Digital Biscuit
Exciting developments this month for Dublin-based film and technology aficionados as the Screen Director’s Guild of Ireland unveiled a list of speakers for their upcoming Digital Biscuit forum that reads like the love child of a glitzy Hollywood awards ceremony and a TED convention. The Science Gallery will be welcoming unmissable guests from the film and technology industries at the prestigious annual showcase, which is fast becoming one of THE must-attend events for the Irish and International creative communities.
Pitching itself as an opportunity for innovation and cross-collaboration, the 3 day event is the brainchild of SDGI Director Birch Hamilton who explains that the goal is to showcase Ireland as a key destination for creative audiences and exporter of world-class work in this area. ‘With Digital Biscuit we are trying to enable the Irish film industry to improve its global position as a centre of creative and technological excellence. It is our hope that through Digital Biscuit ground-breaking new works will be made and new relationships formed between people in different disciplines.’
The schedule of events may be a film and tech geek’s dream but Hamilton stresses that the broadening of the industry in general to incorporate areas like Social Media and Augmented Reality make it accessible for anyone with a keen interest in the digital world, ‘While the festival is targeted towards people in industry, that is very broad nowadays and could mean anything related to the screen, like Twitter or YouTube for example – really anything people can engage and consume content with’.
Hamilton and co have attracted some impressive attendees on-board, of which David Chase – creator of HBO’s most lucrative series The Sopranos is the latest addition. Chase joins renowned director Michel Gondry, director, screenwriter and producer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Biscuit for the Irish Premiere of Is the Man who is Tall Happy? an animated conversation with Noam Chomsky. Bruno Delbonnel, cinematographer for Amelie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Tim Burton’s Big Eyes will also be taking to the podium.
A personal highlights for Hamilton will be hearing from Oxford University’s multi-sensory specialist Professor Charles Spense about the implications his findings could have on the industry, ‘I’m interested to hear from Professor Spence about how the advancement of science can help us to better understand our audiences. I’m also looking forward to Doghouse which is a really exciting virtual reality experience unique to Digital Biscuit’.
The event will kick off on January 28th with a special screening of the eagerly-awaited Paul Thomas Anderson ‘psychedelic surf noir’ Inherent Vice, alongside a Kino Play programme of events and live demonstrations, including first person virtual reality film for Oculus Rift, a self-taping booth from Bow Street and an exciting collaboration between Irish Film Board and Oxford University on a multi-sensory film and food experiment.
Tickets are now on sale at http://www.digitalbiscuit.ie/
Words: Aoife O’Regan
Photos courtesy of Digital Biscuit