DIY DAYS is coming to NYC

// February 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // NYC

The WorkBook Project and the New School present DIY DAYS NYC. On Saturday April 3rd DIY DAYS comes to the New School in NYC for a day of talks, workshops and networking focused on creativity in the digital age. The focus of the day will be how those working in film, music, gaming, design, and software can fund, create, distribute and sustain from their creative efforts.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be announcing the program and speakers. Registration will open later this month and like all DIY DAYS events admission is FREE.

DIY DAYS is made possible thanks to time and talents of those who volunteer. If you’d like to volunteer please contact us at work [at] workbookproject [dot] com

Or perhaps you know of someone who would make a great speaker if so we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us at work [at] workbookproject [dot] com

More details to coming soon…

DIY DAYS LA – THE EISENSTADT EXPERIENCE

// December 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // LA, vid

Dan Mirvish (Omaha the movie, Open House) charts his course from short film to web series to political scandals to an eventual book deal that is now leading to the whole story being optioned and turned into a film. “I Am Martin Eisenstadt: One Man’s (wildly inappropriate) Adventures with the Last Republicans,” is a mix of political intrigue, campaign-trail escapades, and cyberspace detective work. Desperate to rise through the ranks of Washington’s media punditocracy, Eisenstadt insinuates himself into the last 30 years of American politics – from losing his virginity to Fawn Hall, to interning on the Willie Horton ad campaign, to buying Sarah Palin’s wardrobe. Mirvish shares how his work has evolved beyond a single medium and the liberation that working within one’s limitations can bring.

twitter
Martin Eisenstadt @MartyEisenstadt

DIY DAYS LA – PERSONAL BRANDS

// November 30th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // LA, vid

As content creators of all kinds strive to build fan bases and cultivate audiences for their work, many are finding that their best promotional vehicle is themselves. Micki Krimmel (Mickipedia, NeighborGoods.net) and Marc Horowitz (Google Maps Road Trip, National Dinner Tour) discuss the benefits and pitfalls of creating an online cult of personality. How to develop an online persona, issues of privacy, and extending your own persona into other work are discussed.

twitter:
Micki Krimmel @mickipedia
Marc Horowitz @marchorowitz
Moderated by Lance Weiler @lanceweiler

DIY DAYS LA: EVOLUTION OF STORYTELLING (video)

// November 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // LA, vid

As we continue our series of discussions around the evolution of storytelling we?re joined by two pioneers in the space who are extending the experiences that surrounds the stories they tell. From massive global gaming experiences to hit TV shows Jesse Alexander (Heroes, Lost, Day One) and Elan Lee (Co-Founder and Chief Designer at Fourth Wall Studios) share the art and craft of how they design and develop transmedia experiences that create rich media franchises and engage audiences in new and interesting ways.

twitter:
Jesse Alexander @globalcouch
Elan Lee @elanlee

DIY DAYS LA: ART AND CRAFT OF THE ARG (video)

// November 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // LA, vid

ARGs offer an interesting extension to a storytelling experience. The real-time web and the connectedness of a variety of devices in one?s life become a jumping off point for game-play. Steve Peters (No Mimes Media) and Jan Libby (Sammeeeees, LG15, Eldritch Errors) two pratictionars and experience designers of Alternate Realtiy Games sit down for a candid conversation about the art and craft of designing, scaling and producing ARGs. Where do you start? How do you pace the experience? And how do you know if an ARG is the right extension for your storytelling process?

twitter:
Jan Libby @labfly
Steve Peters @vipsteve

DIY DAYS LA: DIY AND WHY (video)

// November 23rd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // LA, vid

The world of discovery and distribution is changing by the moment. DIY and hybrid distribution is becoming the A option for many filmmakers. But how do you find the strategy that’s going to work best for you? How do you reach and engage audiences while achieving a degree of sustainability? Join Jon Reiss, award winning filmmaker and DIY distribution expert as he shares stories from the frontlines, much of which can be applied to those wishing to connect their creative efforts with an audience in meaningfully ways.

site: www.jonreiss.com
twitter: @jon_reiss

DIY DAYS LA: LOVELAND (video)

