The final LAMP Post!

The LAMP initiative began in August 2005 but in the next few weeks AFTRS have decided to gracefully terminate all LAMP web presences. This coincides with its founding Head/Director, Gary Hayes, moving onto similar, external initiatives. This site and the hundreds of podcasts, PDFs, videos, wiki, flickr, YouTube & vimeo accounts will be ‘retired’ and the thousands of subscribers here on the site, other social media sites and on iTunes will have to be de-coupled. AFTRS may be re-purposing a range of content from sites like LAMP back into its hub site at AFTRS.edu.au and cycling content on pages such as the appropriately named Watch, Listen & View. So keep watching there.

One post is not enough to sum up the many and various activities that LAMP ran. But here is a quick summary of everything that will be erased soon (so download as much as you can!):

• Run eight national residential creative development labs for over 740 participants – see this post
• Over 40 seminars in all Australian states across the whole range of new media, some videos remaining on the soon to be closed Vimeo AFTRS talks account
• One of the first Australian educational podcasts, with over 130 episodes on the iTunes store and listed here
• An extremely busy wiki that has had hundreds of thousands of visits and an original miniARG resource and many other satellite sites such as transmediadesign.org
• 50 groundbreaking presentations (downloadable creative commons) from LAMP mentors on Slideshare here – many embedded on this site eg: transmedia here and social media here
• LAMP mentors and collaborators developed the Australia Council Story of the Future writers guide here
• Hundreds of images of the people on the labs on the soon to be closed LAMP flickr account and the hundreds of mentors & participants here
• As a matter of course the LAMP twitter account with 1800 followers will be closed
• Setup a range of AFTRS YouTube channels such as the Animation, Showcase, Radio, LAMP and Games channels where videos such as this Unity games video from Ian Brown has gained 17000 views
• Setting up Australia’s first full island presence in Second Life in 2006 and the space is still going strong, official directory listing here
• Developing a range of internal courses over the past 18 months (hence the hiatus) across grad certs and diplomas in multi platform, virtual worlds, innovation & form, creating experiences foundation, interactive music and sound and many more
• The list goes on …

Finally it is always hard closing down initiatives that have grown strong roots and many followers but we are sure the main AFTRS site will grow from strength to strength as the marketing department focuses it’s continued efforts there.

As this will be the last post on this site before it disappears a fitting poem

A rose once grew where all could see,
sheltered beside a garden wall.
And, as the days passed swiftly by,
it spread its branches, straight and tall.

One day, a beam of light shone through
a crevice that had opened wide.
The rose bent gently toward its warmth
then passed beyond to the other side.

Now, you who deeply feel its loss,
be comforted, the rose blooms there.
Its beauty even greater now,
nurtured by God’s own loving care.

‘The Rose Beyond The Wall’
Author Unknown

and the last words from those who took part in LAMP’s training & labs

• LAMP 08 was the most amazing professional development experience of my life!
• I can highly recommend LAMP to anyone with a great idea looking to turn it into a success.
• It was a totally immersive and focused, overwhelming experience – nothing like I’ve experienced before
• The impossible is possible
• It was a wonderful creative experience where I believe we were able to generate a wealth of truly new ideas. Marvellous!
• A creative vibrant practical atmosphere
• The lab exceeded my expectations as I thought it would have been a little more hands off. The way everyone helped each other out in an environment that was friendly, affectionate and creative allowed us to take our project in ways never thought of before.
• This has definitely been one of the best experiences of my life. Thankyou!
• It exceeded my expectations
• A week of inspiration, confrontation (of your own creative ideas) communication skills crash course and hard work (esp the Thurs night) just what I wanted. The lessons Ive learnt this week will inform and inspire all the advanced media projects Im busy pushing ahead. Loved the quotes posted on the walls too!
• I loved loved loved it!
• Concept of LAMP is wonderful and it was above and beyond expectation
• LAMP helped solidify confidence in the concept and creating a truly viable cross media platform
• Well structured, highly relevant information, carefully structured word flow, excellent tutelage, nurturing, humane and humorous
• I am feeling lucky to have done this workshop. Sincerely. Full stop.
• Hope to have the opportunity to attend another LAMP experience. As a direct result of LAMP, I have several new ideas for digital technology and cross-platform storytelling that would not have happened without LAMP
• Most intense week Ive had in many years. Maybe ever!?
• I didnt have any expectations because I was unaware of what the Lab entailed prior to attending. The Lab was certainly one of the best professional experiences Ive ever had. The generosity extended by the LAMP team and mentors was unparalleled
• We invented our project and were supported by people who were generous and helpful, people who we wouldnt normally have access to
• We developed an idea from scratch, expanded it from POV of a user (not the film maker) which was excellent
• Very intense but also an extremely nurturing environment that was particularly conducive to creativity and brainstorming. It opened my mind.
• I cannot speak (or write) highly enough of every single mentor at this residential. I will take something  a pearl of wisdom  away from every one of them.
• Well considered and organised, great to be able to think in such an environment
• Very professionally and thoughtfully structured, clearly the result of experience – worked very well
• Very busy and intense but very useful
• This workshop managed to elicit maximum product output and intelligent project implementation with a minimum of fuss
• What a privilege! All participants were challenged to reach for and achieve far reaching goals but were also totally supported in the endeavour by a united team of razor sharp professionals.
• Yes, exceeded my expectations. Forced me to think way, way, way outside my square.
• This was a highly productive, intensive session whereby all outside distractions were eliminated letting us focus solely on the job
• There was enormous value with mentor input, creative support from other participants and developers and insight from industry.
• The hothouse thrown in at the deep end technique created high anxiety but did a brilliant job of emulating the performance-under-pressure environment that causes many creatives to shine
• Superb, empathetic, committed facilitators enacted a disciplined, purposeful approach towards clear creative outcomes
• Seamless
• The experience will resonate with me for a long time to come. The energy, commitment, generosity and expertise of the mentors and organisers far exceeded my expectations.
• It was a great reminder that yes, there ARE people out there that have the same enthusiasm, drive and excitement about making something to entertain, enlighten and educate the world. LAMP was a great place to collaborate and explore what an idea can become.
• Perfect. Seriously its a great balance of challenges and support. A full process that ties in well
• Effective & challenging, in that it took me out of my comfort zone, highlighted my weaknesses & drew upon my strengths in an unexpected & surprising way.
• Our guardian mentor was crucial, providing not only support but also challenges, nurturing and encouragement
• An excellent overview of game and story design, social networking systems, current and successful project models, engaging usersthe list goes on. The presentations were excellent. The mentoring was engaged, generous and fantastic.
• The mentor presentations excellent, technical support brilliant, pace was exhausting but productive
• I didnt know what to expect but LAMP completely blew me away! I thought it would be more competitive and the teams more secretive about their projects. Instead I found everyone to be extremely generous and supportive and it was SO wonderful to be in like-minded company in an environment conducive to creativity.
• LAMP gave our project a deep focus and contextual awareness that made the idea much richer
• LAMP gave me clarification, I found a vocabulary and a voice
• Its a boot camp that canon-balls the development of an idea with great speed.
• Intensely challenging, Incredibly professional, Invigorating and fun. I feel cared for and respected
• Intense dialogue helped us understand what each partner values and wants to achieve then how to communicate our interest to the outside world
• I was transformed and uplifted with new confidence, a new sense of possibility. Now I get to go and make new rules in an exciting frontier
• The most important thing we gained was a business perspective. It was a very good thing for us to stop thinking purely as content creators, and think more business.
• Flawless
• Extremely intense, highly thought provoking and challenging
• The whole thing was life changing in regards to finding out who was out there. Working with them and being creative. Having almost a week to work on one project solidly with help & advise not just from mentors but everyone is the best thing about LAMP.
• Amazing luxury to have so many diverse mentors. Well paced, well moderated , well supported
• Access to such varied input from many different perspectives forced us to evaluate what was the really important feature, core of the project and what was right for it
• A rollercoaster ride of information – an intensive hothouse experience
• Full on!
• Great experience – painful but gainful!
• It was better than I could have ever imagined. I loved every minute of it.
• Well coordinated – responsive to all issues that arose The tech was great. No problems. It was good to have a real deadline at the end of the week.
• A great deal of direction, inspiration and information
• Keep going, its a worthy project getting us all converted!
• A+, Well run
• Very professional, and the enthusiasm was very impressive.
• Honestly! will not think about any project the same again and I hope to be involved in many more
• Process, process, process – the structural models extremely useful

