The Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund has announced funding for the Oct. 1, 2011 round of applications.

Overall, $3.35 million was awarded to 27 applicants in production, low-budget production, development and professional development project categories, out of 50 applications.

Funded projects and productions include: Eat St., Mr. Young, Time Tremors, The Listener, Canada’s Smartest Person, Cross Country Fun Hunt, Vivi, Rock tes bas, The Guide and King.

The list is weighted towards kids programming, as it’s a genre that tends to work best in the new media landscape, says Andra Sheffer, executive director, Bell Fund, adding that 40% of the funded projects are kids- and youth-targeted, 40% are documentaries and 20% are geared to adults.

“With the kids stuff, the [audiences expect online extensions] – they go online and the numbers are fantastic,” she says. “And the documentary [genre], interestingly, is one in which people want to know more. So they go online to research usually, or learn more about the topic. Even one-off documentaries tend to do some really interesting online activity.”

One-off docs have an especially interesting online life, she says.

“We seem to see that those sites often last way longer than the television program, so they will have an audience who are [there] three or four years later because of the topic. It’s quite the opposite of what we expect.”

Four out of seven projects receiving production grants are towards kids and youth, including tween reality series Cross Country Fun Hunt from Apartment 11 Productions, which celebrates the “funnest” places across Canada as recommended and voted on by young viewers and season two of Thunderbird Films’s teen whiz kid show Mr. Young, which will feature complementary digital collector cards, a companion game and an arcade Flash game online.

Funding will also go to Xenophile Media’s Time Tremors transmedia project, which will let players explore the Time Tremors world through a mobile, online and physical Treasure Hunt; and Skywriter Television’s animated project Vivi, which will see Vivi continuing her travels with her grandmother, and Skywriter Media and Entertainment giving young viewers an opportunity to create and share digital memory books through Vivi’s Scrapbook site.

Media Headquarters landed funds for Canada’s Smartest Person, a live televised event to find Canada’s smartest person based on six markers of intelligence that will have social media and mobile app quiz-play options.

Season three of sci-fi drama The Listener from Shaftesbury also made the cut with its online extension, web series, The Listener: Power Switch, which will explore what would happen if main character Toby was without his telepathic powers.

The Guantanamo Trap from The Guantanamo Trap Productions, which follows four people affected by Guantanamo, also received funding. The new media side of the production, My September 11^th, will be a narrative on 9/11 with online video.

Five projects also received low budget grants, including Aboriginal doc series The Guide from Sivumu Northern Productions, which focuses on Inuit mentors working with local community leaders on social issues, and also offers a modular website for finding and interacting with a mentor.

King Film Production II Inc.’s King, season two, also received funding under the low budget grant program, and media component King Season II – Interactive Case Files will be integrated into a Facebook-based social network.

Also under the low budget grant program, preschooler-targeted Minimops, from Yowza Digital Inc. has musical moppets exploring the word in the show, and accompanying musical education mini-games online; the third season of Paperny’s Eat St. and its revamped mobile app; The Carbon Rush from Wide Open Exposure, which looks at the “green-gold” market of carbon trading and its online extensions, which include a carbon market simulation game on the website.

On the French-language side, funded projects include: Rock tes bas from Productions GFP, Mixmania III from Zone3, La Valse des continents from Ideacom international, Fermier urbain from Productions 350 ° and Sedna autour du monde: L’aventure humaine from Glacialis Productions all received production grants. Amazone Films’ Infirmières received a low budget production grant.

iThentic’s Real Therapy Interactive, The Secret Location’s Groj Band and GlassBOX’s Travel + Escape Top Ten all landed development grants.

Organizations receiving professional development funding include Whistler Film Summit Media Lab, Merging + Media Toronto and NUMIX 2012.

Overall, Sheffer says, Bell Fund is seeing project budgets dip slightly, due mainly to the evolving mediascape.

“The good things are that the cost of doing this stuff is going down, and people know what they’re doing now. It just doesn’t cost what it used to cost,” Sheffer tells Playback Daily. “Also, things are being simplified somewhat. We used to encourage probably too much of the fancy bells and whistles and really go all out, and I don’t think those necessarily work in all cases.”

