February 17, 2012
Video advertising commercial slate to enter the digital age
NEW YORK –The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) announced the transition of the advertising industry’s current analog commercial slate into a digital one. The standardized descriptive information about ads makes the matching of commercial messages to content and consumers easier and more efficient than ever. This advancement signals the end of the analog commercial slate, which has identified commercials for more than 30 years.
Sponsored by Ad-ID, the new commercial delivery format created by the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) will save the media supply chain more than $1 billion annually by enabling fully digital file based workflows. This will result in improved operations, audience measurement, proof of performance and management. In addition, the new format combines the highest quality video, audio and closed-captioning.
“In today’s cross-platform universe, we have to ensure that great and engaging content can be monetized, measured and documented,” said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of ANA. “This is a historic juncture for the world of video advertising, as such we charge the industry with the imperative that we transition to standardized commercial delivery formats in all media, and implement Ad-ID throughout our ecosystem.”
The new standard video commercial delivery format is expected to save not only money, but time and effort on behalf of advertisers, agencies and media outlets, as they can be sure that the identity of a given ad is now properly embedded. This will lead to new opportunities for innovation as cross-platform video advertising, addressability and interactivity grows.
“The creation of a digital slate fixes a problem which has plagued the advertising business for years — an uncertain linkage between what the advertiser ordered and what actually gets to air,” said Brad Gilmer, Executive Director of AMWA. “The AMWA’s mission is to develop timely, innovative, business-driven specifications for networked media workflows. We feel that the digital slate and digital content delivery will have a significant impact on our industry.”
The standardized descriptive information about ads that Ad-ID provides includes advertiser, product, commercial title, and other essential data. This information is stored in the Ad-ID database and it is the central part of the new commercial delivery format, which has the digital commercial slate at its core.
The conversation about the commercial slate’s transition to the digital world occurred on February 16, at the ANA’s TV & Everything Video Forum. The Hollywood Post Alliance is also announcing this new link in the supply chain at its Tech Retreat in Palm Springs.
Jon Secada lends his voice to Hepatitis C awareness campaign
MIAMI (AP) — Three-time Grammy winner Jon Secada wishes his father Jose hadn’t kept his Hepatitis C diagnosis a secret.
The Cuban-American singer-songwriter’s father died last year from complications related to the virus and failed to get the help he needed in time.
Hispanics make up an estimated one-third of the 3.2 million Americans who suffer from Hepatitis C, which can remain in the body for years and severely damage the liver. Yet there has long been a stigma around the illness because it can be contracted through needle exchange and sex.
Secada will lend his voice Thursday to a campaign to raise awareness among Hispanics about the disease. The American Liver Foundation and the pharmaceutical company Merck — known as MSD in Latin America — are sponsoring the campaign.
Tarantino finishes Wyoming filming for new movie
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — Director Quentin Tarantino has wrapped up filming for his new movie in Wyoming, including a scene at the National Elk Refuge.
The Jackson Hole News & Guide reported that the “Django Unchained” cast and crew were in the Jackson area last week and decided to add a scene at the refuge.
The crew saw the elk from the highway and asked for permission to have the actors walking and riding horses among the animals, refuge director Steve Kallin said. He said that was denied because it could have caused a disturbance but they were allowed to shoot some footage with elk and bison in the background at the refuge’s northern feedground.
“We did have very tightly controlled access and ensured there was no disturbance to the elk or bison,” he said.
The movie is a remake of a spaghetti western about a slave who becomes a bounty hunter, with Jamie Foxx in the title role. Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson also have roles in the movie, which is mostly being filmed in New Orleans.
Other Wyoming scenes were shot at the Bar BC Ranch and Kelly Warm Springs in Grand Teton National Park.
The production company spent more than $500,000 in Wyoming, which qualifies it to receive a 15 percent rebate, said Michelle Howard of the Wyoming Film Office.
Academy’s New York Oscar night celebration to benefit FilmAid International
BEVERLY HILLS, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and humanitarian aid organization FilmAid International will host an Oscar Night event at the ’21’ Club in New York City in celebration of the 84th Academy Awards on Oscar Sunday, February 26.
Since 1990, the Academy has hosted a New York Oscar celebration for its East Coast members, many of whom are previous Academy Award winners or nominees.
This year’s event marks the first time the New York party will benefit a charity. That organization, FilmAid International, uses the power of film and video to reach the world’s most vulnerable communities and refugee camps with messages that inspire, address critical shared needs and effect social change.
“I really can’t overstate the impact of the Academy’s financial support of FilmAid over the years, which has allowed us to reach much further in bringing critical information and hope to refugees and other communities in need,” said Michael Angst, Chairman of FilmAid’s board of directors. “Additionally, the personal involvement of Academy members, such as those that traveled with us during the delegation trip last summer to the Kakuma refugee camp on the border of South Sudan, is invaluable in demonstrating the commitment of professionals from the motion picture industry to leveraging the power of film to help these communities in crisis.”
The ’21’ Club, located at 21 West 52nd Street, has served as a shoot location for many of Hollywood’s most admired films including All About Eve, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Wall Street.
