Rise of the Interactive Director As Creative Lead

A session at SXSW Interactive 2012

Much like live action directors, the interactive director has evolved into a role in which the technologist is directing the experience and creative. From interactive music videos and social entertainment to leveraging HTML5 to interactive installations, we're seeing an explosion in innovative ways that interactive directors are allowing viewers to experience stories. In this discussion, we're going to have one of the industries brightest interactive directors share his perspective on his approach to interactive storytelling. He will be joined by Executive Producer of Digital at production company Tool of NA, which has a unique model of representing interactive directors for productions that require innovative thinking.

About the speakers

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Dustin Callif

Exec Producer Digital, Tool

Dustin is currently the Executive Producer of Digital at bi-coastal production
company, Tool of North America. Since joining Tool in 2009, Dustin has been
responsible for leading the growth of the company’s digital business and overseeing
the development of interactive live-action content that merges the worlds of
technology, art and advertising. Recent signature projects include the “Touching
Stories” interactive film Pad app, which was unveiled in a five-day Fast Company
exclusive; “David on Demand”, a “Social Viewing” experiment featuring Leo Burnett’s
David Perez; and the multiple award-winning interactive music video “I’ve Seen
Enough” for Cold War Kids. Before joining Tool, Dustin was Co-Owner & Managing Partner, at digital agency
Spacedog, with offices in LA + NY. In 2008, Dustin helped to negotiate Spacedog’s
acquisition by Mendelsohn Zien and Hakuhodo, the second largest advertising
holding company in Asia. Working with clients such as Sprint, Starbucks, Project (RED), Doritos, Citibank, Nike and others, Dustin has overseen over 150 digital media projects across all digital
platforms. His projects have been recognized with numerous awards, including at the
Cannes Advertising Festival, The Webby Awards, AICP Next, Clio Awards, FWA, MTV
VMA, AICP, OMMA and Davey Awards. Dustin maintains an active presence in the interactive advertising and marketing
industry serving as a judge for the Webbys, Davey Awards, FWA Mobile Site of The
Day, .net Awards and AICP Next Awards; speaking at interactive conferences such as
the Yahoo! Creative Summit, 2009 Boards Summit, 2010 Creative Review Click
Conference SF, the AICP Conference, SXSW Interactive Conference 2011, TV of
Tomorrow 2011, 2011 F5 Fest and 2011 Cannes Advertising Festival; holding
membership in the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences; and serving as President of AICP Digital.

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Grant Skinner

Interactive Dir, GSkinner.com

Grant Skinner is an internationally recognized leader in the field of rich interactive experiences. His body of work spans experimental interaction, applications, games, websites, installations, embedded devices, and mobile, with a recent focus on projects that span multiple environments. Grant fuses his experience with design, user experience, development, and business with a driving creativity to produce projects that push the boundaries of interactive technologies. Grant's innovative work has garnered a variety of prestigious industry awards, including FITC's Best Canadian Developer, SIGGRAPH's Best of the Web, and multiple FlashForward awards. He has spoken at over 50 major interactive and gaming conferences, including MAX, SIGGRAPH, GDC, and FITC. In addition to running one of the most popular blogs in the development community, he has contributed to a number of publications on technical and usability topics. While building gskinner.com into a leading interactive production shop, Grant has worked with a wide range of high calibre clients including AOL, BBC, Salesforce, Nissan, Adobe, GE, Atlantic Records, Comcast, EA, CNN, and DirectTV. Grant is represented on the Tool roster as an interactive director with the goal of working on innovative interactive projects that require an elevated approach to interactive advertising.