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If you are a fan of the horror genre fan and are also familiar with the found footage style of filmmaking. In that case, you probably know that the blend between found footage and horror is exhilarating and brilliantly horrifying. That’s why we have compiled a list of the 7 best-found footage horror films you can find on Prime Video right now.

Hell House LLC (Watch Now)

Hell House LLC is a found-footage supernatural horror film written and directed by Stephen Cognetti. The 2015 film is set five years after fifteen people were killed during a haunted house tour and it follows a documentary who goes into the same haunted house to investigate what really happened. Hell House LLC stars Ryan Jennifer Jones, Danny Bellini, Gore Abrams, Jared Hacker, Adam Schneider, and Alice Bahlke.

Willow Creek (Watch Now) Credit...

Grab your compass and camcorder because this week on the Nightmare on Film Street Horror Movie Podcast, we’re heading deep into the Pine Barrens with The Last Broadcast (1998)! Your hosts Kimmi & Jon are unraveling the mystery of the Jersey Devil, celebrating a pioneering effort in found footage horror, and unburying a mystery hidden behind the shadow of The Blair Witch Project.

In The Last Broadcast (1998), a small-town public access show takes a terrifying turn (for our benefit) when its hosts set out to capture the elusive Jersey Devil on tape – Live! We’ll dissect the eerie mix of mockumentary style, early internet sleuthing, and the chilling conclusion that makes this flick a must-watch. Plus, we’ll marvel at how Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler made horror history on a shoestring budget.

Tune in as we chat about the film’s innovative storytelling, its impact on the found footage phenomenon,...

You can never underestimate the power of hearsay. Sometimes, something sounding like it could be true is enough to convince people that it must be. And while this phenomenon can have disastrous real-world consequences when applied to science and politics, it’s also responsible for some memorable instances of collective storytelling.

From hook-handed murderers to gerbils becoming stuck inside famous actors, urban legends are the modern equivalent to ancient campfire stories about werewolves and vampires – which is why it makes sense that they’ve inspired some of most beloved genre films. And with so many of these allegedly “true” stories to choose from, we’ve decided to come up with a list highlighting six of the most underrated movies based on urban legends.

Naturally, we’ll be shying away from more popular films like Candyman and Jamie Blanks’ Urban Legend, but don’t forget to comment below with your own...

The Tribeca Film Festival has announced the 2023 jury members in the 15 different competition categories for this year’s event. Those categories include film, immersive “storyscapes,” games, audio storytelling and more. Among the jury members are Brendan Fraser, Stephanie Hsu, Zoey Deutch, Dianna Agron, Zazie Beetz, Kate Siegel, Mark Duplass, Stephen Kay, Nina Dobrev, Clea DuVall, Piper Perabo, Chance the Rapper, Noah Centineo, Jeremy O. Harris, Andrew Ahn and Chloe Grace Moretz.

Alongside the competitive awards, the fest will present the Nora Ephron Award — created to honor the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer. The winning films, projects, filmmakers, storytellers, and actors in each category will be announced at the Tribeca Festival ceremony on June 15th.

“We are thrilled to announce the jury for the 2023 Tribeca Festival,” said Tribeca Festival Executive Vice President of Artist Relations and Special Events Nancy Lefkowitz. “The diversity of perspectives and experiences across...

While we generally like to think that human beings have catalogued most of the animal kingdom, the fact is that there are still plenty of biological mysteries to uncover. After all, gorillas were only recognized by science in the 1850s, and don’t even get me started on the extinction-dodging coelacanth. That’s why cryptozoology is such a fascinating subject, with amateur zoologists insisting that there’s still a little bit of magic left in the world.

Of course, not every legendary cryptid creature is as cuddly as the jackelope, and that’s why we’ve come up with this list recommending six underrated movies inspired by cryptozoology! After all, what good are monsters if we can’t enjoy scary movies about them?

As usual, we’ll be following a couple of rules in order to keep things concise. First of all, no double-dipping, which means we’ll only be...

Happy Tuesday, dear readers! We have a brand new round of home media releases on tap for today, and we have a mix of new and classic titles headed home this week. As far as new genre offerings go, Rob Savage’s Dashcam, The Last Thing Mary Saw, and Shark Bait are all being released on DVD, and The Twin featuring Teresa Palmer is coming out on Blu-ray. Galaxy Quest, which is an all-timer in our house, is getting a new Blu-ray today, and as far as older films go, both The Last Broadcast and Terror Circus are getting an HD overhaul, too.

Other releases for July 12th include Death Hunt, Blood Bath and While We Sleep.

Dashcam

Weary of pandemic life, Annie makes a surprise, unwelcome visit to her old bandmate, Stretch, stealing his car and taking over his food delivery gig while live-streaming outrageous antics for internet fans.

Updated with awards dates: The Peabody Awards said Tuesday that it will announce the winning projects in its newest category, Digital and Interactive Storytelling, on March 24. The inaugural awards will be given to legacy media projects, with the category being folded into the main Peabody ceremony beginning in 2023.

The news comes after the organization last year introduced the expansion of categories to recognize storytelling achievements across interactive and immersive categories. A newly created Interactive Board is screening projects across Gaming, Interactive Journalism, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Social Video, Interactive Documentary, Transmedia Storytelling and more.

