Belinda, Jess & Tahnee, the creativity and minds behind the company Cocoon Industries Pty Ltd have now launched their brand new website!

Check it out here —> http://www.cocoonindustries.com/

The Pilot will provide music enterprises with new business development knowledge and skills, expert tailored mentoring support and access to seed investment toward growing the business.
Expressions of Interest and nominations are now open to participate in Stage 1 of the project. This includes State-based program briefings and business model workshops, which will be held around the country during February 2012.

To find out more about the second and third stages of this pilot (including up to $30,000 in investment funding), read the full story here.
Register your interest in the Stage 1 workshops here (EOI closes 31 January 2012).

GENERATE is led by the CIIC in partnership with the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and is supported by the Australian Music Industry Network (AMIN) and the Commonwealth Government’s Office of the Arts.

A great achievement for this beautiful designer!

The name Baumbach, derived from the Founder’s European heritage, translates to ‘tree by the stream’. Elements of nature are carried through the designs, from the eco-friendly bamboo jersey fabric down to the recycled tea stained swing tags.

Founder, Lauren Brooks, explains the personality behind the brand “Baumbach designs for a girl who isn’t afraid to dream or get lost in an adventure. She walks to the beat of her own drum. Baumbach is inspired by poetry, illustration and all things beautiful.”

The poetic inscriptions and freehand illustrations hint at Lauren’s own travel experiences through Europe and Australia. Fuelling this young Designer with inspiration, are her frequent trips to rural farmlands, small seaside towns, folk music festivals and community markets.

Produced locally in Brisbane, Baumbach is community conscious, working with local suppliers and young emerging artists who share the label’s love for all things beautifully hand crafted.

www.baumbach.com.au

Season two of the Stafford Brothers follows the professional journey and personal turmoil of DJ brothers Matt and Chris Stafford, fighting to stay on top of the ultra-lucrative entertainment industry. As their nightclub and music empire continue to expand, drama and chaos consumes their personal lives, leaving mayhem to ensue as the DJ’s continue to work hard and play even harder.

FOX8 have an exclusive sneak peek of episode 1 on their website. Click here to see it. The 10 episode series is produced out of TPD Media.

The half hour film has a good strike rate so far – GZDOC 2011 was the first festival the doco was entered into!

This inspirational documentary showcasing the exploits of three charming centenarians is sure to travel extensively nationally and internationally from here.

The 100+ Club will screen on ABC1 early in 2012. For broadcast details, follow us on http://www.facebook.com/100plusclub or visit www.flickchicks.com.au

The Sydney-based small business and object recognition technology developer was awarded the business package prize from a competitive field of seven finalists representing a cross-section of creative industries from design, film, new media and technology.

Host of the event, QUT’s Creative Enterprise Australia Chief Executive Officer, Anna Rooke said WizzyBoard was selected as the winner after all finalists spent a gruelling day pitching their business concepts to an expert business panel.

“All finalists delivered dynamic and passionate presentations about their innovative concepts,” Ms Rooke said. “The panel ultimately can choose only one winner and identified WizzyBoard for its innovation and future commercial potential,” Ms Rooke said.

WizzyBoard is a disruptive object recognition technology which provides a conduit between the physical world and the digital world. WizzyBoard’s technology creates a new and exciting method of gaming and edutainment where objects or toys can be easily and inexpensively converted for recognition on iPads or Android devices.

Ms Rooke said the business package prize will provide highly valued support to develop WizzyBoard’s business.

“Securing investment is a major challenge for emerging creatives with only limited support and business development previously offered in this area,” Ms Rooke said.

“As the winner of the Creative3 Investment Marketplace, WizzyBoard will benefit from a package of investment, key services and support to fast-track their business growth,” she said. “The support from our partners has been fantastic in backing this amazing prize.”

“This is only our second year of running the Investment Marketplace and we have been delighted to attract over 40 high quality applicants and to offer them the chance to support their creative visions,” Ms Rooke said.

The Creative3 Investment Marketplace was exclusive to Australian creative entrepreneurs and start-ups and comprised an expert judging panel including Michael Smellie, Chairman QUT Creative Enterprise Australia; Brian Richards, BDO; Caroline Hamilton, Icebreaker Management Services; and Margaret Manning, The Reading Room.

