september 10

Diversity: Putting the Pledge into Action 14 sept London
A new low-cost workshop to help indies make the most of their commitment to the Diversity Pledge, and the practical steps they can take to implement it in their company ethos and operating practices
Who’s it for? HR & operations managers, production heads & managers, co-ordinators, and executive producers
Price: ITF Member £80 / Pact or freelance £120 / Corporate £160

Dealing with Difficult People 21 sept London
A one-day seminar for production managers, team managers or anyone who would like to develop their people management skills
Who’s it for? Anyone who manages other people or works in a team
Price:  ITF Member £150 / Pact  or freelance  £225 / Corporate £300

Making Money from Music 23 sept London brand new
A half-day workshop exploring opportunities for production companies to acquire the copyright in the music they commission
Who’s it for? Producers,  executive producers, business affairs executives , production managers, distributors, financiers, lawyers, music publishing administrators and accountants
Price: ITF Member £80 / Pact or freelance  £120 / Corporate £160

Researchers Survival Guide 28 sept London
A one-day workshop designed specifically for junior production staff such as runners, junior researchers, production secretaries, etc
Who’s it for? Designed for junior production staff with some experience of working as a researcher or in a production or development environment
Price: ITF Member £100 / Pact or freelance £150 / Corporate £200

Principles of Production Insurance 30 sept London
A half-day seminar to provide a basic outline of media production insurance for feature film and TV, why you need it and how it works
Who’s it for? This is a seminar course for producers, production managers and coordinators and anyone who arranges insurance cover or may need to make a claim. Suitable for both feature film and TV production
Price: ITF Member £50 / Pact or freelance £75  / Corporate £100

october 10

Compliance: Keeping up to date 7 oct London
A half-day seminar to give you an up to the minute grounding on all the important compliance issues in broadcast production
Who’s it for? Producers, executives, production managers and co-ordinators, researchers, and anyone who may be expected to ensure compliance obligations are met
Price: ITF Member £80 / Pact  or freelance  £120 / Corporate £160

Music Rights (1): The Essentials 12 oct London
A morning seminar to guide you through the basics of music copyright clearance
Who’s it for? Production staff off all levels, anyone who wants to gain an overview of clearance procedures for music in audio-visual production.
Price: ITF Member £60 / Pact £90 / Corporate £120

Cross-platform: Generating New Projects and Markets 14 oct London *Skillset bursary applies
A one-day workshop to encourage TV, digital media and interactive producers to develop their skills and business by creating, planning and pitching cross-platform projects for different markets
Who’s it for? Producers, APs, project and operations managers and other production team-members of TV &/or digital media and interactive companies looking to devise and deliver cross-platform projects for all markets; also freelancers wanting to create digital productions.
This workshop has been planned in partnership with Pact
Price: ITF Member £100 / Pact £150 / Corporate £200

Generating Innovative Content 19 oct London
A one-day workshop on creative thinking techniques with practical applications to generating and developing TV programme ideas
Who’s it for? Anyone in production who is involved with generating, researching and/or producing programme ideas
Price: ITF Member £120 / Pact  or freelance  £180 / Corporate £240

Managing People for the First Time 21 oct London
A one-day seminar for production managers and team managers or anyone preparing for a management role
Who’s it for? Anyone wanting to improve their people management skills at work.
ITF Member £150 / Pact £225 / Corporate £300

Multiplatform: Joined-up Production 28 oct London *Skillset bursary applies
A one-day workshop to help production companies and digital interactive agencies work
together to create cross platform content
Who’s it for? Producers, APs, project and operations managers, and other production team-members. This workshop has been planned in partnership with Pact
Price: ITF Member £100 / Pact or freelance £150 / Corporate £200

*Skillset bursaries apply to this course…
Candidates for this course may be eligible for funding (80% of the training costs for freelancers, or 50% for employees – including  travel and accommodation if relevant) through Skillset’s Multiplatform Bursary Scheme
How to book: contact ITF as usual to secure a place on the course and pay ITF in the usual way. Apply as soon as possible to Skillset before the course because it will take up to 4 weeks for Skillset to confirm bursaries.

book / find out more

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: courses, cross-platform, digital, Formats, Legal, Management, multiplatform, Music, people skills, Pitching, production, Skillset, training, TV
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We were proud to sponsor the ‘Monetising Digital Platforms’ workshop at this year’s Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield.

