Broadband Jungle Blog

Digital Hollywood Content Summit May 5 - Discount Registration

Just announced: Full Agenda. Click Here.
Special Discount Registration Fees for the Content Summit.
All-Event - Digital Hollywood Ticket - Per Person
Covers all-events all days - seatiing is first-come-first served
$95 - Under-Employed, Layed-Off, Part-time
$135 - Self-Employed Production, Technology or Start-Up (Non-VC Funded)
$75 - Students (in groups of 5 or More - See instructions below)
$300 - Technology or Entertainment Startup- (VC - Corporate Funded)
To Register Online - Click Here

Artnet: Thomas Hoving "My Eye"

A fantastic art clip on online auctions resource Artnet produced by NewArt TV's Robert Knafu featuring the infectiously enthusiastic Thomas Hoving. In this episode the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art reviews the Ralph Albert Blakelock show at the National Academy.

I learned more about the passion for creating art in this 97 second clip than in many articles and long-winded docs elsewhere. Who knew that the often institutionalized Blakelock had to resort to cutting his own hair to make brushes!! Hoving is a natural, a true discovery as a host and interpreter of the arts to a mainstream audience. Deserving of a very large audience.

Digital Hollywod Content Summit

Our Gerber Rigler Executive Consulting brainchild has hatched in collaboration with Digital Hollywood and is ready to fly:

The inaugural Digital Hollywood Content Summit takes place on Tuesday, May 5 at the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica during the Spring '09 conference of Digital Hollywood.

Click HERE for full agenda.

Tim Kring, creator of NBC's hit series "Heroes" will participate in a keynote conversation and various film, television and new media organizations are presenting panels.

Among them the AFI Digital Content Lab, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, ASIFA Hollywood, the IDA, the WGA and others about to come on board.

During a series of panels on Tuesday, May 5 we're planning to take content creators in our industry through the creative process: Development, Funding, Production, Distribution, Animation, Cause-driven social marketing, and the re-invention of the studio model for the new media age.

Summit Produced by: Gerber Rigler Producing and Executive Consulting for Digital Hollywood

Summit Pricing:
$135 regular, $95 for Affiliate members (Tuesday, May 5th Only)
Digital Hollywood Pass - Full - 4 Day Pass - Includes the Summit - $685 - Regular - $585 for Affiliate Members

To Register - Click Here.

Here's a quick tease for what's in store.

The Amazing Line-Up:
David Gale, SVP New Media, MTV Networks; Danila Koverman, Director, HBOlab at HBO; Alexis Rapo, Vice President, ABC Digital Media; John Gilles, Vice President Media & Entertainment, Method; Suzanne Stefanac, Director, AFI Digital Content Lab; David Norton, VP Brand Integration, Ladder Up Media; Mark Vega, Partner/IP Steward, Omelet; Josh Bycel, Co-Executive Producer, Psych (USA Network); Adam Armus, Co-Executive Producer, Heroes (NBC); Jacob Rosenberg, CTO Bandito Brothers; Laura Nix, Director/Producer, Felt Films; John Hamburg, Writer/Director, I Love You Man & Along Came Polly; Adam Drucker, Casting Producer, A&E’s Intervention, Amazing Race; Scott B, Director / Cinematographer, Vortex, LA Coroner; Eva Orner, Academy Award winning producer, Taxi to the Dark Side; Jeffrey Tuchman, Emmy & Peabody Award winning filmmaker, Jamison Tilsner,! Co-founder, The Streamy Awards; Adam Chapnick, President, DocWorkers; Scott Hamilton Kennedy, Writer/Director, The Garden; Rick Allen, CEO, SnagFilms; Peter Yared, CEO, iWidgets; Steve Savage, Co-principal, New Video; Eddie Schmidt, President of the board, IDA; Dave Vamos, Founder, Six Point Harness Studios; Aaron Simpson, Founder, Cold Hard Flash, Lineboil.com; Jorge Gutierrez, Creator “El Tigre,” Nickelodeon; John Andrews, SVP, Klasky Csupo, ka-chew!; Antranig Manoogian, President, ASIFA Hollywood; Glasgow Phillips, Writer, South Park, Kung Fu Panda; Micki Krimmel, Founder Sugar Packet, Inc, Mickipedia.com; Robert Bahar, Filmmaker, Made in LA; Melissa Fitzgerald, Actor & Filmaker, The West Wing, Voices of Uganda; Marc Morgenstern, Executive Director, Declare Yourself; Juan Devis, Director of Production, KCET New Media; Charles Annenberg Weingarten, Founder, Explore.org; Brian Sirgutz, President, Causecast

Interactive Emmys - 2009 Call for Entries

I Met The Walrus - John Lennon interview gets animated

Very Short List this week selected a beautifully animated short that came with an even better backstory: The news today, oh boy!

"Thirty-nine years ago, a 14-year-old named Jerry Levitan managed to talk his way into John Lennon’s Toronto hotel room. Impressed by the kid’s chutzpah, Lennon obliged him with a five-minute chat that covered war, peace, and the newly arrived Bee Gees."

Five minutes doesn't sound like much had not Lennon been at the top of his game that day in 1969: Not only did he treat the teenage Levitan with utter respect, he managed to casually share clever insight with remarkable precision. As we listen to Lennon's enlightened thoughts about the powers of non-violence & humor and the peaceful action they generate, time stands still, stretching a few moments into one lasting profound experience.

Thanks to the young reporter who taped the conversation, we can now share this personal memory with him:

"Last year, Levitan teamed up with filmmaker Josh Raskin to make “I Met the Walrus” — a charming animated film that turns Lennon’s thoughts into concrete images. The results are trippy but cogent, and no less interesting than what the Beatle had to say. Lennon himself would have loved it."

