Buzz

2014 at the IPF

In 2014, web drama series became “digital originals”, marking a global recognition of this form of content as a serious alternative to traditional “television” drama.  Canadian web drama series, and many of those funded by the IPF, continued to dominate at international awards events as producers brought home awards from Webfests in Europe and the USA and participated as expert advisors on panels at festivals, Comic Cons, Fan Expos, conferences and awards events. At the Marseilles Webfest in October 2014, Canada was honoured with awards in six of the seven categories!

The IPF celebrated five years of funding web drama series and undertook professional development and training  activities to encourage greater business and audience engagement skills.  The IPF’s Quebec office created and produced its first 11-episode MOOC –   “How to Survive a Webseries” – from creation to distribution, with insider guidance from expert professionals (http://ipf.ca/FIP/survivre-a-sa-webserie/).  This complements the Best Practices Guide published previously by the IPF http://ipf.ca/resources/web_series_best_practices/).  Research into the world of digital content was sponsored when the CMPA undertook an updated version of Content Everywhere.

Across the country, IPF representatives sat on panels and presented workshops and training sessions for the creators of original digital linear content.  The IPF’s website, its Facebook and Twitter feed are developing as hubs of information and news for web drama producers.  With 17 new web series funded by the IPF in 2014, there is a lot of optimism, hard work and challenges ahead for this exciting new content format.