New York: Digital Media Mecca – A Conversation with Chip Austin, founder of i-Hatch Ventures

Producers Guild of America
New Media Council East

Presents the
2007-2008 Panel and Salon Series

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

New York: Digital Media Mecca – A Conversation with Chip Austin, founder of i-Hatch Ventures

Though memories of Silicon Alley and the 1990s are receding, the role of digital media in the New York economy continues to gain strength. Even as the recent Wall Street crisis continues to unfold, entrepreneurs and major media companies are creating new businesses, new means of digital media delivery and transaction, and venture capitalists are contributing to this evolving ecosystem of content-driven plays.

One such long-standing New York digital media investment stalwart is Chip Austin, founder and partner of New York-based venture capital fund i-Hatch Ventures. Chip has been an active agent in the growth of both the first wave of online ventures, as well as the current landscape of New York-based ventures. Since founding i-Hatch in 1999, Chip has invested in such successful ventures as Vindigo, Dotcast, M:Metrics, and Thumbplay. Previously, in addition to founding Bertelsmann's E-commerce division, Chip was a member of the senior executive team leading the buyout and restructuring of Prodigy Communications and was a co-founder of McKinsey’s & Co.’s interactive practice, where he spent seven years advising Fortune 500 companies on their technology and media strategies. Prior to that, Chip worked at Morgan Stanley and IBM's PC division.

Moderator: 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 networking reception will precede the conversation programming.

This event takes place at the Screening Room at The Core Club.

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.scribemedia.org/about.

’CONTACT IS KING’ – A Conversation with Douglas Rushkoff

Producers Guild of America
New Media Council East

Presents the

2007-2008 Panel and Salon Series

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at the Screening Room at The Core Club

’CONTACT IS KING’ – A Conversation with Douglas Rushkoff

As all media becomes a landscape in which interaction takes place, and “literacy” is the ability to participate consciously in this environment, the convergence of media networks becomes ever more important in how we consume, produce, and analyze content. Best-selling author, documentarian, and cultural commentator Douglas Rushkoff is one of the foremost analysts of how people, cultures, and institutions create, share, and influence each other’s values. In this conversation, he will examine how one of his futuristic predictions from the 1990s, ‘Contact is King,’ has manifested itself in becoming a mantra for an all-pervasive communications paradigm for today’s society.

Author of such works as Cyberia, Media Virus, Playing the Future, and the just-completed Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out, Rushkoff has written and hosted two award-winning PBS Frontline specials, The Merchants of Cool (how corporations influence youth culture) and The Persuaders (how the cluttered landscape of marketing makes efforts to overcome consumer resistance).

He regularly appears on TV shows from NBC Nightly News to CNN’s Larry King Live and HBO’s Realtime with Bill Maher. His commentaries are seen and heard on CBS Sunday Morning and on NPR. He is writing a new monthly comic book for Vertigo, and he developed the Electronic Oracle software series for HarperCollins Interactive.

Rushkoff founded the Narrative Lab at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, and lectures about media, art, society, and change at conferences and universities around the world.

Moderator: 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.

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

Event hosted by Jeff Dachis and Chris Pfaff, co-chairmen, PGA New Media Council East.


Previous events from our 2005-2007 event series can be accessed in both webcast and podcast format at: http://www.scribemedia.org/pga

For more information about please visit ScribeStudio Productions.

Getting Everyone on the Same Page

THE BIRTH OF CROSS MEDIA PRODUCTION
Adventures in Storytelling pt. 8 - Getting Everyone on the Same Page
By Brian Seth Hurst

The network, the creators, producers and writers and the cross media producers all need to start in the same place. Call it mutual education in which the cross media folks learn in depth about the show and the show folks learn what is possible across platforms. Lines of communication and approvals must be established right away. If this is truly going to be distributed story telling that works, then no one can work in isolation. During preproduction, the Cross Media producers should be briefed and then either go away and come back with a fistful of prioritized executable ideas or what I consider to be the most fun a brainstorming session with producers where the possibilities are thrown on the table, vetted and prioritized.

Ideally the Executive Producer Cross Media should ride shotgun with the producers of the show. The story arc, plot twists and turns, and character development are just a few of the things that will provide foundation for cross media ideas.

Cross-platform strategies can vary significantly according to producer Patrick Crowe. “In the Fallen Alternate Reality Game, the TV production provided the framework for the game world,” explains Crowe. “However, we had enormous freedom to develop the game plot and characters provided these remained consistent with the themes of the TV mini-series. By contrast, in our previous ARG for the TV drama ReGenesis, we worked directly with the writing team of the TV series, planting interactive events into every single episode. Sometimes these clues even influenced the plot of the TV drama.”

What should you consider in the process of building a cross media proposition? The process is deep but exciting. A book or even a manual could be written on it. It is both an art and a science, but briefly you should keep the following factors in mind:

The Show
The Audience
The Platforms
The Business Models
The Vendors
The Production

Previous "Birth of Cross Media Production" post
Next "Birth of Cross Media Production" post

Brian Seth Hurst is CEO of the Opportunity Management Company, Inc. a cross media strategy and production company. Hurst served two terms as Chairman of the Producers Guild of America New Media Council (’03-’05) while simultaneously serving on the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors. Currently, he is Second Vice Chair of the Television Academy and sits on the National Board of the PGA.

U2 3D

Producers Guild of America
New Media Council East
Presents the
2007-2008 Panel and Salon Series
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Dolby Screening Room
6:00pm – 9:30pm
U2 3D

Reception/Screening/Q&A with U2 3D producer Peter Shapiro

The first-ever live-action digital 3-D film, U2 3D is a unique cinematic experience that places viewers within the pulsing energy of a stadium concert given by the world’s most popular band. Marrying innovative digital 3-D imagery and multi-channel surround sound with the excitement of a live U2 concert – shot in South America during the final leg of their “Vertigo” tour – it creates an immersive theatrical experience unlike any 3-D or concert film that has come before.

This rare private screening of U2 3D - which opened theatrically worldwide in January, 2008 through National Geographic Entertainment - is only shown in cinemas equipped with Digital 3-D or IMAX® 3-D projection systems.

Please join the Producers Guild of America New Media Council East and 3ality Digital Productions for this special screening, with opening remarks from Marc Scarpa, PGA New Media Council East founder.

6:00-7:15 pm: Reception/Cocktails

7:15 pm: U2 3D SCREENING (*NO ONE WILL BE ADMITTED ONCE FILM BEGINS*)

8:45 pm: Conversation with Peter Shapiro and Chris Pfaff

* NOTE: After the film, we please ask that you stay for the conversation. Please ensure that you arrive no later than 7:00 pm to secure seating, as this event will be at capacity*

Peter Shapiro (Producer, U2 3D) has forged an eclectic career whose acclaimed, groundbreaking projects include the IMAX concert film “All Access,” the Green Apple Festival (America’s largest Earth Day event), the annual Jammys awards show and concert, the VH1 hip-hop documentary “And You Don’t Stop” and his current efforts with 3ality Digital, of which he is a founding partner, to help digital 3-D become a significant component of the out-of-home and in-home entertainment experience.

LOCATION:
Dolby 88 Screening Room

1350 6th Avenue (at 55th Street) New York City

This event is open to PGA members and their qualified guests only.

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

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is the premier industry association for entertainment producing professionals working in film, television and digital media.

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 2005-2007 event series can be accessed in web cast format at: http://www.scribemedia.org/pga

For more information about ScribeStudio Productions, please visit:

http://www.scribemedia.org/about.