The evening’s festivities will kick off with cocktails at 6:30 p.m., dinner will be served at 8 p.m. and the live telecast of the 84th Academy Awards begins at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.
For more information contact FilmAid International at info@filmaid.org or the Academy at ampasny@oscars.org.
Nice Shoes adds MTI Film’s Control Dailies
HOLLYWOOD–MTI Film has installed three Control Dailies systems at Nice Shoes, New York. The new systems will enable the facility to expand beyond its core market, commercial post production, into television and film, with a proven dailies solution for New York-based television productions.
A long-time leader in commercial post production, Nice Shoes is eager to tap into New York’s growing film and television market. “We’ve wanted to extend our successful commercial post services into the entertainment area for some time now,” said Nice Shoes CEO Dominic Pandolfino. “So moving forward with MTI’s Control Dailies provides us with the added ability to service customers in this very important space.”
As part of the installation, MTI Film and Nice Shoes have entered into a strategic partnership allowing for full service, bicoastal dailies and finishing in a compatible environment linked by a dedicated high-speed internet connection. “MTI’s proven Control Dailies technology coupled with our talent base will provide producers with the comfort of knowing that Nice Shoes is able to expertly finish entertainment projects in an established environment,” added Nice Shoes CIO Robert Keske.
Control Dailies is a complete workflow solution for processing dailies from any camera format. Camera media of all types can be ingested in a single timeline for easy audio-image synchronization, metadata logging, color correction and automated background rendering of digital deliverables.
Nice Shoes partner Chris Ryan and Keske traveled to Los Angeles to demo Control Dailies. “Their conclusion was that Control Dailies is the best and most complete solution they’ve seen in the space. With ten years of development, it’s what you’d expect,” Pandolfino notes.
Jolie says directing inspired her
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Angelina Jolie says working as a director has rekindled her love for the film industry, even if it was something of a personal artistic rebellion.
Jolie said on Wednesday that she was starting to feel “disheartened” and uninspired by her acting roles.
She knew she wanted to use film as a medium to deal with weighty matters, such as human rights abuses.
Her directing debut, “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” is about the horrors of the war in Bosnia.
Jolie says she hopes the film will push people worldwide to “speak up” and push for intervention in places such as Syria, where a government crackdown has killed thousands in the past year.
The Nicholl Fellowship competition is now accepting entries
BEVERLY HILLS, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is now accepting entries for the 2012 Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition. As many as five $35,000 fellowships will be awarded through the program in November.
The Nicholl Fellowships competition is open to any individual who has not earned more than $5,000 from the sale or option of a screenplay or teleplay, or received a fellowship or prize of more than $5,000 that includes a “first look” clause, an option or any other quid pro quo involving the writer’s work. To enter, writers must submit a completed application online, upload one PDF copy of their original screenplay in English and pay the entry fee before 11:59 p.m. PT on May 1, 2012. The regular entry fee is $52; an early-bird entry fee of $35 is available for those who enter by 11:59 p.m. PT on March 15, 2012.
Fellowships are awarded with the understanding that the recipients will each complete a new feature-length screenplay during the fellowship year. The Academy acquires no rights to the works of Nicholl fellows and does not involve itself commercially in any way with their completed scripts.
Last year’s competition drew a record 6,730 entries. Since the program’s inception in 1985, 123 fellowships have been awarded.
Among the recent achievements by Nicholl fellows: Destin Daniel Cretton wrote and directed “I Am Not a Hipster,” which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival; Andrew Marlowe created and executive produces and Terri Miller serves as a writer-producer on the ABC series “Castle”; and Jeffrey Eugenides published his third novel, The Marriage Plot, which is a National Book Critics Circle award nominee.
Bay to direct fourth ‘Transformers’
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Director Michael Bay plans a fresh take on shape-shifting robots with the fourth installment in his “Transformers” franchise.
Paramount Pictures announced Monday night that Bay will return to direct the next chapter in the blockbuster sci-fi series, due in theaters June 29, 2014.
Bay’s third movie based on the Hasbro toy line, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” came out last summer and took in $1.1 billion worldwide.
The studio’s announcement said the next “Transformers” will be a new take — which probably is necessary since star Shia LaBeouf said last summer that he would not return for a fourth movie.
The “Transformers” sequel is part of a two-picture deal for Bay at Paramount. First, he’ll direct Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson in the crime tale “Pain and Gain.”
ARRI CSC becomes only full service equipment rental facility in the North East
SECAUCUS, NJ – ARRI CSC, the largest full service equipment rental group in the United States, has become the only one stop shop in the North Eastern sector. With locations in New Jersey and Florida, ARRI CSC provides camera, lighting, grip and now on-set services to the motion picture industry.
The newly created on-set service department will be headed by Chris MacKarell who will be responsible for the creation and support of effective on-set digital workflow products and services for the ARRI CSC digital imaging departments in New Jersey and Florida and, as Illumination Dynamics, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
As a result, ARRI CSC has enhanced its range of digital equipment. Besides Digital Transfer Stations, the rental group has added the ALEXA STUDIO to its inventory and upgraded the majority of the ALEXA camera systems to shoot high-speed. ARRI CSC’s extensive inventory includes a vast selection of optics, film, digital and digital high-speed cameras, the latest lighting, grip and crane equipment as well as a widespread fleet of trucks and generators
Uggie named ‘top dog’ at Golden Collar Awards
by Sandy Cohen, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Even dog actors can get awards in Tinseltown, and six pooches collected prizes at the inaugural Golden Collar Awards.
