POWER TO THE PIXEL: THE CROSS- MEDIA FORUM 7-10 OCTOBER 2014 HELD IN ASSOCIATION WITH 58 TH BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL

Transcription

1 REPORT THE THINK TANK POWER TO THE PIXEL: THE CROSS- MEDIA FORUM 7-10 OCTOBER 2014 HELD IN ASSOCIATION WITH 58 TH BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL

2 CANADA PRESENTS MAIN PARTNER PARTICIPATING PARTNERS HOSTED AT QUEBEC HOUSE OTHER PARTICIPATORY PARTNER PARTNERS POWER TO THE PIXEL: THE CROSS-MEDIA FORUM 2014 is supported by Creative Europe MEDIA programme of the European Union. Additiona support from Creative Skiset Fim Skis Fund as part of a Bigger Future 2, Arts Counci Engand, BFI, Canada Media Fund, Roskino, ARTE Internationa, Create.Innovate/Northern Fim and Media, beactive, ITVS, OMDC, Teefim Canada, SODEC, Québec Government Office, Be Fund, IFP and Cinekid. NORDIC FOCUS Nordisk Fim and TV Fond, The Danish Fim Institute, The Swedish Fim Institute, The Norwegian Fim Institute, The Finnish Fim Foundation, SWIM and The Iceandic Fim Centre. 2

3 SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION The annua Power to the Pixe Think Tank has estabished a goba reputation as a key agenda-setting event in media and cross-media innovation. Over the ast five years, it has brought together eading decision-makers from a wide range of creative industries, word-cass thinkers, and key pubic and private institutions and funders to discuss practica ways to hep shape the rapidy-evoving audiovisua andscape. Previous Think Tank reports are avaiabe for downoad at category/reports/. The Think Tanks take pace at the end of one of the most energising occasions in the media caendar Power to the Pixe: The Cross-Media Forum run in association with the BFI London Fim Festiva. The week begins with The Conference, showcasing forward-thinking content creators and groundbreaking projects from around the word. It is foowed by The Pixe Market Finance Forum and The Pixe Market Meeting Day, which have consistenty connected eading innovative projects with internationa funders and commissioners. Days of intensive exposure to practica exampes of new creative potentia and new business modes provide the perfect environment for the Think Tank. The task of the Think Tank has been to find paths through the variety of economic, ega, socia, cutura and poitica obstaces in the way of creative ideas and projects, buit for an on-demand, audience-centred digita age. Each year s event has been designed to cear the mind of the confused discourse about industria and technoogica change, and to find practica answers to critica issues. THE GOAL Think Tank participants were given a cear objective: To propose a variety of activities and structures for deveoping, producing, distributing and marketing media that stay reevant as audiences change and new ways to engage emerge. That goa cut to the chase for fim and creative funds, most of which have found it chaenging to adapt to a demanding digita environment and new audience habits. The focus on financing sustainabe activities was particuary prescient in 2014, given the negative impact of the economic downturn on pubic funds and pressure from powerfu industria obbies to concentrate resources on protecting stretched traditiona vaue chains. Cross-media, and other forms of innovative content, have aso been marginaised for other reasons, incuding industria terms of trade, custom and practice and ega reguations. There is aso, however, a degree of myth and fase assumption about the roe of pubic funding in terms of cuture and economics. The Think Tank aimed to get to the essentias of content funding and, in particuar, to find activities and structures that coud fit new patterns of consumption. Rather than seeking generic soutions, appicabe to a, participants were encouraged to identify approaches that worked for their own funds, some of which might be adapted or shared by others. Each participant was encouraged to see beyond deterministic approaches, based on a narrow definition of a particuar kind of media or creative product. THE 2014 THINK TANK The 2014 Think Tank, hed at the Québec Government Office in London s Pa Ma, was aimed at pubic and private funders with responsibiity for creative and cutura spending. (See beow for fu ist) Think Tank moderator Pau Tyer (see beow) suggested a shift from Creating within a predefined strategy to Defining strategy as part of the creative. PARTICIPANTS The Think Tank was moderated by Pau Tyer, the Copenhagen-based founder of consutancy Handing Ideas. Handing Ideas has buit its reputation by using visuaisation, mapping and prototyping techniques to identify the core eements of a business pan, freed from the constraints of tradition, expectation and protectionism. The participants in the Think Tank were drawn from a range of funding bodies, institutions and businesses from around the word, each with different eves of investment in innovative activities and a variety of modes, reguations and structures. 3

