Telefilm Canada TV 360 Programme At Banff World Television Festival
Banff – The Banff World Television Festival (BANFF) and nextMEDIA Banff present the first Telefilm Canada TV 360 Program, established to provide cross-platform development opportunities for Canadian producers, writers & directors. TV 360 will be held during nextMEDIA Banff and the 30th edition of BANFF, which take place at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Canada, in June 2009.
“TV 360 is a valuable addition to the existing training programs and fellowships at BANFF,” commented Peter Vamos, BANFF Executive Director. “We’re excited to collaborate with Telefilm Canada to create this new and original program that will foster cross-industry partnership between new media and the future of the television industry.”
Co-founded by BANFF and nextMEDIA, the Telefilm Canada TV 360 program offers the opportunity to create a multi-platform entertainment project while providing participants with the tools to successfully pitch and market projects to Canadian and International broadcasters and funders.
“The TV 360 Program supports the convergence of the TV and digital media industries,” added Mark Greenspan, VP Digital Media, Achilles Media. “TV 360 participants will be taught the best practices required for generating new concepts for interactive narratives that are related to existing Television content.”
Three teams of nine will compete to create a package for the best digital media pitch for a current TV series, which will be revealed at nextMEDIA Banff on Saturday, June 6. The program will wrap on the final day of BANFF with a pitching competition to a panel of entertainment executives on Wednesday June 10.
During this five day, incubator-style program, Team Leads who are experts in cross-platform production, will guide teams through the project; they include Anthea Foyer, Training Programs Manager at CFC Media Lab, Mark Hand, a Cross Platform Specialist and Evan Jones, Founder of Stitch Media.
Industry Mentors will also provide coaching on social media, mobile, gaming, design and technology to help steer the projects from TV series to the dot-com world. Participating mentors include Dante Anderson, Vice President of Product Development of Kuma Reality Games, David Gale, Executive Vice President, New Media at MTV Networks and Dario Meli, Partner of Invoke Agency.
“There is a growing enthusiasm from both traditional TV people and digital media executives to develop truly integrated forms of entertainment programming,” comments Lisa Osborne, TV 360 Program Manager and Supervising Producer at the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab. “TV 360 offers a great opportunity to be a on multidisciplinary team and learn about production, technology and show development in a fun way.”
TV 360 is designed for television veterans and those who need a jump-start into multi-platform production; however, applicants must be Canadian professionals from the new media or film and television industries as TV 360 is devised to train writers, directors, producers, showrunners and interactive designers.
Participants will receive free registration for nextMEDIA Banff and BANFF and free accommodation during the program, as well as access to industry mentors, broadcasters and funders.
Deadline for application is May 15, 2009. For more details on the Telefilm Canada TV 360 Program and to apply online visit BANFF.
