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The WALL STREET JOURNAL has a catch up article on some of the newer technologies that are set to change the screen exhibition and distribution side of the business.

Amongst the news of Blu-Ray, 3D and Digital Projectors was one technology I had to think twice about.   A blu-ray DVD that links into social networking.   You watch a movie at home and friends who are watching it at the same time can comment and chat on the TV screen.  

Personally I hate people who talk in the movies, and I don't think I'm going to appreciate my facebook aquaintainces giving me their thoughts as I watch a film.   Do people want this?   Are there any signs?   Are we talking on our mobiles while friends watch films? do we text them SMS messages?   Do you hear teenagers parting in the playground with calls of 'let's all watch 'Gossip Girl' at the same time and chat'?

With all the calls for content to be free of time and space and the proclaimed death of appointment viewing - is this a little of target?

What do you think?

See the article at the WALL STREET JOURNAL

In November we posted a link to a story about webisodes, FTI Member Justine Smith provides this guest post in response to the article.  

I think the article is focussing on points which are not completely relevant. What they are referring to, I think is the re-packaging of material and putting a price on this for creative development. If you want to understand more about this have a look at the current negotiations in Hollywood between the Writers’ Guild and studio execs. Hollywood is on hold waiting for this to be resolved. The Directors’ Guild of America are coming in behind the Writers’ as their agreements are also up for negotiation soon.

But if we’re talking purely content generated for on-line viewing I have a lot to offer. I was recently a participant in the Portable Screen Academy in Melbourne which is directly exploring this territory.

The first point is: People are already making money from creating webisodes.

{Have a look at this surprise hit story of a one-off http://www.catfish.net.au/index.php?h=NewMedia} 

The main examples that we studied were extremely profitable enterprises. We met and were mentored by the creators of these success stories.

In North America Miles Beckett and team started the “Lonely Girl 15” phenomenon. They looked at what works on YouTube, mostly copyright rip-offs and video-blogging. Obviously the only profitable area was focussing on video-blogging.  Lonely Girl created a video blogger identity. A short series began, with Bree complaining about her parents and not being able to go out as much as she would like. 

A buzz was created. People started to wonder who this person was, where they lived, what her parents did for work, which religious sect they belonged to. And those people were asking these questions on-line in forums and on Lonely Girls profile pages.

Eventually the Lonely Girl team came out and stated publicly this is a fiction, we have created Bree and her story.  It was a scandal without too much bite, a victimless crime, and Lonely Girl’s buzz increased as word got out. 

Now Bree has loads of fans and followers and the story still continues 18months after it started.

Next step, the spin-off.

The Lonely Girl team noticed that they had world popularity, but the most impact was close to home where users has more opportunity to interact with the characters and story. So they created a new series in the UK, Kate Modern. 

Luke Hyams is a key writer and producer for the Kate Modern series. Using the same format profile, but new characters and storylines the new UK series was created. But this time they started with a big budget. Due to the notoriety of Lonely Girl, the team garnered immediate sponsorship and alignment with the social-networing site, Bebo. Bebo is the primary social-networking tool in the UK, and they saw this as a way keeping there difference and excitement for consumers. They held initial first- run of all episodes, before the ep’s could then be re-distributed in ‘traditional’ on-line areas, such as You Tube – a virtual free-to-air distributor.

Highly successful. Highly interactive.

A standout story for me was hearing how they held an Art Gallery opening of Kate’s work. Only 12 viewers showed up as no-one really believed it was for real. The writers had devised a double-whammy for this event and thus staged an abduction of another character at the Opening. Some savvy viewers recorded this on their mobile phones and effectively scooped the Kate Modern team by uploading that night. But it also created a greater buzz and there are loads of loyal viewers and participants in this show week-to-week.

Profitable Webisodes Downunder

The local version of this type of online serial is the Melbourne based “Forget the Rules”. Their second series is uploading as we speak. 

They started out in the first series offering viewer participation by giving a choice of 3 endings which would be voted on, chosen, written, filmed, edited and uploaded all within a week. Loads of fun and very vital filmmaking.

They are linked with Optus for the second series and also received development funding  from Film Victoria.

