• deepdreams
• Happy Feet
• Fly Me to the Moon
• Bioshock TVC

Stan Alley (NZ) Figwit - Australian Premiere Screening, with Q+A

Stan, along with Hannah Clarke and Nick Booth, directed and produced the cult documentary "Frodo Is Great, Who Is That?" aka "Figwit" .....more

Stan also has a 'day job' at Weta Digital as a 3D VFX surveyor - matchmover.

• dreamworks.com

Event: from Far Far Away 6pm, Thursday 6th December.

Status: Confirmed. Generously supported by WIT - Women are I.T. WA (Inc.). the GoGirl Careers Expo and WAnimate, the WA Animation Association.

Paul Van Ommen Weta Workshop (NZ)

Multi-award winning Head of Department model technician on King Kong, who has also worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Currently working on Dambusters, Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Robin Hunicke - EA Games (US)

Robin is the Lead Game Designer on MySims at EA's Sims Division. In her copious spare time, she's finishing a PhD in Computer Science at Northwestern University, studying Artificial Intelligence and Video Games.

That may sound suprising to some. Games are often considered crude - different from other art forms. But in just over 40 years they have changed the way we think about computers, theater, television and film. They redefine how we consume (and produce) entertainment. To expand their expressive capabilities, we must solve some non-trivial problems.

Each year brings us closer to new solutions... in academia and development alike. By participating in these two cultures, Robin hopes to support and sustain cross-disciplinary/cross-pollinating work.

Solu (aka Mia Makela, Finland)

Solu is a Finnish media+live cinema artist, teacher, investigator and cultural activist residing in Barcelona.

Her recently completed Masters thesis on Live Cinema has been widely acknowledged as the best resource available to date on this rapidly evolving field. She has performed and conducted workshops in the US, Canada, UK, Spain, Finland and more.

Peter Kirn (US) is a media artist, visualist, composer, writer, and teacher. He is the creator and editor of createdigitalmusic.com and createdigitalmotion.com, sites for digital technologists, and runs Create Digital Media. These communities embrace a new wave of live performance technology, including DIY controllers and custom software, hacked and repurposed games and mobile devices, and visual instruments
and experimental motion graphics.

He is also a contributor to Macworld, Make, Keyboard, and other publications, and author of Real World Digital Audio (Peachpit Press). He has been a Digital Fellow at Dance Theater Workshop, a resident at the Corporation of Yaddo, and presented work at festivals including the Boston CyberArts Festival / Ideas in Motion. He regularly teaches media and technology.

Peter is completing a PhD in music composition at the City University
of New York Graduate Center with a research emphasis on expressive
technologies and visualizing music in virtual space.

Megan Elliott Director, X|Media|Lab

Megan Elliott combines first class cultural, industry, business and political awareness. She is widely recognised as one of the most successful and effective leaders of Australian media in industry development, political representation, and advocacy.

From February 2002 – July 2006, Megan was the Executive Director of the Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG) and the Australian Writers’ Guild Collecting Society (AWGACS). In this role she increased the visibility of the AWG across industry, public and government; she successfully developed and implemented a highly successful organisational strategy which ensured that the AWG has a sound financial basis for future growth; extended the organisation’s national and international networks; increased sponsorship and developed long-term sponsor relationships; increased membership by more than 30% during the biggest production slump the film and television industries have experienced in a decade; and motivated and energised the membership to become active participants in the organisation’s successes.

Megan’s background encompasses creative industries project management for the European Union; industry development and organising for performing artists; and she herself is a recognised contemporary performance maker, industry writer and event producer.

Megan has been a member of the Australian Screen Council’s Policy Forum; the Australian Screen Council Working Party; the Policy Research Group of the International Affiliation of Writers’ Guilds; a member of Australia’s UNESCO’s cultural network; and a board member of CREATE Australia.

