With Ian Wyatt and myself both attending,  ITF had a strong presence at the recent C21 Future Media conference at BAFTA in London’s Piccadilly, which largely focused on how to build audiences and, crucially, commercialise social network content.  Among the speakers were some serious social media players including Karla Geci from Facebook and Jed Simmons from YouTube.

Karla spoke of Facebook’s emergence as a new content platform and about the rich variety of opportunities for producers, broadcasters and rights owners.  She also discussed Timeline, Facebook’s new online visual curriculum vitae-style project which will allow members to put images and details of their lives so far on personal pages.   Director of YouTube Next, Jed Simmons talked about the social video platform’s investment plans and its moves to create more flexible ways to monetise video content online.

Anthony Rose (Zeebox Co-founder) revealed the benefits of his new, freely downloadable app to enable tablets to sync with TVs in second screen viewing, and for users to interact at the same time with their friends elsewhere.

The Digital Frontier of e-publishing was explored by a panel that looked at the new tablet version of The Human Body led by DK Digital Publishing Director Justin Moodie and AKQA Head of Mobile Daniel Rosen, who had turned the bestselling book into a new platform that was faithful to the original style but developed into a new interactive form – including the tablet pulsing like its heart images! Somethin’ Else CCO Paul Bennun talked about collaborating with Richard Dawkins to create the beautiful digital book of The Magic of Reality. And James Huggins (Made in Me MD) showed how his interactive Land of Me enables young children to use a tablet instinctively to create their own visual and audio versions of stories. The speakers all agreed that the evolution of the tablet meant that innovative visual and high quality e-publishing could finally show its true potential.

In the Next Generation Production session, Oil Creative Director Mike Bennett enthused about the creative benefits of two-screen, and working with brands which are increasingly setting the pace, and the funds, rather than broadcasters – illustrated by clips from his “Fallen Angel” Facebook interactive video campaign for Lynx  starring Kelly Brook. We R Interactive games designer Dan Mayers showed extracts from his innovative I Am Playr game in which aspiring soccer champion players are involved in the first person in interactive video drama scenes, with brand placement & funding (Nike, Red Bull & Alfa Romeo).

Other panel highlight contributions from ITF supporters included Matt Campion (The Social Media Factory) on creative content for Facebook, and Peter Cowley (Spirit Digital Media) showing, through his A-Lister hypothetical celebrity culture game, TV show & online video channel, how to monetise and transport audiences to different platforms, which he expands in his regular ITF workshops.

Henry Normal, CEO of ITF member company Baby Cow Productions, also contributed to the session on digital content which looked at how internet and mobile now provide a real and lucrative distribution platform for producers.

If anyone out there still needed persuading of the advantages of forward thinking and embracing social media, then surely Henry’s tale of building content brands and working with new technology were compelling.  Back in 2007, Baby Cow got involved with a company called Twitter to promote Alan Partridge online, when the unfashionable new social network service was less than one year old.  Fast forward to December 2011 and Twitter have 300 million users!  Tweet tweet.

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: AKQA, Anthony Rose, Baby Cow Productions, BAFTA, C21, DK Publishing, Facebook, Fallen Angel, Future Media, Henry Normal, Iam Player, Land of Me, Matt Campion, Mike Bennett, Oil, Paul Bennun, peter cowley, Richard Dawkins, Somethin' Else, Spirit Digital, The Human Body, The Magic of Reality, The Social Media Factory, YouTube Next, Zeebox
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Exciting first few weeks in my new job as Development Executive of the Indie Training Fund; a whirlwind of meetings with Fund member indies, trainers and production companies; a crash course in the problems and challenges involved in training in the independent television and digital media sectors.

Delighted to be working alongside Ian, Laura and Andrea, and grateful for the support of Nick Catliff, the ITF chairman and managing director of Lion Television.   I’m looking forward to contributing to the development of ITF projects in 2012 and beyond.

One of our main aims is to increase awareness and membership of the Indie Training Fund.  If recent newspaper reports are to be believed, then almost fifty per cent of the independent television sector still fails to offer adequate training opportunities for staff and, particularly, freelancers.  We hope to help change this situation.

Another positive step would be to increase ITF’s activities outside London.  Although there have been recent courses in Manchester (and there are scheduled events in Newcastle and Belfast in the New Year) we’re hoping to build closer relationships with independent TV companies and other training organizations in the regions.

With this in mind I attended the Manchester Media Festival and BVE North Exhibition in mid November.  Held in the revamped, revitalized old GMex station building, it was a nostalgic return for me.  In my previous life as a music journalist and TV producer, I’d seen many great gigs in the venue including The Smiths, The Fall, James, Happy Mondays, and even INXS.  Rain or shine (but mostly rain) I still love Manchester.  The old mills are alive with the sound of music, no one’s allowed to get too big for their boots and, literally, there’s poetry on the streets of the Northern Quarter.