Portable Screen Academy

We produced in two teams of 12, two separate on-line serial formats. Then we broke our teams down and in smaller groups to create individual episodes. Bearing in mind that we filmed in about an hour and half, and edited in an hour then compressed and uploaded all in one day, a mighty effort. All our work was fitted around seminars and speakers, but it feels great to have put it into practice and see how possible it all is. The other West Australian on the course was Kane Jason. He was on the Help Me Get Karen team, and I was on the Forever storyline. 

Follow the links below to learn more about these on-line serials. And if you are going to look at my story (Forever – Episode 3) please put in a comment and favourite it, and give it 5 stars. Support local content, harnessing these new delivery forms.

Cheers,

Justine
 

YOU TUBE

Forever – Episode 1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=x0mwaCd5yY0

Forever – Episode 2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=HqYPZwQLlBU

Forever – Episode 3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=zjLB8luUDRQ

 

Forever Productions http://youtube.com/user/foreverproductions20

 

YOU TUBE

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=SN-pvoTA9vQ

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=oBuklV1YA70

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=W6Kfkj6I1ZI

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 4 http://youtube.com/watch?v=pzq5k6JI5m8

 

It is what it is what it is http://youtube.com/user/itiswhatitiswhatitis

 

PORTABLE FILM FESTIVAL

http://portablefilmfestival.com/

 

Forever – Episode 1 http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=206

Forever – Episode 2 http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=209

Forever – Episode 3 http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=207

 

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 1

http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=202

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 2 http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=203

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 3

http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=204

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 4

http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=205

 

Also of interest:

Have a look at our actor Oliver Clark, in another online creation…

http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=167

 

Australian made webisodes, generating an income, and harnessing the form.

http://www.forgettherules.com/

 

Lonely Girl 15 – from the USA

http://youtube.com/user/lonelygirl15

www.lg15.com

 

Kate Modern – the UK spin-off

http://youtube.com/user/KateModernLG15

http://www.bebo.com/katemodern

 

We love the way TV show 'LOST' uses additional material on the internet to extend the viewing experience.   Now in the USA in advance of Season 4 begining people have started spotting billboards for the fictional Oceanic Airlines.   Providing viewers with yet another mystery to unravel.

The billboards aren't everywhere though, just in towns and cities that have been included in the shows spralling and complexly interlinked flashback sequences.

Over at READ-WRITE-WEB there is a great article by Alex Iskold about the rise of hyper local information.   If you've never comes across the discussions focusing on this phenomenon this is a great place to start. 

DROWING IN INFORMATION
As we drown in the ‘The Age of Information’ we can find more and more information about particular people, places and events.    The challenge as always been in managing and organising the masses of information.   While tagging has allowed for a different methodology geo-tagging linking a photo or video or story to its latitude and longitude opens up a whole new world.   Imagine if everyone who ever lived in a house loaded up their home movies and photos and linked them to the physical location.   The history of a particular space is exposed.         

FILMS FOR A SMALL AUDIENCE
We often here that the future of film is in mass global audiences and our key to open the door is the unique qualities of our locale.   Sure this is true, W.A. looks amazing if your not here everyday – just as I think Iceland looks spectacular.   Yet there is another way to look at this, as hyper-local information increases we know more about our local audience, and filmmaking gets cheaper and cheaper.   Will we soon be making films for tight select groups of people? 

Some would argue that many filmmakers already do this.   (but joke’s aside)

Yet there are films for small audiences, corporate film often falls into this category.   Large corporations might make their quarterly report into a visual format.   When I worked at Crown Entertainment Centre in Melbourne they used to produce an internal thrice weekly news bulletin – The Crown News.   Video Blogging is often for a small audience.

Will hyperlocal geo-tagged information show us some select small markets?   What happens when you know there are 57 young guys interested in snowboarding in Mount Lawley, who also drinks at the Flying Scotsman and like rap music – is that a Market of the fragmented future?

A SIDE COMMENT
If you have predictive texting on your mobile phone and you’re not careful your phone may call the ‘Scotsman’ the ‘Pantsman’.    This has caused many trendy young filmmakers to send an SMS asking their friends to ‘Meet them at the Pants Man’.   This has lead to the popular drinking spot rapidly being given a new informal name.     

This new piece of technology allows parents to track their children's mobile telephone location though interactive television application. Perfect for the Big Brother Coach Potato type.

University researchers at the University of Bath have developed the technology which will allow you to work out which Facebook users you bump into in your travels.