By Levi Shapiro

Israeli-born director Oren Moverman

Hollywood is throwing itself a party this evening. Unfortunately, in the business of specialty film there is little to celebrate - 2009 was a year of record losses. A glut of more than 420 specialty films were dumped on the market last year but less than 10 percent were profitable. Production costs for films with stars attached averaged $8 million (before marketing) but earned only $1.7 million.

In this environment, specialty units at Warner, Paramount and Disney have been shuttered or severely curtailed. This has opened the door for newer, more nimble entrants, like Beastie Boy (aka Nathaniel Hornblower, aka MCA) Adam Yauch. His two year old indie distributor Oscilloscope Labs acquires films on the festival circuit while maintaining low overhead. The process generated two Academy Award nominations for The Messenger from first-time, Israeli-born director Oren Moverman. The commercial and critical success of The Messenger suggests a path to profitability for other film-makers:

* low overhead

* story integrity

* built-in audiences

* artistic risks

The indie-film model of this decade is based on Miramax of the nineties. Harvey Weinstein's formula included nurturing talented young film-makers (Quentin Tarantino, Gus van Sant, etc), picking stories with built-in audiences and aggressive promotion to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. This yielded mega-hits like Pulp Fiction and Chicago ($213 million and $306 million) plus Oscar sweeps such as The English Patient (nine) and Shakespeare in Love (seven).

Adam Yauch, Beastie Boy and aspiring movie mogul

In the new indie-film economics, writer/director Oren Moverman incorporates a different formula for The Messenger. The film is about two members of the Contact Notification Office in the US Army. Their job is to inform the next of kin about the death of a loved one.

Continue reading "The Only Successful Model for Indie Film " »

Cablevision, more recently in the news for their brew ha ha with Scripts network and currently with ABC/Disney over carriage fees is innovating.

With their announcement of a "First-of-its-Kind Service That Will Seamlessly Connect Computer and Television Screens With the Press of a Button", I wonder where the lines between iTV, IPTV and cable will merge? Read the press release

The PC (MAC, later on) will allow users to view content from sites like Hulu and YouTube on their TV sets in addition to personal media, photos, videos and music, this much like Tivo does now I'd imagine with an assigned IP address. What's interesting other then innovation and Cablevision in the same sentence are some productivity apps such as email, and documents though there is no word if these are their own apps, opensource or commercial software.

What's potentially interesting is having capabilities without the need for additional boxes (though no word if you'll be able to use your PC as a DVR bi-directionally) especially if you can use your existing software apps within a multi-taking environment though I've not seen a UI come close in terms of ease of use and navigability to Tivo and I've seen most of them...

After viewing the film, Beer Wars, via VOD (full disclosure, I'm a long time craft beer purist) I was impressed with not only the content of the film (not that I'm giving anything away here but the beer lobby: NBWA is in bed with Congress) but with the production I reached out to Anat Baron, the Producer to discuss Indie production as it relates to Internet distribution. What follows is our conversation.

ipTVe
How did you approach web distribution, what were your expectations early on, did they change?

Anat
Web distribution came after the theatrical premiere and DVD release. And is simultaneous with the on demand release on cable and satellite. I wanted to make the film available to everyone with a TV or computer. We just launched on February 1st and the film is available for download on iTunes, Amazon VOD and Netflix streaming. Expectations were low but we were #3 top rental and #5 top sales on iTunes documentaries the first week (we were featured on the home page for movies). The film reached #2 on IMDb most popular documentaries in week 2 then fell to #5 in week 3.

ipTVe
What lessons did you learn about where the Internet is with respect to distribution, marketing and building community?

Anat
I've had a tough time getting the word out through traditional media. Having Anheuser-Busch as the evil empire in the film means that networks/TV stations are afraid of losing ad dollars if they promote my film. I've used social media to get the word out.

I built a community on Twitter and got people to follow me @beerwars and @beerwarsmovie, and also set up a Facebook fan page. We linked it all together through the film's website and hub: http://beerwarsmovie.com

Initially I used the trailer and deleted scenes to bring attention to the film and also started a blog. This allowed people to get a sense of the film and also of my voice. I learned that people like to be talked with and not to. The more I made conversations personal, the sooner i responded directly, the more viral things became. On April 16th, the day of the film's live premiere, Beer Wars was a trending topic on Twitter. The same day that Ashton Kutcher reached the million follower mark. That was pretty cool.

