Los Angeles, CA - Sundance Institute has selected 18 creators of short form digital series for its inaugural Sundance Institute | YouTube New Voices Lab, November 10-12 at YouTube Space Los Angeles. Through hands-on workshops and story meetings with showrunners and industry leaders, the New Voices Lab will cultivate a growing group of emerging creatives who are shaping the form and content of episodic storytelling. The New Voices Lab is part of Sundance Institute and YouTube's ongoing commitment to supporting independent creators working in narrative forms. This effort follows the Sundance Institute's annual Episodic Story Lab that began in 2014 and the Sundance Institute | YouTube Creators Intensive launched in 2016.Fellows will work with creators, showrunners and episodic producers to further the development of original short-form projects in a supportive environment that encourages risk-taking and innovation, led by Michelle Satter, Founding Director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program, and Jennifer Goyne Blake, Senior Manager of the Episodic Storytelling Initiative, with curriculum support from executives at YouTube. Over three days, Fellows will participate in an intensive writing workshop, directing the actor workshop, one-on-one creative story meetings, writers' rooms, and case study presentations. After the Lab, Fellows will have access to year-round, customized creative and strategic support through Sundance Institute's staff and network of mentors.
As technology and platforms evolve, we continue to meet rising artists where they are, said Michelle Satter. We support risk-takers and innovators, and the episodic format offers many opportunities for boundary-pushing. Connecting these storytellers with our seasoned advisors at the New Voices Lab will support the emerging careers of an exciting new group of creators in the episodic space.
Supporting the growth and development of emerging creators is key to us at YouTube, said Danielle Tiedt, Chief Marketing Officer, YouTube. We want to do everything we can to nurture independent storytellers, inspire them to take risks and empower them to take their videos to new heights.
Creative Advisors include Rich Appel (executive producer/showrunner, Family Guy), Mara Brock Akil (creator/showrunner, Girlfriends), Jen Celotta (writer/director, The Office), Joan Darling (writer/director/actor), Stephen Falk (creator/executive producer/showrunner, You're the Worst), Gina Fattore (co-executive producer, Californication), Russel Friend (executive producer, House M.D.), Emily Halpern (co-executive producer, Blackish), David Iserson (co-executive producer, Fresh Off the Boat), Laura McCreary (co-executive producer, Fresh Off the Boat), Zahir McGhee (co-executive producer, Scandal), Dara Resnik (co-executive producer, I Love Dick), Danielle Sanchez-Witzel (showrunner/executive producer, The Carmichael Show), Christy Stratton (consulting producer, Modern Family), Bernie Su (showrunner/executive producer, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries), Joan Tewkesbury (writer, Nashville) and Bill Wheeler (writer, Queen of Katwe).
The Sundance Institute Feature Film Program is supported by The Annenberg Foundation; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; YouTube; RT Features; Time Warner Foundation; Amazon Studios; NBCUniversal; Hollywood Foreign Press Association; National Endowment for the Arts; NHK Enterprises, Inc.; Manish Mundra; Firestone / von Winterfeldt Family Fund; Technicolor; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; SAGindie; The Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund; Grazka Taylor; A3 Foundation; and The Ammon Foundation.
A full list of Sundance Institute | YouTube New Voices Lab Fellows and their projects follows.
According to My Mother
By Daniel K. Isaac & Cathy Y. Yan
Daniel's life as a young, gay, Korean-American, struggling actor in New York was complicated enough - and that was before his disapproving and devout Christian mother moved in.
Daniel K. Isaac is a Korean-American actor and writer born and raised in Southern California and currently based in New York City. You can see him on the small screen as Ben Kim on Showtimes Billions and read too much about his personal life on an even smaller screen if you google According to My Mother.
Cathy Y. Yan is a filmmaker based in New York City. She was born in China and raised between Hong Kong and Washington D.C. She received her MFA from NYU's Tisch Graduate Film Program, an MBA from NYU's Stern School of Business and a BA from Princeton University. In March 2017, Cathy will be directing her feature Dead Pigs in Shanghai; Alibaba Pictures and Media Asia are producing, and Chinas renowned director Jia Zhangke (A Touch of Sin, Mountains May Depart) is attached as executive producer.
Caught in the Web
By Stian Hafstad
Set inside the Internet, Caught in the Web is a behind-the-screens comedy that explores the inner workings of the world wide web through the eyes of Finn, a second-rate search engine worker trying to make a name for himself in the shadow of tech powerhouse, Doodle.
Stian Hafstad is a Norwegian filmmaker living in New York. He is the co-creator of the viral hit machine PistolShrimps on YouTube (with over 150 million views), and his Columbia MFA thesis short Getting In was a semifinalist at the 2015 Student Academy Awards. His new digital series Saving the Human Race premieres on CW Seed in early 2017.
Corpodyne
By Lars Kenseth & Brent Butler
Told through a series of hilariously incompetent corporate training videos, Corpodyne explores the byzantine bureaucracy and mysterious collapse of a 1990s mega-corporation.
Lars Kenseth is a comedy maniac, writer, producer, and animator He was one of the first writers admitted to the Fox animation program, where he created Lifers. After that, Lars migrated to MTV where he was in the writers' room for