WizzyBoard (Sydney)
WizzyBoard™ is a disruptive object recognition technology which provides a conduit between the physical world and the digital world. With its proprietary technology, WizzyBoard™ is building a completely new and exciting method of gaming and edutainment whereby toys and merchandising are fully integrated with online games for tablets and iPads. WizzyBoard™ has a proprietary and patentable technology where objects or toys can be easily and inexpensively converted for recognition, and localization on capacitive touchscreen such as iPads or Android devices.
(view demonstration)
website: www.wizzyboard.com

The sublime sounds of singer-songwriter emma louise have made their way onto our airwaves with her debut single ‘Jungle’ going straight to high rotation on triple j. Now, we get to wrap our ears around her enchanting debut EP, ‘Full Hearts & Empty Rooms’.

Emma is one of those people who were born to play music. She was the one who avoided maths and science classes to teach herself guitar and write songs in the high school music room. At age 15, Emma had already been lauded with two Q Song Awards for her song writing.

Post high school, a string of well-known supports including Sarah Blasko, Bob Evans and Tim Rogers lead Emma to make the decision to move to Brisbane to take her music to the next level. She moved with an unreleased album up her sleeve but as she immersed herself into the Brisbane music scene and started spending more time with song writers and musicians, Emma, now 19, was inspired to do better.

‘Full Hearts & Empty Rooms’ was recorded in Cairns with friend and producer Mark Myers (The Middle East).”In the last year I experimented with a lot of different producers to discover the sound I was looking for. Mark and I had known each other for a few years and had always talked about working together. It was obvious in pre-production that we were on the same track and had the same idea,” says Emma.

This EP looks to the future. Three out of the four songs are brand new. “I always like recording my newest songs.” Emma affirms, yet she hasn’t completely abandoned her old material with the addition of “1000 Sundowns”, a track she wrote in high school that still remains close to her heart. With such a prolific and impulsive songwriting nature, it would be impossible to capture the scope of Emma’s years of songwriting onto an EP. You can however confide in the fact that she records almost as much as she writes and this will be the first of many offerings.

Shortly after the release of her EP, Emma hit the road as the sought-after opening act on folk-rockers Boy & Bear’s sold-out Autumn 2011 tour. It was her first opportunity to delight audiences nationally with her enthralling live presence and unique songwriting skills, and if the reviews are anything to go by, she did just that.
She is now focusing on her first headline shows for the year to launch her EP, starting with a run of QLD shows in June / July, and then expanding on a full national tour later in the year.

Emma Louise won the award for ‘Breakthrough Independent Artist’ at the AIR Jagermeister Independent Music Awards on the 12th October, where she also performed her hit single ‘Jungle’ to a packed room.

See her hit song ‘Jungle’ here.

Mark Lobo is a photographer based out of Brisbane, working in commercial, editorial and portrait photography. Often bringing his studio out on location, he combines technical precision and natural expression to form his well recognised and colourful style. Playing off the surrounding environment and the genuine nature of his subjects, the result is both spontaneous and polished.

Outside of professional work, he finds inspiration through the people that surround him, travel photography and through his many side projects. Von Vintage, his current project, is a film photography series, which takes a look at the keepsakes of the past, remembered through the eyes of a dying media. Using old vintage film cameras, his images appear almost timeless, photographs that could have been shot half a century ago, or yesterday.

In 2011, Mark continues to work both commercially and on the Von Vintage project, exhibiting and selling his prints online.

www.marklobo.com.au

Mason’s film industry career spans more than 30 years. A television commercial and music video producer, he stepped sideways into visual effects before returning to producing with Alex Proyas’ groundbreaking Dark City in 1997.  After producing and exec-producing a string of US studio pictures including The Matrix and its sequels, Red Planet, Scooby Doo, Queen of the Damned, and Kangaroo Jack, he established City Productions. The production company developed and produced Australian films including Swimming Upstream (2001) and Danny Deckchair (2003).

In early 2009, after further stints working overseas, Mason returned to Australia and produced for Ominlab, the highly successful screen adaptation by writer turned Director Stuart Beattie of well-loved Australian novel Tomorrow When the War Began. The film was the most successful Australian film at the 2010 box office.

Mason, a passionate advocate for the Australian film industry, recently established a joint venture with Hopscotch Distribution principals Troy Lum and Frank Cox and one of Australia’s most commercially successful screenwriters, John Collee, (Master and Commander, Happy Feet).

Hopscotch Features is an innovative commercial model for the film industry which brings together film finance, development, production and distribution. As a ‘one-stop shop’ it will work with emerging and established filmmaking talent from concept stage through to financing and production. Hopscotch Features will roll cameras on its first productions in early 2012.

According to Mason, investment, both financially and in ideas and resources is vital to keep the Australian film industry thriving. He says the industry is an economic generator and a platform to keep Australian stories present in our modern culture; attracting, inspiring, challenging and entertaining audiences both domestically and globally.

