c3’s Founder and Executive Director, Producer, Writer
“Over 35 years of professional experience in the the arts and the entertainment industries together with a deep interest and study of human potential, consciousness research and future studies has been my inspiration for the creation of c3: Center for Conscious Creativity and the mission we seek to accomplish. I hold an MA in Consciousness Studies and have been a student and practitioner of creativity, future trends in the arts and media, and meditation for over 40 years. As an artist, I work as a producer and content creator in a variety of mediums, am a writer, musician, and photographer.”
Kate McCallum is an award-winning producer, writer, transmedia consultant, novice futurist and artist who has had the good fortune of a diverse career in the creative arts and entertainment industries for over 40 years. Kate served as a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) National Board for three years, and as a Board Delegate on the PGA New Media Council for six. She was the recipient of the 2019 PGA Marc Levy Award for Distinguished Service, and co-founded the PGA SIE: Social Impact Entertainment Task Force which has produced several events for the PGA including collaborations with the United Nations Creative Community Outreach Initiative. Kate also serves on the Advisory Board of the SIE Society, is a member of the TV Academy Television Executive Peer Group and Interactive Peer Group, Chair of the Arts and Media Node of The Millennium Project, and a member of the WFSF: World Future Studies Federation.
Most recently, Kate has been producing fulldome 360 projects for Vortex Immersion Media and Moodswings, LLC. MESMERICA 360 is one of the most successful fulldome music+art shows distributed in the fulldome and planetarium market. In October 2021, Kate collaborated with a team to launch DOME FEST WEST as Co-Founder and Producer. Kate and Dr. Jacki Morie co-authored THE HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH ON THE GLOBAL IMPACT AND ROLES OF IMMERSIVE MEDIA for IGI Global Publishing which was released in March of 2020.
After graduating with a degree in Communications and Music from Western Michigan University, she began her career in the business as a page at ABC where she worked on such shows as MORK AND MINDY, TAXI, GENERAL HOSPITAL, THE ACADEMY AWARDS, THE EMMY AWARDS and THE AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS. She trained as a script supervisor then spent five years gaining experience in hands on production while freelancing on several music videos, independent films and a variety of TV projects as Script Supervisor, AD, Sound and Production Coordinator. Kate landed a job with the Executive Producers of the primetime comedy GIMME A BREAK then started working at Universal Studios with various Executive Producer/Writers on such hour long dramatic series as THE EQUALIZER, CRIME STORY, MIAMI VICE, THE HUMAN FACTOR, and half-hour sit-coms such as CHARLES IN CHARGE and TOGETHER WE STAND gaining extensive experience in the process of comedy and dramatic series production.
In ’92 Kate began a long-term affiliation with WESTERN SANDBLAST at Paramount Television where she worked as a Development Assistant to primaries/writers Dan Pyne (MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE 2004, SUM OF ALL FEARS, ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, DOC HOLLYWOOD, PACIFIC HEIGHTS, MIAMI VICE, etc.), John Mankiewicz (THE DIVISION, THIEVES, THE MARSHAL, MIAMI VICE, etc.) and director/producer, Aaron Lipstadt (THE DIVISION, THE MARSHAL, MIAMI VICE, ANDROID, etc.). At Western, Kate was involved with the ABC dramatic series THE MARSHAL and several hour-long network pilots. In ’96 Kate’s first made-for-television movie, WHAT KIND OF MOTHER ARE YOU? aired on NBC, which she optioned as a life rights story and produced with Alexander/Enright and Associates (credited as Producer, Kate Rubin). Promoted to VP Creative Affairs/Producer at Western, Kate created their long-form division and went on to set up movies at UPN (MARS-TV) and Showtime (THE BIG LIE and SECRET SOCIETY in co-production with Diane Keaton which became THE EMMETT TILL story with The Tom Lynch Co., and the late Gregory Hines who was attached as director), in addition to optioning a one hour series to Paramount which she co-created (GODDESSES). Kate then returned to Universal and worked as with Writer/Producer/ Showrunner, Michael Chernuchin in development at NBC Universal Television. Prior to that she worked as his development/research assistant on the NBC television series LAW & ORDER.
She left the studios in 2006 to join the core staff of the HARMONY CHANNEL, where she served as their VP Programming and was instrumental in the launch of this innovative music visual VoD channel on Comcast designed to inspire different moods to over 9 million homes. Her responsibilities included artist relations, acquisitions, licensing and programming of hundreds of hours of content, assisting in channel branding development, and producing interstitials and promotional content, as well as business development and research.
Kate then returned to her roots in classical music when she was hired by the LOS ANGELES OPERA to serve as Executive Administrator to Placido Domingo and the COO of the opera, and she also held the title and responsibilities of Board Liaison.
As an independent producer/writer/consultant and manger, Kate founded her own media company in 2005, BRIDGE ARTS MEDIA, LLC. Under the BAM banner, Kate has worked as a media, script and story consultant to clients with a specialty in transmedia development and rights acquisitions and has sold and develops transmedia content including; websites, books, TV series and long-form, documentary, feature projects—including three screenplays, as well as music visual content and audio and music content. Kate launched an innovative arts and music label, THE ART OF SOUND with client and composer, Winter Lazerus, and also a publishing line.
As a journalist with an avid interest in innovation and the creative process, Kate served as a staff writer for scr(i)pt magazine on the bi-monthly column she created called THE GREAT IDEA. This column featured Q&A interviews with feature film and television writers and examines the creative and the business development process of media; specifically feature films or television content from concept to screen. She has now served as the managing editor of Camera Operator Magazine, the SOC: Society of Camera Operator’s quarterly trade publication since 2015.
