Because of this observation and the need for radical reform of production, we have developed a new, customised tool: "SUNNY LAB". The Resource, Research and Training Centre will open in April on new premises in La Rochelle, France. First and foremost, at Sunny Lab, we will be providing a better grasp of 3D-relief and Transmedia, with basic and advanced training courses, and assisting with the development of projects that explore these new byways, which are not as yet clearly signposted.
As always, we compare and swap experiences and achievements from the four corners of the globe. So far, no-one has acquired an established "business model" - and so much the better! Imagination, creativity and innovation can operate more freely than in standardised television production. We only need to understand that our content and skills are needed to supply distribution networks with intelligent programming. For us, the aim is to learn how to develop projects that call on new, non-linear narrative approaches. This means putting together creative teams combining new skills (technology, graphics, etc.) with the talents of storytellers, investigators and scriptwriters, and also putting these projects into production and making sure they are distributed by operators who are no longer necessarily television channels.
The examples presented here are from the second generation of Transmedia projects, following "Gaza/Sderot" and "Voyage au bout du charbon" (Journey to the End of Coal), which we welcomed last year. From the 22nd to the 25th June 2010, at the 21st SUNNY SIDE, we will be able to compare them with other projects from America, Asia and different European countries.
A new BIPS - Best International Projects Showcase - will be devoted to these projects and the best 5 will be pitched. The winner will be awarded €2,000 in development aid.
Producers and distributors of intelligent content of every possible nature - documentaries, serious games, etc. - will be asked to present their work in the Innovations area and the "Sunny Lab" Agora. There, they will have a chance to meet financial backers and distributors for these new media. This decompartmentalisation has become crucial: we have to engage in dialogue with those who are addressing the same problems in adapting to a changing fiction and animation environment. We must listen to those people who are developing ARGs and ERGs, and inventing applications. They will help us break with habit and enable innovative concepts. This raises a number of new issues for writers and directors, and distributors too. Our work is changing, like the missions of public-service and private broadcasting, and this will affect the nature of the sector's economy in the short term. Willingly or not, we will have to adapt to this development.
In this Newsletter, we stress the work of certain broadcasters and webcasters - ARTE, France5, Canal+, VODEO, etc. - who have audaciously partnered these new documentary forms, and the incentive role of the CNC. Other systems of assistance (particularly MEDIA) are now accessible and calls for projects are competing in the wake of the "Appel d'Air" launched this summer by the Orange Vallée Transmedia Lab.
It is up to us to seize these opportunities by changing our (sometimes bad) habits.
We have the responsibility of devising the new diagonals of the doc.
Yves Jeanneau