Feedback from various one day orientation events

• Mind expanding – very commercially focused
• Excellent content on each presentation with practical hands on tips
• Good range of high calibre speakers
• Outstanding I found the day profoundly rewarding – I have truly moved into a non-linear dimension.
• Pointers to the future of video!
• Love the idea of LAMP residential – very exciting. Overall, a very inspiring day
• Very inspirational – a great variety of content & speakers
• Workshop provided good information on the various platforms to think about when developing new projects and ways to reach a greater audience
• The course was well worth the paltry entrance feee and was presented by enthusiastic, knowledgeable practitioner/commissioners. These type of courses/seminars are a must to drive new work
• Very informative, lots of valuable insights about now and the future off interactive digital media
• All the guest speakers were fantastic. The day was jam packed
• Choice of speakers was excellent
• Inspiring.

Related posts

• SPAA 2009 Reaching Your Audience – LAMPicks (7)
• Surviving the Forest of Kellor (2)
• Study Multiplatform and Games Virtual Worlds at AFTRS (0)
• Seminar: Massively Multi-Storyteller Worlds – LAMP ‘State of Play’ (6)
• Mastering Multi Platform Content (5)

We are well underway now with Australia’s (and possibly the world’s) first Multi Platform Content Graduate Certificate. AFTRS is also offering the same, even more turbo charged course for the 2nd half of this year (16 weeks part time starting July 12). This post looks at the course thus far with some student example, gives links in how to apply and more detail from the main AFTRS site at the bottom.

Note: This post was cross posted from the course’s Transmedia Design blog

Tell me about the current course

This course was created out of strong demand from both industry and students internally wanting to develop beyond traditional linear and learn about cross media design and production. Starting in February of this year it was the first time AFTRS has run such a dedicated transmedia design award course and it has borrowed a lot of learning from the 5 year presence of the LAMP initiative in the school for the content.

Without burying too deep in the detail here are some high level snapshots of what the nine students half way through the first course have been doing on Mon and Weds evenings (6.15-9.30pm) and (once every 3 weeks or so) a weekend incubator:

• Face to face expert seminars, workshops and one-to-one training across business, service design & production, communities, distribution and storytelling techniques, technical insights, mobile/arg/virtual worlds/open social/TV/brand extensions – the list goes on.
• Completing a range of challenging and detailed assignments including: audience research and analysis, design and service trends, story with linked business concepts, funding submissions, cross briefing of campaign ideas, game concepts etc:
• Immersing themselves in three weekend incubators individually and in teams developing a) A multi platform, social media advertising campaign b) A transmedia TV extension or wrapper (more below) c) A technical prototype of a brand new game or social media mashup (more below)
• Planning their main production for the course and learning about the treatment, functional and design spec and business planning behind their unique, individually original project which will be investor/funding presentation ready.

Who has taught so far on this Course?

Amazingly in the first three months they have been instructed and lectured to by some of Australia’s top multi platform producers and thinkers:

• Sam Doust – Senior Producer, ABC Innovation, teaching service design and tech. Leader at the ABCTV innovation team
• Kelly Chapman – Transmedia Producer and Director of KCDC productions, teaching about the business and production of transmedia content. Producer of Spooks, Emmerdale and Lost property extensions as well as feature films
• Jennifer Wilson - Director of The Project Factory & Chair Mobile Industry Australia, specialising in mobile, client and business and industry trends thinking
• Martin Walsh – Head of Digital Marketing IBM, teaching about self distribution, measurement and monitoring and social media. Previously Head of Digital at Microsoft and keynote speaker recently at SPAA
• Jim Shomos - Forgettherules.com on episodic storytelling, generating business, creating at the edge
• Laurel Papworth – Social Network Strategist & Marketing Magazine’s Head of Social Media Industry Australia, teaching online communities and social media campaigns
• Lisa Gray - Head of Multi Platform Content at The Feds, about client relationships, creative briefs and marketing
• Katherine Blashki - Director of Research and Education at AFTRS, about transmedia storytelling
• Catherine Gleeson - Head of Platform09 Design and AFTRS Foundation, showing case studies in transmedia design process
• Nathan Anderson – MD of Envelop Entertainment and AFTRS Masters Candidate in Transmedia, new forms of storytelling and game theory
• Gary Hayes - CCO of MUVEDesign and Course Coordinator / Lecturer Multi Platform at AFTRS, teaching almost everything but focus on transmedia design, virtual worlds, augmented reality, trends and social media. Previously 8 yrs Senior Dev Producer at BBC, Director of LAMP@AFTRS and Head Virtual Worlds at The Project Factory

“AFTRS is looking for creative people who want to extend their skills to producing 360 degree entertainment. A multi platform strategy is now an essential part of any pitch to broadcasters, funding bodies or investors and this course will give you the tools you need to do this. If you have skills as a content creator in the broadcast industries or are a filmmaker, writer or producer this course is designed to leverage your skills into the multi platform world.”

Why do this Course?

• Learn about the key technologies used to facilitate multi platform content and where it is going in the future
• Initiate, document, pitch and prototype an innovative multi platform project
• Extend professional skills in audience focused content creation
• Study in an engaging environment that is responsive to student needs
• Learn about technical specifications, information architecture and how to work productively with developers and designers
• Enhance your opportunities to work in the industry as a member of the core creative team
• Explore the potential to extend story across platforms using new entertainment formats
• Design participatory services that provide a role for audience to play
• Learn about new business models, Web 2.0, social networking and emerging multi platform entertainment formats

Something from the students?

All students have set-up word press blogs and other CMS’s as well as simple html sites and even create a simple game world in Unity – most came with basic web skills but have hopefully been given the confidence to take control of the distribution of their ideas and implement much more of the backend themselves. A few students are blogging openly about the course and here is Monica and Luci on two recent pieces of AFTRS Multi Platform work.