“We need to make a better case for financiers to invest in Australian film. Culturally and economically we suffer if we don’t tell our stories, retain our talent or benefit from the significant economic contribution the Australian film industry makes,” Mason said.                                                                                                                              

Through ventures like Hopscotch Features, he says stronger connections are forged between commercial leaders and creative minds. These models assist creative concepts to become a successful reality by addressing commercial imperatives like financing, market analysis, finding a global audience for Australian films as well as the technical production aspects.

At the Creative3 Forum, Mason will join venture capitalist, Caroline Hamilton at the Creative³ Forum to discuss: The power of three: harnessing creativity, enterprise and investment to build new commercial platforms on Wednesday 26 October 2011 at 9.30am at the QUT Creative Industries Precinct, Kelvin Grove.

Host of the event, Creative Enterprise Australia CEO Anna Rooke said Creative³ offers a rare opportunity for many Australian creative businesses to hear first-hand and learn from some of the world’s most inspiring and influential creatives.

“Creative³ 2011 will build on the success of last year’s inaugural event by again focusing on the three fundamental elements of creativity, enterprise and investment, while exploring the real issues faced by creative businesses and the latest trends and technologies to advance and sustain growth,” Ms Rooke said.

“This year, we will also look at how collaboration is being used to drive greater levels of creativity and innovations, develop new business models for creative start-ups, and attract different forms of investment.”

Creative³ will be held between 26 and 28 October 2011 across key cultural locations in Brisbane including QUT

Creative Industries Precinct at Kelvin Grove, Gardens Theatre and the State Library of Queensland

 Andrew Mason is available for interview to discuss:

• The Australian film industry of the future – what it will look like and why it’s important?
• Creative expression needs funding  – getting the balance right
• Film makers: thinking Global about reach and impact on audiences

 About Andrew Mason

Andrew Mason is an Austrtalian producer with a career in film spanning more than 30 years. His credits include Dark City, The Matrix, and its sequels, Red Planet, Scooby Doo, Queen of the Damned, Kangaroo Jack , Silent Hill and, Tomorrow When the War Began.

Andrew Mason began his film industry career in the early 1970’s as an editor before moving to producing and heading a successful commercial production company. He managed Atlab film laboratory for two years and was then co-founder of Australia’s first visual effects company in 1983. He worked as Visual Effects Supervisor on a number of Australian films and in 1993 Mason served as visual effects supervisor and second unit director on the dark and iconic The Crow.

Mason produced Alex Proyas’ kafkaesque thriller Dark City, released in the U.S. in early ‘98 by New Line. That was followed in the period 1998-2003 with Producing or Executive Producing a string of US studio pictures including the Waschowski brothers’ The Matrix and its sequels, Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, as well as Red Planet, Scooby Doo, Queen of the Damned, and Kangaroo Jack.

He established City Productions to develop and produce Australian films, including Swimming Upstream (2001) and Danny Deckchair (2003). Mason spent 2004 in Romania producing Bruce Hunt’s horror thriller Cave and 2005 in Canada for French director Christophe Gans’ film Silent Hill.

Returning to Australia in early 2009, Mason produced for Ominlab the highly successful screen adaptation by writer turned Director Stuart Beattie of well-loved Australian novel Tomorrow When the War Began.

In 2010, Mason joined forces with Writer John Collee, and Hopscotch Distribution principals Troy Lum and Frank Cox to form development/production company Hopscotch Features, which will roll cameras on its first production in early 2012.

Mason was a member of the board of the Macquarie Film Corporation, and spent a number of years as Deputy Chair on the board of the NSW Film and Television Office. He is currently a board member of the Sydney Film Festival and serves on the Council of Australian Film Television & Radio School.

From rock star designers to risk taking investors, this year’s forum will celebrate the creativity, investment and enterprise of some of the people shaping our world. Creative3 will be a magnet for disruptive thinking and radical approaches to business development across platforms and across the creative industries including film, television, music, design, fashion and new media. Leading disruptive entrepreneurs will discuss their role in influencing new content, distribution and business models and their predictions for what it takes to build a successful creative venture in the future.

Hosted by QUT Creative Enterprise Australia, Creative3 is designed to break down the silos of the creative industries and those of the investment community and bring the two together to explore radical new finance models, global collaboration opportunities, and the key critical success factors for running a creative business in the 21st – Creativity, Investment and Enterprise.

The three-day conference will be held at three of Brisbane’s key cultural sites: QUT Creative Industries Precinct, State Library of Queensland and QUT Gardens Point Theatre on alternative days.  The full event details and registration are available at www.creative3.com.au.