#Futureartists is back Manchester nov 28th, Film, tv, media unconference and xmas party, http://ping.fm/knFaY tix on sale here

Future Artists live is back!!! Nov 28th, Manchester

Back by popular demand... Future Artists 2

November 28th 2009 at the URBIS, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester, England, 7pm (doors)

and this time we have teamed up with the biggest indie film network in the world Shootingpeople.org to not only network the northwest in a more productive way, but to offer everyone one that attends this event, a 6 week free trial with Shootingpeople.org (normal fee £30 a year)

So what did we learn?

Last time the format was a media conference, it went on far too long, we did'nt start having drinking till 12.30am, we packed a lot into 5 hours, but the feedback was, we need a balance, we listened...

You loved the Live music element... so we have expanded that.

You told us £6 is a good price, we agreed,

and you said 'do it again' and so we are here...

Event Info

Future Artists 2 will be celebrating the indie scene in the northwest, so if you’re an actor, writer, director, producer, film or TV crew, web designer….well I could list everything here, but in the transmedia age, if you’re a creative, you work across everything , this event is for you.

 

From 7.30pm we will be running an unconference, directed by future artists,

an unconference is an anti-conference the people decide the content and then the discussion is led in small groups around the room, these discussions are decided online before hand, we will also be bringing some special speakers into the conference for those that like a traditional set up too.

Confirmed today are Shootingpeople.org and 'Gabba' a new media PR agency will be giving an insight into 'YOU' as the brand, valuable for everyone from ACTORS to GRAPHIC DESIGNERS. We are also in talks with a couple of very high profile guests too (secret stuff!!! :)

 

This event will be local (at the Urbis) and global (online via Twitter, Justin.tv) so if you are reading this and can’t make it, we will be experimenting with an online communications tool. Don’t worry its new to us to!, so we’ll all be doing/learning this together.

 

After the unconference and networking bit, its time to rock out, ‘The Dirty Riffs’ will be opening the party, to be followed by the TheDJSchool.org and the legendary dancers.

 

Basically for those at the back of the class, a new media talk, done by you and us, and a massive party after till 2am, everyone that comes also gets free shooting people trial, and that’s worth a few quid.

So go to www.futureartists.co.uk , get a ticket £6, and register on the forum and start this project,

We have started our's Mark Ashmore (Future Artists Creative Director) has already started crowd sourcing phase one of his debut feature film 'Big Boys Don't send postcards' here at indiegogo.

and Jenny Inchbald (Future Artists Producer) has been invited to speak at this years Sheffield International Documentary Festival on Friday 6th of Nov, more info at doc fest official website.

More to follow, on this, join our social networks, and let us know what you want... this will be a chance to talk in small intimate groups with Industry proffesionals, network and party, its christmas after all !!!

Oh we are a not for profit event, your £6 just about covers everything, we get good deals from our partners, so give them a look on our website, we have no sponsors, just you.... 

(would like to say a thank you to the northwest vision and media freelancer fund, without it, we would'nt have been able to network and bring this event to the people.)

peace x

Future artists site here

Love film Q+A

CLIENT OF THE WEEK: LoveFilm - the online brand that loves direct mail

Customer acquisition is Ching-Har Wong's mission at UK mail-order DVD rental service LoveFilm.

LoveFilm: combines direct mail with paid search and email to boost subscriber levels

Ching-Har Wong

Part-owned by Amazon, LoveFilm's reputation for convenience and growing customer base recently led it to be valued at £200m. But while everyone loves movies, Wong's role in juggling channels to deliver more subsubscribers is more challenging than it sounds.

Q: What is LoveFilm's single, most efficient online channel for acquisition? We measure our activity against acquisition cost, taking into account all media and promotional cost including free giveaways. We calculate how many prospects go on to become paying customers and we end up with what we call SAC or subscriber acquisition cost.    Something like LoveFilm-branded paid-for search is a very good acquisition channel in terms of lowest cost/delivery of high value customers.    Channels such as affiliates are very efficient in terms of value – they deliver 19% of my volume at a very reasonable SAC. But the quality is not necessarily the best and that’s something we’re working with our digital media agency iLevel.    Quant created the mail pack and it’s very good in terms of delivering lifetime value.

Q: How do you integrate your online and offline channels for acquisition purposes?  Our lead generation activity is via email and online and if the customer doesn’t convert after an initial email, they’ll get an outbound telemarketing call. That’s one example of integration.    Direct mail comes in with our 'refer a friend' activity – one of our most successful forms of acquisition. Customers seem to love referring LoveFilm to their friends if they have a good experience with us. The pack looks nice and people have pleasure in passing them on. Less valuable segments will get an email. Q: How does your segmentation work? We do a lot of propensity modelling and we're becoming more effective because of it.   Our most valuable customers are defined as those who are best at referring friends to us. We identify the top 40% referrals – those customers who spend more with us tend to do more referrals. It's all linked.    The propensity modelling works by tracking individual customer behaviour, and seeing who they've referred to us and what they buy. The most valuable customers tend to be the most engaged – they’ll rent DVDs but also rate films and write reviews. It’s all about engagement.    Q: Could you describe your database segmentation?  We're a mass-market product as everyone watches films, no matter what your age or social group. That said, our data tells us we're very strong in the 25-44 year old age group, with a slight skew towards males and a wealthier demographic.    We also have a strong family segment. In a recent summer mailing we did a version of the mail pack that focused on family films.    But we prefer to appeal to the mass market and so we haven’t really segmented our communications to different segments.  We did focus groups with over-55s to make the site more accessible to them. We know our over-55s don’t like to be treated as a special segment. We did some creative testing with those older segments and the most popular film was Brokeback Mountain!    Q: Do you use cold media, for instance email data? We do buy email data, or rather EDR do it on our behalf. We introduced a paid performance model last Christmas where list suppliers are incentivised to increase data volume and quality for us. There is some bad quality data out there, but some good data  as well. It’s down to finding the right list suppliers to work with. Acxiom is a one good, amongst others.   Q: Do you overlay other sources of data onto your own? We have done overlays with (media survey) TGI – it’s a good data source and it gave us lot of insight into our data.  Q: What variables do you use for online segmentation? We have usage behaviour. We’re using behavioural targeting so that when people come on to our site and drop out, or they begin to sign up and drop out. By giving them a cookie we’ll deliver a targeted message to them. Behavioural targeting can be very effective if you do it properly. Q: Is there a LoveFilm head of retention and if so, how do you work together?  There is a retention manager and we do work closely together. We understand more about what people are engaging with in terms of service and content and we’ll use that in our marketing messages.  Q: Have your acquisition targets plateaued, given the recession?  They’re ever increasing! People have been staying in and that’s helped our business, but through optimised marketing we’ve increased our response and conversion rates.  Q: LoveFilm is in the top 100 brands mentioned on Twitter. How important is social media to acquisition? It's getting more important, but we haven’t finalised our social network strategy yet because we want to do it properly. You can’t start with social media and then walk away. It needs a dedicated resource to focus on it.   In the meantime we’re doing a lot of work understanding what social networking means to our customers and what they want from a social network site.   LoveFilm has a Twitter account with over 2000 followers and we have advertised on Facebook. That didn’t work and we are now working on Facebook APIs (Application Programming Interface). We find that if you manage to integrate with things that people are already doing on Facebook, it’s better than just sticking on an ad.    So, for instance, we integrate with poker games on Facebook and people can earn chips for signing up to a two-week free trial.  Q: It’s a household name now.. you're trialling a new video-on-demand download service...where does LoveFilm go from here?  We’re looking at developing and understanding our integrating our digital offering into our packages, understanding what our proposition is and integration that into our marketing. Digital will become a bigger part of our offering – from a channel, platform and marketing point of view.   Q: About you - how did you arrive at LoveFilm? I started off agency side – McCann Erickson, KLM, Parade Direct Marketing. After that I switched to clientside, spending a few years in Barclays and Vodafone. I’ve been at LoveFilm for 16 months.  Q: How different is working at LoveFilm to, say, working at Barclays? Very different. It’s the transition from a big corporate environment to a dynamic small-to-medium sized business. We work hard here at LoveFilm and it’s enjoyable, especially the sense that you can make things happen faster. 

