Category Archives: Public Media

ITVS Prepares for Beta Tests of Enhanced OVEE

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By Dru Sefton
Originally published on Current.org 

Web engagement tool provides platform for virtual dialogue

An infusion of CPB funding is allowing the Independent Television Service to add more features to OVEE, the online engagement tool that ITVS calls “the world’s first fully functional social screening platform.”

The latest version of OVEE features a customizable strip with a “Donate” button for stations. “Imagine a Downton Abbey screening with [creator] Julian Fellowes online,” said Dennis Palmieri of ITVS. “OVEE can do that.”

“No other media outlet has this,” said Dennis Palmieri, director of innovation and media strategy for San Francisco–based ITVS. The Online Video Engagement Experience platform, a freestanding web application that synchs up multiple streams on the PBS COVE website, allows online viewers to interact in real time around content by signing on through the platform or via Facebook.

Pilot tests of OVEE by five pubTV stations and producers at Frontline and PBS NewsHour received positive responses. For the next pilot round, five pubradio stations will be among the beta group of 25 test sites.

“There’s an enormous amount of interest” from the radio side, Palmieri said. In markets with separate PBS and NPR member stations, “OVEE offers real opportunities for joint engagement.”

ITVS is considering both pubTV and radio stations as well as groups such as the National Federation of Community Broadcasters for the beta tests, Palmieri said. Each participant will receive grants of $5,000, and testing will commence in January 2013. OVEE’s official release is set for next spring.

A $575,000 grant approved in June boosted CPB’s aid to a total of $1.5 million. The latest grant backs more work by OVEE’s developer to fix bugs in the system and install snazzy new features. Continue reading →

American Film Showcase Heads to Monterrey, Mexico

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By Claire Aguilar
Vice President of Programming, ITVS

ITVS’s Claire Aguilar participated as a film expert at the American Film Showcase in Monterrey, Mexico in August and conducted a two-day workshop at the Escuela Adolfo Prieto. 

The American Film Showcase is an international cultural diplomacy initiative, a partnership between the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts (SCA).  The purpose of the Showcase is to bring people together worldwide through film, showcasing award-winning American films to international audiences through events worldwide.  Filmmakers and film experts discuss the films and conduct workshops to international audiences of festival participants, students, and the local communities.

Filmmaker Steve James during his workshop.

I had the pleasure of participating in the showcase as an expert and conducted two workshops for filmmakers and film students in Monterrey, Mexico, with an invitation from the US Consulate in Monterrey.  I was accompanied by filmmaker Steve James, who screened his latest film The Interrupters – about a group of “violence interrupters” in Chicago who try to protect their community from the violence they once employed.  Steve screened The Interrupters as part of the Monterrey International Film Festival, and to various community groups, including at-risk youth, violence “interrupters” in Mexico, and social aid workers.

Monterrey is Mexico’s third largest city, located in the Northeast foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range.  It is a large and sprawling city that is Mexico’s 2nd richest, a commercial center filled with many multi-national corporations and is also rich in history and culture.  It also is the locus of many ongoing drug cartel battles – the Mexican drug war has touched many places in Mexico but has particularly affected Monterrey.  It was interesting to see The Interrupters - an American film about violence, drugs, and economic struggles – with many parallels to the violence around gangs and drugs in Mexico.  But it was also interesting to see how audiences in Mexico saw the similarities of universal conflict in the world and were fascinated in how these conflicts could be resolved at home. Continue reading →

KLRU and Women and Girls Lead Shine A Spotlight on Austin Leaders

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Public television partner KLRU announces women to be featured in new shorts inspired by Women and Girls Lead: Austin.

Women and Girls Lead Shorts profile American women from all walks of life who inspire with stories of resilience, hope, and empowerment. This series, created for the web and TV, is a collaboration between husband-and-wife filmmakers Carl and Betsy Crum, the Independent Television Service (ITVS), and several local public television stations in the United States

On August 23rd,  KLRU together with ITVS announced the next group of women and girls to be profiled for Women and Girls Lead: Austin.

Learn more about the eight women and girls who will be featured in the 2012-2013 shorts project (after the jump). Continue reading →

Five Insights on Hacking Films from the Software Developers Who’ve Done It

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by Adnaan Wasey
Originally published on the POV Blog

Somewhat fresh off their own Hackathon, POV’s Adnaan Wasey offers filmmakers, developers, and designers some of the advice POV was given for reinventing the documentary for web.

Before the POV Hackathon got underway, mentors and veteran engineers shared with the teams some advice born of experience. Here’s what they were told…

Understand why there are barriers to communication between filmmakers and developers. Each group’s ambitions inherently put them at odds. While filmmakers and creators are thinking about how they can bring novelty and uniqueness to their content, developers are thinking about rule sets and doing all they can to limit exceptions. Each group must understand that these contrasting philosophies could be at the root of a conflict.

