In 2007 David created an unique entertainment format for Ford Motor Company, titled, Where are the Joneses? – a social media sitcom where the audience influenced the daily production of a road trip to seek out 27 sperm donor siblings. Produced with the UK’s leading comedy production company, Baby Cow, Where are the Joneses? enabled a world leading brand to engage audiences with authenticity and generosity. It was the first and largest branded media production to be licensed under the Creative Commons commercial licence.

IndieFlix, connecting people through movies.

In 2000, Nicole was given the brief by Ogilvy London’s Chairman to “bring Ogilvy into the 21st century”, taking them from analogue to digital by working with programmers and implementing Finance, Workflow and Digital Asset Management systems.

Over the last four years, Nicole has built up RedWorks Broadcast (previously Domain), Ogilvy London’s digital hub. RedWorks Broadcast covers all broadcast and video editing (on and off line) and includes digital broadcast global delivery.

2005 saw her focus shift to new media, exploring and exploiting 360 marketing elements on all evolving media platforms. Ogilvy now regularly produces non-traditional advertising: from long form content, flooding Second Life, live webcasting with Girls Aloud, streaming, podcasting and digital escalator panels to name but a few.

Nicole and her team have recently launched OgilvyOne’s Digital Innovations Lab to spot talent and bring innovative ideas to market for their Brands and also launched Unilever’s Innovation Lab at their Headquarters in London in March of this year.

Over the past four and a half years her roles as manager of the entire 100-strong production crew and constant companion to Franny throughout the filming trip to the four corners of the earth have given Lizzie a unique and intimate inside perspective on the Stupid story as it unfolded.

HIM is a collision of film, gaming and interactive technology that continues Lance Weiler’s horror 2.0 series, placing the viewer literally in the shoes of the protagonist. “This is a new type of social entertainment experience that fuses storytelling and gaming in a way that enables audience members to become collaborators within the storyworld,” explains Weiler.

Building on the success of the first version of HIM which had over 2.5 million people viewing and playing along, Lance and his team at Seize The Media will build an immersive storyworld that can be deployed across multiple devices and platforms, creating a variety of marketable media assets: 4-6 minute episodes, 1 minute micro-narratives, online and mobile casual games, online and offline ARG (alternate reality game) elements, and a feature film in the process.

LANCE WEILER

Lance Weiler is a critically-acclaimed, award-winning writer/director. Recognised as a pioneer because of the way he makes and distributes his work – Wired magazine named him “one of 25 people helping to re-invent entertainment and change the face of Hollywood”.

Lance has successfully self distributed his films The Last Broadcast and Head Trauma to more than 20 countries whilst grossing over $5 million in the process. Lance is also a partner in Seize the Media, a social entertainment company that focuses on cross-media story architecture.

Dark Fibre brings actors face to face with documentary subjects and places, both in real and concocted situations. It combines scripted elements with captured realities to create a rich, unpredictable action.

The film will be distributed in segments available to P2P networks. Each will unfold part of the story but the final part will only be available by watching the whole film, a feature that will initially be available to pre-subscribers who have enjoyed the series, film festival goers and traditional distributors. By releasing in this way, Dark Fibre builds a buzz and raises money online before realising further commercial potential in partnership with distributors.

The film is currently in post-production.

JAMIE KING

In 2006/2007 Jamie produced and directed the Steal This Film series which examined the consequences of file sharing and digital distribution for creative production.

Shared online via networks such as The Pirate Bay, Steal The Film has been downloaded over 4 million times, making it one of the most downloaded documentary films in history.

The director made Republic of Soya, an investigation into patenting of life forms and food production through a case study in South America. The first part of the project, Monsanto vs. Argentina, was screened at the United Nations in September 2008. Continuing to explore how digital distribution networks change what we can create, King is now examining the possibility of film fictions designed with an initial and primary life in P2P and file sharing communities. Dark Fibre is the first work of this kind.

In August 2008, in the middle of the Nevada desert, 50,000 people met up to celebrate creation, life and destruction at Burning Man.
12 people decided to capture their experience of this profound social experiment. Surrounded by artistic expression in every direction, they were encouraged to reinvent themselves. A hard look in the mirror brought them to confront their fatal flaws.

They slipped HD cameras into their pockets, strapped hidden cameras to their foreheads, threw RED cameras over their shoulders with each person’s experience becoming central to the filmmaking process.

Individuals will edit together their particular stories from the huge collection of footage accumulated. Each individual short story will be released across social networks and mobile phones with a feature-length mash up released on Blu-ray and screenings at alternative theatrical venues.

ARIN CRUMLEY

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 (with Susan Buice) of the popular independent film and online video series, Four Eyed Monsters. The project has become a cult phenomenon. To date, the video podcast has received over 2 million views and cinemas across America have booked the film due to its online fanbase. 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.

Arin is in pre-production on several new projects and is the co-founder of From Here to Awesome, a film festival which is designed to demonstrate a new distribution model available to all filmmakers that have an Internet connection.

Breathe is a modern-day murder mystery with a time line. Set over a four week period and ending with a live finale, viewers watch 3 x 15 minute shorts and try to help Detective Franks solve the case by working through puzzles, infiltrating the underground club scene, trying to locate the venue and save the next victim from running out of air.

Using blogs, YouTube, GPS, telephone, secret meetings, IM, auditions, immersive role-play, cinema and music, Breathe is the newest social entertainment experience from Expanding Universe. It mixes film, online and real-life events and performance to tell a rich and interactive story that immerses the audience in a shadowy and sinister underworld.

YOMI AYENI

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.