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09.05.2011

Fun at the Hot Docs Forum

By Sean Embury | Add Comment

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Hot Docs Forum with a great client from Calgary.

The Forum is part of Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival. Set in the Gothic Revival-style Hart House on the campus of the University of Toronto, it brings together selected documentary producers to publicly pitch their projects to over 180 key international broadcasters and financiers from around the world, and to a gallery of accredited observers. For buyers, the Hot Docs Forum offers a curated slate of projects in development or production by elite international filmmakers.

As observers we were there to gain prime industry intelligence and valuable networking opportunities with commissioners, buyers, financiers and other filmmakers. We saw a lot of amazing pitches, heard a lot of poignant feedback from the broadcasters, and met a lot of nice people.

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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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15.01.2011

Stranger Productions selects Fulscrn

By Sean Embury | Add Comment

We are very pleased to be working with Stranger Productions, creators of an exciting and poignant new documentary called Liberia ’77. The film, which will be broadcast on Knowledge and TVO in September, follows brothers Jeff and Andrew Topham as they return to the African country of their childhood after its 30-year civil war. Armed with their father’s photographs they retrace their past lives, finding the people and places they left behind. It is an exploration of the universal importance of photography in defining our lives and an unforgettable portrait of how connection and responsibility can survive time, distance and war.

Fulscrn has been working with the film’s director and producers to develop a web strategy, secure a first round of online funding through the Canadian Media Fund’s convergent stream and BC Film’s interactive fund, and find a brand sponsor.

We are now in full production on a new website which extends the story of the film in incredible ways. Our aim: to return the photographic history Liberia, lost during the country’s civil war. Much of Liberia’s photographic record of its peaceful past was destroyed during the war. The National Museum sits mostly empty – and closed. On a wish from the country’s new President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, we will use the web and social media to gather images of pre-war Liberia, with a plan to return a collection to the National Museum in Monrovia, to help in the country’s rebuilding process.

We are already enjoying a great working relationship with the wonderful folks at Stranger Productions and can’t wait to launch this project together in mid-April.

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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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