Shane Kinnear

World Screen Weekly, December 4, 2008

Marketing, Sales & Digital Media
Shaftesbury Films

Determined to deliver its high-quality filmed entertainment to consumers on whatever platform they may be using, Shaftesbury Films has been making an aggressive push into the world of new media. To ramp up these activities, the company recently acquired Smokebomb Entertainment, a developer of original multiplatform digital content. "Smokebomb brings an inventive, energetic and cool approach to their production," says Shane Kinnear, Shaftesbury’s VP of marketing, sales and digital media. "They’ve moved in house, and I’m working with them in the development of companion ideas for our television series, but also, very importantly, the development of original content for online and mobile and extended platform distribution."

The companies had previously worked together to develop 39 episode podcasts/behind-the-scenes and fictional pieces for Life with Derek, a project that yielded strong results. "It was incredibly successful, so much so that the website was voted the most popular website in Canada last year by the television viewers of the country. Part of that was very much the development of the digital component of it, which was focused on providing viewers another window on the show and on the people in the show. Kids really like to break that wall, and we need to give them a place where they can do that."

As children are tech savvy, they’re proving to be strong consumers of this extended content. But Kinnear notes that their level of involvement depends not only on age, but also the country they’re in. "In Canada, for example, Family Channel who we work with have a very active web and online destination. Kids go there to play all the time, it’s a popular portal. Those kids are more involved. In the U.K., kids are more accustomed to texting so they are more familiar with using a handheld device. Depending on where you are, it is a reflection as to how kids engage with information technology. The thing is though, kids learn really quickly. You’ve got people who go from wanting just background information on a series to wanting entry into an entirely fresh and new environment with their series they watch on TV."

It’s not just the younger set who are consuming their programming on handheld devices and computers. Kinnear says that "different age groups use different new media to consume differently. It’s surprising the up-take for instance with retirees, they’re going to new media for different reasons: traveling and leisure, food and experience. There’s a way to provide entertainment while doing that. If they’re online and want to see how to travel to Turkey and take a train through the mountains, for example, you can provide them content and entertainment as a way of drawing them to that destination. Largely, the demo is young, but it’s not non-existent after 55 or 60."

Hitting all these demos is a producer’s greatest challenge though when developing content for these new platforms, Kinnear explains. "I would say that producers of interesting, compelling comedy and drama are identifying two things: where they can find the money to pay for it, and where they find the portal or outlet to distribute it. With digital content, the successful way of doing so is through every imaginable portal. So, whether it’s YouTube, iTunes, Joost, whatever, you want to get it out to as many places as possible. If you’re going to do that, you have to find a way to pay for it, and you’ve got to find the talent—the writers—that can work in alternative format, rather than the traditional hour or half-hour series, and find a way to structure it so that it requires less money. So we’re all coming to the same places, whose going to write it, whose going to pay for it and where’s it going to get distributed.

"It’s so interesting because you have advertisers, sponsors, aggregators, digital production houses, television producers, all of whom are looking at these new opportunities and looking for the model. One of the places you draw from is the Internet. Take for example the series Chase." The drama is set in the world of a bicycle currier who gets involved with the mob. "It is designed exclusively for online and multiplatform exploitation," Kinnear explains. "The writers for that we found through their URL because of their show called Take Me Back. We saw it, it was incredibly cool, and so we zeroed in on them. Almost at the exact same time, we have an agent that works with us in L.A. on new talent, and he called us and said ‘Hey, we’ve got two guys,’ and I said to Christina, These are the guys we’re looking at! And boom, they came together—the stars aligned. It will be the first all digital series for us, the pilot is due in early 2009."

In the comedy genre, Shaftesbury and Smokebomb are working on Car Jockeys, about a group of young people who rent their services out as valet parkers at various events. Also in the works is a companion piece to Murdoch Mysteries that functions like another episode but is only available digitally and online. "It’s an unsolved mystery, however instead of being set in the 19th century, its set in present day. It’s about forensic students who go back and dig up a body that was from a murder that took place in Murdoch‘s time," Kinnear explains. "Murdoch is surprising us because it’s old and it’s young. What we’ve found with the show and what broadcasters are finding is that because it’s set in 19th century, you may think it’s a historical drama but its not. It’s a very contemporary take on that world, so it’s appealing for all ages."