Demand Media: what's your view?

by SWS on 24-Nov-09 17:05

Has anyone in the South West had anything to do with Demand Media? Our board member, Dan'l Hewitt - the Director of Digital Content at Bebo - never lets a development in the world of digital media pass him by. He's brought this article in Wired to our attnention and we were wondering if anyone in our region.

Check out the article below and let us know what your experience has been...

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1

Are the kids alright?

by thebexter on 20-Nov-09 14:08

Not sure if it's because I've just come back from maternity leave and have gone all soppy and maternal but the first film 'Robin' really affected me. A young boy in Germany is taken back to his highrise council flat after a period in care and it's clear from the outset that his depressed mum and her violent partner just aren't equipped to parent him. A really heartbreaking film, brilliantly paced - you feel trapped in the horrible flat with them and the soundtrack of Robin's baby sister's incessant crying... One that will stay with me.

Another kid having a hideous time was Australian Joe in 'Miracle Fish', an exceptional dramatic short with a shock ending from filmmaker Luke Doolan. When Joe slopes off to the school sick bay on his 8th birthday to escape the bullies, a Columbine style massacre occurs...see this film if you can - it's brilliant.

It was the kids committing the atrocity in 'Beheading of a Smiling Dog', (Switzerland) which - if you'll pardon the pun - does what it says on the (dog food) tin. Watched this through my fingers - not only am I soppy and maternal, I'm a sucker for cute animals to boot. Shocking, dark and probably happening for real right now somewhere in the world...

So on to the adults...I really enjoyed 'Roma', an atmospheric Mexican short from Director/Producer Elisa Miller focusing on a young woman's clandestine journey by freight train. Hiding in a soap factory to rest and wash before boarding another train, she is befriended by a kind stranger. Very little dialogue but brilliant performances mean the characters say a lot.

'A Good Friend of Mr World' left me cold - sorry Sweden!

Another strong programme - thanks Encounters.

The Buzz at Encounters

by SWS on 20-Nov-09 13:06

Hanging around the Watershed and specifically the delegates area yesterday in between volunteer duties, I couldn’t help but notice that there were probably more i-phones and laptops than people. Ok, maybe not, but the level of connectivity this year astounded me. I started to feel sorry for our 1994-selves at the first Brief Encounters festival, with our filo-faxes and rolodexes primatively swapping business cards and vhs tapes. Yesterday I saw a London School of Communications student doing (what can only be described) as a violent brushing action across his i-phone to that of a Romanian filmmaker at the festival. I was later informed that this was an application on the i-phone where one can ‘slide’ a business card from one handset to another. I definitely feel out of the loop….

Still this was the theme of my day, and the buzz (be it electric or otherwise) was certainly as strong as ever. With reviews, tweets and just random thoughts hitting the digi-sphere at a dizzying rate I thought back to when I was a student (all of two years ago) and how networking and simply getting yourself out there is the 1st commandment for a young filmmaker. Two days into the festival and it seemed everyone was taking full advantage.

One of my roles was to man the HP Digital Viewing library, a 9 stationed room whereby you can go and watch any of the films featured at the festival. This year, it's faster and slicker than ever and you can even get on wirelessly using your own laptop – no wonder tweets are fluttering online so fast. Yesterday it was all about New York musical/documentary filmmaking genius Jem Cohen and his two events at the Arnolfini – sadly I missed it but have it on good authority than its already being cited as one of the gems (sorry) of this year.

Something I did catch which stayed etched in my mind was Off Season by Jonathan Van Tulleken. An amazingly crafted chilling two man (well one man and a dog) tale of a man who steals from Canadian summer homes during the unforgiving winter and makes a gruesome discovery. I nearly soiled the Watersheds comfortable seats…. Pulling up a pew at the viewing library I can also highly recommend ‘Megatron’ in the Romanian Shorts, it attracted me at first because I love the Transformers but once you realise no robots are featured you get into this genuinely heart-warming tale.
Oh, and speaking of all this technology  - at least the humble pen and paper isn’t lost on everyone Encounters have provided a message book at the delegate desk….

Fab films 'Made in the South West'

by thebexter on 20-Nov-09 09:43

A packed audience in Watershed's cinema 1 were treated to a brilliantly varied programme of shorts from the South West last night. Put together by festival programmer Mark Cosgrove, 'Made in the South West' featured 8 new shorts both animation and live action from some of our region's brightest talent.

