Live storytelling is changing our definition of who and what is “creative.” This documentary explores how everyone can participate in stories & how ideas are constantly bubbling up from the audience.
VIDEO:
https://amp.twimg.com/v/238d8f23-4ea5-487f-b4ce-6997a5f72535
8/20/2014 Deadline
The Insider co-anchor/managing editor Kevin Frazier has been named co-host of mothership Entertainment Tonight alongside Nancy O’Dell. He replaces Rob Marciano, who recently exited. Frazier will be replaced as Insider co-host by Louis Aguirre, co-anchor of Miami’s entertainment show Deco Drive. Both will make their debuts on Tuesday, September 9. This marks Frazier’s return to ET; he spent seven years as a correspondent and weekend anchor before moving to The Insider in 2011.
http://deadline.com/2014/08/kevin-frazier-moves-to-entertainment-tonight-louis-aguirre-to-replace-him-on-the-insider-822433/
9/21/2014 Deadline
Rocsi Diaz is set to depart Entertainment Tonight after a two-year stint as weekend co-host and daily correspondent. She is expected to leave the entertainment newsmagazine in January. “As both Rocsi and ET have grown and evolved over the years, she has elected to pursue hosting opportunities that are available to her at the start of next year. Until then, she will continue to bring her usual brand of Rocsi-style entertainment interviews to ET,” a rep for the program said in a statement to Deadline. According to sources, the evolution involves a stronger emphasis on news content at ET, which may not be a great fit for Diaz who rose to fame as the co-host of BET’s hit music show, 106 & Park. There is no replacement for Diaz, though ET is bringing in CNN entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner as a new correspondent next month.
http://deadline.com/2014/09/rocsi-diaz-entertainment-tonight-exit-839149/
9/21/2014 New York Magazine By Adam Sternbergh
There’s a memorable story in Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures, a great history of the 1990s indie-film boom, in which an upstart production company, eager to establish its bona fides, promises an absurd amount of money and unheard-of creative control to an in-demand filmmaker with a suddenly hot property to sell. The year is 1989, the company is Miramax, the filmmaker is a then-26-year-old Steven Soderbergh, the property is sex, lies & videotape, and the result was a renaissance. In the ’90s, startling, innovative, and personal films—by directors like Quentin Tarantino, Hal Hartley, Allison Anders, and Whit Stillman—flourished, buoyed by a new marketplace, and a hungry audience, that happily rewarded daring and creativity.
Twenty-five years after sex, lies & videotape, it’s hard not to think of a similar scenario that played out much more recently but on a very different screen: Netflix buying the rights to the show House of Cards. Netflix won that series essentially by offering two seasons, up front, guaranteed—a bid that was both fundamentally insane yet absolutely necessary for the company to establish itself as a legitimate competitor to HBO, Showtime, AMC, and so on. Four Emmy wins and one Golden Globe later, Netflix is no longer looking like the late entrant to the cable-drama sweepstakes but the early adopter among internet content companies, many of which are now angling to become producers of original programming. Earlier this year, Yahoo commissioned two TV-style original comedies; Vimeo has acquired the critically acclaimed web series High Maintenance; and Amazon, having already unleashed the exceptional comedy Transparent, launched an additional five new pilots—including, tellingly, The Cosmopolitans, from ’90s indie auteur Whit Stillman.
All of which is to say: The same swashbuckling energy that gave rise to the indie-film movement has migrated to TV programming online. By this analogy, Netflix is Miramax, Amazon is Fox Searchlight, and your laptop is the Sundance Festival—a clearinghouse for potential breakouts waiting to be discovered. No, Netflix, Amazon, and (Lord knows) Yahoo don’t know exactly what they’re doing yet—but that’s kind of the point. They have money, and they’re throwing it around basically to see what will stick, which is exactly the kind of environment that leads to a whole lot of misfires and a few genuine revelations.
Companies like Netflix and Amazon have one crucial advantage: They have a well-built technical infrastructure but little programming experience, while companies like HBO have excellent programming expertise but are playing catch-up on the technical end. One executive described the current climate to me as a horse race in which everyone’s competing but no one knows exactly where the finish line is. So every once in a while, someone just whips the horses to get the pack moving. Netflix’s decision to get into original programming, or HBO’s ongoing flirtation with a stand-alone HBO Go, is just that—whipping the horses. The result of all this horse-whipping is a series like Orange Is the New Black on Netflix—with its fresh, off-kilter voice and the most radically diverse cast on TV, a show that would be tough to picture on Showtime, let alone ABC.
