Innovative new projects to excite and engage online audience

Media Release

13 December 2013

Innovative new projects to excite and engage online audiences

Fresh support from NZ On Air’s Digital Media Fund will bring six innovative projects to online audiences.

The latest funding round saw 61 applications to the Kickstart fund for transmedia projects and 54 applications for webseries. The applications were seeking a total investment of more than $20 million.

“The applications for the Digital Media Fund, the only such fund in New Zealand, just keep getting better. This is clearly an area of growing demand, and where local content creators are thinking outside the square. We love the collaborations and innovations we are seeing in these digital projects,” said NZ On Air Chief Executive Jane Wrightson.

Among the projects funded this round is Sign Ninja, a web-based interactive game for children to access and learn New Zealand sign language, which will receive $122,000.

“We congratulate Deaf Aotearoa on coming up with this excellent idea to help children learn sign in a fun way. The project demonstrates the new possibilities the digital world opens up,” said Ms Wrightson.

The second Kickstart project is Road Trip, an interactive docu-drama based on a road trip throughout New Zealand which will uncover New Zealand stories as suggested by audiences. Road Trip will receive $300,000.

Four webseries will receive up to $100,000 each. Yeti is a comedy based on an outrageous, popular stage play. High Road 2 is a comedy about a burnt out rockstar DJ-ing a radio station in a caravan at Piha, which has already found a strong online following with its first series.

Flat 3 will bring audiences a new series of this popular comedy, which follows the daily lives of three young Kiwi-Chinese women flatmates in Auckland. Outward Bound is a comedy webseries based on the renowned outdoor experience at Anakiwa.

Funding Details

Road Trip – interactive docu-drama, KHF Media $300,000

Sign Ninja – web-based interactive game, Deaf Aotearoa $122,000

Yeti –comedy webseries, Semi-Professional

$100,000

Flat3, Series 3 –comedy webseries, Flat3 Productions

$100,000

High Road, Series 2 – comedy webseries, Tomorrowland

$100,000

Outward Bound – comedy webseries, Longline Productions
$100,000

ENDS

© Scoop Media