Transmedia Heavy Rain PS3

Heavy Rain^[6][7] is an upcoming PlayStation 3 video game being developed by French studio, Quantic Dream.^[8] The game is being directed by Quantic Dream's founder and CEO David Cage,^[9] who also wrote and directed the studio's two previous games, Omikron: The Nomad Soul and Fahrenheit. The game is scheduled to be released in early 2010.^[3] David Cage is unsure whether or not a demo will be available.^[10] Details about the plot of Heavy Rain remain scarce. Director David Cage has stated that Heavy Rain would be "a very dark film noir thriller with mature themes", without any supernatural elements,^[11] and that "the real message [of the game] is about how far you're willing to go to save someone you love."^[12]

In an interview with Dutch magazine "Chief" in 2008, David Cage gave a brief overview of Heavy Rain's narrative and ambitions. A translation was then made on Kotaku's site, which read as follows:

"Heavy Rain is about normal people who have landed in extraordinary situations. I wanted a much more personal story. The first thing that came to my mind, as a father of two little boys, was that the main theme should simply be a father's love for his son. This is not a game about saving the princess or the world. Its purely about a father's love. The main story will revolve around four different characters, and we're putting the spotlight on their perceptions. The question 'what is good and what is evil' is the key here, that will be just a matter of viewpoint...I believe heavily in moral choices, I'm going to use them A LOT. They're not about being good or bad, but about finding the right balance."^[13]

In the same interview, Cage commented on the setting by saying, "I don't want to do a big free-roaming city like GTA, because the flow of the story will then be hard to control. Nevertheless, I do want to incorporate big sets, with a crowd, heavy populated areas like a mall and a subway are going to be in there. Of course, the gameplay has got to make use of that aspect too."

There are four playable characters mentioned — an FBI profiler named Norman Jayden, a private detective named Scott Shelby, an architect named Ethan Mars, and journalist named Madison Paige. All playable characters are said to be looking for a serial killer known as "The Origami Killer".^[12]

Broken Britain at Salford film festival

Whats On:

• Friday 20th November
• Saturday 21st November
• Sunday 22nd November
• Monday 23rd November
• Tuesday 24th November

Broken Britain

Lewis, Sick Boy, Tommo and Terry are on a night out. They are returning soldiers, drinking to a fallen friend. But the sign outside the club says “No Soldiers”, and the bouncers are openly aggressive. Frustrations mount, passions run high, and as things move towards an inevitable showdown, the question is who will crack first? Showing as part of CAUGHT SHORT TWO: SHOTS FROM THE NORTH WEST UNDERGROUND

Director: Mark Ashmore

Producer: Mark Ashmore

Writer: Jack Casey

Starring: Brian Hook, Clay Whitter

Venue: Salford Arts Theatre

When: 22 November 2009 - 20.00

Chris Anderson Wired Magazine

Chris anderson discusses the various ways of giving his book away, 

note the way he discusses platforms and release windows, and the various forms of content, this is a question we get asked a lot, 

Digital Book can be

Audio - read by author/actor (Full version) PAY

Audio - read by Author (3hr free version, missing some bits) FREE

Kindle, google books, Iapp, free for 1 week then pay to download.

Physical

i.e A Book, looks good on your shelf, read anywhere, has a good battery life :) PAY

serialised in Magazine/newspaper FREE

#HMV open 3 screen cinema in london to survive falling music and film sales, good move ;) http://ping.fm/ZBFXf

HMV opens own cinema

HMV opens its first cinema

October 23, 2009

HMV has opened a three-screen cinema above its store at The Broadway in London’s Wimbledon, which it hopes will kick-start a new revenue stream. 

Hmvcurzon will offer a mix of film and music and will share a foyer with the HMV store so cinema-goers can browse related products.

A HMV spokesperson said: “Shoppers can watch the film and then buy the soundtrack, book or T-shirt; there is a lot of synergy between the two.”

The entertainment group hopes to roll out more in-store cinemas if Wimbledon proves successful.

#up by pixar in my opinion and that of my fellow futureartists is the best animation ever, we cried, 20 minutes in :( but was :)

Virral Videos

We get a lot of clients asking what makes a good virral video, well here are a few, its not just about the number of hits though... find out more.. ask us... see contact me. these are the BEST of the web.

