AFI Digital Content Lab to Hold its DigiFest November 4th and 5th

Submitted by tracyswedlow on October 20, 2009 - 12:41am

--Event Showcases Projects Incubated by the Lab and Significant Digital Productions from Past Year

The American Film Institute Digital Content Lab, an organization which for more than a decade has played a key role in fostering the development of interactive and multiplatform TV--and interactive media in general--in the US, will hold its annual interactive media showcase, the AFI DigiFest (formerly known as the AFI Digital Content Festival), at the Mann Chinese Theater (auditorium #1) in Hollywood, November 4th and 5th.

The first day of the AFI DigiFest will showcase digital media prototypes that have been incubated in the AFI Digital Content Lab over the past year. The Lab aims to connect content providers with teams of industry experts (dubbed "mentors") in order to brainstorm solutions to cross-platform challenges. According to the organization, this year's prototype projects "illustrate the ever-widening spectrum of development and distribution options open to today's creators while optimizing for the consumers' eagerness to view and interact with content across a variety of screens." They include:

A social network and proposed marketing plan for director David Lynch's Interview Project (features short interviews with people across the US).
A proposed online strategy for engaging youth in a series of relevant environmental action challenges for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.
A mobile application that provides an interactive past-to-future timeline for an ITVS cross-platform micro-series.
An interactive mentoring environment for One Economy that encourages students from low-income families to learn more about science as a career.
A "Mobile Story Maker" session with filmmaker, L.M. Kit Carson, who shot the micro-series, "Africa Diary," using a Nokia mobile phone as a camera (note: the series is slated to air shortly on the Sundance Channel).

The first day will be followed by a cocktail party and a poolside screening of select short films at the Roosevelt Hotel.

The second day of the AFI DigiFest will see the Digital Content Lab hosting a series of curated presentations that highlight noteworthy digital productions from around the world that debuted over the past year. According to the Lab, this year's presentations will include (among others):

"District 9," a behind-the-scenes look at games and an augmented reality application created by production house, Trigger.
"Live Music," a 3D animation stitched together from contributions by thousands of animators around the world, masterminded by Mass Animation's Yair Landau, former vice chair of Sony Pictures.
"Urban Wolf," a surveillance camera-based micro-series by Parisian director, Laurent Touil Tartour.
"Manobi," a mobile phone application that aims to raise the standard of living for Senegalese farmers and fishermen.
"First Things Last," a visual storytelling application for the iPhone, that was created by ScrollMotion.
"Escape from City 17," a meld of machinima and live action that was created by the Purchase Brothers for less than $500.
"Naked Sky," which the DCL says will offer "a surprising look at what our collective augmented reality may well look like a year from now."