When
Thursday, December 16
Where
TriBeCa Tavern
247 West Broadway
Time
8pm – and on
Thursday, December 16
TriBeCa Tavern
247 West Broadway
8pm – and on
Every now and then you forget the genius behind the genius.
As I flipped through all the Art Basel parties and exhibits I wouldn’t be seeing this weekend, I came across a party on Friday night hosted by Marina Abramovic at the Standard Hotel Miami. Here is where Marco Brambilla will be premiering his large-scale 3-D video collage called “Evolution.”
Now if you’ve seen Kanye West’s “Power” video, than you’ve see some of Marco’s greatest work. Kanye tapped Marco to direct “Power” after seeing his permanent exhibit at the New York Standard’s Boom Boom Room. Brambilla says of Kanye, “Very interesting. He draws from art, fashion and usually pushes people to create something that is richer than it would have been without him. The video really came from the song. I thought it would be really great to do a portrait of him using that technique and putting him in a crazy neo classical setting.”
Brambilla comes from a rich past of film directing (“Demolition Man” & “Excess Baggage”- Alicia Silverstone classic) and many other notable and experimental video and photography projects.
He is currently working on “Evolution,” his first video collage in 3-D. He will be illustrating the history of humankind as a “vast side-scrolling video mural depicting the spectacle of human conflict across time through the lens of cinema.” Using samples from his extensive film archives, Brambilla first composes the entire canvas as a photo collage, works with a special effects company to place film loops on top and then projects it on a 3D landscape.
If you’re in Miami GO SEE HIM!!
-Ashlye Vaughan
Kids are bored. Their steady diets of radiology, twitter trends and overly padded athletic events is creating a generation of Avatar risk takers.
So let me introduce OddFuture (Odd Future Wolf Gang Crew Kill em All) a group of California misfits who have capitalized on the status of the crippled recording industry to kick down the doors using nothing, but free social media platforms to galvanize an audience of indoor kids across the world.
The band, which is the brainchild of the aptly named Tyler The Creator has creating a wild feeding frenzy among record companies, based off of little more than a series of mixtapes and no budget music videos that are more disturbing than a Sarah Palin White House bid. A group of rowdy, unruly, punk/skate/rap/minimilist grime/ musician/entertainer/filmmaker/web developer/ conundrum from Odd Future have literally ignited the internet with disturbing images of teenagers doing excessive amounts of drugs while brandishing fire arms and threatening to dress like Nazis. In recent weeks, they have appeared in the Guardian (UK), The Fader, The NY Times, Village Voice and an unfathomable amount of blogs across the WORLD, which have lead to sold out shows in LA, New York, London to name just the last month.
And all of this from a basement.
The hustle is impressive, but what’s shocking is how effective their model for success has been. By attacking the status quo directly, through channels like interactive blogs and websites, they were able to garner such an intense amount of support within months. The group has literally created a small media empire that is completly self-sustainable and synergistic. They have literally proven that record labels are useless to them, which is why labels have all begged to sit down with the crew.
Love it or Hate it, the ability to successfully create an underdog/rebel with the potential to win will always make people pay attention.
-Vic Reznik
Mark Burnett has produced some incredible television in his day. Who can deny his TV supremacy given the TV franchises he created and the role he played in showing the entire entertainment marketplace that non-scripted-super-produced-TV-programming has a huge audience. You might have heard of shows such as SURVIVOR (10 years and running), THE APPRENTICE (6 years and running), ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5th GRADER (three years and running) and many more TV credits.
He’s offers some great nuggets on the art of storytelling with social media guru Brian Solis. Awesome that he also acknowledges a “Hero Has With A Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell. It is indeed a must read to any storyteller that’s interested the journey of story in itself.
Lastly, Mark and Brian discuss the dynamic social experience that revolves around TV programming. In itself, TV is social media. The social-to-passive TV arena will be an interesting space to keep an eye on as our digital entertainment experience continues to evolve.