4 SECTION 1 THE PARTICIPANTS Karim Ahmad Senior Digita Content Strategist ITVS (US) Pauine Augrain Head of New Media Projects CNC (FR) Cataina Briceño Industry & Market Trends Director Canada Media Fund (CA) Pauine Burt CEO Ffim Cymru Waes (UK) Vaerie Creighton CEO & President Canada Media Fund (CA) Rob Crossen Executive Producer Entertainment EMEA XBox Live (UK) Loc Dao Head of Digita Content, NFB Canada (CA) Sheia de a Varende Director Internationa Promotion Teefim Canada (CA) Peter de Maegd Founder & Producer Potemkino (BE) Tine Fischer Festiva Director CPH:DOX (DK) Nichoas Fortugno CCO & Co-founder Paymatics (US) Lizzie Francke Senior Executive Production & Deveopment BFI (UK) Annika Gustafson Executive Director BoostHbg (SE) Laufey Gudjónsdóttir Director Iceandic Fim Centre (IS) Kaja Hench Dyrie Head of Production Norwegian Fim Institute (NO) MORE >> Michee Kass Fim & Literary Agent Michee Kass Associates (UK) Petri Kemppinen CEO Nordisk Fim and TV Fond (NO) Ingrid Kopp Director of Digita Initiatives Tribeca Fim Institute (US) Caus Ladegaard Head of Production & Deveopment Danish Fim Institute (DK) 4

5 SECTION 1 THE PARTICIPANTS Anna Ljungmark Consutant Swedish Fim Institute (SE) Ruth Mackenzie Interim CEO/Launch Director The Space (UK) Ray Maguire CEO Gazoob (UK) Chris Mo Head of Fim Creative Engand (UK) Kirsten Niehuus Managing Director Medienboard Berin- Brandenburg (DE) María Paacios Head of Strategic Projects Mexican Fim Institute (MX) Liz Rosentha CEO & Founder Power to the Pixe (UK) Petri Rossi Head of Production & Deveopment The Finnish Fim Foundation (FI) Sérgio Sá Leitão CEO RioFime (BR) Andra Sheffer Executive Director Be Fund (CA) Adam Sige Content Strategist, Writer & Producer Cutbait Productions (US) Monique Simard President & CEO SODEC (CA) Marie Schmidt Oesen Commissioning Editor New Danish Screen (DK) Janine Steee Production & Operations Manager Digita Studio NFB (CA) Karen Thorne-Stone CEO & President OMDC (CA) Joana Vicente Executive Producer The Independent Fimmaker Project (US) Matteo Zacchetti Deputy Head of Unit Creative Europe MEDIA (BE) 5

6 SECTION 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Power to the Pixe Think Tank set out with cear aims for a group of participants, argey consisting of funding bodies: The discussion ed to a set of concusions that broady covered five areas of activity (See Section Four): To identify activities and structures for deveoping, producing, distributing and marketing media that stay reevant as audiences change and new ways to engage emerge. To consider innovative content in terms of the impact on, and interaction with, audiences, rather than industria determinism. Creating an internationa Research and Deveopment fund for new kinds of innovative, audience-centric projects. Encouraging and supporting projects, which empoyed a rapid prototyping approach, finding ways to create forms of Inteectua Property and testing ideas with an active audience. To separate the myths from the reaities of what can be funded within the mission statements of funding bodies. To ook at new ways of funding specific activities through partnership and cooperation with stakehoders and other funding bodies. Working to encourage, and where necessary to force, services benefiting from cross-media content, such as ISPs, VOD channes and teecommunications companies, to hep fund new content. Cooperating with other bodies and stakehoders in the creation of stronger data on audience behaviour, cutura impact and economic performance. Reassessing the benchmarks and criteria by which projects are judged, with greater emphasis on audience engagement. 6

