A new YouGov poll for the Telegraph shows voting intentions, with changes from our last poll, of CON 39%(-2), LAB 29%(+2), LDEM 19%(+1). A two point change in Conservative and Labour support isn’t itself significant, but it fits into a wider pattern, with recent MORI and ICM polls also showing support for Labour increasing.

On a uniform swing these figures would leave the Conservatives just short of an overall majority, but while this is a much less comfortable position for the Conservatives than a 14 point lead, in reality I expect that it would still deliver them a majority. Polling results are projected into election results using a uniform national swing, but the Conservatives could out perform this if they manage a larger swing in the key marginal seats they need to win.

The Conservatives have very few winnable marginals in Scotland, and our polling shows they are doing much worse there. But if they do worse in one place, they must be doing better elsewhere to arrive at the topline figures. Alongside our national polling, we also carried out a poll of Lab-Con marginals in the north – the 32 Labour held seats that the Conservatives would need to win to secure an overall majority. We found voting intention in those seats to be CON 42%(+8), LAB 36%(-8), LDEM 12%(-5). This is the equivalent of an 8% swing to the Conservatives, compared to a swing of 6.5% in the nationwide poll – if marginals elsewhere behave like those in the North, this would deliver an easy Conservative majority.

Being aware of the latest news and interesting links, or operations of friends, business relationships and your audience; It is all possible because of the social networking website: Twitter. With just 140 characters you can tell to the word what you are doing, why you are doing it and why you want to share it with other users on Twitter.

It seems nice to being aware of all the news but my opinion about Twitter is not completely positive. You can see what people are doing but that means that they also can read your activities. Someone can follow you and you don’t know what kind of person that is. According scientists is Twitter a big playground for pedophiles. A pedophile occurs as a child and follow the young people. Besides that there are spread more pornographic pictures, also of girls of which in doubt if they are over 18 years old.  Twitter should be controlled, but that is not done.

When you are aware of the dangers of Twitter and you know how to use it, than it is nice to snooping through Twitter. I want to warn a lot of people to be careful with Twitter because there happen every day annoying  effects. In short, play save and have fun!

Dangerous to use Twitter

Social Media websites, such as YouTube, DeviantArt and Flickr, are great ways to share information, be it in the form of a video, a picture or just plain text. However, people tend to forget that a lot of these media-files belong to someone. How do these social media websites effect copyright infringement?

Sometimes when you try to find a specific video on YouTube, a pink bar shows up at the top, reading something along the lines of “this video was removed to copyright infringement”. Often the name of a company is mentioned alongside this sentence. This means that somebody uploaded a video that was not theirs to upload. Claims can be made by companies that theft of intellectual property has taken place and YouTube will be forced to remove the content. This process, however, takes a long time and the video has probably been ripped over a thousand times already.

Added video is a typical example of copyright infringement. Having been uploaded by “xxxbunnyxxx23xxx”, it’s another example of a copyrighted song – in this case “Sexy Bitch” by Akon, property of Universal – being used by someone that doesn’t pay royalties to the use of the song. Universal could have the video removed and the uploader sued, but since there’s such a massive amount of people uploading intellectual property that doesn’t belong to them, it has become a search for a needle in a haystack.

I can has torrents?

Social media, as cutting edge as it may be, does push the boundaries for property theft. Images, videos and music are made so widely available that the hunt for copyright violators has become near impossible.

Bibliography:

http://mattmauney27.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/legal-issues/

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/

Twitter, a social networking site founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, focuses on the specific thoughts and actions of its users. By using Twitter, users can type a short message – known as a “status update” – that portrays their current or near-future actions, which can be read by subscribers or people that stumble upon the tags involved with this “status update”. The question is, do we really want this much involvement?

In my honest opinion, about sixty percent of this form of microblogging is trivial. Surely, it might be a comforting idea that you can follow a friend’s daily actions by the minute, but are Twitter-users aware that the other 99.9% of the world can do so as well? Through this microblogging community, people tend to forget that they’re putting up more information on the web than they would want that creepy one-eyed, dormant pedophile neighbour to know. This privacy intrusion-carelessness tends to anger me as an internet-consumer.

Besides your every day Twitter-users, Twitter might also be used as a source of news. It’s almost a Nirvana Of News; any actual events can be shot into the Blogosphere as the event is still happening! It’s just a crying shame that there is no press bureau – such as Reuters – to check all these piles of information for factual accuracy, leading to a lot of people believing inaccurate or just downright false information.

Twitter, at this very moment, is but a hype. It has plenty of potential, but until it has been developed to an oiled machine that shows facts and stands firm to unwanted intruders, I’m not convinced.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101265831

http://current.com/items/89891774_twouble-with-twitters.htm

The future image of Twatter

In today’s world, it seems to be impossible not to use the internet. We all enjoy the convenience of emails, internet banking, social networks, or even online grocery shopping. What we tend to forget however, is the risk that comes with every account we create, every personal data form we fill in. Blindly unconcerned and thoughtless, we agree on the terms and conditions, despite hardly having read the first few words.

Of course, there are different risks one has to consider when it comes to internet privacy. If you create an account on Twitter, for instance, you agree that the company sells your personal data to third parties, such as advertisers. The danger of personal data being sold to advertisers is debatable. The real danger lies in your personal data getting in the hands of the wrong people, who use it for fraud. With every new safety measure comes someone who works his way around it.

The increasing speed in which our society moves, comes with the need of increasing speed in everyday rituals. Imagine one day without internet – unthinkable! Isn’t it scary, how dependent we have become?

The often mentioned problem is that of employers going with the time. Do you really want your future boss to see the pictures of last night’s oh-so funny cocktail party when he runs your name through Facebook? The video of you, drunkenly showing your nude dance, that your friends put on YouTube sure won’t help your career either.

Consider this and think twice next time: once on the web, your data will be traceable – even after deletion.

The most of you already know a lot about ICM. But let me introduce you my point of view about ICM.

As a program ICM seems to work very good for the students. It is separated into 4 blocks which makes it easier and convinient for the students. We have only two or three exams. The subjects are really interesting and give you some insights about the fild.

But here comes the problem is it really relevant for the student to study particular subject only 7  weeks. Is that enough to aaccumulate knowedge that later could be applyed on practice. It is a major issue – should the programme be more detailed excluding some of the subjects but concentrating  much more on others, or we are happy with what we’ve got.

Please if you have any thoughts about it leave a comment.

Since we are planning to make it big internationally we are hoping to get representation in different countries, starting with the United States. According to wikipedia there are about four or five big players in the line of talent agencies in the States.

Creative Artists Agency (CAA)
International Creative Management (ICM)
United Talent Agency (UTA)
William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME Entertainment)

The question is; how do we get their attention? Do I have to send out my “Burt Reynolds”-picture again, or is there anybody out there who knows an agent who would be perfect for us?

Social bookmarking is a way to bookmark pages online, into an account from a web page. This allow to organize, comment and tag all the pages you want, and you can access from any computer at any time. The advantages of this is the level of organization you can have, which allows you to classify and to divide into as many categories as you like; also you can make yourself a profile and share the links with your friends and colleges. Sharing this pages, they got tags, making them more or less popular, and easier to find along the net.

Mostly of this companies have their own tool bar, which allows you to bookmark  directly into your account. This is a really useful and simple system, easy to use and, all the companies have different characteristics. Stumbleupon allows you to navigate randomly into a set of your personals preferences; Delicius make really easy to share between communities and blogs; Connectbeam aim to companies bookmarking, and there a re lots more of examples.

Social booking is not perfect yet, there are a lot of issues to improve, one of the more important is that there are no standards for the structure of the tags, synonym or relationship between tags,  making difficult to look for things on the web. But besides this issues social bookmarking is a very good tool to take on count.

Federico Allende

Sources

Wikipedia

Delicius

Whatis

Stumbleupon

Facebook is the biggest social network on the internet, if their members form a country, it would be the biggest on earth. Social networks are pretty famous nowadays, specially between young people; but what is the thing that makes Facebook better than others social networks? Well the first and more important thing is the community. People makes this work, Facebook promotes more personal and intimate relationship, featuring pictures, videos and even applications and games. This is a form to share one’s personal life with the world, and be link to almost everyone who knows you. Another thing is the display, it is simple and really easy to use, people can learn how to use it really fast.

Of course there are bad consequences with socials networks, some people thinks that they share too much their personal lives, others that is too dangerous for kids, and they even said that it is a brainwash for the society. But what is for real? Well it is really difficult to say, the conceptions of each person, culture and country are wave too different, we can not put all the opinions on the same range, but we can said that social network is a way to communicate the world into one massive online community.

