Changing the Channel: The New Golden Age of TV
If you're a storyteller with big ideas, the challenge is often seeking outthe right partners who can support your vision and attract an audience.With the Internet coming of age, independent storytellers have access to agreater stable of digital distribution partners eager to creatively andfinancially support these works. Come hear some of the industry's leadingproducers share their insights on how to work with digital distributionpartners like Hulu to create and debut long-form original programming. Thepanel will include exclusive content premieres introduced by Hulu Senior Vice President of Content Andy Forssell, Warrior Poets exec. Morgan Spurlock, ("A Day in the Life"), as well as filmmaker Richard Linklater and the star of his documentary series "Up to Speed," Timothy "Speed" Levitch.
Presenters
Andy Forssell is senior vice president of content for Hulu where he leads all strategy and operations for the content businesses. In his time at Hulu, Andy has accelerated the growth of the content business from just two content providers in 2007 to more than 330 today, and has led the expansion into original programming. Andy brought to Hulu more than a decade of experience at Siebel Systems and Oracle Corporation where he served in a number of leadership roles including product development, customer care, datacenter operations and supplier management for their hosted CRM software-as-a-service businesses. Andy's career began in the US Army where he served in the Armored Cavalry and achieved the rank of Captain. Andy earned a BS with honors in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, a BS in Russian studies from the United States Military Academy and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Morgan Spurlock is a New York based writer, director and producer. His first film,
Super Size Me, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 and won him Best Directing honors. The film went on to win the inaugural Writers Guild of America best documentary screenplay award as well as garner an Academy Award nomination for best feature doc. Since then he has directed, produced and distributed multiple film and TV projects, including the critically acclaimed FX television series, “30 Days,” and the films Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden, Confessions of a Superhero, Czech Dream, Chalk, The Future of Food, What Would Jesus Buy?, and Freakonomics.
In 2010 Morgan was nominated for a primetime Emmy Award as well as a Writer’s Guild Award for The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice!, His film
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and its accompanying TED talk explore the world of product placement and advertising, while being completely funded by product placement and advertising. The film premiered at Sundance 2011 and was the first film to sell.
Currently Morgan in post-production on his next feature documentary Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope.
Writer/Director Richard Linklater’s credits are:
IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO LEARN TO PLOW BY READING BOOKS (1988); SLACKER (1991); DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993); BEFORE SUNRISE (1995); SUBURBIA (1997); THE NEWTON BOYS (1998); WAKING LIFE (2001); TAPE (2001); LIVE FROM SHIVA’S DANCE FLOOR (2003); SCHOOL OF ROCK (2003); BEFORE SUNSET (2004); $5.15/Hr. (2004) (TV); BAD NEWS BEARS (2005); A SCANNER DARKLY (2006); FAST FOOD NATION (2006); INNING BY INNING: A PORTRAIT OF A COACH (2008); ME AND ORSON WELLES (2009); BERNIE (2012)
Linklater also serves as the Artistic Director for the Austin Film Society, which he founded in 1985 to showcase films from around the world that were not typically shown in Austin. The Austin Film Society has given out over $1,000,000 in grants to Texas filmmakers and in 1999, received the DGA Honor which was given by the Directors Guild of America in recognition of its support of the arts.
Timothy “Speed” Levitch (born 1970) is an actor, tour guide, speaker, author, voice actor, and Kansas City and New York City tour guide.
The name “Speed” was given to him by a childhood friend in high school. Levitch has appeared in multiple films and has had his poetic and philosophical works published in books and periodicals.
Levitch was born July 9, 1970 in New York City. Along with his older brother and younger sister, he grew up in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, where he attended the Horace Mann School. When he was twelve, his parents got a house in Westchester County, New York and he was briefly a suburbanite. He longed to return to New York City and eventually he did, graduating from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts in 1992.
In 1992 he received his tour guide license from the Central Park Conservancy. He later took a position with Apple and Gray Line Tours as a tour bus guide. He soon attracted a cult following, due not only to his fast talking style, but also for his obvious love of his native city and passionate philosophical ideas.
Levitch’s fame was spread beyond NYC when Oscar winning Director, Bennett Miller, made Speed the subject of the 1998 documentary The Cruise.
Today, Speed lives in Kansas City, MO. He travels to NY to gives tours once a season or when he is commissioned by groups. In addition, Speed is growing a new “Taste of Kansas City” tour business.
Monday, March 12