The ceremony Monday at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel proceeded like a traditional Hollywood-style awards show, with actors including “NCIS” star Pauley Perrette and “Hot in Cleveland” star Wendie Malick presenting trophies for the best dog performances on the big and small screens.
Uggie, the four-legged star of “The Artist,” was named top dog in a movie. His owner-trainer, Omar Von Muller, was on hand to accept the award.
Von Muller said the Jack Russell terrier, who stole hearts in the silent film that’s up for 10 Academy Awards, is a “great performer, but he’s also a great family member.”
“He sleeps with us,” Von Muller said.
The Golden Collar Awards, dreamed up by Alan Siskind of the website dognewsdaily.com, drew other stars of “The Artist,” including James Cromwell and Missi Pyle, as well as studio representatives and media outlets from around the world.
“I’m delighted to be here because I owe my career to a pig,” said Cromwell, who played the farmer in “Babe.”
The ceremony walked a fine line between being a farce of an awards show and a meaningful recognition of dog and trainer achievements. Proceedings were broadcast online by the Hollywood Reporter, and Siskind said he expects the ceremony to be televised next year.
Martin Scorsese, who wrote an editorial in the Los Angeles Times that inspired a write-in campaign for the Doberman in his Oscar-nominated movie “Hugo,” appeared at the ceremony by video. His star dog, Blackie, lost out to Uggie, who was nominated twice in his category (for both “The Artist” and “Water for Elephants.”)
Other winners included French bulldog Brigitte, who plays Stella on TV’s “Modern Family,” and Hercules of “Pit Boss,” who tied with Giggy of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” for best dog in a reality television series.
Their respective owners accepted the awards. Shorty Rossi, star of “Pit Boss,” noted, “This is the first time a pit bull’s been nominated for anything.”
Elizabeth Snead, an entertainment journalist who served as a Golden Collar judge, said the dog-awards show is more exciting than the Oscars.
“Everybody identifies with the dogs,” she said, holding her Maltese, Posey. “And it makes it more accessible for humans who don’t really care about awards season.”
Tribeca Film takes North American rights to Side by Side
BERLIN/NEW YORK– Tribeca Film has acquired North American rights to Side by Side, a documentary about the technical and aesthetic implications of the transition from traditional film to digital technology.
Produced and presented by Keanu Reeves and directed by Chris Kenneally, Reeves takes you on a tour of the past and the future of filmmaking in Side by Side. Reeves explores the development of cinema and the impact of digital filmmaking via in-depth interviews with Hollywood’s masters, such as Danny Boyle, James Cameron, David Fincher, George Lucas, David Lynch, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Lars Von Trier, and The Wachowskis.
A summer release is planned for the film, which is having its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. In addition to Tribeca Film’s multi-platform rollout, the filmmakers plan a broadcast premiere early next year and will bring the film to college campuses and film schools to continue the conversation.
“Cinema is at a tipping point. Digital has challenged, and in some ways completely overturned, a process of making movies on photochemical film that has been a tradition for over one hundred years,” states Chris Kenneally, the director. “Side by Side is an intimate conversation between Keanu and the top professionals in the industry about this revolution and its impact.”
The deal was negotiated for Tribeca Film by Nick Savva, director of acquisitions, and on behalf of the filmmakers by producer Justin Szlasa and attorney Marc Simon of Cowan DeBaets Abrahams & Sheppard LLP.
After over a decade away, Thornton back as directorBERLIN (AP) — Billy Bob Thornton says his frustration at the state of films in America prompted him to direct his first feature in more than a decade, the 1960s family drama “Jayne Mansfield’s Car.”
The 56-year-old Thornton, who previously directed “All the Pretty Horses” and “Sling Blade,” brought the movie to the Berlin International Film Festival for its premiere Monday. It’s one of 18 films competing for the festival’s Golden Bear award.
The cast includes Thornton, John Hurt, Robert Duvall and Kevin Bacon.
Thornton said he had been complaining about movies in America — so “instead of complaining, I decided to just write one and direct it.”
He says he thinks he will go on to direct more — “but I probably won’t direct the next Star Trek movie or anything like that.”
Marley documentary hopes to give insight into the life of the iconBERLIN (AP) — A documentary premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival aims to offer new insight into the life of reggae legend Bob Marley, against a backdrop of dozens of his songs.
Director Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland,” ”One Day in September”) said Sunday he hopes “to bring to people around the world a sense of who this man was as a human being.”
The film, “Marley,” contains interviews with relatives and fellow musicians. Macdonald says he took 13 months to make it — though work to secure rights to the music started earlier.
Macdonald says one reason the film was complicated to make was that “there are three different entities you have to negotiate with and there’s a lot of disputes about who owns what song.”
One of the singer’s sons, Rohan Marley, joined Macdonald to present the film.
