A new documentary film headed by the producer of Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 and an interactive children’s book and iPad app with anti-bullying message are among the first projects to be selected for X Media Lab: Global Media Ideas.
X Media Lab has been flooded with submissions for its annual Global Media Ideas summit, which is happening in Sydney from 8-10 June as part of the Vivid Sydney festival of light, music and ideas.
Already selected for the Lab is Stand In My Shoes, a crowd-sourced film about embracing empathy in the 21st century headed by award-winning documentary veteran Kurt Engfehr, the editor and co-producer of Bowling for Columbine, A League of Ordinary Gentlemen and Fahrenheit 9/11.
Combining storytelling and humour to expose the empathy deficit in today’s world, Stand In My Shoes will interview 500 social revolutionaries who are leading the way by making empathy a priority in their work and encourage audiences to become change agents themselves through an interactive online platform.
Also impressing the X Media Lab selection committee was Dandelion, an interactive children’s book and iPad app being created and developed by award-winning Sydney digital agency Protein One.
“Dandelion communicates an anti-bullying message to children by encouraging them to use their imagination rather than their fists. The app is unlike any interaction before it, in that it allows children to follow the main character ‘Benjamin Brewster’ through his story and then physically blow Dandelions on the iPad screen to help his wishes come true,” said Protein One’s Galvin Scott Davis.
There is still time for digital and creative industry entrepreneurs to submit projects for X Media Lab, with 16 teams to be given the opportunity to workshop their projects with some of the world’s leading new media experts in an intensive two-day creative workshop at the Museum of Contemporary Art from 9-10 June.
The deadline for submissions is 1 June.
Project teams will have unparalleled access to some of the world’s most successful digital media pioneers, entrepreneurs and creatives, including founding member of the Atari Research Lab, Michael Naimark, co-writer/director of Happy Feet, Warren Coleman, co-founder of Wired Magazine, Ian Charles Stewart and the woman dubbed “the Oprah of the web”, Corvida Raven.
“With the deadline for project submissions rapidly approaching, we encourage industry entrepreneurs to get their project submissions in. This is an invaluable opportunity to gain one-on-one mentoring, elite consultation, feedback and advice from some of the most successful names in global media industries including film, gaming, mobile technology and social media,” Megan Elliott, Director of X Media Lab.
Previous teams to go through X Media Lab have included the minds behind projects such as ABC’s Rage and The Chaser, Lonely Planet, Disney Internet Group, Fairfax Media’s www.thevine.com.au, e-commerce fashion start-up 99Dresses, and creative industry networking site The Loop.
One of the major industry events of Vivid Sydney, X Media Lab: Global Media Ideas will also feature a Pro-Day Conference at Sydney Opera House on 8 June.
A high intensity information download and relationship building event for communicators in the digital age, the Pro-Day Conference will explore cultural and commercial content in a global world, including the rapid growth markets of China, India, South East Asia and Africa.
To submit a project to the Lab and to purchase tickets for the Pro Day Conference visit: www.xmedialab.com