It’s hard to say whether Amazon’s notion to finance original TV shows in order to promote Amazon Prime—effectively to nudge you to subscribe to free two-day shipping—is a good long-term business plan. But then, many of the most exciting new shows are web series that have no business plan at all. And it’s a great short-term opportunity for some weird, and occasionally awesome, new TV. The pilot episode of Transparent on Amazon, which stars Jeffrey Tambor as a transgender dad, was written and directed by Jill Soloway, and watching it, you think this is exactly the kind of personal vision that Miramax used to finance, before Miramax got bought up by Disney.
Since the ’90s heyday, nearly all of the indie shingles at major studios have been shuttered or reabsorbed into their parent companies. Even the Golden Age of TV, as personified by auteur-showrunners like Matthew Weiner and David Chase, has become stultified in its programming choices: “Prestige” cable series now honor the rules of their format as faithfully as the most formulaic prime-time procedurals. Halt and Catch Fire is Mad Men set in the 1980s computer industry; The Knick plays like Downton Abbey, M.D. For all its success, Game of Thrones is hardly the TV equivalent of Pulp Fiction; it’s more like the TV equivalent of Ben Hur or Lord of the Rings.
Which leaves room, ideally, for a TV equivalent of Pulp Fiction—something so audacious and daring that it will tilt the whole TV industry off its axis. And the new reality is, if there’s going to be a Pulp Fiction for TV, you probably aren’t going to see it first on TV. But definitely keep your laptop handy.
*This article appears in the September 22, 2014 issue of New York Magazine.
http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/age-of-the-auteur-on-streaming-tv.html?mid=facebook_nymag
9/23/2014 New York Magazine By Josef Adalian
House of Cards and Netflix are synonymous with each other: The Kevin Spacey series made the streaming service a serious player as a non-linear TV network, and being on Netflix initially helped the show stand out amid the glut of quality dramas that now populate TV. And yet, House of Cards could’ve easily been an HBO or FX series. Before Netflix agreed to buy two seasons of the show, sight unseen, its producers pitched it all over Hollywood, entertaining offers from multiple outlets before ending up on the nascent streaming network. It was a breakthrough deal, and the fact that it’s succeeded wildly — critical love, Emmy nominations, a prominent place in pop culture — has created a new dynamic: Showrunners and agents now routinely include non-linear services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon on their list of stops when setting up pitch meetings for new projects. “They’re all competing in the same sandbox,” one studio executive says of the world order post–House of Cards. “We’re in the most robust, aggressive market [for creators] it could be.”
Recent evidence of the streaming surge has been abundant. As Vulture first reported in June, Judd Apatow’s new comedy series Love was in play at multiple networks, including Hulu, before ultimately landing at Netflix with a two-year pickup. And today, Hulu announced a big deal to air an hourlong drama adaptation of Stephen King’s 11/23/63, to be produced by J.J. Abrams. Traditional broadcast and cable networks still land most projects, of course, if only because there are far more of them and because they can still offer a clearer path to big money in success. But the new Big Three of streaming — Netflix, Amazon and Hulu — are all in the game, and they’ve all got a pile of cash to spend. If you’re a producer looking to take the plunge into the non-linear world, how do you decide where to pitch your project? Let’s take a look at what each of the three networks is looking for and how they’re choosing:
Netflix
Who should sell here: Anyone looking for the biggest (potential) audience — and a big payday. Two executives who’ve had dealings with Netflix both say that when there’s a hot project in the marketplace, Netflix is usually, as one put it, “by far the most aggressive” bidder, assuming they’re interested in the idea. Adds the other exec: “The perception is that Netflix is spending more money on bigger projects with the most prominent stars. They feel more advanced. The rest of [the streaming players] are trying to get their sea legs.” Indeed, while Netflix isn’t any older than its rivals — it began streaming content in 2007, same as Hulu — it dominates the streaming space on multiple levels. It has two buzzy, Emmy-nominated shows (Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards); its base of roughly 36 million U.S. subscribers puts it on par with HBO in terms of reach; and it’s got a huge international reach (with subscribers in over 40 countries and counting). Netflix also most closely replicates the HBO model in terms of original programming, offering much more than just comedies and dramas: stand-up specials, documentaries, and soon, a talk show with Chelsea Handler. While the Netflix imprimatur doesn’t automatically convey success or acclaim (see Hemlock Grove), getting a show green-lit by Netflix all but guarantees it will get noticed.