Monica is capturing some of the work she is doing on her external blogspot site “Notes on Multi Platform“. She is tracking some of the evening sessions with myself and guest lecturers such as a great post on “Finding Your Audience“- based on Kelly Chapman’s talk as part of Multi Platform Business. The last weekend incubator was to actually realise a small prototype as part of a much bigger proposition. So we had great examples & concepts of locative and marker augmented reality, drupal communities, flash games, wordpress blogs etc: Monica and her team member Tali decided to go a slightly tricky route (for non programmers) and try a mashup. Although aware of the issues of coding multiple services together using APIs – Monica and Tali focused on the key need for the service then built a simple live on the web prototype. Monica writes on her World Wise post:

For you to be able to imagine our application we developed some bits: an RSS to search only in specific feeds, TweetBlender: a WordPress plugin, a Flicker widget, etc. The idea is for this application to be used in a searchable interactive interface which will allow citizens, journalists and activists, to find relevant human rights information in ways in which they can contribute, either by becoming more informed or more involved and able to donate time, energy and money to a cause. The result is here http://transmediadesign.org/hera/ but I don’t know for how long, so I took a few screenshots:

Luci is capturing some of her ideas on her existing blogspot site which itself is a great resource for DIY filmmakers “Yet Another Struggling Writer (& Indie Filmmaker)” – her recent post was on the second incubator project that the students teamed up for which was to design a localised TV transmedia project for the show “V”. Jennifer Wilson and I made sure that all students really thought hard about the reasons for the service and of course how to grow ‘relevant’ community and audience. In other incubators they developed completely original ideas but for this one it is important they develop their ‘multi platform’ adaptation skills and other students looked at transmedia extensions to existing linear properties including Madmen, East West 101, Being Erica & ABC News. Read Luci’s in-depth service design post here and as an intro she writes

My team (myself, Jane Arandelovic and Alex Bathur) identified a common problem for the local TV networks that screen overseas content here in Australia after the US air date. The audience most likely to become fans tend to seek these shows out online or on DVD prior to the Australian broadcast. For networks, such as Channel Nine, the problem of securing audience loyalty to their channel, when the same content is available online through someone else, is similar to the question of how filmmakers can turn file-sharers into loyal purchasers. We used the television show “V” as an example. This is a sci-fi series that began screening episodes in the US last November, while it wasn’t till March 2010 that it broadcast in Australia. Our goal was to increase ratings of the show on Channel Nine despite the delayed broadcast. We took the position that we were standing in late 2009 trying to work out how to win over viewers (rather than mid way through the series as it is now).

Wanna Apply?

So if you are Sydney based and want to be instructed by some of the top professionals in this neck of the woods, develop your own transmedia ideas and be ready for the industry as it moves towards multi platform, multi screen, multi form distribution, then sign up for the course.

There are a range of pages about the course on the main AFTRS site but to get lots more info, express interest and provisionally apply here are some links:

1. To apply straight away, register on the AFTRS portal first by going here
2. To see more high level stuff about the course go to Graduate Certificate in Multi Platform Content
3. To read a more detailed page that lists course structure, outcomes and modules etc: go to Multi Platform Content Award Course Detail

If you would like more personalised information about this course please email Peter Giles as your first port of call

Related posts

• Mastering Multi Platform Content (5)
• Study Multiplatform and Games Virtual Worlds at AFTRS (0)
• Mentors Finalised for LAMP VII: Story of the Future (0)
• Speaking Transmedian – Kelly Chapman at SPAA (3)
• Open Source, Social Collaboration Tools – Next State of Play Seminar (0)

As we ended the last decade we were collating/archiving assets from the LAMP site and think it important to recognise the people that made LAMP the Australian icon in effective emerging media development.

Many of the mentors and participants were beginning their own journey on these workshops and residentials and are now leading the industry in Australia and abroad. We hope these ‘retrospective’ posts serve as a record for that which follows LAMP.

LAMP 2005-2009 was:

A selection of the more than 50 mentors from the past four years (in first name alphabetical)

Andrew Apostola	Anthony Eden	Catherine Gleeson	Christy Dena
David Court	David Gurney	David Jensen	Duane Varan
Gary Hayes	Jackie Turnure	Jennifer Wilson	Jim Shomos
John Banks	John Buchanan	Jonathan Marshall	Keren Flavell
Laurel Papworth	Lisa Romano	Malcolm Long	Marc Walker
Mark Meadows	Mark Pesce	Matt Costello	Paul Bennun
Peter Giles	Rachel Dixon	Raffi Krikorian	Ric Holland
Shiralee Saul	Sohail Dahdal	Tony Walsh	William Cooper

Some of the residential participants attached to over seventy 6 day – 6 month projects

A selection of key speakers who presented at ‘non-project based’ LAMP run seminars

Over 150 high level industry guests visited LAMP residentials

Related posts

• Seminar & Workshop: THE VIRTUAL STORY (0)
• Mentors Finalised for LAMP VII: Story of the Future (0)
• Mastering Multi Platform Content (5)
• Spooky!…Sydney LAMP Insight seminar registration closes Friday 13th June (0)
• SPAA 2009 Reaching Your Audience – LAMPicks (7)

Australia’s leading screen conference, run by SPAA, is in Sydney this week and many multi-platform folk associated with LAMP & AFTRS in the past are in force with a record number of panels and sessions. The heavily featured 360 Media (and by implication Social Media) track sits nicely in the theme of this years conference ‘Reaching Your Audience’. LAMP’s Gary Hayes is listed as a key advisor to this years event and the following are a taste of some of the great sessions worth checking out. Lots more detail on the downloadable PDF on the SPAA Conference site.

The sessions below are the LAMP best 360, multi platform picks for the 3 days

Weds 18 th Nov

10:30–11:45 am BREAKOUT Grand Ballroom 4

Reaching a niche or diverse audience is increasingly a producer’s mandate (not just the distributor’s). We are experiencing a moment of radical change across technology, consumer behaviour, distribution and marketing with seismic shifts in the way that entertainment is conceived, produced, distributed and consumed. Social Media, User Generated Content, Digitaland Mobile Channels, Convergence and Diversity are a fact of life. Successful producers are those who can realize the potential of a single extraordinary story across the widest range of platforms. How can we define, validate, inspire, energise and leverage the interactive participation of today’s audiences? What are the insights, trends and innovations that will shape our creative and marketing capacities as filmmakers? How can producers optimise their distribution plan to ensure their film successfully reaches an audience against an increasing competition for screens and changing consumer behaviour? A group of successful entertainment marketers will come together to help you gain a more comprehensive understanding of targeted movie marketing, divulge inside tricks, techniques and trends, outline how and where audiences are consuming content and provide an essential perspective that will help reorient your approach to storytelling, distribution & marketing.

Session Producer:

• Martin Walsh, Digital Marketing, Director, Microsoft & Producer, Red Dune Films

Speakers:

• Stephanie Bohn, Director of Worldwide Marketing, Digital Distribution, Warner Brothers, US
• Travis Johnson, Managing Director, Universal McCann Sydney
• Gordon Paddison, Founder & Principal, Stradella Road, US

1:45–3:00 pm BREAKOUT Meeting Room 4

Come on people—let’s switch on! We get an international perspective from the guru himself Ken Faier of Nerd Corps Entertainment, Canada and hear about all the ultra cool kinds of  ‘360’ programming you could be doing.

