29/11/2011

The 2011 edition of the Script&Pitch programme of the TorinoFilmLab - whose Meeting Event took place on November 27-28 at the 29th Torino Film Festival - has been enriched with numerous innovative contributions.

This year, the section of the Turin workshop that brings together 16 projects in the very first stage of development in search of sponsors, made use of a collaboration with a new concept: the Audience Designer. In practice, this is someone who devises multimedia strategies aimed at involving viewers and inviting them into a film's universe. "The audience no longer wants to just watch a film," explains British Audience Designer Adipat Virdi "but wants to be involved in it. The Audience Design market is an emerging one in Europe, while in Hollywood it has become common practice. But things are slowly changing here too".

At yesterday's presentation of the Script&Pitch projects, there was no lack of concrete examples. Each project was complemented with a possible cross-media strategy, made-to-measure by one of the four Audience Designers attending the TFL. One begins with the film's main message, then identify the potential target and consider the various ways of communicating that idea to allow the audience to interact. If the theme is search for the self, a smartphone application will be created with which a self-portrait may be drawn; if the question is about love, a page will be set up on Facebook to enable everyone to provide their view; if the main character of the story is a musician from the 1930s, a radio programme will be invented to broadcast music from that era.

A trans-medial approach, meanwhile, was discussed with regards to another initiative included in this year's Script&Pitch programme: the Writer's Room, a workshop directed by screenwriter Gino Ventriglia (photo) together with the American author and producer Adam Sigel, aimed at creating a work directly on several platforms. "These are new approaches born out of a necessity to build a bridge between the development and the distribution of a work," explains TFL Director Savina Neirotti. It is definitely a new way of thinking for the film industry: devising experiences through a story and being able to enjoy them outside the cinema.

(Translated from Italian)