The Connecticut Film Festival, now in its fifth year of programming, will debut the first ever. Connecticut Interactive Festival & Conference, June 4-6 in Downtown Danbury as part of the 6 day and night film, music, interactive and screenwriting festival. The Interactive events will be hosted at the Danbury Arena and assorted nearby venues.
Titled, “Creating and Sharing”, this new educational component will focus on Web, Animation, Advocacy, Gaming and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in a non-consumerist mindset. It features an ambitious, 30 technical and general interest workshops for all skill levels, 8 panel discussions, an Juried Digital Arts & Animation Show, Independent Films, Performances, Free Gaming and an Exhibition Area. Presenters, panelists and exhibitors hail from Connecticut, California, Canada, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Virginia. The Keynote Address will be given Saturday evening by Eric Zimmerman, founder of Gamelab.
Two interactive nonprofit organizations of note will be presenting and exhibiting; Wilton, CT-based, Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) and the global nonprofit, San Francisco-based Global Audio Network Guild (GANG).
“There are only a handful of Interactive festivals in the United States, with most being held in California, Oregon and Texas,” said Dave Bonan, Director of Interactive Programming. “Our festival seeks to create a gathering place of the minds for the wealth of creative talent that exists in the Tri-State area, and especially the Northeast Corridor. We are honored that numerous participants have dumped previous obligations to attend our inaugural event. They’ve expressed that we are in touch and have a relevance in today’s business environment and the new paradigm shift in values and the way communications and commerce are conducted”
CT Interactive will also be promoting the State's Film Tax Credit; established by the State of CT in 2006, which reimburses 30 percent in expenses to any production company (movie, TV, film) spending more than $50,000 in-state. This includes all 3 CT video game companies who will be presenting and speaking; Sortasoft (Stamford), Left Brain Games (Torrington) and Venan Entertainment (Cromwell). All have recently taken advantage of the tax credit.
CT Interactive takes place from 11am-7:10pm on June 4 and 5 and 11am-7:45pm on June 6. Events will be at the Danbury Arena; 1 Independence Way and at Billy Baloney's and the Polish American Club at 6 and 8 Ives Street. Tickets are $7 for all events and can be purchased through the CTFF Box Office at 186 Main Street, The Danbury Arena or www.CTFilmFest.com.
We invite you to join us on our inaugural adventure in sight, sound, mind and body.
Regards
Dave Bonan
Director Of Interactive
Nobody hates a last minute schedule change more than me. But in the interest of public health and the welfare of all Interactive presenters, especially those from out of town, the presentations and panels scheduled today and Saturday for Billy Baloney's will now be in ROOM 203 of the Danbury Arena. It's a bit smaller, but it's the only room left at this point on short notice. The bonus is that we'll all be a little closer together!
Want to know the reason? Well, the old venue is a rock club, yet we thought it was cleaned once in a while. It needed a mopping, and we had to go in today and clean up all the beer bottles and the smoke is so bad, all the lysol in the world couldn't extinguish it. It's not fair to the presenters or to our paying customers. Their name comes off our banner. I'll leave it up to you to come up with a great fill-in.
Skip the lead-in of 90 seconds, it's a waste. http://tinyurl.com/kosy74
The tech reporter, Rick Hancock reported on the story and has been a geek since the early 80s. He was enjoyable to talk to because he knew all the events we were doing and spoke our language, which is rare (I'm a journalist). Turns out, two of our panel moderators; Profs Hanley and Gillespie of Quinnipiac University were his teachers and mentors.
Rick and his cameraman hung out for 45 minutes at Torrington-based, Left Brain Games' office and chatted with President Andrew Keplinger, one of our panelists. Then they came to interview me at the Danbury Arena in the post-industrialist raw space of what was to become this week.
The story started out with a preview before going to Left Brain and they focused on various aspects and angles of our webpage, zooming in and out and showcasing Eric Zimmerman and Burnkit 2600. They also focused on the other 2 CT video game companies, so while having Venan's webpage onscreen, they had in white block letters at the bottom, "Stamford-based Softasoft and Torrington's Left Brain Games." All in one. Then they zoomed into the latter two's webpages and looked at their games.
Unfortunately, there is no link on their webpage, which has too much on the site and takes forever to download the main page, no matter what type of computer you use.
We were also mentioned in the NY Times CT Section last week and the Fairfield County Weekly.
Our video game room will be open for biz on Thursday, June 4 at 11am and will close on Saturday evening at 6:30pm, as the Keynote, Eric Zimmerman will be at the Polish American Club across the street for a mere $10 at 6:45pm.
