Film4's Innovation Forum 2014 partners with Creative Skillset

29 October 2014

How can a filmmaker's vision be protected and enhanced in the interactive age?

How do we respond to audiences that want to be increasingly immersed in story worlds within and without a cinema experience?

 

What tools from our expertise can we use to strengthen the bonds between storytellers and their audiences?

 

 

Following on from the success of last year’s event, Film4’s Innovation Forum returns on 18th November and will focus on storytelling; exploring how emerging trends and technologies can be embraced by filmmakers to help them tell their stories in innovative ways and connect with audiences more deeply.

The Forum brings together top filmmakers and industry professionals from across the UK at Channel 4 headquarters. It will once again be an opportunity for people to come together to share innovation work and examine how the UK industry as a whole can move forward together in these exciting new times. In partnering with Creative Skillset, the industry skills body for the Creative Industries, the aim of the day is to ensure that the forum is at the centre of a bigger learning journey for our participants as well as for emerging talent right across the UK.

In response to the theme of this year’s Forum, the keynote speaker will be Frank Rose, a leading thinker on digital culture. His most recent book, The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories, shows how entertainment and advertising are responding to overwhelming technological change and how storytelling forms such an important part of this change. Additional speakers appearing on the day will be announced at a later date and are all pioneering new forms of storytelling from the worlds of film, theatre, publishing and beyond and will share their learning with attendees.

This scheme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, which is funded by the BFI with National Lottery funds,

About Creative Skillset

Creative Skillset empowers the Creative Industries to develop skills and talent; we do this by influencing and shaping policy, ensuring quality and by securing the vital investment for individuals to become the best in their field and for businesses to grow. As the industry skills body for the Creative Industries, we work across film, television, radio, animation, visual effects, games, fashion, textiles, advertising, marketing communications and publishing. www.creativeskillset.org.

Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, as part of its film skills strategy, is funded by the British Film Institute (BFI) with National Lottery funds and through the Skills Investment Funds, which comprise industry and government co-investment. The film skills strategy focuses on addressing the vital skills and training needs of the industry to deliver maximum economic and cultural return: creating jobs, strengthening skills, building skills for the future and ensuring world-class film education.

About Frank Rose

Frank Rose is a leading writer and speaker on digital culture. His most recent book, The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remak¬ing Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories, shows how enter¬tainment and ad¬vertising are responding to overwhelm¬ing tech¬nological change. As a key¬note speaker, Frank has described the rise of new forms of storytelling at con¬fer¬ences ranging from Sheffield Doc/Fest to the Guardian's Changing Media Summit to ad:tech Sydney. He has also appeared at South by Southwest, Ars Electronica, the Cannes Film Festival, and the Bay Area's Churchill Club. He has lectured at the film, business, and jour¬nalism schools at USC, Columbia, and NYU. Frank's blog, Deep Media, covers new developments in advertising, entertainment, and storytelling and is ranked among the top marketing blogs in the US by Google.

About Film4’s Innovation Work

Film4's innovation activity supports established and emerging talent and helps them tell unique stories and connect with audiences in new ways. In 2011 Film4 launched its groundbreaking new role in exploring innovation in filmmaking with the appointment of Anna Higgs as a Commissioning Executive with special responsibility for innovative talent development, production and audience engagement. Film4’s innovation work focuses on commissioning film projects that have the potential to explore the spaces and relationships between traditional media, digital platforms and the real world.

Our digital innovation work so far includes:

Groundbreaking hybrid film 20,000 Days On Earth, directed by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, and partner digital project The Museum of Important Shit (www.20000daysonearth.com)

Developing a digital storytelling project to support Lenny Abrahamson's film Frank

Commissioning Shynola's Dr. Easy short film and digital universe

Commissioning Ben Wheatley's English Civil War set film A Field In England, a psychedelic trip into magic and madness which was released in a world-first new day and date model, with a Screen

Award-winning Digital Masterclass that accompanied the film and release  

Reaching out to the next generation of talent with the hugely successful Scene Stealers competition

Supporting Tate and Google's collaborative storytelling experiment This Exquisite Forest, created by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin with contributions from British filmmakers including Kibwe Tavares, Richard Kenworthy, Chris Shepherd and Julia Pott

The BAFTA-nominated digital experience Dreams Of Your Life, partner project to Carol Morley's moving documentary Dreams Of A Life

Supporting Ken Loach's Spirit Of '45 with the BIMA-nominated My '45, an online experience with mass appeal designed to make the issues in the documentary relatable for all in a social, sharable way

Forthcoming projects include Louise Osmond's Dark Horse, Peter Strickland's The Duke of Burgundy and Ben Wheatley's High Rise