CROSS Sessions at SPAA

Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) 21st Annual Conference is being held November 14th-17th on the Gold Coast.  

The Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) represents the interests of producers on all issues that affect the business and creative aspects of independent screen production. Our annual conference is held over three days and attracts more than 650 delegates, which makes it the largest and most significant screen industry gathering in this part of the world.
Attendees include key Australian and international industry practitioners involved in all aspects of producing, creating, distributing and financing screen content.

What is good is that they’re running sessions on TV, Film and Cross-Media!!! Fantastic! The first I’ve seen at an industry conference. Spot on SPAA. Here are some of the sessions they’re running:

CROSS: Cross Media Storytelling is still story telling, but is there a New Media Way?
 
The growth of new technologies has changed the way a story can be told. The impact on the story, its production, and the audiences it reaches is evident. Using successful case studies we will investigate in what way it has changed and more importantly whether it is working?
The production options, interactivity capabilities and delivery mechanisms that are now available to story tellers and content producers are continually evolving, and the way in which it is presented to an audience spoilt by choice seems endless.

Considering that this phenomenon is approaching what appears to be its third generation the need for content producers and brand developers to organically grow their stories into cross media spaces, to find the right technology balance, and to reach its’ target audience in the most effective manner is a necessity.
Through this changing landscape and its increasing complexities the opportunity for the story tellers and producers to shape the future appears to be at its’ most exciting and its most challenging.
This session will bring together a unique panel of content producers and industry practitioners that have successfully navigated this path. Using their own experiences and specific case studies, each producer will share:

* How they approached and produced their stories,
* How things have changed and the impact on pre-production, production, deliver and audience experience, and
* What they consider are the success factors in this Cross Media Way.

Producer: Heath Amos, General Manager, Kojo Interactive
Chair: John Chataway, CEO, Kojo Interactive
Speakers: Amanda Duthie, Executive Producer, ABC,
Gary Hayes (LAMP and AFTRS)
Evan Jones, Creative Director at Xenophile Media, CAN,
Jim Shomos, Executive Producer, Forget the Rules

TV/DOCO: Extending Doco in the Time of Digital

Evan Jones is Creative Director at Xenophile Media in Canada.   He is an interactive media producer from the combined disciplines of computer science, film studies and radio production. Evan’s projects range from narrative console gaming to interactive historical documentary. Winner of the 2005 Canadian New Media Awards for Excellence in Cross Platform and Banff Television Award for Interactive Television, his project ‘The ReGenesis Extended Reality’ game engages players to interact with characters from the series. The project has attracted a whole new audience eager for more than bios and episodic summaries. The game draws viewers into a conspiracy and mystery that weaves in and out of the TV series, using the internet, email and other media to immerse the viewer and blur the line between fiction and reality. Evan will talk about the interactive and multiplatform opportunities for documentary production.

The ARG person would of noticed Evan Jones of Xenophile Media!! Wohoo! Evan is coming to Oz! I am thrilled to say that I will be working with Evan when he gets here in other states. Can’t wait for that. Anyway, for those that are interested and maybe able to attend this excellent event, the programme is now online [pdf].