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16.04.2011

Multi-platForum was Awesome

By Sean Embury | Add Comment

I had a great time in Regina as a speaker and delegate at Multi-PlatForum 2011. The conference, put on by the Saskatchewan Motion Picture Industry Assoc. (SMPIA), featured creative and business case studies in digital content creation and cross-media projects.

138 delegates including interactive and Film/TV creators, sponsors and government representatives took in sessions led by an impressive list of Canada’s Digital Content leaders. It was particularly good to see James Milward from Secret Location, Pablo Vio from Jam3media, and Alicia Smith from the NFB.

My keynote, on cross-media planning, was designed to get content creators thinking big about their digital strategies and provide some practical advice for pulling them off.

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03.03.2011

Fulscrn at Multi-platFORUM 2011

By Sean Embury | Add Comment

Fulscrn is headed to the prairies this spring. The Saskatchewan Motion Picture Industry Association (SMPIA) has invited me to deliver a keynote and sit on a panel at their Multi-PlatFORUM event scheduled for April 14th in Regina. To say I’m feeling honoured would be an understatement.

Multi-PlatFORUM will feature an impressive list of Digital Media leaders from across the country with a focus on case studies in Digital Content creation for Cross-Platform projects from both creative and business perspectives.

Fellow speakers include James Milward from Secret Location, Pablo Vio from Jam3Media, Thomas Wallner from Xenophile Media, and Siobhan O’Flynn from Narrative Now.

Looking forward to getting back to the flatlands, connecting with great prairie filmmakers and interactive producers, and meeting lots and lots of new people.

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22.12.2010

Teaching Social Media at UBC

By Sean Embury | Add Comment

As the web becomes the quintessential tool in the arsenal of film producers, the good folks at the University of British Columbia are making sure the next wave of filmmakers and film financiers understand it’s power.

They are doing so through a new four-evening seminar series on Digital Media for Entertainment that teaches how digital media is changing the way the industry creates, produces and distributes entertainment.

The program is part of the highly innovative UBC Certificate in Entertainment Administration program (which received the 2009 Program of Excellence Award from the Canadian Association of University Continuing Education).

Back in June I participated in the first round of Digital Media in Entertainment seminars delivering a talk and leading discussion on Social Media’s role. Yesterday I had the pleasure to speak to another round of UBC business students eager to navigate these waters.

Once again it was an energetic evening covering social media’s impact on traditional media, a survey of social media forms, and an in-depth look at how we can use social media to finance, produce, distribute, market, and measure the success of our entertainment properties.

The thing that struck me the most this time: just how much has changed in six months. The numbers are bigger, the tactics more innovative, the possibilities that much greater. One can only wonder where we’ll be by summer.

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30.06.2010

Donating design

By Sean Embury | Add Comment

June wasn’t busy enough (LOL) so I volunteered to design a yearbook for my son’s graduating class at Cove Cliff Elementary. I had done the same project when my older son went off to high school and thought it would be fun to do again. It was, and as a bonus, I can finally put a name to every kid’s face.

Other than its focus on a single grade, the 70-page book follows pretty classic yearbook conventions with a message from the Principle and teachers, pages on school activities, and a page dedicated to each student. I developed a “Proust’s Questionnaire” like list of questions that each of the kids filled out, another parent did the portraits, and a couple of other parents gathered hundreds of photos from the kids days at Cove Cliff. After the content was organized, the design and production of the book actually went pretty quickly. Another parent used the content to develop a “grad memories” DVD.

The kids were happy. Their parents were happy. I was happy.

Here is a look at the work.

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22.06.2010

Fulscrn leads UBC social media seminar

By Sean Embury | Add Comment

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of business students at UBC.

Their focus is the entertainment industry and the talk was part of a four-part section they go through on Digital Media. My co-presenters were Earl Hong Tai, former Regional Director of Telefilm Canada, Rochelle Grayson, Vice-Chair, Canadian Women in Communications, and Danika Dinsmore, Editor at Script Creative. Together we covered topics ranging from content development for online to cross-platform planning to revenue and monetization models. I was asked to focus on social media in entertainment.

Despite my initial reservations about the topic (I’m terrified of the term “social media expert”), I had a great time putting my talk together, and the night itself turned out to be quite positive and energetic. The social web really is amazing. We went for four hours!

