Domestically produced web series showed their strength at The Banff World Media Awards, with Guidestones and Bear 71 winning Rockies.
Interactive mystery series Guidestones took home the award for best interactive fiction web series.
The work, from indie producers iThentic and 3 o’clock.tv, first launched in February with 50 episodes, each containing hidden clues leading users to additional video content, apps and other media to solve the mystery.
And earlier this week, the series which stars Supinder Wraich, Dan Fox, David Fox and Rosemary Dunsmore, launched 34-episode on-demand version on Hulu in the U.S.
The series has financing from the Independent Production Fund and the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and is also supported by sponsors. The series has also utilized brand integration, for example, Pizza Pizza products, as part of its greater storyline.
And Bear 71 received a Rockie for best interactive non-fiction webseries.
The interactive documentary from Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison follows the life of a grizzly bear in Banff National Park that is collared at age three and observed for the rest of her life via motion-triggered trail cameras. The experience lets users engage and explore the park with an interactive map, and hear the story from the bear’s point of view.
Bear 71 is produced by Loc Dao, Bonnie Thompson, Rob McLaughlin and the NFB’s Digital Studio, and the screenplay is written by J.B. MacKinnon.
The Rockies were handed out Tuesday.