How it chooses: In the early days of Netflix originals, all the way back in 2013, much was made of the service’s reliance on its storied algorithm — that super-advanced computer program that is always recommending what subscribers should watch next based on past viewing habits. Initially designed to help guide users through Netflix’s vast feature-film library, execs publicly stated the algorithm was also used when it came time to decide how to proceed in the development of Netflix’s own original series. “It gave us some confidence that we could find an audience for a show like House of Cards,” a company rep told the New York Times’ David Carr in February 2013. Perhaps, but the Kevin Spacey series didn’t come to life because a computer told Netflix to build it: House of Cards was pitched to multiple networks by producers, with Netflix snagging the show after it agreed to go straight to production on two seasons of the show — no pilot, no let’s-see-how-season-one-does. More than anything, that sort of boldness is what really has guided the Netflix development process: Unlike Amazon and its “pilot season,” Netflix decides it wants to do a show before a single frame is filmed. Even HBO usually does pilots. Last year, Sarandos told Vulture that willingness to go big is what will ensure he gets the best shows for his service. “By going straight to series, the people [who] have a great story to tell will bring it to us first,” he said. Of course, now that Netflix has established a track record for success, getting those projects first is likely even easier.
The downside: The success of Netflix’s first few originals means expectations for all of the service’s new shows are high, perhaps unreasonably so. Producers bringing shows to Netflix now have to worry about jumping over the high bar Netflix has already set. Pressure to be really good isn’t a bad thing, of course, and any producer pitching to a service such as Netflix or AMC or Showtime almost certainly does so because she thinks she’s got something special. (If you’re just looking for a big payday, network TV is still a much better option.) But Netflix doesn’t have unlimited promotional resources, and reporters who cover entertainment can sometimes be wary of giving too much coverage to one service. As Netflix keeps expanding, newer shows might get lost in the shadow of its monster hits. It’s also quite possible that as Netflix matures — or if subscriber growth starts to level off — it could cut back on how many new shows it adds each year, making it tougher to land a series order there.
Amazon
Who should sell here: Producers who want to make independent movies, but in TV series form. Projects such as Transparent and the just-released Whit Stillman pilot The Cosmopolitans have shown Amazon is willing to nurture ideas that don’t instantly scream “mass appeal” and work with creators who might not have past experience building blockbusters. “If you want to create SST Records, or some awesome label, you have to focus on having a high bar,” says Amazon Studios chief Roy Price. “There are a number of adjectives that are bad. ‘Good-ish’ is bad. ‘Solid’ is bad. You want a show that is doing something interesting and groundbreaking, and you want to be working with the best, most interesting, most passionate creators … We’re really looking to empower creators with a vision.” Price also points to the loose infrastructure at Amazon as another selling point for would-be producers. The development process at the company “is pretty nimble, in terms of decision making and a lack of bureaucracy,” Price says. “Things get done. There aren’t a lot of priorities other than making a good show. We’re 100 percent aligned with producers on that goal.”
How it chooses: Before you get a series order, Amazon will put your show under a very public microscope, putting the pilot episode online for customers to rate. While this means your efforts will at least get some audience — unlike the dozens of TV pilots churned out each year which never get beyond network screening rooms — it also ups the embarrassment level if Amazon ultimately passes. Some producers might also not like the idea of their work being trotted out for the masses like a contestant on America’s Got Talent, particularly since many TV shows take several episodes to come together. But while Amazon’s version of the Netflix algorithm may seem a bit gimmicky, Price has always been careful to note that user reviews are just one factor in deciding what gets made. And even when he’s looking at said data, he’s not particularly interested in how many people gave a show a thumbs up. “You’re not just looking for the show that the largest number of people liked,” he explains. “You’re really looking for a show that can become a group of people’s favorite show, that they think it’s a great show. The goal is to get shows people really, really like. That’s when [data] becomes useful.”
Possible downside: Unlike Netflix and Hulu, Amazon Prime Instant Video (the formal name for the service) is not a stand-alone product. Its subscribers include millions of Amazon users who signed up for free two-day shipping and might not even know they have access to shows such as Alpha House. “It’s hard to say what the Amazon demo is because it has a dual role,” says one TV-industry insider. By itself, this distinction doesn’t matter much: There’s no evidence Amazon users are any less (or more) passionate or engaged in content than those who subscribe to a video-only streaming network. But long-term, the fact that Prime Instant Video isn’t its own entity could make it a whole lot easier to shut down should Jeff Bezos decide the cost of making expensive TV shows isn’t responsible for either attracting or retaining Prime subscribers. To be sure, there’s been absolutely no indication any such plug-pulling is in the offing, and if more projects such as Transparent break out, the service’s long-term future should grow even more secure.
