In addition to discovery and distribution, From Here to Awesome has a special FREE educational section entitled DIY DAYS that is an extension of the Workbook Project. The DIY DAYS events are a joint effort between FHTA and Current TV and will consist of workshops, case studies, panel discussions, and screenings. LA and SF are locked and we’re working on events for Boston and NYC. All the activities will be recorded and “embedding and spreading” of the materials will be encouraged. There will also be some live streaming as well.

WHAT: DIY DAYS LA
WHEN: Saturday July 26th 9:30am to 7:30pm
WHERE: Under Spring / Not A Cornfield
1745 North Spring #4
Los Angeles, CA 90012
www.notacornfield.com

DIY DAYS are shaping up here’s a partial list of speakers:

Tommy Pallotta - A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life
Mark Pellington - Henry Poole is Here, Arlington Road, Mothman Prophecies
Lance Weiler - The Last Broadcast and Head Trauma
Arin Crumley - Four Eyed Monsters
Ondi Timoner - DiG, Join Us and We Live in Public
M dot Strange - We Are the Strange
Saskia Wilson-Brown - Current TV
Jon Reiss - Bomb It
Alex Johnson - digital media strategist / filmmaker
Christy Dena - cross-media strategist and designer
Matt Hanson - filmmaker and founder of A Swarm of Angels
Timo Vuorensola - director of Space Wreck and co-founder of wreckamovie.com

More details coming soon.

WB: Can you explain Space Wreck and how the audience played a role in the film?

TV: Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning was a huge collaborative effort made by a core group of 5 people, and a community of about 3000 volunteers from around the world, during the years 1998-2005, in a small country of Finland, with the help of Internet.

We started working on a film with only a little knowledge in how to actually make a feature-length film. Luckily we had a small base of a community, thanks to our earlier Star Wreck -episodes (mainly short animations), who were very eager to help us out. Without thinking too much, we started to ask for help from the community, which proved pretty soon to be a very good resource base, whatever was our need - when we wanted people to help us out with the script, when we needed actors, when we needed 3d-models, and later when we needed publicity, subtitles & all that type of things.

WB: What is the concept behind Wreck a Movie and what lead to its creation?

TV: The idea was when we started working on our next film, Iron Sky, that we wanted to do the film in many ways the same way as Star Wreck - by having the community joining the production. We realized, that what we did with Star Wreck, communicating via email, forums, ICQ, MSN, IRC and other stuff like that was OK, but pretty inefficient. So we wanted to build a platform that would support what we called ‘collaborative film production’ for Iron Sky, and started to design one.

Obviously none of us knew anything about coding or anything, but we had a good understanding on how the community works, and what makes it tick - we’ve always had this kind of intuition. So we gathered some money, hired some coders and started to build the platform.

Few years later we now have a good Alpha of the system up and running, and it’s already working the way I’ve always wanted it to work: it activates people, gets a lot of good input, and strengthens the community around the film.

WB: Looking forward what type of role do audiences play in the process of creating and distributing films?

TV: I would say there’s a lot of roles that the community can either fill or be helping with. Personally, I wouldn’t think about writing the script collaboratively, or trying to find some solutions on collaborative directing, but I think on pre-production and post production the community can be a very effective help, and later on on getting the message across the Internet, it’s most valuable.

WB: Do you think audiences are looking for a richer experience with their entertainement and if so what have you personally seen that shows this?

TV: I’d say that the media consuming habits are changing and adjusting to the fact that Internet is around, and the people want to have a more personal experience with the media. Thus, the most personal experience with media is actually to create or join the creation of the media itself.

WB: What is next for you?

TV: Right now we are working on a film production called Iron Sky, which tells a story about Nazis that went to the Moon in 1945, and now, it’s 2018, and they are returning to earth. It’s the first film on WreckAMovie, with another finnish film, a horror flick called Sauna. We are opening Wreck A Movie for outside productions slowly during this year. I’m also working on few very early ideas for some films, and going around the world to talk about WAM and our stuff etc.

Iron Sky trailer:

For more info on Skot and the Lost Zombie project click here.

