Translating a record of broadcast success into a new, digital triumph. That's the path Paperny Films is on, thanks in part to a year-long collaboration with the SIM Centre. Twelve months after their SIM workshop, Paperny launched Eat Street, a mobile app that it developed in partnership with Invoke Media. The app, which is a runaway success on the App Store, leads users to the nearest street food vendors, complementing the Eat Street TV show that Paperny produced for Food Network Canada. SIM is proud to have helped Paperny and Eat Street on the path to this achievement.
Paperny Films has engaged audiences for over a dozen years with their compelling non-fiction television, including the Oscar-nominated The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter. Today, pushing the envelope with groundbreaking ideas and approaches means incorporating mobile and social media into storytelling – and that brought Paperny to Emily Carr’s SIM Centre.
With a view to identifying digital projects to complement the company’s televised programming, SIM Centre director Alexandra Samuel dug into Paperny’s programming and business model and identified a wide range of social media case studies relevant to Papery’s work. Then, in an intensive one-day workshop, the Paperny team worked with students and faculty members to draw inspiration from those examples – and developed an eclectic set of ideas for integrating mobile and social media into upcoming broadcast projects.
The SIM Centre refined those into detailed workshop report including six options for projects already under development. One of those options was for "Eat Street Tweet"; SIM helped Paperny develop this into a more detailed vision, and introduced Invoke as a potential development partner. SIM supported their successful application to the Bell New Media Fund, which provided $250,000 towards the development of an Eat Street app and online community. Emily Carr student Jill Silva helped support the launch of the app with her work as one of the Eat Street tweeters.
Now that Eat Street is going strong, SIM is continuing to support Paperny in finding its next online success.