7 SECTION 3 METHODOLOGY The Think Tank methodoogy was based on heping participants achieve the maximum carity for the core task of finding activities and structures for deveoping, producing, distributing and marketing media that stay reevant as audiences change and new ways to engage emerge. The process began by getting the funds to examine and to break down their own missions into their constituent parts: EVIDENCE AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION To support the thinking process, the Think Tank incuded two supporting presentations (See next section for more). The first was the presentation of a White Paper Understanding Funders commissioned to support the Think Tank and examining the range of internationa funding mechanisms. Goas Activities pursuant to those goas And the structures that enabe those activities The report was pubished by the Canada Media Fund in coaboration with Power to the Pixe and SODEC (La Societe de Deveoppement des Entrerprises Cuturee du Quebec). It was suggested that these three eements made up a Vaue Chain that was part of a broader Vaue System, with a wide range of interna and externa infuences and beneficiaries. The second pued out the core activities and outcomes of some of the innovative cross-media projects, featured at the Power to the Pixe forum three days earier. Divided into random groups, participants were asked to test the activities from the two taks against a series of questions, incuding: How does it hep your goa? Does it enhance or repace existing activities? What are the knock-on effects of doing that? What structures woud need to change to accommodate this new activity? How woud you get it accepted by the obbyists and terms of trade? What woud your next steps be to incorporate it? Does it require a better definition of your goa? Participants were encouraged to examine each eement of those Vaue Systems and were divided into pairs to coaborate on a series of questions, which exposed and examined how far barriers to innovation were based on reaity, and how much on misunderstanding, misinterpretation and myth. Each group presented their proposas in a fina session. The fina part of the methodoogy is the production of this report, which tries to draw out the core findings and, in the spirit of the Power to the Pixe, to freey share concusions. The work incuded anaysis of some of the mission statements of participating organisations, demonstrating the fexibiity impied in core goas, even if they were, in practice, more narrowy defined. They showed how easiy specific activities, such as supporting feature fim production, become eevated into goas. At the end of the exercises, the aim was that there was a cear, or cearer, sense of the practica requirements needed to support adaptabe, audience-centric modes and projects. 7

8 SECTION 4 EVIDENCE The Think Tank was supported by two pieces of consutancy work which were presented at the event. PRESENTATION ONE: UNDERSTANDING FUNDERS The first was a White Paper Understanding Funders presented by Cataina Briceño, Director of Industry and Market Trends at the Canada Media Fund. The report was produced by Canada Media Fund in coaboration with SODEC and Power to the Pixe specificay in preparation for The Think Tank and is avaiabe as a free downoad at downoad-canada-media-funds-white-paper-understanding-funders. It examined common funding modes for media and audiovisua industries. It identified a set of basic modes: Direct pubic funding: Incudes grants and awards from pubic bodies at oca, regiona, nationa and supranationa eve, often from specific budgets dedicated to cutura goas. Indirect pubic funding: Incudes fisca incentives, such as tax credits and tax sheters, and guaranteed oans. The aocation of this funding is subject to a compex set of rues and reguations, normay reated to hiring of abour and expenditure in a given ocation. Industry (through taxation and asset redistribution): Incudes, taxes, evies and fees on the expoitation of content in one media (such as broadcast or cinema ticket saes) to be coected and/or redistributed to support new content creation. Mixed (pubic and industry): Pubic-private hybrid forms of funding, with pubic spending often acting as an incentive for private investment. Understanding Funding shows that content funding generay invoves a mix of different and widey differing funding sources, each with their own compex sets of rues, restrictions and traditions. Some of those sources are ess fexibe than others. On the other hand, many of the different funding sources are facing the same essentia chaenges and recognise the need for reinvention. They a, for exampe, are strugging to strike a baance between supporting individua projects on the one hand and the production of creative companies that produce them on the other; and between supporting muti-patform innovation and supporting individua patforms, such as cinemas. Whie the report acknowedges the difficuties, and the cutura change, required in working with we-estabished funds, it aso suggests that this may be a time of opportunity. Funding bodies are under pressure to reduce costs, to reach a more diverse audience, to deveop new performance indicators, and to harmonise their practices across sectors. The innovation, coaboration, cross-media harmonisation, audience deveopment and internationa cooperation demanded of many funds are deepy rooted in the thinking of cross-media content creators. The research confirmed the contention of the Think Tank, that there was room for fexibiity in the activities supported by the different funding modes. [Pease see Appendix I for Cataina Briceño s Presentation] Private (market-driven): Private financing of innovative and cutura work. Whie free market support is chaenging, some experimentation in arts and cuture is supported by phianthropic individuas, brands and organisations. Other assistance (periphera support): Assistance to content creators from sources not directy reated to actua production, incuding training, infrastructure buiding and business deveopment support from oca, nationa and internationa organisations. New opportunities: The difficuties in access to conventiona funding have encouraged, or forced, innovative content creators to expore new forms of finance, incuding crowdfunding and brand sponsorship. These sources of finance have opened up significant benefits but present chaenges to traditiona funders. The report aso highights the arriva of new payers in the market, notaby goba video giants, such as YouTube, Netfix and Amazon and other on-demand video services. Their roe in supporting content creation is a hot topic of debate in many countries, and particuary from nationa broadcasters, which are mandated to support new content. 8

