Wednesday, March 7th, 2018

3:50 PM - 5:00 PM

Session B: Prague Room A, 3rd Floor

Virtual Reality Transforms Media – Movies, TV, News, Sports & Music

TV, news, sports and music are being transformed by VR/AR as both programming and advertising.  Add 360 Video, a first generation mobile VR/AR that doesn’t require a headset to Google, Samsung, HTC and Oculus headsets and you have a phenomenon.

Jared van Fleet. Director of New Business, FAKE LOVE | A New York Times Company

Christine Cattano, Global Head of VR, Framestore’s VR Studios, Framestore (Visual Effects “Gravity” “Dark Knight”)

S. Jason Prohaska, Managing Director, MediaMonks New York

Ronnie Polidoro, Supervising Producer, Digital Video, ABC News

Moderator, Michael Leventhal, Partner, Holmes Weinberg, P.C.

S. Jason Prohaska, Managing Director – MediaMonks New York: S. Jason Prohaska has recently taken on the role of Managing Director at MediaMonks NewYork, the global digital production powerhouse. He made the move in 2016 after gaining nearly a decade of experience as Partner and Managing Director of Big Spaceship, a reputable creative digital agency brand with a focus on

innovation, tech and creative product. He has also held leadership positions at Mattel, Your Majesty Co., Method, and HUSH.  One of the original co-founding member of SoDA, he began his career building fine art collections and visual imaging platforms for artists, collectors and museum foundations in the United States and Europe. As Managing Director, Prohaska focuses on creative business strategy, expanding NA and LATAM synchronization, US talent development and culture building. He also works to combine disciplines from VR, AR-AI and 3D to experiential design and connected platforms that are driving the industry.

Christine Cattano one of the most prolific producers of VR content in the industry. As Global Head of VR within Framestore’s VR Studios she has actively grown the department from an interactive arm of the company, into a dedicated studio focused on virtual reality, building an infrastructure to support this exciting new creative technology while still in its infancy. Her previous role at boutique marketing agency Campfire incorporated production for multi-platform, cross-channel initiatives, for brands including National Geographic Channel, HBO and Harley-Davidson. At Framestore, notable projects have included the highly-awarded Game of Thrones ‘Ascend the Wall’ experience, Volvo Reality and Merrell ‘Trailscape.’  In 2016 Framestore won the Grand Prix in Mobile at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity for their innovative VR content as part of New York Time's first foray into the medium, '#nytvr.' Driven by the consistent new challenges of such a new technological field, Cattano continues to develop VR strategies both internally and with a growing roster of clients, maintaining Framestore’s already impressive project count whilst growing the Studio’s reputation for innovation and skill, endeavoring to push the medium forward as a whole. Christine has recently shared her VR expertise with publications including Contagious, Wired, AdAge and Shots, and made Business Insider's 30 Most Creative People in Advertising list for 2015. She has also given talks on Virtual Reality at the Web Summit in Dublin and the Most Contagious event in London.

Jared van Fleet, Director of New Business, Fake Love: As Director of New Business for Fake Love, Jared works to connect the agency with strategic partners and clients, and helps to support its long-term growth. Prior to Fake Love, Jared led Creative Development for Sketchfab, the largest online platform for 3D/VR/AR content. Establishing an in-house creative shop at the nascent startup, he spearheaded relationships with clients such as MTV, The Economist, Nissan, HuffPost, Spalding, The Atlantic, Porsche, and others. Jared has worked at the intersection of art, culture, and technology for over a decade. Beginning his career in music and film, he recorded and performed internationally with acclaimed artists including Beirut and Voxtrot, and worked on the 2013 Oscar-nominated documentary Cutie and the Boxer. After this, Jared worked with high-growth startups. He joined Pond5 as one of its first few employees, and helped it scale into the largest global marketplace for media licensing. Later, he was a co-founder of TapTape, an award-winning equity crowdfunding platform, and worked as a freelance producer and consultant for creative agencies. In addition to his work at Fake Love, Jared is currently serving on the board of directors for UnionDocs, an internationally-recognized non-profit promoting documentary art, and continues to engage with creative side projects. He has a thing for bad wordplay, and generally enjoys spending time with bicycles, languages, bodies of water, and other modes of discovery.

Ronnie Polidoro, ABC News Supervising Producer of ABC News Digital: Ronnie Polidoro, Supervising Producer of ABC News Digital, launched ABC News VR in September 2015. Through his work, Polidoro has led an innovative team of producers to earn an Edward R. Murrow award for “Inside North Korea VR,” the first of its kind for a virtual reality experience. Since its launch, ABC News VR has taken viewers around the world with reports from the 2016 election, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, as well as entertaining experiences like riding on a model train and being inside of a pumpkin as it’s being carved. Other notable experiences include “Inside Syria,” a look at the war-torn country,  “Chernobyl 30 Years Later,” examining the after effects of the explosion, “Nepal After the Earthquake” and “Phiona: A VR Portrait of the Queen of Katwe”. As supervising producer, Ronnie builds business partnerships within the VR industry, creating weekly 360/VR content and character-driven originals - including ABC News’ Emmy award–winning premium short documentary series “ABC News Features.”

Michael Leventhal is a partner at Holmes Weinberg, P.C. He specializes in providing corporate, intellectual property and business transactional services for media/entertainment and technology companies. While managing partner of the entertainment law firm Codikow Leventhal & Carroll in the late 1980’s and early ‘90’s, Michael also developed a practice in high technology and digital media, which began even before the internet was a business model. In 1992, he combined his entertainment and digital media practices, when “multimedia” meant the CD-ROM business. Since that time, Michael has been on the forefront of the legal and business aspects of nearly every major technological innovation in digital media, from payment for electronic transmissions of entertainment content (rather than just shiny discs), to dispute resolution over domain names, to co-branding and cross-licensing agreements for online services, to pay-per-click advertising services, to digital music download services, to television/internet hybrids and the development and licensing agreements required to make them run, to user generated content sites, including development in SecondLife, for social media, and for mobile devices, including phones and tablets, to Alternate Reality Games, to 3D display technology, augmented, virtual and mixed reality. Among his clients have been Fortune 500 companies such as Fox Interactive Media, NEC, and Transamerica; digital vanguards like MySpace, Pop.com, Oversee.net, and GoTV; entertainment/digital technology hybrids such as Motion Theory, Compendia Media, Virtual Netcasting Corporation, the Interactive Television Alliance, PaidContent.org, RockWeb, Satellite Events Enterprises, and Vimby; traditional companies moving into digital media,; and various celebrities in need of  digital media guidance or protection. Most recently, Michael spent the last several years as chief legal officer and vice president at Magic Leap, Inc., the well-known augmented/mixed reality venture.  His duties included standard general counsel responsibilities, content and technology licensing, intellectual property strategy and planning, working with the content team, business development, marketing, HR, and the CEO on special projects, among many other tasks. Michael has represented hundreds of entertainment, digital media and high tech start-ups, early stage companies and middle market companies in music, film, visual effects, interactive television, sports, stand-alone online ventures, entertainment and non-entertainment web-based businesses, software, and more traditional businesses—from formation to strategic planning, structuring companies, M&A and alliances, to licensing matters, to obtaining financing. Working with entrepreneurs and visionaries at all stages of development has long been one of Michael’s passions. Michael has been a partner in a large national firm, a co-owner of several boutique law firms and a business consultancy, a solo practitioner and a senior executive at a high flying technology company. The combination of law firm and business consultancy is consistent with Michael’s holistic approach to representing businesses, both large and start up.