We hit the 2020 Cannes Film Festival Marché du Film Online!
Thanks to the New Zealand Film Commission we were able to attend the Cannes Film Festival Marché du Film Online - which is basically a huge film market for the screen industry, except it’s online so you don’t have to worry about flying anywhere and the only jetlag you get is trying to adapt to the timezones in which events at the film market are being held.
We were able to check out online screenings of films, presentations, and promos. As well as attend talks aimed at educating and sharing knowledge within screen/interactive industry, and network with a bunch of awesome international creatives across a wide variety of disciplines (using a weird app that makes it feel like online dating.)
PANEL HIGHLIGHTS:
(See Above): one of the most exciting panels we were able to attend was luckily reuploaded to Youtube. The subject of the talk was Intersectionality within the Screen Industry, and is absolutely a must-watch for creatives at all levels.
Moderated by Kaleem Aftab and featuring Anna Serner, Emilia Roig and Franklin Leonard, this talk covers a lot of subjects we are particularly interested in such as lgbtqia+ representation, ethnic and racial diversity within storytelling, the road towards reaching 50/50 gender parity within the film industry, and the viability and necessity of this kind of shift in perspective with regards to this industry moving forward.
SOME COOL CREATIVES WE MET:
BURGEON & FLOURISH
We were super excited to be in touch with creative team Burgeon & Flourish at the Cannes Online film market. Burgeon and Flourish create films, series, sculptures, operas, and artworks, and are currently working on a project in the field of interactive media. We were able to set up a zoom meeting with their team members Lucas Syed, Kate Herzlin and Michael Bergmann to discuss aspects of development, project management, the realities of working within a small team, and the creative process. We definitely can’t wait to see more of their developing interactive slate!
Check out some trailers from the Burgeon and Flourish YouTube here.
JF MUSIC | JOSEPH METCALFE
On the audio spectrum, we were able to connect with composer and songwriter Joseph Metcalfe. Joseph (or Joe) is a composer with a background in orchestral and synth music for film / TV scoring, video games, commercials, themes songs, classical crossover and music that stirs the imagination. He also hosts Composer’s Breakfasts on Zoom with other titans of the audio discipline. He offered to put a few of our questions through to his buddy British video game composer Grant Kirkhope (best known for Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64 and GoldenEye 007) during one of these talks, which was such a magnificent honour - and a very informative listen.
You can check out Joe’s impressive website right here.
ALEXA, CALL MOM! | CHAR SIMPSON
Were also lucky enough to get talking with the talented Char Simpson, a non-binary artist with a broad variety of skills inclusing writing, producing, collage and narrative crafting across a wide variety of mediums including digital storytelling, VR, Horror, Education, Healthcare and choose-your-own-adventure books. Char is the co-creator and writer of the interactive horror installation ‘Alexa, Call Mom!’ a project virtually teased in the Tribeca wing of the Museum of Other Realities.
You can check out more of their work at charsimp.com!