Session Chair:

• Dan Fill, Partner, Chocolate Liberation Front

Speaker:

• Ken Faier, President, Nerd Corps, CA

1:45–3:00 pm BREAKOUT Grand Ballroom 4

Part 2 of this session will take you through today’s film audience behaviour and how to translate this insight into practical strategies and tactics.Case studies include District 9, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Lord of the Rings, The Watchmen, Snakes on a Plane and Sex and the City and will illustrate how important understanding your audience is, how filmmakers can successfully tap into today’s digitally wired consumers, integrate across platforms and optimise their distribution opportunities accordingly.

Session Producer:

• Martin Walsh, Digital Marketing Director, Microsoft

& Producer, Red Dune Films

Speakers:

• Stephanie Bohn, Director of Worldwide Marketing, Digital Distribution, Warner Brothers, US
• Graham Cassidy, Senior Adviser, Cato Counsel
• Travis Johnson, Managing Director, Universal McCann Sydney
• Christopher Mapp, Managing Director, Omnilab
• Gordon Paddison, Founder & Principal, Stradella Road, US

1:45–3:00 pm BREAKOUT Barnet Room

Christopher Sandberg, is CEO of new media production company  The company P. He is dedicated to the exploration of human interaction and audience involvement in modern entertainment. With over a decade of experience in start-ups as CEO/ExecutiveProducer/Producer in television, online and mobile, ranging from drama to social applications and games, Sandberg executive produced the participatory drama The Truth About Marika (produced with SVT). Sandberg is currently involved as CEO and Executive producer in one international participation drama with VRT and SVT, several AFP internationally and numerous ARG marketing campaigns and online and computer games for clients of The company P. He holds advisory trustee positions,notably in the creative team for the mediasummit SIME. Sandberg is creator and Executive Producer forthe national DTV channel “Mediteve”, Scandinavia’s first participatory television channel, integrating SMS based chat and formats rangingfrom game shows to drama (now re-launchedas TV400, with TV4).

Session Producer:

• Courtney Gibson, Director of Programmes, Southern Star Entertainment

3:00–4:45 pm BREAKOUT Grand Ballroom 3

What do producers need to know and do tomake money from emerging content channels?We will consider the costs to produce in new formats or make additional content including long and short form episodes, downloads, social media tools and websites—against the financing and revenue mix of traditional and digital delivery channels, government funding and producer offset, distributor advances and brand-related revenue. We will also dissect the lexicon of Next-Gen television to find out what you do and don’t need to understand about targeted distribution, expanded reach, precise metrics, increased loyalty, contextual sponsorship, e-commerce,VOD and IPTV.

Session Producer:

• Debra Allanson, Managing Director, Ish Media

Speakers:

• Matt Houltham, Digital Partner, Zenithoptimedia
• Ben Liebmann, Vice President, Licensing— FremantleMedia Enterprises
• Katherine Rossetti, Director, Freshwater Media
• Angelo Tilocca, Manager, Content Licensing, ABC Commercial

THURSDAY 19th November

9:00–10:00 am PLENARY Grand Ballroom 1

Major corporations once completely controlled the holy media trinity of technology, distribution,and content. No more. Whether its fan fiction finding its way into Showtime Network’s The LWord, Susan Boyle’s appearance on Britain’s Got Talent, mobile phone video and photos of a bubbling revolution in Iran or the collaboration of fans on recording artist Imogen Heap’s new album Ellipse, a technology enabled sea change has occurred in the production,distribution, and consumption of content. From participation television, locative and alternate reality gaming and a world of mobile phone apps to high quality user generated production and the tech steroid power of social media applications the audience is surgingforward. And yet, good storytelling will always beat the core of great content. But, what does this revolution mean to the both traditional and new creators, producers and distributors of content.Brian Seth Hurst, CEO of The Opportunity Management Company will escort you intothe revolutionary battlefield to survey the developing media landscape, its casualties and its opportunities. Brought to you by Screen Australia

SPAA acknowledges the financial assistance of Screen Australia

10:30–11:45 am BREAKOUT Grand Ballroom 3

TV is in major transition where it is evolving from just scheduled broadcast to being always-on, participatory and social. Its traditional audience is now fully engaged with Social Media and here they effectively become ‘programme’ and content makers for each other but, in the backchannel, they still drive conversation around traditional, compelling broadcast content. This is what we currently label, Social TV. There are many challenges ahead and this session will look at innovations across broad band and IPTV, latest business models, new advertising models and latest video web 2.0 mash-ups. We will also try to answer questions such as, is IPTV a valid platform for video producers? Where are the opportunities across on-demand platforms and is the old advertising model really broken? Is audience contributed online content sustainable at scale and what are the challenges of broadcasting and delivering on-demand? Is there a role for a public service broadcaster in a commercially driven IPTV landscape. IPTV used to stand for ‘Internet Protocol TV’ but in today’s Social Media world perhaps it really means Interactive and Personal TV.

Session Producer:

• Gary Hayes, Director of LAMP, AFTRS & CCO of MUVEDesign

Speakers:

• Arul Baskaran, Acting Head of Multiplatform Production, ABC
• Courtney Gibson, Dir. of Programmes, Southern Star Entertainment
• Lisa Gray, Head of Content, The Feds
• Marshall Heald, Head of Online, SBS
• Siobhan Mulholland, Creative Director, Dubz.tv, UK

1:15–2:30 pm BREAKOUT Grand Ballroom 1

Traditional advertising models are underpressure, challenging the content-distribution ecosystem to adapt in response to empowered consumers. Brands are enthusiastically pursuing opportunities ushered in by digital television and interactive media. Savvy brands are now creating original programming. What do advertisers need from program partners? How can brand interactivity better engage viewers with traditional shows? What role do programmers play in brand-generated shows? Where do brands fit into direct-to-web distribution and user-generated content? Learn from teams that have ‘been there, done that’ as we speak to various content owners and related advertisers on their recent collaborations.

Session Producer:

• Tim Flattery, Executive Producer— Branded Entertainment, Carat

Speakers:

• Damien Bray, CEO, Brand New Media Entertainment
• Michael Cook, Executive Producer, The Feds
• Matthew Hunt, Managing Director, RedLever

1:15–2:30 pm BREAKOUT Meeting Room 4

How to find, engage and retain audiences through social networks such as Bebo, Twitter, branded microcommunities and Facebook/MySpace widgets and iPhone applications. Specifically for those in the industry of providing ‘real time, experiential marketing’ social media assets (content) and distribution (networks) are pulled together to provide both campaign and long term strategies for building brand in the social media space. Laurel Papworth is a Power150 media blogger and in the top 5 media bloggers for Australia.She has been teaching for 20 years, mostly in the area of online communities and virtual communications.Laurel is the senior social media strategist in Australia, consulting to companies in Australia, Asia and Middle East including Fairfax: RSVP Dating Community, Sony Corporation, Universal McCann EricksonWorldWide and Channel Ten.

Session Producer:

• Laurel Papworth, Social Networks Strategist

3:00–4:15 pm BREAKOUT Meeting Room 4

Kelly Chapman and Sarah-Jane Woulahan will walk you through various examples of branded entertainment produced in Australia and internationally—from small, independent scale projects to huge global productions.Through case studies they’ll demonstrate approaches to creating immersive entertainment experiences that incorporate commercial partners, and explain how audience-centriccontent creation lends itself to meeting the needs of brands.

