NCIndieSeen

This free series open to the public was a sophisticated lecture on how to use social media to further a social cause.  New terms are being brought into society like "transmedia" which is the creation of content around an issue or change in culture.

The discussion featured Marc Schiller --who is the founder and CEO of Electric Artists, Lina Srivastava-- the current strategist for Three Gnerations and VODO, Howard Tullman--president and CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy, and Rider Strong--filmmaker, writer, and actor who produced the award-winning short film Irish Twins that premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Rider Strong talks about being "branded" as the childhood actor from Boy Meets World and how Twitter has generated a large following for him due to a Twitter trend of the former 90s sitcom.  However, Rider does not detach himself from that role.  He can now use Twitter trends to discuss his new projects, including a new short film.  Strong claims he jumped from 4,000 followers to 10,000 followers within a matter of days due to trending.  This is his concept of branding through social media.

"Social media is now integrating into film festivals and film production projects.  Emerging markets are now creating films online in places like Africa and India" -Lina Srivastrava

"Tribeca's closing night film Newlyweds starring Edward Burns, was crowdsourced, meaning the fans of the film helped create the movie poster." -Marc Schiller

It's inevitable that film industry must adjust with the shift of social media and networking and the marketers are now the Twitter trends and Facebook fan pages.

"As the world of Wikipedia thrives, a company with only 15 employees over 400,000 editors create its content."  -Howard Tullman

Social media is the new marketing tool in mainstream and independent film.

The Tribeca Film Festival continues all throughout this week until May 1st 2011.