Call for entries for ‘ultimate' media workshop

5th March 2015

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

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.

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

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.

Mentors confirmed as taking part in The Pixel Lab 2015

Lance Weiler is a storyteller, entrepreneur and thought leader. An alumni of the Sundance Screenwriting Lab, he is recognised as a pioneer because of the way he mixes storytelling and technology. WIRED magazine named him "one of 25 people helping to re-invent entertainment and change the face of Hollywood." BUSINESSWEEK named Lance “One of the 18 Who Changed Hollywood."

Lance sits on a World Economic Forum steering committee for the future of content creation, is part of a think tank on the future of film at NYU and teaches at Columbia University on the art, craft and business of storytelling in the 21st Century. He is the founder of the WorkBook Project, an open creative network for storytellers, and the co-founder of DIY DAYS, a roving conference for those who create. Lance also worked on Transmedia projects for feature films Avatar, Tron 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean

Loc Dao is the Co-Founder (with Rob McLaughlin) of the groundbreaking NFB Digital and CBC Radio 3 studios and their industry shifting bodies of work. His work: Seven Digital Deadly Sins, The Last Hunt, Bear 71 and Welcome to Pinepoint has been credited with inventing the new form of storytelling - the interactive documentary. Loc has received over 60 awards most notably Digital Producer of the Year, nine Webby Awards, two New York Festivals Grand Prizes, three Online Journalism Awards, a Prix Italia, the FWA Site of the Year 2012 and a Cannes Cyber Lion.

Adam Sigel is a writer and producer living in Los Angeles working across multiple entertainment platforms including film, television, video games and web/mobile media. Adam has completed work on a new adventure fantasy film The Lost Gate for Pure Grass Films, USA, and has recently signed a book deal with the UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton to write a novel based on his screenplay.

He has previously worked on web media/video games for Disney Online creating extensions of existing franchises across multiple platforms for children aged 6-14. He served as a writing consultant and story editor for Steven Spielberg on his video game project for Electronic Arts and was a writer and producer of the award-winning web/mobile interactive series Afterworld for Electric Farm Entertainment, distributed by Sony International TV.