Federico Allende

Sources

Shegeeks

Facebook

Wikipedia

Compete

Twitter is a free social blogging on which you can send messages knows as “tweets”. This social network was born in 2006 as an SMS system, but latter started  more like a social service. With a value of over $400.000 twitter is use by several companies and politicians to promote their campaigns and news, between other things. It has became quite popular on the last few years, but still is no competition for the biggest social networks, like myspace or facebook.

In my personal opinion, people have degenerate twitter; thanks to smarts phones and laptops, internet is on our hand, making possible to be connected on every moment, so people are able to post at the same time the action is made, for example “making grocery shopping” or “taking out the dog”. Things like this are what make twitters and other social network pages just a list of things the people are thinking are doing, mostly with any kind of relevance for other persons. They just want to comment their life with the rest of the people, thing that is perfect, but they usually make it too extreme, it is not necessary to post every ten minutes, nobody care if you are taking a shower, they just give it the wrong use.

Federico Allende

Sources

Wikipedia

Twitter

There are a lot of rumors out there about the possible “Apple Tablet”. You can see the mock-up by one Apple fan below. A Google News search comes up with thousands of blogs and news articles written about the mythical device.

I have been reading great blogs such as Cult of Mac and counting down until the day that Apple officially releases the Apple Tablet. According to the experts we won’t hear much about it until January 2010.

I recently revisited a notebook I kept while taking graduate classes at Quinnipiac. It’s a notebook I started while taking ICM 501 at the suggestion of Dr. Halavais. I had a lot of ideas and most of them are closely kept secrets of mine.

One nugget that I liked was the idea of “merging the Kindle with a Macbook.” That’s what I wrote.

Hmmm… did Apple some how read my mind?!? I doubt it. They are smart people up there.

The content available on the Apple Tablet will be the draw of the device. I found a slideshow about how Apple could make it work. Check it out. What do you think?

This is the very first post! I’m studying international communication and media at the HU. Im a first year student and i’m in my second block right now! This block is called individual and the course i’m blogging for is called webskills, so i’m going to show my webskills to you!
see you later alligator.

“Here we are, here’s the ad*. It meets the brief, it’s bold, there’s great synergy between the visual and headline, it covers all the points you need to cover with some precise and compelling copy, the call to action is clear and it has your logo… BIG.”

“That’s great. Love it. Just one thing! All that white space, there’s room to tell them about the new widget on the 2010 wodget.”

At this point in the presentation you have a few options:

Option 1.

Drop down in a lifeless heap, bang your fists on the table and sob uncontrollably.

Option 2.

Dive across the table, grasp the unsuspecting client by the neck until you’re prised off and forcibly removed from the office.

Option 3.

Do exactly what the client asks, and take the money.

Option 4.

Explain why the white space is there and how it helps with the communication of the message.

Explain that it is not ‘empty’ space, it’s active and has a purpose.

It creates impact and helps the ad stand out in an otherwise crowded environment.

It provides a place for the reader’s eye and mind to rest, unlike most of the other ads in the publication.

It helps the reader to find their way around the page.

It ‘forces’ the reader to look at the elements on the page.

Without white space the piece will be heavy, cumbersome and difficult to look at, let alone read.

It’s like a sculpture, the space around it is just as important as the subject. Or a comedian’s pause before delivering a punch line.

And, there are newspaper editors who will tell you, “White space sells.”

Space is what we move around in. If we don’t have it we can’t move, rest, enjoy – like green space in a city.

It’s “Less is more”. You pay us for our key skills and a key skill is the ability to simplify.

The Dalai Lama once said that simplicity is the key to happiness in the modern world, and it’s good that your reader will feel happy with your ad.

If you’re really desperate, it’s THE page people will keep to hand to make notes!

But of course, none of this is relevant if the white space itself has no relevance.

_

And if your client still isn’t sold, refer back to options 1, 2 or 3.

___

* Could also be a brochure, web page, poster, architecture, art, etc.

__

White space at work:

_

_

#2 tutorial for the week had us learning the differences between a Faceboo Page and a Group.

Honestly, I didn’t know about the differences between them until that day in class.

So what we learnt was that FB Pages are essentially like normal FB profiles, but  are used to promote businesses, celebrities, artists, etc to FB users. Facebook states that “only the official representative of an artist, business, or brand may create a Facebook Page.” Its sort of like an “official” web page for an organization on Facebook.

So just like a normal FB profile, those who manage the Pages can add friends, upload pictures and have walls for friends or fans to post on. Pages are able to host applications too.

To create a Page, go to www.facebook.com/pages/create.php! (WeeKiat taught us how to Google it in class. Hahaha)

For example, 2PM’s FB Page:

This is where artist updates the Page
(in cases like this one, the artist isn’t the ones updating the page),

and this wall is for fans to post about the artist.

Note: Sorry  but I just HAD to use 2PM’s fan Page as an example.

Obviously, JYP Entertainment has done their homework and chosen the most appropriate tool to promote their artist on Facebook.

For FB Groups, they’re normally used for smaller scale interaction around a cause. All members of a Group can actively contribute content on the Group’s wall.

You can join a Group if its:

1. Open – anyone can join

2. Closed – The Group’s administrators must approve requests to join

3. Secret – Only members and those invited know that the Group exists

The latter two seems sort of ‘exclusive’ in a way right? Haha. But at least you are better able to control what goes on in that group.

Here’s the group that my ICM (Integrated Comunications Management) team created for our anti-cyberbullying campaign last semester:

By the way, both pages and groups can create events. Its just like FB’s Events application.

Some other handy features that Pages offer:

• Facebook Pages are indexed in search engines – this increases the likelihood of visitors finding an organization by Googling.
• Monitor visitor numbers and visitor demographics – especially important if companies need to find out who’s interested in them
• Unlimited number of fans are allowed!
• Pages have 2 walls for the page’s owner to write and another for the fans.
• Pages can also earn money from them benefit from social ads that publicize the fan connection between a Page and a specific user.

I have been so ignorant of all these features of Facebook, I believe I’ll have to be a ‘curious cat’ and be more inquisitive about these things from now on then. We would never know when we’ll need to use all them in future.

Need to read more into it?

Just visit these websites; they helped our class understand the differences better!

http://mashable.com/2009/05/27/facebook-page-vs-group/
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/facebook-group-vs-facebook-fan-page-whats-better/7761/

So you’ve written your script. What next? Get it out there of course and hopefully make a sale.The first rule you need to remember is to educate yourself so your efforts meet the market. Having said that don’t try to chase the market, but don’t ignore it either.

Do you know that 50% of movie goers are aged 16 – 24? Yep, for boys that means “Transformers”, for girls that means the “Ugly Truth” with a not so ugly lead male.

Then consider the 24 – 36 year old female audience who go to the movies without men. Think “Sex In The City” and “Mamma Mia”. Where are the men? Apparently we don’t go to the movies enough to warrant statistics.

Did you know that studios rely on about 60 – 70% of their box office from overseas markets?

You may have noticed the dire state of the spec script market lately. A few studios such as Universal and Sony have already used up their development funds for the entire year, or have had them removed to constrain their budgets. Some producers have purchased various projects for six figure amounts from their discretionary funds.

What genres have sold this year (2009) so far?

• Comedies (31%)
• Thriller (27%)
• Action (19%)
• Drama (11%)
• Sci-fi/ Fantasy (6%)

How many scripts did key buyers purchase this year (2009) to date?

• Sony (5)
• Universal (5)
• Warner Bros (5)
• Dreamworks (3)
• Paramount (3)

Who were the key sellers?

• CAA (12/ 32 – 38%)
• ICM (7/28 – 25%)
• UTA (10/28 – 36%)
• WMA – (8/17 – 47%)
• WME – (2/17 – 12%)

• Benderspink (3/10 – 33%) – Manager

These numbers are depressingly low. This means that Endeavour (prior to merging with William Morris) and Gersh sold less than 10 scripts each for the entire year. The other key agencies didn’t fare much better. However, know that through destruction comes reconstruction, so things will improve in 2010. Why so serious?

Of the 366 overall spec scripts that went out wide, 17 (5%) sold. February, March and May were particularly busy months with 10 scripts sold in each, to non-studio buyers. However, the desert that is the current spec script market has worsened in the second half of the year. Only 2 of the 140 scripts that went out wide sold, one in May and one in June. That’s a measly 1.4%. So, if your script goes out wide today, don’t expect a sale. Expect an introduction to create a buzz for yourself.

You know the drill…

Go forth and write my pretties… but don’t expect a sale in 2009.

