Media now using drones at the Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Toronto parade

IN THE CARNIVAL'S  PR WORLD TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING EVERYTHING

I am busy writing my final media report for the 2014 Caribbean Festival.  I always start by looking at the report I wrote the year before and reflect on how the media coverage has changed in a year.  And while Festival years  come and go, the issues and challenges of the parade remain about the same (money & security), the real change is in how the world finds out and follows North America's largest Carnival event.

Three or four years ago the vast majority of media registering for media passes worked for traditional working media - print, radio and television. This year the festival limited media access to the parade to 300 journalists/photographers/bloggers (plus 100 badges for CTV and the Toronto Star for their extended coverage crews) down from 500 badges issued last year.

Caribbean Connection TV live from the Caribbean Carnival Parade

Two thirds of the 300 were for virtual and social media - newspapers that only are readable on the net (Independent Newspaper), radio stations (like WACK), TV shows (Caribbean Vibrations)  primarily shot for the web, networks shooting for digital tv (WIN HD TV) and even a TV network shooting shows for the web while waiting for the CRTC licence to finally come through (Farley Flex's FEVA TV).  A very large number of the media are now self-employed and self-financed compared to years gone by when the media were employed by traditional outlets.

Thousands of more YouTube videos have been shot about the parade than TV news items prepared by mainstream TV, and the spread between the two media grows larger every year as hundreds of parade goers become youtube earth station journalists.   One only has to look at what Caribbean Connections (Paradise Hendrickson and Ed Hawk) did this year with a single video camera and a suitcase full of gear to see how non-traditional media outlets are using new technology to get a leg up on the competition and reach carnival lovers around the world.

Caribbean Connections used to have a regular weekly show on CBC TV (and will soon be back on air with another broadcaster), right now their shows are available on You Tube and through their website.  During the carnival season they covered every single event of the Carnival - from costume launches to the parade - in real time by live streaming their camera onto the Internet. Audiences around the world started following the Festival by watching their live coverage.

At the parade they had great live coverage until the CNE refused them power at the judging stand (I was dealing with stormers and couldn't help). But before they went dark they used something I had never seen before at the parade - a Go-Pro camera built into a mini-drone.  While traditional TV show a ground level view of the parade, it was only Caribbean Connections and CP24 (who used a bridge mounted camera) that showed the sheer mass of the Mas! 

http://www.caribbeanconnectionstv.com/

From a Purple Pope to Iron Mike - John Scott has a new show opening Thursday night, King Street Toronto 6pm

Media Alert: The official opening of the DARK COMMANDER – THE ART OF JOHN SCOTT.  Thursday night, 6pm. Nicholas Metivier Gallery. King St

From a purple pope to Iron Mike - an exhibition of new works by Governor General Award winning artist John Scott.

The media are invited to join Toronto’s art community for the opening of this important Canadian art exhibition. Opening runs 6-8pm. The artist will attend. Blog followers welcome too.

What & When:

Opening reception – Thursday September 11 - with artist, Canadian art buyers, Toronto’s art community, musicians and actors. Scott’s new work to be unveiled. Brief speeches at 7.00pm. Event 6-8pm.  The show will continue through to October 11.

Where:

N I C H O L A S  M E T I V I E R  G A L L E R Y  

451 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1K4 T 416 205 9000

Why:

This fall marks two important milestones in Scott’s distinguished career; his fifth solo exhibition opens in September at Nicholas Metivier Gallery and his first comprehensive survey exhibition, Dark Commander – The Art of John Scott, opens in October at the Faulconer Gallery in Iowa.

The title of the exhibition, Dark Star - an object composed of dark energy that outwardly resembles a black hole – is a nod to Scott’s long-time fascination with space and science. The oxymoron also references the sinister side of our notions about heroes. In his drawing and canvas of Iron Mike, (Mike Tyson), Scott highlights the vulnerability of this fallen athletic giant. Tyson’s boxing gloves are lowered and he dons bunny ears, (a trademark symbol of Scotts’ representing humans’ likeness to scared animals). These, as with many other works in this exhibition, are poignant examples of Scott’s everlasting creativity and timeless voice.