Hulu
Who should sell there: Any producer who wants to be the next Matt Weiner or Chuck Lorre. Assuming Transparent breaks through with audiences the way it has with critics, both Amazon and Netflix will have found one or more signature series, shows which define them in the eyes of viewers. So far, Hulu — despite getting a modicum of buzz with half-hours such as The Awesomes and this summer’s The Hotwives of Orlando — simply doesn’t have that singular success. “There’s a unique opportunity for the right group of creators to come in and help creatively define the service,” says one TV-industry insider familiar with the streaming space. “AMC was John Wayne movies before Matt Weiner got there, and now he’s the guy who kind of built AMC. For the person who can get a show on Hulu that connects with the Zeitgeist, they can be part of the team that builds this thing. And that’s attractive to a lot of talent.” Another selling point for producers pondering where to park their pet projects: Hulu’s new content chief, Craig Erwich. Unlike the techies at the top of Netflix and Amazon, the veteran Warner Bros. and Fox Broadcasting exec is a Hollywood development veteran whose modest manner has won him many friends around Tinseltown. He’ll likely lean heavily on those relationships as he hunts for his big hit.
How it chooses: Like any streaming service, Hulu has the ability to mine reams of data to help guide its development process. It knows who is watching its shows and how they’re being consumed. But while there’s a basic overlay of information that’s factored into decisions, Hulu picks its shows in a pretty old-school way, Erwich says: “It comes down to passion, guts, inspiration — on our side and on the side of people doing the show.” It’s also worth noting that whatever process Hulu has had in place for developing shows is in flux: Both Erwich and his boss, Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins, have both been on the job less than a year.
Possible downside: Your show will be interrupted by commercials. Unlike its main rivals, Hulu Plus features advertising, despite charging its 6 million subscribers $7.99 per month. (The ad breaks are targeted and more limited than on the free version of Hulu, but they’re still there.) This fact may turn off a few producers (and some potential subscribers) — but as basic cable networks such as AMC and FX have proven, there’s no reason great TV and advertising can’t coexist. Advertising can also be an upside: Hulu will often promote its own originals during commercial breaks, giving newer Hulu shows a type of marketing support Amazon and Netflix can’t match. What’s more, while Netflix and Amazon only let paid subscribers regularly watch its shows, Hulu Plus series frequently will appear on free Hulu as well (albeit with more ads, and sometimes without the ability to watch a whole season at once). That means a producer setting up a series at Hulu could potentially reach a bigger audience. “Beyond our 6 million subs, there’s a huge amount of traffic driven to our platform from Hulu,” Erwich says, noting the site’s 30 million monthly unique users and the presence of next-day episodes of broadcast network hits. “So there’s massive circulation. There’s a huge chance to get sampled.”
The Other Players
Crackle: Sony’s ad-supported network has one legit hit — Jerry Seinfeld’s twist on the talk show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee — and a slew of other action-oriented, dude-friendly fare featuring slightly recognizable stars such as David Arquette, Gina Gershon, and Patrick Warburton.
Yahoo: The internet giant’s free, ad-supported VOD service has been slowly building up the quality of its content: A deal last year brought SNL’s classic sketch catalogue to the site, while a partnership with LiveNation this year has resulted in a regular series of live concert events from acts such as Justin Timberlake and KISS. The possible game-changer comes early next year, when the sixth season of Community will air exclusively on Yahoo.
Vimeo: Originally known for music videos and user-generated content, the site has just started investing in original content, setting aside $10 million to help develop indie movies and funding six episodes of the pot comedy High Maintenance. For now, it’s offering titles on a pay-per-view basis, iTunes-like, rather than as part of a monthly or annual subscription fee.
Playstation Plus: The subscription-based component of Sony’s gaming platform gets its first big injection of TV-like content in December with the superhero drama Powers (based on the graphic novels by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming). Sony is expected to add more TV and movie content as well as it looks to get more of the millions of PS users to upgrade to the subscription service.
*This is an extended version of an article that appears in the September 22, 2014 issue of New York Magazine.
9/18/2014 Slate
By June Thomas and Grace Na
Just a few years ago, whenever gay, lesbian, or bisexual characters appeared on broadcast television, a national freakout was never far behind. These days there are more queer TV characters than ever before, and television representations of gay life are increasingly rich and nuanced, even as the old lesbians-titilate, gays-entertain tropes sometimes remain in play.
Video:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/09/18/watch_how_much_gay_tv_representation_has_improved_in_just_a_few_years_video.html
This video considers all the out-queers on the small screen—as well as all the gay wannabes, pretend-to-bes, and should-bes—taking stock of how far we’ve come and looking forward to where we might go next.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/09/18/watch_how_much_gay_tv_representation_has_improved_in_just_a_few_years_video.html
9/19/2014 Hello Giggles by Parker Molloy
Next month, Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox and Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace will each be rolling out new documentaries about the lives of transgender individuals, and we could not be more excited.