Session Producer:

• Kelly Chapman, Producer, KCDC

Speaker:

• Sarah-Jane Woulahan, Director, Portable

FRIDAY 20th NOVEMBER

12.00-1.15om Breakout: Meeting Room 2

This is an opportunity for producers to get a general update on the digital media landscape in Australia, meet those who are active in the space and develop relationships with potential partners including broadcasters, digital content distributors, digital studios, telcos, government agencies and branded entertainment media agencies. Producers will meet people who can assist with developing an efficient digital strategy and learn more about their requirements. Pitching is only allowed at the discretion of the executives. Pre-bookings essential. Please see Cynthia at the Roundtables Booking Desk on Level 4 for availability.

Executives include:

• Debra Allanson, Managing Director, Studio Ish
• Arul Baskaran, A/Head of Multiplatform Production, ABC
• Mike Cowap, Development Manager, Innovation, Screen Australia
• Dan Fill, Partner, Chocolate Liberation Front
• Tim Flattery, Executive Producer—Branded Entertainment, Carat
• Jason Franklin, General Manager, Branded Entertainment, Endemol Southern Star
• Marcus Gillezeau, Producer, Firelight
• James Grant Hay, Senior Brand Strategist, RedLever
• Marshall Heald, Head of Online, SBS
• Mike Kerry, Business Development Director, MySpace Video, Australia and New Zealand
• Sally Nelson, Group Manager Movies & Video, Telstra Media
• Christopher Smyth, Product Manager Video, Ninemsn
• Jennifer Wilson, Director, The Project Factory

International Guests

• Kay Benbow, Head of CBeebies Production, Animation & Acquisitions, BBC, UK
• Andrew Bohn, Partner, Fluent Entertainment, US
• Stephanie Bohn, Director of Worldwide Marketing, Digital Distribution, Warner Bros, US
• Jules Borkent, SVP, Global Acquisitions & International Programming, Nickelodeon, US
• Ken Faier, President, Nerd Corps, CA
• Bob Higgins, Head of Creative, Wildbrain, US
• Samantha Horley, Managing Director, Salt, UK
• Brian Seth Hurst, CEO, The Opportunity Management Company, US
• Ian Hutchinson, Partner, Silver Reel, UK
• Heather Kenyon, VP Project Development & Sales, Starz Animation and Film Roman, US
• Annmarie Lesiuk, Managing Director, Minds Eye International, US
• Sharon Menzies, Managing Director, Fulcrum Media, NZ
• Charlotte Mickie, Executive Vice-President International Film Sales e1 Entertainment, CA
• Annie Miles, Executive Producer, UK
• Siobhan Mulholland, Creative Director, Dubz.tv, UK
• Gordon Paddison, Founder & Principal, Stradella Road, US
• Isaac Palmer, MD, MESA Global, US
• Antonio Salas, Sales Executive, Bankside Films, UK
• Christopher Sandberg, CEO and Founder, The company P, SE
• Sander Schwartz, EVP, Head of Children and Family Entertainment, FremantleMedia, UK
• Christopher Skala, Senior VP, Programming & New Content Development, HiT, UK
• Adrian Ward, Senior Vice President—Entertainment, Sports & Media Department, Bank of California, US
• Michael Werner, Co-Chairman of Fortissimo Films, HK
• Matthew Weiner, Series Creator/Executive Producer/Writer, US
• Nick Wilson, Director of Children’s Programmes, Five, UK
• Michael Wrenn, Curious Film Distribution, NZ

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Australians now spend an average of 16.1 hours on the internet each week, 12.9 hours watching TV, 8.8 hours listening to the radio, 3.7 hours on a mobile phone and 2.8 hours reading newspapers according to The Nielsen Online Internet and Technology Report quoted in The Australian earlier this year. With internet use now eclipsing TV viewing Australian broadcasters are in for a bumpy ride over the next few years. In this environment, how well prepared are our content producers for a world of participatory media, social networking and transmedia storytelling?

AFTRS are running a new post graduate course in 2010 which has been designed for content producers of all persuasions to combine the practical skills of traditional media with those of the online world. What’s clear is there is a huge appetite by global audiences for rich media content and we need skilled producers to start the conversations.

More information about this groundbreaking new course is available here and applications close on November 1, 2009

The course has been developed utilising the knowledge and experience gained through LAMP workshops, seminars and residentials and the pool of national and international experts who have contributed to its success. To get an idea of the calibre of our industry speakers here is a list of links to some of the most pertinent LAMP podcasts, vodcasts and slideshares about Multi Platform Content innovation. And finally, some of our industry testimonials and more stats to help you ponder your future.

Innovations in Multi Platform Content Seminar

With speakers including Anthony Mullins and Jackie Turnure from Hoodlum (Prime Time Emmy Award Winners), Social Media Strategist Laurel Papworth, Senior Vice President of Animal Logic Interactive Giancarlo A. Mori and Multi Platform producer Jim Shomos

Television 2.0: Social TV Seminar

Featuring Acting Head of ABC Multi Platform Arul Baskaran, Director of AFTRS LAMP Gary Hayes, Head of informitv William Cooper and Head of Strategic Development at ABC Innovation Chris Winter.

The Social Media Campaign

Featuring Social Media Strategist Laurel Papworth, Multi Platform Producer Martin Walsh, Geoffrey Emmerson, CEO of The Prosperity, Gary Hayes Director of AFTRS LAMP and Danielle Warby Online Marketing Director, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Sydney

Industry Testimonials

The screen industry is rapidly evolving and now more than ever there is a need for skilled multi platform specialists. Practical knowledge and learning in this area with the AFTRS has helped to transform the way we produce and deliver our projects.

Marcus Gillezeau and Ellenor Cox, 2009 International Digital Emmy Award winners

To reach our audiences, we need to cleverly create and adapt screen content, so that it is engaging on multiple platforms. Screen NSW is keen to support talented practitioners with well thought out multiple platform projects, as the future and relevance of our industry depends upon them. Take this course and extend your skills and your industry opportunities.

Tania Chambers, Chief Executive, Screen NSW

Fifteen years ago when I talked about multi platform content I was talking about new innovative ways that we will use to tell our stories in the future. That future is now, these days it’s a given in the screen content industry that you have an in-depth understanding of how to multi platform your content. It’s very exciting that AFTRS is presenting a national course specific to multi platform storytelling.

Sohail Dahdal, Emerging Media Producer (First Australians, Long Journeys Young Lives)

Audiences are consuming content across multiple screens and are increasingly expecting this as standard.  This presents an enormous opportunity for a new generation of storytellers to meet this expectation.  AFTRS has pioneered education in this important new sector of the media, and this course consolidates the varied skills required into one place

Guy Gadney, The Project Factory

Emerging Media Statistics

“Three out of four Americans use social technology”

Forrester, The Growth of Social Media Adoption, 2008

“Two thirds of the global internet population visit social networks” - Nielsen, Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009

“Visiting social sites is now the fourth most popular online activity, ahead of personal email.” - Nielsen, Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009

“If Facebook were a country it would be the 8^th most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan” - Mark Zuckerberg, Jan 2009

“Worldwide production of over 1 billion mobile phones per year is driving both innovation and adoption of ever more capable portable devices.” - Australia and New Zealand Horizon Report, 2008

A new survey by the Conference Board reports that almost 25% of U.S. households watch TV shows 
online as opposed to 20% just one year ago. Of these viewers, 43% watch news shows, 35% sitcoms, 
comedies and dramas, around 20% watch reality programming and 18% sports. - Conference Board report quoted in the LA Times, September 2009

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AFTRS in conjunction with the IGDA Sydney are running GameJam 09.