Sony’s Crackle Taps Google for Platform Expansion
In October, Sony’s Crackle the multiscreen video-on-demand (VOD) content network featuring Sony film and TV titles, and Crackle original productions, launched its first mobile application on the Android mobile platform and additionally. released an optimized version for Google TV. Crackle is conspicuously absent from Apple products though they claim a partnership is in the works.
Until now, you could only access Crackle on their home site, Playstation, and on Crackle’s branded channels syndicated on bigger VOD players such as Hulu and Youtube.
While Hulu, Youtube, Netflix, and the studios’ online homes have quickly captured users as the major destinations for online video, Crackle has had a relatively snail-like uptake since acquired by Sony in 2006 (known then as “Grouper”). In hindsight, it looks as though Crackle has been quietly watching and crafting a competitive platform strategy while these other destinations’ picked their dance partners and have enjoyed larger audiences.
Other competing content networks, such as Joost, have not had the luxury to wait and watch. Crackle owes its resilience to its plum position as the default new media extension of Sony Pictures- it was a long-term investment by Sony who could afford a few years of underperformance.
With these latest moves, Crackle is coming-out in a big way. They brokered a larger overall partnership with Google, beginning with the Android application. As the first subscription video application on the platform, Crackle has chosen the “freemium” model, like Hulu Plus, to attract subs: the basic download is free and allows for basic content access, hopefully enticing an upgrade to monthly subscription. This model has momentum- in fact, as Gigaom reports, one-third of top-grossing iPhone applications are Freemium.
Crackle position on Google’s Android allows for better positioning. On the Android, in contrast to the iPhone, Crackle does not have Hulu or Netflix to compete with- for now. This will lead to expected increased traffic and consumer awareness of Crackle- now that it is accessible on more screens and prominently, at least on Android phones.
From a consumer perspective, Crackle’s launch on mobile and Google TV is great news because it opens increased viewing options. It will be interesting to watch where we find Crackle next and how it fairs in competition with other VOD content options, considering increasing competitive coexistence on all platforms in the future.
-Russell Kummer
Eat your heart out DiMaggio.
The next event is Tuesday, November 23 (see below).
I love Fall and I don’t care who knows it.
The H&H/GFS PARTNERSHIP has begun and we are still looking for volunteers who want to be involved with The Ghetto Film School. We are teaching seminars on the 12/11 and 12/18.
The seminar topics are THE TV BUSINESS and REELS, NETWORKING AND BRANDING. If you are interested in being involved email Sasha Silver – sasha.silver@gmail.com.
Also, remember to check www.headsetsandhighballs.com EVERYDAY for new JOB POSTINGS and media articles.
We are looking for new writers to join our web team – email headsetsandhighballs@gmail.com for more info.
Adam Neuhaus
H&H 56
DATE:
Tuesday, November 23rd
LOCATION:
EMERALD PUB
308 Spring St (b/w Greenwich and Hudson)
-ALL the way west, very low key, and yes, alcohol
-A, C, E to Spring or 1, 2 to Canal
TIME:
7:30pm – and on
Apple TV vs. Google TV: The Battle For The Living Room
There’s been a lot of hype and discussion with the futurist and media folks on what the future holds for our living room entertainment experience.
In the eye of the optimistic futurist – there are endless possibilities.
Mark Suster wrote an excellent piece on the future of the TV and the living room experience. This is a must-read for anyone interested in what’s in store for the business of entertainment and content. He brings up so many relevant topics and developments to keep an eye on. TV, film, accessibility, gaming, online video, niche content providers, etc.
The bottom line is that premium content isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. What’s also interesting is that while our entertainment experience in the living room will change – maybe it won’t change all that much. Mark Cuban recently wrote a spot on posting on the value of time and how it impacts internet video/TV battle.
Cuban is right on with his points – noting that while the youth of today will pirate video content, spend time on YouTube and illegally download music their behavior will change due to their timing constraints and needs. Will that same person invest this much time in tracking and finding their entertainment content once the job, house, wife and kids come along? Doubtful. Extremely doubtful – just ask your married friends.
