DAZ makes a couple of amazing and free 3D animation software. DAZ 3D lets you play around with animated figures and settings. You can buy premade elements - like playing house - and piece them together to make your own image. Bryce lets you build entire worlds. Bryce 6 is for sale but Bryce 5.5 is free.
Our very own Cannes guest blogger, Robert Pratton, filmmaker of Mind Flesh, made his own fun video as part of his marketing push for Mind Flesh. He bought a dog from DAZ, then used an alternative program, Poser, to animate it. (See how making these extras gets you publicity?) Check it out.
Cheers,
Susan Ee
www.feraldream.com
Okay, boys and girls. This stuff is super cool. You can now make your own games and your own worlds even if you don't know how to program. Whoo-hoo! First of all, it's pretty awesome to be able to make your own game or world. But even if your primary focus is on your filmmaking or novels, with all the talk (at least on this blog) of cutting edge marketing for your product, this ought to be a cheap, DIY way to promote your film/book.
With Microsoft's XNA Game Studio, you can make your own games. With this product, you're better off if you know a little programming. They are now live.
With Metaplace, you can build your own virtual world. Just think of the possibilities! I've been watching these guys for about a year. They've had their first beta and have been closed to the public for months. And now, they just opened up their latest beta phase and are accepting applications for early users. Obviously, they're still testing out their system but if you want a taste of the world to come, check it out.
And this little gem is pretty sweet: Little Big Planet. It's a "game" for Playstation 3 that lets you build your own world/game. Check out this demo:
Beet.tv had an online video roundtable this week. The videos of the roundtable are online if you missed their live streaming. They also have a liveblogging session of the roundtable, broken out by minutes.
Sounds like the biggest news is that blip.tv has figured out a way to serve up ads on ipods/iphones and keep track of them. Monetization, of course, is a major issue at these events.
If you missed it and you're interested in seeing one of these things live, there's one going on tonight called "The Next Generation of Advanced Media" in San Francisco hosted by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Cheers,
Susan Ee
www.feraldream.com
Strike.TV is the webisode site that the WGA writers started working on during their strike last year. It launches with 10 webisodes (Variety calls them "skeins" - apparently, webisodes are so last month, but since the terminology hasn't been established, I'll continue to call them webisodes for now). They're written by pros and some have recognizable talent starring in them.
Is this the first webisode channel? It may be. Sure, others have webisodes along with one-offs and user content, but this may be the first pure web serial play. I like the concept. Call out to indie filmmakers -- we need an indie webisode channel as well because it's no good trying to find one-offs. If you can't compete with the star power and mainstream media of Hollywood writers, you can still offer something they don't have yet -- the long tail in a single location.
Susan Ee aka Angelina Jolie
www.feraldream.com
Psych.
I heard from someone-in-the-know that Angelina Jolie drives half the web's traffic. He was only partly kidding. I'm curious to see if there's an actual spike in my readership just because I put Angelina Jolie in my blog entry. We were joking around and saying that everything ought to have her name in it. So what do you think of these marketing statements?
My movie, TOOTH FAIRY, the one that doesn't star ANGELINA JOLIE, is finally finished! I can't wait to see what ANGELINA JOLIE thinks about it.
or
My blog, FERAL DREAM, discusses exactly the kind of information that ANGELINA JOLIE would love, if she cared about this kind of stuff.
or
Babies! Babies! Babies! And ANGELINA JOLIE! Oh, and my unpublished novel, WAR GAMES!
Heh heh heh...
Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com
Crowdsourcing ads can be found on YouTube under "contests." A company puts out a theme and filmmakers make a commercial on spec. Now, Poptent, a startup company, is targeting crowdsource ads by charging companies $25,000 to put up their call for ads. The filmmakers run off and make ads ON SPEC, then the company chooses one or more spec ads for $5,000-$7,500 each.
I have mixed feelings about this business model. On the one hand, it's decent money for a contest. On the other hand, the company makes $25k, the filmmaker makes $5k-$7.5k. With the YouTube contests, the filmmaker can usually upload your commercial onto YouTube and get the exposure whether or not you win the contest. I suspect that with Poptent, if you don't win, you probably can't let it loose in the wild due to trademark and image issues. Thus, it's winner take all and the loser gets nothing but a dent in his/her checkbook and a waste of time.
On the third hand, Poptent just launched their public beta a few days ago so there should be very little competition right now...
Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com
Xtranormal is a startup that just launched a couple of weeks ago. It lets you create little movies for free with either an avatar or Lego-like characters. Fun!!
Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com
LA Times has an interesting article, "Ad agency turns plugs into programs." The lines between ads and webisodes are blurring so much that you can't tell which is which anymore. Some sponsors are paying for entire programs without insisting on commercials or even product placement. From a program perspective, it's awesome -- who wouldn't want a sponsor to pay for your entire program without making your actor put on their deodorant at regular intervals? But long term, I have to wonder if the sponsors might realize that nobody associates that cool program with their product. There's only a sliver of overlap where the interests between the parties coincide and I believe you need to walk a fine line within that overlap to make this a viable, long term funding model rather than a passing gravy train. Not saying it can't be done, just saying that filmmakers need to be vigilant (but not too vigilant) about what the sponsor is getting out of the relationship.
Regardless, it'll be good while it lasts...
Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com
Comscore released some interesting data re online video. 44% of all videos viewed online are off YouTube. The second most popular site is Fox Interactive at 3.9%. Next come Microsoft and Yahoo sites at around 2.5%. Hulu gets 1% of the views.
According to the WSJ, on average, the viewers spent 235 minutes watching online videos in July. And this is the most interesting part: they rarely spent 2.9 minutes on any one video. Something to consider when you're planning out your webisode.
Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com
Here are two interesting events coming up next weekend.
The Conversation in Berkeley - exploring the future of the entertainment industry.
Interactive Writing for Video Games in LA, presented by WGA.
They both sound great. Too bad they're happening at the same time.
Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com
