The StoryLab’s mentors and Screen Australia had a tough time choosing only 8 projects from the batch of extremely high quality submissions to the Digital Ignition Multi Platform Clinic, but we got there in the end. Full list below.
During the intensive multi-platform clinic the projects and teams will take part in a range of exercises, one-to-one mentoring, interactive case-study presentations, daily workshop tasks and be attached to guardian mentors who will help them on their journey.
The StoryLabs team are really looking forward to engaging with the teams in the next few weeks leading up to the residential and even more so at the event itself.
Final Mentor
Also we would like to introduce the final mentor assigned to the team. Tony Reed CEO of the Game Developers’ Association of Australia. He is a 20-year veteran of the interactive entertainment industry. With global experience in game development and publishing, Antony has been a marketing brain behind some of the world’s biggest games franchises, including Command & Conquer, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout and too many Star Trek titles, and has won numerous awards for his campaigns. In his publishing days Antony worked for industry heavyweights, Virgin Interactive and Interplay Productions, before turning his attention to game development in 2003.
The Screen Australia release below has more details and lists all projects
EIGHT PROJECTS TO GET MULTI-PLATFORMED AT SCREEN AUSTRALIA CLINIC
Screen Australia and StoryLabs today announced eight compelling screen projects for the inaugural Digital Ignition Multi-platform Clinic, a week-long workshop designed to support the development of production-ready multi-platform strategies. With the help of world-renowned mentors, participants will lock down the projects’ story worlds, business potential, community and audience focus, interactive functionality and technology.
The projects represent a broad range of screen content including feature films, television drama, interactive documentaries and games.
Feature film projects selected include These Final Hours, an apocalyptic thriller from WA writer/director Zak Hilditch and producer Liz Kearney, and The Babadook, a psychological horror film from NSW writer/directorJennifer Kent and producer Kristina Ceyton.
The Lost Boys is a youth-oriented TV drama series from powerhouse producers Matchbox, with writer Craig Irvin and multi-platform producerJulie Eckersley attending.
Two interactive documentary projects have been selected, including The Hive a native transmedia project comprising a serious game and documentary about the hidden codes of human cooperation, originated by writer/director Annamaria Talas (How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer, The Hobbit Enigma). The project will be produced by Simon Nasht of Smith & Nasht (Dick Smith’s Population Puzzle), working with digital outfit Moonshine Agency and US serious games guru Edward Castronova. Also selected is the interactive documentary Cave, a story of science and discovery in Australia’s most remote caves, from WA producer Danielle Gilles and her team working with the Museum of Western Australia.
Finally, the line-up includes three game-oriented projects: Double Happy Versus the Infinite Sadness, a story-driven adventure game and full transmedia entertainment property from Adelaide-based digital agencyMonkeystack; Byrax, an animated online comedy series and game from Queensland animators Studio Joho, creators of internet sensation Dan the Man; and The Eventide, a sci-fi interactive entertainment using augmented reality involving three senior staff at digital agency Loud & Clear.
“The Digital Ignition Multi-platform Clinic falls within the suite of support offered through our All Media Program, which seeks to ignite and strengthen digital understanding, expertise and activity within the Australian screen content sector,” said Mike Cowap, Investment Manager, Screen Australia. “We’re thrilled to be working with Gary Hayes and his StoryLabs network to make this as rich and practical a workshop as possible.”
“Each of the mentors contributed to the selection of this great mix of projects, which have their foundations in feature films, games, documentary and social multi-platform stories,” said Clinic Director Gary Hayes, Co-founder, StoryLabs. “It’s a great opportunity for the participants to get deep consultation from this mentor team, and StoryLabs looks forward to helping move them and Australian multi-platform production to the next level during the event.”
Mentors at this intensive workshop are Lance Weiler (US), Matt Costello(US), David Varela (UK), Jennifer Wilson (Aus), Anthea Foyer (Can), Neil Richards (UK), Laurel Papworth (Aus) and latest addition Tony Reed, CEO of the Game Developers’ Association of Australia.
The Clinic is being held in the Southern Highlands of NSW, 21–25 November, 2011.
THE BABADOOK
Causeway Films & Curious Film
Feature film
Producer Kristina Ceyton
Writer/Director Jennifer Kent
Distributor Michael Wrenn / Curious
Synopsis A single mother plagued by the violent death of her husband battles with her son’s fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.
BYRAX
Studio Joho
Animated web series and game
Producer Laura DiMaio
Writer, Animator, Director Joe Brumm
Synopsis An original, irreverent, comedic game and animated web series where the non-playable characters take on a life of their own, set in the style of Age of Empire and Civilization.
DOUBLE HAPPY VERSUS THE INFINITE SADNESS
Monkeystack
Transmedia project featuring games, comics, webisodes and crowd-sourced content
Producer Justin Wight
Writer Simon Butters
Director Troy Bellchambers
Technical Director Shane Bevin
Synopsis Double Happy follows the adventures of two disturbingly cheerful rabbits as they set forth in a quest to save their world from the clutches of an all-consuming sadness.
THE HIVE
Smith & Nasht
Transmedia project including serious game and documentary
Producer Simon Nasht
Writer/Director Annamaria Talas
Web Developer Moonshine Agency
Synopsis The Hive seeks to explore and test the hidden codes of cooperation: whether the collective ‘hive mind’ of humanity can collaborate for the greater good, or whether we will be doomed by self-interest.
THESE FINAL HOURS
8th in Line Productions
Feature film
Producer Liz Kearney
Writer/director Zak Hilditch
Exec Producer Robert Connolly
Synopsis A young man makes his way to the party to end all parties on the last day on Earth but ends up saving the life of a little girl searching for her father, who ultimately leads him on the path to redemption.
THE LOST BOYS
Matchbox
TV series
Executive Producer Helen Panckhurst
Producer Michael McMahon & Tony Ayres
Series creator Tony Ayres
Writer Craig Irvin, Roger Monk, Shanti Gudgeon, Rhys Graham
Multi-platform Producer Julie Eckersley
Synopsis After getting lost on a school camping trip, four teenage boys return home to find something strange has happened – they have come back to a world where they no longer exist.
THE EVENTIDE
Loud & Clear
Interactive entertainment
Producer Joel Beath
Director Ben Beath
App Developer Cade Witnish
Synopsis Five children work with a mysterious species called the Eventide to prevent civil war and protect the human race.
CAVE
Inkubator
Interactive natural history
Producer Danielle Giles
Writer Barbara Connell
Game Designer Anthony Sweet
Marketplace Museum of Western Australia, ScreenWest
Synopsis Combining transmedia storytelling principles with scientific research and discovery, Cave: Searching for Australia’s Forgotten Beasts will offer audiences unprecedented access to remote desert caves housing fossil finds that excited the world scientific community enabling users to participate in a Palaeontology excavation and scientific research process that they would otherwise not have access to.
Media Enquiries
Teri Calder T: 02 8113 5833; M: 0408 440 995
teri.calder@screenaustralia.gov.au