Kinetic Energy Entertainment CEO and co-founder Diana Williams is chairwoman of the new board, which has added Gabriel J.X Dance, Yasmin Elayat, Navid Khonsari and Opeyemi Olukemi to a group that already includes Lars Bastholm, Jay Bushman, Aymar Jean Christian, Katerina Cizek, Amy Hennig, Al Shaw, Kamal Sinclair, Sara Thacher and Lance Weiler.

The Peabodys,...

Like its Park City counterpart, the Slamdance Film Festival has pivoted to an all-virtual affair this year, but it will now get underway Jan. 27, one week after Sundance, its proudly DIY spirit intact. The 28th edition of Slamdance boasts 23 premieres — 13 world, six North American and four U.S. debuts — and sections such as Department of Anarchy and Experimental Shorts, along with Blockchain Fairy Tales, a collaborative storytelling experiment.

“On one hand you can say it’s bad and disappointing when we cannot gather in Park City, but we see the good — the opportunity to reenvision what a festival can be, what Slamdance can be,” says Peter Baxter, Slamdance president and co-founder. “Our new Slamdance Channel, which will host the festival this year, fits into the bigger picture of a decentralized media future.”

Buzzy titles include Clay Tatum’s comedy “The Civil Dead” and Kristen Abate and Steven Tanenbaum’s existential...

The Peabody Awards is expanding its domain to include honors for storytelling in interactive, immersive and new media categories. As part of the expansion — which comes a week after Peabody announced its 30 winners for 2021 — an additional board of ten newly appointed jurors has been named.

That group of industry experts will help Peabody — which honors “stories that matter in broadcasting and streaming media” — move into the digital and immersive format arenas.

“The foundation of the Peabody Awards is honoring stories that matter,” said Jeffrey Jones, executive director of Peabody. “Significant and incredibly creative storytelling is happening beyond legacy media before our eyes. New storytelling techniques and advancements in technology are surpassing the confines of traditional media. Creators are pioneering new methods to tell powerful stories and reach new audiences, and the achievements are extraordinary.”

The Peabody Interactive Board will identify projects across formats including gaming, interactive journalism, virtual reality, augmented reality,...

Interactive exhibition of film, extended reality and art to be made available globally.

A focus on climate change, conspiracy theory QAnon and death row are among the projects selected for the online Inter:Active line-up at Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox) which runs from April 21 to May 2.

The Inter:Active strand will comprise 13 new projects and will be available to access online from around the world. The pieces are a mix of film, extended reality and digital art, and will be presented as live events.

Scroll down for full line-up

The programme will open with Anthropocene In C Major, a live...

Every film festival has felt the cold hand of the pandemic on its shoulder this year, but IDFA’s head of new media, Caspar Sonnen, may have felt it more keenly. While others might have felt that taking their event either partly or fully online was in some way a step forward, for Sonnen it was always a step back.

“We started DocLab in 2007 with a fairly specific goal,” he explains, “which was basically to take these ephemeral, non-tangible, undefined things that we found on the internet and, for 10 days, put them into a physical collective festival experience. That was the whole idea behind DocLab, initially. Back then, we built a little website to collect the program and made it possible to see some of these projects in their natural habitat, the browser. But, over the years, we went further and further into physicality, and collectiveness, and festivalness, with VR,...

With the help of a technical consultant and several dry runs, the online pitch day for the Tribeca Film Institute If/Then Short Documentary Program, originally set to be held at the Cleveland International Film Festival, went off without a hitch. Sure, there were elements that couldn’t be replaced — FaceTime can’t beat face time — but more than 300 people watched the pitches on April 16, and filmmakers James Christenson and Brennan Vance won a $25,000 grant for their project “To Be Reconciled.”

If/Then director Chloe Gbai said the turnout was higher than usual, including “a ton of industry — industry we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. The way that Cleveland is positioned in the calendar, it’s a beloved festival, but it doesn’t get as much industry traffic as other festivals. There’s a lot of good that festivals and market do both for our industry and the economies where...

Over 100 movies screened at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, but one of its best offerings lets you walk inside the frame and experience a story from the inside out. In “Where There’s Smoke,” a selection of Tribeca’s Virtual Arcade program, participants literally walk through one man’s memories and engage with his grief. Lance Weiler, a filmmaker who years ago dove headlong into the creative possibility of immersive storytelling, has crafted an elaborate form of experiential cinema and interactive theater out of personal experiences.

The genesis of the project — which finds participants walking through several rooms and learning about his youth — stems from Weiler’s complex relationship with his father, who passed away last year. The Philadelphia native was a volunteer firefighter and amateur fire scene photographer who took his family on long road trips around the country, but often struggled to connect with his son. When he became sick with cancer,...

Ali Wong, Jeffrey Wright, Noah Schnapp, and Yo-Yo Ma are featured in the Tribeca Film Festival’s 2019 lineup of immersive, interactive, and virtual reality titles.

