Goodbye 2021, Hello 2022!
2021 was an intense year to say the least. As a result, B3 have now developed entirely new, digital-led models for our creative accelerator and mentoring programmes.
Our new approach is influenced by the sensational work produced by participating artists, filmmakers and storytellers on B3 Media’s flagship online TalentLab XR and Origin programmes over the past 12 months.
As we enter the 2022, we’d like to tell you more about the incredible work our Associate Artists and B3 Alumni have accomplished throughout the course of last year.
B3 ORIGIN
Our participants were able to reconnect with their creative voices individually and in a collaborative project that the group developed together from scratch.
Participants were then encouraged to apply what they learned to their own creative practice. Following the programme, we selected 12 Associate Artists who received further professional development support.
Our Origin Associate Artists were each awarded £500 and provided additional mentoring through direct 1-2-1’s over eight weeks that helped them fire up their career plans.
Inspired to address the needs of artists of colour during the pandemic, we created the online mentoring scheme B3 Origin with the help of film producer, writer and director Nelson George.
ORIGIN - ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
HANNAH ARTHUR
Writer / Actor
YVONNE SHELLING
Cross-Platform Artist
KHEVYN IBRAHIM
Writer / Director
SHAKIRA FRANCIS
Actor / Director / Writer
SHIVAIKE SHAH
Producer / Curator
DONELL ATKINSON-JOHNSON
Writer / Director
PARDEEP SAHOTA
Writer / Director
VICTORIA WIJERATNE
Cross-Platform Artist
PRECIOUS WURA ALABI
Writer / Director
RCL GRAHAM
Writer / Director / Producer
TALENTLAB XR
In May 2021, B3 Media brought together 14 diverse and talented artists from film, theatre, architecture, illustration, dance and music to develop and launch their own creative projects that apply extended reality.
Phase one of the TalentLab XR programme was a huge success. Many artists entered the process with no prior knowledge of XR.
They emerged after a packed four weeks brimming with insight, interest, and ideas.
PROGRAMME PARTICIPANTS QUOTES
“TalentLab XR came in the perfect moment in my life and career. I wanted to transition from film production to XR because I believe it’s the future of storytelling. I had a good idea when I started and finished [with] a great one. Everyone was so welcoming and supportive; I feel very lucky to have experienced it. An unforgettable and eye-opening experience, and I will Recommend it to everyone even remotely interested in XR!”
“I used my bursary to get a PC that could actually run Unreal Engine and I basically taught myself within a month to do that trailer [for Astronauts and Afropuffs]. That wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for B3 Media and the support and the guidance and just having a wall to just talk all these ideas to, to really flesh out what I really wanted to achieve within the space of time [...] and the steps that I would need to take going forward after completing this programme.”
“Warm, guiding, and helpful mentors, staff, and speakers have made this programme a unique, fruitful experience. I learnt so much in such short a time and feel empowered to carry out my idea and project. All from not knowing about VR/AR/XR just four weeks ago!”
TalentLab XR - Phase 2
Serious times call for serious decision making! Phase 1 of TalentLab XR rendered so many incredible projects that B3 spontaneously expanded the programme.
We selected seven TalentLab XR Associate Artists, each of whom received a bursary of £1,000 and additional bespoke support from B3. In early September our Associate Artists presented their pitches at the TalentLab XR Industry Showcase to a panel of experts from Digital Catapult, BFI, and many more. The TalentLab XR Industry Showcase was so successful that B3 held a second showcase in November, attended by major XR players such as Unity, Epic Games, and Arts Council England.
TALENTLAB XR PHASE 2 - ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
EMILIE DUBOIS
Creative Producer
LEANN O’ KASI
Actress / Writer
ISAAC OURO-GNAO
Multidisciplinary Artist
RCL GRAHAM
Writer / Director
GOPAL DUTTA
Multidisciplinary Artist
WANDA YU-YING HU
Architect / Moving Image Artist
LARA KOBEISSI
3D Artist/ animator
INDUSTRY EXPERTS QUOTES
“I think I am just beside myself, I’m so incredibly impressed at the immense learning curve that everyone has taken in this trajectory. Kudos to you, Marc, and to all of you bold artists to have the stomach and the courage to jump into this medium. […] Based on what you’ve shown today and what I saw before, the sky is the limit and you are absolutely ahead of the game and on the right path. Congratulations to all of you.”
