MediaShift

MovieShift

DigiFest Examines DIY to Big Budget Special Effects for Films

by Nick Mendoza

Apocalyptic visions and alien invasions descended upon Hollywood earlier this month, to the collective delight of the digital media industry. At the American Film Institute's DigiFest, which was produced by the AFI Digital Content Lab, attendees experienced two days of presentations and screenings focused on new media platforms and creative storytelling using digital innovations. The event spotlighted advanced productions from...

• November 16, 2009
• No comments

MovieShift

Universal's Neil: Original Videos, Word of Mouth Key for Online Promotion

by Nick Mendoza

Movie marketers are poised to see a significant boost to their online marketing budgets, according to eMarketer, which predicts studios will spend $2.7 billion by 2013 in online advertising. That's more than double the $1.2 billion spent this year. Digital LA, a networking organization for online entertainment, marketing, advertising and tech professionals in Los Angeles, hosted a "Movie Marketing: Online,...

• October 15, 2009
• No comments

MovieShift

Movie Apps Get Social as Studios Integrate Facebook Connect

by Nick Mendoza

Movie studios fully understand the influence that word-of-mouth reviews, whether positive or negative, have on box office receipts. Social networks are accelerating this conversation as consumers hype or hurt a movie's perception. Many observers speculate that moviegoer talk on Twitter, which often comes straight from a mobile phone inside a theater, can impact a film's opening weekend. As a result,...

• September 9, 2009
• 1 comment

MovieShift

Digital Media Summit Explores New Models for Promotion and Creation

by Nick Mendoza

My first job was in old media. In the summer of 1986, I spent Sunday mornings constructing the San Francisco Examiner with my cousin, and venturing out via bicycle to share a heavy bundle of news, advertisements and stories from around the world. I was a paperboy. At iHollywood Forum's Digital Media Summit in Los Angeles last month, editors at...

• August 12, 2009
• 3 comments

MovieShift

Animated Film Takes Donations, DVD Sales to Pay Music Costs

by Mike Rosen-Molina

When New York-based animator Nina Paley decided to distribute her independent animation project "Sita Sings the Blues" online for free, she recalled the fate of 1920s jazz vocalist Annette Hanshaw. Once hugely popular, Hanshaw had almost completely disappeared from public knowledge when Paley decided to include her songs in the score for her film. "How could this happen to an...

• August 5, 2009
• 2 comments

Weblogs

Zombie Bloggers Create Communal Horror Stories

by Mike Rosen-Molina

On June 13, bloggers around the world imagined they were under attack by the living dead, writing short horror narratives for the annual Blog Like It's the End of the World Day (which was especially appropriate for me since it fell on my birthday). But there are some bloggers who blog as if everyday were the end of the world:...

• June 29, 2009
• 1 comment

PoliticalShift

How Greenwald's Brave New Films Spreads Its Political Message Online

by Simon Owens

Last month, Politico's Mike Allen asked presidential hopeful John McCain the seemingly innocent question of how many houses he owned. McCain's response -- "I'll have my staff get to you" -- became a major focus for both the media and Obama's campaign, who repeated it in just about every speech to illustrate that the Republican candidate was "out of...

• September 16, 2008
• 1 comment

Jennifer Woodard Maderazo

5 Places to Watch Movies Online Legally -- and Free

by Jennifer Woodard Maderazo

The spread of broadband Internet access has made online video a much better experience, allowing movie fans to catch a flick on the Net without having to rent a DVD. Depending on the kind of system and monitor you have, watching films on a computer can become almost as enjoyable as watching them on your television. For instance, with...

• January 11, 2008
• 26 comments

MovieShift

What We Lose (and Gain) Without Video Stores

by Mark Glaser

The red envelopes are back. After my high profile departure from using Netflix about a year ago, I've now gone back to the popular DVD-by-mail rental service. I know what you're thinking: I just couldn't stay away from a good thing. Not exactly. The sad truth of the matter is that the owner of my local video rental store...