An interactive event by gamers for gamers – a day of playing, learning about and making games. Come be a spectator, play to win, or get involved in the creative jam session.  This free one day event features gaming competitions, seminars, networking and creative activities.  The JAM starts with a gaming forum where anyone can register to be a presenter – share YOUR latest discoveries, opinions & ideas for games and virtual worlds. The JAM ends with a workshop & competition – where creative teams engage in a battle of ideas & rapid game-design, with prizes for best pitch!

Register to come along and/or participate – online at: www.gamejam.org.au

• Second part of the day a rapid ideas development seminar with awards for best pitch
• Demo, interact and learn & meet F2F with like minded people, passionate about game/worlds
• Intense show’n'tells, pitches, discussions and lots of interaction
• Show everyone YOUR latest ideas for games and virtual worlds

If you want to present for around 10-15 mins please book yourself a talk slot by checking out the site and clicking the registration LINK here – we will put you in!

• ADMISSION: Free! LOCATION: AFTRS building at the Entertainment Quarter, 130 Bent St. Moore Park (next door to Fox Studios)
• WHEN: Saturday 10th October 2009
• WHO: YOU’RE the stars, but we will have some cool folk like Dan Graf (Dr D Studios) & Ian Brown (Unity & CG creator)

OPEN TALKS & SCHEDULE

The talks will be about anything to do with

• developing for or playing with console, pc games, alternate reality games, augmented reality, smart mobiles, serious games
• offline, online games or creating and using virtual worlds
• games, film cross-over, machinima, writing, artificial intelligence, social games
• educational, fun or just plain ‘wtf’!.
• The user or creator angle is fine (in otherwords talk us through one of your must play games!) – just make sure it is not too geeky or too fanzy!

Demos around the areas: big screen displays, play new games and demos.

Below some photos taken by Gary Hayes last year at a jam packed event!

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Profiling successful case studies, people and the latest techniques across multi platform media. FREE themed seminars running on the last Wednesday of every month at 5:30pm – 7pm. No need to register just turn up to Theatre 1 at AFTRS Sydney

Upcoming FREE seminars:

• AFTRS, Main Theatre, 5:30pm – 7pm, Wed Sept 30
• Wed Sept 30 – Building Creative Collaboration Online

Social networking applications have opened many new opportunities for creative people to collaborate online. Australian online collaborative spaces are notoriously thin on the ground but there are a few leaders in a small pack. What consitutes an online creative community, how do you motivate people to contribute content and what are the benefits that are offered?

Speakers will include:

• Sherre De Lys from the ABC’s Pool – a creative community for online collaboration and content creation and
• Matt Fayle and Pip Jameson from The Loop, a creative portfolio and collaboration site about to be launched targeting creative industries.

Pool was launched by the ABC in 2008 and is a creative community of content creators and a place to share and talk about creative work. It embraces music, photos, videos, documentaries, interviews, animations and other forms and has brokered partnerships between the ABC and universities. Pool claims to be ‘conducting research in action at the intersection of broadcast and participatory media’ and embraces Creative Commons licencing in a big way. The Loop is a platform for promotion where creative people can showcase their skills and achievements, share ideas and connect with other creative people.It is also a highly targeted job advertising portal and is the creation of Pip Jameson and Matt Fayle, both ex-MTV creatives. The Loop is the first Australian recruitment and portfolio site that is built on a social networking platform. It will launch in October 2009.

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LAMP has been an integral part of the interactive cross media & digital curriculum at AFTRS for the past four years. As well as its external facing activities works closely with all aspects of social and cross media in the Graduate Diploma for Directors & Production students, Foundation ‘Creating Experiences and Designing Worlds modules’ and MA specialist courses in Virtual Worlds, Social Media and Games.

Next year there are some great Graduate Certificate courses starting and LAMP will be very active in the Multiplatform and Games & Virtual Worlds offerings and recommend you to pass these around. More info here:

MULTIPLATFORM GRADUATE CERTIFICATE – This course provides a systematic and practical approach to multi platform content creation in order to provide emerging producers with skills to initiate and manage these projects. Students will learn to tailor content for emerging media platforms such as convergent television, broadband web and mobile devices and focus on alternate reality games, episodic social media and other emerging entertainment formats which utilise a combination of platforms to engage audiences. A comprehensive overview of media technologies, platforms and formats is provided in addition to real world exercises and briefs culminating in a final project that can be used by students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. More info here Multiplatform

The games and virtual worlds course is a great mix of social and goal orientated games design and incorporates much of what Ian Brown & Gary Hayes talked about recently in the Kotaku interviews. Again more information from the AFTRS MakeIt site:

GAME AND VIRTUAL WORLDS GRADUATE CERTIFICATE - This course concentrates on the development of original concepts for virtual stories, games, social worlds and innovative gameplay resulting in the creation of a working prototype by the end of the course. Designed for emerging games designers, writers and developers this creatively focused course utilises prototyping methods to rapidly generate ideas and concepts for innovative projects. The crossover between cinematic storytelling and virtual environments, particularly in the areas of cinematography, storytelling, character and environment design are investigated in real world exercises and briefs. More info here Games & Virtual Worlds

Both courses are postgraduate and part time (16 weeks / 1 semester – 2 evenings a week plus 1 weekend a month) so very doable for those working or involved in other activities. The course fee is only $5900.

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The August LAMP State of Play evening seminar will be a joint event with the AFTRS Centre for Screen Business and Screenrights who will be launching Jennifer Wilson’s white paper:

‘The Digital Deadlock: how clearance and copyright issues are keeping Australian content offline’

Jennifer will present the case for reforming the copyright system so that content creators can make the most of the online opportunity. Creators are missing out, she says, because the copyright system has fallen behind: ‘It is failing the very people it is meant to encourage. Not only that, but the public is being denied access to the content it wants.’

Jennifer, a partner at The Project Factory, an ex-LAMP mentor and former Head of Innovation at NineMSN, will outline her proposals for reform and answer questions from the audience.

Come along and receive your free copy of Jennifer’s paper together with her guide to navigating the digital landscape

‘Getting In The Digital Frame: a screen content producer’s guide to the digital landscape’.

Drinks will be hosted by Screenrights and AFTRS after the presentation.

When: 5.00pm Wednesday August 26

Where: Main Theatre, AFTRS, (directions) The Entertainment Quarter, 130 Bent St, Moore Park

RSVP: to Lois Robinson at lois.robinson@aftrs.edu.au by 19 August

We look forward to seeing you there!

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LAMP @ AFTRS has begun it’s 2009 series of seminars, workshops and incubators, many are listed below.