In a tropically hot room, the session – led by Peter Cowley and Justin Judd – focused on how TV and digital media indies can commercially exploit content across TV, digital media, interactive and 360 platforms.

Peter and Justin focused on revenue generation, offering case-studies of specific projects, and then examining how concepts can be developed with monetisation in mind.

Delegates were guided expertly through the monetisation maze, exploring current examples of what’s working and what’s making money; what rights they own and what they could exploit; what is selling the best on new platforms; what opportunities exist in Broadband, VOD, IPTV, Mobile, non-broadcast corporate and branded content; and how to capitalise on international opportunities.

Delegates included Aardman, Animated Yorkshire, Back2Front Animation, BBC, Bold Creative, Brown Bag Films, Complete Control, Conker Media, Disney, Icecandy Entertainment, Target Entertainment Group and other media producers and freelancers.

To see Peter and Justin’s predictions for the future, please check out the workshop summary by clicking here.

Peter Cowley is former MD of Digital Media at Endemol, where he successfully extended high-profile TV shows onto digital channels – including Big Brother and Deal or No Deal – and has pioneered some of the very first mainstream web series including Signs of Life (BBC), The Gap Year and Beat (Bebo), and Kirill (MSN).

Justin Judd founded i-Rights to focus on the management, distribution and exploitation of IPR and content on emerging digital platforms. i-Rights is now part of the Digital Rights Group, one of the world’s leading independent distributors of content. He was previously Controller of Interactive Media for Granada and has worked as a TV producer in the UK and US, winning an International Emmy in 1994.

Justin and Peter deliver regular workshops for ITF. They run the Multiplatform workshop: Making Money from Digital Platforms and Rights.

Justin Judd (left) and Peter Cowley (right) at CMC workshop, sponsored by ITF.

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: app, Children's Media Conference, cmc, cross-platform, digital, digital platforms, i-rights, IPTV, justin judd, monetising, multiplatform, peter cowley, Pitching, sheffield, VOD, workshop
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Many thanks to Lion TV’s Kirsty Hunter and Mint Digital’s Andy Bell for leading an engaging workshop that immersed its delegates in the challenges of joined-up multiplatform production.

The session aimed to break down the barriers faced by production companies and digital interactive agencies who need to work together to create cross-platform content, but often lack the tools and common language to do so.

One of the interactive exercises

Andy and Kirsty gave those attending the chance to find out from case studies, lively discussions and sharing their own experience, what makes effective multiplatform projects. Attendees put their newly-gained knowledge to the test in team exercises that saw them developing and pitching multiplatform treatments, and then creating a successful multiplatform workflow.

Delegates who attended the session can access the day’s presentations here

Those who enjoyed this workshop may also find the following upcoming multiplatform training of interest:

Cross-platform: Generating New Projects & Markets, 14.10.10, London.
Generating Innovative Content, 19.10.10, London.
Cross-platform Storytelling, 10.11.10, London.
Making Money from Digital Platforms & Rights, 18.11.10, London.

book more courses

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: andy bell, cross-platform, digital media, digital platforms, digital workflow, kirsty hunter, lion tv, mint digital, multiplatform, two screen
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Skillset has released bursaries for multiplatform courses from June of up to 80% of the cost for experienced TV freelancers, and 50% for employees (including travel and accommodation expenses where relevant).  Apply to Skillset beacuse you need to do so at least 5 days before the course…

Multiplatform: Joined-up Production 08.07.10 London
A one-day workshop to help production companies and digital interactive agencies work
together to create cross platform content
Who’s it for? Producers, APs, project and operations managers, and other production team-members. This workshop has been planned in partnership with Pact
Price: ITF Member £100 / Pact or freelance £150 / Corporate £200

