Photo by Independent Filmmaker Project
The Made in NY Media Center in Dumbo occupies a 20,000 square foot facility on the ground floor of 30 John St. Walking in, you can’t help but pay attention to the bright graphics and visuals showcased on the walls. The space is divided into three classrooms, four conference rooms, a community workspace, a screening room, an incubator project-based work area, a library, and a café squeezed into the left corner over looking the Manhattan bridge.
The mission of the place is to provide space and resources for digital storytellers from multiple disciplines, in hopes that they’ll exchange sparks and ideas and form a community. Six weeks after its official launch, the center seems to have had some success.
“Technologists and storytellers need to interact, because in a lot of ways technologists are story tellers and the way technology is implemented affects the way the story is being told,” said Brent Hoff, Director of Programming at the Media Center.
Since its launch, more than 280 membership applications have been accepted. At the Media Center you can apply for four types of membership. The monthly memberships are divided into two, a community workspace membership for $150 or an incubator membership for $450.
Alana Range, CEO & Creative Director of Radish Lab, registered as an Incubator member at the Media Center. She stresses the positive side of working within a community,
“When you’re starting a business or a company, you spend a lot of time alone in front of your computer trying to grow this thing you really care about. The Media Center takes out the ‘alone’ part of the equation. It’s given us an incredible creative community and support system instead, something invaluable at this stage of building our company.”
You can also go for the annual membership if you are seeking long-term benefits through the Media Pro membership for $5000 or the Corporate Community Builder membership for $12,000.
The center offers resources and space for a wide variety of creative and technology types—filmmakers, entrepreneurs, technologists, game developers, writers, journalists, and web developers, and the chance to come trade ideas and share experiences and knowledge. Such a mix has benefits, members say. “Traditionally, film and TV have not been interested in having games and apps as equal partners in today’s conversation. Through the media center, we want to look at transmedia holistically,” said Nicholas Fortugno, CCO at Playmatics, a corporate community builder member at the Media Center specialized in designing and developing games in social media and transmedia platforms.
The General Assembly, an educational institution as mentioned on their website aiming to “transform thinkers into doers”, partnered with the center and is focusing solely on offering three educational classes this month for entrepreneurs seeking to learn more about crowd funding and storytelling. Later in the year the General Assembly plans to offer technical educational classes on how to work with photoshop software and creating graphics from scratch.
Hoff says the center is not limited to focus on a specific angle in technology and media teachings. “We have everything from educating people on start-ups, to real basic learning Final Cut, to more complex things like legal IT issues for your story or film.” The Edit Center began the first educational round of a six-week “Art of Editing” course seven days ago. The class was full.
The center is also able to make some connections, Hoff says. “Some members need financing—well, who does financing in your area,” he says. “You’re looking for a writer, or a cameraman, we have those relationships with the people you need.”
Since its launch, the center has hosted more than 40 events, workshops, and classes, it is currently preparing to showcase the first of 50 featured projects this December.
The Made in NY Media Center was developed by the Independent Filmmaker Project, a nonprofit organization founded in 1979 working to connect independent filmmakers with their audience and leading professionals in the film scene.
The project was chosen by the New York City Economic Development Corporation in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment to operate the space in Dumbo in March 2012.
Correction: The Made in NY Media Center held a soft launch ceremony during the first week of October, not two and a half months ago. The Center began operating with its members six weeks ago.
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