Columbia University School of the Arts Digital Storytelling Lab
Lance Weiler is a storyteller, emerging media artist, entrepreneur and thought leader. An alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Lance is recognized as a pioneer considering of the style he mixes storytelling and technology. For over twenty years he's been innovating at the forefront of entertainment – leading the industry into the digital age. In 1998, WIRED magazine named him "One of twenty-5 people helping to re-invent entertainment" when he disrupted the manufacture with the beginning all-digital release of a motion flick to theaters via satellite. The Last Broadcast which Weiler co-wrote, co-directed and co-produced was fabricated for $900 dollars and went on to gross over v million dollars via cocky-distribution. The distribution methods that Weiler introduced in the late 90'due south accept since become the standard for digital cinema distribution today.
A journeyman by trade, Weiler spent over 10,000 hours on motion-picture show sets working his way through the ranks, preparation and collaborating with some of the top talent in the manufacture. He trained as a camera assistant and operator under Conrad Hall (Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man), Darius Khondji (Se7en, Midnight in Paris) and Harris Savides (The Yards, Milk). After the success of The Last Circulate he left the camera section behind and began to work extensively every bit a writer, director and producer, developing TV and movie properties for FOX, TNT, Starz and Endomel. He has collaborated with industry icons such as David Cronenberg, Gore Verbinski, Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, co-creating and developing properties that mix motion-picture show, TV and emergent technologies such equally Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and Virtual Reality.
Weiler approaches his work from a systems thinking perspective. He ofttimes develops new methods and technologies to tell stories and reach audiences in innovative ways. For instance, he created a movie house ARG (augmented reality game) around his 2nd feature Head Trauma. Over ii.5 million people experienced the game via theaters, mobile drive-ins, phones and online. In recognition of these cinematic innovations, BUSINESSWEEK named Lance "One of the 18 Who Changed Hollywood." Others on the list included Thomas Edison, George Lucas and Steve Jobs.
Lance and screenwriting partner Chuck Wendig attended the Sundance Screenwriters Lab with an original script entitled HIM. At the time Ted Hope and Anne Carey were attached to produce – after Christine Vachon and Killer Films would come onboard besides. Lance'southward unique vision and approach to the project, which mixed story and gaming, pushed his quick transition from young man to mentor as he was invited by the Sundance Institute to aid design the New Frontier Story Lab, Sundance's first new lab in 30 years. Afterward the lab's launch, Lance served as a mentor for its showtime three cohorts.
Pandemic i.0 at Sundance
In 2011, Weiler returned to Sundance with a short moving-picture show in competition and an immersive storytelling projection entitled Pandemic 1.0, which was an official selection of the New Frontier section of the festival. GIZMODO pointed to Pandemic 1.0'southward innovative nature: "The most experimental story told at this year's Sundance Film Festival in Park Metropolis wasn't but on a pic screen. What information technology all amounts to is something distinctly new." Integrating movie, mobile, online, print, real earth events, and data visualization, Pandemic 1.0 had 250,000 players/viewers working together to stop the spread of a fictional pandemic as information technology unfolded over a 120-hr menstruation. Following the festival, Lance had the unique opportunity to collaborate with a number of prominent scientists to explore ways that immersive storytelling experiences can exist used to model outbreaks, increment public awareness and provide insight into how things spread socially.
In 2012, Lance created Lyka's Run a risk a multi-year global storytelling project that had Thousand-six students powering a little robot around the world. Lyka traveled over 65,000 miles and interacted with upwards of 5,000 students. She was an administrator for UNICEF and traveled to Haiti for the special launch of a new school. In 2013, Lyka's Adventure was awarded the Tribeca Film Plant's prestigious New Media Fund, which was established to help support innovative projects that are focused on social good. MASHABLE named Lyka's Adventure "One of 5 Social Practiced Startups You Should Know Correct Now." In 2014, Lance signed a multi-book bargain for Lyka'due south Adventure with Penguin Books.
