The Clone Wars

The Clone Wars
By PGA NMC member Jeff Gomez

“You fought in the Clone Wars?”

“Yes, I was once a Jedi Knight, same as your father.”

I had just graduated from the melodramatic (if occasionally juvenile) Planet of the Apes cycle, and it would be a few months before I started down that fateful road with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey. Star Wars was unfolding before my shining eyes, and when Obi-Wan answered Luke’s question, I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up: I wanted to tell stories like this one.

Obi-Wan is alluding to the events of another time, filled with knights and clones and the great wars and betrayals between them. Though the lines are never brought up again in the original Star Wars, they fire our imagination by adding depth and poignancy to the drama at hand. For nearly a quarter century after that moment, a generation of young people wanted to be told that story – when even visionary George Lucas had only the slightest inkling of how it went himself. J.R.R. Tolkien would call such exchanges “distant mountains,” details added to stories that created a sense of intrigue and history. They are the lightning bolts with which creators make universes come to life.

Jeff shares a healthy respect for the power of mythology with Tolkien and Lucas. In future posts, we’ll explore how a well defined mythology is the cornerstone of any successful trans-media effort.

Jeff Gomez (jeff@starlightrunner.com), is the CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, Inc., a developer and producer of highly successful trans-media projects whose clients include The Walt Disney Company, 20th Century Fox, the Coca-Cola Company, Mattel and Hasbro. Over the next few weeks he’ll be sharing his expertise on the white hot trans-media industry – exploring its fascinating history and expanding upon the 8 Defining Principles of Trans-Media Production

previous Jeff Gomez trans-media post

Digital Content Week in Review Oct 22 - Oct 28

Student’s Ad Gets a Remake, and Makes the Big Time - NY Times

iPod Touch Ad - Nick Haley - Youtube

Content Drives Cell Phone Growth, Nokia Says - PC World

Senators Threatening Telcos With Probe Over Net Neutrality - Techcrunch

Ed Burns offers 'Violets' on iTunes- Variety

MySpace film assembles cast- Variety

Diller: Big media is late to Internet chat - Hollywood Reporter

Touching All Screens

The Producers Guild of America

New Media Council East

presents the

2007-2008 Panel and Salon Series

**THIS FOLLOWING IS AN EXCLUSIVE, MEMBERS ONLY EVENT**

Monday, October 29, 2007

Touching All Screens: How to Produce Award Winning Cross-Platform Content

Creating a hit show on television is one feat of magic. Creating an entire hit cable network that extends programming beyond the T.V. and onto PC and mobile screens, with the same intensity of following – is transcendent. Bravo, the cable network owned by NBC Universal that has developed huge cross platform followings for such staples as ‘Queer Eye,’ ‘Project Runway,’ and ‘Top Chef,’ has been the bellwether for how to deliver value on all platforms, for audiences and advertisers alike.

Please join us for a conversation featuring:
Lisa Hsia, Senior Vice President of New Media, Bravo
Lisa Hsia was appointed Senior Vice President of New Media for Bravo in 2005, joining the company from NBC News, where she served as Vice President of News. She is responsible for identifying and maximizing programming opportunities for Bravo in new media, facilitating business initiatives in wireless, digital, home video, as well as securing international and ancillary rights. She also develops original programming and external opportunities for digital programming. Lisa was named Vice President of NBC News in July, 2001, where she was responsible for a wide range of duties, including executive oversight of primetime news programming for TODAY and NBC News Productions. She had been a Senior Producer for ‘Dateline NBC’ since 1994. She joined NBC News from ABC News, where she was a Producer for ‘Prime Time Live’ from 1989-1992. Prior to ABC News, she was a Producer for public television and was both Producer and Associate Producer for two feature films, ‘A Great Wall’ and ‘Old Enough,’ both released by Orion Classics.
Lisa graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University. She is the recipient of six Emmy awards and currently serves on the board of the Asian American Media Center, which supports the development of Asian Pacific film/video projects for public television.

Chris Pfaff, President, Chris Pfaff Tech/Media LLC; board delegate, PGA New Media Council
A board delegate of the PGA New Media Council since 2006, and a PGA NMC member since 2004, Chris Pfaff leads a consultancy – Chris Pfaff Tech/Media LLC – that represents some of the leading service providers, audio/video technology firms, networking vendors, and media companies in the world, from PRIMEDIA and Eastman Kodak to Cantor Telecom. A veteran of the venture world, Chris helped launch more than 20 ventures from the Lucent New Ventures Group, including iBiquity Digital; Flarion; Lucent Digital Video, and GeoVideo Networks, among others. In addition, he has helped launch AT&T’s Internet strategy; the Viacom New Media division of Viacom, Inc.; Sony Electronics’ Digital Betacam format, and Sharp Electronics’ LCD product division.

A wine and cheese reception will precede the programming.

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

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is the premier industry association for entertainment producing professionals. 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 in our series can be accessed in both webcast format at: www.scribemedia.org/pga.

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

Go Speed Racer Go

Go Speed Racer Go
By PGA NMC member Jeff Gomez

The concept of formalized storytelling across multiple mass media platforms really came into focus in the 1960s, and it emerged out of the Japanese comic book industry. Unlike American television, there was no Hollywood machine in Tokyo churning out libraries of animated shorts and simple Hanna-Barbera concepts with which they could jam the airwaves. Japan’s TV studios instead turned to the newly burgeoning manga market for cartoon ideas. Astro Boy, Speed Racer, The Eighth Man and Gigantor all started out as comic strip serials in weekly telephone book-sized anthologies put out by newspaper companies. Studios like Toei and Tatsunoko adapted the strips, and toy companies like Bandai quickly caught on to the notion of merchandising the characters to eager Asian ‘tweens. A business model was forged, and a close-knit industry was born.

By the ‘70s, while I was watching Jabberjaw and Hong Kong Phooey, the Japanese were producing elaborate kidvid serials where super heroes with dark secrets and complex pasts were engaged in life or death struggles with galactic empires and lurid underground criminal organizations. Storylines ran parallel or jumped back and forth between television, manga and eventually direct-to-video, and when situations got really dire, there would be a theatrical feature to mark the event!

This resulted in a series of rich, fully realized worlds, and they started generating a lot of money!

Jeff Gomez (jeff@starlightrunner.com) is well-versed in the connection between the entertainment business and the toy industy. His company has developed blockbuster trans-media programs companies like Hasbro and Mattel in addition to The Walt Disney Company, 20th Century Fox, and the Coca-Cola Company.

Over the next few weeks Jeff will be sharing his expertise on the white hot trans-media industry – exploring its fascinating history and expanding upon his 8 Defining Principles of Trans-Media Production

previous Jeff Gomez trans-media post

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