Digital Hollywood, the standard by which all digital media conferences are measured, a gathering at the intersection of film tv music gaming social mobile, an intense, exhilarating, deliriously exhausting brain squeeze where the brightest in the business try to piece it together while moving faster than the speed of light.  On stage and off were blockbuster producers, award-winning filmmakers, showrunners, web-celebs, network execs, festival programmers, publicists, press and brands. Even other stellar confabs (Westdoc, NY Television Festival, Digital Media Wire, SanFranMusicTech) were there soaking it in.  Co-located with the Variety Summit, Gerber Rigler Content Summit, EPPS Summit and CodeSpace Summit, infused with fresh and compelling happenings like a pitchfest with acquisition executives and screenings of the Interactive Emmy nominee reels and a Sundance winner.  The networking was outstanding, the information gold, and there was never a dull moment.  So many speakers and surprises, it wasn’t possible to get it all.  Luckily, the video is up at www.digitalhollywoodlive.com.  And the Twitter stream at #DH09.  Below is just a small summary of what was said:

Neil Stiles, Variety
WSJ estimated YouTube earned $250mm on $1B in storage costs/year, puzzled by this, just don’t get it.  Hulu is trading analog dollars for digital pennies, CPMs gravitating to zero, when it gets to 5000 channels, everyone is a producer.  Every blogger is 9 years old, throw it up quick without regard to accuracy, leaving it to the wisdom of the crowd to clear mistakes. Web revenue will never be as attractive as print, if you spend money creating TV film content someone has to pay, consumers will pay for engagement, for what they can do with the content.  New models of content as a service, pay once, use in whatever form you want.

Orly Adelson, Dick Clark Productions
Our brand is our award shows, putting embeddable preshow online to drive interest onair.   There are an infinite number of eyeballs to attract so why not put it everywhere. Social media is a great filter, fans see something they like, they pass it around. With the Country Music Awards, there is a 200% spike in music sales the day after CMAs because viewers tell friends to check out the songs featured.  Would love to put  So You Think You Can Dance online but too expensive because of music rights.  Make great content and they will come…Paranormal was made for $11,000, now in 160 theatres, at that cost there is no risk, my kids said it was scary, when a film evokes a strong reaction like that you’re going to have a big draw.  Many are watch shows online because they don’t know when it’s on air, it’s easier to find them online.

Peter Guber, Mandalay Entertainment
Technology was not born 4 years ago, it was born thousands of years ago.  One of the largest owners of baseball teams and stadiums in the US.  Teaches class at UCLA.  Today you need to be a renaissance person, cant just be movies, or just be music. Started out in 1968 at Columbia Pictures when there was an elitism, tv didn’t speak to film or music, today is the greatest opportunity that ever existed to bring audience directly to the artist.  Can no longer think of yourself as a movie guy, landscape is changing too rapidly, the rate of change is 3D omnipresent, no longer linear, how do you stay present, its the beginning of the beginning.  Now things are being pulled by you, by interest, we’re in a sea change, can’t have linear philosophy.  We are no longer talking to one monolithic audience of a million, rather we are talking to an audience of one, a million times over. Will watch dailies on iPhone but not Forest Gump.  Regarding interactivity, may not be interested in changing the outcome of the story but might want to buy that thing on the show, so there will be an integrated benefit.  The opportunity to talk back and intersect with the host, the immediate audience reaction changes the outcome, similar to what happens when your onstage and you make a bad joke, you move on.  The medium will dictate.  Can’t be without a phone.  When producing a product you go after a niche.  Paranormal, the new Blair Witch, was made for $15,000, Avatar epic is closer to half a billion sitting in theatres side by side, does it make sense to charge the same ticket price?

Carson Daly, Last Call with Carson Daly @carsonjdaly
Launched TRL in 1998 in response to how bad music videos were on MTV, wanted to empower viewers to choose, in a way it was the beginning of social media on TV when we turned the programming reigns over to the viewers.  If only Viacom would have bought MySpace would have been able to get a deeper connection with the kids.  Now at NBC and at the end of the day it comes down to money, NBC is owned by GE, we need to get paid.  We still don’t see lonelygrl15 driving around in a Porsche. Last Call with Carson Daly breaks bands. Artists are fueled by ego.  Many older musicians don’t have much of a digital footprint, they want to know what’s the play, is it worth their time, takes a lot of time to post (Miley Cyrus, eh), make more money elsewhere, they want to know where is Twitter’s value? Post 20x/day to 38,000+ Twitter followers for #militarymondays, like the idea of microblogging but not that into it personally.  Would post a picture of my mom but never of my kid.  In 2006, got Kevin Reilly’s backing to take a fresh spin on AFV with IYS, It’s Your Show.  Went to the web for talent, lots of tastemakers online, recruited those with big followings, one was Brookers, the most viewed female on YouTube.  But the NBC.com people never met the programming people and it didn’t go anywhere.  At the end of the day, the bills have to be paid. As for integrations, used to hate the Coke on Idol as a blatant sell out but now I get it.  The DVR has killed the 30 second spot, so now selling integrations, pitch Chevy on Mary J. Blige getting out of a Chevy truck at MSG.  As long as you’re selling stuff that relates to my wheelhouse, that’s relevant to me – golf, girls, guacamole, guns, beer – no problem.  As far as cost, content creators need to start factoring into production the way content is being consumed.  Why spend to shoot in panoramic, why not tv ratio.  25y ago you could spend $40,000 to create a show for a guy and hope he watches but now that guy is not just watching tv, he’s gaming, he’s tweeting, he’s elsewhere.  Richard has invited me out to Hanger 8 but have an exclusive with NBC, so can’t, but if I was out of work would be at Hanger 8 filming, why not.  Fox has done things for $15,000 as well as $.5B successfully.  There is a cyclical nature to film that circles round CGI and Arthouse…I want to feel a movie again.  In some ways I miss the days of the movie star, as SNL’s Seth Myers puts it, today celebrity just means mammal.  Balloon Boy is a celebrity.  Go to Starbucks everyone is talking to each other but no mouths are moving, noone is looking at each other.  The good news is the value of the live social experience is on the up.  (More from CD at #w2s, here onstage with Mark Cuban)

Richard Rosenblatt, Demand Media, @demandrichard
Serial entrepreneur built over $1.4B in internet media companies, credits include MySpace and Demand Media.  In the old days they’d pay 400x profit for future platforms but it was early.  This is a great time now, we are finally at the point where digital and hollywood come together.   This is the first time ever the audience is telling you – who is that guy and what he wants.  In 2004, MySpace profiles weren’t real for fear of who was reading it, now on FB everything is real, pictures of kids, family, there is so much personal information on FB profiles. (Carson – it’s a big mistake, trusting too much) But you can now find 100,000 people interested in bocce ball, culling for niches has never been easier.  Even Yahoo is going open and shared.  When you know what people want, you can connect them to the stuff they need.  That’s why I bought eHow.  There are 100,000/month looking to make homemade detergent.  1mm articles, 200,000 videos on long tail topics with Digg features, etc.  Demand’s Livestrong.com has 6mm visitors/month allows Lance to bypass media, at the Tour de France he was tweeting from his bike.  Wife Brooke has Modern Mom show.  See Comcast/NBC as a good move, Comcast is very progressive.  Follow trends, to see where we’re heading you must immerse yourself in the technology first, FB, Twitter, try different things but make the right choices where to focus time, you can’t follow every company TechCrunch, PaidContent, Variety writes about, pick game changing trends, if a lot of people are doing it, there’s something to it.  Twitter works great for celebrities and marketers, great way to send links and filter information.  A great example is the movie Couples Retreat, critics hated it but friends were recommending it and caused a spike despite bad reviews.  Follow 5-6 people you trust, see what they say, with 70mm on the mobile web and 100mm tweets a day, a good search engine can filter valuable information like what’s skiing like on Mammoth today.  Twitter search is better than Google.  Sun Valley Media Conference chatter – 31% of retail companies are using FB connect.  People buy in their network, what to see what friends are shopping for.  As soon as advertisers can figure out ROI, the whole market will open up.  Regarding Chris Anderson’s Free, there’s always someone paying whether its the user or the advertiser.  If time is a scarce resource would its good to have the choice to pay then spend time watching commercials.

Stuart Levine, Variety
A lot of great shows this season:  Modern Family, Glee, Biggest Loser, Sons of Anarchy.  More watching NCIS than going to Transformers.  There is an enthusiasm for TV.  Personally have 37 season passes on AppleTV, watch 7 days later, some great shows cancelled due to bad time slots.  Mark Cherry has been talking about Desperate Housewives – when is it going to end (Lost similar), some shows have a limited life, want to go out with a bang. / What was a 22 episode season, we are now seeing more 10-12-13 episode mid-seasons. / The broadcast 18-49, 25-54 demo is antiquated, Viacom has it as 18-24, 18-34, everyone calls it something else as they sell to different niches.

