Power to the Pixel

JAMIE KING

23.08 2008

Jamie King is founder of the VODO project for distributing and sustaining cultural production via P2P and Director/Producer of the series STEAL THIS FILM, which has been downloaded more than 6m times, broadcast internationally and screened at festivals worldwide. Jamie’s work focuses on the radical creative possibilities offered by new media. He is currently in post-production with a five part net-show and feature, Dark Fibre, commissioned by FACT and Arts Council England.

When not working on projects, Jamie lectures worldwide on the changes digital networks are bringing to creativity and cultural production. In 2008 he keynoted the Creative Commons Conference in Sapporo and spoke at Power To The Pixel held at the London Film Festival. He continues to consult for a number of high-profile firms and organisations including the UK’s Royal Society of Arts, Channel 4 Television and RTL. His essays, articles and ideas are published internationally including in The Times, Guardian and Telegraph newspapers.

He lives at www.jamie.com and in Kreuzberg, Berlin.

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ARIN CRUMLEY

23.08 2008

At the age of 16, Arin Crumley began experimenting with low-res digital video equipment, making short documentaries and abstract video art to display behind his band’s electro concerts.

Today The Wall Street Journal lists Arin among the top 20 new media moguls, and applauds the co-creation of the popular independent film and online video series, Four Eyed Monsters. In late 2002, Arin met his future co-director and collaborator, Susan Buice, beginning a relationship that evolved into the creation of Four Eyed Monsters. The project has become a cult phenomenon. To date, the video podcast has received over two million views and cinemas across America have booked the film due to its online fan-base. The film was nominated for two Spirit Awards and in June 2007 became the first feature film to be posted in its entirety on YouTube. Four Eyed Monsters has since been licensed to IFC TV to air April 25th and the film has been released exclusively in Borders across the US since April 29th 2008. Now 27 year old Arin Crumley is busy promoting the DVD release as well as the 5 final episodes of the online component to Four Eyed Monsters.

Arin is in pre-production on several new projects for 2009. He is also co-founder of a brand new film festival, From Here to Awesome, which is designed to demonstrate a new distribution model available to all filmmakers that have internet connections.

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YOMI AYENI

17.08 2008

Yomi is the Creative Director of Expanding Universe, a new company that develops innovative and immersive social entertainment. They develop experiences that engage and entertain audiences, giving the audience the ability to interact in live and immersive multimedia environments. The company has created ground-breaking formats that connect audiences and build strong communities of interest through participation and interaction.

Yomi generates ideas and concepts that engage and connect audiences in the area of social entertainment. With almost two decades of broadcast experience, he has worked for BBC, ITV and Now TV, the first broadband TV channel set up in 2001. Yomi created the first interactive-reality TV programme, Global Emissions, which won the Broadcast “Best Use New Media” award in 2002. He has also set up interactive TV concepts in several countries. In 1998, he produced a consultation document for the BBC on how to incorporate the Internet into news research and has made several films on the emerging digital culture.

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JON KINGSBURY

13.08 2008

Jon Kingsbury runs the Creative Economy Innovation Programme at NESTA, with a remit to encourage growth in creative businesses by developing successful models for innovation. He previously worked at the BBC as Head of External Supply, Future Media & Technology where his role was to improve the organisation’s engagement with external creative suppliers. Before becoming interested in driving creative business growth, Jon held a number of senior editorial commissioning roles at the BBC and Channel 4, always in the space where linear TV broadcasting meets interactive content.

