THE CHANGE MAKING MEDIA LAB
PRODUCING SOCIAL CHANGE THROUGH TRANSFORMATIVE MEDIA

The Change Making Media Lab (CMML) mission is to foster positive social and environmental change by promoting research on effective media techniques and creating strategic high-impact cinema, television, and multi-media visual imagery to inspire individuals, organizations, and communities into action.  CMML’s vision is to engage community members to leverage the power of the cinematic arts to achieve health, sustainability, and social justice.  In pursuit of this vision, CMML goals are to:

• Support cutting-edge research focused on the multi-dimensional components of the cinematic arts and their effects on human behavior and their ability to produce individual, community, and policy change
• Utilize targeted research to inform, promote, and increase the production of socially transformative media
• Conduct post distribution effectiveness assessments through innovative evaluation techniques
• Enhance the professional development of new social change media makers through holistic multi-disciplinary coursework that integrates research and applied practice
• Build the capacity of public and private entities to affect positive social change by providing them with the information, skills, tools, and technical assistance resources to create their own socially transformative visual media

CMML brings together a wide range of multidisciplinary stakeholders from across the nation to achieve these stated goals.  CMML is now strategically housed within the University of Southern California (USC) School of Cinematic Arts, one of the premiere film schools in the country.

CMML CORE DESIGN ELEMENTS
The following components and premises form the foundation of CMML:
Initial Focal Topics – Health, environment, community advocacy/engagement, and social justice
Synergies Among Allied Fields – Convene and leverage practitioners and researchers from multiple disciplines including media production, education, sociology, communications, public health, cultural anthropology, clinical/cognitive/media psychology, marketing, visual design, multi-media technology, entertainment education, and community activism
Research Elements – Support research on the interrelationships between components of cinematic media and human behavior:

• Modes of Cinematic Media – film, video, digital production, web streaming and downloading, mobile technology, games, broadcast and cable television, public service announcements, advocacy cinema andemerging alternative media forms and distribution
• Stylistic Media Variables – elements of the narrative, dramatic theory, documentary styles, animation techniques, performance, design, editing, sound and music, interactive media, and new digital techniques
• Human Characteristics – age, gender, race/ethnicity, culture, education, values, cognitive/emotional processing, and behavior

Core Consumers and Beneficiaries – Researchers, academics, nonprofits/CBOs, foundations, teaching institutions, multimedia producers, artists and studios, public health entities, and community members and activists

 SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
Research and Information Dissemination – Building an Informed Foundation and Multi-disciplinary Synergies
Through partnerships with renowned institutions and researchers, CMML supports targeted media research to expand knowledge of best practice media production techniques to motivate behavior change.  CMML had and will continue to be a convener of academics, researchers, and media makers to share information and collaborate. 

Media Production – Creating Socially Transformative Media
CMML is a critical media production resource for entities vested in motivating individuals and inspiring positive social change.  It provides in-house production services on CMML sponsored media projects and supports projects in the community through grants and/or technical assistance services.
Academic Seminars and Internships – Advancing the Industry and Empowering Practitioners
CMML develops and provides academic coursework for students and film makers in order to nurture the growth of the socially-conscious change-making media industry and mold its next generation of leaders.
Capacity Building Workshops – Expanding Institutional Capacity
CMML will also be offering workshops to public and private entities desiring to develop or expand their organizational capacity to directly engage in media production.

Technical Assistance/Consulting – Brokering Resources and Building Partnerships
CMML will serve as a technical assistance broker by connecting its media production professionals with entities needing assistance in applying best practices during pre-production, production, and distribution.

TRANSFORMING A VISION INTO REALITY
Jeremy Kagan is the founder of the Change Making Media Lab, as well as an international award-winning director, writer, and producer of feature films, documentaries, and television.  During his work on the award winning 10-part documentary series Freedom Files (sponsored by the ACLU), which focused on contemporary civil liberty issues and critical citizen-led campaigns,Mr. Kagan gained a deeper appreciation for the important role of citizen-based and grassroots movements in affecting social change.  He was also able to experiment with a variety of cinematic elements and techniques in an effort to increase viewer awareness and action.   Inspired by this formative experience, his vision for CMML emerged.
In 2008, Mr. Kagan began to actively pursue this vision by partnering with a strategy and planning consulting company, as well as formalizing CMML as a sponsored entity within the legal and physical structures of the USC School of Cinematic Arts.  Simultaneously, Mr. Kagan also began approaching key stakeholders from across the nation to enlist the assistance and sponsorship of critical partners.  To date, he has recruited the following multi-industry leaders to serve on his Advisory Council:

• Ed Zwick, Award winning producer/director (Glory, Traffic)
• Thomas Schlamme, Co-executive producer and director of West Wing
• Kenny Ausubel, Founder and Co-President of Bioneers
• Steve Anderson, Professor at USC Institute for Multimedia
• Lester Breslaw, Former chair and professor at UCLA School of Public Health
• Kim Spencer, CEO of Link TV
• Doe Mayer, teacher, filmmaker, USC Pickford Chair
• Paul Stekler, Emmy award winning documentarian and public affairs professor at the University of Texas
• Michael Renov, Professor and Associate Dean of USC School of Cinematic Arts
• Nancy Lutkehaus, Chair of Anthropology at USC
• Belden Hull Daniels, CEO of Economic Innovation International, Inc.

Support from USC School of Cinematic Arts, its Advisory Council, and related institutions strategically positions CMML to achieve success in the development and delivery of its core services.  Extensive efforts are ongoing to continue to enlist advisors and partners from allied fields who are researchers, academia, practitioners, activists, and other key stakeholders.

CURRENT PROJECTS

• The Change Making Media Lab has participated in an NIH grant to compare the effectiveness of dramatic narrative vs fact based documentary in motivating behavior. The statistical results will be published in January, 2012
• CMML has produced a series of videos for the Brain and Creative Institute, TreePeople, The Doe Fund, the Democracy School and Bioneers
• CMML has put on conferences at USC on social media issues including on films from Israel and Palestine exploring the issues there and how cinema effects them.

Change Making Media Lab
•  Jeremy Kagan  •  University Park, SCA 413, Los Angeles, CA 90089  •  914-413-0318  •  ainsof18@gmail.com  •

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