• X|Media|Lab

Event: Keynote Speaker at Official Opening, 6pm Sunday 2nd December and Unravelling the New Media DNA, 1-4pm Saturday 8th December

Status: Confirmed thanks to ScreenWest

Jean Poole (Melbourne)

Jean Poole is a Melbourne based writer and video producer, especially interested in live audiovisual manipulation, and methods of combining animation with video. Creator of Skynoise.net, he teaches digital media @ various Melbourne Universities.

Currently on a 6 month video residency in Istanbul, Turkey with artificialeyes.tv, he has recently added many European audiovisual performances to a long list of festival gigs up and down the East coast of Australia.

He founded the Electrofringe Festival back in the 20th century, and more recently helped initiate Melbourne's long running Plug N Play event. His recently completed panoramic animation for six screens, 'Animals really are funny people' won the 2007 Horse Bazaar prize.

dpWolf (Melbourne)

David Wolf (aka dpwolf) is a digital media artist who's work focusses on the production of interactive, network based video works and performances. He recently completed his Master of Arts at RMIT in Melbourne. His research looked at the changes in audio-visual production methods associated with the use of real time interactive, network-aware software.

As part of his research David creates programs designed for use in live video performance (VJing).

He has performed at festivals and events such as The Melbourne International Film Festival, Liquid Architecture, Electrofringe, Straight Out of Brisbane, The Melbourne International Arts Festival and has web based works presented at NewMediaFest and MonteVideo.

VJ MoRpH (aka Grant Muir) has been a predominant figure on the Australian and international VJ scene for over 8 years. His visuals never fail to prove innovative and creative with his blending of old and new technologies, stunning graphics and amazing live footage. His unique performance video style has seen him working with a HUGE list of international Djs of all genres (Luke Slater, Eric Morillo, Carl Cox, LTJ Bukem, DJ craze, Sasha & Digweed and many, many more) and at festivals all over Australia & the world. Unlike other VJs, MoRpH has an energetic stage presence that is reflected in his mixing, blending performance with creation in a flurry of motion.

Having recently returned from a very successful tour of the UK and Europe, including rave reviews from Europe's best DJs, VJs and Live acts, and events already booked for a followup tour in '07 Morph is truly at the top of international VJing circles.

Chrism + Fenris (aka Chris McCormick and Paul Eterovich) joined forces in late 2001 to assemble an array of vintage hardware and custom software. They kick out the jams with their own brand of experimental yet foxy electro tunes for the discerning geek. Twin Commodore 64s attack, ducking and weaving through a barrage of crunched out breakbeats, samples, loops and turntable trickery.

Jaymis Loveday (Brisbane)

Jaymis is a Visualist - Video Artist, Performer, Director, Editor, Writer, Photographer and especially a student of the moving image. You will catch him writing for CreateDigitalMotion.com (and occasionally CreateDigitalMusic.com), performing on stage with Folk-Rock wundergroup Bobby Flynn and the Omega Three, with progressive house trio Segue, and locked in his studio in Brisbane, Australia.

In his spare time he is a director of the Oxygen Kiosk, a web studio which also has its hand in the development of CreateDigitalMotion and CreateDigitalMotion. He is the second half of CreateDigitalMedia alongside NY Digital Creator Peter Kirn.

Kate Raynes Goldie and David Fono

Giant Dice make pervasive games.

"By making activities more fun and playful, we believe that games can be used to better engage people in a variety of settings. The games we build can be used to strengthen communities, enliven and celebrate public space, or to build skills and facilitate training."

Giant Dice was founded by David Fono, a game designer and computer whiz kid, and Kate Raynes-Goldie, a social web and community researcher/builder.

Rob Antulov (Sydney)

Perth-born Rob Antulov is co-founder and CEO of 3eep, a recently launched Australian sports-oriented social network, which offers passionate sports players, fans, coaches and administrators the ability to take their real-world conversations into an online space.

Rob is also currently Executive Director at Perceptric Media and operates a strategic advisory practice, MediaNext, offering guidance to companies, from early stage to corporate, on issues associated with convergence in media and technology.