“On the other hand,” she continues, “we’re seeing, I think, more ‘average’ projects. There isn’t that excitement that we used to see with projects where people were trying things and experimenting and doing interesting new things. I think that maybe, the CMF’s requirement that all projects have to have a second platform [is] encouraging some mediocrity.”

The fund has so far this year awarded $12.2 million. View the full list here.

• Call Me Fitz, produced and distributed by eOne Television International, walked away with six Gemini’s for Best Sound and Best Picture Editing in a Comedy, Variety or Performing Arts Program or Series, Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series, Best Performance by an Actress and Actor in a Featured Supporting Role or Guest Role in a Comedic Series and Best Direction in a Comedy Program or Series.

• “The Phantom of Crowley High”, a musical episode from the first season of Todd & The Book of Pure Evil, produced by Frantic Films, Corvid Pictures and Aircraft Pictures, and distributed by eOne Television International, received the Gemini for Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series, in what the Toronto Star called one of the biggest surprises of night.

• The season finale of Ice Pilots NWT, “Arnie Calls It” received a Gemini for Best Original Music for a Lifestyle/Practical Information or Reality Program or Series and the Season 2 episode “Under Pressure”, was given the nod for Best Photography in an Information Program or Series.

• Debt Do Us Part, distributed by PictureBox, picked up a Gemini for Best Lifestyle/Practical Information Series.

• Best Cross-Platform Project, Fiction went to marblemedia for the comedy DatingGuy.com

Catherine Warren, FanTrust president and Bell Fund board member & communications chair, also congratulates the following Gemini award winners, who received funding from the Bell Broadcast & New Media Fund:

• Best Cross-Platform Project – Children’s and Youth: Babar and the Adventures of Badou Interactive

• Best Cross-Platform Project – Fiction: DatingGuy.com

• Best Cross-Platform Project – Non-Fiction: Storming Juno Interactive

The 26th Annual Gemini Awards will culminate with the Broadcast Gala on

Wednesday, September 7th at CBC in Toronto with the presentation of the final seven awards. Hosted by comedian Russell Peters, the event will be broadcast at 8pm on CBC Television.

http://bellfund.ca/annual-reports/2010/en/home.html

2010 Highlights

·         $11,133,214 was invested in the production of 83 cross-platform television and interactive digital projects

·         $860,575 was invested in the development of 22 projects

·         $122,000 sponsored 22 professional development activities across the country

1997-2010 Highlights

·         $93,222,308 invested in Canada’s cross-platform industry

·         $86,072,915 has been invested in the production of 614 cross-platform television and interactive digital projects

·         $6,291,833  has been invested in the development of 175 projects

·         $857,560 sponsored 149 professional development activities across the country

The Board of Directors salutes its Vice Chair and Treasurer for the past decade, Chris Frank, as he retires from his various duties this year.  Thanks to Bell TV’s contributions to the Bell Fund and his dedicated participation in Bell Fund activities, the Fund has invested $93 M in 938 cross-platform television and interactive digital media projects, since 1997.

"I don't think that fan cult and fan culture is new. I think what we're seeing is how it unfolds and how it manifests in real time." - Photo by Dominic Schaefer

If there’s one thing Catherine Warren has learned from her media career, it’s how powerful an audience can be.

It’s what convinced her 10 years ago to launch FanTrust Entertainment Strategies, through which she has helped broadcasters, game companies and TV and film producers around the world to use digital media to build fan bases and drive revenue.

“The audience used to be looked at as an amorphous group,” said Warren. “They were not looked at as a community or as individuals who could provide things like viral marketing and context.”

FanTrust [Warren] has helped everyone from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and Microsoft Corp. to British Columbia Lottery Corp. expand their fan bases using the web and other communication channels.

When Nokia and Orange Telecom France formed a strategic alliance to increase video game use on their mobile products, they called on FanTrust to build game developer momentum for the alliance.

When the Public Broadcasting Service’s KCTS station wanted to penetrate the Canadian market, it turned to FanTrust [Warren] for the initiative’s finance and business strategy.

Warren’s reputation and roles in the media world continue to grow thanks to her ability to bring together the right content, communications channels and partners to build fan-base passion.

