The RTA School of Bite, a joint program between Blue Ant Media’s digital channel Bite TV and Ryerson University’s RTA School of Media, on Thursday unveiled the five final transmedia projects out of the inaugural lab. They are:

• Transit Tales, created and produced by Diana Galligan, Lindsay Ellis, Katie Blodgett and Marc Hallworth, is a mobile app for Toronto commuters to listen to comedic commuter stories triggered by location-based GPS and NFC technology via their mobile devices.

• IntervYOU, a two-minute interactive live action comedy experience, uses Facebook Connect and Social APIs from a user’s Facebook profile to integrate them into the Skype interview process. It is created and produced by Lana Maclin, Mike Kolberg, Emily Jenkins and Denielle Jackson.

• Woulda Coulda Shoulda, which follows four single twenty-somethings on their quests for love, is a TV, web series and app with location-based stories; it is produced by Paul Lewelt, Katie Blodgett, Diana Galligan and Denielle Jackson.

• Satirical transmedia series Big Sister, created and produced by Elizabeth Mayer, Lindsay Ellis, Marc Hallworth and Paul Lewelt, gathers a user’s information and plays it back through the fictional worldwide media conglomerate Big Sister Corp., which seeks to take over and improve the user’s life.
• Wild Thoughts, created and produced by Emily Jenkins, Mike Kolberg, Lana Maclin and Denielle Jackson, is a website hosting live-streams of animals belonging to well-known comedians from Toronto’s stand-up and improve community, who provide real-time improve and voiceovers to narrate the animals thoughts.

The RTA School of Bite program, which receives backing from the Bell Fund, was designed to help participants develop skills for producing next gen multiplatform comedy content, beginning with a group of 10 generating and refining ideas for content and delivery.

With the school acting as an incubator and evolving into a structure similar to a production company, the lab produced five ideas to be field tested through various distribution channels.

The final five projects are now being considered for further development with Bite TV.