Until recently Rob was Director of Strategy at Fairfax Media Ltd, responsible for Fairfax’s corporate direction on strategic growth, media convergence and digital expansion. He was a key member of the team that assessed corporate opportunities in media sectors including newspapers, magazines, free-to-air television, digital and traditional radio, online classifieds, Pay TV, datacasting and IPTV.

He also happens to be the current Director of the Sydney Film Festival and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Australia, as though all of the other roles weren't enough!

Event: Business Models for a Digital Landscape Seminar 11am Sun 2nd Dec
Status: Confirmed, thanks to AFTRS Centre for Screen Business

Jinnan Cai (Perth)

Jinnan is a young entrepreneur and co-founder of Perth social web start-up, Buzka. His creative background combined with technical aptitude and unique understanding of social interaction enables him to lead projects and teams beyond conceived boundaries. Jinnan also oversees the development of strategic communication projects at Modus Operandi for many innovative local and national brands including Leeuwin Estate, BHP and West Surfing.

Before his days at Curtin were cut short, Jinnan actively fostered student-industry networking through student group Orange Zucchini. He is a firm believer in Perth's creative potential and passionate supporter of local community and industry development.

Jinnan's recent travels have taken him from Silicon Valley to Sydney, Brighton to Beijing, and he will share some insights learnt from his journey into the world of the social web.

Martin Davidson (BA Graphic Design): In 2005 Martin established Finn Cragg with business partner Lyn Hawkins to publish his animated stories and develop multimedia resources to engage students in creative storytelling.

Finn Cragg has enjoyed national success with their first title "Caravan" and the recently launched "Emu and the Flying Doctor." Martin creates all aspects of Finn Cragg's content from story development to visual design, animation and sound production.

Martin facilitates many of Finn Cragg's Teacher Workshops in Digital Storytelling and is a popular presenter at schools, Education conferences and Professional Development programmes.

• FinnCragg.com

Stephen Grant (Perth)

After working for several small Perth animation studios, Stephen Grant started to work his way through the traditional 2D animation system, including the Amblin studio in London (American Tale 2), but primarily at the Walt Disney Animation Studio in Sydney, where I worked on many and various TV shows and Videos (including Darkwing Duck, Bonkers, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Lion King 2, Another Goofy Movie, and many more - sounds like a late night Readers Digest ad, doesn't it.)

Upon returning to Perth, Stephen discovered a new way of animating using Macromedia Flash, and was subsequently employed by Animation Works on season 2 of John Callahan's Quads, and Dogstar.

He currently lives in Perth with his wife and 2 sons, and ekes out his life animating for anyone, whether they want him to or not.

Event: Guest Speaker @ She Got Game (He Got TV...) with Robin Hunicke (MySims), 6pm Sunday 9th December.

Status: Confirmed, thanks to MediaWorld

She suffers from permanent Mondayitis; has a crush on a guy who doesn’t know she exists and is a stickler for returning DVDs on time – she’s Girl Friday, the “I’ll try anything once” gal and the main character of Australia’s newest comedy series. ....more

• GirlFriday.tv
• Ish Media

Pied Piper (Melbourne)

PiedPiper started promoting parties as part of the EMAS university group in Perth, W.A. in 1996, which gave him a deep understanding of the requirements for a successful event. Instead of joining the bandwagon and becoming a dj, he investigated the little known art of vj'ing, which resonated with his visual interpretation of the world.

His first encounter with computer graphics was with computer based programs like arkaos, and "scene demos", aswell as xmix- videos. His first vj gig was at a dance party in 1999 with DJ Aphrodite using a VHS player, a single PC and a basic vision mixer. Since then he has continued to perform at a number of regular nights and special events. For a number of years he was the regular vj for Delirium and Loaded Dice, Two of the biggest promoters in perth - Ministry of sound, Gatecrasher, mixmag etc, As a result he have performed with a number of the worlds leading dj's, to name a few: Sasha, Jeff mills, Q-bert, Dillinja, Naughty by Nature, stanton warriors, Andy C, Green Velvet, infusion, Itchy and Scratchy etc..

