How SR Media Helped CreativeFuture Showcase the Value of Storytelling SR Media provided writing, marketing, strategy, onsite and social media support to promote CreativeFuture at Tribeca Film Festival.

DATELINE: New York, NY

It takes a community of engaged professionals, a powerful call to action and a global forum like the Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) to change entertainment systems.

Executives from CreativeFuture, a support network for content creators and entertainment professionals, make powerful use of the global media presence at the 14th TFF to present a series of public presentations featuring some of CreativeFuture’s most accomplished members.

My contributions, including writing, strategy and onsite support, help CreativeFuture ignite TFF attendees around the essential themes that storytellers have high value and it’s important to protect their precious work against online piracy.

One CreativeFuture panel, Nobody Has a Job Until You Type ‘The End; focuses on protecting the value of entertainment writers in the digital era of content sharing, free websites and open-source software. Other talks, Dollar$ for Doc$: Balancing Passion and Impact with a Sustainable Career and Storytelling in the Digital Economy, look at emerging digital platforms for original, non-fiction projects. The final presentation, A Discussion on the Challenges and Opportunities Facing Indie Film Producers, captures the core mission driving CreativeFuture Executive Director Ruth Vitale and her coast-to-coast staff. Their matter-of-fact goal is eliminating content piracy on a global scale. It would be the ultimate victory for entertainment content creators no matter their medium or professional background.

After leading specialty film companies for years, Vitale continues to source her valued relationships with artists and entertainment professionals to identify and solve the financial challenges facing storytellers.

Joining us on this project are writer/producer James V. Hart (Epic, Crossbones, Hook, Contact, August Rush, Bram Stoker’s Dracula), producer and CEO, Killer Films, Christine Vachon (Still Alice, Boys Don’t Cry); Susan Margolin, President Docurama/Cinedigm; author Robert Levine (Free Ride), producer and StarstreamMedia CEO Kim Leadford (Lee Daniel’s The Butler), J. Todd Harris, Producer and CEO of Branded Pictures Entertainment and documentary directors Cynthia Wade (The Gnomist, Shelter Dogs, Mondays at Racine) and Pamela Yates (Granito: How Nail a Dictator and When the Mountains Tremble) as well as Bloomberg Associates (BA) Principal Katherine Oliver. Together, these entertainment thought leaders help Vitale ignite crowds at Spring Studios, TFF’s Lower Manhattan hub.

More importantly, the CreativeFuture community of industry veterans inspire and inform the many emerging filmmakers and writers in attendance about specific issues from copyright protection under changing European Union trade pacts to new funding models available to documentary filmmakers.

Basically, when you’re fighting to protect the value of storytellers, you’re also helping these emerging artists attain sustainable and successful careers.

“You have to be entrepreneurial,” Harris tells the rapt crowd. “You can’t just be filmmakers.”

The shared advice including Levine’s analysis of crowdfunding and its challenges lead to Oliver wrapping the afternoon panels with an inspiring call to action.

“Invest your time in CreativeFuture,” Oliver shouts out to the TFF crowd. “Do your part. Change consumer behavior. Spread the word that creatives have value.”

That Call to Action comes to life three days after the panels when I assist Brett Williams, Director, Creative Community and Youth Outreach at CreativeFuture, in presenting the Student Visionary Award and a $5,000 cash prize to director Ninja Thyberg of Sweden, for her short film Catwalk, about a young girl dealing with peer pressure from fashion-obsessed classmates.

“I’ll definitely remember this along with my first Tribeca screening,” Thyberg tells us backstage at the awards ceremony. “It’s an exciting and challenging time to make films. Film is changing. Media is changing. Yesterday, I tried virtual reality for the first time and I felt like I experienced the future. But I’m committed to the story and best way to tell stories and get its message out to audiences.”

Thankfully, she has Vitale and CreativeFuture in her corner.

CreativeFuture at the Tribeca Film Festival

 

April 2015

 

SR Media provided writing, marketing, strategy, onsite and social media support to promote the CreativeFuture Tea Talks and Awards Presentation at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. My collaboration helped amplify CreativeFuture’s good work as a thought leader for addressing content piracy.