Grimm up North HORROR SPECIAL

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser . To make sure you receive our newsletters, it is helpful to add info@grimmfest.com to your Contacts list. Only two more weeks to go before Halloween. Only fourteen days before the North achieves a whole new level of GRIMM. Manchester is about to slide into the abyss, people, and when it does, your best chance for survival will be with us! For three whole days, Odeon Printworks will become our unholy domain. We’ve stocked up and made ready. When the monsters are rampaging across the city, we can offer you shelter. But not safety. There is nothing safe about GRIMM UP NORTH! Join us. We promise you it will be worth the risk. You want more information? OK, but be careful what you wish for… Here is the latest news from the Brothers and Sisters Grimm: Click logo top to go to Grimm Up North website. Click image left to see Grimm Up North video trailer on YouTube. SIGN UP FOR THE DAY, OR DIP IN AND OUT AS YOUR NERVES PERMIT! Book tickets via the ODEON online booking system, their ticket telephone hotline or in person at the PRINTWORKS box office. To book online. Please click on the Odeon banner on this page. Once directed to the ODEON site, scroll down to find the list of GRIMM movies and purchase. Alternatively you can go to the individual FILMS information pages on the GRIMM UP NORTH site and link directly across to individual ticket sales on the ODEON site. To book via the telephone. Please ring 0871 2244 007. On the automated service, select "more options" and then "operator" to talk to a human! You'll be able to book Friday, Saturday and Sunday day tickets or individual film tickets. All individual films in screen 20 and day tickets in screen 19 can be prebooked via the ODEON. Day ticket holders get priority access to: All Q+A's, signings and seminars (Places are strictly limited!), The SPLINTERED exhibition. The RESIDENT EVIL: THE DARKSIDE CHRONICLES gaming area. Reduced price entry to our Friday and Saturday afterparties at OPUS and the Zombie ball on Sunday at PURE. VIP access to our official festival venue, OPUS throughout the weekend (Hang out with the celebs) 2 for 1 food deals at OPUS. We are also now also able to offer a limited number of seats for individual films screening in screen 19 as part of the day ticket. These cannot be purchased in advance but will sell on the day for £5.00 each on a first come first serve basis. /td> CREDO STILL SCREENING IN TRIBUTE TO STEPHEN GATELY. Following the shocking death of Stephen Gately earlier this week, the Grimm Team were ready to pull the film CREDO, in which he has a starring role, fearing it might not be seen as appropriate to screen it. However, we are aware that people have already bought tickets and, and following a discussion with the film’s producers and distributors, we have decided to proceed with the screening, which we dedicate to his memory. Though he appeared as himself on film and television many times, this was his first real acting role, and his performance suggests that here was a promising cinema career cut tragically short. The film’s director Toni Harman and star MyAnna Buring will be attending the screening, and will be paying their tributes. SPLINTERED CAST LEFT TO RIGHT: HOLLY WESTON, STEPHEN WALTERS, SACHA DHAWAN, JONATHAN READWIN SOL HERAS AND SADIE PICKERING - READ DETAILS BELOW THE BLOODY BIRTH OF GRIMMFEST! This Halloween, there’s a chance to join cast members Holly Weston, Stephen Walters, Sacha Dhawan, Jonathan Readwin, Sol Heras, Sadie Pickering, SFX wizards Scott McIntyre and Darren Longthorn, Producer Rachel Richardson-Jones, and Director Simeon Halligan along with the whole, unholy Grimm crew, for the Red Carpet UK premiere of SPLINTERED. This is the film that started it all, that launched the Brothers and Sisters Grimm on their quixotic quest to create the best damned Halloween horror festival in the country. We had a film we wanted to launch, directed and produced by our own Simeon Halligan and Rachel Richardson-Jones, and exec-produced by the legendary Clive Parsons (Gregory’s Girl, Britannia Hospital, Scum, Tea with Mussolini). We wanted to premiere it in Manchester, where the core creative team are based. And we thought it would be “nice” to have a couple of other horror films on as well, to make a bit of an event out of it. A couple of drinks later, and we were thinking bigger. And the more we talked, and discussed it with others, the more we realised that if we built it, people would come. And the bigger we built it, the better for all. Before long, we had decided that this Halloween it was going to be GRIMM UP NORTH! Over 25 Films, 15 of them premieres, computer games, book-signings, zombies and Cenobites on the prowl. The gates of hell left open for three whole days. And at the festival’s dark, dark heart SPLINTERED is waiting for you, like the beast in the jungle. A brutally break-neck psychological thriller; a sustained exercise in claustrophobic tension; a fragmented Freudian-Gothic fairytale wherein repressed memories must be unlocked to confront the beast within us all, the film will leave you shattered. Join us on the blood-red carpet, or we’ll send the beast out to find you. LITERARY LIONS AT GRIMMFEST! Who needs to go to Hay on Wye? We’ve our own literary festival happening right here at Grimm Up North. We’ve already announced that David Moody will be there for the screening of AUTUMN, and now we are delighted to confirm that Ramsey Campbell (shown right) will be joining us at Grimm Up North on Saturday afternoon for a special reading. Championed by Stephen King, cited as an influence by Clive Barker, described by Peter Straub as “In some ways…the best of us all”, Campbell is truly the horror writers’ horror writer. For over 40 years he has specialised in exposing the cracks in our mundane reality; the dark places where something Other can seep through. His work is notable for its atmosphere of crawling disquiet. His books prey on our own deepest fears and paranoias, fleshing out those shifting, half-glimpsed things at the corners of our vision. We are thrilled, and more than a little terrified, that Ramsey will be unleashing a brand new short story at Grimm Up North. "Chucky Comes to Liverpool" will be published in Ellen Datlow's anthology Ha unted Legends next year, but this will be the first time it has had a public reading. This is your chance to hear it before anyone else does - if you dare! ZOMBIE AID! Feeling a bit claustrophobic after all of those scary movies? You could always go for a walk and clear your head - provided you remember to take it with you! Sunday will see Manchester’s second official Zombie Walk. We're sure all the hungover Halloween revellers, and shell-shocked cinemagoers, with their bloodshot eyes and pasty faces will fit right in among the wandering corpses, but there will be make-up artists available for those who need them. To take part, simply turn up between 1.30 and 5.30 and register. The walk will begin at 6pm, and last around 45 min. The final leg will be through the deserted Arndale Centre – a scenario to make George Romero proud! In addition to the walk itself, there will be an attempt at a second world record: the most people re-enacting Michael Jackson's famous THRILLER dance routine. A unnerving spectacle not to be missed, and one you may wish to be part of! And if that's not enough, Zombie aid will have another world first – an undead Double Wedding! Come along and throw rice – but you'd better hope its not mistaken for maggots, as that could cause offence! And remember, folks, it’s all for Charity… check out www.zombieaid.com IT’S HALLOWEEN, DAMN IT - LET’S PARTY! After all of those nerve-shredding movies, we’re sure you’ll all be in need of a stiff drink or two and a chance to unwind, which is why we’ve parties every night of the festival. On Thursday 29th October, there’ll be a chance to “get down” at the DESCENT 2 PREVIEW After-Party in the opulent environs of our official festival venue, Opus. On Friday 30th, there’s a chance to celebrate with a Cenobite. Bring your own hooks and chains as, for one night only Pinhead and his colleagues transform Opus into the Lowest Circle of Hell. Then, on Saturday 31st, Halloween Night, you can get smashed at the shattering SPLINTERED PREMIERE After-Party, again at Opus. Finally, Sunday 1st November sees Pure filled with impurities as it becomes the location of the Zombie Ball. When there is no more room in hell, the dead will go out clubbing! Presented in association with our festering friends at Zombie Aid, this is a chance to dance till dawn with the undead! Check our website www.grimmfest.com for more details. The Blood is the Life! This Tuesday the Brothers and Sisters Grimm received an unexpected visit from Rey Muraru, heroic Producer of the grimly hilarious, biting black comedy STRIGOI. The fearless Rey braved the twin motoring hells of the M1 and M6 to drive up from London to deliver a beautiful, pristine print of the film, as well as lots of ghoulish goodies, which Grimm-goers will be able to win. Rey will be back in a fortnight, along with Writer / Director Faye Jackson, for the film’s UK PREMIERE, and if you’ve any sense you’ll be joining them. This is a rare chance to meet a couple of experts in all things sanguinary and to get the real skinny on Vampirism in Romania, after years of misrepresentation by the Bram Stokers of this world. Forget those foppish, cloaked aristos - the Strigoi are the real thing! The film may be a comedy, but while you’re watching and laughing, remember this: in 2004, villagers in Marotinu de Sus in south-west Romania dug up the body of a man the y believed to be Strigoi, cut out his heart and burnt it… What Would You Do For Friendship? The buddy movie is back in a big way. Cinemas and DVD stores are filled with “Bromances” and male-bonding based comedies galore. Here in the GRIMM Office we have noticed the trend with a degree of alarm. All that unfettered testosterone can’t be entirely healthy. It won’t be long before someone gets hurt - or at the very least a bit offended. But we also realise that if you can’t join them, you have to beat them into a shape you find acceptable. With this in mind, we are proud to present the premiere of THE REVENANT, the world’s very first Zombie Buddy Comedy. Because some- times, friendship is stronger than death… Picture right: zombie Bart (played by actor David Anders) and buddy Joey (played by Chris Wylde). Zombies Unleased in you Home This Halloween! This month will see the Blu-Ray release of George A Romero’s legendary DAWN OF THE DEAD in a special UK-exclusive 3-disc ultimate edition from Arrow Video. This must-have boxed set includes the Romero-approved Theatrical Cut, plus his own Director’s Cut and also the Dario Argento cut, which has never been available in the UK before. Extras include deleted scenes, audio commentaries by the filmmakers, theatrical and TV trailers, and documentaries including “Document of the Dead”, “The Dead Will Walk”, the rarely seen “Scream Greats” on SFX maestro Tom Savini, and French Romero fanatic Nicolas Garreau’s “Fan of The Dead”. In short, this is the finest domestic release edition of the film available anywhere in the world. And to celebrate, GRIMM UP NORTH will be presenting one of the variant versions of the film on the big screen, as part of Sunday’s all-day undead extravaganza. Which version should it be? Why not email us at info@grimmfest.com to let us know which you think! All we are saying for now is there are Zombies in it. And Bikers. And a shopping mall. And Zach Snyder didn’t direct it. There’ll also be a chance to take home a souvenir. We have a copy of the box set available as a competition prize. All you have to do is buy a ticket for the DAWN OF THE DEAD screening to be in for a chance of winning!!!!! You will hear from us again, THE GRIMM TEAM Grimm Up North sponsors: > Visit the Grimm Up North! site | Unsubscribe Youve received this because you signed up on the Grimm Up North! website. Unsubscribe by clicking the link above. We will never make our information available to any other company unless you tell us you are happy for us to do so. To make sure you receive the newsletter, please add info@grimmfest.com to your address or Contacts list. Our mailing address is: Grimm Up North!,4 Acton Square. The Crescent. Manchester M5 4NY Email :info@grimmfest.com. Fax: 0845 017 6769 Copyright 2009 Grimm Up North! All rights reserved.

