TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE DISCUSSES STORYTELLING IN THE DIGITAL AGE

The Tribeca Film Festival has hosted a 7 hour marathon on the new means to be a journalist, through a series of panels with representatives of transmedia communications.

Beth Janson, Executive Director of Tribeca Film Institute, welcomed a huge room packed with international members of the storytelling profession, such as reporters, film-makers, and bloggers.

Being Human in a Digital World, is what was explained by Barathunde Thurston, author of the book ‘How to be black’ and of the extravagant digital satire information platform ‘The Onion’.

The Future of News, moderated by Calvin Sims was discussed by two representatives of the most important newspapers on earth: Andrew DeVigal, Multimedia Editor of the New York Times, and Gabriel Dance, Interacive Editor of The Guardian.

Our era overwhelms us with data: what happens when we get stuffed with information? We get an obesity issue and try to digest whatever bit of news is thrown at us. We must learn to select, and Clay Johnson was the one to help figure out The Information Diet.

Many new transmedia realities have unveiled their purpose such as Loc Dao’s Bear 71, Dario Buzzini’ IDEO, but the most striking of all has been the Interactive Case-Study on Game of Thrones. Before launching the popular HBO Series a sensory approach campaign was activated enveloping fans in the world-making process of the medial fantasy ambiance.

One of the trickiest steps is to Take Your Digital Ideas To The Bank, and this issue, moderated by Ingrid Kopp, was discussed by Alyce Myatt (Media Arts Director NEA), Karim Ahmad (Senior Programming Manager ITVS) and Orlando Bagwell (Director JustFilms Ford Foundation).

But besides the financial aspect it is fundamental to give structure to new digital platforms, Program or Be Programmed, moderated by Chris Lawrence, Project Director of The Hive NYC Mozilla Foundation, was the panel in which Mozilla served as an example to the Code and Education of digital media. An insight analyses of the vademecum to move around cyberspace was outlined by Jess Klein, Hackasaurus Design and Learning Lead  and Marc Lesser, Education Director Mouse.

Caitlin Burns, Transmedia Producer at Starlight Runner Entertainment has been of great inspiration to all the young and broke aspiring film-makers. Walking With Hipster Dinousaurs has demonstrated how Jurassic Park Slope managed to develop a transmedia production with zero budget, basing its success on the assembling of all existing networks.

Last but not least, the expanding world of games has been discussed in Putting Play in Place: Games and Storytelling moderated by Jamin Warren, Co-founder of Kill screen, through the testimonies of Margaret Robertson, Development Director of Hide & Seek; Nick Fortugno, Founder of Playmatics; Michelle Byrd, Co-President of Games for Change.

by Chiara Spagnoli

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