9 PRESENTATION TWO: CAN WE DO THAT? A second piece of supporting evidence was offered by Michae Gubbins, Co-Founder of SampoMedia and Chair of Ffim Cymru Waes. He was asked to sum up the specific activities and the actua outcomes of the case studies presented at Power to the Pixe: The Cross-Media Forum at the BFI London Fim Festiva. He identified a number of key activities that were common in many of the successfu projects, and considered the outcomes they had produced. They incude: Activity: Deveoping stories and ideas with coaborators, to interact with audiences beyond singe media [e.g Seven Deady Digita Sins/ Gone Gitmo]. Outcome: Buids diversity and impact beyond socia and cutura boundaries. Expores new creative possibiities. Attracts brands and funding. Activity: Finding, buiding and incentivising communities through data coection, direct interaction and crowdfunding [e.g Eite Dangerous/Iron Sky]. Activity: Prototyping of characters and story eements through games, apps and other media [e.g Angry Birds]. Outcome: Creates active audience, extends reach and ife of projects, opens up inteigence to share with a projects. Outcome: Low-cost deveopment and testing of key eements of a story in the eary stages of deveopment. Testing heps buid communities of future supporters, whie potentiay creating new IP. Activity: Using new forms of incentivised/equity crowdfunding to buid adaptabe, sustainabe audience-centric business [e.g Iron Sky Universe] Activity: Prototyping stories and ideas through short fims [e.g Futurestates]. Outcome: Creates a sustainabe business patform that may open up new business modes. Attracts capita into system. Outcome: Tests ideas at ower risk and cost, which might become ong-form content or evove in new directions, as we as having a ife of their own. Activity: Prototyping story ideas and approaches by directy interacting with the audience at the eariest stages [e.g Iron Sky]. Outcome: Tests ideas, encourages and incentivises future audiences and investors and distributors. Informs and perhaps changes content. Activity: Buiding iteration, testing and data coection into processes and services [e.g Buzzfeed Motion Pictures]. Outcome: Aows testing of ideas and buiding of knowedge at key stages. Activity: Creating interactive content to deveop and support story universes outside traditiona schedues [e.g Sherock Homeess Network, Spring Levend]. Outcome: Fis gaping hoes eft in traditiona processes, for exampe the gap between fim production and distribution, teevision seasons. Activity: Deveoping projects that aow audiences to maintain reationship with content beyond origina stories [e.g Fort McMoney, Where s My Water]. Outcome: Buids an afterife to projects. Creates a sense of ownership. Activity: Creating innovative, interactive digita formats that open eements of the story that cannot be managed by traditiona media [e.g Orange Duffe Bag]. Outcome: Changes the reationship between audience and content. Activey nurtures audience diversity. Each of the activities have been created and have found their way to audiences thanks to a variety of funding sources that were not specificay created to support cross-media innovation. [Pease see Appendix II for Michae Gubbins Presentation] 9

