The GFS Fellows get their brand new business cards courtesy of H&H.
H&H/GFS Partnership – Business Cards
Reply
Tag Archives: Future
Ghetto Film School Trailer – DEAD ON
Check out the 2011 Ghetto Film School Thesis Film.
DEAD ON
Shot in Belfast, Northern Ireland by the Next Generation of Great American Storytellers.
World Premiere February 28, 2011 in NYC
Genius and Evolution – Marco Brambilla
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
Mark Burnett Tells Stories
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 Goes POP!
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
The Battle For The Living Room
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.
The Talent Owns The Building
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.
Storytelling Innovation
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
Ron Howard and Brian Glazer are shepherding a new unprecedented storytelling project. The uber producers will use Universal Pictures infrastructure to tell Stephen’s King’s trilogy, The Dark Tower as a combination of films, television and even comic books.
By alternating the story between film and television – the storytellers can use different methods to engage the audience. Imagine using the television series to work in the incredible character development and the film to create incredible visuals. They can change pace without being disjointed. The key is that the material can support such an audacious move. These incredible hefty literary properties will be the backbone of more innovative forms because of their depth and richness.
Of course, there are hurdles – the deal took months to complete and the actors are gonna be locked up for extended amounts of time but similar to Lord of the Rings – the overlaying production cycles will keep costs down and bring huge opportunity for financial success.
Adam Neuhaus
Graphic Designer Dominance
It took Radio thirty four years to reach an audience of fifty million, television did it in thirteen. The Internet had fifty million users in less than four years, and now there are over a billion websites online.
And then there were blogs. The vast majority of websites are written by amateurs, using programs written en mass that are no more complicated than a Myspace page. Thus the question arises, who is watching what, and how do you innovate when just getting by is seemingly good enough? Does it make any sense for Matt Drudge to invest time, energy or money in a flash site when he’s getting more hits than CNN and MSNBC combined?
Unlimited democracy, it seems, breeds mediocrity. Alex Cox said, that “film was the revolutionary medium of the twentieth century, and it can not be the same for the twenty first.” While we still exist in the infancy of this new century it is difficult to reconcile that our media saturation will soon capitulate to a growing necessity among individuals to separate themselves and their talents from the sheep at the slaughter.
The film makers of the next fifty years will be ground breaking graphic designers, who will manipulate the amorphous concepts that we now understand as “the web” in order to express new dimensions of technology.
EBIZ online magazine wrote up the top ten flash-sites of 2010, and although the list might be simple, if all you do is glance at the shiny graphics then you are just a pawn in the game. All ten of these sites, (and wonderwall, which they didn’t mention) are connected to brands/people who/which are changing their industries terrestrially, is matt drudge really doing that?
So next time you wanna find something other than porn online, peep the list, and think about how your gonna be buying your kids creativity via their Skype account.
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/best-flash-sites
Authentic Fashion
The poet Jean Cocteau once said, “Style is a simple way of saying complicated things”, and as I watch contractors unscrew the tents on 62nd street I feel like there is something very complicated going on. The pendulum of design that swings between function and luxury often creates a chasm between those who need and those want.
That is why these Diane Von Furstenberg hospital gowns being produced for the Cleveland Clinic are so interesting to me.
A high end fashion designer takes a job to design the least attractive, least properly functioning clothing imaginable. Finding a challenge in recreating the banal and plebeian (see Last Train Home) is often worth more than the flash in the bottle because it’s more universal, it transcends.
The shoe company Palladium (a Brand I’ve been sporting for a minute) recently dropped a doc called Detroit Lives, in which Johnny Knoxville, yeah that Johnny Knoxville, tours a city on the brink of collapse, and imagines it as an emblem of the resilient American spirit that it embodies. The doc brings home the idea that art can galvanize and uplift, that beauty in the face of demolition, destruction and despondence can create perseverance. ’nuff respect to both!
-Vic Reznik