On October 10th, AOL will debut True Trans With Laura Jane Grace, a docu-series featuring the 33-year-old punk rocker as she embarks on tour in support of her recent record, “Transgender Dysphoria Blues,” and interviews gender non-conforming and transgender fans, activists, authors, and others about their experiences with gender dysphoria and how they relate to gender, itself. The following week, MTV and Logo TV will broadcast Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word, a documentary centered on the lives of seven transgender individuals between the ages of 12 and 24.
Between the two of them, Grace and Cox are trans forces to be reckoned with. Grace is known for churning out some of the smartest lyrics in punk rock — touching on topics of politics, class warfare, and gender — and Cox is the Emmy-nominated actress who has experienced a meteoric rise over the past few years, becoming Time Magazine’s face of the “transgender tipping point.”
But why is this such a big deal? For one, these documentaries have the potential to be some of the most honest, authentic portrayals of trans individuals as has ever been seen on TV. For years, the media has depicted trans individuals in a negative light, furthering the often shameful stereotypes that don’t come close to accurately portraying the complex lives these individuals have. While the past 15 years have seen a shift in how the media portrays gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals — with the improved representation being directly linked to the public’s willingness to accept and support their causes — trans people have, until recently, been waiting on the cultural sidelines.
Since 2002, LGBT media watchdog group GLAAD has kept track of TV shows featuring story lines about transgender characters. In the 102 episodes they catalogued, more than half were labeled as negative representations by the organization. Their report, “Victims or Villains: Examining Ten Years of Transgender Images on Television,” highlights just how blatantly networks play off of trans stereotypes when trying to depict the lives of this oft-marginalized group.
In 40 percent of the episodes GLAAD reviewed, the trans character was set in the role of a victim — a plot point frequently used in crime dramas — often as simply a lifeless body or victim of sexual assault. In 21 percent of these story arcs, trans characters were set in the role of a killer or villain; and in one fifth of episodes, the trans character’s profession was that of a sex worker. In addition, more than 60 percent of episodes made use of anti-transgender slurs, as outlined in GLAAD’s Transgender Media Reference Guide.
It’s been proven that media has the ability to encourage acceptance, and that’s why these two projects have so much potential to enact positive change. With so much on the line, there are no two individuals more deserving of the chance to make this happen.
http://hellogiggles.com/psyched-laura-jane-grace-laverne-coxs-new-shows
9/16 The Wrap By Tim Kenneally
Turner’s hiring is the latest in a series of changes at the syndicated news magazine
CNN Entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner is leaving the cable network to join “Entertainmnet Tonight,” two individuals with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap. She will serve as a correspondent for “ET,” and will likely start appearing on the show in time for the November sweeps, the individuals said.
A spokesperson for “ET” declined to comment, and a representative for CNN has not yet returned TheWrap’s request for comment.
Turner joined CNN in December 2011 in the network’s Los Angeles bureau as a reporter for “Showbiz Tonight,” and was later transferred to New York to contribute entertainment segments to morning program “New Day.”
Over the past two-and-a-half years, she helped lead CNN’s red carpet coverage of the Grammys, Golden Globes and Oscars, and hosted a series of entertainment specials. Turner also reported live across various CNN platforms on the death of music legend Whitney Houston.
Turner began her journalism career as a news reporter at WEHT-TV in Evansville, Indiana in 1998. She also served as a reporter-anchor at WVUE-TV in New Orleans, a news reporter at KTTV, the Fox affiliate in Los Angeles, and as a sideline reporter for FOX NFL Sunday. Prior to joining CNN, she worked as a freelance reporter at NBC-owned KNBC in Los Angeles.
Turner joins “Entertainment Tonight” following an upheaval of the show’s on-air talent. In July, TheWrap exclusively reported that former CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano was exiting the show after just 18 months on the job. He subsequently signed on as a meteorologist at ABC News.
Marciano was replaced by Kevin Frazier, formerly the co-anchor and managing editor of the syndicated magazine “The Insider.”
http://www.thewrap.com/cnns-nischelle-turner-joining-entertainment-tonight-as-correspondent-exclusive/
9/16/2014 Deadline by David Bloom
Indigenous Media, a digital-video company led by film and TV vets Jon Avnet, Rodrigo Garcia and Jake Avnet, has launched with investments by ITV and WPP. Jon Miller, former head of AOL and News Corp.‘s digital media unit, is non-executive chairman.
Producer/director/writers Avnet (Fried Green Tomatoes, Justified, Righteous Kill) and Garcia (In Treatment, Carnivale, Six Feet Under) and Avnet’s tech-savvy son, Jake Avnet, are the creators behind WIGS, the female-centric online site whose TV-quality shows run on YouTube, Hulu and FOXNOW.
Jon Avnet said the success of WIGS, financially and otherwise, over the past few years made Indigenous, and its big-time backing, possible.