(view the trailer on the extended page)

Continue reading "A Conversation with Beer Wars Producer Anat Baron" »

By Levi Shapiro

Kelly Tedesco is easy to reach on her phone - as long as you send a text message or IM. "Anyone who leaves a voice mail is either a stalker or my mother," says the 27-year-old from Irvine, California. Data services (such as mobile internet and SMS) now account for 30 percent of monthly wireless bills in the US, and 50% in Japan. However, unlike the internet, consumers like Kelly Tedesco are actually spending REAL money for mobile applications and services. According to Morgan Stanley, 95% of mobile application revenue comes from e-Commerce and subscriptions.
At the Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona, no less than 72 Israeli mobile companies are exhibiting, many of whom are providing the next generation of services and applications for customers like Kelly. Among this group, below are 10 mobile companies to watch in 2010.

Serial entrepreneur Rani Cohen wanted to access the lyrics for a Coldplay song while listening on his iPhone. That simple idea has led to more than 6 million downloads of lyrics and a database of 2.7 million songs. Investors include Motorola, Telia Sonera and DoCoMo. The next stage is to leverage that user base to broaden adoption of Tunewiki's mobile player as well as introduce music-related mobile games. According to Rani, "our Media Player will be available as a white label and some of the biggest companies in mobile will use it as their default player." In addition, "we will offer a game that can be easily implemented for any song in any language." www.tunewiki.com

Continue reading "10 Israeli Mobile Companies to Watch in 2010 " »

In a memorandum to staff members, the ABC News president David Westin said the "transformation" would result in a leaner, smaller news division. "The time has come to rethink how we do what we are doing," Mr. Westin wrote.

Those who have been through layoffs and departmental riffs will find Mr. Westin's request for "your help in making sure that we are as strong as we can be" a hollow pr blurb.

Further, his specific comments which can be found at mediaite include:

The use of digital solutions (Flip cameras, NLE's, Live Capture/transmission technologies) all makes sense from a fast news reporting and ROI perspective. The question remains will the quality of journalism because reporters will now produce their own content result in more accurate and unfiltered reporting?, I doubt it.

The downward costs of hardware and software in the ENG process, i.e. a Flip could be acceptable footage if the story is important enough, it use to require a 20-40k camera with a two-person crew with audio and lighting, this trend has been happening for a long while, I think it all started when the VideoToaster came out in the early '90's. Many news and radio outlets are equipping their staffers with other similar small form-factor cameras to capture events on-the-fly, this will only accelerate..

By Art Brodsky, Public Knowledge

There's no getting around the fact that the Internet will be the lifeblood of independent filmmakers and videographers. You will need it to make your products, to edit collaboratively and, most of all, to have a distribution mechanism so that the public can see what it is you have produced.

It's not secret that the media business is being consolidated. The Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will review the purchase of a major television network/film studio/cable channel supplier by the largest provider of broadband services. Congress has already held hearings on the Comcast takeover of NBC Universal. Even some members of Congress who favor the merger have even raised questions about how the deal would affect independent producers. In not too short a time, it will be the Internet or next to nothing in terms of distribution.

In order for online distribution to be a realistic alternative, however, the Internet has to be a transport medium favorable to independent filmmakers. That means two things. First, the technology of the Internet network has to be of sufficient speed and quality so that movies can be transmitted for viewing smoothly and easily, and that the consumer has a smooth viewing experience without stops and starts, and of sufficient deployment and affordability so that consumers will have the opportunity to take advantage of

Continue reading "Open Internet For All Indie Filmmakers?" »

By Levi Shapiro

This year's "Best Music Video" Grammy nominees included Coldplay, Black Eyed Peas, Depeche Mode - and playwright, children's book author, theater director and Indie musician Oren Lavie. Using a budget of $6,000, simulation software and alternative marketing platforms like iTunes, YouTube and a Chevrolet commercial, "Her Morning Elegance" has garnered more than 10 million YouTube views and a Grammy nomination. "No one is more surprised than me," says Oren. "This journey has taught me to remain true to what you think is good and find the best collaborators. The buzz just happened. There really are no shortcuts."

After releasing the album in Europe in 2007, Oren was unable to find a major US record label willing to distribute the album.Then in 2008, "Her Morning Elegance" was featured in the US for a Chevy Malibu commercial. "There is some irony there because I have never owned a car," says Lavie. The increased awareness allowed Oren to self-release the album in the US and fund the innovative, but low cost, stop-motion music video. The song was soon featured on the front page of iTunes as "Free Download of the Week," with over 200,000 downloads in a single week.