Projects include a South Carolina school tragedy in “12 Seconds of Gunfire: The True Story of a School Shooting,” Arthur Ashe’s landmark tennis victory in “Ashe ’68,” an exploration of pollution and conservation in “A Drop in the Ocean,” and persecution of the Lgbtqia community in “Another Dream.”

Tribeca Immersive encompasses Virtual Arcade with 22 experiences and exhibits, and Tribeca Cinema360 with a dozen screenings in a virtual reality theater. The Tribeca Film Festival takes place from April 24 to May 5.

The festival will premiere the first “Doctor Who” experience in Vr with “Doctor Who: The Runaway,” voiced by the current and first female doctor, Jodie Whittaker, and present a collaboration with historian/podcaster Dan Carlin and Mwm Immersive that transports attendees to a World War I battlefield in “War Remains.

Baobab Studios’ Bonfire, Yo-Yo Ma project Into The Light among selections.

Tribeca Film Festival brass on Wednesday (6) unveiled the 2019 immersive programme of more than 30 Vr, Ar, and mixed reality films and experiences.

New work includes Baobab Studios’ Bonfire created by the Madagascar series and Antz director Eric Darnell and featuring Ali Wong; Wolves In The Walls: It’s All Over includes Jeffrey Wright and Noah Schnapp from Stranger Things; and Immersive experiences including Into The Light featuring musician Yo-Yo Ma, and Ayahuasca (pictured) created by Jan Kounen.

Tribeca Immersive includes two events, the Virtual Arcade featuring Storyscapes, and Tribeca Cinema...

Mere months after blowing minds at Sundance, the interactive “Frankenstein AI: A Monster Made by Many” may now be experienced from the comfort of your own home. Not unlike Mary Shelley’s classic novel, the exploration of artificial-intelligence explores what happens when humans create something that gets away from them — but, in this case, it’s meant to assuage our fears rather than stoke them.

The project, which will continue for several years, aims to upend the dystopian view of artificial intelligence as well as “provoke and broaden conversation around the trajectory of this rapidly emerging technology.” That journey began in Park City and is meant to continue with help from the public. The creators envision it as “an evolving series of activations and experiences both online and off, that will traverse immersive theatre, browser-based interactions, community design, and other performative and experiential media.”

Lance Weiler is the Executive Creative...

Mere months after blowing minds at Sundance, the interactive “Frankenstein AI: A Monster Made by Many” may now be experienced from the comfort of your own home. Not unlike Mary Shelley’s classic novel, the exploration of artificial-intelligence explores what happens when humans create something that gets away from them — but, in this case, it’s meant to assuage our fears rather than stoke them.

The project, which will continue for several years, aims to upend the dystopian view of artificial intelligence as well as “provoke and broaden conversation around the trajectory of this rapidly emerging technology.” That journey began in Park City and is meant to continue with help from the public. The creators envision it as “an evolving series of activations and experiences both online and off, that will traverse immersive theatre, browser-based interactions, community design, and other performative and experiential media.”

Lance Weiler is the Executive Creative...

Each year, members of MIT’s Open Documentary Lab take a look at the interactive works at Sundance’s New Frontiers section. This dispatch explores the storytelling potential of artificial reality.

The projects in this year’s New Frontier section at the Sundance Film Festival ranged from the latest cutting-edge virtual reality to decidedly low-tech dance and theater performances. The most thought-provoking of these pieces incorporated media forms across the technological spectrum to explore the leading scientific development and debate of the day: the ascendance of artificial intelligence (A.I.).

As economists and social scientists debate the ramifications of A.I. on their respective disciplines, artists, unsurprisingly, are feeling compelled to do the same. Accordingly, the pieces at Sundance chose not to question issues like the future of work but rather cut to the philosophical core of the matter: in the era of AI, what does it mean to be human?...

Each year, members of MIT’s Open Documentary Lab take a look at the interactive works at Sundance’s New Frontiers section. This dispatch explores the storytelling potential of artificial reality.

The projects in this year’s New Frontier section at the Sundance Film Festival ranged from the latest cutting-edge virtual reality to decidedly low-tech dance and theater performances. The most thought-provoking of these pieces incorporated media forms across the technological spectrum to explore the leading scientific development and debate of the day: the ascendance of artificial intelligence (A.I.).

As economists and social scientists debate the ramifications of A.I. on their respective disciplines, artists, unsurprisingly, are feeling compelled to do the same. Accordingly, the pieces at Sundance chose not to question issues like the future of work but rather cut to the philosophical core of the matter: in the era of AI, what does it mean to be human?...

Every year, the New York Film Festival descends upon the city’s most passionate cinephiles, bringing flashy world premieres and giving New Yorkers a chance to finally see films they’ve been salivating over since Cannes. For the experimentally minded, the Convergence series is a chance to explore immersive storytelling such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and interactive multimedia projects with an eye on the future.

Read More:Massive Robert Mitchum Centenary Tribute Set As Nyff 2017 Retrospective — Exclusive

The sixth edition of the annual program announces its full slate today, including three Vr horror experiences from Dark Corner Studios, a Vr documentary series exploring the lives of Pakistani citizens from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and a game about sci-fi hallucinations from Tender Claws. In addition, Nyff is partnering with Lucasfilm to premiere their new virtual production technology with a public presentation. The never-before-seen technology harnesses the power of Vr as...