Sarah-Jane Meredith from South West Screen introduced the screening and it was great to see some of the filmmakers in the audience -

Tom Stubbs and Michael Smith- whose film Light and Dark(made as part of the Tor scheme) got a brilliant response - as it did during Tuesday's Opening Highlights screening. So clever, witty and touching and a real treat to see it on the big screen.

Tom Williams - Inconceivable - about a couple going to great lengths to conceive a baby - great fun - I think babies have been on Tom's mind - I noticed his baby daughter Violet in the credits!

I'm sure there were more of the filmmakers there ...let me know if you were....

Other highlights for me - Flogging Molly Float - a beautiful and stirring mix of animation and 'real world' - I'm dying to find out what the music is - doesn't say in the brochure... All my Dreams on VHS - a great idea and very well conceived...The Surprise Demise of Francis Cooper's Mother - dark, dry, violent animation with a fantastic voiceover from Alexei Sayle.

Great to see Wallace and Gromit on the big screen again in A Matter of Loaf and Death - you notice new details every time you watch it. George Chan's Trapped was really menacing - excellent performace from Sean Pertwee. Sleep by Chris Barnett was moving and beautifully shot.

The programme ended with Light and Dark and it's just struck me that as well as being the name of Michael and Tom's film it could sum up the content of the screening as well. Congrats to all the filmmakers involved and good luck with both the UKFC Audience Award and the South West Screen Audience Award.

There's another chance to see the programme at 4.30pm tomorrow, Saturday. Book your tickets from Watershed now.

C21 FutureMedia 2009 conference

by MarkLeaver on 16-Nov-09 15:18

Mark Leaver picks out the key themes from the C21 Future Media Conference.

C21 FutureMedia 2009 conference.

In his opening address Eric Huggers, Director of Future Media & Technology, BBC, set the theme for the day when he described the key trend for 2009 and 2010 as "social media". With Facebook as the 3rd most visited site on the web, Twitter displaying 3000% user growth and recent deals such as the Electronic Arts purchase of social gaming business Playfish for $400M, social media is seen as the significant new market driver.

The internet has lowered the barriers of entry to the market, therefore the new battle is one for the attention of the consumer, and in this environment discovery through social relationships is the key - what are my friends and peers recommending to me?

At present iPlayer has 5M users per week, but the BBC is actively pushing iPlayer onto new platforms (including the Nintendo Wii and PS3) and incorporating new social features. In 2010 iPlayer will display an ability to connect to "friends" as part of the key navigation, linking to Facebook and other social media sites. For Huggers the advent of mobile computing (i.e. the reach of the iPhone) matched to social media is the "game changer".

Jon Gisby, Director of Future Media & Technology at Channel 4, picked up this theme. For him the impact of social media had some key imperatives:

• Opportunity - new platforms, customers and revenue streams
• Collapsing Value Chain - lower cost and complexity of distribution
• New competitors - the above brings new players into the space
• New skills - new models require different skills and thinking

Channel 4 has just done one of the most interesting deals in this space - their tie between 4OD and YouTube. For him there is a "risk in innovation, but a bigger risk in standing alone".

A preview of the 4OD YouTube channel shows a joint branding and promotion very consistent with Channel 4's core brand - and in this there is a pointer.

YouTube, the biggest player in the online content marketplace, (300M users monthly worldwide / 20 hours of new content uploaded every minute according to Patrick Walker, Director of EMEA Partnerships, YouTube) clearly has a strategic drive to move away from the "cats on skateboards" image through the implementation of strong DRM systems and diagnostics to attract major content partners (as well as highlighting revenue drivers, for example the Month Python effect). Walker consistently references experimentation as YouTube "trying things out" but the prize is clear - "38% of media is viewed online, but only 9% of advertising budgets are currently spent online".

branded content

The idea of multiplatform (or 360 or cross-media, take your pick) has been floating for a few years, with some examples of success (i.e. Kate Modern) but no real breakthrough. Within the conference there were some very interesting examples of new content which capitalise on the engagement of online platforms, and use the power of social media to drive traffic. In many cases these productions are co-funded by major brands, a scenario which should become easier in the UK as legislation is relaxed.