Salford star needs YOUR HELP

SALFORD STAR TO PRINT

Star date: 19th October 2009  SALFORD STAR AIMING TO PRINT MAGAZINE AGAIN We said we couldn't do it – they said we could! The award winning Salford Star magazine has not been in print for just over a year. Now the company is aiming to get another printed issue out as soon as possible… Full story here

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The last issue of Salford Star appeared in September 2008 and has since been operating incredibly successfully online. Every month has seen an increase in unique visitors and the experimental issue 9 which appeared on the website last April actually drew treble the number of readers that the 15,000 print run would normally get. However, we're well aware that while it's great that so many people are seeing our stories, the majority of our core readers don't have access to the web. The digital divide is as wide as the wealth divide. Particularly in Salford.  The aim was always to get back into print so no-one is excluded from seeing the magazine. And donations have continued to be given towards this end – from trade unions, from well wishers and from our collecting boxes throughout Central Salford. But the amounts were never enough to cover the £6,500 cost of the getting the mag back out on the streets where it belongs. During a chat with some of our supporters we said that the magazine is finished, that it would never come out again because no public funder will go near it - despite talking the talk about community empowerment and the importance of the local media to democracy and accountability and all that. They said `Can you find 100 people to donate £10 a month? 100 people who really want the Salford Star to come out again?'  We said `No, everyone's skint!' They said `You'll never know unless you ask' – And we asked a few people who immediately filled out a bank form for a tenner a month (and more)… Can we find 100 people to donate? Dunno. But when we do find those golden 100 the Salford Star will be back out on the streets… Anyone who might be interested in helping please e-mail info@salfordstar.comand we'll send you a form…or phone 07957 982960. We still don't think it can be done. But we've been told to have faith…

3D comes to Manchester

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The UK's First Full HD 3D Roadshow

Panasonic's Full HD 3D Roadshow

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The UK's First Full HD 3D Roadshow

3D - Transforming the World of Images From the beginning of movies to the invention of the television, developments in image technology have been the driving force in innovations throughout the decades – including High Definition (HD) TVs and IPTV. Now, Panasonic is introducing another key breakthrough: Full HD 3D.

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Full HD 3D

The Full HD 3D experience will come to life on the 103" giant Plasma screen inside a custom-made sound and vision theatre to give lucky consumers the ultimate 3D experience in HD 1080p. As well as the 3D Theatre, consumers will be able to see the latest 600Hz Viera PDP line-up with built-in freesat HD tuners as well as the UK's first Blu-ray Recorders. The venues and dates are now confirmed, so if you'd like to see a sneak preview of the future of home entertainment, visit the Panasonic roadshow to experience Full HD 3D -

Innovations Through Time

Film-makers and engineers have paved the evolutionary path toward achieving the highest level of imaging and viewing. The development and enhancements made in 3D technology enable you to welcome in a whole new 3D generation.

The Power Behind 3D

Panasonic employs the Frame Sequential Method to bring cinema-like realism to 3D movies in your home. Separate images for both eyes are recorded in 1920 x 1080 Full HD quality and alternately played back at high speed. When you watch these images with special shuttered glasses, which are timed to open and close the right and left lenses in sync with the alternating images, you can partake in an exciting 3D viewing experience in the comfort of your living room – without loss in quality, which can happen with conventional 3D systems.

End-to-End result for 3D Imaging

Recording The Panasonic P2 HD broadcast camera uses a P2 card instead of a tape which has now become de facto standard for broadcast device memory. The twin-lens P2 HD system is currently being developed for 3D filming as well.

Authoring Panasonic is advancing the development of new cutting edge 3D-ready authoring systems, starting with the 3D image compression technology for the Panasonic MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Video Encoder. This has been made possible through many years of working in cooperation with Hollywood studios.

Home Cinema System Panasonic is also developing Full HD 3D home cinema systems, bringing 3D cinematic quality right into your own home. Register to the Panasonic newsletter here and receive all the latest news on 3D technology.

#Shootingpeople and futureartists are proud to announce a strategic partnership at pttp09, the northwest media platform is getting bigger!

Futureartists are at pttp09 and wil be updating everyone in the manchester on 28th Nov at our next event see http://ping.fm/zlANz

Climatechange protesters take over houses of parliament , see last direct action http://tiny.cc/sm49D Climatechange parliament greenpeace

Climate Camp film (11min long)

11min Doc by Director Mark Ashmore, made for Manchesters Filmonik #45 open mic film night, thought it would be worth sharing with the blog.

This is not a Riot : Climate camp in LONDON April 1st 2009
by futureartists

Charles Leadbeater Interview 'Trying to book him for future artists'

Shift Happens - Charles Leadbeater Interview from Reallygood Pictures on Vimeo.

#FutureArtists 2- will have a user gen agenda, the world of the unconference, more to follow, http://ping.fm/TSDik 28th Nov.

Franny Armstrong AGE OF STUPID special

Hello.... 

... they said meekly, emerging blinking from under a large pile of rolled up posters in a corner of a big empty office on 34th Street, New York New York.

This has been the hardest-ever mailing list message to write.... because in many ways the Global Premiere was a total triumph (see below) and so many people worked so hard and pulled off so many astounding feats (also see below), that it seems churlish to be anything over than overjoyed.... But for Lizzie and me, the whole thing was a bit of a carcrash and we are still suffering from PTPD (post traumatic premiere disorder). 

It wasn't that the thing was a failure... it's just that we spent so many months - or years, depending on how you look at it - creating a global platform to say what we wanted to say.... and then didn't say it. Mainly because the script for the after-film live show got totally thrown out of the window, for reasons I won't go into. So a lot of people said a lot of good stuff, but it wasn't the ever-more-moving-and-powerful-train-of-thought-climaxing-in-a-simultaneous-mass-global-awakening-in-one-million-brains-worldwide-thereby-ushering-in-The-Age-of-Sense..... Ahem... Guess I should stick to filmmaking, where you get years to sculpt precisely. 

In the words of the production manager, Lisa, "You shot high and landed on the moon rather than Jupiter... but it was still a damn impressive place to be". And one of the stalwarts of the NY team, Deirdre, pointed out that our over-ambitiousness took up so much of our limited team's limited time (oh yeah, we apparently should have had a crew of 300 for this event, not 40) that it was darn-near impossible to get all the details absolutely right: what other event would have two different types of inflatable ball, both of which were potentially fatal?!? Was one not enough??? (Answers direct to our newly-employed therapist.)

Loads of wonderful stories below and we've half-updated the Global Premiere page here, which will be finished properly as soon as Team NY get back from their holidays. Sorry that this message is much bigger than normal cos of all the pics. 

And the note from the organisers of the Honduras premiere (towards the end) puts all our problems into perspective... 

Feeling bad for feeling bad, 

Franny

Kofi Annan in the New York tent: "We know politicians do follow when the people speak up. Good leaders are good followers 

and if we shout loud enough they may follow. So each and every one of us should organise ourselves and get the message across." 

Highlights

- More than one million people watching the film in 63 countries

- A large chunk of whom saw the live event too (about 30 countries)

- Two Presidents and about 15 Environment Ministers watching in one country or another 

- Film director Shekhar Kapur speaking to 11 million people on Indian TV after he'd climbed up into the Himalayas to speak to us (see below)

- The survivaballs blocking the green carpet and then going into "turtle position" and diving over the barriers to get out of the way of the celebs heading for the tent

- Reaching a whole new audience - porn lovers - via Heather Graham's "moment" with the Survivaballs 

- 40,000 people visiting our website on the premiere day/s

- The Directors of MoveOn, tcktcktck, Oxfam, Peta, Rainforest Action Network, Avaaz and Greenpeace standing together on the green carpet 

- Building fantastic working relationships with the world's biggest environmental NGOs

- Setting a new Guinness World Record for the biggest simultaneous film screening

- Guests in the cinema tent eating the Brooklyn-grown edible decor

- Celebs arriving on the sailing boat as the sun set over downtown New York

- Moby singing live on the green carpet, powered by cyclists

- Thom Yorke singing live via satellite and half the tent audience putting their arms round each other and/or crying

(bootlegged - not by us -and up on youtube before the night was out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLMEsc_42Gw )

- Everything described below

Movie star Heather Graham arrives by sailing boat

Outcomes

- Extended cinema runs booked for Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, Norway and Germany (Already started in most of these countries - please tell pals)

- Likely cinema runs for Japan, India, Brazil, Argentina.