The Convergence section of the New York Film Festival is described as “immersive experiences that redefine the idea of cinematic storytelling.” For many festivals, this would simply be a catch all for the latest Vr experiences. And while Vr is definitely a key part, this year’s Convergence offers a much broader survey of the myriad ways storytelling is adapting to advances in technology and new media. Included are talks, screenings and scheduled interactive experiences, with free events throughout the weekend of October 1 in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center.

Read More: The 2016 IndieWire Nyff Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival

The programming truly does vary; everything from adding augmented reality to a comic book, an interactive digital local newspaper co-created by Daniel Scheinert (“Swiss Army Man”), to a multi-panel presentation of a series of 24 hour documentaries about the lives of transit workers around the globe.

In 1983, Lance Weiler’s van burst into flames during a family vacation. Eleven months later his house burnt to the ground. His latest project, “Where There’s Smoke,” mixes theater, film, gaming, and emergent technology story in an attempt to uncover the truth about those two incidents. On Sunday, September 18 as part of the Ifp Film Week’s Screen Forward Conference, Weiler will discuss the creative process behind the immersive storytelling project and present hands-on opportunities for participants to experiment. Weiler has been the creative force behind some of the most innovative projects in the new immersive storytelling space. An alumni of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Weiler is […]...

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces today the list of filmmaker talks at the 54th New York Film Festival, which runs from September 30th through October 16th. These include the annual On Cinema master class, Directors Dialogues, as well as Meet The Makers, a series of talks with creators of projects in the festival’s Convergence session. On Cinema and Directors Dialogues are presented by HBO®.

Read More: Nyff Reveals Main Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Manchester By the Sea,’ ‘Paterson’ and ‘Personal Shopper’

This year’s On Cinema will feature a conversation with legendary American independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and Nyff Director Kent Jones. Jarmusch, a Nyff veteran many times over, has two films in the festival this year: “Paterson” in the Main Slate section, and documentary “Gimme Danger,” about iconic punk rock band The Stooges, in the Special Events section. The in-depth discussion will explore Jarmusch’s indelible career,...

Organisers at the Brooklyn event have broadened the public programming remit and will present the Screen Forward Conference, screenings, Vr experiences and free community events.

“Ifp has always had a reputation industry-wide as a place of discovery,” said Ifp executive director Joana Vicente.

“Now, with Ifp Film Week in Brooklyn, we welcome all New York audiences to come and discover the new ideas, new artists, digital pioneers, and experience all our talented and diverse community has to offer.”

Public programmes will run from September 17-22 in and around Ifp’s headquarters, Made in NY Media Center by Ifp in Dumbo, Brooklyn, under the leadership of head of programming Amy Dotson, produced by Erik Luers, Annie Malarkey and gallery manager Tom Rotenberg.

The Ifp Screen Forward Conference will start the week and features talks with Citizenfour director Laura Poitras and actress and activist Rose McGowan, as well as the creators of Hamilton, Weiner and The...

Having announced the lineup for the Main Slate of the 54th New York Film Festival (September 30 through October 16), the Film Society of Lincoln Center now unveils details on its Convergence program, running from October 1 through 4 and featuring "virtual reality, augmented reality, installations, and more." There'll be new work by Milica Zec and Winslow Turner Porter III, Kiira Benzing and Stina Hamlin, Lance Weiler and Nick Fortugno, special talks by Lindsay Doran, Hilmar Koch and Nick Rasmussen—and more. » - David Hudson...

Having announced the lineup for the Main Slate of the 54th New York Film Festival (September 30 through October 16), the Film Society of Lincoln Center now unveils details on its Convergence program, running from October 1 through 4 and featuring "virtual reality, augmented reality, installations, and more." There'll be new work by Milica Zec and Winslow Turner Porter III, Kiira Benzing and Stina Hamlin, Lance Weiler and Nick Fortugno, special talks by Lindsay Doran, Hilmar Koch and Nick Rasmussen—and more. » - David Hudson...

The Film Society of Lincoln Center today announced the lineup for Convergence, its highly anticipated immersive storytelling program, which will run October 1–4 as part of the 54th New York Film Festival. It includes two U.S. premieres and one world premiere amongst the nine interactive works, as well as five panels from innovators of the field.

Read More: Nyff Reveals Main Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Manchester By the Sea,’ ‘Paterson’ and ‘Personal Shopper’

“The art of immersive storytelling is continually evolving,” said Nyff Convergence programmer Matt Bolish in a press release. “Our mission has been consistent from our first year to this, our fifth: bringing the best survey of interactive work to the Nyff audience.”

Virtual Reality highlights include the world premiere of acclaimed Indian work “Priya’s Mirror,” which fuses augmented reality with a comic book to tell the story of a rape survivor-turned-superhero. Returning for a second...

The initiative will support 20 projects exploring alternative storytelling through digital technologies.

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival announced in Cannes the launch of Storytek, a three-month accelerator programme to support the emergence of alternative storytelling.

There will be 20 pilot projects selected by an international team of mentors to take part in a three-month programme that will link together film-makers with technology developers.