Marc Graboff, NBCU
TV has a 90% failure rate, but the networks need to get out of the way and provide a platform for creatives vision.  People don’t realize networks don’t get paid for shows that are TiVo’d.  The numbers are off  full rating points because the DVR causes a 4 week delay.  DVR usage hurts more than streaming.  Networks don’t get compensated for time-shifting.  25% The Office and 30% of Heroes are time-shifted.  Being worked on by CIMM, the Council for Innovative Media Measurement, comprised of 14 advertisers, agencies and TV companies, who are developing cross-platform metrics intended to measure total audience consumption on any platform anytime. / At NBC mid-season orders not happening, difficult to accumulate enough stuff to sell in backend, 13 episodes is not enough. USA, TBS, TNT largest 3 cable networks take couple of hundred episode order, 5 22-episode seasons.  That said, with windows collapsing, perhaps 13 episodes can be monetized instantaneously.  Why delay syndication pot of gold for four years, why not take little bags of gold along the way.  / Audience is so fragmented, hits no longer pay for losers. Have to retool because of a change in consumption.  / Glad we’re equity owners of Hulu, remember Hulu was an antipiracy move, if it wasn’t on Hulu 24 hours after it was on air it would be pirated.  Hulu as a destination site for quality fully produced masters of the show.  Just wish we weren’t training viewers to watch programming online with so little ad viewing.  FOD windows, pay to watch earlier.  NBC.com is a superfan site, place to go when show is not on to interact with characters, creators, stars, chat, blog.  Then there is the blogosphere, twitterverse where viral word of mouth spreads fast, its a phenomenon.  Bruno had huge numbers Friday night, word of mouth was bad and numbers fell off on Saturday. / Regarding Leno it’s too early to tell, doing better than projected, will evaluate in 52 weeks, not affecting House at 8 or Law & Order at 9.  It’s a transitional year for NBC, Jay happened last December, didn’t want to lose Jay or Conan, wanted comedy to counter the crime/dramas on the other networks, this was the solution.  Impact on local news, everyone is down in the 11pm slot:  CBS 10%, ABC 11%, NBC 12%. / Higher CPMs with more targeted audiences, still need to aggregate eyeballs.  / Cable model is robust, subscriber base is there, free TV syndication not, cash license fees on barter, 30 Rock syndication all barter whereas The Office years ago was all cash.  / We’ve been guilty of derivative reality shows like everyone else.  Looking for next big tent pole watercooler reality show, not drama, comedy or next ABT, Biggest Loser.  Something fresh.  (Marc Graboff, NBCU also delivered EPPS Keynote later in the conference:  http://www.mobilizedtv.com/nbc-entertainments-marc-graboff-keynotes-at-digital-hollywood) Advertising scatter market strong sell in the last minute, % held back from summer upfronts.  For many years we were #1, not fun being #4, great projects in development with Bruckheimer, Abrams.  On the right path creatively.  ABC was #4 for awhile now ahead with Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey, CBS Survivor, CSI, Fox has Idol.  NBC wants a big fat reality shows that drives 20mm+ viewers an episode into the network.  NBC has its brand of comedies 30Rock, The Office.  Want a quality drama in the aftermarket.  A million great ideas, it’s in the execution.  Partnering with experienced  showrunners who can deliver 22 episodes of quality TV year after year.  / Branded entertainment – Bud Golden Wheat sponsored entire SNL episode and there were 9 minutes less commercials as a result.  Harkens back to Texaco Star Theater.  Product integration can’t compensate for loss of 30 second spots.  12-15% decline in upfronts will never recover.  Biggest shift in ad spending is from TV to cable.  Don’t know if it will ever come back.  Luckily NBC is in both.  TV is still the best way for big reach, mass audience – Olympics, Superbowl, 25mm weekly watercooler show.  Making shows available online has been additive, not cannibalizing.  Most avid viewers only watch half the episode.  Online gives a chance to catch up. And a chance to sample to other shows like Dexter.  The Office came alive on iTunes and made it a hit.  ABC.com, NBC.com, Fox.com stream online first before there was a Hulu, Hulu was the answer to piracy.  Safe legal environment to stream shows, not bootlegged rough cuts.  Hulu 4th most trafficked site.  Now its bolstering its economics. TV windows are collapsing, not watching Mash by default anymore because there is nothing else on.  No middle class anymore, hit tv drives revenue. Hits like Seinfeld will survive collapsing of windows.  Twitter and the blogs great place for instantaneous feedback, can’t control messaging, word of thumb.  Twitter killed Bruno, made Paranormal.  Glee @ Fox hit show because of tweeters, released pilot early.  Some tweeters are from the networks, plenty of that goes on.  Rebecca Marks at NBC culls social media on NBCU execs and shows.  Have to treat bloggers as journalists.

Mark Koops, Reveille
The Office the first season didn’t have the biggest ratings, but it did well for the network and they supported Greg Daniels with press, promotion, marketing, not telling him how to write a script. / Would have loved to have had Millionaire, the first $B failure continues to live on in syndication as a $B franchise.  / Talking about the cycle model, Biggest Loser took 2 cycles to increase ratings, now attracting marketing partners and advertisers on a more consistent basis, high-end sponsors:  Subway, General Mills integrations.. The only one showing up to watch Project Runway in the beginning was Laura Zalaznick.  / People turn up and watch The Biggest Loser and The Office because they know when its on, when you move the time slot the message to the audience is forget it.  / Mercy great scripted show on NBC, well cast, well written series, hope they stick with it.  / When you watch 24, you know you’re getting 24 original episodes, no more 3 originals with a repeat a week, with Biggest Loser (Tu you know you’re getting 32 weeks of original programming.  / House business model works, control cost of it, powerful storytelling.

John Landgraf, FX Networks
Don’t have a huge slate, 11 scripted series, still read every script, watch every rough cut.  Creative stuff is fragile, need to baby it and nurture it in its infancy til its grows to be a robust adult.  / Damages viewing is up 80% from DVR but don’t get paid for it.  Nielsen needs to be revamped, follow viewers where they are, FOD cable partners cant track it and sell it, as viewing experience changes, measurement needs to chance too.  Now viewing over weeks and months, not over 3 days.  / Knowing when show has reached its potential, this is the last season of The Shield (Th 9)/ Seinfeld was an acquired taste, an unusual show leading 25mm into it./Now when we market to live-only viewer, make it an event for the viewer.  They know FX will repeat it or can catch up on iTunes or VOD but they’ll never get back to it, a decision delayed is never made, need to eventize and market the show. / Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Th 10) is a hit show after 5 years, up 70% in ratings.  FX is not a network known for comedy, model is about less expensive shows perhaps taking a loss on the first run, but having patience to to grow it 5 years and turn it into a compelling product.  FX owns Sunny, and took it off of Hulu to make it available for DVDs and syndication.  Damages value to leave it up forever.  But Hulu helps with discovery of previously obscureshow, wasn’t originally in heralded group of comedies, Hulu elevated it.  At first made all 50 episodes available to find audience.  The Hulu ecosystem even with a hybrid of ads and subs can’t replace linear airing to DVD to syndication, need to protect ability to create hits or don’t have a business. / FX caters to a yunger generation, but no one really knows who is watching, multiscreen challenge of tracking elsewhere, STB data not accurate. /Audience is not as attached to big ticket, The Shield and Sons of Anarchy have proved you can stick to your overall budget.  If changed production value on 24 audiences would notice, needs to be the same storytelling, intimacy of characters in the bedroom, less car chases, explosions. / Every network needs a healthy balance, look what Idol did for House/ Look How I Met Your Mother, a single camera sitcom with no middle, no buzz, is going strong thanks to Neil Patrick Harris as the breakout star. / Want 100 episodes, when you get to 80, you’re in good shape.

Dana Walden, 20th Century Fox Television
Can’t have a mid-level hit get to 4 seasons anymore, need to have a property people want to watch again for a viable DVD, syndication, international, EST and digital platform business.  Depressing when you get a bad time slot.  Joruneymen – highest testing pilot since 24, plum time period after Heroes, no longer enough, see it with Lie to Me, got best time period, best audience, audience found clicker and its premeired poorly.  Arrested Development was ahead of its time, sure Fox would love it on air now.  FBC didn’t have right fit for it, it was a bit narrow. / Big hit in the ratings:  Sons of Anarchy, successful 13 episode oder international and home entertainment, big eventized shows on lesser orders/  Its not one size fits all, need to be facile, business changing quickly, don’t want to burn out new revenue streams / X Files released favorite episodes in one million different ways, consumers will pay for cult shows/ Talking end of life – Ideally you want a show that is highly serialized but not episodic like Law & Order with an outstanding cast. For a show like Prison Break, how many prisons can they break from, if you try to stretch beyond its limits you creatively hurt the show long term, that incredibly bad ending memory of an asset in its afterlife of syndication, etc.. Prison Break is hugely lucrative DVD, International people want to collect it, own it. / DVRs make it hard to monetize videos. / We have two great shows:  Glee and Modern Family, and the luck of them being scheduled against each other.  Miss one, watch the other the next day on Hulu. We support Hulu and are part of NewsCorp which has an equity interest in Hulu but it’s personally challenging to have shows available so quick after airing.  The priority is to watch on air, then watch completed master in living room via Hulu, better than bootleg.  / Meanwhile in the past 2 years cost of production has escalated out of whack.  Need to make changes.