// November 23rd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // LA, vid

Loveland is a collaborative art meets urban revitalization meets social ownership experiment that is attempting to sell off a million square inches of Detroit off at a $1 each. Jerry Paffendorf (artist, futurist, and entrepreneur) shares his vision for the project and how he is crowdsourcing the funding of his start-up while taking a creative approach to the design of not only the concept behind the project but also the way in which it is funded. Rooted within a hook that some might consider a novelty (million dollar homepage pops to mind), Paffendorf is embracing the playfulness of LOVELAND’s actual and virtual inches by documenting the process as if it was a natural history / storytelling project. The approach appears to be paying off as inchvestors are preparing all kinds of creative things around their plots. In the process LOVELAND could prove to be an interesting revitalization project that turns areas of Detroit and other cities into collaborative social art that is self-sustaining.

site: www.makeloveland.com
twitter: @wello

DIY DAYS LA: SOCIAL MEDIA FOR STORYTELLERS (video)

// November 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // LA, vid

With the advent of new technologies, devices and the emerging real-time aspects of the web, stories can travel and build audiences in new and exciting ways. The confines of a single format are replaced with the ability to move audiences from one experience to another — from one screen or device to another. There has been a lot of hype around the concept of social media but what does it really mean for storytellers? How can you use free tools and services to tell stories, engage an audience and most importantly, extend the life of your project? Lance Weiler (The Last Broadcast, Head Trauma, HiM) walks you through the process of getting up and running, understanding how to staff, how to budget, how to engage an audience and how to set realistic goals whilst determining measurements of success.

site: www.textoflight.com
twitter: @lanceweiler

Thank you

// November 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // LA

Thanks to everyone who came out to DIY DAYS LA last night. To the speakers who took the time to share their knowledge to the audience members who stepped up to the open mic and to the Downtown Independent Theater for hosting the event. And a very special thanks to all the volunteers who made the evening possible. DIY DAYS events are FREE because the community pitches in their time and talents!

Over the next week we’ll be working to bring the talks online. For now make sure to checkout the conference dashboard which captured the evening from a variety of angles – bookmarks, tweets, photos, and blog posts.

NEXT DIY DAYS EVENT: In the coming weeks we’ll be making an announcement about the next DIY DAYS event. If you’d like to see DIY DAYS come to your city drop us an email at work [@] workbookproject dot com

Speaker Highlight: Scott Macauley

// November 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // LA

Scott Macaulay has been the chief-editor of Filmmaker Magazine for over 15 years – of which he has also produced a long list of award winning features under his production company, Forensic Films: Raising Victor Vargas, Gummo, Julien donkey-boy, Saving Face, What Happened Was, The Wife, The Chateau and Idlewild – to name a few.

But aside from his impressive history both behind the lens and behind the printing press – what is most encouraging about Scott is his commitment to the art of film.

In the first of our Q & A below, Scott stresses his hope that technology is bringing us back to a culture of “cinematic experimentation”. It can be rare to hear someone, who has been in “the business” for as long as Scott has, rooting for the indie film, the low-budget film, the unorthodox film. Stories that don’t sell toys per say, but spark ideas and emotion that produce change: culturally, politically, personally.

Scott will be moderating the panel discussion “Personas in the Digital Age” with Micki Krimmel and Marc Horowitz.

Q & A:

What excites you about the future?

The possibility that all of this technological and economic change will have the effect of reconnecting independent film to progressive culture and true cinematic experimentation.

What’s a site you couldn’t live without?

I’m something of an internet addict but I haven’t embraced the tenets of recovery yet, so there is no site that I am powerless before.

What’s something you wish you would have known before you found out the hard way?

That things usually work out in the end (except when they don’t).

Audience Highlight

// November 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // LA

DIY Days attracts a wide range of story-tellers, social artist, media junkies, transmedia collaborators, professional futurist and digital entrepreneurs – we wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the diverse audience members who’ve registered. And kick off one of the most important aspects of DIY Days: meeting new like-minded people.

Mark Stolaroff, an indie film producer and the founder of No Budget Film School, a series of classes designed specifically for no-budget filmmakers, has been in the low-budget independent film world for over 15 years.

Mark is currently in post finishing a new feature called “Pig,” and hopes to gain some insights as I design my own marketing and distribution plan. “Pig” is currently being edited by “Donnie Darko” editor Eric Strand and I’m developing a number of innovative strategies to help aggregate niche audiences for the film.

Jacob Medjuck is an award winning filmmaker. His first feature length film, the John Cusack narrated Summerhood, won 6 of the 9 festivals it played, and was invited to screen at PIXAR Animation Studios, as well as the Harvard Business School. With a career as a classical animator working on projects for DreamWorks, Disney Interactive, Sony, and Fox, as well as consulting for major video game producers.

