FSLC Converges with StoryCode and Kill Screen for STORY HACK: BETA Today

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will collaborate with StoryCode and Kill Screen Magazine as it steps up its transmedia/immersive media programming and becomes a key participant in the ongoing discussion on how the evolution of technology has changed the way we convey and consume narrative.

This new initiative will include curating and hosting regular events in the Film Society’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and developing new collaborations with other organizations in the Immersive Media space with an intent to create a forum for filmmakers and storytellers who are engaging their audiences in whole new ways – through social media, mobile platforms, and digital technologies.

Building on the success of the transmedia forums held at last year’s New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s (FSLC) Convergence will mark an even greater commitment by the organization to this growing community. It further signals the Film Society’s dedication in fostering a critical dialogue that engages new forms of storytelling, including transmedia, gaming, immersive media, and other emerging fields.

Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Executive Director Rose Kuo said, “We want to offer New York’s transmedia community a place for intelligent and informed discussion of this innovative and evolving art form.”

“Coupled with the development of these new initiatives is a commitment to share this content and engage a wider audience beyond the Film Society of Lincoln Center” explained FSLC’S Director of Digital Strategy Eugene Hernandez. He added, “Convergence will not simply offer special events, but is dedicated to providing access of these programs to the widest possible audience through live streaming and creating an online archive of all past event coverage," he said, noting that the Film Society has streamed and recorded each transmedia presentation made in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Amphitheater to date. This content will be available at FilmLinc.com.

Today, April 28th, Film Society and StoryCode will also host the first story hackathon, Story Hack: Beta. A 24 hour event, Story Hack challenges participants drawn from across a multitude of artistic backgrounds to design a cohesive narrative spanning 3 or more technological platforms and execute a single story. Theme and tools will be announced prior to the event. Those interested in more information about Story Hack: Beta can do so at hack.storycode.org.

In addition to Story Hack, Convergence will host several events each month including Story Forum which will present case studies and panels related to transmedia and immersive entertainment; Story Code Immersions, hands-on sessions that bring technologists and filmmakers together to experiment with new ways to tell stories, both of these produced in partnership with the StoryCode. Presenters at recent Story Forums range from organizations like the National Parks Project, theater producers Fifth Wall, journalist and author Frank Rose, to transmedia storytellers Jim Babb and Lance Wieler. In the coming months the program will welcome PunchDrunk, the creators of Manhattan’s immersive theater sensation “Sleep No More,” and genre bending transmedia project GUIDESTONES.

StoryCode is a nonprofit organization whose principal activity has been organizing New York based transmedia producers and hosting monthly gatherings throughout Manhattan. The 700 person group is comprised of filmmakers, technologists, game designers, and advertisers of all experience levels drawn together by a passion for immersive storytelling.

Kill Screen is a videogame arts and culture company dedicated to bringing culture to games and games to culture. In addition to partnering with Pitchfork and programming the ground-breaking Arcade at the Museum of Modern Art, the company features writing from journalists who have worked for Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, GQ, and the Daily Show.

The monthly programs will be rounded out by the Kill Screen Dialogues, an interview style evening featuring game creators in conversation with the editors of Kill Screen magazine, accompanied by game play-throughs and special guests.

The upcoming schedule of FSLC Convergence events can be found on the Film Society’s website filmlinc.com and includes:

Tuesday April 24, 2012
StoryForum: Jay Bennett of Smoke Bomb

Saturday April 28-29, 2012
Story Hack Beta – Cross Platform Storytelling competition

Tuesday May 8, 2012
Story Code Immersion: A Creators Guide to Process – the various steps in creating software and working with developers

Tuesday May 15, 2012
Kill Screen Dialogues: Navid Khonsari, former director of production for Rockstar Games, on the 10th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Tuesday May 22, 2012
StoryForum: Guidestones with Jay Ferguson and PunchDrunk/SLEEP NO MORE producer Pete Higgin

Tuesday June 5, 2012
Story Code Immersion: Transmedia Entrepreneurship with Lina Srivastava

Tuesday June 12, 2012
Kill Screen Dialogues: Kellee Santiago, former president of thatgamecompany, on Flower and Journey

Tuesday June 19, 2012
StoryForum: Colloquy with Lisa Rutherford

Under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, and Richard Peña, Program Director, the Film Society of Lincoln Center offers the best in international, classic and cutting-edge independent cinema. The Film Society presents two film festivals that attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, currently planning its 50th edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award—now named “The Chaplin Award”—to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. The Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational programs and specialty film releases at its Walter Reade Theater and the new state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stella Artois, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow #filmlinc on Twitter.