CTFF Interactive
List of Independent Games
Donated by:
Sortasoft
Josh DeBonis, President and Founder
89 Clovelly Drive Stamford, CT 06902
203.470.7264
Games:
Funky Farm 2: Farm Fresh
Retro Records
Donated by:
Left Brain Games
Andrew Keplinger, President
24 Church Street, 2nd floor, Torrington, CT 06790
860.921.5611
Donated Games:
Fastfood
Buzz Off
Holiday Grab Bag
Udder Nonsense
Splatris
Tricky Treats
They Coming to Get You!
Garden Defense
CT Student Video Games
Produced by High School Students in CT Career Choices Program
A project coordinated with the Center for 21st Century Skills / Education Connection
http://innovation.skills21.org
Center for 21st Century Skills
Litchfield Office:
P.O. Box 909
355 Goshen Road
Litchfield, CT 06759
860.567-0863
Danbury Office
345 Main Street
Danbury, CT 06810
203.791-1904
Education Connection
Bethel High School, - www.offthegridaming.com
Brookfield High School, www.banana-games.com
Fairfield Warde High School, www.ecowarde.com
Hill Regional Career High School, www.eihgaming.com
Joel Barlow High School, http://cregion9.skills21.org/index
Kennedy High School, www.fate-inc.net
New Britain High School, www.sandboxcrew.com
New Fairfield High School, www.manaworx.com
Newtown High School, www.twitchinteractive.info
Pathways to Technology Magnet School, www.3ganimation.net
Platt High School, http://eliteace.org
Pomperaug High School, http://knowledge-flows.com
Simsbury High School, http://www.greeneyegames.com
Terryville High School, http://www.envirogygames.com
Woodstock Academy, http://oddsquadgames.org
Game Competition Award Categories
Most Captivating
Most Fun
Indie Inspiration Award
Most Artistic
More Innovative
Most Buggy
Best Sound with Eyes Open (sounds and images)
Sound with Eyes Closed, Ears Open (pure sound)
Cleverest Code
Best Student Project
Best CT Made Game
Venan Entertainment of Cromwell, CT has donated a prize of two (2) Nintendo DS games; Ninjatown. One of the producers, Katy Smith will be presenting at the Danbury Arena on June 5, at 12:4opm in Room 202.
CTFF Interactive Game Judges
Shay Casey, H Grenade Games
Shay Casey is the owner, artist, graphic designer, game designer and programmer for indy studio SE7EN / h.grenade games. A freelance graphic designer by trade with 20+ years of experience, Shay has had the privilege of producing cutting edge creative for Good Charlotte (Epic Records), Silent Hill V (Konami/The Collective), Rock Band (MTV Games/Harmonix), ESPN, 2K Games, MLB, Lightning Audio, Rockford Fosgate, Budweiser, Heineken, Dos Equis, Hot Tamales, Volkswagen, GMC and more.
- 2 time HOW Magazine award winner, (studio self promotion, ESPN, The Magazine.) - lead user interface/identity designer for Nuclear Dawn, a full conversion Half Life 2 Mod; Silent Hill V - Xbox 360.
With a visual style that could be best described as organized chaos, Shay's vision is often called upon for youth culture consumer projects by companies that are looking to challenge expectations and blur the lines between art and commerce.
William J. Joel, PhD, WCSU, Center for Graphics Research
Dr. Joel received his doctorate in Computer and Information Sciences from Syracuse University in 1995. His thesis focused on a conceptual model that showed how computer animation is a direct outgrowth of more traditional techniques, and how the two can be represented by the same mathematical model. Currently, he is both Chair of the Computer Science Department, and Director of the Center for Graphics Research, both at Western Connecticut State University. His current interests lie in creating animations that have the look and feel of traditional 2D media such as woodcuts and stained glass.
Prof. Thomas K. Gillespie, Quinnipiac University
Thom has his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in Information Studies, taught at Indiana University in Telecommunications from 1997 until 2009. Thom created and was the director of the MIME program (www.mime.indiana.edu). Thom teaches classes in interactive storytelling, computer game design, 3D modeling, computer animation, citizen media for social change, memory projects and web design. Thom has consulted with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agency in many parts of Asia, taught at the Canadian Film Center's new Media Habitat in Toronto and is on the board of the Museum of the Person in Brazil (www.museudapessoa.net). Currently he is particularly interested in what he calls 'public interest entertainment' and interactive conversational interfaces (ICIs). Thom's personal webpage is at: www.mediajazz.com
Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), www.theeca.com, June 4, 5
Danbury Area Computer Society (DACS), www.dacs.org, June 4, 5, 6
Digital Overload, June 4, 5, 6
Fractured Atlas, www.fracturedatlas.org, June 6
Center for 21st Century Skills/Education Connection, www.skills21.org, www.educationconnection.org, June 4, 5, 6
Ill Clan Animation Studios, www.illclan.com June 5 and June 6,
Free Software Foundation, www.fsf.org June 4, 5, 6
CT Digital Media Business Network, www.ctdigitalmedia.com, June 4, 5, 6
