July 10th marked the first time the Digital Design and Entertainment Business Management programs collaborated on a 45-hr SLAM. Sebastien de Castell, Director of Strategic Program Development and Acting Head of Entertainment Business Management, kicked off the Slam by delivering the brief that revolved around a theme of “The Entertainment Experience.”
The brief was gleaned from Sebastien’s history with experience design for interactive campaigns for television series such as ReBoot and Heartland. Students were challenged to design a new positive reality-based or lifestyle television show with an interactive audience engagement component. The goal was to create a pitch package to convince investors to fund the show while staying true to the mandate of positive TV programming.
The pitch package needed to include the following components:
1. A detailed bible covering the show, its audience, the competition, and the strategy for success
2. A segment of a sample show (2-5 minutes long) with a show package (bumpers, lower-thirds, etc.)
3. Identity package for the show (logo and/or wordmark, colour palette, typefaces, applications)
4. A demonstration of the interactive engagement strategy (web mockups, functional prototypes, or simulation)
5. A PechaKucha style presentation using 15 slides
Teams were formed from classes at different stages in the two programs which offered opportunities to build valuable contacts and to learn from each other. Immediately following the kickoff meeting, the teams were supplied a pizza dinner to fuel their creative juices as they brainstormed concepts to pitch to a panel the next morning.
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