Call for entries for ‘ultimate’ media workshop

Creative professionals across Scotland are being urged to apply to a ground breaking course taking place in the Highlands and Islands this summer.

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The Pixel Lab 2015, coming to Scotland for the first time, helps participants create, develop, finance and distribute stories in today’s media climate.

The ultimate workshop spanning four months, the Pixel Lab equips those working in the industry with an unrivalled understanding of how a strategic approach to story development will help develop their projects, brands and audience base.

The Pixel Lab is open to producers, commissioners, financiers, distributors, writers, directors, games & interactive designers and artists with a strong track record in their chosen field from any media sector. Organisers Power to the Pixel will select up to 20 producers to attend with a project and 20 media professionals to attend without. Projects can be fiction or non-fiction and stories must be able to extend into film, TV, online, mobile and gaming.

Participants will receive pitch training from Paul Tyler, founder of Handling Ideas. In addition, business advice will be given from leading mentors as varied and acclaimed as a former writing consultant and story editor for Steven Spielberg, a storyteller who worked on Transmedia projects for feature films Avatar, Tron 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean and the co-founder of CBC Radio 3 – one of the world’s first cross media success stories.

Iain Hamilton, head of Creative Industries at Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), attended the international launch of The Pixel Lab 2015 in Berlin. He said: “We are extremely excited to have attracted The Pixel Lab to the Highlands and Islands in 2015. With storytelling at its heart, the workshops will give participants invaluable knowledge, experience and access to industry that has the potential to change their lives.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that to survive, businesses need to develop their content to embrace a wider integration of digital and physical platforms. The Pixel Lab brings together some of the leading international players in cross media work to help participants develop new ways of working, develop projects and help get them to market.”

One project which has gone through The Pixel Lab process is the $11million feature film Iron Sky, which since its release in 2012 has been converted into a digital comic, board game and video game on Xbox, Sony PlayStation, Windows, Android, iOs and Mac OS platforms.

The Pixel Lab 2015 workshops begin with a six-day residential course in May and culminate in a presentation to the international media industry at Power to the Pixel: The Cross-Media Forum in London in October.

They will then present their projects to an international jury of commissioners, financiers, distributors and funders. One project will be awarded The Pixel Lab Prize.

Producers are also invited to attend a series of 1-2-1 business meetings with potential co-production partners, funds and platforms at Power to the Pixel’s leading finance market, The Pixel Market.

Companies in attendance last year included the BBC; BFI; BuzzFeed; Channel 4; Penguin Books; RTVE; The Guardian; Tribeca Film Institute and Vimeo.

Applications for The Pixel Lab 2015 close on Thursday 26 March 2015 at 18.00 GMT. For more information and to apply, visit www.powertothepixel.com

The Pixel Lab 2015 is being held with the support of Creative Europe – the MEDIA Programme of the EU, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Creative Scotland, Creative Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of A Bigger Future 2, Scottish Development International and MG ALBA.

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