The bottom line: the entertainment pie will continue to get cut up in more ways than it has in the past but there is no clear winner yet in the race to control the living room entertainment experience. Will there be a winner within this fragmented media marketplace? Most likely, and as Mark Suster’s piece pointed out – there will be multiple winners. Only time will tell.
H&H 55
DATE:
Tuesday, October 26th
LOCATION:
FONDA NOLITA (http://www.tacombi.com/)
267 Elizabeth Street
Right below Houston
TIME:
7:15pm – and on
Google’s Creative Lab
Not only is Google known for “organizing the world,” its extravagant, sprawling offices, and limitless line of services aim to make our world (both on-line and real life) a little easier and less cluttered. Google is also home to the experimental and free spirited “Creative Lab,” born 3 years ago. Not be confused with an ad agency, the Creative Lab’s sole aim is to build Google’s brand across a variety of platforms, and even create new ones.
Within the Creative Lab is THE 5 PROGRAM which takes young, creative and tech talented disciples and takes them under their wing for 1 year of training before sending them off into the world armed and powerful. Robert Wong, Executive Creative Director of the Creative Lab describes the motivation behind the program, “The thinking was that, hey we have great talent that can come in and play with all the tools here and then agencies will get people that feel confident about all the tools at their disposal. And of course it works for us because that way they know our tools and we can participate in the whole ecosystem.”
For more check out the profile of the 5 Program and an interview with Robert Wong:
http://creativity-online.com/news/the-google-creative-lab/146084
http://ihaveanidea.org/creatives/2010/04/14/robert-wong/
-Ashlye Vaughan
TALENT OWNING NETWORKS – A GROWING TREND
Seacrest, CAA and AEG are possibly partnering to start AXS cable channel. What’s crazy is in this same article there are murmurs of Comcast purchasing AEG due to their portfolio of the some best arenas/stadiums in the world, in order to compete with Live Nation/Ticketmaster. At this rate, we’ll have one music-live-event-tv-cable-premium content-set-top-box-ticket distributor to go to and we’ll just call it the ministry of live entertainment come 2015.
All joking aside – what’s in it for Mr. Seacrest?
It’s no secret that Ryan has had a consummate show biz resume starting from his youth. Idol and E! Entertainment exposure lead to overall deals, tv, radio, producer credits, first-looks, back-end participation – you name it – Ryan’s done it and has a reputation as one of the hardest working men in show business. What is Seacrest’s rationale behind this latest strategic move?
The little known fact about the what makes the cable business go round are extreme affiliate fees. It’s a $32B dollar a year business. It’s why Oprah Winfrey is opting to hang up her hosting shoes and go into retirement off of Oprah Premium Programming. Click on this link to learn more about the cable biz from the awesome VC, Bill Gurley.
When you are an Agent in Hollywood – you yearn to put together mega-deals like this CAA/Seacrest with AEG. These type of deals are headliners and they make both you and your client a lot of money – something CAA’s been good at for quite some time. This is why Seacrest’s former agent, Adam Sher left to become President of Seacrest Productions in 2008. It’s what a good agent should always be trying to accomplish. Take a brand name talent and connect to the proper business model. See Oprah, Ashton, Ellen, Lady Gaga, Diddy, Paris Hilton, Kardashian and Lebron. Vertically integrate the talent and those revenue streams!
Another example are the Jonas Bros (who are already a multi-million dollar a year biz) partnership with AOL in Cambio, which gives the talent from their label The Jonas Group a platform to control their message and brand to their core demographic. Cambio is a web-site/platform that aims to be MTV-meets-online programming.
Major talent partnering up with major companies is nothing new – been happening for years (See United Artists and Charlie Chaplin.) Major talent partnering up with big media for ownership stake in the property is all about equity.
As talent needs to sustain traction/exposure in the marketplace to demand a strong dollar so do major media brands. Its a safer bet for both teams – big media gives up some ownership but keeps talent happy and committed and talent becomes an owner instead of a hired gun. As the battle for the consumer’s attention grows even more intense – entertainment brands – people and businesses will push hard to remind you who is the best at the premium entertainment experience.