And so now a film festival can be interactive...
April 1st 2011 23:50
Nowadays, distance is not always the massive impediment it can be with the plethora of technology we have available to us. To highlight this occurrence, this year the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) in collaboration with American Express, is giving its USA viewers the chance to watch feature and short films without attending the festival. The online screenings will happen at the same time as the physical screenings, heightening that feeling of almost being there.
The festival, co-founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, aims to support growth and culture in Manhattan after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. With its emphasis on independent films, documentaries and shorts, it has become one of the world’s most important film festivals.
There are several ways a viewer can be involved: a blog, intimate Q&A sessions and interactive filmmaker feeds. While international viewers cannot participate in the films screening, they can engage with film-makers and industry experts through its Q&A component, blogs and other social media methods.
This online experience encompasses five main areas: Festival Streaming Room, Live From..., Tribeca Q&A, Filmmaker Feed, and the Future of Film blog.
In the Festival Steaming Room, from the 12th April, American Express members can reserve a ‘virtual seat’ for online screenings of this year's features and shorts, as well as a selection of award-winning shorts from the previous nine festivals. From the 18th April, it is open to the general public.
From 20th April until 1st May, the Live Action segment will show webcams that screen twenty-four hour red carpet events. This allows interaction with other online viewers and participants as well as inside viewing.
The Q&A sessions will allow audiences to submit questions to a pool of 20-25 film and new media experts such as Tribeca’s Jane Rosenthal, Geoff Gilmore and Nancy Schafer, actors such as Whoopi Goldberg and Brian Williams, and filmmakers David Gordon Green, and Zach Braff. Community members can vote on individual questions, and top-rated queries will be submitted for official response, which will then be made public.
The Filmmaker Feed section makes use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter where viewers can read biographies, updates, video updates and genenally remain up-to-date with any developments as well as interact with other participants. Here, viewers can comment and moan away about all their filmic desires.
And lastly, The Future of Film blog involves film and technology experts commenting on the evolving media environment in featured posts. Participants will be announced in early April once the blog begins, so I guess that will happen any moment now.
So while we Aussies can’t take part in the feature and short films screenings (yet at least), we can still talk to directors, learn inside information and generally feel closer to the festival. It’s not the same as actually being there, but it’s still something and who knows what might happen in the future.
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