“It was the fact that WIGS attracted such a high level of talent and got so much support from the journalistic community,” Avnet said. “Also, the fact that our production model worked. It was serious validation of the work.”
That production model involved careful writing and project development, focusing on story lines that could be compelling but not expensive to produce.
“The key was the production and the writing and conceptualization was very, very thrifty,” Avnet said. “That’s not easy.”
Given the many relationships the older Avnet and Garcia have built in their years in Hollywood, they were able to attract traditional-media notables on both sides of the camera, including Julia Stiles, Jennifer Beals, America Ferrera, Jennifer Garner, Anna Paquin, Alfred Molina, Betty Thomas and Neil LaBute.
Episodes are typically 7- to 8-minutes long, but also are written so they can be recombined into longer programs. The second season of Blue, which stars Stiles, was shot as a series of shorts, for instance, but what runs on Hulu is 11 one-hour episodes created from those shorts.
Now, with Indigenous, the company plans to expand its scope and ambition in many ways. First is with genre, moving beyond the core female audience that WIGS attracted. Garcia said they will do more half-hour- and hour-long episodes, and create them not just for a YouTube world, but also target many other distribution platforms, digital and otherwise.
“We want to be able to do more content,” Garcia said. “Not just half hours and hours, but just more of it.”
They also plan to leverage ITV’s international oomph to take show concepts and formats they develop and adapt those to international markets such as Brazil and Turkey that have very large and active online audiences.
“We believe high-quality, digital narrative content will have a tremendously long, monetizable tail,” said Avnet. The deals with ITV and WPP “give us reach. Some of our stuff will work in other markets. When you look at the Rubik’s cube of how do you monetize,” it will be vital to develop international markets, and possible new distribution opportunities in the fast-evolving digital-video world.
Avnet and Garcia were vague about the investment capital they’ve received: “A significant amount is all we’re allowed to say,” Avnet said. “We wanted the opportunity to be able to stick around (long enough to make the venture succeed.) We want to do stuff that’s sustainable, that lasts. That’s what we’re aiming for.”
They also plan to tap the brand relationships of WPP’s Group M, which owns the direct corporate connection with Indigenous and specializes in brand relationships. Indigenous will continue its programming relationships with Fox on multiple platforms.
Beyond WPP and ITV, other investors include Steven Tisch, Advancit Capital (the National Amusements-connected investment fund whose principals include Miller, Shari Redstone and Jason Ostheimer), Michael Price and Dr. Aaron Stern. CAA advised on the transactions.
http://deadline.com/2014/09/wigs-indigenous-media-wpp-itv-fox-jon-avnet-rodrigo-garcia-835173/
9/19/2014 The Hollywood Reporter by Tatiana Siegel
This story first appeared in the Sept. 26 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
If a story plays for free on CNN, audiences won’t pay to see it in a theater. This was the mind-set behind Hollywood’s aversion to politically minded movies following a string of box-office misfires such as Rendition, In the Valley of Elah, Green Zone and even the Oscar-winning but low-grossing The Hurt Locker.
But these days, political movies are back. Thanks to Kathryn Bigelow‘s Osama bin Laden thriller Zero Dark Thirty ($133 million worldwide), a dozen or so ripped-from-the-headlines films are about to debut or are in the works, even at the risk-averse major studios.
From competing Edward Snowden projects (one from Oliver Stone) to dueling drone warfare dramas to a pair of films about rescued U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, Hollywood’s slates again are mirroring the day’s most controversial news. Brad Pitt is poised to play disgraced Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who resigned after he made disparaging comments about Barack Obama, in New Regency’s The Operators. And on Sept. 3, Sony said George Clooney will direct an adaptation of Hack Attack, which delves into the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed Rupert Murdoch‘s news empire and the U.K. government. Likewise, on Oct. 10, Focus will release Kill the Messenger from Homeland director Michael Cuesta, which paints an unflattering portrait of the CIA. And Sony’s Kim Jong-un comedy The Interview bows Dec. 25.
At the same time, the Toronto Film Festival showcased an unusually high number of politically heavy films, including Jon Stewart‘s Rosewater, about a journalist jailed in Tehran, and the drone critique Good Kill. And several hot-button projects, such as Truth, about Dan Rather‘s firing from CBS News, and Gavin Hood‘s drone drama Eye in the Sky, were being shopped.
Is the box office ready to support such provocative subjects? Last fall’s Julian Assange film The Fifth Estate flopped with just $8.6 million worldwide. But in the 13 years since 9/11, Americans have become more skeptical of the government’s handling of national security, and the studios are more inclined to back films that question its practices. “9/11 bombarded us with images of the attacks and reports of future attacks, and the status quo was pro-American military might,” says Cuesta. “As a result, the studios backed away from hard-hitting films about the war and national security. Now we’re seeing a willingness to tackle complicated and controversial issues.”