Weiler returned to Sundance for a third sequent year with a National Film Board of Canada interactive documentary by Leanne Allison and Jeremy Mendesen titled Bear71 that explores where the "wild and wired worlds encounter." The projection examines inroad and privacy concerns through the lens of a true, and metaphorical story almost a acquit and her cubs in Banff National Park. Lance co-created the installation and designed the social narrative elements of the project. Bear71 created a compelling experience with facial recognition, augmented reality, project and sensor technologies. Nominated for seven Webby Awards in 2012 the projection won a Cyber Lion Award at the Cannes Lions in 2013.
In the fall of 2019 Lance co-created, co-wrote and directed a new immersive theatre piece entitled The Raven. Within the feel, guests are invited to investigate a haunted early-19th century mansion using only Bose augmented reality audio glasses and by carrying an enchanted Internet of Things lantern to light their way. This groundbreaking experience had its globe premiere at the prestigious New York Film Festival before launching a month-long, limited run.
Where In that location's Fume at the 2019 Tribeca Picture show Festival
Lance is currently developing Where At that place's Smoke, a neo-noir story of arson set against the backdrop of a small boondocks. Inspired by true events in Lance'southward life, his father was a volunteer firefighter and apprentice fire scene photographer, the project explores 2 mysterious blazes that forever altered a tight-knit community. The immersive installation portion of the project had its world premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Pic Festival. This version built upon a work-in-progress showing at the Future of Storytelling Summit where it was nominated for the FoST prize. In the autumn of 2020, Where There's Fume premiered a new virtual version of the experience in competition at IDFA dr. lab in Amsterdam. In February 2021, Where There'southward Smoke kicked off a month long run that was extended until the end of April due to public demand. Where There'south Fume was also an official selection of the Currents New Media Festival as well equally the Portland International Film Festival through a collaboration with the Portland Art Museum. Later this year the project will return for a limited public run prior to making its way to the screen every bit a film/limited Tv series.
In 2020, Lance received a prestigious Magic Grant from the Brownish Institute for Media Innovation. The grant was award to support a new piece of work entitled Project Immerse, a paranoid thriller album series that examines misinformation and radicalization in the age of deepfakes. Over the last year Project Immerse has staged showings at DEF CON, Mozilla Fest and CPH:DOX. The project is currently developing the next affiliate in the serial and will render later this yr with additional showings continuing throughout 2022.
In add-on to his own projects, Lance often collaborates with other storytellers. For fourteen months he led creative direction and feel design on a project entitled Body/Mind/Alter collaborating with David Cronenberg, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Cfc Media Lab. Body/Mind/Alter launched in the fall of 2013 and traveled the world for four years. The project was recognized for its innovative use of story and code, winning the MUSE Jim Blackaby Ingenuity Award in 2014 and receiving a Webby Honorable Mention in the Games and Augmented Reality category.
Tommy Pallotta (Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly, The Final Hijack) approached Lance and his writing partner Chuck Wendig to script and provided narrative pattern to Collapsus – an Free energy Run a risk Crisis, a groundbreaking projection that mixed fiction, documentary and gaming. Their work on Collapsus went on to receive an International Emmy® nomination for "digital program fiction."
Lance's innovative use of storytelling and applied science has made him a highly sought-after thought leader in the entertainment industry – in particular supporting companies in re-shaping their media holdings for the 21st Century. He has consulted programs and initiatives for IBM, Twitter, Microsoft, Samsung, Chernin Entertainment, Ubisoft, Penguin Books, the U.South. State Department, CAA, Ogilvy, McCann-Erickson and others. In the process he has helped to create, blueprint and shape amusement properties that take reached billions of people. He sits on an interactive board/jury for the Peabody Awards and was one of ix artists to be featured in a recent National Endowment of the Arts field study on Tech as a Creative medium for the arts.
Over the class of his career Lance has developed a unique understanding of interdisciplinary teams and how to abound businesses in an ever-shifting digital landscape. After speaking at the Earth Economical Forum in 2012, Lance was invited to serve on 2 steering committees, ane focused on the Time to come of Content Creation and the other centered on Digital Governance.
From 2009 to nowadays Lance has been an counselor to IndieGoGo, the world'south first crowdfunding platform. He has served as a sounding lath for the company equally they accept grown from a four-person functioning to a staff of 300 with offices in multiple countries. Lance's understanding of traditional and emerging entertainment concern models led to an invitation to bring together an innovation quango for Samsung consisting of top thinkers from various industries. The mission of the council was to aid Samsung in transitioning from an electronics visitor to an entertainment engineering science company. The quango worked on the launch of Samsung's VR initiatives and informed the evolution of 837, their flagship innovation space in the Meatpacking District of NYC.