Goodbye, Mary - viral marketing parody

Any limits to which social marketers are willing to go?
Slate V recently posted this very clever spoof a a viral marketing campaign gone insanely wrong.

'Goodbye Mary' was produced by filmmaker Scott Blaszak and stars the brilliant Ryan James as Marc, the kind young man and part-time actor hired to promote the motion picture release of 'The Women.'

And promote he does - by selecting Mary, a perfect specimen of the target audience, picking her up in the gym and subsequently starting a real-life relationship with the unsuspecting subject. As the viral campaign nears its end with the release of The Women last Friday, Mark needs to say goodbye to Mary. He's all half-baked apologies that he's leaving behind as a video message on Mary's computer before posting them on YouTube, but what can you do? Hilarious.

The clip is produced in the very simple, skillful style of ubiquitous video confessionals: One long uninterrupted shot, simulating a webcam pov and revealing Mary's tidy apartment in the background.

My favorite part of this excellently written spot: The surprise trip to Prague was the head of marketing's idea. Very cool stuff.

IDA DocU panel at Kodak: The Broadband Generation

Moderated a new media panel for the IDA in June...watch Daniel Tibbets of GoTV Networks, R.Blank from Almer/Blank, Hayden Black from Goodnight Burbank and Abigail, Daniel Paul from ManiaTV, John Canning from Media Sherpa and Ryan Stoner from branded content agency Omelet fight it out over important stuff like:

Is television really over?  Yes and no.

Are we currently re-inventing storytelling? You bet.

The Fold materializes

We are finally witnessing the advent of dramatic programming in the form of ambitious, thrilling and adventurous web originals: Mike Shields observes a new trend in his MediaWeek article 'Web Content Producers Turn Focus to Dramatic Fare'.

Last year's Prom Queen and the recent prequel for Robin Cook's upcoming medical thriller Foreign Body (both from Michael Eisner's Vuguru) and Steven King's original animated series for 'N' have been catching most of the spotlight.

The Fold, a quirky, erotically charged  sci-fi adventure series shot on a shoestring budget is set to premiere August 4th. The R-rated trailer is currently on my favorite video community Vimeo, and The Fold appears to be an indie production with considerable pedigree from New York's  downtown performance and theater scene that might as well turn into an instant classic.

Produced with lush cinematic hdv aplomb and understated scrappy low budget special effects, the new series was cooked up by published sci-fi/horror author Polly Frost and Ray Sawhill with director Matt Lambert. The resulting scenes promise something more than the 60-second soap-style entertainment we've grown accustomed to. The Fold  actually takes time to allow for some very complex story lines to unfold, outrageously complex at times:

"Part sci-fi, part sex comedy, part art movie, THE FOLD interweaves stories involving a time-traveling geek with Aspergers Syndrome, an investigation by a Gaming Babes Magazine reporter, a sex-cult guru, a right-wing CEO determined to remake history, and a New Jersey hot tub salesman for whom things mysteriously start to go the right way."

Need to see more?

THE FOLD trailer UNCENSORED! (18+ please!) from Matt Lambert on Vimeo.

Apparently I am a genius...

...at least according to the himself incredibly talented Glasgow Phillips, whose  terrific  book  The  Royal Nonesuch I recommended a few days ago.

If you don't believe me check out his post Thomas Rigler is Clearly a Genius  on The Royal Nonesuch blog, a destination well worth a visit.

Also check out this vintage edition of Backdoor Hollywood featuring Phillips as the host of a tiki-themed movie review show.

The Royal Nonesuch

General consensus in our industry is that the most influential book published on convergent business models was last year's The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. A loyal fan and long tail evangelist myself, I recently re-evaluated my position and am hereby nominating a new contender for that precious title.

 

The Royal Nonesuch, written by Glasgow Phillips, is the memoir of a true multi-hyphen cross platform creative type of the sort only the Dotcom era could have produced. Seems like Phillips did it all, and years before it became hip and fashionable: Washed up novelist, indie director, rehab, Internet entrepreneur, TV writer for South Park and the list goes on.

Reading about the author's adventures on his way to adulthood (the sub-title is...Or what will I do when I grow up) comes from the same state of mind that made Dave Eggars A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius so compelling: It's an incredibly funny, well written, tell-all style memoir that doesn't shy away from stupidity and suffering...even more so it actually finds a way to make the painful moments resonate personally. And this book isn't only about real people you'd want to know, but in the case of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, people you've at least heard of.

What does any of this have to do with the Dotcom era: Glasgow Phillips apparently participated in initiatives that still impact our industry: His tales of running a branding agency dedicated to names and tag lines sound eerily familiar when considering today's intuitive witch doctors active in product branding and viral marketing. Hustling with Hollywood producers for breadcrumb budgets is more than just a familiar notion.

Phillips' countless failed and successful attempts at crossing the bridge between VC capital, television, Internet video and Hollywood may have been chaotic and sometimes ill-advised during the 1990's heyday. In a way, though, we've all been growing up trying to become mini-moguls at our own little studios, and have all re-invented ourselves repeatedly by the time we turned 30. I this regard, The Royal Nonesuch is a scary and tremendously uncomfortable read.

Phillips' efforts appear very much in tune with today's young mavericks carving out their share of an audience on YouTube and BlipTV. His guerilla approach to both business and content creation should be a blueprint for any young filmmaker getting out of school today and should probably be taught at the appropriate departments and become required reading material.

Here's a book trailer by  the man himself with highlights from a decade of defiance.