LAMP has been actively involved in getting 360 Content development integrated into the main curriculum at AFTRS (in its new building) for the past year but is now back delivering industry standard, emerging media education.

Multiplatform Content and Innovative new format development will be delivered as:

• LAMP ‘State of Play’ Seminars
• LAMP ‘Interactive’ Workshops
• LAMP ‘New Format’ Incubators

These new learning packages are specially designed so that industry professionals and students alike can understand the new landscape, appreciate it’s potential and prepare themselves for the production of new form content across  social media, games, mobile, broadband internet, location based services and virtual worlds.

Stay up to date with our activities by joining the LAMP Facebook Group

LAMP ‘STATE OF PLAY’ SEMINARS

Profiling successful case studies, people and the latest techniques across multi platform media.

• FREE themed seminars running on the last Wednesday of every month at 6pm – 7pm.
• No need to register just turn up to the main Theatre at AFTRS, Sydney (directions)

Upcoming FREE seminars:

• Wed Jul 29 – CINEMA 2.0: Big Screen Participatory Futures
  

  • Stereoscopic 3D, interactive cinema, games in cinema. Where does the future lie for cinemas and other public screen spaces? Speakers: Tim Baier (Animal Logic), Paul Nichola (Cane Toad’s 3D cinematographer) and others to be announced

• Wed Aug 26 – MASSIVELY MULTI-STORYTELLER WORLDS: The Drama of Game Worlds
  

  • Virtual worlds are now populated by 900 million players globally with many spending more time in them than their real lives. This ‘State of Play’ seminars looks at the range of stories being created in these social and game worlds. It will focus on the drama being created by these full time role players and the opportunities for traditional writers to engage in this popular medium. Speakers: Gary Hayes (AFTRS LAMP), Ian Brown, Laurel Papworth and others to be announced

• Previous State of Plays

• Wed March 25 – TELEVISION 2.0: latest innovations in online video
  

  • TV is in major transition. Where are the opportunities across on-demand platforms? Is the old advertising model broken? Will broadband to set top box comfortably co-exist with video on the web? A pre MIP TV session to help prepare you for big changes just on the horizon.
  • Speakers: William Cooper (Informitv – live from UK),  Chris Winter (ABC Innovation), Arul Baskaran (Executive Producer ABC TV Multiplatform), Gary Hayes (LAMP)

• Wed April 29 – FREE AND EASY: Open Source Creative Tools
  

  • There are a vast range of new free to use tools that enable rich and efficient collaboration. What are the best tools for online communities, project development, video distribution and marketing. A survey of tools including Mogulus, Joomla, Ning, Ustream, Drupal, Celtx and many others.
  • Speakers:  Laurel Papworth ‚Social Media Strategist, Gary Hayes – AFTRS LAMP

Go to the AFTRS site for a full list of the above seminars

LAMP ‘INTERACTIVE’ WORKSHOPS

Practical and hands on creative workshops exploring everything there is to know about the latest innovative new forms.

Upcoming seminar workshops:

CLICK TO APPLY: Seminar and Workshop Fri 3 April 10am – 5pm

The intersection between documentary filmmaking and games will be explored in this seminar and workshop, providing deep insight into the potential of Serious Games.

Both games and stories have long been recognised as powerful learning tools. Their combination in the 21st century has the potential to provide learning experiences that are collaborative and globally connected. What are the best examples of Serious Games and where are they heading? How can Serious Games be employed by educators, corporations or non-profit organizations?

Screen Australia and the ABC have recently announced a funding initiative in the area of Serious Games. This seminar will bring you up to speed with the latest developments in serious games and provide an opportunity to present your own concepts and workshop ideas with experts in an afternoon workshop.

Speakers include:

• Live link up with Tim Nixon Straylight Studios, New Zealand
• Marianne Webb – Inspire Foundation
• Rachel Perkins & Darren Dale – First Australians
• John Welsh – SYDAC.com.au
• Gary Hayes – LAMP, ex BBC Serious Games & MUVEDesign
  
• Sohail Dahdal  – First Australians, Long Journey Young Lives
• Jennifer Collins – ABC Screen Australia Serious Game Initiative
• Peter Giles – AFTRS

• Rachel Perkins (Director), Darren Dale (EP) Sohail Dahdal (Online Producer) on SBS’s First Australians will talk about the online experience of the documentary series and explore the future possibilities of documentary games.
• Marianne Webb is the interactive manager for Reach Out!, an online service that inspires young people to help themselves through tough times. Marianne will talk about the serious game Reach Out Central that been part of an innovative online strategy to build community engagement by the Inspire Foundation.
• John Welsh is the Development Manager of Serious Games at Sydac, a leading Australian simulation technology company. John will talk about the role of simulation and play in learning environments.
• Gary Hayes is the Head of AFTRS Laboratory for Advanced Media production and he will speak about the history of serious games, a survey of future directions and cross over between games and documentary forms.
• Jennifer Collins – Manager of Development, ABC TV (Jennifer, with Mike Cowap from Screen Australia, is running the Serious Games funding initiative currently calling for applications)
• Tim Nixon – CEO Straylight Studios – Tim runs New Zealand based Straylight Studios an innovative games studio who specialise in ‘meaningful play’.

By the end of this workshop participants will have had the opportunity to learn about:

• The various types of serious games: evolution of the form and the directions it is heading
• The global serious games community and online resources
• Documentary storytelling and its relationship to serious games
• Techniques to brain-storm, plan and document serious games ideas
• The links between documentary research and serious games
• User created games and managing online communities

APPLY: Seminar Wed 22 April 9.30 am – 1 pm

A selection of leading innovators in multi-platform content present recent projects in the areas of social media, cross platform storytelling, extended entertainment, games and online entertainment.

Presenters include:

• Jackie Turnure, Head of Development and Production Hoodlum
• Anthony Mullins – Creative Director Hoodlum
• Laurel Papworth – World Communities & laurelpapworth.com
• Giancarlo A. Mori, Senior Vice President, ANIMALLOGIC Interactive
• Bob Hitching – Xumii
• Jim Shomos – www.mordykoots.com, Forget The Rules
• Sohail Dahdal & Gary Hayes AFTRS

By the end of this seminar participants will have had the opportunity to learn about:

• Innovative techniques in multi platform content creation
• Future directions of media innovation
• Case studies of innovative projects and production methodologies and techniques
• Techniques to foster and promote creative innovation
• Creating community and communicating directly with audiences

CLICK TO APPLY: Seminar Thurs 14 May 2 – 5 pm

CLICK TO APPLY: Workshop Fri 15 May 10 am – 5 pm (must attend seminar)

Games and virtual worlds are now being used as creative tools to make a wide range of films from horror genre, comedy to corporate training and education. YouTube, Machinima.com and scores of other video portals are filled with examples of these new forms of virtual storytelling and some are now being commissioned by mainstream TV. NBC aired a CSI episode in 2008 featuring machinima made in Second Life and HBO recently acquired the machinima series ‘Molotov Alva’.

The seminar will explore the vast range of machinima made with console, PC and online games. It will also look at simple forms of film pre-visualisation now possible using games technologies. The intensive workshop will provide a hands-on introduction to the tools of machinima and the opportunity to work on a short project. Participants are encouraged to bring along a pre-recorded soundtrack (including voice and/or music) to use as the basis for their project.

