TUESDAY 23 JUNE 2009

Tales from the Digital Frontier will be a series of cutting-edge presentations and panels on the afternoons of Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 June. This unique programme will reveal how digital pioneers are using the internet and digital tools to market, distribute and sell their work, creating new alternatives to the theatrical-led model.

These are all new, up to the minute sessions. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear from leading international experts who will be presenting the latest models around creating, financing and distributing film in the digital era.

Each afternoon of consecutive panels and presentations runs from 14:00-18:00 and will be followed by networking drinks.

14:00 - 14:15 Liz Rosenthal, Director, Power to the Pixel
Introduction to Tales From the Digital Frontier

14:15 - 14:45 Peter Buckingham, Head of Distribution and Exhibition, UK Film Council (UK)
DEVELOPING NEW BUSINESS MODELS FOR THE DIGITAL ERA

With a new generation of media consumers demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it and very much as they want it, this session explores how we need to investigate new opportunities to develop audience-driven film businesses that take advantage of a newly networked and on-demand world. Peter will discuss findings from the UK Film Council’s audience development project Find Any Film that demonstrate how we need to make significant changes in the way the industry thinks about its content distribution and relationship with its audience.

14:45 - 15:15 Brian Newman, President, Tribeca Film Institute (US)
HOW TO BE ‘BETTER THAN FREE’

The Internet is a super-distribution machine that allows copies of digital media to flow in an almost frictionless way. As the wealth and survival of traditional media businesses are built on selling precious copies, the free flow of free copies is undermining the established order. If reproductions of media are free, how can we keep on financing films and how can we find value in the media we create and sell?

15:15 - 15:45 Jamie King, Filmmaker and Digital Innovator (UK)
CASE STUDY: LEVERAGING PEER-TO-PEER NETWORKS - STEAL THIS FILM & VODO

Director Jamie King describes how he used peer-to-peer networks to generate a huge audience for film series Steal This Film that documented the movement against intellectual property. The films were released via Pirate Bay for free asking for donations from viewers, and have been viewed approximately 6 million times. Jamie will also talk about his new distribution network VODO, which will create a frictionless way to distribute media of all kinds, helping creators to be remunerated when they’re distributing works online and gain the kind of attention for their works that can rival anything the mass media can offer.

15:45 - 16:15 Roundtable Discussion

Moderated by Liz Rosenthal
with
Peter Buckingham, Head of Distribution and Exhibition, UK Film Council (UK)
Jamie King, Filmmaker and Digital Innovator (UK)
Brian Newman, President, Tribeca Film Institute (US)

15 minute break

16:30 - 17:00 Lizzie Gillett, Producer, Age of Stupid (UK)
CASE STUDY: A GUIDE TO CROWD FUNDING – AGE OF STUPID

Producer Lizzie Gillett reveals how she and documentary director and activist, Franny Armstrong, engaged investors and audience into supporting their recently released feature film Age of Stupid. Learn how they self funded and distributed their work by building a network of engaged investors and audience members and what the importance of online resources is. Lizzie will also describe their new tool IndieScreenings which enables audiences to buy a licence to screen films whenever and wherever they like.

17:00 - 17:30 M dot Strange, Award-winning Animation Director (US)
CASE STUDY: WE ARE THE STRANGE

M dot Strange tells the story of how he leveraged online resources to engage directly with his audience to promote, collaborate with and sell his cult animated feature We Are the Strange. Hear in this session how to build a dynamic web presence and ways to retain a loyal fanbase. As audience behaviour evolves what is the potential for two-way filmmaking conversations between creators and audiences?

17:30 - 18:00 Roundtable discussion

Moderated by Liz Rosenthal
with
Lizzie Gillett, Producer, Age of Stupid (UK)
Jamie King, Filmmaker and Digital Innovator (UK)
M dot Strange, Award-winning Animation Director (US)
Lance Weiler, Award-winning Filmmaker and Digital Innovator (US)

please click here for details of sessions taking place on Wednesday 24 June