10 SECTION 5 CONCLUSIONS For the concuding discussion, participants were divided into four groups. Each was reminded of the core aim of suggesting activities and structures for deveoping, producing, distributing and marketing media that stay reevant as audiences change and new ways to engage audiences emerge. It is important to emphasise that the Power to the Pixe Think Tank did not attempt to guide the discussion. The aim was to encourage participants to use their own experience and ideas to reach concusions. The range of the ideas that emerged is testimony to the diversity of the debate. Suggested here are five themes that broady capture the proposas of participants. 2. EXPERIMENT WITH RAPID PROTOTYPING The Think Tank participants taked about activities that might unock the creative and economic potentia of audience engagement eary in the creative process. As highighted in the earier presentation from Michae Gubbins, the projects at Power to the Pixe: The Cross-Media Forum had shown how eements of a project (storyword, characters, etc) coud be used at the eary stages of a project to test ideas, buid audience communities and to create new forms of Inteectua Property. Participants expressed interest in the idea of rapid prototyping but hinted that the rea barrier to such activities was ack of know-how, rather than specific restrictions on their funding bodies, or ack of wi. 1. CREATE AN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FUND The notion of specific research and deveopment activity within existing funds was a consistent theme during the day. There was acknowedgement of the potentia to produce piot projects that were outside the scope of mainstream activity and yet, as the Think Tank made cear, did not actuay confict with existing goas. Some funds were aready activey invoved in such work. But there was concern about the danger of marginaising audiencecentred innovation and cross-media activity. Under-investment and ack of institutiona commitment, it was argued, have frequenty restricted promising potentia work to mediocre resuts. Think Tank participants recognised that the most effective way to encourage cutura change, and to drive interest in investment within we-estabished institutions, was proven case studies. One cear idea from the Think Tank was the pooing of resources between funders within countries and, perhaps more importanty, between internationa partners. It was suggested that funding bodies might poo resources to create a singe financia resource. The aggregation of the reativey sma investments from different bodies might create a substantia funding base for powerfu innovative projects. One group taked about a coaborative macro structure that woud act as a permanent resource for backing the kind of higher risk and innovative projects that woud be difficut to fund from a singe source. This new fund woud be constructed specificay to encourage creative content that aimed to reach audiences outside narrowy-defined traditiona patforms. Knowedge acquired during the funding, creation and distribution of its output might be shared among a participants, becoming a powerfu for catayst for change. Again, it was suggested that sharing resources between bodies coud be important, particuary in terms of training but aso in the dissemination of resuts of different experiments. 3. PUSH FOR FUNDING FROM NEW PLATFORMS The chaenges of funding digita content inevitaby opened up discussion about fresh sources of finance. One common theme was that cross-patform content woud argey be consumed through mobie teephones and Internet connections, mainy paid for through subscriptions. There was a strong feeing that the beneficiaries, particuary teecommunications companies and Internet Service Providers, shoud contribute towards content creation. It was suggested that internationa cooperation between content funders might be abe to generate powerfu coective pressure on the mutinationa companies whose growth wi be driven by new content. Many governments and supranationa bodies, such as the European Commission, are currenty ooking at ega and fisca measures to ensure that these emerging goba media powers contribute to content creation. Participants were reminded that the Braziian government has aready introduced a tax on VOD service providers. It was suggested that cross-media content, cutting across a variety of media patforms might be particuary attractive to companies and patforms providing digita content. There are no fixed media boundaries in the onine and mobie words with consumers streaming or downoading a variety of content through the same channes and service providers. Some participants said it woud be usefu to ook at how funding from these new media sources coud be dedicated to producing content optimised for content agnostic patforms. 10

