The American Film Institute has announced the projects and teams that it has selected for its Enhanced TV Workshop. Now in its seventh year, the AFI workshop brings together TV producers and design and technology advisors or mentors over a six month period to prototype interactive applications with the ultimate objective of delivering an enhanced broadcast programme.
This year the eight selected projects will cover a variety of genres, from history and science, a drama about a group of lesbian friends and a gay makeover show, to children’s education and an adult literacy programme, but the staples of news and sport are not represented.
The emphasis seems to be on laudable productions rather than commercial applications, with MTV perhaps being the most mainstream.
Each project will target a different platform including cable and satellite services, personal computer and games console.
This year it seems there will be less emphasis placed on two-screen experiences, combining web and television, with a greater attempt to produce integrated enhanced television programming.
A number of different development approaches will be employed, with separate projects using authoring systems from emuse, Ensequence and Zetools, while others will be developed with support from NDS and Sun Microsystems.
The programming is drawn from public service television and cable channels. However, the primary networks are notably absent, as are the major cable and satellite operators.
Projects
American Experience, WGBH/PBS
Platform tbd (emuse)
Dinosaur Highway, The Science Channel
Games console (Proteus)
Dora The Explorer, Nickelodeon
Satellite (Ensequence)
Friday@Noon, Scripps
MSN Video (Zetools)
The L Word, Showtime
OCAP (Vidiom)
MTV2, MTV Networks
Satellite (NDS)
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Bravo
Windows Media Center/wireless (Schematic)
TV411, The Adult Literacy Media Alliance/PBS
Cable (Sun)