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Current Speakers

12.08 2008

YOMI AYENI, Creative Director, Expanding Universe

MARK BOYD, Head of Creative Content, Bartle Bogle Hegarty

PETER BUCKINGHAM, Head of Distribution & Exhibition, UK Film Council

ANDRE BURGESS, Managing Director, Crucible Media

MANUEL CRISTOBAL, Award-winning Producer, Perro Verde Films

ARIN CRUMLEY, Award-winning Filmmaker

CHRISTY DENA, Cross-media Specialist

JAMIE DENHAM, Managing Director, Sliced Bread Animation

ADAM ERLEBACHER, Co-Founder, PlaceVine

BEN GRASS, Producer & Managing Director, Pure Grass Films

MICHAEL GUBBINS, Editor, Screen International

MATT HANSON, Film Futurist, Writer and Filmmaker

ALEX JOHNSON, Digital Strategist and Experience Planner

JAMIE KING, Filmmaker and Digital Rights Activist

JON KINGSBURY, Director, Creative Economy Innovation Programme at NESTA

ALEX KUMMERMAN, CEO, Clicmobile

CARMEL LANDY, Managing Director, Expanding Universe

FABIO LIMA, Founder and CEO, MovieMobz and Rain Networks

INMACULADA MARTINEZ, Digital Media Strategist

RICHARD MORRIS, Director of Video & TV, Player X

BRIAN NEWMAN, President, Tribeca Film Institute

SARA POLLACK, Manager Film & Animation, YouTube

GREGOR PRYOR, Digital Media Legal Expert, Reed Smith

EMILY RENSHAW-SMITH, Director, Viewer Created Content, Current TV,

DANAE RINGELMANN, Co-Founder, IndieGoGo

LIZ ROSENTHAL, Founder & Director, Power to the Pixel

SLAVA RUBIN, Co-Founder, IndieGoGo

M DOT STRANGE, Award-winning Filmmaker

TIMO VUORENSOLA, Filmmaker and Internet Pioneer

LANCE WEILER, Award-winning Filmmaker and Digital Innovator

CAY WESNIGK, Founder, OnlineFilm

SASKIA WILSON-BROWN, Head of Filmmaker Outreach, Current TV

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GREGOR PRYOR

11.08 2008

Gregor is an associate in the Advertising, Technology and Media team of Reed Smith LLP. He has broad experience of advising clients on the acquisition, production, licensing and distribution of content on digital media networks and platforms. He regularly advises content owners such as film and television production companies, record labels, music publishers and advertisers regarding the protection and exploitation of their intellectual property rights. He also advises companies that are involved in the distribution and sale of digital content, such as online retailers, aggregators, network operators, platform owners and search engines, in relation to their arrangements with content owners.

In addition to his work with clients in the digital media sector, Gregor continues to advise various companies on IT matters, including the development and implementation of systems and software.

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ADAM ERLEBACHER

11.08 2008

PlaceVine is a web-based information service that facilitates brand integration transactions across film, television, and the web. Currently the brand integration industry relies on personal relationships between marketers, agencies, and content creators. The entire workflow of a brand integration transaction – from discovery to evaluation, through negotiation and execution – remains a completely manual process.

PlaceVine believes that every integration is unique and cannot be reduced to a “click-to-buy” transaction, but that technology can play a critical role in improving transparency in the industry. Today’s model, which relies exclusively on manual filtering or on one agency’s client relationships, is becoming increasingly inefficient in the face of a rapidly expanding content base. Due to a lack of visibility into available integrations, marketers (buyers) are unaware of existing inventory and content producers (sellers) are unable to maximise the full value of their integrations.

PlaceVine addresses these needs with powerful technology tools for the discovery and evaluation of integration opportunities. PlaceVine provides marketers and agencies with transparent access to brand integration opportunities in feature-length film, television and new media whilst enabling content creators to maximise the value of their brand integration inventory.

PlaceVine was founded in 2007 and is based in New York City and Los Angeles.

Adam was most recently a Member of the Board of Advisors and prior to that, Director of Business Development, at Colloquis, Inc. (acquired by Microsoft), a developer of natural language software systems. Adam played a central role in the turnaround and growth of the company, leading all direct sales as well as partnerships with AOL and Microsoft. He was responsible for the company’s critical first sales to Comcast, BT, COX, ETrade, Cingular, Vonage and Time Warner. Erlebacher was also actively involved in product development, having co-authored two pending patents. Before joining Colloquis, Adam was a Senior Analyst at JPMorgan in the Leveraged Finance Group where he focused on technology, media & telecom transactions. He received his B.A. from Tufts University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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PETER BUCKINGHAM

11.08 2008

Peter Buckingham is Head of Distribution & Exhibition at the UK Film Council tasked with increasing the breadth and diversity of cinema-going across the UK, as well as assisting audience appreciation of UK films. He heads up a range of schemes to support this strategy, which aim to broaden the choice of films available to UK audiences and to increase admissions for specialised film; these include the P&A Fund (prints & advertising) and the world’s first Digital Screen Network.