One of the more amusing insights to emerge from the evening came from a discussion about the media’s use of social media before the Internet. We talked about America’s Funniest Home Videos, Speaker’s Corner, radio call-in and music request shows, letters-to-the-editor, and many other examples of user-generated content, conversation, and opinion from the time before web 2.0 “changed everything”.

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09.03.2010

Pitch Market panel was fun.

By Sean Embury | Add Comment

I attended Pitch Market 2010 this past weekend at the Four Seasons in Vancouver and had a great time.

I sat on a panel discussing “Pitching for Multiple Platforms” with two local industry friends, Catherine Warren, President of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies, and Phillip Djwa, President of Agentic Communications. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go but it turned out to be the best panel I’ve spoken on in a few years. Our varied backgrounds produced a lot of complimentary insights and opinions, and our familiarity with each other made challenge and debate easy.

Then again it might have all been due to our amazing moderator, Laurie Scheer, Film Professor at Tribeca/Flashpoint Academy in Chicago. She really drew the conversation out and directed it in positive ways. She also did a great job bringing the audience into the discussion. We hung out afterwards and talked about Hyde Park (my old neighbourhood in Chicago). She is super nice and whip smart. I hope to run into her again one day.

During the panel discussion we talked about how to pitch for new platforms and what to be aware of when selling within the social networks and new media environments. We also discussed multi-platform planning and how to pitch to traditional studios/networks while keeping web-based versions of your material in mind.

The rest of the conference was good too. People pitching some pretty cool film and TV ideas, an interesting panel on Web series, and a swanky post-conference Oscar party.

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08.12.2009

Fulscrn at the Whistler Film Festival

By Sean Embury | Add Comment

Something I’ve meant to do for years is go to the Whistler Film Festival. This year I finally had my excuse when I was asked to be part of The Forum at Whistler, an industry conference organized to address issues of concern to the film, digital media and television production industry in Western Canada.

The conference focused on the changing landscape of content creation. New technology, trends and opportunities were explored. Content producers got advice about competing in the international marketplace. Business opportunities were promoted by bringing together industry executives, producers and creators.

Had lots of fun, met lots of nice people, didn’t see a single film. I also got photographed by Google Street View. Can you spot me? I’m to the left of the lady in green, looking at the camera.

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05.12.2009

Judging the Canadian New Media Awards

By Sean Embury | Add Comment

A while back Mike Kasprow from Trapeze asked me to help judge the interactive advertising category of the Canadian New Media Awards. For nine years the CNMA’s have recognized and celebrated the accomplishments of individuals and companies in the Canadian digital media industry.

This week the prizes were handed out their gala event at the Design Exchange in Toronto.

The nominees our panel put forward in the ad category were:

  • Doritos White Bag campaign from BBDO/Proximity Canada
  • Montreal Canadiens Historical Website by Bluesponge
  • Polar Ice Vodka Microsite by BSTREET

And the winner was…Doritos White Bag!

The choice was really a no brainer (despite my love of the Habs). This promotion scored higher in every criterion with every judge. It was simply the most creative product in Canadian interactive marketing last year. And judging by the number and prestige of the international awards it’s won it might be called one of the most creative and effective advertising promotions in the world last year.

You can find out all about it from ACD Jon Webber and see a list of other awards the campaign has won this year.

http://www.jonwebber.com/2010/07/17/doritos-white-bag/

I want to thank the CNMA’s, Mike, and my fellow judges for their insights, their collaborative nature, and for simply having me.

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01.12.2009

Launch Fulscrn

By Sean Embury | Add Comment

I’ve always been entrepreneurial.

In grade school I built a newspaper delivery empire that employed half the kids on my block, in high school I ran a windsurfer rental company that made business headlines in the local media, and after university I was a partner in a design studio that built over 40 websites in two years.

Since then I’ve been fortunate to work for some incredible companies and institutions doing what I love: telling stories, and helping people develop and communicate theirs.

Now things have come full circle.

Last month I started a new company. This company. Fulscrn.

My goal is to help people communicate their story effectively with audiences that matter.

If you’re interested in exploring the strategic, creative, and technological expertise we bring together I invite you to contact me. In the meantime, I hope you’ll frequent our website regularly and share in our insights, interests, and work.

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