On all sides, once-familiar media landscapes are warping and expanding at a breakneck pace. The constant proliferation of platforms, screens and distribution avenues promises both opportunity and disruption for media creators of all kinds. Savvy professionals and consumers alike are looking for signposts that will help them navigate these emerging territories with grace, surety and at least some promise of revenues.

AFI DigiFest offers attendees a window onto the most compelling examples of new media storytelling and associated cross-platform engagement opportunities. The audience will be made up of the finest minds in our industry. Please join us for one or both days.

DAY ONE November 4
DAY ONE of AFI DigiFest showcases cutting-edge digital media prototypes incubated in the AFI Digital Content Lab during the previous year. For 11 years, the Lab has convened teams of experts who brainstorm solutions to cross-platform challenges. This year’s projects illustrate the ever-widening spectrum of development and distribution options open to today’s creators, responding to consumers’ eagerness to view and interact with content across a variety of screens.

This year, featured projects include:

* a social network and proposed marketing plan for INTERVIEW PROJECT PRESENTED BY DAVIDLYNCH.COM;
* a proposed online strategy for engaging youth in a series of relevant environmental action challenges for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation;
* a mobile application that provides an interactive past-to-future timeline for an innovative ITVS cross-platform microseries;
* an interactive mentoring environment for One Economy that encourages students from low-income families to learn more about science as a career;
* a MOBILE STORY MAKER session with longtime filmmaker L.M. Kit Carson, who shot the deeply moving microseries AFRICA DIARY using a Nokia mobile phone as camera. The series will soon air on the Sundance Channel.

Cocktail party and poolside screening of select short films at the historic Roosevelt Hotel to follow.

The AFI Digital Content Lab would like to thank this year’s contributing mentors:

Anna Marie Piersimoni, Austin Lynch, Avatar Labs, Bresee Community Center, Brian Gerber, Bryan Encina, David Gale, David Orr, EQAL, Eric La Brecque, Garnet Hertz, Huge Design, Invoke Interactive Agency, Irmelin DiCaprio, ITVS, Jason S., Josh Koppel, Jeff Hurlow, Jesse Alexander, John Gilles, Justin Winters, Katrina Fried, Kene G, Kenny Miller, Lena Tabori, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, L.M. Kit Carson, Lori Dicker, Maria Wich-Vila, Matt Wolf, Omnilogic Systems, One Economy Corporation, Philippe Cousteau, Planet Illogica, Pod Digital Design, Sprout, Thomas Rigler, Tonny Sorensen, Trela Media, TwinArt Design, and Veronica Kavass.

DAY TWO November 5
DAY TWO of AFI DigiFest offers a curated look at the most innovative digital media productions released during the past year. An eye-opening window onto the emerging digital media landscape, the productions highlighted during AFI DigiFest are consistently dynamic, aggressively cross-platform and always inventive. Previous presentations have included two Interactive Media Emmy winners, previews of intriguing broadband episodic series and previews of soon-to-be-released videogames and alternate reality game (ARG) environments.

Among the invited presenters this year are:

* DISTRICT 9, a behind-the-scenes look at games and an augmented reality application created by production house Trigger;
* LIVE MUSIC, a 3-D animation pieced together from contributions by thousands of animators from around the world, masterminded by Mass Animation’s Yair Landau, former vice-chair of Sony Pictures;
* URBAN WOLF, a surveillance camera-based microseries drama by Parisian director Laurent Touil-Tartour;
* MANOBI, an innovative mobile phone application that has helped raise the standard of living for Senegalese farmers and fishermen;
* FIRST THINGS LAST, a dynamic and visual storytelling application for the iPhone created by ScrollMotion;
* ESCAPE FROM CITY 17, a stunning meld of machinima and live action created by the multi-talented Purchase Brothers for less than $500;
* NAKED SKY ENTERTAINMENT, a surprising look at what our collective augmented reality may well look like a year from now.
* and more!

Cocktail party to follow in the historic Roosevelt Hotel Ballroom, home to the first Academy Awards. Join us as we celebrate the launch of the Planet Illogica creative platform (Lab participants 2008).