- (BTW, Canada, which didn't take part in the premiere, has also now launched in about 30 cinemas:http://www.ageofstupid.net/canada)

- 10:10 Global launched at the premiere and thousands of people signed up on the night (exact numbers coming as soon as someone works out how to access the database)

- Major brands including Microsoft UK, O2 and Pret A Manger signed up to 10:10 after the premiere

- The Director of a well-known airline texted to say "It makes me think: shouldn't we ground all our planes today?"

- Half the seats at the Hague screening were taken up by employees of our favourite oil company.... Standing by for the lawsuit... . 

Inflatable ball 1: The Yes Men demonstrate "corporate America's solution to climate change", The Survivaball, 

many of whom could have drowned as they floated down the river towards the premiere... 

Their brilliant movie, The Yes Men Fix the World is released in New York today and other US cities in the coming weeks

Inflatable ball 2: contains enough air for four minutes before asphyxiation

Over Ambitious?

- Why did we think we should do it live and subtitled in four languages and from a specially-constructed tent with no facilities and with super-low emissions and with a tenth of the recommended crew and including live links from remote areas with no decent satellite coverage and with a whole green carpet celeb-bash intro and with 12 different forms of arrival transport? 

- How it happened: do live event (finish 10pm), go straight back to studio thereby missing own party, edit live event in New York (all night), send low-res version in 10 min chunks to translators in London, translators make subtitle streams in French, German, Italian and Spanish and send to other facility in London (1pm London time), New York sends high-res version to other facility in London, other facility in  London makes high res tapes and adds subtitles (2.30pm London), motorbikes courier tapes to satellite facility in Winchester (5.04pm London time), courier runs with tapes into transmission room (5.59pm London time - NO EXAGGERATION), technician puts tapes into machine and hits go on the satellite (6pm London time), people in cinemas all across the world watch the live event in their language knowing nothing of such dramas. (Except for the Italians, whose tape didn't work, so they got the English version instead. Sorry Italy.)

- The new Michael Moore documentary also premiered that night. He has approximately ten zillion times more resources than us and he went for a simple red carpet, a few celebs and a logo board in one cinema. Hmmmmm.  

- We had no advertising

- There were panic stations a couple of days before the event, when Gordon Brown (the UK Prime Minister) decreed that my old mucker Ed Miliband (the UK Climate Change Minister) should sub for him at a dinner for World Leaders on the very night of our premiere. Yikes. But Plan B was swiftly hatched whereby a satellite truck was stationed outside Ed's dinner (except it was actually five blocks away as there was a security block around the world leaders) and Ed would  excuse himself for 10 mins, go passed the security, run five blocks, speak to us via satellite link (even though our cinema tent was only 20 blocks away), run five blocks back and carry on with desert as if nothing had happened. Perfectly sensible plan, wouldn't you say? Except there were no satellite trucks left in New York that night, what with UN General Assembly and everything, so we had to borrow one from a fairly far-off city (more fossil fuels up in the air). But then the world leaders ran out of things to talk about (or something), the dinner ended early and Ed was able to come to the tent in person. Thanks anyway satellite boys. And very good job that Ed could be there as he largely saved the day, not least because we totally failed to get anyone from the US Administration to speak, even on the phone. Thanks Ed and Team Ed. 

- We could - and no doubt will - beat ourselves up forever about what might have been, but it was probably a mistake to try to do 10:10 in the middle... and perhaps we shouldn't have got distracted for two weeks in Australia and New Zealand....  

Moby helps charge the pedal-powered sound system in front of the exact number of plastic bottles

America consumes every second, before performing "Natural Blues"

Heather Graham gets the full pap treatment on the green carpet (Note volunteers holding up

Age of Stupid signs behind her as we couldn't afford to make advertising boards)

Press

My favourite article from more than 2,000 all over the world, was from our friends at the Guardian. You've gotta laugh at the order of pictures: Obama, Ban Ki-Moon, Pachauri, Al Gore.... and then....  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/sep/22/climate-week-new-york

Funniest press article: http://www.hollywoodtuna.com/?p=21853

Tonnes more news articles: http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=age+of+stupid+%2B+global+premiere

President Nasheed of the Maldives accepts his Not Stupid certificate for being the first country

to commit to going carbon neutral within ten years

Videos

-> Grist, probably the best round-up: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-09-23-ask-umbra-reports-age-of-stupid-premiere/

-> Himalayas on the Indian news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4QCUdPjMB0

-> Hilarious video of an American boy band singer suddenly getting climate change (fast-forward to the end for his eureka moment)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJaOZcupO_0

-> Not strictly related to our premiere, but hilarious CNN piece about the Yes Men getting arrested as they try to storm the UN by floating down the river in survivaballs http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/offbeat/2009/09/23/moos.survivaball.cnn.html 

-> Netherlands roundup with great shots of the real green carpet, the electronic goods being handed in as people arrive and the specially chartered tram for the premiere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gNU4wvIG7E -> Netherlands crew's very own youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/AgeofStupidNL

-> Russian TV: http://www.rt.tv/About_Us/Programmes/Moscow_Out/2009-09-18/495640.html

-> Hungary: http://greenpeace.hu/galeria/hulyesegkorakepek

-> Amsterdam report (with English subtitles): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaWj_tcGmlI - Holocaust survivor speaks about our responsibility to keep the world safe for future generations.

-> Another Dutch piece from Amsterdam - good shots of the electronic goods being recycled http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqXkR_iC0eM

-> Argentina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KAKRjdh014 (Loads of people dressd as lightbulbs. Keep watching until the end to see the Argentinian pop-star and contemporary dance) -> Argentina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px7pHYZJ8nU

-> Argentina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rspA1zgsXnA

-> Swedish TV: http://playrapport.se/#/video/169876

-> Not Stupid graffiti timelapse in Copenhagen: http://www.vimeo.com/6696486 -> Thailand reactions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7cRKZ7QOCI -> Dutch news report from the New York tent featuring the Dutch Environment Minister: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qaKKz2UIcA -> Reactions from Copenhagen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIJ66rlXGWs -> Bucharest Romania - basically just lots of the film on a big screen, some reactions after 5 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvpuEPdjwGc -> News report from France 24, just the film and some interviews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxF-lbfU5eg -> India screening introduction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkuWnZqi4so -> News piece from Mallorca: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH4rBRsAnU0 -> Slovakia, just bad quality footage of the panel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTGX6m35brg

-> Our video channel (lots not on here yet though): http://vimeo.com/ageofstupid)

It takes a lot of buttons to broadcast live to 30 odd countries in 5 languages

Photos

Photos from round the world: http://www.flickr.com/ageofstupid

Photos from NY: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ageofstupid/sets/72157622430257280/

Round Six of the Ed vs Franny Featherweight Knockout Series (apologies if boxing terminology incorrect)

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Letter from Denmark

Yesterday evening was NOT stupid! The green grass substituted the red carpet and party leaders, celebs, artists, key journos and CPH environmental mayor arrived at the spectacular Tycho Brahe Planetarium to see the premiere of Age of Stupid. 600 invitations were out and 238 seats out of 240 were confirmed! The cinema was full. We showed the audience beautiful pictures from Greenpeace's Arctic expedition and introduced the growing range of NGO's supporting the film in Denmark. The excitement in the room was massive.