Among her loftiest roles is jury chairwoman for the experimental stream of the newly created Canadian Media Fund. The $27 million fund supports high-risk interactive digital media content and application creators.

During the stream’s first round of funding in October, 27 projects were approved for a total of $12.9 million.

Lynda Brown-Ganzert, another Vancouver-based digital media mover-and-shaker, who also sits on the experimental stream’s board [jury], describes Warren as a great synthesizer.

“Catherine has the ability to take things in what can be a pretty confusing space and link them together,” said Brown-Ganzert. “She’ll look at what’s happening around the world – different trends, emerging technology platforms and human behaviour – and she’ll weave it all together into a well-thought-out strategy.”

Warren is a jury member for both the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which hosts the Emmy Awards, and the Rose d’Or, a European festival that recognizes quality television.

She has been a board member of the $18 million Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund for 10 years and is the fund’s communications chairwoman.

In September 2009, Warren was appointed to the board of the United Nations’ World Summit Award for New Media, which promotes digital content and information and communication technology applications that can improve lives.

More than 20,000 applications from 157 countries were included in the 2009 awards competition.

Excerpt from Curt Cherewayko’s article in the January 11-17, 2011 issue of Business in Vancouver.

Click here for the full article.

The new application deadlines will be the first day of each month, or the Monday following if the 1st is on a weekend or holiday. The first application deadline will be February 1, 2011.

The Bell Fund has invested $94M to support 170 development projects and nearly 600 television and interactive productions in the past 13 years.

Click here for the full Bell Fund press release.

This is an excerpt from an article in PlayBackOnline.ca.

A recent survey of broadcasters and television and new media producers indicated a common theme: less is sometimes more when it comes to interactive content associated with television programs. “Some of the most successful, revenue-generating digital properties today are produced on small budgets in tight timeframes,” said FanTrust President Catherine Warren, a longstanding member of the Bell Fund Board and Communications Chair. “This special funding program comes at a critical time in the industry when nimble and simple are the new keys to interactive prosperity.”

The average budget for Bell Fund interactive projects has been approximately $400,000. This new pilot program will encourage the production of relevant, high quality, modestly budgeted interactive projects and determine the longer-term feasibility of the program. It may also help develop viable business models with content that is more accessible to international markets – a lesson learned from the Bell Fund bliki “How to make money with multi-platform digital media”.

Read the full Bell Fund press release.

Even better, digital media fundamentals appear stronger than ever. A recent study reports that people would rather keep Internet, video and voice services in their budgets than any other type of expense, including personal care products, gym memberships and apparel. Bad news for hygiene, but great news for digital media, which environmentally at least, and porn aside, is a pretty clean industry.

In an era of user-generated content and web-only content, what remains unique about BellFunded content is its embedded connection to broadcast and all that television embodies: outstanding productions, unrivalled promotions and unbeatable reach. Couple all of this with TV’s mature business model, high-tech’s entrepreneurial spirit and wrap it all up in the glamour-bubble of entertainment, and there could be no better formula for success. Of course digital media is still in its infancy – with perhaps a century of success ahead before we’d even be considered for a multi-billion dollar bail-out – so, we’re entitled to tweak our formula along the way.

Canada may actually be the true calm in the storm. With our stable equity market and our sound economic policies, we recently ranked as the number one place to build a business, leading as the top country for entrepreneurs and the top ranked for entrepreneurial access to capital. (Unfortunately, the study was helmed by deposed junk bond king Michael Milken.)

Not only is there more money here for entrepreneurs, there is more money for digital media specifically. The Bell Fund’s contribution as Canada’s largest private fund for interactive broadcasting remains unrivalled anywhere in the world. Cable and satellite distributors continue to thrive, subscribers are up and profits are growing, which is good for the convergence kitty. Add to this the new $100M Vanedge Capital fund earmarked for video games and digital entertainment, and there is no doubt that the formidable talent and acumen in our sector will keep us at the top of the heap for years to come.