Cross-platform Storytelling 15.07.10 London
A full-day workshop to develop the writing and storytelling skills of TV and digital media production teams over a range of platforms and to review the latest trends in cross-platform scripted content
Who’s it for? TV & digital media content development teams, producers, directors and writers. Delegates will be asked to select and submit before the course a single page content proposal (new or existing) that you would like to develop in the workshop
Price: ITF Member £100 / Pact or freelance £150 / Corporate £200

Cross-platform: Generating New Projects and Markets 14.10.10 London
A one-day workshop to encourage TV, digital media and interactive producers to develop their skills and business by creating, planning and pitching cross-platform projects for different markets
Who’s it for? Producers, APs, project and operations managers and other team members of TV and/or digital media and interactive companies looking to devise and deliver cross-platform projects for all markets; also freelancers wanting to create digital productions.This workshop has been planned in partnership with Pact
Price: ITF Member £100 / Pact or freelance £150 / Corporate £200

Mutiplatform: Making Money from Digital Platforms and Rights 18.11.10 London
A half-day introductory workshop to help production companies and interactive agencies understand how to make money from digital platforms, and to exploit the content rights in both broadcast and corporate markets.
Who’s it for? Designed as an introductory course for TV and digital media production companies this course will benefit those requiring an overview of exploiting content on TV, digital media, interactive and 360 platforms. This workshop has been planned in partnership with Pact
Price: ITF Member £100 / Pact or freelance £150 / Corporate £200

book these courses / find out more

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: digital media, interactive, multiplatform, Skillset, training, TV
Comments: (2)

Many thanks to Peter Cowley (Endemol) and Justin Judd (i-Rights) for leading another engaging multiplatform session on 23 March 2010.

Delegates can view passworded course content

Look out for further multi/cross-platform training in coming soon…

Cross-platform: Generating New Projects and Markets 08.07.10
A one-day workshop to encourage TV, digital media and interactive producers to originate, develop, plan and pitch multiplatform projects

Cross-platform Storytelling 15.07.10
A full-day workshop to develop the storytelling & writing skills of TV and digital media production teams over a range of platforms and genres and to review trends in cross-platform scripted content.

Multiplatform: Joined-up Production 17.06.10
A one-day workshop to help production companies and digital interactive agencies work
together to create cross platform content

Making Money from Digital Platforms and Rights 18.11.10
A half-day introductory workshop to help production companies and interactive agencies understand how to make money from digital platforms, and to exploit the content rights in both broadcast and corporate markets

Book more courses

June 2009 course – Previous delegates can still view the passworded June 09 presentation

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: Add new tag, digital media, digital platforms, digital rights, i-rights, justin judd, multiplatform, peter cowley
Comments: (0)

The first of these new ITF sessions led by expert multiplatform writers Sean Coleman and Andrew McCaldon was inspirational for those attending.

“A really productive day. it definitely helped suggest some really good avenues for how I might be able to take my project on to the next level” (Ed McGown – Met Film)

“The case studies opened my eyes to what is possible”  (Dominic Weston – Icon Films)

“Excellent. Informed, pleasant and aproachable. Each [trainer] had different areas of expertise and interests that reflected in their presentations and advice” (Meg Jayanth – Met Film & Freelance)

Thanks to all the delegates for bringing such interesting proposals to develop as multiplatform projects in the small group workshops, for sharing their knowledge and expertise, and for their generous suggestions for enhancing each other’s projects.

“It’s particularly interesting to discuss what people are currently doing and what they’re passionate about, and give/receive individual feedback” (Meg Jayanth – Met Film)

“Great cross-fertilisation in the workshops” (Dominic Weston – Icon Films)

The majority of the 10 delegates had been awarded new Skillset Multiplatform training bursaries which had enabled them to attend, and some of them to cover the additional travel and accommodation costs of coming from further afield around the UK.

We expect them to keep in touch with each other, feedback on this session, and possibly form a network support group to exchange ideas and develop future cross-platform projects together, preferably using the Comments field below.

