On October 7, HB 3367 becomes law. This is significant in several ways for Oregon’s film, television, and digital media industry. The most obvious change is the increase in the annual amount of OPIF tax credits to $10million a year. (By the way, we’re selling the remaining $4million of tax credits for 2013 beginning on October 21. Here are the details of the tax credit auction.)
What may prove to be just as important of a development, though, are the changes happening within the “local filmmaker” program which is commonly referred to as the Indigenous Oregon Production Investment Fund (iOPIF). Continue reading... “New iOPIF Application Available Online – Includes Post-production and Video Games”
With Techfest NW fast approaching we wanted to highlight a few cool elements that have a nice digital storytelling theme. If you want the whole rundown of speakers and parties, be sure to go to the Techfest website here. The Willamette Week also has nice coverage (it’s their event after all) of the event and some speaker highlights.
Why is Oregon Film talking up Techfest? Because the event includes elements that will cover some of the great work happening in Oregon’s digital media/digital storytelling world as well as a few nationally known professionals in this emerging industry. Continue reading... “Some Techfest Highlights – Mirada’s Andy Merkin, Intrument’s Duet, Pander Box”

PanderBox.TV Launch in the PanderBox Transmedia Lounge
The 2013 TechFest NW will host the PanderBox Transmedia Lounge where the Pander Brothers will launch their new web channel, PanderBox.TV. The Portland based filmmaker and graphic novel team will present their array of web media story worlds in comics, music, digital video and give a sneak peek of what to expect on their new digital entertainment channel, PanderBox.TV.
PANDER BOX Transmedia Lounge – “Tasty Bullet Exposed!”
The PanderBox Transmedia lounge will feature the brothers’ conspiracy laden transmedia project, Tasty Bullet. Continue reading... “Pander Brothers Present Panderbox Transmedia Lounge for Techfest NW Party Sept 7 – 6:00”

If you are someone who is passionate about the storytelling world that’s being created with the intersection of creativity and technology, then you’ll want to show up to Techfest NW this year. Oh yeah and there should be some great parties to attend as well! Included in the speaker list are Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici who will speak on her STEAM Education efforts, Producer Andy Merkin from Guillermo del Toro’s Mirada Studios, Kate Ertman from ADi, Mountain Machine Games founder Nick Lambert, and the team from Cascadia Games. Continue reading... “Techfest NW – Great Speakers and Great Parties! September 6-8 at OMSI”
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/71132793[/vimeo]
CMD and Hinge Digital teamed up to deliver a fun, informative and engaging campaign for NW Natural. “Little Leaks” was conceived as a collaboration between CMD and the Hinge creative team. Hinge created four unique 3D egg characters. The eggs are lighthearted and fun visual storytellers in a spot that educates viewers on how to recognize and react to a gas leak. Continue reading... ““Little Leaks” a Big Deal for Local Animation Company”

We already tweeted a link to the project but “The Build” deserves more attention. “The Build” is Instrument’s (a digital creative agency in SE Portland) first foray into interactive filmmaking. The company’s resident filmmaker Truen Pence came up with the idea of producing a documentary highlighting three local characters in the custom motorcycle building industry. From that idea, the company engaged its producers, motion graphic designers, and creative coders to create an experiential story that pushes the boundaries and aesthetics of modern browsers. Continue reading... “Portland Based Digital Creative Agency @instrument debuts “The Build””

Portland Oregon, May 7, 2013 . . . Portland-based web series “The Digits” has recently joined forces with education icon PBS to offer educators a free teacher-tested math resource for their elementary school students. Created by Scotty Iseri, The Digits will be part of PBS LearningMedia beginning mid-April 2013 and will offer teachers ten appisodes (web episode that’s also available as an app) of The Digits.
“I have been watching PBS from before I can remember so you can imagine how proud I am that PBS has acknowledged the educational value of The Digits,” said Iseri. Continue reading... “The Digits is Now Available in PBS LearningMedia”
Oregon has many, viable location “looks” and not always what one might expect. The more obvious ones we have in abundance; rivers, mountains, trees, coast, lakes and farmland. Less known are; high desert, western style towns, sand dunes, gritty urban areas, vineyards, canyons and volcanic lava. We will be highlighting a specific Oregon location in each quarterly newsletter, and have partnered with Oregon company, GigaPan, by using their robotic mount technology to take detailed and vivid panoramic location pictures.
Our featured location this time is the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Continue reading... “Featured Oregon Location: Yaquina Head (via GigaPan)”
This past weekend the 2013 Ashland Independent Film Festival (AIFF) hosted its first eMerge Tansmedia Showcase (sponsored by Oregon Film, Intel, SOU, Project A, Second Story, PIE, and Technology Association of Oregon). In simplest terms, it was an opportunity for festival goers to discuss, experience and participate in the future of storytelling. As technology continues to evolve, the ways in which stories can be told are evolving with it. The lines between technology, film, photography, music, performance art, graphic arts, and gaming are becoming less and less visible. Continue reading... “AIFF Hosts Successful eMerge Transmedia Showcase”

Program to embrace growing digital storytelling cluster, accelerate new projects
PORTLAND, Ore — DATE — The Oregon Governor’s Office of Film and Television and PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment) have partnered to launch Oregon Story Board, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the education, support, and promotion of digital media production throughout Oregon. Intel Corporation has committed to the program as the first corporate sponsor. Oregon Story Board has also teamed with Eugene based TrackTown USA for its first project – the “Hack at Hayward”. Continue reading... “Oregon Film, PIE, and Intel Partner to Form Oregon Story Board – Hack With TrackTown USA is First Project”