11 4. INVEST IN SHARED DATA Knowedge is critica to the advance of new cross-media formats: it is impossibe to buid on-demand services without an understanding of demand. Acquiring and sharing reiabe data, however, is difficut in a changing market. Video On Demand (VOD) services, for exampe, see proprietary and excusive data as an essentia component of their business mode. Creating effective and efficient aternative sources of data can be expensive, not east when there is a vita internationa facet to work. Many pubic funds are now pacing a much greater emphasis on transparent and reiabe data, and content producers are increasingy expected to share data and knowedge in return for support. But the Think Tank went further, suggesting the potentia for data sharing between funding bodies from different countries. The argument is that, by working together across borders, funders coud create economies of scae in data acquisition and anaysis and shift the baance of power in terms of audience knowedge. With greater understanding of audience expectations and behaviour, it is possibe to create and test new forms of content. From a content funding perspective, greater access to data makes it possibe to buid more informed cases for experimentation, and to buid strategies in terms of cutura impact, business modes and audience deveopment. That knowedge can aso be passed on to the content creators themseves, who wi be abe to work on the basis of greater knowedge. New data sharing mechanisms woud neaty suppement the strong cuture of sharing, which has been such a critica feature of pioneering producers working in cross-media deveopments. 5. ADAPT HOW WE MEASURE SUCCESS One of the cearest demonstrations of the thinking generated by the event was the suggestion that funding bodies reassess the criteria used to judge success. The assessment of innovative cross-media projects is often based on metrics originay created for theatrica feature fims, such as festiva awards and box office. At festivas, fims tend to be seected and rated by ongstanding professionas in the fied according to, consciousy or unconsciousy, a yardstick of cinematic exceence defined by a historic canon. New forms of content can suffer because they are exporing fresh fieds of creativity, engaging new kinds of audiences, and because the business modes, which might yied commercia success are ony now entering the mainstream. One group taked about the importance of better anaytics to defend outcomes as an activity that ought to be expored both within funding bodies and among stakehoders and other funders. The metrics need to be changed if the vaue of cross-media content and other forms of innovation is to be appreciated, in terms of both economic potentia, and cutura impact. Fortunatey, measuring audience impact is easier in an age of socia media and digita footprints. Such reiabe data might become increasingy important, for exampe, as pubic funds come under pressure to demonstrate the cutura impact of the work they fund on diverse audiences. Some participants pointed to crowdfunding as a strong exampe of measurabe engagement, demonstrating a reationship with an audience, or audience community. 11

12 SECTION 6 POWER TO THE PIXEL COMMENT The Power to the Pixe Think Tank had a transparent mission: to provide an open, free and neutra environment, in which participants coud consider future projects and modes. The methodoogy did not offer, or impy, any particuar approach to the task. Instead, it encouraged funders to examine their own ideas and organisations in the company of coeagues facing the same issues. It became cear during the day that there was a broad consensus on the nature of the chaenges ahead, and particuary the changed context of decining traditiona business modes, disruptive digita innovation and changed patterns of audience behaviour. There was aso a strong coective sense that new approaches were needed. The vaue of the Think Tank was that it focused everyone on practica action: on what coud be done within the scope of existing organisations. Given the open-ended nature of the discussion, it was not cear how the day woud progress and what concusions might be reached. What emerged was a set of tangibe projects and business modes that coud be aunched today but, cruciay, coud aso deiver ong-term vaue in a changing business cimate. The idea of a jointy-funded internationa R&D fund, for exampe, addresses pressing current questions about innovation investment in individua countries and regions. But the proposed fund coud aso create considerabe additiona vaue in the coming years, in both cutura and economic terms. Looking at the fund idea objectivey, a number of major benefits seem cear, incuding: Reaistic finance of projects that genuiney test the potentia of new forms of content and fresh business modes for producers, funds, pubic bodies and private investors The buiding of internationa partnerships that might open up opportunities in other areas The acquisition and anaysis of reiabe data in emerging digita fieds Inspiration for new content creators working in many media. A simiar pattern emerged from the other proposas. Again, there was a practica sense of the here-and-now: improved access to reiabe data; new means to measure innovation success; funds from new on-demand service providers; incubation and testing of ideas and Inteectua Property with audiences at eary stages of deveopment. These are a aims that address immediate need. But the emphasis on audience engagement, coaboration and cooperation across borders, and new project deveopment processes suggests that a bigger picture emerged during the discussion. Some funds, of course, have aready made innovation and audience-centred content a key component of their work. But it is rare for funds to meet together to share ideas with such a singuar sense of purpose and in an atmosphere of free and open discussion. It was important to Power to the Pixe that it did not try to drive the conversation in any particuar direction. It was gratifying to see, however, that the concusions of funders refected the core beiefs of Power to the Pixe: that changed audience behaviour is increasingy driving the economic and cutura agenda for creative industries and that new forms of partnerships and cooperation are necessary in a borderess digita word. Most of a, the Think Tank participants demonstrated that it is possibe to fund and support activity today that wi remain reevant for the next generation. ABOUT POWER TO THE PIXEL Power to the Pixe supports the fim and media industries in their transition to a digita age. Headed by Founder & CEO Liz Rosentha, the company s team has a weath of experience and expertise across fim and interactive media deveopment, production and finance, and is inked to a unique network of the eading thinkers, practitioners and innovators who are deveoping new business and creative opportunities around the word. Speciaising in new ways for content creators and businesses to create, finance and distribute stories to engage with today s audiences across the mutipe patforms, Power to the Pixe s core activities incude: Providing consutancy to internationa media organisations, content creators and companies Designing innovative in-house company training programmes and bespoke initiatives Producing internationa forums, events and abs centred around cross-media, IP and business Faciitating the exchange of ideas and the buiding of internationa partnerships between media professionas and between industries The company s understanding of the chaenges and opportunities of digita change means Power to the Pixe is an essentia bridge between the visionary, the pioneering and the practica. You can find out more about Power to the Pixe by heading to our sites beow or by emaiing us on info@powertothepixe.com. 12