Continue reading "The Power of a Great Idea " »

By Gilbert B. Hammer

With a calm request Vidar Brekke, CEO of Social Intent called the networking group to order - all chatter ended and Vidar opened the meeting. I gather he'd be at home leading a group of 100 people as well - some people are natural organizers and leaders and Vidar strikes me as just that sort. With a background at Fortune 500 companies, Vidar was also a strategist at Ogilvy where he served IBM with sharp customer insights and analysis; as a VP of Marketing for JPMorgan Chase.

Along with partner, Vineel Shah co-founder of Social Intent they have created a social media company geared for ideation, strategy, software engineering and executive education. From my perspective on the last area many a Fortune 1000 company for that matter could use some web 2.0 integration and execution guidance, Vidar and Vineel are suited for the task.

One of the applications that caught my eye and has tremendous application is their RealTime iPhone application. It would be a simplification to just call this a Twitter application for the iPhone, I'd call it a cross between social media interaction, images and video app, with the advent of the iPad looming the larger form factor could be really compelling especially for opening websites and online video.

Initially geared for Football fans, it aggregates feeds from players who are tweeting, this along with links which are embedded in a tweet and can spawn a website. Of course there are the customary share with friends tools, this via Facebook or email. There is a nice Wikipedia entry for every player, this accessed by clicking on the players photo. Of course what would there be without the press and their analysis of the action? Its there, chatter from local reports as well as fan clubs. What is really nicely done is Blog integration of the content for bi-directional sharing and community.

So this is just a Football app? Not even close.... What is rather compelling about the platform is that Vidar and Vineel have created an open platform for use in almost any vertical from fashion to reality TV...

Continue reading "Social Intent - RealTime® - A iPhone Social Media, Twitter, Video, etc.. App" »

By Lynda Bauer

NJIT EDC @ 211 Warren Street, Newark, NJ

When Gilbert Hammer, Editor ipTV, suggested checking out NJIT's Enterprise Development Center, I was curious. Located in Big Pharma's back yard, NJIT has one of the country's most active technology incubators in the country. Though it regularly spawns new medical device and pharmaceutical ventures, it is by no means limited to Life Sciences. NJIT's School of Architecture and Engineering keeps green tech discovery and design flowing though while the Capstone computer lab keeps students rolling out more apps for the insatiably social.

From the first session, the process was interactive. Unlike "boot camps" offered by celebrity entrepreneurs or Ivy league corporate off-sites, NJIT's incubator goes well beyond disseminating high level contacts and workshop highs to deliver organizational behavioral change. In just four days, business owners (and 4 team members) develop, streamline and present their offering to investors for less than the cost of a room at the Plaza! The State of New Jersey through tenacious efforts of Judith Sheft, AVP, Tech Dept, wisely funds the difference.

Presented by Dr. Aron S. Spencer, Founder, InVenture, and professor with the School of Management, the incubator boot camp delivers Supercoach® Entrepreneurial Training (SET). Professor Spencer is, as Brian Spencer from Vurtego stated ".... part of a rare breed that can communicate effectively with the CEO types AND the CTO types. .."

Continue reading "NJIT EDC Venture Acceleration Bootcamp" »

By Levi Shapiro

Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia

This week, the world's fifth most popular website celebrates a birthday - Wikipedia is nine years old. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales spoke with me about the site and the transformation it has wrought in the philosophical, commercial and political spheres.

While participatory web culture has its weaknesses, it does increase the quantity and diversity of information. Wikipedia promises an internet that is more than just YouTube slapstick and viagara spam, says Wales. "We make the internet suck less."

Where else could you find articles like these:

Infinite Monkey Theory
Buttered Cat Paradox
Festivus
Bladderball

Infinite Monkeys Theory: A monkey hitting a typewriter at random for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text

Today, one third of the world's internet population accesses Wikipedia's 15 million entries, in more than 100 languages, powered by thousands of volunteer editors and thirty full-time employees. Wales, who sits on the Wikimedia Board of Trustees, acknowledges that "Wikipedia is a work in progress. We still have plenty of stuff to sort out."

Philosophically, Wikipedia's collaborative ethos now dominates web culture. This philosophy is best articulated in treatises like Eric Raymond's The Cathedral and the Bazaar and James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds. It is ironic that these collectivist underpinnings would have been associated with Jimmy Wales, an avowed disciple of Objectivism. This view, popularized by author Ayn Rand in the books Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, celebrates rugged individualism. Critics of Wikipedia and digital collectivism, like Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget, argue that the wisdom of crowds should be deployed selectively and not for its own sake. "It's great that we enjoy a cooperative pop culture concordance" says Lanier, but "the individual voice has become dispensable and the collective is closer to the truth."

Continue reading "'We make the internet suck less' - an interview with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales " »