Pixel Lab Diary - Day 3

WEDNESDAY 7th July 2010

I am exhausted by now. I can’t sleep and don’t seem to get a minute to work on the project – let alone to myself.

Plenary Session: "New Business Models & Finance Structures" with Brian Newman, Ian Ginn and Ben Grass.

This session was good but basically it outlined what we all should know by now = there are no rules/ no business models/ no easy answers BUT if you have good material and you can get an audience amassed around your story you can make it work for you.

Brian is very knowledgeable about the indie moviemaking scene in the USA where people are making amazing entrepreneurial moves and breaking new ground using digital/web and new distribution methods.

Ian is a British entrepreneur living in Holland. He didn’t really get around to his business models but told us the tale of his working life which includes 3d holograms, the open source software ‘Blender’, movie producing and now producing web serials with some really interesting technology to help tell his stories.

Ben is producer working in the UK. His company Puregrass have had some major successes making interactive web serials but was very honest about the pitfalls involved in his projects. It was really good to see someone passionate about creating good story and IP and the ways he is making this happen.

Then a Case Study: "Embracing the Audience" - Timo Vuorensola showed us his 2 projects - the incredibly successful "Star Wreck" and the upcoming "Iron Sky" - both made in collaboration with a global audience, check out these sites:

Star Wreck
Wreck a Movie
Iron Sky

Timo’s schtick covered:

• Demand
• Collaborate
• Support
• Share

Timo was very funny and enthusiastic – as well as very savvy about what he and his crew are doing.

Plenary Session: "Social Media & Audience Engagement Design" with Monique De Haas. Monique showed some great material from Holland – a TV reality game show where the winner gets a kidney and some footage of a teenage girl throughout her day showing the different touch points we can access an audience through. Then some points on designing for the audience:

• Design for entry
• Design for repeat
• Design for referral
• Design for the dive

This was good though the audience were baffled at some points as they had seen some of these concepts delivered differently by other tutors previously in the week so the difference in her approach was seen as confusing. (The funnel diagram was talked about for days.)

We get some time on the project! Group work: AWP is broken by now – I’m getting phased/tired/confused…

Then we have to get on a boat and go across the bay for dinner – which is a lovely idea but I only last about half an hour and get a taxi back to Cardiff to work on the project…

This blog entry is very poor admittedly - will try to revise later - wasn't my best day as you can probably tell...