To promote a new camcorder that provides filmmakers with an easy way to create user generated content, JVC ran a contest at a user generated site for filmmakers to shoot a JVC commercial. The winning spot played on national TV and is running online.
The contest ran at VMIX.com, the site run by VMIX Media that plays independently produced videos and music.
“User generated content is the rage among marketers and we want to do it as an element in our campaign to get our message out and be cutting edge,” said Karl Bearnarth, JVC’s senior vice president of marketing. “VMIX has a robust site that enables consumers to share their content. We make a product that makes it easy to develop user generated content, so it worked well on the site.”
The new product is the Everio, the first tapeless camcorder that records onto a hard disc drive. “They can shoot their videos, edit them on a PC or Mac and upload them to sites for sharing or entering a contest like this,” Bearnarth said.
The contest ran from October to late December and generated over 80 entries. The winner was Martin Whittier, an aspiring filmmaker from Perryville, MD who operates Brumar Films, a production company. The winning spot, called “Danger Man,” featured a motorcyclist driving up a steep hill in a park before the camera is shown. Whittier used a JVC GY-HD100U camera, jvc a 720 hi def camcorder, for the shoot.
The spot played on Spike TV on Feb. 8 during the show Pros vs. Joes. It is also running on the VMIX and JVC websites.
The contest was an example of a campaign from VMIX, which “works with major brands to develop an online presence,” according to the company’s CEO Greg Kostello. “Companies come up with a great idea but don’t have the interactive team or the time to do it. We can get it up and running quickly.”
“JVC was looking to put their brand on the site and connect with new users to get the message out on the new product and have an interactive experience you can’t find anywhere else on the Net,” said David Brown, VMIX’s VP of brand entertainment.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More