• April 13, 2007
• 13 comments

Digging Deeper

Talent Agencies Evolve to Show Clients the Digital Money

by Mark Glaser

Everything about the Ask a Ninja videoblog phenomenon smacks of a new form of entertainment. Two guys in Los Angeles produce a series of simple, low cost video clips where a ninja character answers profound and ridiculous questions. The comedic series gets popular as a video podcast through iTunes, with viewership of 300,000 to 500,000 per episode, and the show's web presence branches out to include an online store for merchandise.

• January 31, 2007
• 8 comments

Open Source Reporting

Eliminating Physical Media Sprawl of CDs, DVDs, Books

by Mark Glaser

Lately, I have declared my own personal war on clutter in my life. That means all the paper littering my home office had to go. Those outdated hats from Burning Mans past also were out, as were old loose photos of places I don't remember. But for whatever reason, in each clean sweep I do of my stuff, I can never part with my collections of books, CDs, VHS and DVD movies (not to mention vinyl records and audiocassettes).

• September 28, 2006
• 6 comments

Online Video

Matt Foremski's Sleuthing Leads to Jessica Rose

by Mark Glaser

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears we have a winner of the MediaShift Your Blog Here Contest. I was a bit flustered trying to figure out the mystery behind the Lonelygirl15 series of videos on YouTube, so I started a contest to see who could solve this mystery -- and to take my pain away.

• September 12, 2006
• 14 comments

Your Take Roundup

Watching Shows on Computers Supplements Your TV Viewing

by Mark Glaser

Let's be clear about one thing. Watching TV shows and movies on computer screens -- as they exist today -- will not replace watching TV and movies on much bigger screens, in much more comfortable environs. Of course there are computers that can function as TV sets, and TV sets that can do some computer functions, but we haven't found nirvana yet, at least on a mass-quantity affordable basis.

• August 28, 2006
• 6 comments

Digging Deeper

'War Tapes' Film Lets Soldiers Tell Their Stories from Iraq

by Mark Glaser

So many times on the Internet, I've watched a video clip of combat in Iraq that looks like it was shot by a soldier. I hear some talking, the sound of shooting, screams and yelps in the background. But just as often I don't have the context of who was filming, why they are filming and what's going on inside their head. Where are they? What's the situation? Did they succeed or fail?

• August 15, 2006
• No comments

Your Take Roundup

Your Take Roundup::Movie Download Services Still Need Work

by Mark Glaser

While pay music downloads have been a hit with Apple's iTunes and beyond, movie download services such as Movielink and CinemaNow have been slower to catch on. The problem is that these services don't offer as much selection as a DVD service such as NetFlix, and they restrict the usage of the movie on your computer. CinemaNow, for instance,...

• June 30, 2006
• 6 comments

TVShift

Open Source Reporting::Designing an On-Demand TV Service That Beats DVDs

by Mark Glaser

We are a culture that thrives on immediate satisfaction. We want what we want when we want it. So the idea that we can order any TV show or movie we want -- for a small fee or with advertising -- appeals to us immensely. Slowly, but surely, the cable and satellite operators are starting to offer "on-demand video,"...

• June 19, 2006
• 2 comments

MovieShift

Early Opt-Out'er::Why I Cancelled Netflix

by Mark Glaser

Sometimes I'm not the earliest adopter of new technology trends. I got a cell phone much later than my friends. I got Windows 98 in the year 2000. I got a DVD player only a few years ago, and only recently got a digital video recorder (DVR). But perhaps I can be an "early opt-out'er," a person who's early...

• May 11, 2006
• 32 comments

MovieShift

Rethinking Theaters::Explode the Multiplex, and Let the Community In

by Mark Glaser

I probably go to see a movie at a theater about once every other week. But with each passing month, I realize just how stale this experience is. Just how broken it is. And I'm not surprised to see that the overall U.S. movie box office revenue was down 6% in 2005. As I start to gain control of...

• April 3, 2006
• 7 comments