Imagine being a film student and meeting with Lionsgate, MGM and Britain’s Channel 4 in Cannes.
Three Metro Screen multi-platform screen producer scholarship students did just that and have returned back Down Under after attending MIPCOM last month.
Anna Bay, James Boyce and Claire Evans pitched their multi-platform concept design described as “Amazing Race meets Mafia Wars”.
The game stretches across the entertainment sector, uniting people on the same socially interactive level as Facebook.
The primarily-mobile game is crime-based, where players have to complete missions such as “putting hits on people”.
“The crime genre is huge. There are all these Facebook pages interested in this sort of material,” Bay told INSIDEFILM.
“We thought that a game could be something people could play in the off-season and still receive this interaction.”
The team was initially not going to be attending MIPCOM, but after words of encouragement from The Project Factory’s Jen Wilson and various judges, the three scholarship students were encouraged to sell the product to the market.
“These industry professionals loved our idea and told us we should sell it. We laughed,” Bay said.
“Then we thought about it a bit more and looked at the website; [then] we realised it was the next weekend and thought ‘we can’t do it, it’s too short-notice’.”
The team bought plane tickets on the Wednesday and flew out on the Saturday, in time for the conference on Monday.
“It was so worth it just for the people we received access to,” Bay said.
“A lot of people had teed up their meetings weeks in advance.
“Since it was all last-minute, our approach was to talk to as many people as we could without being intimidated by their industry status.”
MGM and Britain’s Channel 4 have shown much excitement, seen as the most promising companies interested in the students’ multi-platform concept.
The response from Lionsgate was also positive and now the team has been put in touch with Promotions.
Discussions are currently taking place in regards to the potential properties the team may be able to partner with.
The team was given the opportunity to liaise with representatives of transmedia and digital media and listen to renowned speakers such as Facebook's Joanna Shields.
Bay, Boyce and Evans are continuing to work on gaining exposure on their concept whilst working on their own independent projects as well.
Bay is currently working on a social collaborating website for young creative’s called It's Not Artichoke.
The team’s prominent interest in digital media, experience and fascination with the multi-platform configuration has further inspired them to continue to create many new projects due to the endless possibilities within this new form of media.
“We are passionate about working in digital media and the connectivity it has in engaging the audience.”
(Left to Right) James Boyce, Claire Evans and Anna Bay