After the film we served the best climate friendly food and sparkling wines. The national TV2 news channel did live interviews with the key guests, being party leaders and celebs. Also our video teams did interviews and asked people to send a clear message to Lars Løkke Rasmussen (PM) and also to send a call for people to attend the big public demo at CPH the 12. december. This material we'll benefit from on social media that we'll push the next days. Løkke will feel the heat from these voices on facebook, YouTube, our homepage and more. 

More than hundred people signed a great "Not Stupid" art piece that we'll also deliver to our prime minister. Kofi, Radiohead, Franny and Pete were also with us on the big screen and the evening ended up with DJ Master Fatman, a national icon, playing his music. We left happy and i'm sure the film has got a kick in the a.. by this solid, sparkling and impressive Greenpeace arrangement.

All the best, Henrik

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Belgrade

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Blog from The Himalayas

[From the Greenpeace satellite team who trekked up into the Himalayas to provide the live satellite link to New York and then to the world]

After weeks of work by Cedric against the inpenetrable Indian bureaucracy - which is intended to thwart all but the most patient people - we got the go ahead in one of our preferred locations for the live shoot. The one permission we forgot though, was from Shiva the owner of these mighty mountains, who made everything near-impossible weather-wise. I think Shiva had a word to the satellite gods too though, as they decided to block our video stream several days before and not even Gianluca himself could appease them.

So It's 6 hours before we go live, New York are ready to do the test link but I still have no functioning satellite, a monsoonal downpour is closing in and there's still 2000m to climb from Manali to Rohtang, really not looking good. But this is when our friend the rainbow spirit must have had a word with Shiva. As we climbed and climbed one of the highest road passes in the world, we left the storms below us and the dawn opened up with the pure himalayan sunshine. Just in time, quickly setting up the gear, I attain the strongest Bgan signal I've ever seen, and I'm able to stuff that link with high quality video, right as I hear "go himalayas" from the control room in NY, our celeb [Shekhar Kapur, director of Elizabeth] starts his spiel and I hear the applause come back through the link. I honestly can't believe everything came together like this. it really was a moment.

After this we're on quite a high, especially our celeb who has sucked down most of our oxygen and was consequently quite lyrical for the next live link to 11 million Indian breakfast TV viewers. I think the best quote was from Shekhar Kapur himself, after the gig (and on the third bottle of oxygen) when he said "I didn't know greenpeace could do this stuff, you guys walk the talk".

This was really a magnificent effort from the Indian team, and all players in New York, Amsterdam, Indonesia. 

Cheers, John

-> Shekhar Kapur's blog about the trip: http://www.shekharkapur.com/blog/archives/2009/09/21st_september.htm

-> Himalayas team on the Indian news, watched by 11 million people (!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4QCUdPjMB0

Elizabeth-Director Shekar Kapur speaking live from the Himalayas. See his eye-popping blog here

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Letter from The Alps

[From Fernand, the French mountain guide in the film, who watched in his local cinema in Chamonix]

Congratulations, your film has had a big success here around Chamonix. I quote the local newspaper this Sunday: "and after the applause at the end of the movie, the conversation between Fernand and the audience was very intense... and people were very moved and impressed...". You and Lizzie have done an amazing job and I am so happy that I gave a little participation in your environment movie: THANK YOU. We were thinking about you for the NY premiere. It's gonna be a big hit. Love Fernand & Nicole

Stupid star Fernand (and his great grandkids with whom he climbs a mountain at the end of the film) in Chamonix

Stupid star Layefa at a private screening in Nigeria after the Lagos premiere got pulled by the Government

 

Stupid star Alvin in the New York cinema tent

Stupid stars Jamila & Adnan unfortunately couldn't attend this rooftop screening in Amman

which was arranged specially for them - we searched and searched but they were nowhere

to be found. Maybe they've gone back to Iraq

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Letter from Hungary 

8 NGOs cooperated in order to promote the film and create a campaign, called Not Stupid. Our mission is if people come out from the film and they are depressed we would like to be there saying don’t be stupid! We organized the premier on the 22th of September with green carpet and a lot of celebrities (20) including actors, musicians, TV-stars, climate scientists and politicians (minister of environment etc.). Even the Head of the Copenhagen delegation, our Climate State Secratary was present.  People could walk through grass to the screening room and come out on sand representing climate change. It was great to see how the movie touched people. What is also great is that the movie can now be seen in cinemas in Budapest. We invite the Hungarian media and of course the tabloids, photographers and video-makers who can help us to communicate our common message to TV-News, Daily News and naturally to the everyday people. After the film we hold a cold buffet with Fair Trade products; like coffee, tea, sweets and wine. We put our petition on a big board hold by two polar bears which could signed by the people there. Two famous actors gave speeches before and after the film. 

Dóci Gabriella

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Letter from Russia

The premier here was more modest and calm in comparison with other countries but we take a risk despite the fact that Russian cinemas and Film Company worried a lot that nobody will come. They were wrong! It went well. We had also invented a nice badge for all the people that came to see the film. People really loved and keep asking us in our blog where thay can take it. As there is no ads in Russia about the film people will use it to promote “Age of stupid”. We will also sent the copy of the film to our President Medvedev as we have mentioned it the press release.

-> Russian TV piece: http://www.rt.tv/About_Us/Programmes/Moscow_Out/2009-09-18/495640.html

Buenos Aires

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Letter from Delhi

I am still getting over the green carpet premiere of AOS last night in Delhi, after deciding that we will be getting involved on the 14th of September finally managing at least a months workload in a weeks time was a big challenge but the team managed it pretty smooth, the venue was a posh south Delhi multiplex called PVR which has a seating capacity of 422 people,  after a couple of days of promotions, 100 posters put up across Delhi, print ads in the two leading English dailies, promotions on radio, non stop slogging for a week we were ready for the Big day.

A green carpet was laid at the venue with 10 volunteers running the show on ground, the guests started pouring at 6:30, among the vips we had director Shekhar Kapur who had given a message the same morning to New York from Rohtang pass, among other guests were also, co director of slumdog -luvleen tandon, photographer Raghu rai with his family, Jaya jaitley, ex climate negotiater and advisor with the planning comission on energy-surya sethi, a barrage of NGO's school principals, our cyber activists, supporters, friends and colleagues all added up to around 320 people occupying the Auditorium 4.  

It started with Shekhar Kapur sharing about his morning experience at the himalayas, which was followed by a one minute footage of his morning message to UNGA, then the film took over, i could only see the film in parts as i had to step out of the auditorium frequently to ensure reactions of people leaving midway but in end i did hear a huge round of applause for the movie. For me the highpoint of the day was, volunteers running the show on ground and our Fund-raising team were the guests of honor. 

Greetings, 

Brikesh

Kuala Lumpur

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Bad news from Honduras

I'm the person in charge of the AOS screening in Honduras, Central America. We were ready to present it in four different locations and free of charge to the general public. The venues were pier in a small caribbean island (Utila), a university in a coastal town, an artsy bar & a beautiful museum in Tegucigalpa. All of the owners and managers agreed to show the movie voluntarily. Now, because of the political instability and the human rights violations that have not ceased since yesterday (link to the BBC and an independent newspaper provided below), we are forced to draw back from the event. 

The "de facto" government have set up a nationwide curfew until 6 pm, but will likely extend until tomorrow and who knows when. Independent tele and radio stations have been cut off, roads blocked, tear gas, "rubber" bullets and a handful of thousands disarmed people who are resisting are painting a heartbreaking canvas. It is disgraceful. Truly. 

Hey thanks for making such a film and distributing freely across the world. People like you, in times like this, are a source of inspiration. We will present your film once the situation improves.  Best of luck and my very best wishes for the rest of the world presentation. 

Sincerely, Helder

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Letter from Slovakia

how are you doing? im still having a huge sleep deficit. yday we did the age of stupid premiere + discussion - it was really successful and the place was crowded. 

 

Tapei

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Letter from Vanuatu

We just finished our screening at Nambawan Cafe's seafront open air cinema in Port Vila, Vanuatu - one of the first pacific island countries to have to relocate villages due to climate change - to a standing ovation! Thanks for a fantastic night!

