DIGITAL LAB AFRICA: African talent in action combined with French Touch at its best

The objective of Digital Lab Africa is to provide a springboard for African talent in multimedia creation and to make their project happen with the support of French leading companies (studios, producers, broadcasters, distributors) such as ARTE (transmedia), Lagardère studios (web creation), Okio-Studio (virtual reality), CCCP (video game), and 1D Touch/Believe Digital (digital music).

As part of the incubation programme, the Digital Lab Africa partners will provide time and expertise to support the development of winning-projects.

When and where?

The incubation phase will roll out during a period of 3 to 6 months between January and October 2017 in the project’ s country of origin and in France It will be adapted to the specific needs of the projects and will include a period of residence in France of variable duration depending on the projects, up to a limit of one month.

What are the stages of the incubation program?

The DLA incubation ticket comprises 3 steps:

The DLA incubation ticket will comprise:
\ Mentorship by leading companies in multimedia
\ Residence time in France within a digital cluster
\ Participation in benchmark multimedia events

♦ 1 / Mentorship by leading companies in multimedia field

TRANSMEDIA CATEGORY

ARTE, the European culture channel, broadcasts since 1991, content that promote cultural diversity and multilingualism. The channel fosters artistic production by supporting directors and by co-producing movies, series and documentaries. ARTE is also one of the most innovative channels in multimedia content developing new formats for the web as well as trans-media content. ARTE’s programs are available on www.arte.tv in French, German and since recently in English and Spanish.

WEBCREATION CATEGORY

Lagardère studios incorporates all of the TV production activities of the Lagardère group, the leading audio-visual production group in France and Europe. Lagardère studios is an international key player in the production and distribution of independent audio-visual content, very active in the digital space. Lagardère Studios brings together 35 production companies in 3 continents including Africa, among them Keewu Production based in Senegal.

VIRTUAL REALITY CATEGORY

Okio-Studio is a creative Surround Video Production House based in Paris, specializing in immersive experience for Oculus-Rift, and other virtual reality devices. Okio-studio takes it to heart to put their energy and expertise into a new form of immersive narration, now made possible by the pending democratization of virtual reality headsets: 360, oculus rift, Morpheus, cardboard.

DIGITAL MUSIC CATEGORY

Believe Digital is the leading digital distributor and services provider for independent artists & labels in Europe. Believe Digital has a worldwide presence with offices in all key markets. They have built their own technology and digital supply chain, to maximise the value of music globally.

1D Touch is today the first worldwide fair trade streaming platform dedicated to independent contents. The platform already offers nearly one million musical references.

VIDEO GAME/SERIOUS GAME CATEGORY

CCCP studio is one of the leading French video game studios specialising in serious games and multi-platforms games. Created in 2005, CCCP studio is part of Pictanovo digital cluster located in Valencienne (North of France). The CCCP Team brings together graphic artists, game designers, programmers to offer the best of serious gaming.

♦ 2/ A residence time in France within digital clusters:

Pictanovo is a digital cluster mainly supported by the Regional Council of Hauts de France. Cinema, Transmedia, Interactive Projects, Video Games are the keywords that definite its field of action. Pictanovo supports financially more than a hundred of projects each year, through its 3 funds: Cinema and Television, Interactive Experiences and Associative creation. Pictanovo federates the Image community that regroups more than 3,000 professionals (private, public and associative) coming from Television, Cinema, Videogame and Internet, and about 3 000 students from 60 trainings.

Cap Digital is a French business cluster for digital transformation in Paris region. Their 1010 members are primarily innovative SMEs but also major universities, higher education establishments, research labs, and corporations focused on a specific technology-driven industry. Cap Digital promotes competitiveness within the digital and media industry. They provide their members with essential information, networks, and resources. Those include ongoing competitive intelligence, training, partnerships, funding solutions and project reviews.

♦ 3/ Participation in multimedia benchmark events in France for project presentation, networking and fund raising:

Paris Games Week /Game connection is a annual event dedicated to video games. With 307 000 participants in 2015, this event is part of the World Top 5- video game events.

Virtuality is a Virtual Reality Exhibition to be held for the fisrt time in Paris from the 24th to the 26th February. The event will consist in 3 days of immersion in virtual reality, to gather all the VR professionals in a place open to everyone. For its first edition, 15 000 visitors are expected to attend over 3 days.

Futur en Seine is an event organized by Cap Digital since 2009, it shows every year the latest digital innovations to French and international professionals and to the general public. Futur en Seine attracts each year nearly 50.000 visitors and numerous international delegations contributing to make the Paris region, one of the first digital regions in Europe.

Le Forum Blanc is an annual international event for exploring the development of multiplatform projects through case studies, workshops and debates. The Forum Blanc is open to executives, studio heads, production managers, heads of projects, writers, developers, content and marketing managers in the industries of animation, video games, broadcasting, new interactive services and mobile phones. The next edition will take place from the 10th to the 12th of January (2017).

Thanks to the residence in France, the mentorship provided by partners and the participation in benchmark multimedia events, the winning-projects will benefit from an expertise and a strong professional network to accompany their development. The objective of Digital Lab Africa is to reach the end of the incubation period with finalised multimedia content for each of the 4 categories, combining the best of African creativity and French know-how.