Art Flicks Sparkle on Mobile Phones

Art-house flicks for mobile phones and iPods might teach Hollywood a thing or two about mobile entertainment if the movie bigwigs would just pay attention to the tiny screen, experts say.

This week at the San Francisco International Film Festival, 20 movies made for mobile devices with 2-inch-by-3-inch screens will be shown as part of the festival's Pocket Cinema program.

Some of the films tackle very big issues, like Katherin McInnis' spookspeak, a four-minute film parodying the National Security Agency's Echelon electronic eavesdropping program.

The Pocket Cinema program highlights the art world's contribution to mobile video, which the entertainment industry hopes will be the next big content boom. Fox, for example, is releasing mobisodes of the TV show Prison Break, while Touchstone Television Productions is producing a version of Lost just for mobiles.

Full report at Wired News

Tags: san+francisco international film+festival mobile video tv fox touchstone

Quiet Storm's Viral Prize

Quiet Storm Films has launched a competition to find the best yet-to-be-made viral script or idea. The competition, called Projectile, is open to creatives and has a completely open brief.

Entrants are urged to submit scripts and ideas which would otherwise never see the light of day.

The ideas and end films must be no longer than 60 seconds and the scripts should be submitted by email to projectile@quietstorm.co.uk.

The winning film will be funded and produced by Quiet Storm and will be released onto the internet as a viral. Richard Jobson, who recently signed for commercials representation with Quiet Storm Films, will direct the winning script.

The closing deadline for submissions is May 15.

For more details go to Shots.net

Tags: quiet+storm film viral competition script idea projectile

AmEx and Tribeca Film Festival's 15 Second Clips Competition

American Express and the Tribeca Film Festival have joined together to create the 15-Second Clips Competition.

The winner gets a VIP trip to New York and a cool $15,000!

Martin Scorsese, M. Night Shyamalan and a panel of judges will award a filmmaker top honors following the submission deadline of 26th April.

The Competition is open to residents of the United States and the District of Columbia.

For more info and to view the currently submitted films goto 15SecondClips

Tags: american+express tribeca+film+festival competition martin+scorsese vip new+york

Coca Cola advertisement with Jack White song "leaked"

The NME reports today that the much anticipated Jack White penned Coca-Cola advert has leaked on the internet.

"I've been offered the opportunity to write a song in a way which interests me as a songwriter. I certainly wouldn't want a song that I'd already written to be used on a commercial. That seems strange."

"But to be asked to write something particular along one theme of love in a worldwide form that I'm not really used to appealed to me. I've written a song and I wrote it really quickly and it's an interesting commercial that's been made. I was inspired by the commercial."

Check out the Advert below:


It's my guess the video was directed by the same director of the music video 'Sentimental Journey', Nagi Noda.

Tags: jack+white white+stripes coke coca+cola ad advert sentimental+journey nagi+noda music video

The 10th Annual Webby Awards, nominees announced

The 10th Annual Webby Awards Nominees have been announced, a full listing can be found here.

Here are the nominees for:

BEST USE OF VIDEO OR MOVING IMAGE

Nominee: Freedom of the Seas

Agency/Credited organization: Arnold Worldwide

http://www.freedomoftheseas.com/

Nominee: Nokia 20Lives

Agency/Credited organization: Euro RSCG 4D

http://www.prize-entry.com/nokia/webby

Nominee: Rocketboom

Agency/Credited organization: Rocketboom

http://www.rocketboom.com/

Nominee: Tate - BT series

Agency/Credited organization: British Telecom

http://www.tate.org.uk/btseries/

Nominee: THE BOOK OF COOL

Agency/Credited organization: Ocelot Productions Ltd

http://www.bookofcool.com/

There are over 65 other categories including; Television, Movie & Film, Corporate Communications & Social Networking.

The 10th Annual Webby Awards gala celebration will be on Monday, June 12th, at the Cipriani Wall Street in NYC

Tags: webby+awards awards video moving+image web internet

Disney offers free shows online in ad-skipping battle

In a move that could reverse the fortunes of TV advertising, Walt Disney is moving to thwart ad-skipping by making popular programming available free any time on the web.

The content, which can itself be paused, rewound and fast-forwarded, will include ad breaks that viewers can not skip.

Ten advertisers are already said to have committed to the new initiative, which challenges the onslaught of TiVo video recorders, which allow viewers to fast-forward through commercial breaks.