To listen NOW click the play button below.

The selected projects for the 2008 Narrative Lab and Lab Fellows include:

At The Foot Of The Tree – Alfie, a freckle faced eleven year old boy, seeks heartfelt and poetic revenge for the beating of this father. Ricky Shane Reid (Director, Writer); Kelly Jo Reid (Producer, Actress); Gregory Singer (Co-Producer, 2nd DP, Editor)

Good Intentions – Meet Etta Milford: Loving Wife…Doting Mother….Armed Robber. Jim Issa (Director); Pamela Peacock (Producer); Richard Sampson (Producer)

How Would You Feel? Vol. 1-7 – Centering on the story of a young man and woman, friends whose relationship is perpetually teetering at the edge of platonic and romantic, this experimental narrative explores the ambiguity of their rapport and is consistently fed by the inhibiting melodrama of their individual romantic pasts and present. Terence Nance (Director, Producer, Writer, Editor); Yvonne Shirley (Editor); Vincent Wheeler (Sound Designer)

The Mountain Thief – A father and son escape their war-torn village in the Philippines to seek refuge in a town called Little Hope, a community of scavengers. Gerry Balasta (Director, Writer); Desireena Almoradie (Producer)

Mr. Sadman – In 1990, before the First Gulf War, a Saddam Hussein body-double loses his job and moves to Los Angeles in search of a new start. Patrick Epino (Director, Writer); Cindy Fang (Producer)

Periphery – Four college-bound kids take a road trip to Mexico and find themselves caught up in a pharmaceutical drug smuggling operation that goes wrong. Duane Allen Humeyestewa (Director, Producer, Writer); Deepa Donde (Producer, Writer);

Sorry, Thanks – Kira has no attachments. Max has a girlfriend. Sometimes love is a happy accident, sometimes pure disaster. Mostly: love means having to say you’re sorry. Dia Sokol, (Director, Writer); Lauren Veloski (Producer, Writer); Jennifer Lilly (Editor)

St. Nick – A brother and sister run away from home and try to start a new life, free from adults, all on their own. David Lowery (Director, Writer, Editor); James M. Johnston (Producer); Adam Donaghey (Executive Producer)

A Thing As Big As The Ocean – Two Hurricane Katrina survivors leave New Orleans and travel west into the desert, where their mutual quietness is overwhelmed by a world of possibilities. Joseph Cashiola (Director, Producer, Writer); Jeff Harms (Producer, Actor); Nathan Duncan (Editor)

We Are The Mods – High school loner, Sadie, befriends the wild new girl, Nico, and together they explore sex, drugs and rock and roll by embracing 1960’s British Mod Culture in present day California. E. E. Cassidy (Director, Writer, Producer); Robert Poswall (Producer, DP); Daniel Gabbe (Editor)

Zero Bridge – In occupied Kashmir, where every day is about survival, a petty criminal’s last chance at escape is threatened when he faces a moral crisis. Tariq Tapa (Director, Writer, DP, Editor)

For more on the Million Dollar Movie click here

To listen NOW click the play button below.

Adeo Ressi at The Next Web Conference 2008 from Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Vimeo.

WHY: Projects like Wreck a Movie and A Swarm of Angels are at the forefront of a new movement in collaborative filmmaking. These projects are experimenting with processes that could dramatically change how filmmakers approach their work.

::TOOLS
Website Grader If you’re looking for a way to improve the traffic to your site or blog then you should take the test. Websitegrader.com offers an extensive free test that will evaluate the discoverability of your site. This is a great resource that breaks down the SEO issues surrounding your own site or blog.

WHY: An excellent FREE comprehensive evaluation of your site or blog that grades readability of content, number of inbound links, google page rank, google indexed pages, traffic rank, blog rank and number times you’ve been bookmarked.

::FESTIVAL
MyFestival For those looking for a festival experience without having leaving the comfort of your own home then indieflix and there new offering MyFestival might be the perfect fit. Running from May 23rd to June 8th MyFestival will showcase features and shorts vying for a theatrical slot at the Seattle International Film Fest. Stop by and support the films and choose the one that you think should close out the fest.

