create beautiful concertos with that one instrument. But if you take movies, television, the Internet, and any combination of other media, you are assembling an orchestra of sorts. The symphonies you can create are almost beyond imagination. To me this is the true potential of transmedia.

Animation and Non-Fiction Filmmaking Event

The Producers Guild of America

New Media Council

presents the

2008-2009 Panel and Salon Series

ADMISSION IS FREE! BUT AN RSVP IS REQUIRED.

RSVP to: rsvp@pga-ny.org

TIME

7-8:45 PM panel, followed by a wine and cheese reception.

LOCATION

Theresa Lang Auditorium at The New School

55 W. 13th Street, Second Floor

Between 5th and 6th Aves.

New York City

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

WHAT'S UP, DOCUMENTARY?

Animation and Non-Fiction Filmmaking

The increasingly popular use of animation in documentary and non-fiction filmmaking will be examined in this panel discussion sponsored by the New Media Council of the Producers Guild of America East and the New York Film/Video Arts Council. Producers, directors and animators will show clips and discuss a range of projects, explaining how and why they chose to use animation, the positives and negatives in terms of time, budget and skill sets, and the artistic or interpretive contributions animation can bring to a project.

Speakers (alphabetically):

JOAO AMORIM is a Brazilian director focusing on animation and documentary filmmaking. He is currently represented by Curious Pictures, New York. Joao has worked worldwide as an industrial designer, animator, and Animation Supervisor for many years prior to directing. He was the Animation Director for "Chicago 10", Brett Morgen's feature doc. that opened Sundance 2007. He has also directed commercials for BMW, Panasonic, Oceana, among others. He is currently working on ³2012, Time for change², his first feature documentary, highlighting ideas on sustainability and consciousness.

BARBARA ATTIE and JANET GOLDWATER have worked collaboratively since 1990 making widely acclaimed documentaries that have been broadcast nationally and internationally. In 2005 they were awarded the prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Their newest documentary, currently in post-production, is Mrs. Goundo¹s Daughter, about a Malian mother¹s fight for asylum in the U.S. to protect her two-year old daughter from female genital cutting/mutilation.

LISA CRAFTS is an animator whose work is characterized by richly rendered imagery and a quietly quirky sensibility. Her independent animated films have ranged from a meditation on the role creativity plays in the survival of the human spirit, to a funky romp through the land of human sexuality. These works have been shown in Europe, Asia, and throughout North America. In addition to animated films, Crafts also paints quietly disturbing psychological landscapes which capture the dreamlike dissonance of the American roadside.

LUCIEN HARRIOT Is founder, director and visual effects supervisor of Mechanism Digital, a full-service production resource in NYC specializing in digital production. 2D/3D animation, visual effects, broadcast design, and green screen shoots. Mechanism's work ranges from commercial to entertainment; their award-winning team of artists, directors, and producers write, design, storyboard, shoot, animate, edit, and integrate visual effects for film, television and new media.

CINDY KLEINE is a film and video artist whose prolific career began when she was an undergraduate at The Museum School and at the legendary (and long-gone) MIT Film/Video Section, studying with Richard Leacock and Ed Pincus, and among a legion of future filmmakers in the program, including Ross McElwee, Robb Moss and John Gianvito. In line with Boston peers, Kleine has developed a central body of documentary work which are family dramas: camera visits with her grandmother and her sister, and intense probes of her parents¹ fifty-nine years of a dubious, fractured marriage. Additionally, Kleine has gone outside of family for films about odd artists and off-the-wall musicians; and she¹s gone inside herself for some deeply personal, poetically framed psychodramas about love lost, the spirit gained.

MARK MARABELLA is an Emmy® nominated executive producer and founder of Marabella Productions. His award-winning, independent production company specializes primarily in current affairs, history, and science programming for Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic Channel and PBS. Mark has more than 15 years experience developing, writing, producing, and directing over 90 hours of factual series and specials that have aired in nearly 100 countries. Prior to founding Marabella Productions, Mark was the series producer and writer of 60 hours of The Discovery Channel's top-rated prime-time series THE FBI FILES for three and half seasons.

The event will be introduced by documentary filmmaker Howard Weinberg of the Film/Video Council and moderated by digital media producer Trilby Schreiber of the PGA New Media Council East.

For more information about the PGA New Media Council and to access a membership application, please visit: www.pganewmedia.org.

For more information about the PGA and to access a membership application, please visit: www.producersguild.org.

For more information about the New York Film/Video Council, please visit: www.nyfvc.org.

Previous events in our series can be accessed in both webcast format at: www.scribemedia.org/pga.

For more information about ScribeStudio Productions, please visit: www.scribemedia.org/about

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