In addition to advising companies, Lance has also served as an advisor and mentor to educational programs and labs for organizations such equally the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Moving-picture show Institute, PBS, Power to the Pixel, Screen Australia, Berlin Film Festival, the National Film Board of Canada and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Lance is a world-renowned speaker on subjects such equally the future of storytelling, emerging engineering's bear on on entertainment, those formerly known as the audience, purposeful storytelling, humanizing information and social bear on. He has given keynotes at Un and World Economic Forum events, Harvard, MIT, USC, NYU, Sundance, Cannes, SXSW, Tribeca, Toronto, Berlin and Los Angeles Movie Festivals, Games for Change, the Time to come of Storytelling Peak, VPROs Conference of the Curious and TED. He often gives talks at Moving-picture show Studios, Gaming Companies, Ad Agencies, Publishers and News Organizations. He has shared stages with luminaries such as Ted Hope, Christine Vachon, David Cronenberg, Kathryn Bigelow, Marshall Herskovitz, Paula Wagner, Ted Sarandos, Douglas Rushkoff and Cory Doctorow.
Lance'southward twenty-plus years working across multiple disciplines and industries has positioned him well for his latest venture. In 2011 Lance began teaching at Columbia University. He was invited to help develop the schoolhouse's new media program. Since 2013, Lance has been a Founding Fellow member & Managing director of the Columbia University School of the Arts' Digital Storytelling Lab, helping to lead and shape the lab's vision. Its mission, to explore new forms and functions of storytelling while encouraging cross-disciplinary collaboration, focuses specifically on the means in which story can be harnessed as a tool to innovate, educate, mobilize, communicate, and entertain. In 2017 he became a Professor of Professional person Practice and is currently jointly appointed across Film and Theatre.
Lance present'south Sherlock Holmes & the Cyberspace of Things at the VPRO Briefing for the Curious, Amsterdam
Recently Lance developed three new Digital Storytelling courses offered within the Creative Producing program. In addition, he led the creative management and design of 2 projects that mix classical literature with emerging engineering – Sherlock Holmes & the Internet of Things and Frankenstein AI which had its world premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In addition, Frankenstein AI was co-commissioned by the National Theatre'south Immersive Storytelling Studio and IDFA doc lab to produce a series of immersive dinner parties that mix food, storytelling, and AI. Both are global projects that explore shifts in the ownership and authorship of stories while also examining the political and upstanding issues surrounding emergent technology. The projects are groundbreaking experiments in new collaborative models that cross silos and harness storytelling, design and play as tools for tackling complex challenges. To cite one case, Sherlock Holmes & the Internet of Things has connected over two,500 collaborators from more than threescore countries. Over its lifetime, the project has given rise to 150+ self-organized events staged all around the world. Through highly innovative work like Sherlock and Frankenstein, the Digital Storytelling Lab is shaping pedagogical methods and harnessing the power of storytelling to generate world-changing ideas and solve complex problems. At the same time the lab is edifice exciting calibration partnerships, celebrating classical literature and generating awareness on a global phase.
Within a short period of time, Lance has helped to give the lab a global profile every bit an upwards and coming hotspot for story-driven innovation, receiving coverage in Forbes, the Huffington Post, Filmmaker Magazine and IndieWire. To date, the lab has collaborated with diverse schools and programs on campus: School of the Arts, Journalism, Urban Pattern, School of Social Work, School of Professional Studies, Narrative Medicine, Commission on Global Idea, Eye for Justice, Brown Found of Media Innovation, University Life, Office of Alumni and Development and Columbia Tech Ventures. Off campus collaborations have included: The Flick Gild of Lincoln Center, Cooper Hewitt Pattern Museum, the U.Southward. State Section, Microsoft, Refinery29, IBM, Penguin Books, Esquire, the UN, UNICEF, the Earth Economical Forum and Borough Hall.
Source: http://lanceweiler.com/about/
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