In Development

It’s been a lot of fun over the last few days to immerse myself in the creative cauldron that is the Manitoba media creation community. (sounds nice and warm, doesn’t it?)

Last Thursday, New Media Manitoba (with partners the Graphic Designers of Canada, the International Game Developer’s Association, On Screen Manitoba, and Flash in the Peg) hosted an IMAX screening of terrific profiles of a handful of its very talented members. It was awesome as always to discover what people are up to (such as creating apps and games and interactive brand sites and colouring comics and…). Talking with people afterwards, it was clear the profiles were just the tip of the iceberg. (perhaps a more apt Winnipeg metaphor, non?) Congratulations to Blink Works who put the video together.

That video should make Destination Winnipeg very happy. It was fantastic to hear so many people echoing my own feelings that Winnipeg is actually a great place to live and create, with the low cost of living providing the opportunity to take risks and have the time and energy to focus on personal projects.

Friday morning I met up with a gaggle of graphic designers for Winnipeg’s first LikeMind meet-up, spearheaded by GDC Manitoba. The organizers assured me they want to see folks out from all disciplines, so I will help spread the word when the next one is scheduled.

Friday night, the Winnipeg Film Group screened the results of the 90 Second Quickie. The range of themes, formats and styles was impressive, as was the ability to tell an entertaining story in 90 seconds. (Yes commercial-makers, I know, you do it all the time in a third as many seconds…). Outstanding work! And then we ate, drank and were merry at the holiday party.

Yesterday was the Annual General Meeting of On Screen Manitoba. It’s been a hard year in the industry here, as it has been across North America. But seeing the list of projects that have been completed this year (including of course Black Field!), it’s clear that we will definitely keep going. And to do that, I agree with OSM that we need to make more Manitoba-based productions and we need to partner from our friends at NMM and other interactive digitial media creators.

As On Screen Manitoba begins putting more resources into helping its members think about and collaborate on projects for smaller screens (yay, new apps and guidelines are up for Access to Markets and Professional Development!), hopefully the wall between the communities will begin to crumble. We’ll need to respect each others’ strengths and specialties and unique talents. We certainly can’t assume our skill sets will automatically be transferable, but I hope that both communities can be open to people from other disciplines exploring our traditional realm of influence and output, and help each other figure out how we can learn from each other, help each other and collaborate together. I can’t wait for these conversations and resulting collaborations to pick up speed in the coming months and years.

On a similar note, I’ve just taken a role at the Manitoba Writers’ Guild, to get the word out about Guild services and events, as well as member publications and readings. On my not-so-secret agenda will be helping to cross-pollinate writers, screenwriters and writer/directors. Again, let’s tear down any walls that may have been created!

And of course we have the amazing Manitoba music scene to draw on!

So how do we learn more about each other’s work?

• Throughout the year, NMM features the work of members and offers training. Get on their mailing list to hear about upcoming events.
• The Film Group has frequent member screenings at Cinematheque, and offers workshops throughout the year. The e-news posts calls for submission and assistance.
• Video Pool also screens member work and offers classes in video and sound production.
• I’ll be tweet-casting upcoming readings by local writers, and posting a calendar on the Guild website (will post link when it’s up)
• Game On Manitoba has links to and news about the amazingly cool people and projects that are rocking the province
• Listen to MMR to soak in some of the fab local talent
• Come out to LikeMind and other networking events – and initiate new ones!
• Friend each other on Facebook and Twitter, so we hear what everyone’s up to
• Check listings at places like Wpg2Nite and try out events you might not usually go to (and let them know when you’ve got something going on!)

Any other suggestions? Any concerns about the merging of the screens?