Two of Canada’s foremost television and interactive production companies, Kensington Communications and White Pine Pictures, have joined forces to create City Sonic, a location-based documentary film series about places where music happens in Toronto. The unique selection of short films, directed by some of Canada’s most inventive award-winning filmmakers, is about extraordinary artists and the places where their musical lives were transformed.

Just launched is the City Sonic FREE iPhone App in the iTunes App Store (along with new content exclusive to mobile at m.citysonic.tv). This app merges short films with GPS to create a street-level cinema experience of Toronto’s music scene and music history.

Fans of Toronto’s music scene can watch films immersed in the location where the stories took place using the City Sonic map interface, guided by GPS, or simply watch their favorite City Sonic films wherever and whenever they want. They can also unlock exclusive bonus content connected to each City Sonic location – from rare archival video to intimate live performances and previously unreleased songs – through game-based challenges that put them in the middle of Toronto’s music stories: testing their wits in a series of quiz questions about places where music happened, finding codes at City Sonic locations, and even unlocking bonus content by GPS, tripped when they walk past select Toronto music spots.

We set out to create an entertainment experience for fans of music and film that is geared to the very particular environment of mobile phones. With the City Sonic iPhone app, I think we’ve done that by merging high quality documentary films with ideas behind locative cinema, where place is really a key element in engaging your audience.

The series of short films features artists such as:

Geddy Lee (Rush) at Massey Hall
Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene) at the Drake Hotel
Serena Ryder at the Dakota Tavern
The Great Lake Swimmers, 2009 Polaris Prize nominees, at Spadina Subway Station
Damian Abraham (Fucked Up), 2009 Polaris Prize winner, at Rotate This

These short films were created in collaboration with:

Anita Doron (CFC Media Lab Alumnus)
Peter Lynch
Bruce McDonald
Rob Pilichowski
Charles Officer
George Vale
Robert Lang
David Oppenheim (CFC Media Lab Alumnus and Head of Development/Interactive Producer at Kensington Communications)

City Sonic premiered 5 of its films at NXNE and screened 11 films at TIFF last September as part of the Yonge & Dundas Square outdoor screenings, followed by a broadcast on AUX TV (Rogers Cable 107).

Watch a trailer for City Sonic HERE.

City Sonic has been made possible with the support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation on behalf of the Ministry of Culture. City Sonic is produced with the participation of the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund and the TELUS Innovation Fund, in association with AUX and with the participation of Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, the Toronto History Project and CIMA.

Two of Canada’s foremost television and interactive production companies, Kensington Communications and White Pine Pictures, have joined forces to create City Sonic, a location-based documentary film series about places where music happens in Toronto. The unique selection of short films, directed by some of Canada’s most inventive award-winning filmmakers, is about extraordinary artists and the [...]