A revamped ABC website will from the end of this month enable viewers with broadband connections to watch free episodes on their computers of hit programmess such as 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Lost', the morning after they air on TV.

Ad breaks will not follow the traditional format. Instead of five interludes in an hour's episode, three breaks only will be screened, but each will last at least one minute and all will be from the same advertiser.

Read more at Brand Republic

Tags: TV advertising content ad+breaks tivo abc broadband lost desperate+housewives

Mobile group in talks to create TV link for citizen journalists

Citizen journalism is poised to take a great leap into the mainstream media as the mobile phone network 3 pursues talks with ITN and Sky News about feeding clips produced by its customers on to television news bulletins.

A deal would create a direct channel for anyone caught up in a big news event.

3 already has a service that allows its customers to send in clips - mostly comic in nature - which can be downloaded and watched by other subscribers.

This service, called SeeMe TV, is already generating a million downloads a month, with the most watched videos showcased on the web through the blog site, MSN Spaces

Full report at Guardian Unlimited

Also Dan Gilmore on why we are all reporters now

Scoopt is a photo citizen journalism site that opened shortly after the London bombings last year.

Tags: citizen journalism citizen+journalism video 3 ITN sky news

Create, edit, remix & publish video online

In my earlier blog post I talked about the popularity of You Tube and the large number of other video sharing sites that seem to be popping up almost weekly. Well, now we have a number of new arrivals that have an extra set of features which add an extra element of creativity and fun into the mix.

Jumpcut is one good example where you can upload your video, edit and remix. Others include Eyespot and soon to be online Motionbox.

Robin Good discusses some of these sites in more detail and read why he believes this is really a video revolution.

Just as digital photography has recently made a huge impact on the social and business arena's on the web, so too will video.

Tags: eyespot jumpcut motionbox video edit remix content publish

onedotzero's upcoming tenth anniversary tour

The first onedotzero festival, directed by matt hanson, was an underground hit in 1997 at the ica in london.

2006 sees onedotzero’s tenth annual digital moving image festival launching at the original venue, the ica and runs for ten days from June 2nd. Following is a national tour of the uk to over 15 uk cities.

onedotzero hosted a preview screening of its upcoming tenth anniversary tour at the Great Eastern Hotel last week.

A report on the preview screening: shots

I recommend this event for anyone with even the slightest interest in anything that is innovative in moving images.

For more details on the event and upcoming tour click here: www.onedotzero.com

Tags: onedotzero annual digital moving+image festival ica film

Getty Images :: The Next Big Idea Competition

Getty Images 'The Next Big Idea' Competition is well under way.

There were 28 shortlisted filmmakers chosen from 240 pitches. The filmmakers have each created a 30sec-1min film using between 50% & 100% Getty Images film or stills content as digital downloads.

Check out the films and cast your vote for your favourite at www.gettyimages.com/thenextbigidea

Ten filmmakers will make the final cut and have their films premiered around the world – and one winner will win US$10,000!

Tags: gettyimages getty images film thenextbigidea big idea competition

At Last, Movies to Keep Arrive on the Internet

Six major studios plan to begin selling movies over the Internet today that buyers can download and keep for watching at any time.

Until now, the only downloads the studios have offered have been online rentals, which can be watched only for a 24-hour period — an idea that has not caught on with consumers. But the high prices and technological limits of the new permanent downloads suggest that they may not be an instant hit.

Starting today, nearly 300 films will go on sale through Movielink (owned by Warner Brothers, a unit of Time Warner; Sony Pictures; Universal; MGM; and Paramount, a unit of Viacom) will offer films from all of its owners and from 20th Century Fox, owned by the News Corporation..

Apple, Amazon.com and other online retailers are also busily trying to cut deals with Hollywood to sell downloads, according to several studio executives. In general, the studios want to make downloads available on largely the same terms, in as many places as possible.

Full Story at The New York Times

Tags: studios internet download film movies movielink

BT signs content deals as it seeks to create 'personal TV experience'

BT is poised to announce a series of content deals that will allow customers of its broadband TV service, which will be launched this year, to call up live footage of their favourite bands and access a host of films.

Augmenting existing TV with interactivity through a broadband connection - as BT Vision does - is expected to be one of the hot topics at the MIP-TV festival in Cannes, which starts today.

Read more at Media Guardian

Tags: BT vision broadband TV films