Mike Farah, Funny or Die
Specializing in celebrity content (Will Ferrell, Chris Henchy, Neil Patrick Harris, Mandy Moore, Christopher Lloyd, Renee Romjin..).  No celebrities are compensated for FOD, can’t pay for content but video producers can insert their own pre-rolls, FOD has ads on the site, brands buy into the entire slate, higher end productions that get seen, free publicity, cheap effective celebrity content shot on short notice, not much to crack the code, look for quality and quantity for good diversions from work, training ground for UCB groundlings, hands-on uber-control, cost effective,

Mike Polk, Break.com
Known for nutcake videos, skateboard stunts, rodeo donkey, whatever is entertaining for millennial men, try not to turn off advertisers.  Site has series and one-offs. Branded content for Cheetos, Mountain Dew.  Produced hilarious video:  Cleveland, II.

Josh Spector,Comedy.com
4mm monthly uniques, now a guide to what’s funny right now.

Maria Kermath, ATT Interactive
Rebranding Yellow Pages for those born after 1977: Have to Eat, Drink, Snack, Pee.

David Zucker, Secret Secret Service, Airplane, Scary Movie..
Brand is zany comedy laugh-out-loud spoof.  Movies are in Oscar-free zone, get joke onscreen.  Shooting in HD – makeup has to be better.  Like to make people laugh, target audience is 4-11y, slapstick humor.  Classic 70s film aesthetic embracing new tools, with pre-vis make movie before you get to the set so you can show cast and crew what you are thinking of before they perform it.  Remaking Kentucky Fried Movie. Airplane didn’t lend itself to being a franchise but Paramount wanted a franchise. Naked Gun by contrast lent itself to unlimited adventures.  Uncomfortable doing R films, for brand of slapstick want to take it down to PG.  Mentors – Frank Wells, USC Film School, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Ted Turner, Weinsteins.

Brett Ratner, Beverly Hills Cop IV, X-Men
Billion dollar director known for Rush Hour Trilogy grossed $800mm worldwide. Brand is action thriller but tastes are eclectic.  Would like to make a ronatic fantasy film too.  Old school, stuck on film, not embracing digital yet.   Likes Canon better than Red.  Spielberg said Dreamworks sends list of top 50 YouTube videos a month.  Hollywood is looking or fourth quadrant – fun, family-oriented films.   Paranormal Activity  incredible film – huge box office like Blair Witch, it’s all anyone is talking about.  Also use pre-vis to show actors and crew how to move Golden Gate Bridge in Xmen, all action sequences were animated.  Mentors:  NYU professor, Dino de Laurentiis, Bob Evans “The Kid Stays in the Picture.”

Bob Osher, Columbia Pictures
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs just hit $100mm mark.  Brand is good stories with good characters well told. Character driven even when its for kids.  New kids every 7 years.  Don’t want to have a studio style, want it to feel fresh and original.  Animated films rely on A-list talent voices for marketing.  Pixar uses shorts program to develop young directorial talent.  Sony too.  Sony Imageworks 3D pre-vis tools allows for real-time re-rendering so we only animate what we’re going to use.  Even show pre-vis to marketing team.  Proprietary right now but soon enough will be a tool on Apple for 9y to use.

Ondi Timoner, We Live in Public, Dig! (Sundance winners)
Big Brother is not one man, rather Big Brother is our collective consciouness.  Internet is so insidious, technology is alienating, humans have a desire not to be alone, to go off the grid and have live experiences.  When born, the cord is cut, and we spend the rest of our lives reconnecting.  Secured all music rights in perpetuity for We Live In Public including track from Spoon, all music is on DVD. Oscar-qualified – abiding by windows – scheduled invitation-only screenings online.

Josh Harris, Wired City
Serial entrepreneur that proved early has little to do with sustained success.  Fan of Truman Show, edges between real and virtual, in 5 years it will all be on. Founder of Jupiter Communications, created chat for Prodigy, worth $80mm, blew it all on excesses of next ventures, escaped to Ethiopia during dot com bomb, festival circuit resurrected him, now living in pool house of Jason Calacanis, Mahalo.com, repped by WME, pitching Wired City, a competitive celeb-reality multiplatform game show.  In LA to learn how to do reality at scale with partners like Endemol, Reveille, Fremantle.  Maybe he’s got the next Intervention for Rob Sharenow, A&E.  We Live in Public Show in the 90s had an engaged online community of 1,000 – small even for niche.

Jeffrey Gordon, Writers Boot Camp
Email, texting, listmaking is writing.  5 story components:  main character, dynamic character, third party opponent, adventure, genre.  Beat out beginning middle end.  Write first draft quickly.  Need progressive dredge material.  Don’t quit day job to write.  Can do it PT, 10hr/wk, 6 months.  Too much free time not good for writers, writers need experience to make it more lyrical.  Plot needs to be character driven to care.  Talked about Ylse.com, high production value not easily monetizable.  See portals as marketing vehicles, companion websites to define and extend brand.    Don’t have to write a tentpole  franchise to be successful.  High concept romantic comedy is hot, action adventure fantasy and supernatural thrillers.  Seek sponsors, sell $100 ads/month to 10 people, or create content for other brands.

Kevin Yen, YouTube
Topped 10B video streams in April.  For $5-10/day buy search keywords to rise above the din on YouTube, allows you to put your video right in front of the person searching for it.  Not interested in being a gatekeeper, it’s becoming harder to tell the difference between UGC and premium.  Rightsholder should max rev from consumption of content.

Russ Schafer, Yahoo! Connected TV
Right now SDK is invite-only.  Public post CES, 1Q10.  Just had web/mobile/tv developers conference in NYC.  Everyone in household has their own personalized dock.  NBC widget allows for relevant personal ads, only serve stuff relevant to you, profile makes it a more personal experience.  In time, allow different economic models – pick shows a la carte or by subscription, all models can coexist.

Jared Tobman, Reveille
Reveille making money with branded entertainment, activate people around an idea, not a shill or product placement.  Promotion is the metric that drives success. Guarantee distributions when ad-supported with paid promotion.  CPA ads.  What percent of digital copies can be monetized depends on convenience, quality, immediacy – people will pay different amounts.  Better ways online than the 30 second spot you can TiVo passed.  Leverage talent across distribution channels, bring known quality online.  YouTube will build a model for reach and frequency, get redistributed in viral marketplaces and make viral video monetizable.  TV Everywhere is walled garden.

Keith Quinn, Paramount Pictures
Product strategy – hybrid of transactional and ad-supported.  Dr. Horrible was available for free on Hulu and paid on iTunes at same time, and people bought it.  Choice for consumers is good.  Windows breaking down in distribution.  A brand cuts above clutter.  Top 3 iPhone apps are brands.  Social networks are a great place to launch, mass opinion, curation from friends.  Add in microtransactions, FB will be pretty powerful.  $30-40mm made on Paranormal.  5-6 of iTunes Top 100 are cover tunes or mashups from Glee.  Journey is in the Top 100 because of Glee.

Jessica Schell, NBCU
Social media is incredibly important now, viral marketing complements reduced budgets, need it to get bigger audiences, making it portable to enable fans to share with networks, talent on shows engage fans and viewers, have that direct connection, bringing community onto NBC sites.  Go to NBC.com, USAnetwork.com for the network brand, go to Bravo, Sy Fy, USA for the show brand.  Loves FB Connect!  Port identity around web with you, warm welcome, when want a deeper experience with the show, notion of portable community, you can see your friends from FB when you show up on NBC sites, shows up on feed, lowers barriers to entry, no need to reenter information and create new profile.  Seek great tech partners via Peacock Equity Fund like EveryZing voice to text SEO product makes live TV searchable, provides transcript.  Moving beyond metadata to real-time data, valuable for an unscripted show like CNBC where you don’t know what they’ll talk about ahead of time, huge library of clips.    You don’t see a lot of cable content on Hulu, more braodcast content, TV Everywhere will have to figure out how to protect dual revenue streams for content producers.  Still early days, need to be a business model to support premium content without watching 5x the ads.  Kindle opens new revenue streams for content producers.

Kenneth Hertz, Goldring Hertz & Lichtenstein LLP
FB connect powerful platform, increased Jib Jab’s transaction flow.  Web levels playing field to get content to market but its the tyranny of transparency, content still has to be great: U2/BB didn’t move the needle on record sales.  Paramount’s Pranormal #3 watershed, went direct to consumers.  FB 80mm US, 266mm WW in 2 years.  Can’t launch new content widely in walled garden.  Gatekeepers were all about shelf space, challenge now is discoverability, how to get marketing and promotion to rise above the din.  How does good content find audience to be monetized.  Hulu earned $120mm, no profit.  Market is $100B in US.

Felicia Day, The Guild
Loves sponsors and are transparent with fans whereas McFlurry on 30 Rock seemed very sneaky, not sure whether it was paid product placement or not.  Become sensitized to it.  Prefer pre-roll, more honest.

John Fasano, Woke Up Dead
Have no problem with integration only wish Kodak wouldn’t have taken cameras back.

Michael Oates Palmer, West Wing
Mad Men genius at making product placement feel organic to story.

Eric Berger, Sony Pictures Television
Go where customers are, set up branded environments, embed video player on YouTube, provide DRM, control the user experience, incubating shows online.  Angel of Death went on to SpikeTV, DVD, put through pilot program online.  Crackle has 150 movies, classics, dip in dip out strips, take advantage of windows where content wasn’t monetized before, minisodes keep the story arc beginning, middle, end but super condensed, using the web to unlock library value.  Started partnership with What the Buck, has 25y under young female audience.  Doing well with $4-5/movie rentals on Sprint.  PPV does millions.  In mobile there is a willingness to pay, ringtone wallpaper, subscription movie service.

Neil Tiles, G4
G4 is owned by Comcast, 5-6y old.  Not highest rated in network space, niche.  Different programming tv to web.  Need to protect cable source of revenue.  From a scripted standpoint, web enhanced tv experience, partner with Stickam to bring in viewers, live to itneract with guests, talents.  Why does Discovery have Cash Cab? Has little to do with the brand.  Dynamic ad insertion tool help advertisers find the people amidst theis fragmented media.  Difficult time to plan because we don’t know what platform is next.  Can’t pull full shows online.   Rights issue.  Np presence in full episodes based on deal structure.  Force Hulu to put some free content behind paywall.  Comcast cable ops win writing checks to G4.  Bud TV sucked, BK doing it right.  Microtransaction is so key.  iPhone is conditioning people to do it.  Dialing 411 was a microtransaction.

Sab Kanaujia, NBCU
Solution is to aggregate eyeballs on the backend in order for the content to go everywhere. Seamless to the audience.  Valuable analytics to advertisers.  Get more uniques with distributed widgets, than on destination website.  Top Chef or Heroes widgets, deliver ads against them.  Mobile is different than web or tv, need to create content from scratch.  Value of compelling storytelling not going away, reaggregation is a huge issue in industry now.  Mass media has been dead for years except tentpoles like the Superbowl.  Need to reach out to one individual at a time.  85% sold out on video network, the rest sold through remnant ad network, other through bundled ad buys.  User authentication via TV Everywhere will lead to higher CPMs.  People will pay for gret content, microtransactions let you pay where you consume.  Watch FB, people will pay for what they like.   (Average cable home watches 15 channels, brands are comfortable knowing what they’re going on which is why soap opera model worked for so long, brands haven’t really migrated yet.)

Albie Hecht, Worldwide Biggies
Kids & Family animations, winner of two Oscars, launch, iterate, find audience, leverage to new media, 30% are kids under 3y.  30% of iPhones are sold to kids under 17y.  Going from web to inanimate objects, connected toy biz will be huge.  Manipulate action figure watch it onscreen.  Toys are a new medium.  Youth oriented virtual worlds interaction with real world action figure.  Future is interoperability of avatars, take monkey to another world with wallet and status.  Hybrid models:  media sponsorship, subscriptions, per use, micropayments, distributed hosted economies, gifts, apps, casual mmo, VW, if the digital wallet is easy to use, people will pay more.

Greg Goodfried, EQAL
Lawyer by background, partner is doctor, financed start of EQAL.  TMZ started online as a totally different production.  Need to treat mediums different in content creation business.  New platform:  UMBRELLA low cost monthly subscription, currently in beta, enables content producers to publish to website and simultaneously post it everywhere.  Arrington is the voice of TechCrunch so there is a huge added benefit to go back to the site.  Hub + Spoke approach.  Content can go everywhere with ads baked in. Paula Deen established broad style guide, brand look, rules across properties.  Umbrella will allow a blogger with a Flip who gets millions of views to make money with ads served.

Danae Ringelman, IndieGoGo, @gogodanae
Helps artists do it with others, provides free online audience-building tools.  Offer DIWO Live every Friday at Noon, a free conference call to ask questions.  Internet gives filmmakers direct access to fans, 1B WW, finance with crowdfunding, use the festival circuit as launchpad (bring DVDs, merchandise, take advantage of publicity), be everywhere your customers are, savvy sm outreach, Ted Hope’s power of $1, provides market validation, increases chance of pick up.  Participatory culture-offer value and incentives, know the basics: audience sizing, ID comps, production vs P&A, start now, production is the new promotion, capture emails, identify assets, VIP perks, post web presence, create pitch clip, determine trailer strategy, cross-platform engagement with audience, have a dialogue – ask questions, run a poll.  Engage audience via website, blog/rss, email, reaching out to bloggers, influencers, orgs, FB, MySpace, Twitter, Stumble, Digg, widgets, house parties, festivals, ask fans to request screenings.  Theatrical distribution:  Festivals, Fathom.  DVD/VOD – CreateSpace, NeoFlix, DiscMakers.  Online Aggregators – New Video, Cinetic, Indieflix, Film baby. Josh Kornbluth (Haiku Tunnel) using IndieGoGo to raise $15,000 for Love & Taxes.  Video sharing sites: YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Metacafe, Revver.., Analytics:  TubeMogul, YouTube Insight Tracking Tool, FB, MySpace, Bebo, hi5, Twitter, Digg, Yahoo Buzz!  Email:  Vertical Response, Constant Contact, iContact.  Influencer search tools:  Technorati, Blogger.  Use Google alerts to track buzz.  Press: HelpaReporterOut.com.  Daily reads:  www.indiegogo.com/blog, www.workbookproject.com, cinematech.blogspot.com, www.peterbroderick.com, www.indiewire.com, www.kk.org/thetechnium.  Lance Weiler’s $8000 film grossed over $4mm.

Matt Tyrnauer, Valentino
Clips posted on IDA, www.documentary.org.  Couldn’t have been made with film. Needed a small unobstructive camera for small friend to stand with under desk with boom to allow for intimate conversations.  Has done $1.7-2mm theatrically in NA over a 6m run.  Got a seven figure guarantee at TIFF.  Platform release in 4 cities DIY classic model, #1 grossing film for three frames for 3w in a room.  $1.2mm production + legal fees, flying crew from NYC to Italy, dress code, glamour crew, spent on helicopter to get a beauty shot of yacht.  Expected ancillaries to be everything – intl audience, DVD.  Don’t cut too deeply, spend if you think it will help you.  Niche: nationwide sewing groups, marauding hoards of midwestern ladies.  Valentino has 6 pugs, another niche film appealed to.

Courtney Sexton, Participant Productions
Food, Inc., The Soloist, The Informant.  Have social action teams to promote film.  Deal with Magnolia.  Often use filmmaker as celebrity.  Need a powerful sizzle reel.  Twitter was a huge part of Food,Inc.

Rebecca Yeldham, Anvil
LAFF director.  Shooting on video was a revelation.  Amazing what you can catch when you’re not thinknig ca-ching!  Not obsessed accumulating hundreds of hours of footage.  Forged connection with Digital Domains to find audience for film.  When Anvil presented at Sundance in 2008 docs were declared dead.  All art houses had folded.  Now market is alive again.  Had to convince people it wasn’t about heavy metal, but about friendship, not letting others define you, and never giving up on a dream.  Devastated after Sundance, had Lips and Robb Reiner as assets and wonderful director Sahca Gervasi.  Had to wait 8m til TIFF.  Became festival sluts because team was dying, incredible experience at LAFF, gave DVDs away to tweeting talent, generated enormous buzz.  VH1 executive saw it in Prague, fell in love with it, got sizable six figures, film was self-financed.  Screened for specialty divisions, spent a week at Angelika.  42 West excellent publicity.  Every attendee became a walking ad.  Reviews reverbed.  Fertile year cultivating word of mouth.  150 cities, still screening. Anvil was on Conan 2weeks ago, opened for AC/DC at Giants Stadium.  Doing a 40 city tour in January where the band does 3 songs at the end of the film, eventizing the screening, calling it the Anvil Experience.  Keep production costs as low as possible without compromising aesthetic, $300-400,000 doc budget for a 90min feature.  Epic quality not inexpensive.  But the lower it goes the better chance for upside.

Marina Zenovich, Polanski:  Wanted and Desired
Emmy-nominated.  Every film has its sotry, took 5y tomake, sold to HBO and Think at Sundance, Weinstein for international.  Think is now defunct.  HBO did a great job.  Conscious decision not to go theatrical.  Needed to pay back investors.  Had a small theatrical just to expeience it on the big screen.  Tragic brilliant historic figure, a holocaust survivor, called a malignanttwited dwarf, perfect villian, made big money, famous, controversial, legacy of wife’s murder behind him.  Must have interesting characters or its boring.  Not all films are meant to be theatrical.  Gets as much content as money.  When the topic is controversial, not many want to take the risk.

Scott Hamilton Kennedy, The Garden
Oscar-nominated, always retain rights to sell DVDs, have them at first screening, $25. Need strong story every step of the way.

David Gale, MTV
Not a golden age of anything, we’re at the dawn of the digital media revolution.  Last piece in the puzzle is distribution.  Amazed at the pitchfest, everyone had something worthwhile, democratization of media, for the longest time the hollywood gates were shut, now allowing people with true talent to get in.  Seeing new talent hadn’t seen before, more willing to take a chance, it’s not the same level risk at issue, question now is how to create a sustainable business.

David Tochterman, Versatility Media
Fuuny or Die just sold a show to HBO commercial cable.  Kold Kast, Warner 2.0, 15 gigs, Babelgum.  Longer episodes with mainstream extensions.  Guild, Dr. Horrible, Secret Girlfriend.  Revision 3 is now on Roku.  Funding, Audience, Metrics, Revenue.  Katalyst HQ and NBCU’s Community debuted on FB to large audiences.

George Ruiz, ICM
Atom, Crackle, Paramount, Revision3, Next New Networks, Microsoft are all paying for content. Big fan of Roku, interesting way to get content into the living room.  Seek talent with significant online followings.  The Guild was a great script targeted to a large online audience of gamers.  Also represent  Amber Mac, Girls Go Geek on Xbox LIVE, and Hoodlum, won Emmy for ABC Lost companion.

Justine Bateman, fm78.tv
20 scripts in development and were in talks with many brands including P&G and IBM, distribution partners including Hulu and blip.tv, but not CBS TV.com yet. Spend little, don’t incur overhead, don’t pay salary, completely mobile, do own PR.   Started studio during the writers strike when traditional distribution bottomed out as a workaround.  Creating something magical, know many directors, actors, formed many partnerships to monetize online web series.  Present sponsors with an ROI spreadsheet showing them the economic value of celebrity, ability to draw traditional press vs. how much that would cost as a half-page ad in People, a cover is priceless, you can’t buy the cover, what’s the reach 56mm people, a 15 minute spot on Letterman vs. how much a TV spot costs, $.64mm value for example, what the sponsor gets for their money, how they can reach their targeted demographic.  On finding sponsors:  Got in a room with Digitas, they liked what we were doing, met P&G and IBM on a panel.  When Nestle at the doorstep said I’m not carrying you over the threshold, we went to Candy Convention and met brand managers for Mars.  Had good luck with cold-calling CMOs and CEOs, chatting them up.   A TV show without promotion doesn’t work.  People won’t mistakenly stumble upon your hub url.  It’s a joke that the basis for the industry’s currency, the Nielsen ratings are determined by a poll.

Kim Evey, The Guild
The Guild owns IP, Microsoft has exclusive window, using New Video for other windows as well as Amazon, YouTube.   Microsoft profited day one from The Guild.  When Felicia goes on Jimmy Fallon she always thanks her sponsors MS, AMazon, Sprint.  They find it very thoughtful of her, that she values the business relationship.   Date My Avatar made it to #1 both on iTunes and Amazon with George and Kim on Twitter egging on 1.5mm fans – we’re at #2 let’s get it to #1, and a Josh Whedon blog post helped too.  When needed a retail store to line up in front of for a shoot, the natural choice was Game Stop, approached them and said what’s it worth to yo and they paid a fee for the integration and let them shoot in a shop.   Thanked them by showing it at Comic-Con in front of tweeting passionate eyeballs.

Paul Kotonis, For Your Imagination
Aggregators are the only ones that make money from CPM, not producers.  Not all views are created equal, a view from The Guild is not counted the same as a Rev3 view or YouTube view.  When does it count, 15 sec into it, 100% viewed, what about auto-play.  Have no idea what rate of completion is on YouTube.  Views don’t equal people.   (Edelman – Use media buys to drive views and engagement back to online, success metrics are is consumer making connection to brand.  ManiaTV – Need 1000 shows online to get critical mass online, need a quantity of programming)

Amber J Lawson, Babelgum
Where frat boy comedy ends, and evolved hipster comedy begins, political, timely, topical, female, sci-fi, celebrity, animation.  Looking to acquire content with brilliant concepts from producers with proven track record of building loyal audiences.

Kate Neligan, Lionsgate
Mobile messaging movies, can pre-order for TV.  Factor in budget for niche title to market home video, go to Ning, Fear.net for reach.  When it goes FOD (free video on demand) the advertising is entertainment.  Connected TV provides more on demand orders.  Stuff virally via Comcast VOD, push iTunes, Xbox in digital space, MOD focuses on the customer instead of blockbuster, not just push title but include platform.  FiOS widgets – what’s hot on demand, DirecTV apps.  From a PR perspective, have to drop content in and let fans use it the way they want to. Don’t know what the next best thing is.  It’s about listening, and putting stuff out there.  Try to influence and immerse, let them move it for you.

Gary G-Wiz, Public Enemy
Raised over $50,000 from fans for new album with the fan funding engine, www.SellABand.com. Aiming for $250,000 by end of year.  Artist direct to fan platform.  Like to see advances in media like ringtone consumption, IMAX – can’t be pirated, have to go to the theater to experience it.

Julie Supan, Ning
Ellentv.com, TwilightSaga.com is on Ning.    180,000 organize fan movements on Ning.  Incorporating game mechanics into platform, connect more emotionally in publicity campaigns, watch for virtual gifting, looking at Nokia feature phones, iPhone is only 10% of the market and on the high end.

Thomas Hughes, MGM
42000 little movies, 10000 hours of television.  Bullish on the space.  Aggressively distributing libraries in FOD, mobile, EST, can experiment more with deeper library titles.  Also heads up clip and still licensing.  Had a great summer with FOD.  Fall is tougher because new episodes are back.   Don’t oversee DVDs.  Stargate saw very little erosion in EST (iTunes) when added FOD (Hulu). People that want to own still download.  FOD is a supportive platform of EST.

Adam Powers, Rovi
Young guys 18-34y have a sense of adventure to play around with the technology which is why they tend to be early adopters.  (90% doing 5% of clickthroughs per emarketer). Current navigation by time and channel is clunky.  Rovi, formerly Macrovision which owns TV Guide, throws away the grid for global search based on name of show.  Total Guide will allow for better STB measurement of online and cable/broadcast content.  $3B investment.

Eric Gould Bear, Monkey Media
Seamless contraction, expansion technology, reduces amount of material needed on DVD for versioning.  1991 Apple shipped QT, 1993 NCSA shipped Mosaic, 1997 Toshiba shipped first DVD player in US, MS acquires WebTV, 1999 TiVo shipped first DVR, Matrix first DVD got people to buy DVD players, 2001 TiVo announced telescopic advertising, 2006 Samsung shipped Blu-Ray, 2008 Tru-Two Way, Comcast TiVo DVRs.  Build affinity within the context of the program.  Interactive advertising will drive functionality of the boxes.  (Right now it’s so clunky that by the time you buy the sweater the show is over, UK has the red button for interactivity.)

Geoff Katz, ATAS Interactive Emmy Winners
(metric of FB fun, $4 value of one fan)
- Stephen Andrade, NBC, SNL, Jimmy Fallon, The Office, 30 Rock
- Lisa Hsia, Bravo Digital Media, Top Chef
- Michael Benson, ABC, Lost (Flash Forward FB app)
(Alison Moore, HBO Voyeur)

Josh Weltman, Mad Men
Ad consultant that sits in writers room to make sure agency work is accurate, products integrated into story, some exist, some are made up.  Don’t know which are actual deals, not told, church/state, brands have no approval on how portrayed in storyline, everything is beholdent to the story, second season seeing more flexible brands.  Knows what brands want and how to integrate them to maintain integrity of brand and story.

Mark Ely, Sonic Solutions/CinemaNow
Understanding platform payment pain threshold.  Windows digital distribution EST, VOD, rethinking how to merchandise content, 10,000 sme free, portability is key, android app, iPhone app in development, not on PS3, Xbox or US Wii but on Wii in Japan.