The exhibition will also include two recently released lithographs. The prints were published by Scott and Nicholas Metivier Gallery and printed at Open Studio in Toronto.

Scott was born in Windsor, Ontario in 1950. In 2000, Scott was awarded the inaugural Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts and Media. He has exhibited extensively across Canada for the past 30 years and is collected by almost every major institution in the country including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Scott’s work is also held in numerous museum and private collections outside of Canada including the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Scott is currently an instructor at OCAD University where he has taught for the last 15 years.

How:  

      

All media are welcome to cover the event

Media Contacts

Stephen Weir

Phone 416-489-5868

Cell: 416-801-3101

Email: Stephen@stephenweir.com

JOHN SCOTT - NEW ART FROM DISTINGUISHED TORONTO ARTIST

John Scott is a Governor General Award winner, a teacher at OCAD, a lover of Science Fiction and an artist of international fame. I am helping with his upcoming show - Dark Star - at the Nicholas Metievier Gallery

Dark Star, is an exhibition of new works by John Scott. The exhibition will open on September 11 and will be on view through October 11 with a reception for the artist on Thursday, September 11 from 6– 8 PM.

John Scott, Innocent Pope, 2014, oil on canvas, 81 x 53 inches

This fall marks two important milestones in Scott’s distinguished career; his fifth solo exhibition opens in September at Nicholas Metivier Gallery and his first comprehensive survey exhibition, Dark Commander – The Art of John Scott, opens in October at the Faulconer Gallery in Iowa. The survey will include over 60 drawings, canvases and sculptures from the early 1970s to present day including a re-fabrication of Europe, a seminal sculpture by Scott exhibited at The Powerplant in Toronto in 1991. Daniel Strong, Associate Director and Curator at the Faulconer Gallery, discovered Scott’s work in 2010 at Nicholas Metivier Gallery’s booth at Pulse art fair, New York. He has been at the helm of organizing Scott’s survey exhibition and promoting his work in the United States ever since.

Over the last 40 years, Scott has developed a devout following for his raw-edge drawings about the dark, often callous, world we live in. The work’s appeal lies in Scott’s disarmingly childlike visual language that is embedded with remarkably sharp intelligence, insight and wit. In preparation for his exhibition at Faulconer Gallery, Scott sifted through his archive of earlier works. This process inspired Scott to revisit some of his most iconic images about war, technology and the human condition. In his latest body of work, Scott uses these timeless themes and revitalizes them with contemporary subjects. Perhaps the most compelling of these new characters is Innocent Pope, Scott’s wheelchair rendition of Francis Bacon’s visceral interpretation of Diego Velázquez’s painting, Portrait of Pope Innocent X.

The title of the exhibition, Dark Star - an object composed of dark energy that outwardly resembles a black hole – is a nod to Scott’s long-time fascination with space and science. The oxymoron also references the sinister side of our notions about heroes. In his drawing and canvas of Iron Mike, (Mike Tyson), Scott highlights the vulnerability of this fallen athletic giant. Tyson’s boxing gloves are lowered and he dons bunny ears, (a trademark symbol of Scotts’ representing humans’ likeness to scared animals). These, as with many other works in this exhibition, are poignant examples of Scott’s everlasting creativity and timeless voice.

Iron Mike - John Scott

The exhibition will also include two recently released lithographs. The prints were published by Scott and Nicholas Metivier Gallery and printed at Open Studio in Toronto. The images - a two-headed figure, (The Disappointed Gaze), and a bunny in armour, (Imperious Rabbit) - were resurrected after first appearing in Scott’s artist issue of General Idea’s publication, FILE Megazine, in 1985.

Scott was born in Windsor, Ontario in 1950. In 2000, Scott was awarded the inaugural Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts and Media. He has exhibited extensively across Canada for the past 30 years and is collected by almost every major institution in the country including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Scott’s work is also held in numerous museum and private collections outside of Canada including the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Scott is currently an instructor at OCAD University where he has taught for the last 15 years.