At iSPOT, we’ve frequently written about Internet dramas that are becoming one of the most popular forms of broadband video content and last week the creators of two of the most popular dramas, lonelygirl15 and KateModern announced the formation of EQAL, a social entertainment company that will develop new dramas and transform the way they are consumed. Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried are featured in this week’s iChat, providing details on their new company and how it will integrate product placement and other forms of advertising into the content.
On April 9 Adobe announced the availability of the Adobe Media Player (AMP), which publishers can use to serve video content. Adobe’s customers include CBS, MTV and major entertainment companies, which will play their content on AMP and monetize it with a variety of video ads. Our story focuses on Panache, a company that provides an ad delivery platform that will help publishers manage their AMP ad inventory.
We continue to mine the Net for the funniest video ads around and we score big this week with “Iredell,” a 90+ second animated video ad for Sprint’s Nextel Direct Connect that features an image of a 500 lb. bear holding a knife and fork, presumably to eat the man who fell in the woods. Kudos to Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Superfad for creating and producing it.
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Ken Liebeskind, iSPOT Senior Editor, kliebeskind@shootonline.com, 203-227-1699, ext.17 www.shootonline.com/go/ispot
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More