Aim for a “minimum viable product.”Teams should set goals around the absolute minimum set of features that serves to show off their intents. The goals must be achievable in a short time frame because without a working prototype it will be difficult to learn how the product will actually be used.

Never forget your audience. How will users discover the product you are making? As one mentor noted, “Serendipity is not a use case,” meaning users need to be able to intuit how to interact with the product (once they’ve found it). Continue reading →

Independent Lens Takes Center Stage at TCA Press Tour

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The weekly series held two high profile events at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Los Angeles, featuring Byron Hurt’s new film Soul Food Junkies and the landmark, two-part series Half the Sky.

PBS held court for two days at the Beverly Hilton, as they unveiled Public Television’s upcoming fall lineup for the critics.

On Saturday, critics previewed Soul Food Junkies, a new film by Independent Lens alum Byron Hurt (Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes).
Continue reading →

POV Films Earn a Record 16 Emmy Nominations

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This past week, POV received a record 16 nominations for the 33rd Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, including four of the five nominations in the Best Documentary category.

Four films garnered nominations in multiple categories and, in total, PBS programs earned 37 nominations — with ITVS collecting nearly a dozen, along with a Primetime nomination for an Independent Lens program.

“The films that the News & Documentary Emmys honor today with nominations represent some of the most creative voices in nonfiction film,” said Simon Kilmurry, Executive Producer of POV. “For POV programs to receive 16 nominations during our 25th anniversary season highlights why documentaries have become such an important part of our culture.”
Continue reading →

PBS Explores Immigration in Homeland

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Homeland: Immigration in America reveals the complexity of the election-year issue. The three-part series premieres nationally on PBS on Friday, July 20 and 27 at 10pm ET.

While immigration is a national issue this election year, it plays out daily in the lives of people in communities across the country. Homeland: Immigration in America explores the contemporary story of immigration in America. Narrated by Ray Suarez, senior correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, and produced by the Nine Network of Public Media in St. Louis, the series presents contemporary stories of immigrants—legal and illegal—and those who confront them, help them, employ them, and craft legislation that affects them. Continue reading →

The Interrupters: One Year of Impact

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Steve James’s acclaimed documentary The Interrupters — about the Chicago-based anti-violence group CeaseFire — continues to leave its mark on policymakers and community members.

Earlier this year, a screening of the film before Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, may have helped inspire the city to offer an unprecedented $1 million grant toward CeaseFire to hire 40 interrupters to mediate conflicts in local districts.

“The visibility of the work of Ceasefire’s Interrupters program has helped to change the dialogue about violence in Chicago from sound bites on the news to deeper issues affecting families and communities,” said Gordon Quinn, co-founder of Kartemquin Films, in an email to BTB.

Kartemquin is the Chicago-based, non-profit that produced the documentary and has been a longtime champion of independent films and producers.
Continue reading →

A Hackathon Begins at Silverdocs

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The “Silverhacks” panel examines an open source community that unites documentary storytellers and technologists for two days to introduce an original web documentary. ITVS’s Jonathan Archer will participate in the event on Thursday, June 21 at 3p ET.

Hackathons offer documentarians the  chance to collaborate with creative technologists to create a functioning prototype which they can continue to iterate.

“Silverhacks”, a collaboration between SilverDocs and the Living Docs project (Mozilla, ITVS, Tribeca Film Institute, BAVC and the Center for Social Media) added a new dimension — public data.
Continue reading →

Crowdfunding: What to Keep in Mind When Considering Broadcast on Public Television

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By Ines Hofmann Kanna
Production Manager, ITVS

An ITVS Production Manager offers insight on crowdfunding for potential public television broadcasts.

 ”I worried about asking friends and family for donations,” says Alicia Dwyer, director of the ITVS-funded documentary Xmas Without China. “But I came to feel most excited about our crowdfunding as I realized that we do have a base of supporters who want to connect with our creative process, and many folks seemed to enjoy being a part of supporting us during production, however small [...] their contribution.”

Many filmmakers have done as Alicia has. They have turned to the not-so-new-anymore phenomenon of finding funds in a large crowd of people — smaller amounts of money rather than large checks from just a few sponsors.  Alicia’s team successfully raised over $15,000 in the allotted time frame and used it to keep their production going.  As grant money and (corporate) sponsorships are harder to secure, this grassroots-level approach has helped many other producers get started, keep afloat, or even finish their films.  ITVS appreciates this resourcefulness of independent filmmakers working today. Continue reading →