As consumers of all this digital entrepreneurship, we have also benefited from on-demand-everything and online-all-the-time. Blame it on YouTube, but by 2012 our insatiable appetite for bandwidth might even outstrip corporate greed, our demand exceeding cyberspace’s supply as the Internet unleashes random brownouts and our lifeline is reduced to what the Sunday Times of London calls “an unreliable toy.” So, not only do we have the challenge of defining a credible business model, we are faced with spearheading a conservation agenda, like a developing nation that must contend with the inconvenient truth. Ideally, next-gen digital producers will tackle these two issues in tandem and take us all to the next level.

Over the years we’ve seen digital properties get creatively lush, increasingly rich and fun to play. And we’ve seen the big awards like the Digital Emmy swoop in to acknowledge that new media has finally arrived. New storefronts like iTunes and the rise of virtual goods have opened new gateways to revenues. CNN seems as eager to Tweet as to broadcast, and no doubt monetize the results. New media syndication and licensing now results in real dollars.

After a classic relationship involving playground flirtations (NYT/Amazon), awkward prom dates (BBC/Microsoft), early arranged marriages (AOL/Time Warner) and legal separations (YouTube/Viacom), media and technology seem intent on working things out. And like any couple starting over while still arguing about money they’ll be seeking help.

There is no better bridge across this divide than content producers and rights-holders, each of whom are poised to capitalize on multiple revenue channels and propel new media models forward. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.

Excerpted from “The Last Word” by Catherine Warren, published in How to Make Money with Multi-platform Digital Media, Bell Fund, 2009, also available in French.

Read the Bell Fund press release on the bliki launch

You can view the full Bell Fund 2008 annual report, including the funded new media productions, online.

“The Awards were highly competitive this year,” said FanTrust Entertainment Strategies President Catherine Warren. “We are pleased but not surprised that a number of our distinguished clients were acknowledged by a jury of industry peers.”

Production powerhouse marblemedia swept two key awards, winning for both Company of the Year and Producer of the Year for partner Mark Bishop. Vancouver/Beijing-based Next Level Games won Excellence in Gaming for Mario Strikers Charged.  And the National Film Board of Canada-supported Homeless Nation won for Excellence in Social Media.

As a partner and co-founder of marblemedia, Mark Bishop plays a key role in developing television and interactive projects that tell unique stories that entertain and engage audiences across all platforms, including marblemedia’s This is Daniel Cook and This is Emily Yeung series. Current marble initiatives include The Adrenaline Project and Taste Buds; upcoming projects include the animated comedy The Dating Guy, now in production with Teletoon for debut in 2009.

Mario Strikers Charged is a hall of fame sequel to the high-energy soccer game Super Mario Strikers, for the Nintendo Wii. With this game, Next Level brings Mario Strikers, and its publisher Nintendo, into the online arena, allowing players to compete online via the Wi-Fi Connection.

Homeless Nation is an online forum where Canada’s homeless community share their stories – through blogs and audio visual content – as an on-going dialogue for social awareness and positive change. The project, executive produced by Daniel Cross, was co-produced by National Film Board of Canada.

In addition to FanTrust clients cited for their outstanding contributions to digital media, six awards went to Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund related ventures and individuals.

OddJobJack.com, which won for Excellence in Cross Platform, allows viewers to experience first-hand the on-the-job misadventures of the perpetually unemployed Jack Ryder, a 25-year old Sociology grad, through the sites casual games and contests.

Excellence in News/ Information winner Diamond Road Online brings the technologies of collaborative filtering, tagging and personal recommendations – techniques behind popular sites like Flickr and Amazon.com – into the world of documentary storytelling.

Designer of the Year was awarded to Daniel Riley of Life Capture Interactive; the company was recently received Bell Fund support to develop CBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? website.

Sheridan Scott, instrumental in founding the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, received Special Recognition for her long-standing commitment to Canada’s new media industry.

Producer Mark Bishop and marblemedia most recently received funding for TheAdrenalineProject.com, where users play and compete in a tournament style game online with Boomer, the over-the-top cheerleader and drill sergeant who serves as a guide and mentor throughout.

“The Bell Fund continues to play a major part in cultivating digital media leaders and innovation, positioning Canada at the global center of excellence in this industry,” said Catherine, who has also served on the Bell Fund Board for close to a decade.

###