When I left Manchester in the early 2000s, the TV industry was in decline and the town was a building site.  Now, although its people and businesses are being battered and bruised by recession, the football clubs thrive and Media City is being promoted as the next theatre of dreams.  True, it’s no longer the Salford of Morrissey’s childhood – the hard working class Salford of Lowry and Riley; the bitter-sweet Salford of A Taste Of Honey (R.I.P. Shelagh D) – but it’s becoming more modern and original; vibrant and creative in a very different way.

It was good to hear Jon Corner, the Director of MediaCityUK, talk about the mutual relationship between the university and the industry.  He expressed the hope that the new hi-tech infrastructure and state-of-the-art broadcast-quality facilities (developed by Mediasmiths) would be hugely beneficial to graduates and post-graduates studying to work in TV and digital media companies in the North.

Equally impressive, while looking at the UK Media landscape from a different angle, were Lou Cordwell and Adam Todd of Magnetic North.  Primarily a digital design company, they presented an enlightening session titled “the evolution of the digital indie: from microsites to multiplatform”.  Having recently completed work on their acclaimed interactive BBC Desert Islands Discs website, MN is living proof of the diverse talents rising in the North.

Some of the key Manchester Media Festival discussions about the Multi-Platform future stressed the importance of convergence and co-operation, with emphasis on embracing technological advances and developing a new mindset for working with traditional TV production methods.

My old NME mate Stuart Cosgrove, Director of Creative Diversity at Channel Four, chaired forward-thinking sessions on the use of social gaming to engage with new target audiences.  These featured brain-refreshing presentations from Simon Meek of Scottish and Northern Irish indie Tern TV, on interactive story-telling in their digital adaptation of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps, and Steve Ackerman of Somethin’ Else on gaming evolution and brand integration.  Ackerman spoke about the complex digital multiplatform deals for Somethin’ Else’s recent collaboration with publishers Random House on Richard Dawkins’ The Magic of Reality to create a children’s science book, a TV series, an interactive game and an iPad App.  They’re also working on a Channel Four interactive-game-meets-Sims-style-soap-opera for 2012 titled The Super Mes.

It was also great to hook up again with two former Granada contacts now working in Manchester’s university and industry.  My good friend Beth Hewitt is the Director of Graduate and Industry Development in Salford University’s School of Media, Music and Performance.  She runs an excellent MA course in Documentary Film and Television Production, but I guess I would say that because I’ve lectured there!

Meanwhile Cat Lewis is the MD and Executive Producer of the award-winning indie Nine Lives Media.  They’ve just picked up an RTS Award for Best Factual Series for BBC Three’s Small Teen Bigger World, and other recent success stories include Extraordinary People for Five and Nightmare In Suburbia for the Crime & Investigation Network.  Nine Lives recently won commissions from CBBC and BBC Learning.  I also worked with Cat’s husband, ex-World In Action chief Mike Lewis, at Granada back in the 1990s and he’s helped build Nine Lives’ reputation in factual programming with Panoramas including Finished At Fifty.

Aside from Nine Lives’ own productions, Cat’s the driving force behind The Indie Club which has been instrumental in building a real sense of community amongst independent television companies in Manchester and beyond.  The club, run by and for programme makers, has over 450 members and regularly hosts top quality guest speakers such as Paul Abbott, Carolyn Reynolds, Willy Russell, Sita Williams and Stephen Lambert.

Hopefully in 2012, by building ITF’s relationship with these strong contacts and working with regional partners such as Skillset and the BBC Academy, we can further help improve training opportunities in TV and digital media production in the North.

Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: Beth Hewitt, BVE North, Cat Lewis, channel 4, cross-platform, digital, digital media, digital platforms, Lion, Magnetic North, Manchester, Media Festival, MediaCityUK, Mediasmiths, multiplatform, Nine Lives, North, peter cowley, production, Richard Dawkins, Salford, Somethin' Else, Stuart Cosgrove, tern tv, The Indie Club, The Super Mes, training, TV
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Digital media guru and former MD of Digital Media at Endemol UK, Peter Cowley revealed his Top Ten Tips for Monetising Digital Content to a packed lunchtime session presented by ITF at the 2011 Production Show in Earls Court..
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Top 10 Tips:
1.Understand Digital!
2.Know Your Rights
3.Understand Key Trends
4. Find out who has made money in digital content
5.  Understand the revenue streams: A, B, C, D:
(–Advertising; Broadcasters; Consumers; Distributors)
6.The Digital Wheel of Value
7.Build a customer/fan base
8.Analyse & Iterate
9.Build Partnerships
10.Futurology

Peter Cowley leads ITF workshop at The Production Show

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You can get the full picture in the next of Peter’s inspirational half-day workshops about Making Money from Digital Platforms & Rights on May 24 at ITF’s base in London’s Hoxton. Leading the session with him will be Justin Judd, Digital Rights Group Director and MD of iRights. Book now to find out the latest trends, and avoid disappointment! Please e-mail bookings@indietrainingfund.com or telephone 020 3487 0354..

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Posted by indietrainingfund
Tags: cross-platform, digital, digital media, digital platforms, multiplatform, peter cowley, tips
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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 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
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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
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