Confirmed mentors include Glenn Gainor, president of physical production for Screen Gems; John Heinsen, CEO of BunnyGraph Entertainment; Rain Rannu, Estonian founder of mobile payments service Fortumo; Domenico La Porta, director of Wallimage R/O Institute; Maxine de Vere, film producer and production supervisor; Heikki Haldre, Estonian tech evangelist; Lance Weiler, Us writer, director and experience designer; and Paul Tyler, a UK TV and digital production expert.

Among the topics of discussion for selected film-makers will be how to expand original narratives to digital platforms such as games, online platforms...

Conference speakers included Kickstarter’s Jon Leland, ScreenHits’ Rose Adkins and BBC Worldwide Digital Studios’ Alex Ayling.

Prototyping and the art of connecting with audiences early on in a project’s genesis were at the heart of Power to the Pixel’s annual conference on Tuesday (Oct 13).

“We’ll be introducing the idea of the three Ps of prototyping, participation and personalisation,” said Power to the Pixel founder and CEO Liz Rosenthal in her opening remarks.

“We’ll be looking at an audience-centric approach in which you explore the themes and story-world of an idea first, look at the audience behaviour and motivations second and then work out which platform to use to engage. Very often companies do this the other way round.”

The daylong conference – exploring audience engagement, new formats and innovative funding – took place within the framework of the annual Power to the Pixel: The Crossmedia Forum, running Oct 13-16 at the BFI Southbank.

Digital...

Read More: 53rd New York Film Festival Announces Main Slate Offerings; 'Brooklyn,' 'Carol' and 'Bridge of Spies' Top List "Sherlock Holmes & The Internet of Things" First Weekend (Free Event) Co-creator Lance Weiler wrote passionately about this event/experience back in August, thanks to a call for storytellers and creators eager to help him reimagine the world of Sherlock Holmes though a technological lens. Now fans of both the world's greatest sleuth and interactive ways of sharing information can participate in (fake) crime solving around Lincoln Center, thanks to a prototype of the experience developed and run by the Columbia Digital Storytelling Lab as part of the festival's Convergence section. "All That Jazz" Screening Friday, September 25 at 9Pm (Free Event) Nyff plays home to a host of free screenings as part of their Free Friday campaign, and the classic Bob Fosse musical is the first event on the docket. The film has been restored.

Power to the Pixel’s annual Pixel Lab event will feature 32 participants.

A total of 32 international media professionals working with interactive and cross-media approaches have been selected to take part in Power to the Pixel’s annual Pixel Lab event (June 28 - July 4), taking place in Inverness, Scotland in June.

Now in its sixth year, The Pixel Lab is Power to the Pixel’s development course designed to explore how interactivity and new media tools can add value to film, TV or new media projects and engage new audiences.

Spanning 20 countries, the selected participants will take part in a training week, to develop skills and exchange ideas to create, produce and finance cross-platform properties.

Some 16 international producers will develop projects that incorporate a range of film, interactive, live event, mobile, gaming, TV, publishing or online, partnered with 16 cross-media professionals that include producers, writers, commissioning editors, financiers, story architects, games and interactive developers and designers.

This residential...

“The Where of Storytelling: Creating the Location Based Experience” is a class series conceived by the Made in NY Media Center by Ifp exploring site-specific storytelling – from interactive film to experiential design for commercial clients, location adds a new level of experience to media projects. The program consists of a Case Study and overview of locative storytelling featuring interactive filmmaker Lance Weiler and Jake Barton, founder of award-winning museum experience designers Local Projects (June 9); a Writing Workshop: draft a location-based story & refine your project through inspiring design exercises and peer critiques (June 13, 14 & 27); and a Beacon Tech Workshop: install a location-specific experience & work with developers to learn to […]...

“The Where of Storytelling: Creating the Location Based Experience” is a class series conceived by the Made in NY Media Center by Ifp exploring site-specific storytelling – from interactive film to experiential design for commercial clients, location adds a new level of experience to media projects. The program consists of a Case Study and overview of locative storytelling featuring interactive filmmaker Lance Weiler and Jake Barton, founder of award-winning museum experience designers Local Projects (June 9); a Writing Workshop: draft a location-based story & refine your project through inspiring design exercises and peer critiques (June 13, 14 & 27); and a Beacon Tech Workshop: install a location-specific experience & work...

FilmGate Interactive's transmedia festival, South Florida's only transmedia conference and festival, is coming back Miami for a third year this February. FilmGate will be holding several screenings workshops, talkbacks and panels featuring industry leaders such as Jake Price, Lance Weiler, Mike Knowlton, Patric Jean and Wally Rodriguez. Events to look forward to include the Miami premiere of "Unknown Spring," a documentary about the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the Lance Weiler-helmed Learn. Do. Share., a think tank-style event for teens, a workshop titled "How to Create Immersive Media Projects," moderated by Mike Knowlton, a Post-Production Workshop on Digital VFX taught by Emmy-award winner Wally Rodriguez and a study on linear vs. non-linear storytelling led by Patric Jean.  Read More: What's the Future of Storytelling? 'Unknown Spring' Provides Some Answers Attendees will also want to check out The "Ace Ventura Pet...