Final Punishment - produced by Beactive (best known for Sofia's Diary on Bebo) Final Punishment, a horror set in a maximum security prison, is "broadcasting" in Brazil. Starting with fake news stories on news sites, content was then released via mobile and through ARG-type elements, including live events. The finale is a 4 part "mockumentary" on TV which reveals the solution. Budget c. $350k.

Married on MySpace - produced by Endemol this format sees a MySpace community choose from a number of couples planning to get married and then make absolutely all of the decisions regarding their wedding plans. Key brand sponsors were JC Penney and Disney (tied to the release of a film called The Proposal) and others feature heavily in the choices presented, i.e. clothes, honeymoon destinations etc. The programme attracted 15M video views over 13 weeks.

1 vs 100 - again produced by Endemol, a release of the game show on Xbox Live, using new features which allow mass interactivity within a scheduled appointment - recreating the shared, scheduled experience but on an entirely new platform. 1 vs 100 is an avatar based, massive multiplayer quiz game - with 114,000 simultaneous players during the first series. Sponsors are Sprint, Windows 7 and Honda.

warning

Amidst this furious agreement about the new potential in this space there was a clear warning raised by Eric Huggers (BBC), for him there were two key challenges which could fundamentally undermine UK progress:

• There is an upcoming crunch point where the UK has to rapidly improve its digital infrastructure, the Government ambition of 2MB in their Digital Britain policy is way too low. He cited a conversation in South Korea where they were embarrassed about their 100MB as standard infrastructure and were planning an upgrade to 1GB.....

• Also there is clear gap in talent and skills, especially in software engineering and technical design, the UK needs to "step up" this education strand in order to remain competitive.

phrase of the day

"accelerated obsolescence" - attributed to Justin Judd from iRights, example given was Second Life quickly followed by "Bebo next?"

Locations in Seville - day 2

by Fi_Francombe on 06-Nov-09 09:36

From yesterday's experience it would seem that although the expo is open between 10.00 - 20.00, the main activity happens between 11.00 - 13.00 and 17.00 - 19.00.  Siesta-time still applies even in 20 degrees in November!

Last night I was invited to the 'Opening Party' which turned out to be drinks and canapés at the Real Alcazar; a rather beautiful Moorish building very close to the Cathedral.
The 'Party' consisted of speeches (in Spanish and English), an abundance of beer, wine and sherry served with interesting if eclectic canapés, followed by a Spanish singer with piano accompaniment singing 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'.  I left after about 1.5 hours and walked back to the hotel through the Santa Cruz district (the old part of the city.)
Hotel problems now sorted out..a much better night's sleep!

I'm hoping to go to a seminar today on co-production financing, as well as talking to the Bond team about choosing locations for the Bond movies. I want to check out the Film Festival list of attendees too, to get a better idea of who comes and how seriously it's taken.

Locations in Seville

by Fi_Francombe on 05-Nov-09 12:05

Hola from Seville!

I'm here on a fact-finding mission on behalf of (and subsidised by) the UK Film Council's national and regional screen agencies.  SEVILLE INTERNATIONAL LOCATIONS EXPO (SILE); is the first major location trade fair in Europe, and this is its first year.
SWScreen attended a similar event in Berlin in 2008 which was part of the Berlin Film Festival; badly publicised and marketed and consequently very poorly attended. This time all the screen agencies felt it better to send one person over to check it out and report back. Individual agencies and the UKFC themselves can then decide whether to attend in future or not. The Guild of Location Managers have taken an exhibition stand at SILE and as I'm still a member, it gives me a base to work from while here.
SILE is set in a marquee in the Prado de San Sebastian; also the setting for the main Film Festival which starts tomorrow.

There are about 40 stands - some with a greater impact than others - including Abu Dhabi, Namibia, Mexico and quite a few from the Spanish regions. It's the first morning and still quite quiet; perhaps when the main festival starts tomorrow it'll get busier. This year's Film Festival theme is British films (perhaps that's why Harriet Walter was on the flight over yesterday?) so there may be some British talent turning up tomorrow.

I'll use the rest of the day to get my bearings, work out which seminars to attend, get to chat to other exhibitors, etc. I also have to move hotel rooms as I discovered when I woke up this morning (having arrived in the dark) that I am at the farthest corner of the hotel, with no natural daylight and a soil stack outside my window which started to smell quite ripe as people got up this morning!

I'll let you know how I get on.