VJ PiedPiper has always been an active member of several internet forums devoted to the art of VJj'ing
(vjcentral.com) as well as giving a VJ seminar for the deuce collective and ArtRage in 2004.

In 2005 VJ PiedPiper started the OpenTZT project - which has resulted in a leading vj application being open sourced and FREE for the community. Currently PiedPiper is living in Melbourne Australia where he performs at a monthly night called "Fromage" at the popular and very vj friendly bar known as "Loop"! Headed to Northern hemisphere at the end of the year, PiepPiper is set to take his Vj'ing to New York City, Toronto, and London and beyond!

Links to come.

PodSix

PodSix Video Games is an independent developer creating original titles for multiple platforms. Leveraging open source software and procedural techniques, PodSix aims to create aesthetically pleasing games that are great fun to play.

Event: Interface Space appearances - ask her about women in animation, film and TV.
Status: Confirmed

Audio Cephlon (aka Greg Lawrence) can best be described as an electronic musician fascinated with the technological future. His compositions, which journey through different dance music genres, are gently bathed in futuristic atmospheres and melodies underpinned by synthetic beats perfectly suited to a Sci-Fi soundtrack.

Steve McCallum

Winner of the 2007 W.A.M.I. and 2007 W.A.S.A. for ‘Best Music Video’, Steve McCallum has gained a great reputation for being an outstanding video director. Getting the green Light from over East record companies, Steve’s video’s for bands such as The Silents, Red Jezabel and Snowman have played a huge role in boosting these bands national success. With copious amounts of hits on Myspace, and continuous rotation on Rage, Steve is a man worth listening to about getting your art noticed.

Event: Music Video Art Panel - Wednesday 5th December 6-9pm
Status: Confirmed.

Joe McKee

Mat De Koning

At age 16 Mat de Koning made his first independently produced skate film. Since leaving high school he has gone on to collaborate with many West Australian Artist, Musicians, Skateboarders and Actors to create a distinguished body of Shorts, Doco’s, Music Video’s, Skate Films and Experimental Projects.

In 2008 Mat enters his final Year of filming for his feature Length Rocumentary, ‘Meal Tickets’. With over 300 hours of footage shot so far, the film will be a visually explosive and in depth look at Art, Music, Love, Friendship and Rivalry between Several Artist chasing the dream.

Mat de Koning is a huge supporter of Projects that involve the Collaboration between artists from different fields. Come done to ‘Music Video Art’ on Wed the 5th December to get inspired about creating massive projects that lift the bar on the artistic output of Perth!

Event: Music Video Art Panel - Wednesday 5th December 6-9pm
Status: Confirmed.

Sokina Guillemot is a 27 year old French traveller, graphics and textile designer.

Born in Paris, she takes her inspiration through very different cultures such as Japanese, African or French.

Mixing innocence and awareness of multiculturalism, she is now exploring the Aussie way of creating human artistic events.

And she enjoys it!! :)

VJzoo consists of Kat Black (VJ kattyb) and Jasper Cook (VJ bunniboi). We collect vintage equipment. We VJ. We tour. We run Plug n Play Perth.

Paul Spinrad, author of the VJ Book said we're 'influential and internationally-respected VJs with a rare mix of (blah, blah)...' but that's probably because we plied him with cocktails after he came to one of our gigs in the US.

Kat Black is an independant digital content developer. Her product the Golden Tarot has been voted one of the 'top ten tarot decks of all time' for 2004, 2005 and 2006 and is both popular and critically acclaimed - retaining a 5-star average review after three years of sales on Amazon.

More recently, she has been developing content for mobile phones and hopes to combine the two with her new product under development, Tarot Cielo - a digitally collaged tarot deck designed primarily for use as a mobile-subscriber product. Oh, and she is me - your friendly local Festival Director.