Friday, March 6, 2009

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.

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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Sunday, February 22, 2009

POLITICAL SATIRE CHANGES THE (NEW MEDIA) WORLD

POLITICAL SATIRE CHANGES THE (NEW MEDIA) WORLD:
An Evening with Ben Relles, Founder of BarelyPolitical.com
Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The political arena has been one of the heaviest contributors to the social media revolution. The 2008 presidential election saw a groundbreaking new media campaign from President Obama, including mobile marketing, liveblogging, and online video, but was also at the epicenter of a groundswell in online political satire, including 'The Last Republican,' endless user-generated parodies of candidates, and one of the most compelling viral video campaigns of all time – 'Obama Girl.' The singular creation of BarelyPolitical.com's Ben Relles, the Obama Girl phenomenon captured the public fascination with candidate Obama and helped lay the foundation for online discourse that, in many ways, rivaled mainstream media's attempts to keep up with "netizens".

Ben Relles, founder, BarelyPolitical.com
Ben Relles launched his political satire website BarelyPolitical.com with the hit video "I Got a Crush on Obama." In total, he has produced more than 150 online videos, which have been viewed more than 200 million times worldwide. Recently, Ben launched BarelyDigital.com, an online video network satirizing the world of technology. He has spoken at conferences that include: Forbes MEET, Streaming Media East, and NATPE; has guest lectured on college campuses nationwide, and appears regularly on MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN. Born in Wisconsin, Ben was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After college, Ben co-founded MarketVision, Inc., where he was a partner from 1997 - 2002. Later, Ben received his MBA from the Wharton School, and has spent time working for Omnicom marketing agencies.

Moderator: Chris Pfaff, President, Chris Pfaff Tech/Media LLC; board delegate, PGA NMC
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.

7pm – 7:45pm – Networking mixer with wine and light refreshments
7:45 – 9pm – Conversation with Ben Relles
9pm – 9:30pm – Mixer continues/wrap up

The Core Club
66 East 55th Street
Between Madison and Park Aves.
New York City
www.thecoreclub.com

Space is limited; RSVP required. Please RSVP to rsvp@pga-ny.org.
NOTE: PGA members are encouraged to bring a qualified prospective member as a guest. Guests required to reconfirm their RSVP 24 hours prior to event.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Broadband Video Leadership Evening

VideoNuze, in conjunction with NATPE, will hold its Broadband Video Leadership Evening on Tuesday, March 17, 2009, from 6:00-9:00 pm at the Hudson Theater, 145 W. 44th Street in Manhattan. Will Richmond, from VideoNuze, will be presiding.

The evening includes a networking reception from 6:00-7:30 pm, followed by a 7:30-9:00 pm panel featuring senior executives (read: not producers) in the broadband video industry, including:

Albert Cheng, EVP, Digital Media, Disney/ABC Television Group

Greg Clayman, EVP, Digital Distribution & Business Development, MTV Networks

Karin Gilford, SVP of Fancast and Online Entertainment, Comcast Interactive Media

Curt Hecht, President, VivaKi (Publicis Groupe)

Tom Morgan, Chief Strategy Officer, Move Networks

Moderator: Will Richmond, Editor/Publisher, VideoNuze

For more info VideoNuze

Monday, February 2, 2009

The Power of Online Storytelling

We are pleased to invite you to our first New School event of 2009, which we are producing in conjunction with The Screenwriters Colony and The New School.

The ‘Power of Online Storytelling’ events takes place next Thursday, February 5th, from 6:30-8:30 pm, at Wollman Hall, at The New School (65 W. 11th Street, 5th Floor). Enter at 66 W. 12th Street.

See the full program invite below.

We are pleased to have two NMC East members on this panel – Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner (and NMC East member-at-large and NMC Board delegate) and Dina Kaplan, co-founder of blip.tv – and we are quite sure that this will be over-subscribed, so please RSVP today to rsvp@thepacificfoundation.org to request a seat.

RSVPs are for one person only. All RSVPs must be re-confirmed to be considered valid. Wine and light refreshments will be served during a networking mixer after the programming.


The panel consists of:

Mary Feuer, writer ‘LonelyGirl15,’ ‘With the Angels’

Jeff Gomez, Starlight Runner, James Cameron’s ‘Avatar,’ Microsoft’s ‘Halo’

Kathleen Grace & Thom Woodley, writers, ‘The Burg,’ ‘The All-For-Nots’

Amy B. Harris, writer/producer, ‘Sex and the City,’ ‘Puppy Love’

Dina Kaplan, co-founder, blip.tv

Moderator: Virginia Heffernan, columnist (‘The Medium’), The New York Times