Data will be key to successfully reaching audiences in the future, according to Buzzfeed’s John S. Johnson.

“Data and optimisation”, “rapid prototyping” and “iterative design” were the buzz phrases at the annual Power to the Pixel Cross-Media Forum (Oct 7-10) on Tuesday, looking at the latest developments in audience engagement, new formats and innovative funding.

Kicking off the opening conference, John S. Johnson, co-founder of internet news platform BuzzFeed, urged filmmakers and other creatives “to embrace data and optimisation” when developing their projects.

“The train is leaving the station and you need to be on it for all our sakes. You need to embrace it, make it your own and make great work,” he told delegates at London’s BFI Southbank.

Johnson is also founding executive director of the New York-based Harmony Institute (Hi), a research body exploring the impact of entertainment media.

He cited My Sky is Falling (MSiF), an immersive storyworld aimed at creating...

Last Broadcast director Lance Weiler among those set to deliver masterclasses at the St Petersburg International Media Forum, which opens tonight with Mommy [pictured].

Lance Weiler, Adam Sigel and Andy Green are among the international guests set to give masterclasses at the inaugural St Petersburg International Media Forum (Spimf) which kicks off tonight (Oct 1) with the Russian premiere of Xavier Dolan’s Mommy.

Film director Weiler (The Last Broadcast, Pandemic), who is also the co-founder of Columbia University’s Digital Storytelling Lab, will speak about interactive storytelling as part of Spimf’s business programme (Oct 6-8), while writer-producer and content strategist Adam Sigel of La-based Cutbait Productions will explore storytelling across platforms, and Andy Green, a co-founder of the viral distribution platform Distrify, will discuss the influence of scientific and technological innovation on cultural strategy.

In other master classes, the creative technologist Clint Beharry of New York-based Harmony Institute will look at ways of optimising stories for social...

Buzzfeed’s John Johnson among the line-up at Power to the Pixel’s Cross-Media Forum.

Power to the Pixel: The Cross-Media Forum (Oct 7-10) is to be headlined this year by John Johnson, co-founder of social news website Buzzfeed, who will speak publicly in the UK for the first time.

As keynote speaker, Johnson will share thoughts and experiences of media impact measurement that point to new ways of funding and creating new projects as well as engaging audiences.

It was revealed earlier this week that Buzzfeed is to launch a dedicated feature film arm after receiving $50m in investment from venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz.

BuzzFeed Motion Pictures will produce content ranging from six-second videos to episodic series and feature films, while Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained exec Michael Shamberg has been attached as an advisor.

The company, which generates more than 200 million monthly views, will look to work with Hollywood studios and distribute the content...

16 European producers will partner with 16 cross-media professionals at the fifth edition of Power to the Pixel’s annual event.

Power to the Pixel (PttP) has announced the projects taking part in this year’s Pixel Lab.

Taking place in Baden-Württemberg from July 6-12, the cross-media workshop will see its 32 selected participants partake in an intensive residential project-focuses training week.

16 European producers will develop projects with 16 cross-media professionals at this year’s event. Participants attending with projects include Tina Gharavi, Lily Lambert and Tim Travers Hawkins.

Producers attending with a project will attend a second workshop in London from Oct 7-10 as part of PttP’s Cross-Media Forum.

Liz Rosenthal, CEO and founder of PttP, commented: “The Pixel Lab continues to draw the best new and exciting ideas developed by creative talent working in filmed, interactive and digital content industries.

“In the Lab’s intensive, energetic and collaborative environment they receive expert guidance, in-depth attention...

Remember when we reported on "Body/Mind/Change," the elaborate multi-media production with creative direction by Lance Weiler and starring David Cronenberg? Here's a refresher: produced by the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) and the Canadian Film Centre's Media Lab (Cfc Media Lab), "Body/Mind/Change" had Cronenberg partner with Bmc Labs, a fictional biotech firm, to develop Personal-on-Demand (Pod) biotech enhancement implants inspired by the intellectual property found in Cronenberg's films, such as "Scanners," "Videodrome" and "eXistenZ." The project launched last fall at Tiff. Cronenberg was the first participant in the project, which selected 1,466 hosts to receive their next generation bio-tech recommendation engine implant, Pod, a 3D-printed object. Only select participants who completed and mastered the three-part episodic narrative experience found at bodymindchange.ca received a Pod. The digital extension to Tiff's David Cronenberg: Evolution exhibition, which...

As we’ve seen here in the first few weeks of 2014, the landscape of the horror genre is absolutely flooded with found footage movies, and we primarily have two movies to thank/blame for that; The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity.

While 1999’s Blair Witch Project is often credited as the first horror movie made in the Pov found footage style, such a claim is actually quite untrue. Though Blair Witch is no doubt the movie that popularized the style, and Paranormal Activity the one that re-invented it and brought it into a new decade, there were actually a handful of found footage films that came out well before the horrifying tale of the witch in the woods.

Here are seven of those handheld horror movies, which all predate The Blair Witch Project!

Cannibal Holocaust (1980) - Theatrical Trailer

Cannibal Holocaust – 1980

What’s the very first found footage movie ever made?...