Here are some useful links from the tutors to inspire you to devise your own cross-platform projects:

And Sean Coleman’s personal definitions of some multiplatform jargon to provoke debate, your own versions and re-interpretations in the Comments field below:

Delegates only can access the workshop presentation materials

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: Andrew McCaldon, Cross-platform storytelling, multiplatform, Sean Coleman, Skillset Multiplatform Bursaries, storytelling
Comments: (2)

Indie Training Fund thanks delegates and trainers Kirsty Hunter (Lion TV) and Tim Morgan (Mint Digital) for their input once again on the new Multiplatform workshop, Joined-Up Production, that took place on 25 June 2009.

The day-long workshop gave those attending the chance to find out from case studies, discussion and sharing their own experience, what makes effective multiplatform projects, what’s hot and what isn’t, and how to devise, plan and manage projects successfully.

What you thought:

‘excellent speakers, great discussions and useful brainstorms surrounding multiplatform development’

‘the opportunity to ask questions was most useful. I haven’t had a chance to have one-to-one sessions with multiplatform experts and felt I could ask questions freely’

‘it was good to have an informal approach so we could interact at any point to fulfill our needs’

View the presentation

Joined Up Production will next take place on 28 October 2009

Email bookings@indietrainingfund.com for further details

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: joined up production, kirsty hunter, multimedia, multiplatform, tim morgan, training
Comments: (0)

Can you now pitch successfully for a TV commission using just 140 characters on Twitter?
This was one of the questions raised in ITF’s provocative and topical Open Forum discussion “So what’s all this multiplatform business?” in a full house at London’s Framestore cinema on 18th March.

Jokingly suggested by Endemol’s Digital Media Director Peter Cowley, the idea was taken up with enthusiasm by Louise Brown, Channel 4’s new Head of Cross-Platform Commissioning, who encouraged the TV and digital media professionals in the audience to get on as many networks as possible. She also suggested that planning how to develop and manage communities of viewers/users was now becoming increasingly important, as well as deciding how and when to respond to them. Her own checklist for cross-platform commissions is “niche, open & interactive”.

In his opening remarks the chairman Andrew Chitty, MD of Illumina Digital, had set the scene by noting the challenge of the shift from broadcast platforms to participatory online media, and the resulting creative and commercial impetus to engage users across multiple platforms. Acknowledging the threats to local media producers and ad-funded broadcasters, and of Video on Demand to niche broadcast channels, he asked what the role of PSB would be in this new environment.

C4’s Louise Brown said she thinks the digital production explosion will be good news for small suppliers and the creators of electronic games. New content ideas can initially be tried out at lower cost on the web before TV transmission (like C4’s “Osama Loves” which was made in partnership with Mint Digital).

Peter Cowley explained how much more challenging than TV commissions it is to get digital and non-broadcast projects off the ground because, as well as the content, the producer now has to find the funding and the platform, and also identify and develop the target community. It is higher risk but there should be a higher potential reward.

Jonathan Jackson, COO of the Digital Rights Group , pointed out that digital rights currently make up only a small percentage of overall distribution and sales deals but that he expected them to grow rapidly.

Anthony Lukom, MD of MySpace UK, stated that providing the platform and acting as a broker between the content-provider and potential sponsors, as MySpace does, was the model for the future.
After Cowley showed a clip of Endemol’s short  viral HD mini-drama series “Kirill” for MSN, Lukom proposed that one way forward to avoid product placement issues is to do a cheaper branded version on the internet, and a full high-quality version for TV transmission without  the commercial content. Although product placement is commonplace in the USA and Holland for example, it still appears to be a dirty word for Ofcom and the government in Britain, so the more acceptable new term may be “product integration”…

Lukom  also said that social community networks can now complement and greatly reinforce TV broadcasting. “Skins” was successfully previewed on MySpace before its transmission on E4. Just as music fans have broken the industry’s commercial clout by expecting to download tracks for free, Lukom believes that the success of what has traditionally been TV content will now be decided by the user, and not the broadcaster.