Kate created and co-founded the c3: Center for Conscious Creativity with Philip Horvath in 2004 an effort to create an LA-based think-tank and creative collective of artists, media-makers, futurists and consciousness experts to examine and explore the power of art and media to transform society and culture.
Kate has been invited to serve as a guest speaker, workshop teacher and panelist at several prominent screenwriting conferences and has presented such workshops as; NAVIGATING TELEVISION: OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITERS ON THE SMALL SCREEN at the Sante Fe Writer’s Conference in 2003 as well at the 2004 Great American Pitch Fest, CREATING CROSS MARKET CONTENT for the Southern California Writers Conference 2004, as a panelist at the conference, Consciousness and Media, sponsored by The Institute of Noetic Sciences in May 2004, and in September 2005 she was one of ten presenters at The Institute For Global Transformation: The Future of Consciousness where she presented on behalf of The Center for Conscious Creativity, c3. She presented THE TRANSFORMATIONAL POWER OF ART AND MEDIA, and HOLOGRAPHIC CREATIVITY: TRANSMEDIA DEVELOPMENT for The Reel Inspiration Conference, Tucson, AZ, October 2005. In May of 2013, Kate was invited to be a keynote speaker at the Asian Children’s Content Conference in Singapore where she presented the talk, “TRANSMEDIA, TRANSFORMATION AND THE FUTURE OF CONTENT” and a ‘TRANSMEDIA 101″ day long workshop. In 2013 she was the first woman to deliver a keynote to the School of Communications at her Alma Mater, Western Michigan University through their “Distinguished Speaker Series.” In the summer of 2014, Kate taught Transmedia Master Classes at Media Corp in Singapore and at the Hong Kong Design Institute in Hong Kong. Kate has moderated panels at VR on the Lot, Digital Hollywood addressing VR, and Emerging Future Trends Media and spoke at the CICSEP Producers Conference in Shenzhen, China on the Future in Media.
In an effort to examine the future of media and storytelling, c3 partnered with THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WRITERS CONFERENCE, and produced a conference in Los Angeles; NEW STORY PARADIGM AND THE FUTURE OF CONTENT, October 2005. Kate served as the Associate Director for this conference which investigated and promoted information and ideas about; emergent technology and new media, convergence think, and consciousness, as well as the business and craft of writing and selling media content creation. In November 2009, Kate Executive Produced an event presented by the c3, IMMERSE IN THE FUTURE: Arts, Media and Entertainment in the 21st Century, featuring keynote speaker futurist and author Jerome Glenn. In June 2010, the c3 participated as an official partner in RING FEST LA, a citywide arts festival, by presenting c3: VisionLAB’s inaguaral annual STATE OF THE ARTS 2010, a day long symposium addressing future trends in the arts and media and their potential to create a positive future society. Kate served as the Executive Producer of this event and moderated a panel and has served as Executive Producer with the c3 for several events since June 2010 including; STATE OF THE ARTS 2011: PRODUCING CHANGE with the Producers Guild of America New Media Council, a Millennium Project Think Tank, the STATE OF THE ARTS 2012: AMPLIFY with the EMA: Electronic Music Alliance, the STATE OF THE ARTS 2013: THE FUTURE OF FULLDOME with IMERSA, STATE OF THE ARTS 2014: MINDFULNESS, WELLBEING AND VIRTUAL WORLDS, STATE OF THE ARTS 2015: VR FOR GOOD, STATE OF THE ARTS 2016: A.I. FOR GOOD as well as several other 360 arts+music concerts, arts presentations, workshops and talks in The Vortex Dome at LA Center Studios.
Kate currently consults with Vortex Immersive Media, Inc. and is an advisor to The Studio School, based in Los Angeles. She has served as a judge for the ATAS College Television awards, the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center ‘s Hollywood, Health and Society Sentinel for Health Awards, The Jena Fulldome Festival Awards, and the Best of Ringling Visual Arts Department Award.
Kate was appointed as a Fellow for the Society of New Communications Research and in 2009 was invited to found and Chair a Global Arts and Media Node for The Millennium Project which was founded in 1996 after a three-year feasibility study with the United Nations University, Smithsonian Institution, Futures Group International, and the American Council for the UNU. It is now an independent non-profit global participatory futures research think tank of futurists, scholars, business planners, and policy makers who work for international organizations, governments, corporations, NGOs, and universities. The Millennium Project manages a coherent and cumulative process that collects and assesses judgments from over 2,500 people since the beginning of the project selected by its 35 Nodes around the world. The work is distilled in its annual “State of the Future,” “Futures Research Methodology” series, and special studies. Kate co-designed and facilitated a global survey addressing “The Arts and Entertainment 2020” and contributed a chapter summarizing the findings in the “State of the Future” 2011 report.
In 2013, Kate was contracted by Createasphere to design and produce an entertainment businesss conference addressing transmedia, branded content and the future of storytelling and emerging technologies called “The TransVergence Summit.” She also served as Managing Editor, curated and launched a companion editorial site to the TVS called www.transmediacoalition.com. In addition to the TVS, Kate also served as Programming Producer and Conference Chair for the DAM: Digital Asset Management Conference NYC, and Programming Producer for the Post Production Master Class in both New York and Los Angeles. In October 2014 Kate Co-Designed, Programmed and Produced Storyworld Quest for NAIT: National Alberta Institute of Technology in Alberta Canada and also produced panels and programming for CES and NAB.
In October 2013, Kate was invited to be the presenting speaker for Western Michigan University’s Department of Communications “Distinguished Speaker Series” where she also received an WMU Alumni Achievement Award.
Kate also expresses herself creatively as a writer, musician and professional photographer who specializes in hand-painted portraiture and has had her work shown and published in various publications. She makes her home and studio at The Brewery Artist Colony in Los Angeles California.