Presenters and workshop trainers include:

• Gary Wiesneski, SLCN.tv
• Mark Strong  – Wandering Eye Pictures
• TBC – Jim Shomos, ForgetTheRules (MOGIE – Movie over Game Integrated Entertainment)
• Gary Hayes, LAMP and MUVEDesign
• Kit Devine and/or Ian Brown – AFTRS
• Kathy Mueller  – AFTRS

By the end of this workshop & seminar participants will have had the opportunity to learn about:

• What makes compelling machinima
• The wide range of machinima styles being created around the world
• Insight into the engines and tools used to create machinima
• Basic storyboarding and scripting techniques for machinima
• Global machinima community and other online resources
• Role playing and improvisation techniques that work in this new form

CLICK TO APPLY: Seminar Friday 5 June 10am – 1 pm

“The web is 15-30 billion web pages. A workshop designed to help you track and follow the latest trends and information across a range of specialised areas. Browsers, RSS readers and social media mash-ups have evolved into being effective one-stop-shop views on a world of relevant content. This is a half day workshop looking beyond the search engine, basic RSS feeds or old fashioned email alerts. It is designed to help you find, filter information and follow the right people on the web. Web filtering is becoming a critical skill for researchers, marketers and those who need specific news and information. It will also help you track and follow the latest trends and information across a range of specialised areas.

By the end of this workshop participants will have had the opportunity to learn:

• How to get the web to deliver the right information to you
• About the very latest web research techniques across services such as digg, delicious, twitter, technorati, social networks, specialised engines & the semantic web
• How to find the key recommenders, filterers and influencers in your field
• Blogosphere filtering, separating the signal from the noise
• How to make contact and become a key filterer yourself
• Taming RSS feeds and being more efficient with email alerts
• Reading trends and patterns

Led by Laurel Papworth of company World Communities, who is a Power150 media blogger (global – AdNews) and in the top 5 media bloggers for Australia (B&T). She has been teaching for 20 years, mostly in the area of online communities and virtual communications. Laurel is the senior social media strategist in Australia, consulting to companies, not for profits and government departments in Australia, Asia and Middle East.

CLICK TO APPLY: Seminar: Thurs 2 July 2 – 5 pm

CLICK TO APPLY: Workshop : Friday  3  July 10 am – 5 pm

Aimed at anyone who wants to promote themselves, their product or creation into communities. A workshop looking at how to understand the new audiences, build traffic and loyalty that goes way beyond uploading a 9 minute short onto YouTube but looks at techniques of engaging with online events, social networks and DIY social media. The workshop will examine case studies of successful campaigns from producers and creators doing it for themselves.

By the end of this workshop participants will have had the opportunity to learn about:

• The online ecology of social networks
• Techniques to distribute your content as widely as possible to a global audience
• Planning and staging a campaign which has maximum impact and reach
• Building loyalty and community with an online audience

Led by Laurel Papworth who is a Power150 media blogger (global – AdNews) and in the top 5 media bloggers for Australia (B&T). She has been teaching for 20 years, mostly in the area of online communities and virtual communications. Laurel is the senior social media strategist in Australia, consulting to companies, not for profits and government departments in Australia, Asia and Middle East including: Middle East Broadcasting (Dubai/Saudi Arabia) – Channel MBC4, Telecom New Zealand, , Fairfax: RSVP Dating Community, Sony Corporation, Universal McCann Erickson WorldWide, CHANNEL TEN: including Australian Idol community, Sulake: Makers of Habbo, Macquarie Leisure, Macquarie Media, New Holland Publishing, Australasian, Performing Right Association (APRA), Peoplebrowsr, MySongcast.com unsigned bands community, Australian Businesswomens’ Network, Pink Sofa online community, ABC Australia, National Archives of Australia (gov), Department of State and Regional Development (gov), Department of Primary Industry (gov), Australian Film Television and Radio School (edu), University of Sydney (edu, public), University of Western Sydney (edu, Masters program).

Go to the AFTRS site list of all of these seminars and workshops >

LAMP ‘NEW FORMAT’ INCUBATORS

NOTE: To be updated soon.

These are extended and intensive 3-5 day workshops designed to maximise participants time and help them really understand emerging media areas by working collaboratively on new and adapted ideas. Based loosely on previous LAMP intensive labs they really help to push your thinking to the next stage, whether it be piloting, developing participatory audiences, broadening the project’s media format or developing new ways of delivering content. It could include the communication of content through mobile devices, advanced television services, broadband portals, social networks, gaming environments, virtual worlds and more.

The LAMP ‘New Format’ Incubators focus on content and service development, and extends perceived ideas of creativity, technicality, audience, consumer and business. Participants will use a range of exercises and form creative teams to utilise their thinking and skills in new ways to create compelling interactive content that meets the changing needs of audiences and the new media marketplace.

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Early last year (2008) a LAMP initiated project called “Macbeth:What If” from the 7th residential received development/production funding from the NMC and the Australia Council (who also part funded the LAMP: Story of the Future residential) last year. Project creator Kerreen Ely-Harper teamed up with producer Kate Richards, Virtual World creator Angela Thomas and another LAMP alumni, Designer Adam Nash, to realise the original project. After a year or so of development they created an island in second life that built on the original project idea that was looking at the experiential teaching and awareness of Shakespeare’s works via Second Life and also the ability to perform and create machinima in a rich virtual setting.

The video below is quick & cheerful ‘Space Navigator’ Machinima and Music by Gary Hayes. The whole work was very similar in style and form to Thursday’s Fictions in Second Life, another LAMP initiated project two years ago. Full credits for the Macbeth project below.

Filmed and edited by Gary Hayes. Note: This film does not demonstrate the many interactive elements, social intentions or literary integration. Please visit the island to see those first ‘virtual’ hand. A medium resolution (98MB MP4) download is available here

Macbeth in Second Life Credits
Guide & credits here

SLURL – http://slurl.com/secondlife/Macbeth/44/54/54

A collaboration by Angela Thomas, Kate Richards and Kerreen Ely-Harper, from an original idea by Kerreen Ely-Harper.
Producer: Kate RIchards (Nini Dubrovna)
Director: Kereen Ely-Harper (Dorothy Porta)
Virtual World Content Designer: Angela Thomas (Anya Ixchel)
SL Design Consultant: Adam Nash (Adam Ramona)

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Initial stages of this project were mentored and developed through the Laboratory for Advanced Media Production (LAMP) at Australian Film TV and Radio School (AFTRS). This project has been funded and built by the New Media Consortium

NMC Team:
Larry Johnson (Larry Pixel)
Alan Levine (CDB Barkley)
Rachel Smith (Ninmah Ash)
NMC Second Life Building Team:
Chris Holden (CJ Carnot)
Beth Satchjen (Stella Costello)

Voiceover Actors:
Maggie Blinco
Boris Brkic
Christopher Morris
Ophelia Of The Spirits
Alice Parkinson
Evelyn Parsonage
Recorded at Megaphone Studios
Engineer: Shane Fahey

Additional thanks to:
Larry Johnson
Therese Fingelton
Gary Hayes
Jeff Wegener
Ian Waddely
Nick Noakes

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