WHY: IndieFlix is a champion of true independent cinema and MyFestival like From Here to Awesome are experiments that look to expand and change the current festival model.

::TOOLS
Tangler takes the concept of forums and gives them a media boost by allowing them to accept rich media like audio and video thanks to a simple wysiwyg editor. Tangler also has a nice embeddable version that allows you to bring a media rich forum into your own site or blog.

WHY: Forums are an important audience building tool when used effectively. Tangler improves the functionality thanks to rich media and RSS feed integration which makes user contribution and notification easier

::TOOLS
WetPaint is a wiki solution that enables you to easily create wikis around a subject. Wiki’s are very strong audience building tools when used effectively. It takes effort to grow them but when you strike the right balance between user contribution and devotion they can explode - a perfect example is the rapid growth of wikipedia.

WHY: A Wiki is an interesting way to grow a community around a topic organically. WetPaint also offers a new embed versions for publishers so that they can easily bring a wiki into their own sites.

This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix and Breakthrough Distribution - Our guest today is Ondi Timoner writer / director of the critically acclaimed doc DiG. Ondi’s most recent film, Join US is an intimate look at cults and mind control. Over the course of the discussion Ondi was very candid about the distribution of both her films and how the landscape for Docs has changed in the four years since DiG was acquired at Sundance.

To listen NOW click the play button below.

What I’ve come to learn is that it starts by listening to the audience. Everyone is their own media company these days as they publish, life stream, upload and throw their media into an every growing collective of bits and bytes.

The writing is on the wall. We were in a similar situation a decade ago when we made THE LAST BROADCAST one of the first desktop digital features and beamed it into theaters across the country. At that time it was the digital vs. film argument. Now it feels as if we’re reaching a tipping point. The days of the creation of just a feature film are gone. It’s not enough to just make a film anymore.

So how do you shake the shackles of the traditional and move into the next phase of what could prove to be a digital storytelling renaissance? There will be those who say I can’t be bothered and by all means I’m not saying that the story shouldn’t be the focus. It is all about story. I’m merely suggesting that you consider the new tools and outlets that are emerging. These developments allow you to tell your stories in new ways, larger ways, and in many cases more challenging ways.

One thing that I was asked numerous times at the Lab was where do I start? The following is a list of things to consider before you start a cross-media push.

1. Start by looking at the way your audience consume their media
2. Script it out – you wrote a script, storyboarded or created a shot list now its time to look at where people will enter your “world” and how they move through it
3. It’s a conversation. Nobody enjoys a one sided conversation so build in elements that allow your audience to interact with your content. Give them a sense of ownership through remixes, forums, fan art etc.
4. Be prepared for the audience to take control of certain aspects and know how and when to let go.
5. Listen to what the audience tells you even when they are not talking directly to you. Their actions and discussions with other audience members are a good indication of what’s working and what’s not.
6. Be prepared to move in radical directions. The best laid plans are meant to change and some times a new direction can result in larger audiences
7. Remember that there are no rules every cross-media project is different
8. Most importantly have fun since cross-media is a new way of telling stories it is a great way to experiment.

So if you’re looking to promote a project, build social awareness around a cause, or just want to have a larger audience for your work then cross-media storytelling might be for you. I’d love to hear about your projects so please send links and descriptions our way.

More reading:

http://www.cross-mediaentertainment.com
http://convergenceculture.org
http://www.storycenter.org

Lance Weiler is a filmmaker and a self distribution pioneer. His films THE LAST BROADCAST and HEAD TRAUMA are distributed in the United States and in over 20 countries around the world. Lance often lectures on filmmaking, technology, media consumption and distribution. He’s spoken at the Sundance, Berlin and Cannes Film Festivals in addition to numerous Universities and film societies. Lance is currently working on a number of new film, tv and cross-media projects. He is also working on a book entitled “Putting the Mass Back in Media” which will be released in 2008. He currently sits on the board of the IFP, is the founder of the Workbook an “open source social project” for content creators and a co-founder of the discovery and distribution festival FROM HERE TO AWESOME. For more on Lance visit www.lanceweiler.com