The placements for the Bell Fund’s and the CMPA’s inaugural Digital Media Production Training Program were announced Monday.

The program, which was introduced in May, is in many ways a response to industry demand to understand how to make convergent properties work, as well as to new regulations from funders, like the CMF, which now expect producers to have digital extensions for their projects before they receive financial backing.

It pairs the six successful candidates with production companies, with the aim of assisting them in developing the necessary technical, creative and business skills to succeed in both the traditional and new media production sectors, and will offer hands-on training in digital media development, production, marketing or distribution.

This year’s program will see Sarah Evans paired with Apartment 11 Productions, Justin Evans with Avatar Media Inc., Thea Grivakes with Cinecoup, Baljot Bhatti with Mosaic Entertainment, Shannon Litt with RTR Media Inc., and Rachael Glassman with Xenophile Media Inc.

The 20-week mentor-mentee partnerships are funded in part by the program ($6,000) and in part by the mentors ($6,000), and mentees are provided with a stipend of at least $12,000.

Prior to being accepted to the program, the mentors were also required to illustrate that they had a project in the works and a clear plan of how to work with their mentee.