By Ken Liebeskind
SAUSALITO, CALIF --Sony Pictures Television Minisodes, four to six minute versions of classic TV shows, launched this summer on MySpace with advertising from Honda. On Monday, the Minisodes began playing on Crackle, a Sony website that started this summer that plays a variety of entertainment content, with advertising from Pepsi.
“Phase one launched this summer with an exclusive distribution partner and advertiser,” said Amy Carney, president of ad sales at Sony Pictures Television. “Phase two is a broader distribution with additional advertisers.” Pepsi is the exclusive sponsor on Crackle. Honda will continue to sponsor the programming on two other new distribution platforms, AOL and Joost, Carney said. The shows will also play without advertising on V Cast, Verizon Wireless’s mobile video service.
Pepsi is running a 15 second spot on Crackle that was created by Sony Pictures Television. The spot features a retro bottle cap and can that supports Pepsi’s campaign that will feature new retro packages in stores beginning Nov. 4. The retro can is the latest installment in an initiative that began in February that updates Pepsi’s packaging graphics. A unique URL found on the can links directly to the Minisode network on Crackle.
“It is meant to transport the consumer back in time,” said Michelle Naughton, a Pepsi spokesperson. “When these shows originally aired, our consumers could watch them while drinking a Pepsi. Today, they’re able to do the same. The Minisode Network is a great partner. The combination of our can with this site provides a full nostalgic experience.”
Crackle is the site that was formerly www.Grouper.com, which was purchased by Sony Pictures last year.
Josh Felser, president of Crackle, said the site is currently running Minisodes for six shows as one of the channels on the site, which is clickable on the home page. There are 18 shows in the Minisode network and he said more will be added on Crackle later.
The site plays ads after three videos have been viewed, so the Pepsi ad won’t play as a pre-roll, unless viewers have seen three other Crackle videos before playing a Minisode.
Crackle will promote the Minisodes on its home page and in newsletters to its regular viewers. The content will also play on syndicated partner sites, including Hi5.com and Piczo.com. It also plays on Sony BRAVIA TVs.
When asked how long the Minisodes will play, Felser said, “It depends how they do. It’s programming that needs to be profitable. We’ll run it as long as users are excited.” It was a big success on MySpace, with over three million views.
Review: Writer-Director Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”
"Is it too real for ya?" blares in the background of Andrea Arnold's latest film, "Bird," a 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) rides with her shirtless, tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), on his electric scooter past scenes of poverty in working-class Kent.
The song's question — courtesy of the Irish post-punk band Fontains D.C. — is an acute one for "Bird." Arnold's films ( "American Honey," "Fish Tank") are rigorous in their gritty naturalism. Her fiction films — this is her first in eight years — tend toward bleak, hand-held verité in rough-and-tumble real-world locations. Her last film, "Cow," documented a mother cow separated from her calf on a dairy farm.
Arnold specializes in capturing souls, human and otherwise, in soulless environments. A dream of something more is tantalizing just out of reach. In "American Honey," peace comes to Star (Sasha Lane) only when she submerges underwater.
In "Bird," though, this sense of otherworldly possibility is made flesh, or at least feathery. After a confusing night, Bailey awakens in a field where she encounters a strange figure in a skirt ( Franz Rogowski ) who arrives, like Mary Poppins, with a gust a wind. His name, he says, is Bird. He has a soft sweetness that doesn't otherwise exist in Bailey's hardscrabble and chaotic life.
She's skeptical of him at first, but he keeps lurking about, hovering gull-like on rooftops. He cranes his neck now and again like he's watching out for Bailey. And he does watch out for her, helping Bailey through a hard coming of age: the abusive boyfriend (James Nelson-Joyce) of her mother (Jasmine Jobson); her half brother (Jason Buda) slipping into vigilante violence; her father marrying a new girlfriend.
The introduction of surrealism has... Read More