Up in Toronto, The Cronenberg Project has been running strong since November, a visually rich multi-platform celebration of the work of the legendary David Cronenberg. The event comes to a close on January 19th of next year, and if you're bummed that you aren't going to be able to experience it, then have no fear because we've got ya covered!

You can check out some incredible photos from the celebration over on Flickr. It's like being there and at home in your underwear, both at the same time!

About The Cronenberg Project

The Cronenberg Project is a multi-platform celebration of the work of one of the world’s greatest filmmakers, David Cronenberg. Running from November 1, 2013 to January 19, 2014, the core component of The Cronenberg Project is a comprehensive film exhibition titled David Cronenberg: Evolution, curated by Piers Handling, CEO and Director, Tiff, and Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, Tiff Bell Lightbox.

Even if you love the work of “venereal horror” king David Cronenberg as much as we do, it’s unlikely you’ve ever said to yourself that you’d like to live inside the dark world of beta tape-eating chest cavities, grotesque human-to-fly transformations, and telekenesis-powered head explosions. But that’s exactly what the Toronto International Film Festival, the Canadian Film Centre, and installation artist/self-proclaimed “experience designer” Lance Weiler have teamed up to do. In connection with Tiff’s “David Cronenberg: Evolution” exhibit running through January, Weiler’s “Body/Mind/Change” seeks to recreate for the intrepid fan the experience of living inside a Cronenberg film. Particularly inspired by his celebrated Videodrome and its less celebrated thematic sequel eXistenZ, “Body/Mind/Change” looks like it will take the museumgoer through an extensive, interactive, tactile Cronenbergian narrative full of biotechnological paranoia and interactions with personalized (and possibly malevolent) artificial intelligence. The...

Syfy, Advertising Age & The Advertising Club of New York will host the Transmedia Storytelling: Masters & Dreamers conference, which will be held at the New World Stages in New York on Tuesday, November 5 from 9:30Am-2Pm. From keynote speaker Anthony Bourdain to a conversation with renowned futurist Dr. James Canton, CEO of the Institute for Global Futures, attendees will hear directly from the masters and dreamers who are reshaping the way viewers experience and participate in entertainment. The panels will feature industry leaders Randy Browning (CEO,Blab); Ingrid Kopp (Director, Digital Initiatives, Tribeca Film Institute); Lance Weiler (Writer, Director, Experience Designer); Michael Engleman (Evp, Digital & Global Brand Strategy, Syfy); Christos Apartoglou (Senior Product Marketing Manager, Google Chrome); Jonathan...

The Toronto International Film Festival teamed up with David Cronenberg for The Cronenberg Project, a multi-platform exhibition that starts today in Toronto:

“Piers Handling, CEO and Director, Tiff and Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, Tiff Bell Lightbox along with David Cronenberg came together… to unveil exciting new details of The Cronenberg Project.

Included in the announcements were the full film retrospective and sidebar film programme, eBook and a selection of special guests and events. The Cronenberg Project, Tiff’s multi-platform celebration of Cronenberg’s work, will have its world premiere at Tiff Bell Lightbox from November 1, 2013 to January 19, 2014. Additional details for the original film exhibition David Cronenberg: Evolution, digital-experience extension Body/Mind/Change, visual art exhibition David Cronenberg: Transformation, the David Cronenberg: Virtual Exhibition and original publications that comprise The Cronenberg Project were also announced.

Tiff’s first original major touring exhibition—and the core component of The...

The Power to the Pixel’s annual Cross-Media Forum, showcasing the latest developments in multiplatform production in the digital media world over the past 12 months, unfolded at the BFI’s Southbank this week.

“The forum is our annual centrepiece event,” said Liz Rosenthal, founder and CEO of the digital media consultancy which runs workshops and consults on the art of capturing audiences across platforms throughout the year.

As the three-day event marked its seventh edition, the mood was in part reflective as the likes of Xbox chief design engineer Elan Lee, respected transmedia storyteller Lance Weiler and interactive docs guru Ingrid Kopp, shared some of the lessons they had learned working across multiple platforms in recent years.

Lessons Learned

La-based Lee, who recently re-joined Microsoft as the chief design officer for its Xbox Entertainment Studios after a decade of launching and running a slew of interactive entertainment start-ups, gave a potted history of his successes and failures...

Have you ever wondered what life is like in a David Cronenberg film? Considering that the director's most famous film follows its protagonist's gruesome transformation into a fly, I think the safe answer is no, but a futuristic new project will provide this experience to those with a little more nerve than me. Cronenberg has teamed up with the Canadian Film Centre's Media Lab for an interactive storytelling experience called Body/Mind/Change that will make use of "bio-tech recommendation engine" Personal On Demand (Pod). Cronenberg, known for his unique and often quite gross brand of horror filmmaking, will create an interactive story to help the initial Pod users learn the ins and outs of the new device, which purports to 'learn' its users tendencies and offer recommendations based on those findings. “Working with David Cronenberg on Body/Mind/Change was an amazing experience," said Lance Weiler, creative director and...

