Live Streaming on Wednesday: Power to the Pixel

Great speaker roster for this year's Power to the Pixel conference in London, including folks like Ted Hope, Nina Paley, Hunter Weeks, and Lance Weiler. You can watch the presentations streaming live on Wednesday here.

Pixel Pitch: $10,000 for Your Cross-Media Project

Power to the Pixel conference director Liz Rosenthal e-mailed recently to you all know that the deadline is approaching for this year's Pixel Pitch. It's a chance to win nearly $10,000 (£6,000) for your cross-media project.

The Pixel Pitch is Power to the Pixel’s ground-breaking new pitching forum for up to ten of the best UK and international cross-media film projects.

We are looking for stories that can span film, TV, online, mobile and gaming to be presented to a select group of financiers, commissioners, tech companies, online portals and media companies in front of an audience of PttP participants.

Apply by Friday, August 14th to be eligible.

And good luck!

Power to the Pixel also offers this interesting essay on "The Extended Reality of Cross-Media Storytelling." It begins:

As digital technology simplified the mechanics of filmmaking, it greatly expanded the methods of storytelling. New opportunities exist for filmmakers who reach across platforms to engage their audiences. No longer must films play to passive viewers, who watch at a distance as predetermined narratives unfold. Now, audiences are closely tied to the content they consume, sometimes even helping to shape it. Through the proliferation of social media tools and popularity of user-generated content, audiences have shown their desire to experience narratives on a more personal level. Cross-media storytelling can take a variety of forms, but when it works to engage audiences in real world activities through interactive narratives, it takes the shape of something far greater than just a film. This move towards social entertainment is not some new fad, but, rather, the result of a permanent shift within the creative industries. Through innovative methods, filmmakers and other artists are reinventing storytelling and extending the boundaries of their fictional worlds into the real world, satisfying eager audiences - who are more than happy to help in any way they can.

'Fans, Friends & Followers' update: Events, Articles, and a Twebinar

I'm spending a lot of time on the road in June to spread the word about 'Fans, Friends & Followers.' Maybe I'll see you on my travels?

Events:

- Tomorrow (Friday , June 5th), I'll be running a filmmaker pitch session at Making Media Now, put on by Filmmakers Collaborative

- This Sunday (June 7th), I'll be at the Apple Store in Soho to moderate a free panel on film funding, promotion, and distribution as part of Internet Week NY.

- On June 17th, I'll be at Silverdocs to run a Silver Session workshop on 'Building Big Audiences & Generating Revenue in the Digital World' (sign up is required, and space is limited), and also to participate in a panel on the future of public media.

- On June 20th, I'll be at the Los Angeles Film Festival to moderate a panel called 'Digital Distribution: The Future is Here, But Where is the Money?'

Articles:

- Kendall Whitehouse has just published a great interview with Kat Parsons, an LA singer-songwriter who is following some of the same strategies for connecting with fans (and enlisting their support) as I explore in the book.

- Chris Holland from B-Side interviewed me via e-mail about some of the challenges filmmakers face as they're forced to do more marketing, promotion, and social networking.

- Liz Rosenthal of Power to the Pixel posted about the book this week, including an MP3 link to the interview I did with documentarian Robert Greenwald, which is excerpted in the 'Fans, Friends & Followers.'

Twebinar:

- Next Tuesday (June 9th), I'm doing a "Twebinar" on cultivating an audience for your work and developing a successful business model, with PermissionTV. You'll see a live video feed at 2 PM EDT, and you'll be able to Tweet in your questions. (Hence, "Twebinar" instead of just "Webinar.") It's free, but you'll need to register here.