Screenwriting Program Embraces New Media

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My writing partner and I gave a talk at American Film Institute (AFI) Digi Fest 2009 last month about new media and new forms of storytelling in portable spaces like iPhones and touchscreen TV Sets.

The talk that I gave there was drawn from a lecture that I give in the final week of my Adaptation Lecture in the 1-Year Screenwriting Program at the New York Film Academy in New York City and is available on YouTube now (my portion of the talk starts in minute 10:00).

Using the iPhone to View Films & Read Books

For most of the last century audio/visual storytelling has existed in the form of feature films and episodic television shows – platforms that are stable, predictable and familiar. However, in the last five years the platform for mass media consumption has changed from theater multiplexes and living room television sets, programmed from the top down, to computer screens, cell phones and mp3 players with content provided twenty four hours a day by individual users as much or more than corporate media conglomerates. This shift in production and distribution has had an immediate effect on commerce, but is still being sorted out on the creative level of storytelling. The Screenwriting Program at New York Film Academy trains young writers to work in traditional forms, but also to think outside of the constraints of traditional forms and embrace the possibilities these new platforms provide, whether it is the massive and all encompassing cinematic experience of “Avatar”, serialized homemade videos on YouTube, or new applications for the portable devices that have changed the way the world communicates and experiences media.

By Benjamin Maraniss, New York Film Academy Screenwriting Program Instructor in New York City