13 APPENDIX 1 PIXEL FORUM: CAN WE DO THAT? MICHAEL GUBBINS, SAMPOMEDIA POWER TO THE PIXEL, SEPTEMBER 2014 SLIDE 1: TEST AND GROW SLIDE 4: CREATIVE COLLABORATION Buid projects to media strengths to create something greater than the whoe Buid audience interest fiing gaps in industry scheduing and standard timetabes Create interactive products using IP/stories beyond origina project Work with audiences and communities at eary stages, perhaps through crowdfunding and use iteration SLIDE 5: CROWD-DRIVEN CONTENT SLIDE 2: RAPID PROTOTYPING Rapidy prototype characters and ideas, using apps and games Rapidy prototype stories and content, through short fims. Beyond the traier. Test stories and ideas through direct audience interaction, e.g crowdfunding. Iteration. Deveop content that takes key IP/stories/ideas beyond traditiona media Create or target specific communities SLIDE 3: AUGMENTED STORIES/MEDIA SLIDE 6: RAPID ITERATION Test and review at different phases of a product. Agie fim-making Activey use avaiabe data to inform decisions Create, target and work with specific communities on deveopment Let the audience take contro of some eements of story deveopment Bake in audience coaboration and run with it 13

14 APPENDIX 1 PIXEL FORUM: CAN WE DO THAT? MICHAEL GUBBINS, SAMPOMEDIA POWER TO THE PIXEL, SEPTEMBER 2014 SLIDE 7: REAL ENGAGEMENT SLIDE 9: HYPHENATED HUSTLERS......IN CAMOUFLAGE SLIDE 8: ACTIVATE ACTIVISTS SLIDE 10: LESSONS Incentivise active audiences, redefine crowdfunding Work with pre-existing communities Offer excusive incentives to those communities. Hack other communities Buid your own communities through crowdfunding Buid businesses with broader scope through equity crowdfunding Don t frighten the horses camoufage Estabish new normas (n.b audiovisua) Create for, and work with, known communities Or buid new ones Create experiences, as we as products Define data and use as active too Remember you are not norma Think differenty everyone ese is Spot the eephant 14