Zak Forsman, an American independent filmmaker whose emotionally-charged work is known for highly authentic performances and beautiful compositions. His directorial debut, Heart of Now, has been praised by Ain’t It Cool News as “Brilliant” and “Absolutely Gorgeous,” and by Filmmaker Magazine as “Very Accomplished, Amazing.”

Zak has directed two shorts films, “I Fucking Hate You” and “Model/Photographer” which have won several international audience, jury and festival awards. He is currently developing two new features for production in 2010 and 2011 and serves as editor of the New Breed blog at The Workbook Project.

Jon Raymond is an independent writer, photographer and filmmaker, with numerous narrative and documentary short films under his belt. Jon is currently in post on a feature doc called Got Healthcare?, a film of street surveys with people and their opinions on the current healthcare legislation and situation in this country. Where his DIY distribution plans include making it available for free and for sale online in DVD and Blu Ray at the same.

Mike Hedge, a Los Angeles Film School graduate, with a major in producing and cinematography, is well-known for his RED camera expertise. His first feature documentary, As The Dust Settles is set deep in the Nevada desert, where 50,000 people met up at an event called Burning Man.

This profound social experiment in creation, destruction, and finding equal value in both. From the film’s site, “For one week, life accelerates to light speed, and as the dust settles you realize you are alive.”

Linda Nelson and Michael Madison formed Nelson Madison Films in 2003. Their next film, Delivered, an action adventure, is now in post-production. The goal of NMF is to produce economical, independant features that utilize local talent and innovative, high-tech production techniques – with a strong interest in social networking and DIY options to distribute films, alongside other non-exclusive digital platforms.

Gregory Bayne is a filmmaker and mixed media artist working in film, video, motion graphics and design. His work as a producer, director, editor, cinematographer and designer has appeared in several short, feature length and documentary films including b.Dreams, ibid, Out of the Blue, Purple State of Mind, and Trudell; having shown theatrically, at film festivals worldwide (including Sundance, Seattle Film Festival, Munich, ImagineNATIVE and SXSW) and broadcast nationally on PBS, ESPN and the Sundance Channel.

Bayne is finishing up his feature directorial debut Person of Interest, and is in pre-production on his second film, Driven, a documentary about acclaimed mixed martial arts fighter Jens Pulver.

This is just a small handful of the multi-talented people attending tonight’s event at the Downtown Independent Theater. A lot of hard work, from a large number of volunteers, goes into each DIY Days event, with the goal of spreading and sharing information about current technology in storytelling, and most important, to interact with each other and form relationships with people who are all striving to push the future of Hollywood in new and exciting directions.

Speaker Highlight: Lance Weiler

// November 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // LA

Lance Weiler will be speaking on “Social Media for Storytellers” – his experience and pioneering approach to storytelling has earned him critical acclaim, awards, and recognition as “One of 25 people helping to re-invent entertainment and change the face of Hollywood”.

In 1998, Lance’s feature film, The Last Broadcast, became the first film to go entirely digital: it was shot, edited, and even screened all on a computer. Making use of new (and untested) methods of distribution, The Last Broadcast was premiered to theaters all across the US via satellite and DLP projectors.

In 2006, Lance’s thriller-mystery film, Head Trama, incorporated interactive games, grassroots marketing, subplots and parallel story-worlds that played out online, over mobile devices, comic books, and in the real-world (by way of secret meet-ups, only known to those who put all the pieces of Head Trama’s puzzle together in time).

His DIY distribution has been a huge success – his work playing in over 20 countries and grossing over 5 million dollars – shattering the dogma that new filmmakers know how to “make” their films, but not how to sell them. He has been a powerful advocate for “state to finish” filmmaking – giving storytellers, including myself, the inspiration to see their film through regarding every last stage. He is the founder of the Worldbook Project, the roving conference series DIY Days, a co-founder of From Here to Awesome, and a partner in the transmedia, social entertainment company, Seize the Media.

You can read Lance’s personal blog at Text of Light, or follow his updates on Twitter.

Tonight we’ll be streaming

// November 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // LA

For those attending and for those who can’t make it to the live event we’ve built a special conference dash board. There will be ways to join the discussion and share resources in addition to seeing a live stream from the event.

Conference Dashboard