As one of the most visionary creators in modern time, David Cronenberg has garnered an eclectic filmography that includes deranged horror masterpieces like Videodrome and more conventional, yet audacious, narratives like A History of Violence. Now, audiences will have the chance to be immersed in the filmmaker’s universe via the Tiff and the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (Cfc Media Lab) transmedia production Body/Mind/Change. This unique interactive experience stars Cronenberg himself and exposes the plausible science fiction that inhabits his oeuvre as scientific facts.

“Working with Tiff on Body/Mind/Change offered an unparalleled opportunity for Cfc Media Lab to work with the amazing David Cronenberg; Lance Weiler, an incomparable storyteller reinventing entertainment using transmedia; and a passionate group of digital designers and companies,” said Cfc’s Chief Digital Officer Ana Serrano, who is also worked with Tiff on Body/Mind/Change. “It has been an exciting creative journey resulting in North America’s first interactive storytelling experience that generates a physical object for the user that has narrative meaning.”

“The Cronenberg Project is Tiff’s first fully-curated exhibition offers visitors a truly unique experience, both within the Tiff Lightbox and beyond with Body/Mind/Change,” added Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, Tiff Bell Lightbox. “In addition to Lance Weiler’s artistic direction and the Cfc team, David Cronenberg’s involvement in this project has made it one of the coolest multimedia projects in the world.”

The Cfc Media Lab has assembled an incredible team that includes some of the most innovative creative minds in North America working on digital media today. One of these amazing artists is Lance Weiler who is serving as the creative director and experience designer Body/Mind/Change. Weller history with Cfc Media Lab goes back to his own work The Last Broadcast, which he presented at their Interactive Arena Series as one of the pioneering minds to combine traditional storytelling with modern technology. 1188 Films, Aesthetec, Northern Army, and composer Brendan Canning from Broken Social Scene among others, form the rest of the extremely talented team. In the production side there is Art Hindle, who is one of Cronenberg’s recurrent collaborations, as well as Joey Klein and alumni from the Cfc Actors Conservatory program, Diana Bentley and Natalie Krill.

“Working with David Cronenberg on Body/Mind/Change was an amazing experience. With his participation we were able to create a layered story world that will immerse participants in his fiction as if it were reality,” says Lance Weiler, creative director and experience designer of Body/Mind/Change."

Body/Mind/Change is inspired by the intellectual property found in Cronenberg’s films, such as Scanners, Videodrome and eXistenZ. In this realm, the director’s partners with Bmc Labs, a fictional biotech firm, to develop biotech enhancement implants. On October 25, registered participants will be guided through an episodic interactive narrative that functions as a simulator for training their PODs. Once each participant completes this three-part experience they are guaranteed a unique Pod generated from their behavior during the simulations. Their Pod will be available for pick-up at the close of the David Cronenberg: Evolution exhibition in January 2014 at the Bmc Labs installation, located in the Cibc Canadian Film Gallery on the 4th floor of the Tiff Bell Lightbox.

Participants can sign up now at www.bodymindchange.ca where they can register to be one of the first to receive the next generation bio-tech recommendation engine, called Personal-On-Demand (Pod). For a sneak peek of the video trailer Click Here.

Filmmaker scooped the competition this Spring with Lance Weiler’s story about Body/Mind/Change, the West Coast start-up that licensed the IP of David Cronenberg to develop new biotech products. The main project discussed was Pod, an implanted personalized consumer recommendation engine that’s also an actual living organism. When this story ran, some wondered whether Weiler’s account was some kind of spoof, but now Cronenberg himself has surfaced to endorse the project, even as other publications — and, um, the press release itself — question its authenticity. (Our friends at Motherboard dubbed Weiler’s piece a “faux profile,” or “fauxfile.”) Regardless, the project […]...

Filmmaker scooped the competition this Spring with Lance Weiler’s story about Body/Mind/Change, the West Coast start-up that licensed the IP of David Cronenberg to develop new biotech products. The main project discussed was Pod, an implanted personalized consumer recommendation engine that’s also an actual living organism. When this story ran, some wondered whether Weiler’s account was some kind of spoof, but now Cronenberg himself has surfaced to endorse the project, even as other publications — and, um, the press release itself — question its authenticity. (Our friends at Motherboard dubbed Weiler’s piece a “faux profile,” or “fauxfile.”) Regardless, the project […]...

Power to the Pixel’s 7th Cross-Media Forum to also include a new David Cronenberg project inspired by Videodrome and a multimedia travelogue from Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys.

Power to the Pixel has unveiled the line up for its 7th Cross-Media Forum in London, which runs Oct 15-18 in association with the BFI London Film Festival.

Strands at this year’s edition include the Conference (Oct 15), the Pixel Market (Oct 16-17) and the Think Tank (Oct 18).

This year’s keynote speaker is Elan Lee, chief design officer at Xbox Entertainment Studios one of the leading creators of the ‘Alternate Reality Game’ genre producing I Love Bees, Nine Inch Nails: Year Zero and The Dark Knight: Why so Serious?.

His speech is titled ‘My Mother Has No Idea What I Do For A Living - our story-telling journey through Cross-Media, Second Screens, and Interactive Narratives’ and will include “some of the best and worst...