The challenge remains selling these types of films. When marketing based-on-a-true-story plots, executives say the key is enticing audiences without appearing didactic. “You don’t want to market it in a way that feels like some form of leafy green vegetables that you don’t want to eat,” says Gigi Pritzker, who produced Rosewater. “Jon said to me recently, ‘I thought making the movie was the hard part.’ ”
Ron Howard received some of the best reviews of his career and a best picture Oscar nomination for 2008’s Frost/Nixon, a retelling of the post-Watergate interviews between British TV host David Frost and President Nixon. Still, the Universal film mustered only $27 million worldwide. “It’s a challenge to market these stories,” Howard tells THR. “But if you make it for the right price, there’s an audience. And when they work, they resonate.”
Unlike in the 1970s, when political-minded films like All the President’s Men, The Parallax View and 3 Days of the Condor could lure audiences year-round, now insiders say that year-end awards buzz is necessary to selling a political film. “If they come out of the gate and people are attaching the word ‘Oscar’ to them, it makes them more of a must-see,” says Phil Contrino of BoxOffice.com. “But if they fall short of that, people tend to stay home.”
The new crop of political films boasts plenty of Oscar veterans including Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips) attached to an adaptation of Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA for Sony as well as another Assange film, The Boy Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, for Megan Ellison‘s Annapurna Pictures. Oscar-winning writer Mark Boal (Hurt Locker) and nominee Todd Field (In the Bedroom) are developing respective projects about Bergdahl, the Army soldier who was captured by the Taliban and traded for five terrorist suspects. Sony is looking for a top writer to tackle Glenn Greenwald‘s No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State.
The biggest problem — that a film will be dismissed as partisan — also can be its greatest blessing at a time when movies clamor for buzz. With Zero, Bigelow was slammed by the left (for glorifying torture) and the right (for her access to classified documents). The uproar put the Sony movie in the national conversation. Clooney, an outspoken liberal, likely will be attacked when his hacking film premieres. And for Sony, that’s part of the appeal.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/whats-behind-hollywoods-renewed-interest-733050
9/16/2014 Nation Swell
The videos filled your Facebook and Twitter feeds for weeks. Everyone from your great aunt to your favorite actor to politicians jumped on the bandwagon and doused themselves with ice-cold water all in the name of charity.
Whether you love it, hate it or experienced the challenge’s chill firsthand, it’s official: The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, in all its cold, wet glory, is a bona fide social media success. But it’s far from the first online marketing campaign to go viral. Here are five social media campaigns — and what you need to know about them — that have made a substantial impact on an organization’s efforts to raise awareness or funds for its cause.
Origins: Oddly enough, the Ice Bucket Challenge wasn’t originally started to support the ALS Association, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing awareness of, and fundraising for, the neurodegenerative disorder known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. While its origins remain murky, the first person to connect icing oneself to ALS was Chris Kennedy, a minor-league golfer, who took up the challenge on July 14. From there, it reached Pat Quinn, an ALS patient who has also been credited with starting the campaign. Quinn challenged his friend, former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates, who also has ALS. After Frates took him up on the challenge and posted his video on Facebook, it exploded on social media. In late July, the ALS Association noticed a surprising uptick in online donations and moved to capitalize on the campaign. While the remarkable growth of the challenge happened organically, the ALS Association has made a concerted effort to educate new site visitors about the disease and their work, even allowing donors to funnel their contributions directly to research.
Virality: In a summer news cycle dominated by international wars and domestic unrest, the reason why the Ice Bucket Challenge has traveled as far as it has for as long is its simplicity: Dump a bucket of water on your head; challenge others to do the same; donate to charity. The opportunity to one-up your friends by creating an original response to the challenge kept it interesting. The celebrity response hasn’t hurt, either.
The Bottom Line: As of press time, more than 3 million people and organizations have donated to the ALS Association, accounting for more than $110 million in total donations (and growing). Additionally, $3 million has been raised for the ALS Therapy Development Institute, a nonprofit focused on treatments, and £3 million was raised for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, a British nonprofit. Overall, videos of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge have netted more than 1 billion views on YouTube.
Origins: The It Gets Better Project was created by media personality Dan Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, in response to an uptick in suicides by teens who were bullied because of their sexual orientation (or suspected orientation). The mission was to let LGBT youth know that life does indeed “get better.” The project began when Savage and Miller uploaded the first “It Gets Better” video to the campaign’s official YouTube page on Sept. 21, 2010. This video has since been viewed more than 2 million times. From there, thousands of people from around the world uploaded their own messages of hope on the campaign’s website. The It Gets Better Project continues to engage the community — both online and in person — to rally for LGBT rights and equality.
