Tiffany Shlain talks technology and film
Photo courtesy of Tiffany Shlain and the Moxie Institute Film Studios
Written by Emilie Kefalas
Students of multi-media gathered at the Turner Theater in the SCAD Museum of Art Thursday, Feb. 11, for a web-based conversation with award-winning filmmaker and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain.
Considered as an Internet pioneer, Shlain has made more than 28 short and feature length films that have received multiple recognitions and multiple premieres at the Sundance Film Festival.
During the discussion, Shlain described her use of the latest technology to inspire her audience to think in different ways.
“We want to make provocative, meaningful, powerful films. To really have people think about the important things that shape our world,” Shlain said.
With her creative team, Shlain constantly pushes the boundary of how to move people using film and technology.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about the word ‘movie,’” Shlain explained. “The word ‘movie’ is about moving you. I’m happy to move you. You don’t normally hear it that way.”
Shlain said she uses film as a way to reach a large audience when it comes to sharing innovative and creative ideas.
“I used to run the Webby Awards, which was a big annual event. And I would pour so much creative energy into them, and if you were not at that event…you couldn’t experience it.”
After running the Webby’s for nearly a decade, Shlain said she really wanted to focus more on filmmaking. Once she got married and started thinking about having children, she wondered how she could make an impact on the world while still being a good mother.
“Now I have 28 films that are all playing in different parts of the world,” Shlain said. “My films are just doing their thing without me.”
Shlain’s trajectory from science to filmmaking began during her years as an undergraduate at the University of Berkeley, California.
“I was supposed to be a doctor,” Shlain said. “But then I took an elective in film history and there was this amazing teacher who really had this infectious excitement about changes in film technology.
Having earned an interdisciplinary major, Shlain attempted to make her first full-length feature film after graduating.
“So I did really well in college with films, and I thought, ‘I’m going to make my first feature length film,’ and I kept running out of money. I kept running out of money and the way I’d get out of debt is I’d work in technology.”
It was while Shlain was working in technology on CD-ROMS that she first encountered a website, a revolutionary concept when it first premiered. Shlain immediately knew that this new invention would change the world. Not long after, she moved to San Francisco and started the Webby Awards.
Though a technology and Internet lover, Shlain said she and her family have taken a “technology shebot” for the past seven years.
“I love technology. My husband is a professor of robotics. We’re very steeped into the latest technology, but we were also feeling we were getting distracted and my father was dying and I really thought a lot about time and attention.”
That’s when Shlain and her family decided to “turn off” on Friday nights and during the day on Saturday. Shlain explained the revival of creative energy she experiences following these “shebots” comes from a refocused concentration on daydreaming.
“When you’re daydreaming, you’re off making connections between ideas,” Shlain said. “We’re on our seventh year, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I feel so creative after those periods. I just feel I’ve completely refurbished.”
Shlain not only founded the Webby Awards, but also co-founded the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and today Shlain has a film series on AOL.