15 APPENDIX 2 UNDERSTANDING FUNDERS FUNDING APPROACHES, CHALLENGES & ADAPTATION STRATEGIES TO HELP FUNDERS COPE IN A CHANGING MEDIA ENVIRONMENT CATALINA BRICEÑO POWER TO THE PIXEL, SEPTEMBER 2014 Exampes of activities (based on overa research Support R&D and finance prototypes and/or production of software appications and technoogies dedicated to the creative industries CMF s Experimenta Stream (Canada) can provide up to 75% of the tota budget (capped at CAD500,000 at prototype phase and CAD1 miion at production phase). Can aso support marketing activities. RIAM network (partnership between CNC and BPiFrance): ca for projects based on specific innovation themes. For instance, the theme in 2014 is on deveoping innovative toos for VOD. Innovate UK: 30 miion invested in the creative industries sector since 2007 and the same eve of investment expected between 2013 and Fund standaone, digita webseries aimed for web or mobie distribution Independent Production Fund (Canada) CNC s WebCosip and New Media Fund (France) Austraia s 20% tax offset on quaified expenditures for web distributed programming The innovative audiovisua content Fund from Medianboard-Berin Brandenburg (Germany) Estabish match-funding with crowdfunding patforms Arts Tasmania: partnered with crowdfunding patform Pozibe. They match-fund up to 50% (for a maximum of NZD2000) of a project s successfu crowdfunded amount. Estabish match-funding with other nationa or regiona funders Pictanovo-Waimage announced a trans-regiona fund to support transmedia coproductions in 2012 and 2013, with respective contributions of 300,000 each. CMF s matching funds for co-deveopment or coproduction of TV and digita media projects with Rio Fime, Sao Paoo and New Zeaand on-air (2014). Partner with business incubators and acceerators Acceerators Partnership Piot Program A3P (Canada): provide up to CAD30,000 grant for CMF-funded companies to take part in an acceeration program in Canada or abroad Creative Engand (sef-manage Digita Acceerator and partner with Coider and DotForge) Diversify funding sources by aowing individua and corporate donations Taent Fund Teefim Canada: the fund has raised CAD14 miion privatey and pans to reach CAD25 miion by The Good pitch initiative (BritDoc, Ford Foundation, Sundance): bringing together fimmakers with NGOs, foundations, phianthropists, brands and media around eading socia issues. The event has now everaged more than USD13 miion in funding, in addition to an extensive range of non-fisca resources. conducted for the preparation of the discussion paper) Activey promote funded projects and support audience engagement Creative Industry Counci Web patform (UK) Estabish match-funding with private investors Yorkshire Content Fund: a 30 miion co-investment fund for fim, TV and DM projects (50% from the European Regiona Deveopment Fund and 50% from private sector investment funding) #EyeonCanada The innovative distribution program (Austraia) expored aternative distribution pathways during a 2-year period (2010 to 2011). SA has now integrated the approach in the form of support for aternative reease in their P&A Pus program. 15

16 APPENDIX 2 UNDERSTANDING FUNDERS FUNDING APPROACHES, CHALLENGES & ADAPTATION STRATEGIES TO HELP FUNDERS COPE IN A CHANGING MEDIA ENVIRONMENT CATALINA BRICEÑO POWER TO THE PIXEL, SEPTEMBER 2014 Support skis and knowedge deveopment for creators Austraia s Taent Escaator program Focus First Motion (various payers in the Batic Sea region) Tribeca fim Institute: encouraging a peer to peer network mentors from previous programs heping the new taents SOME PRINCIPLES TO KEEP IN MIND ADAPTATION STRATEGIES (Chapter 3) Here we summarize principes that seem to produce successfu adaptation strategies. They aign with both our key observations and exampes compied in Chapter 3. Avoid compex soutions, such as more bureaucracy or administrative hurdes, for stakehoders. Harmonize administrative rues with other funders or funding actors Framework for internationa digita media co-production in Canada Design company-focused programs instead of project-based initiatives Austraia s Enterprise Industry Program: From 2014, Screen Austraia s Enterprise funding is particuary focused on deivering industry benefits supporting growth activities that address key industry-wide chaenges to sustainabiity. 1 Baance support throughout the vaue chain. Content funding goes hand-in-hand with audience buiding. Adopt more agie approach to experiment with piot programs and new partnerships: start sma, measure, adjust, iterate. Work more with other funding actors, as we as with other partners throughout the support system (incuding periphera assistance). This can everage new funding sources or increase nonfinancia support to producers. Make way for aternative types of funding brought in by content creators and producers. Move from an incentive to a structuring mode to decrease stakehoder dependencies. This coud potentiay stabiize or reduce oversubscription on funding sources. Reinforce recoupment mechanisms or convert to a more equity/ investment approach. Deveop vaue-added services. These incude advisory functions, mentorship, training and capacity-buiding. Find ways to support transmedia content, native digita-media content and digita-media distribution strategies for producers. Simpify as we as automate

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