Virality: Thousands of celebrities, activists, politicians and media personalities have contributed their own messages to the campaign’s growing catalog of more than 50,000 videos, which include President Barack Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, Lady Gaga, Hillary Clinton, Facebook and Google employees, the Broadway community and many more. The campaign has also gone international — deploying programs such as conferences, pride festivals and government outreach to benefit LGBT youths on six continents.
The Bottom Line: More than 50,000 entries have been uploaded on the campaign’s website since its inception. So far, these videos have received more than 50 million views.
Origins: The face of fundraising gets a bit hairy in November, when males around the world unite to grow mustaches to raise money and awareness for charities that support various men’s health issues, such as prostate and testicular cancers and mental health. Movember was started in Melbourne, Australia, in 2003 by two friends who were “questioning where the Mo had gone,” according to the Movember Foundation’s website (“mo” refers to the British spelling of “moustache”). About 30 friends got involved, but it wasn’t until a year later that Movember was connected to raising money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. Over the next decade, the movement has gained traction and is now recognized and celebrated internationally.
Virality: There’s no denying that men love mustaches. They’re often considered a symbol of manhood (not to mention, good humor). But during the month of November, they become something more. As the Movember Foundation states, “Mo Bros, with their new mustaches, become walking, talking billboards,” using their social networks to garner support for their mustachioed journey. And with ambassadors like Nick Offerman of “Parks and Recreation”and his venerable ’stache, the campaign doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
The Bottom Line: In just over a decade, the Movember movement has grown to include 4 million participants worldwide. Together, these “Mo Bros” and “Mo Sistas” have raised $556 million, which has funded 832 men’s health programs internationally.
Origin: In March 2013, the United States Supreme Court was gearing up for hearings on two separate cases regarding gay marriage: one on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act and another on California’s much-debated Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. In advance of the hearings, the nonprofit Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest lobby group for LGBT rights, outlined an extensive plan to bring the discussion about gay marriage front and center. One part of that plan is the now-iconic red-tinted version of their equal-sign logo. The organization posted the image on Facebook on March 25, 2013, urging supporters to make it their profile picture in support of gay marriage. The following day, actor and LGBT supporter George Takei changed his profile picture to the symbol, garnering more than 80,000 likes and 40,000 shares. From there, the campaign took on a life of its own.
Virality: For the next few weeks, the Internet was awash in red as people across the country and around the world showed their support for LGBT couples. According to the HRC, the images created upward of 10 million impressions. Celebrities, politicians and for-profit companies took up the logo, as well. And then came the memes. Marriage equality officially went viral.
The Bottom Line: HRC’s posts appeared more than 18 million times in people’s newsfeeds. The organization’s website received more than 700,000 unique visitors within a 24-hour period, with 86 percent of site visitors being new. More than 100,000 people signed the group’s “Majority Opinion” petition within 48 hours, and it was shared more than 30,000 times. HRC’s Facebook followers grew by over 200,000 in two days, and it gained 26,000 Twitter followers. As for the Supreme Court rulings? Gay marriage supporters were handed two small wins.
Origins: One simple hashtag, first used in a tweet of support from a Cleveland man, Curtis Clough, following the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013, helped spur one of the most effective victim-relief efforts in U.S. history. As the nation reeled from this tragedy, which left three people dead and an estimated 264 injured, #bostonstrong started popping up all over social media as a rallying cry of solidarity and defiance. The slogan was printed on T-shirts, placed on billboards, written on the sidewalks, used in speeches and, eventually, utilized as a way to raise money for the victims through One Fund Boston, which was established by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. (Read more about the story behind One Fund Boston.)
Virality: “There’s always been a social aspect to giving, even before the Internet,” says Rick Cohen, director of communications for the National Council of Nonprofits. “Now some groups are trying to find that magic formula for what’s going to take off. Unfortunately there no one equation that works. If there was, every organization would have something go viral. You have to have a little bit of luck, in addition to some good strategy, to make it work.” Since Clough’s first tweet was sent out (as of April 2014), The hashtag #bostonstrong has been used more than 1.5 million times, but the term has extended far beyond the Internet and has taken on a life of its own as a post-tragedy brand. “#Bostonstrong is about the triumph of community,” Gov. Patrick tweeted on the first anniversary of the bombings.
The Bottom Line: One Fund Boston has raised more than $72 million, which enabled each of the families of those killed and each victim with double amputations to receive $2.2 million, and each victim who lost one limb to receive $1.1 million.
http://nationswell.com/social-media-campaigns-successful-at-change/