The Independent Filmmaker Project’s (IFP) Screen Forward Labs will support innovative content creators with $10,000 worth of services and support over the course of the next year. Under the leadership of Amy Dotson, Head of Programming, and Holly Kang, IFP Screen Forward Labs Producer, the Labs will provide participants with the knowledge, resources and mentor support necessary for developing strong pitches, securing financing, creating marketing strategies and finding unique avenues for the distribution of their work. Individualized attention for each project will also be paid to building sustainable audiences, as well as long-term strategy for their ongoing careers.
“We are excited to introduce the first IFP Lab for web based creative content. The landscape for storytelling is expanding exponentially as new distribution platforms evolve and as technology advances, providing more opportunities for content creators, artists and filmmakers to showcase and hone their craft,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in New York Media Center. “We hope to meet this demand and nurture the creative community in this rapidly changing industry.”
Nancy Andrews, left, with Strange Eyes leading actress Michole Briana White.
About IFP Screen Forward Labs
The Lab is open to innovative media creators with story-driven, serialized projects created on all platforms and formats including web series, VR, or app based work (Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, etc.). All projects must have at minimum representative sample visual content (a completed episode, demo, excerpt) already in place, and cannot have already launched their project publicly.
As part of IFP’s ongoing commitment to diversity, the Screen Forward Labs also seek to ensure that at least 50% of the participating project teams have an inclusive range of races, genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities and physical abilities in key creative positions. This year, 60% of the directors are women, and 40% of the projects were developed outside of the traditional media hubs of New York and Los Angeles.
The Screen Forward Lab week will culminate with all projects presenting and pitching to investors, online distributors, network executives and tech companies.
Post-Labs, all content creator teams will receive a free, six-month residency at the Made in NY Media Center as well as ongoing individualized access to classes, workshops and support from industry and creative mentors.
Film professor Nancy AndrewsThis inaugural year of the Screen Forward Labs is made possible by a generous grant from the Time Warner Foundation.
About IFP Screen Forward Mentors
The Labs provide multiple levels of mentorship throughout the process, to be overseen by 2015 Lab leaders Michael Gottwald, producer (High Maintenance), Ingrid Jungermann, writer/director (The Slope; F to 7th), Saschka Unseld, Animation Director & Creative Director, Oculus Story Studio, and Jennifer MacArthur, Borderline Media. Additional mentors and workshops consist of leaders from major digital industries and strategists including: Above Average, Conde Nast Entertainment, Google Creative Lab, IndieGogo, Vimeo, Vox Media, You Tube, etc.
Among the selected:
The Strange Eyes of Dr. Myes (Experimental) Brain scientist, Dr. Sheri Myes, survives a bombing, but is forever changed. Isolated by her obsessions and blind to the love, hate and self-interest that surrounds her, she endures various obstacles in her quest to raise the level of human consciousness.
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