Filmmaking Isn’t Brain Surgery…or is it?
Neuroscience Converges with Independent Cinema
At The 7th Annual Topanga Film Festival July 28-31, 2011
“The Topanga Film Festival is a true original. A chance to see great films under the stars in one of the most magical spots on the continent. A jewel of a festival.”
– Wendie Malick
In the last five years, the community at large has witnessed a surge of corporations utilizing the expertise of neuromarketing firms in order to technically understand what makes their workforce tick. The entertainment industry is no exception. In fact, it is an ardent participant in these endeavors.
Most major Hollywood studios employ the services of neuromarketing firms and experts to learn how an audience perceives their films. They want to know what’s going on in their brains that keeps them glued to the screen. The studios then integrate this information into the filmmaking process in an effort to make their product, the motion picture, as appealing to the public as possible.
At the 7th Annual Topanga Film Festival (TFF), filmgoers will experience first hand the tools available to help us tell our stories more efficiently and effectively.
“This year we're establishing panels connecting neuroscience and art (film),” said LG Taylor, Director of Communications for the 2011 Topanga Film Festival. “The neuroscience community is passionately embracing our endeavor and the filmmaking community is contagiously excited to understand the science behind their art.”
Each filmmaking panel will include a world-renowned neuroscientist or neurosurgeon including but not limited to:
- Dr. Steven R. Quartz – Professor of Neuroscience Philosophy and Principal Investigator of the Brain, Mind and Society at California Institute of Technology
- Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran, Neuroscientist and Director of Center of Brain and Cognition, San Diego – Time Magazine nominated him as the most prominent Neuroscientist of the 21st century
- Dr. Robert Bilder, Clinical Neuropsychologist, Director of the Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity (Semel Institute, UCLA)
"Something we've learned from brain science is that when we ask people about their reasons for things, we're only getting a small part of the brain processes that underlie their decision making." Said Dr. Steven R. Quartz. "Neuromarketing is the application of this huge amount of information that's available in the literature in terms of how people make decisions." He continued.
The Topanga Film Festival (TFF) is dedicated to empowering, informing and interconnecting all generations of storytellers who wish to pioneer a new era of global trans-format content. TFF endeavors to promote culture, community, and collaboration through the creative process of storytelling. Good stories have an emotional and educational impact. We thrive on providing outreach that inspires change.
Submissions are being accepted through July 1, 2011.
For more information on the Topanga Film Festival, please visit www.topangafilmfestival.com.