“I was really impressed with the quality of work and new XR narrative experiences coming from the course and the overall support given to emerging creatives.”
“All the projects were fantastic in their own way. I was very impressed by the level of creativity that you’ve all got. Having all of these innovative ideas about ways to tell stories is very impressive. Well done everyone.”
B3 ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENTS
We are proud to announce that since working with B3, a number of our artists have been selected for awards and further funding.
SHIVAIKE SHAH
B3 Origin Alumnus, Shivaike Shah, was selected for the Producer Programme at Selladoor Worldwide, following which he landed the role of Assistant Production Coordinator on a Marvel / Disney feature project. Shivaike’s B3 Origin project, “Medea”, retells the classic Greek tragedy with an all-black female cast and is now fully funded and in production. Directed by B3 Alumna and NFTS MA Directing grad, Riffy Ahmed, the project will tour schools and college networks in both the UK and US.
RAJITA SHAH
B3 Alumna and producer Rajita Shah (Miraj Films) was selected as a BAFTA Breakthrough Producer and Film London Lodestar. She continues to use her platform to champion women and promote diversity within the industry. She is currently working on a film about the history of women’s football in the UK and a screen adaptation of Amit Patel’s autobiography “Kika & Me”.
YOLANDA MERCY
Writer Yolanda Mercy (TalentLab Alumna) has been selected to be part of the 2021 BFI Network x Bafta Crew talent development programme.
RCL GRAHAM
In August, B3 Origin and TalentLab XR Associate Artist RCL Graham’s short film “S.O.U.L of a Black Woman” screened on the closing night of Windrush Caribbean Film Festival.
ALEEM KHAN
Writer and director Aleem Khan (TalentLab Alumus)’s feature debut “After Love” debuted at the London Film Festival (2020) and received selections at Cannes Critics’ Week, Telluride and Toronto International Film Festival before its physical world premiere. He has since been named a BAFTA Breakthrough.
PARDEEP SAHOTA
Since participating in B3 Origin, Pardeep Sahota has set up his own company and received partial funding. He has also recently won six Promax Global Excellence awards and has won three Clio Entertainment awards for his advertising work.
PUI SAN LOK
B3 Electric Greenhouse Alumus, Professor Pui San Lok has led a successful AHRAC BID with her faculty team and was awarded £3,000,000. “Transforming Collections: Reimagining Art, Nation and Heritage”, a 3-year project led by Susan and her team, is a 5-year research and development programme which harnessing the potential of new technology to dissolve barriers between collections. It extends across the UK, involving 15 universities, 63 heritage collections and institutions, and over 120 individual researchers and collaborators.
IN MEMORIAM
Both bell and Greg paved the way for many writers, artists and creatives around the world. They will be missed.
BELL HOOKS (Gloria Jean Watkins)
(25 September, 1952 – 15 December, 2021)
Gloria Jean Watkins, better known by her pen name bell hooks, was an American author, professor, feminist, and social activist. Having published more than 30 books and numerous scholarly articles, the focus of hooks’ writing was the intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender, and what she described as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and class domination.
Bell participated in the ground-breaking 40 Acres and a Microchip conference on Afro-futurism at The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in 1995 – as part of the Digital Diaspora project produced by Marc Boothe.
GREG TATE
(14 October, 1957 - 7 December, 2021)
Greg Tate was an acclaimed author, journalist, cultural critic, musician, activist, and professor. Originally best known as a music critic for the Village Voice, Tate first attracted attention for his writing on Jazz and African American music in essays that covered everything from the blues and R&B to contemporary rock and hip-hop.
Before long, his critical writing — which covered a range of subject matters from punk and hard rock to black novelists, poets, academics and musicians — and his vivid, wildly inventive, and musical writing style singled him out as an insightful and entertaining critical voice on Black culture and Pan-African aesthetics.
Greg was a friend, supporter and collaborator of B3 Media over the years. Greg also participated in the ground-breaking 40 Acres and a Microchip conference on Afro-futurism at ICA in 1995 – as part of the Digital Diaspora project produced by Marc Boothe.