Jason Rubenstein, Redbox
Movies are only 1% of video consumed on internet.  Windows collapsing won’t happen overnight.  Millions opt-in for email/zip code, double digit open rate, $1 a day DVDs, can reserve DVDs, return to any box, working on 30 second digital download on SD card.  Goes anywhere, don’t have to return it.  won’t always be a kiosk play,

Doug Sylvester, Avail-TVN
Fear of piracy causing the collapsing of international windows, used to be 6m or 1y, now same as domestic, but still need to pony up larger guarantee for earlier window. (60% watch 10-15 channels)

Ted Mundorff, Landmark Theaters
Some festivals are markets.  Game has changed, no one wants to make a film deal first time seen at festival.  Filmmaker needs to be patient.  Can always get someone to release it but can’t always get someone to market it.

Laura Kim, I Wake Up Screening
Theatrical marketing for NatGeo.  Was at Warner Independent, spent 18 years at Sundance, TIFF, Cannes, EFM, Telluride (since 1992-3).  Sundance is not hte best for business, 99% come back with no distribution.  Love LAFF, buyers, filmmakers well treated.  Slumdog world premiered at Telluride, great word of mouth festival, curatorial process makes it prestigious but little business is done. Sundance can be very expensive.  LAFF body of films are a joy.  World premieres balanced with audience satisfaction.  Want to show film with engaging filmmaker who will win you over.  Sometimes with the festivals its better to be highlighted than spotlighted.  Be generous with screeners, make it as easy as possible for buyers.  They buy because of critics not buzz, too risky otherwise.

Amy McGee, Sundance Institute
Most filmmakers feel they have made it if they show at Sundance.  Mission is to support the artist beyond the 10 days throughout the year with distribution opportunities.

Rebecca Yeldham, LAFF
Anvil was the centerpiece of LAFF last year.  Premiered, played teh Ford Amphitheatre, connective tissue betwen the industry, filmmakers and audience.  Hone identity of festival – balance blockbusters with experimental.  LAFF is LA’s secret treasure, largest festival in LA to a different level of prominence.  Sundance is a rapturous experience, programming from the heart.  Was at Sundance, doesn’t bow to industry.  Days of 7 figure offers are gone.  With 5000 submissions, surely you miss stuff.   In LA, the festival experience has to be compelling enough to get everyone off the sofa.  Not a destination like Sundance.  They live and work in this town.

Sharon Swart, Variety
Covers the markets – Cannes, EFM (market/fests), AFM (killed Mifed)  LA is a company town, Cannes is arty, less pictures.  TIFF is a defacto market for press, oversees buyers and sellers.  There used to be a stigma 5-6y ago direct to VOD but no longer.

Rooftop Comedy, MGM, Fox…
http://www.mobilizedtv.com/marketing-hollywood-cross-platform-branding
http://www.mobilizedtv.com/digital-holllywood-discussing-broadband-content

International Academy of Web Television
In addition to all that was going on at Digital Hollywood there was also the inaugural meeting of the IAWTV.  Festively gathered were Felicia Day of The Guild, Ned Cantu of NYTVF, Tim Street of French Maid TV, George Ruiz of ICM, Dina Kaplan, of blip.tv, Drew Baldwin of Tubefilter, Jim Louderback of Revision 3 (releasing first scripted comedy series, Web Zeroes), Justine Bateman and Dominik Rausch of Easy to Assemble and many others.  The IAWTV is putting a call out to grow its 100+ membership to better process Streamys submissions, 100,000+ were submitted for 2009.  Dues are free through 2008, $90 for 2010, benefits include peer groups, voting, tickets, directory listing, industry events discounts, job listings, newsletter..  2010 Streamys tentatively set for April 11, venue TBA.  (1300 attended the first at the Wadsworth Theater.)  Next meeting is at NATPE in Vegas.  For membership details, email membership@iawtv.org or visit www.iawtv.org. Here’s video from the follow-on Hollywood Web Television Meetup: www.stickam.com/tubefilter.

One of our favorite organizations is International Cooperating Ministries, a:

non-profit, trans-denominational Christian organization that works toward the mission of nurturing believers and assisting church growth worldwide. With our partners, we leverage simple church growth principles to see our vision of growth in the faith of individual believers, the number of people within each church, and the number of churches within a nation-truly actualizing Christ’s commission to “make disciples of all nations!”

They primarily build churches (roughly $7,000 each) and church/orphanages (roughly $25,000).  The church/orphanages are exciting projects because they not only help the local church and the orphans, but the widows who take care of the orphans as well.

They use a “web” approach, so that each church that receives a building needs to help 5 other churches start in their vicinity. 

They offer a “mini-Bible college” to help the churches have sound doctrine.

One of the things I like about them is that their administrative costs are paid for by a foundation, so 100% of what you give goes straight to the projects.

They build churches around the world, including many countries where persecution is rampant. 

Check out their web site and see what you think.  You might want to donate or get a group to raise funds for a church.  Perhaps you’ve been seriously blessed and could pay for a whole church yourself!  Think about that for a while.  It is a great way to encourage other believers, help widows and orphans, and spread the Gospel!  Who knows, you might get to go visit them someday in this life, but if you are a believer you can be sure you’ll catch up with them in Heaven someday.

As Jesus said, where your treasure is there your heart will be also.  When you donate to projects around the world your heart will go there as well.

Here is an example of a group in need, Project # 09IN12788TAM — This congregation lives in Uttar Pradesh, one of the most unreached and militant states of India with 20% Muslim and nearly 80% Hindu. Evangelism is much more dangerous here and Christians often suffer religious persecution.  From the pastor, Ram Prakash:

I had a vision to spread the Word of God. The Lord helped me hold meetings in my house with five people in 2000. The gatherings increased to forty or more; we rented a house, and more came. In 2001 – 2003, there were many kinds of difficulties. In some areas, police took up against ministries. In the midst of this, many people came forward and were baptized, and God allowed us to spread to adjoining districts.

In the last eight years, God has been so faithful. Now we have more than 100 people and more than that have been baptized. Due to the lack of facilities, many cannot come every week. I pray God will allow us to build a church soon.

Can God’s People be Unified?

One of my organizations main desire, goal and purpose is to unite God’s people…more specifically God’s shepherds: Pastors. When we set up a new office/region, we begin to gather all the pastors in the surrounding area (up to about a 3 hours diameter). Within the 1st year we have about 100 or more pastors get linked with us.

Why do so many pastors partner with us?

Because we accept them. Their education. Their doctrine (they are required to sign our basic statement of faith to receive our main programs). Their baggage. Their weaknesses. We bring them together monthly to encourage them and build them up. As we get to know them and start working hand-in-hand with them, we find out that some of them have bad feelings towards another pastor. Many times that pastor lives in the same Municipality and sometimes even in the same Barangay. Sometimes the issues runs back for years. Other times a recent conflict emerged that came about from a member transferring between the 2 churches. And unfortunately, sometimes it was our program that caused them to transfer. When the conflict came about because of us, we always try and deal with it as best as possible. We try and hear both sides of the story. We try and encourage them to meet together to resolve it. Most of the time, they forgive and we all move forward; now we are unified.

By God’s grace, He’s used our organization to bring down dividing walls. Unite His leaders by reminding them of our singular calling: caring for the body of Christ. Normally within 3-4 years of operations we’ve connected with 300-400 pastors and most of them like each other. This has a huge impact; it brings glory to God, for our love for one another, and it allows for pastors to work together. They can have pier friendships. They can join up to do projects. They can help each other out in difficult times. They can challenge one another to be more like Jesus. And they can live as an example to their “sheep” on what living in unity means! And we all know visuals are much more powerful than words.

Of course unity has not been fully achieved and will never be (because we are all broken people), but by God’s grace examples are being set. And we can pray that those examples will continue to inspire His people even in areas outside of our operations.

What is twitter actually? For some people it’s a way to share their feelings, for other people it is hell and it has to die. Why?

There are 2 kinds of people, twitter lovers and twitter haters. Either you like it or you hate it. The haters mostly think that it’s another way to share feelings and things that happen to people. Of course nobody reads it (according to the haters) so it’s useless! That makes the whole twitter thing unnessesairy.

The other kind of people are the twitter lovers. They post everything on twitter that they are going trough. Don’t be surprised when somebody posts “going to the bathroom now” or “sitting down now”.

Personally i’m on either one of the sides. I’ve got a twitter account myself, but I usually don’t do more than 4 posts a day, while some people even post (or tweet, for the lovers) every minute.

Besides that, I think that twitter can be a good marketing instrument. A lot of famous people have twitter, and by that way everybody can take a look in their personal lives. Which is great. Furthermore those celeberities will post information about their latest album, movie or tour. And so they hope to get some new souls involved in their business.