Madrid

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Letter from Australia 

Rather dramatically as the climate conference and world AOS premier were happening in NY, here in Australia we had a massive dust storm; caused by years of drought and overfarming no doubt - huge winds from the west picked up all the dust on its way through and dumped it all on us on the east coast - great pics here, Ade 

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Letter from Chile 

Dear Franny, I just got back from seen your film, here in Chile, South America, isn't it amazing? there were no more than 50 people in the room, however I'm sure The Age of Stupid had a huge impact on all of us. I'm a teacher and I will do as much as I can to show this film to the largest number of people, it is must for those who still don't get it. Thank you for that amazing job. You're not alone in this world. Love, Veronica Gonzalez

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Letters from Thailand (with elephants)

Over 500 people, including 5 well known thai celebrities from music and movie industry, representatives from Thai royal family, journalists and tv crews, supporters, staff and their families along with friends from our alliances braved the thunderstorm and heavy rains to watch the premiere of Age of Stupid at Siam Paragon’s Royal Pavalai theatre.

We also used the opportunity to show a short film on Chang(e) caravan that was followed by welcome remarks by Shai, Tara and Scott Stuart (thai translator of the film) and a climate activist. Our guests also had the opportunity to interact with Greepeace staff and sign the AOS action pack, our petition to Obama and network with tcktcktck allies. The overwhelming presence of expats and regular movie goers proves that the pre-publicity done by our number 1 comms team, was very effective.

Signing the Copenhagen Pledge in Bangkok

I was personally pleased that most of our Chang(e) crew and its international guests (shepo, cho and shane) were also able to join the team. We will make sure that the caravan crew that stayed behind to take care of our fellow travelers and great friends the elephants get an opportunity to watch the movie as well. A number of you pitched in to make this event happen, despite the busy schedule, limited budgets and absolutely stretched human resources. Thank you all, I am sure the AOS team appreciates your efforts and so many more people will probably be less stupid.

Best, Shai

Not quite sure where this is, but such impressive colour coordination

 

Hi Lizzie,

I got a full page spread up in the north of Thailand in the equivelent of the News of the World about the screening plus notes out to a lot of people, give me your address, I have a copy I can send to you.  All the way leading upto the screening they ran the trailer inscessantly.  They also ran a series of discussion groups live on air prior to the event giving background to the whole issue of global warming so that when it was shown people at least had some background. 

  

I have watched the world of media change so much over the last ten years, who would have thought I would be shooting HD using a stills camera! or filming onto disks the size of my thumbnail. The barriers for entry into filmaking are down,  it is now more than ever  'do you have an idea or something to say' there is nothing else to stop you. Nowhere has this been encapsulated better than what you have achieved with Age of Stupid and the setting up of indiescreenings.  I salute you.  - Alex

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Letter from Paris

Dear all, The premiere at La Géode in Paris was clearly a success. It was perfect for the audience to assist to the AOS screening at La Géode "a giant disco ball theater" : perfect adequation between topic and place. 400 people hastened to the screening and stayed for the satellite link event. It couldn't be more exciting. Our speech was well listening and we collected hundreds signatures for our Ultimatum Climatique petition. Good game !

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Letter from Tokyo

The Tokyo Premiere went smooth.  I have word from Ms. Ogawa of T-Joy 144 attended the 148 capa cinema.  Just 4 off from a sell out.  Not bad, not bad for the real tight ad time.  There was clapping at the end and Ms. Ogawa says quite a few viewers walked down the 9 floors from the cinema deep in thought.

Comments from friends are still to come. Ms. Baba, Secretariat of the Sloth Club reports the film was packed and moved real fast, maybe a bit too fast for the slothful sort.  But the personal stories were real good. Ms. Seguchi of Friends of Earth - Japan reports this was more than a "climate change" movie more like a "limits to growth" movie. And Tetsunari Iida, the authority in renewable energy in Japan has the following comment.

"What we thought was “correct” at that time, at that place with our nearsighted views, turns out to be absolutely “stupid” in the long-term, on the scale of the Earth’s

time" this is the point thrust upon us by this film." - Tetsunari Iida (head of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies in Tokyo)

Good winds to all,

Peter

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Letter from Amsterdam

Dear Franny and Lizzie,

What an UN-BE-LIE-VABLE evening.... What a gentle power, convincing conviction and humble dedication was talking to mankind from that simple stage in NY. You both did a wonderful job there. I saw coureageous strong women, I saw a new generation that is going to midwife our species into a new era. Big words, but I was moved to tears really, like many, many in the big cinema hall. The director of X, a well-known airline, who was present too, literally just sms'd to me: "It makes me think: shouldn't we ground all our planes today?" 

Bank directors, big pension investors, soapies, famous rock bands, they were all there -and after the film had ended there was a emotional silence in the room. And then applause (quite un-Dutch!). I gave a speech afterwards and there was absolute, absolute silence (not so much because of me I guess, but because people were really moved, their heart was touched -and that is were any change comes from. Both my daughters (17 and 14) and my son (30) and my old mother (83) were in the cinema yesterday. They told me they now even better understand why I am and act like I do.

warm, warm, warm regards! Maurits Groen

-> Netherlands roundup with great shots of the real green carpet, the electronic goods being handed in as people arrive and the specially chartered tram for the premiere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gNU4wvIG7E -> Netherlands very own youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/AgeofStupidNL

Dutch Environment Minister, Jacqueline Cramer, signs up to 10:10

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Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe, where the ticket price included planting a tree for each of the 250 guests

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Thank Yous

Soooooooooooooooooo many people were involved in every aspect of the Global Premiere that our minds boggled as we tried to list them all for thank you emails..... Had to admit defeat at person number 350... So please accept this joint thank you from all 350+ to all 350+. It was most definitely the most teaming of team efforts any of us have ever been involved in. 

Five particular rounds of applause: 

- Lizzie, who ended up coordinating the whole thing, as yours truly and quite a few key members of Team Stupid were diverted to 10:10 duty. The tough Kiwi managed to withstand the joint pressures of our corporate partners threatening to pull out every other day (and then threatening to sue us during the live event - nice),  the bank threatening to pull the plug, countless people in countless countries complaining about everything under the sun - and her mother threatening to disown her from the family for lack of attention. The silly gal is now feeling that she let everyone down as not everything went to plan, so if anyone wants to reassure her, she's on lizzie@ageofstupid.net

- The ever-more-brilliant Team Stupid in London and New York who worked 48 hour days (double speed, there was so much to do) and then waived their salaries when we ran out of cash.

- All Mobile Video - the satellite crew in New York who gave us a free office for the whole summer, were endlessly patient with our oh-that-one's-cancelled-instead-it's-an-Indonesian-rainforest-it's-gonna-be-brilliant madness, held our hands as we stumbled blindly through EVSs and EPTs and EVOs and never once stopped smiling. 

- Arts Alliance - the international cinema bookers who dared to take on this crazy project, put their whole company on the line, invented a new distribution method to get the live stuff out in time - and then succeeded in persuading 300 cinemas from Tokyo to Stockholm to put aside their commercial concerns and play a subtitled documentary about climate change for the sake of the future of humanity. 

- Greenpeace, coordinated by Martin Lloyd in Amsterdam, who provided the intrepid teams with satellite gear in their rucksacks in the Himalayas and Indonesia, as well as setting up eight of the country premieres (many described above) and providing a non-stop stream of friendly advice at any hour of the day or night on everything from Copenhagen policy and translating protocols to international money transfers and the different products produced from chopped-down rainforests. 

- - - - over and out - - - - 

www.futureartists.co.uk

Asha media has just been accepted for the NESTA creative credits scheme in the northwest, so if you want to hire us for some creative projects, you may be able to get four thousand pounds invested in the project from the NESTA program, ALL YOU NEED to do is invest one grand...

see here

http://www.creative-credits.org.uk/gallery/221/view

Harry Potter star film gets release after FACEBOOK pressure

Facebook fans secure release of Harry Potter star Rupert Grint's new film

An independent film starring Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint will be released in cinemas despite initially failing to attract a distributor, after a Facebook campaign by his fans.