The chairman Andrew Chitty concluded by asking what skills gaps there are if we want to succeed as Digital Britain in the future. (He is a member of Lord Carter’s committee who produced the recent interim report.)  Rather than digital technologists he thinks we need more effective service design producers to provide a better overall digital media experience.  Anthony Lukom is looking for people who can adapt longer-form media content structures to short-form interactive with strong social network appeal.

Both Lukom and Cowley ended by saying that if the government and Ofcom try to over-regulate the media industry, and especially the “unregulate-able” digital sector, they will hold back British creativity and future economic success in this area.

This Open Forum event was staged in association with Film London

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: Add new tag, andrew chitty, anthony lukom, jonathan jackson, louise brown, multiplatform, open forum, peter cowley
Comments: (1)

Some thoughts from Mike Flood Page

THINK MULTIPLATFORM

Creative Development
Who or what is or are:-
the big idea/proposition/USP?
Client, stakeholders
Your audience/user groups
Touch Points a.k.a. media use
How can you reach them/how will they find you?
What’s in it for them; why should they bother?
What will keep them coming back?
Product, Event or Service
Platforms: broadband, mobile, social network, print, live events…
Competition
Business model – who  pays, why?

Some useful URLS
illumina
who do you think you are
get cooking
quizmania
webquests
bbci player
britannia high
big brother
springwatch
stagework
last fm
nike
breaking the news

Thanks to all the contributors and delegates for their input on ITF’s first Multiplatform: Winning Commissions workshop which made it so productive. Participants had the unique opportunity to pitch projects they’d developed in teams during the workshop to multiplatform commissioners Nick Cohen (BBC) and Adam Gee (C4), who shared their preferences and aversions with the delegates, as well as giving invaluable feedback to them on their proposals. The workshop day was led by Illumina Digital Editorial Director Mike Flood Page who revealed how to develop and plan successful projects for different media, and Endemol Digital’s Jim Harrison gave a commercial perspective about making branded content for non-broadcast platforms.

“brilliant and very effective… advice  was very clear and well demonstrated” (Morgana Pugh – RDF Media)
“All of it was very useful” (Margaret Schmueck – Split Second Films)
“It was useful to pitch straight to the commissioner, and check out that we were thinking along the right lines” (Alexis Burke – RDF Media)

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: Add new tag, Commissioning, Illumina, ITF, multiplatform, training
Comments: (0)

ITF Open Forum

in association with Film London

When? Wednesday 18th March 2009 at 18.00

Where? Framestore Cinema, 19-23 Wells Street, London W1T 3PQ

Price? Free

In the current tough financial climate, TV & digital media production companies are exploring different ways of surviving the storm, including the use of branded and commercial platforms as well as broadcast ones.

space

• Why is this important, especially for the future of digital Britain?

• Who’s commissioning what, and for which platforms?

• How does a digital project differ from a TV commission?

• What is wanted for different platforms, and how is it funded?

• How do you develop & make successful projects?

• Can you make money out of cross-platform production?

• How can you make the most of digital rights?

• Starting with digital interactive content rather than TV?

• The importance of collaboration and joined-up production for TV and digital media teams

Contributors:

Andrew Chitty (Illumina Digital Managing Director) – Chair

Peter Cowley (Endemol UK Director of Digital Media)

Louise Brown (Channel 4 Head of Cross-platform Commissioning)

Jonathan Jackson (Digital Rights Group Chief Operating Officer)

Anthony Lukom (MySpace UK Managing Director)

This is one of a new series of free ITF Open Forum evening discussions when leading industry figures will talk about the latest hot topics in our business. TV, film and digital media professionals are all welcome, and those attending will have a chance to share their experiences and network with each other.

Agenda

1800 Registration, light refreshments & networking

1830 Forum session begins

Followed by open discussion & questions

2015 Closure

Online registration at www.filmlondon.org.uk/seminars

Please note that this event is now fully subscribed, and already has a large waiting list

NB: Contributors are subject to change and will be updated on this page.

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: channel 4, chitty, digital media, digital rights group, endemol, Film London, Illumina, interactive, ITF Open Forum, multiplatform, myspace
Comments: (1)