Buckingham was previously Deputy Chief Executive of FilmFour Limited. During his time there, the company achieved the highest market share in its history and released East is East, both its highest grossing title and the first film to achieve cross-over success with specialised and mainstream cinema audiences. Buckingham was named Video Distributor of the Year in 2000. Prior to FilmFour, he was MD of Oasis Cinemas, building up a specialised chain into five cinemas and thirteen screens, including the complete design and rebuilding of the five-screen Ritzy Cinema in Brixton, South London. He has also worked as Director of Film Distribution for Virgin Vision responsible for the theatrical and video release of films such as Drugstore Cowboy, Sex, Lies and Videotape, Paris by Night and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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LANCE WEILER

11.08 2008

Lance Weiler is a critically acclaimed award-winning writer / director. He is recognised as a pioneer because of the way he makes and distributes his work. Millimeter magazine called Lance a “tech iconoclast” and Wired magazine named him “one of twenty-five people helping to re-invent entertainment and change the face of Hollywood.”

His work has been featured in Time and Forbes and on television programmes such as Entertainment Tonight and CNN. His first feature, The Last Broadcast, is currently distributed in over 20 countries. It has the honour of being the first all digital release of a motion picture to cinemas across the US and has enjoyed runs on HBO and IFC. To date, The Last Broadcast, a self-distributed effort, has grossed over $4 million worldwide.

Lance’s newest feature, Head Trauma, had its world premiere at the LA Film Festival. Lance put together his own 17 city theatrical release which rolled into a national DVD release and VOD release by Warner Brothers. Always interested in experimenting with new ways to tell stories and reach audiences, Lance developed a cinema ARG (alternate realty game) around Head Trauma. The cinematic ARG is a mashup of movies, music, theatrics and gaming. Over 2.5 million people experienced elements of the game across cinemas, mobile drive-ins, mobile phones and online.

In addition to making feature films, Lance also directs commercials and music videos. He often lectures at universities and film societies about the changing landscape of content creation and distribution. He has spoken at the Cannes, Berlin and Sundance Film Festivals and has consulted for large ad agencies, entertainment companies and corporations.

Lance also splits his time as a partner in a social media company called Seize the Media. STM was created to address the gap between burgeoning technologies and entertainment. STM’s clients have included Microsoft, eBay, Earthlink, Ubisoft, and Creative Artists Agency among others.

Lance is also the founder of the Workbook Project, a “social open source” project for filmmakers. The Workbook Project’s goal is to help filmmakers understand the changing landscape of funding, production, promotion, and distribution in a digital age.

Currently, Lance is writing a book entitled Putting the Mass Back in Media which will be released in 2008. He is also developing a number of television, film and cross-media projects.

Lance sits on the board of the IFP, an American filmmaker organisation, and is the co-founder of From Here to Awesome, a discovery and distribution fest that puts filmmakers directly in touch with global audiences.

Prior to the release of The Last Broadcast, Lance spent seven years working as a camera assistant and operator, on large commercial shoots all over the world. During that time he had the honour of working with a number of amazing cinematographers such as Darius Khondji, Harris Savides, and the late Conrad Hall.

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BRIAN NEWMAN

11.08 2008

Brian Newman was recently named the President & CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) as the result of a combination between Renew Media and TFI. As a combined organisation, the primary objective is to create one institution dedicated to innovation in film and media, the enrichment of audiences and the promotion of education, understanding and creativity through the media arts. TFI now gives approximately $1.25 million annually to filmmakers and media artists through grants and fellowships in the United States and Mexico, in addition to other programmes for media artists, youth and the general public.

Newman was executive director of IMAGE Film & Video Centre in Atlanta for five years, overseeing the Atlanta Film Festival among other programmes. Previously he held positions at the IFP and the South Carolina Arts Commission. Brian also serves on the editorial advisory board for Art Papers magazine, the advisory board for Wonderland.com and the steering committee of Grantmakers in Film & Electronic Media (GFEM). Newman has a MA in Film Studies from Emory University.

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