Transmedia: Storytelling for the Digital Age

Indiewire:  "Need some help getting your web series out into the world? This guest post from the director and producer of "Allston Xmas" has some tips just for you."

Nikita Richardson:  "How does the Zachary Quinto-produced horror movie Banshee Chapter look on the much-discussed VR device?"

Bryan Bishop:  "Virtual reality company Oculus has been building momentum since it launched the Kickstarter campaign for its Oculus Rift headset two years ago. At its developer conference Saturday, it launched its latest prototype — while filmmakers made a convincing argument that VR is the dawn of a completely new form of visual storytelling."

Rob Manuel:  "Guillermo del Toro surprised gamers this week [August 16] by revealing that his newest project will be a "Silent Hill" sequel. But there's no guarantee that that the same skills needed to direct a film apply to video game design."

Scott Macaulay:  "[...] in order to be truly contemporary, filmmakers must incorporate text messaging into their movies. But how to do that creatively?"

Jennine Lanouette:  "It often seems to me that the independent film community is not entirely comfortable talking about screenwriting" ...

Neal Ungerleider:  "Like the bastard progeny of experimental theater and video game production, this horror film required a new, complex form of cinematography."

Liz Nord:  "Engagement, interaction, participation, messaging and the power of play: Five takeaways for filmmakers from Games for Change at Tribeca FIlm Festival's Innovation Week."

Paula Bernstein:  "As part of Tribeca Film Festival's "Future of Film" series, on April 22nd filmmaker and futurist Jason Silva will be muse about how humans are hardwired for story and cinema" ...

Stephen Kleckner:  "It’s alluring to see this 360-degree medium as limitless, but this borderless world is not as free of structure as it first appears. Artists face a new set of rules to play by if they intend on creating an intentional, visual, virtual-reality composition."

Randy Astle:  "The Internet and digital filmmaking tools have opened up new possibilities of crowdsourcing material–Life in a Day, Declaration of Interdependence, One Day on Earth, even the interactive Star Wars Uncut–and given new life to the omnibus/anthology film format. The latest project to adopt the form is 50 Kisses, a film created by the London-based Chris Jones and hundreds of collaborators from around the world."

Jennifer M. Wood:  "While Hollywood insiders talk about which big-budget studio movies made and lost the most money in 2013, there’s a far more interesting number to consider: 3,000,000. That’s how many people backed crowdfunding projects for a total of $481,788,567 last year — and that’s on Kickstarter alone."

Mariah Phillips:  "What if you only had 48 hours to make a film with strangers? Around the world, amateur and professional filmmakers are doing just that. Here's everything you need to know about the Kino movement."

Kat Delby:  "IFP Independent Film Week panel members share some great advice about how to break into branded content -- and make a name for yourself as a filmmaker -- without selling out."

Zack Sharf:  "The latest Academy Originals video goes behind the scenes of "The Blair Witch Project" to help the film celebrate its 15th anniversary."

Angela Watercutter:  "Amidst all the hoopla over the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and their motion processors, faster CPUs, and larger screens, people are missing that Apple's latest smartphones are also a high-quality camera that filmmakers—or aspiring ones—can keep in their pockets."

Adam Schartoff:  "A few years ago I was doing a 30-minute internet radio show and decided one day to re-purpose it as a podcast. I thought, why not?"

Jai Tiggett:  "Senior Programmer Shari Frilot takes S&A inside the selection process for the Sundance Film Festival and the innovations of the New Frontier program."

Kristin McCracken:  "Attention, filmmakers: You must read these social media do's and don'ts."

Karim Ahmad:  "Consider: your film exists in a storyworld. The time, the place, the characters; you’ve created all of it already. A community of stories, ready to be told. "

Variety:  "As Netflix and Amazon bulk up on original entertainment, they’re largely focused on buying TV series, which perform better on their services than movies do. The result is that indie moviemakers are starting to think more about crafting, episodic TV-like projects for play on digital screens."

Mike Hedge:  "Every summer, deep in the Nevada desert, a temporary city is created by tens of thousands of people. This week-long celebration is known as Burning Man" ...

Dan Soloman:  "There's a lot riding on the success or failure of Veronica Mars as a commercial entity--but all Rob Thomas cares about is whether or not the movie works for the fans."

Dan Sarto:  "The LEGO Movie has arrived, in all its absurdist and charming glory. $69.1 million opening weekend U.S. box office absurdist and charming glory to be more precise. And one of the key people we have to thank for all that absurdist and charming glory is Animation Supervisor and Editor Chris McKay."

Sarah Salovaara:  "The Total Film-Maker, that invaluable manuscript culled from 480 hours of Jerry Lewis lectures at the University of Southern California, made its way online last week, courtesy of Cinephilia and Beyond."