 

Published: 7:16AM BST 05 Oct 2009

Rupert Grint tangles with Kimberley Nixon in a scene from Cherrybomb Photo: SCOPE

Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, has taken on a very different role in Cherrybomb, which is a coming-of-age film featuring sex and drugs set in Belfast.  The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival but did not get picked up by a distributor. However, Grint's Potter fans have stayed loyal to him and set up an online campaign for its cinematic release. 

Supporters as far away as Mexico and Los Angeles contacted The Little Film Company, Cherrybomb's sales agent, to enquire about its release. And the campaign has now paid off.

Backed by a website petition and Facebook group with more than 10,000 people, producers say they have secured a major distributor in Britain.  Details of the release, planned for early next year, will be announced this week. The Little Film Company is also in negotiation with an American distributor.  Grint said that he has been delighted by the support.  He said: “I am backing this campaign wholeheartedly.  “I’m delighted by the huge support the film has already received on the official Facebook page and other sites on the web and am so grateful to my fans in particular, who have travelled the world to support the film at festivals and preview screenings.” 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/harry-potter/6260423/Facebook-fans-secure-release-of-Harry-Potter-star-Rupert-Grints-new-film.html

VOD Revenues to reach 2.1 Billion by 2014

Report Sees Gains in Revenues from Internet-to-TV Content

By Mansha Daswani

Published: September 30, 2009

DALLAS: By 2014, revenues from the on-demand delivery of Internet content to the television set in the U.S. will reach $2.1 billion from $621 million this year, according to The Diffusion Group.

By then, the report continues, revenues from over-the-top video delivery to televisions sets will account for more than 25 percent of total annual VOD revenues. TDG's senior partner and digital video expert, Colin Dixon, who authored the new study, says the industry is being driven by sales of web-enabled game consoles and Blu-ray players, as well as hybrid set-top boxes. Takeup of broadband-enabled TV units is also expected to be strong, setting the stage for a rapid uptake of Internet-to-TV video services, both pay-per-view and subscription-based.

"To put this into perspective, most industry estimates predict 2014 U.S. DVD rental revenue will exceed more than $8 billion," noted Dixon. "By that time, OTT video rentals will top $2 billion, accounting for 25 percent of home video rentals. If that fails to warn companies like Blockbuster and Time Warner Cable as to the magnitude of this threat, they are asleep at the wheel."

Northwest Vision and media short film fund OPEN

DIGITAL SHORTS - APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN!

We are now inviting applications for our Digital Shorts scheme 2009/10, funded by Northwest Vision and Media and the UK Film Council. The aim is to provide an opportunity for emerging filmmakers to develop their professional experience and create high quality digital films. We are searching for new stories that show passion and imagination.

Northwest Vision and Media will commission up to six engaging films of no more than 15 minutes and with budgets of up to £12,000.

Deadline is Thursday 5 November 2009.

For more information and to view the guidelines and application form, please follow this link: http://www.visionandmedia.co.uk/page/pti---digital-shorts

UK Short film completion fund

The UK Film Council's Short Film Completion Fund (2010) is now open for submissions!

 

Full guidelines, forms and more information can be found at:

 

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/shortfilms

 

Individual producers or production companies are invited to send a rough cut of their unfinished short film (up to 15 minutes in length) to Maya Vision International, along with a completed application form. The closing date for applications is 5pm, Monday 30 November 2009.

There will only be ONE call for applications for 2010 - so do make sure you get your

film into us and don't hold back on the good stuff!

 

You are very welcome to call for more details, but please read the guidelines first.

 

Contact: Tamsin Ranger at Maya Vision International Ltd, 3^rd Floor, 6 Kinghorn St, London

EC1A 7HW tel: 0207 796 4842 or email: completionfund@mayavisionint.com

http://www.mayavisionint.com

Internet influences film audiences

Study breaks down filmgoing habits

By MARC GRASER

If marketing mavens want to reach younger moviegoers when promoting their films, they need to embrace social networks or risk being ignored.

That was the overall message of Moviegoers 2010, the first report on moviegoing habits produced by Stradella Road, the entertainment marketing firm founded by former New Line Web guru Gordon Paddison that hopes to assist film marketers in determining how to reach consumers over the next decade.

The study found that teens and twentysomethings are especially focused on being able to customize entertainment and are quick to share their opinions with others digitally -- especially as usage of the Internet, mobile devices and DVRs has become more widespread. An estimated 94% of all moviegoers are now online.

The younger demo is especially key in spreading word of mouth, with 73% of moviegoers surveyed having profiles on social networking sites.

It's a point that's been made a number of times as sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter have grown in popularity. But the study is one of the few to break down specific age groups and how they consume movies and the marketing messages leading up to their releases.

• Teens (age 13-17) are "all about sharing information and group thinking," the report said, with social networking a critical communication tool. They go to movies in large groups and are heavily influenced by their friends' opinions. They also prefer texting over having phone conversations. More than 70% also surf the Web and text while watching TV, and 67% of them socialize with friends online.
• Twentysomethings (age 18-29) "are digital natives that have grown up with technology" and are more likely to go online for movie info and to share what they think about movies via social networks (58% socialize with friends online). They use the Internet to find any kind of information and place a high value on online consumer reviews and sites that aggregate reviews.
• Auds in their 30s are time-constrained, with parenthood dominating their decisions. They split their moviegoing trips between their children and their spouses. They "spend the highest number of hours online and rep the highest use of technology (Internet, broadband access, DVR ownership and cell phone)." They also view the most recorded TV and skip the most ads via their DVRs.
• Those in their 40s embrace traditional media like magazines and newspapers, with moviegoing dominated by special family occasions and influenced by teens.
• And fiftysomethings avoid crowds, prefer matinees and "skip ads because they think there are too many commercials on TV."

Given the increased influence of websites on which consumers buy movie tickets, AOL, Facebook, Fandango, Google, Microsoft, MovieTickets.com and Yahoo were enlisted to supply data for the study.

Study was conducted by surveying 1,547 moderate-to-heavy moviegoers over eight days in July, with an additional 2,305 questioned by phone or online during July. Nielsen NRG managed the research fieldwork.

Although many moviegoers are going online to get info on upcoming releases, TV still dominates as the leading tool to generate awareness for films, with 73% of those surveyed saying they first heard about a movie by watching a 30-second spot. In-theater trailers were close behind with 70%, followed by word of mouth (46%) and the Internet (44%).

Most films are now considered critic-proof, especially among the younger set, with 84% of moviegoers saying, "When they make up their mind to see a movie, it doesn't matter what the critics say about it."

It may depend on who's giving them the thumbs up or down, however.

Of those surveyed, 75% said they trust a friend's opinion more than a movie critic; 80% said they were more likely to see a movie after hearing a positive review from other moviegoers, while only 67% said a thumbs up from a professional critic had the same weight.

Yet only 40% said negative reviews from their peers would dissuade them from seeing a movie, while an even lower 28% would be kept from theaters because of a critic's opinion, meaning that at the end of the day, negative word of mouth doesn't have as much influence.

While 62% now get their reviews online, only auds over 50 rely on newspaper reviews.

The results hardly give Hollywood anything to worry about. The box office is so far up this year and looks like it will be strong for years to come despite the current recession, the study said.

That is mainly because 79% of those questioned said, "Going to the movies is a good escape from everyday life."

#filmonik rough cut of g20 climatecamp film is ready, just burning the dvd, if you want to see it, it will be here http://www.filmonik.com

#filmonik, done my film edit of G20 film, for 2moz filmonik http://ping.fm/2pa1Z sound mix and render now.

film shot at the G20 Climatecamp, just loggin all the footage,got 24 hours to pull a movie out of the bag! http://ping.fm/IcodN