Viacom Signs On With Joost

Just yesterday it was announced in a press release that Joost, formally The Venice Project, has gotten Viacom signed on as a content provider. That means content from MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures will be on this platform.

Joost is an internet television distribution platform still in development. The dudes who created Skype and Kazaa, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennströmthe, are the founders of the company. Joost does has the potential to be a very big leap forward for the integration of television and internet, especially considering their new Viacom partnership. Here’s a cool article about the story how the company started up from CNET news.

Check out the Joost website for more news and a blog about their development of this new technology. Also there’s a place to apply to be a beta tester. I applied and have been put on the waiting list. It will be interesting to see how they decide to approach this.

Also, I’m impressed that Joost has the foresight to include a section with photos to use specifically on blogs. I chose the weird looking fish one above.

The rest of the screenshots can be seen at https://www.joost.com/screenshots/

Wanna Promote Your Film With A Podcast Or Blog?

If you want to learn more about new media, including podcasting and blogging in particular, PodCampNYC is THE event to go to. Check out PodCampNYC.org, the website for the event at The New School April 6th and 7th. The website is already chock full of awesome content including a podcast, blogging buzz and even an online comic. It’s going to be lots of fun and is a free event also, so go to there and register!

The list of people getting involved is too long to include everyone, but to give you an idea, here’s the quick bios of the organizers from the website…

John Havens, About.com Guide to Podcasting and Founder of Podcast Vision and Voice

Laura Allen, Co-Founder of 15 Second Pitch

Eric Skiff, GlitchNYC

Jason Van Orden, podcasting consultant and author of Promoting Your Podcast

Howard Greenstein, Founder of Social Media Club; Podcasting at A Chat and A Song

Adam Broitman, amediacirc.us

Kathryn Jones, Co-host of Question of the Week on www.ifnotnow.net

Dr. Kathleen P. King, podcasting for education specialist, author and professor at Fordham University; www.podcastforteachers.org

Dawnja Burris, Associate Chair of the Department of Media Studies and Film at The New School

With the way marketing films in particular is changing, emerging filmmakers are at a disadvantage if they don’t stay up to date on the changes. Since the emphasis of this event is on collaboration and openness, PodCamp would be a great introduction for anyone ready to dip their toes into this.

I’m very proud to be sponsoring PodCamp with my freelance Graphic/Web Design business, ExquisiteBeast.com. The postcard I designed for them is above.

GRINDHOUSE Double Feature, Uh Huh!

(Teaser poster images from Robert Rodriguez’s website Troublemaker Studios)

Can’t wait to see Quentin Tarantino’s and Robert Rodriguez’s new movies, DEATH PROOF and PLANET TERROR. They are being shown as a double feature presented under the name GRINDHOUSE. Above are the teaser posters which look so deliciously violent and fun – totally building on the tradition of the exploitation film that has influenced them both so much. The website for GRINDHOUSE is also such a treat to see. Gorgeous motion graphics with dirty print film, dusty old movie theater details and blood dripping from logos and buttons. Really knocked my socks off.

And as far as my thoughts on the preview of GRINDHOUSE I have three words to describe my favorite part…

“Machine Gun Leg!”

Need I say more? I’m there!

And click here to see a cool documentary with Tarantino and Rodriguez talking more about the things that inspired this project.

Super Deluxe Loves CHEW!

“People, People who need people, are the luckiest people in the world” – Barbara Streisand

CHEW has been featured on the People page of Super Deluxe as one of their 6 recommendations this week “For All You Lovers Out There”! Horray!

Special FOUR EYED MONSTERS Screening

What are you doing for Valentine’s Day today? If you haven’t made plans yet and are in the New York area, IFC Center is hosting a special 7:30pm screening of FOUR EYED MONSTERS.

These kids really understand how to market online. If you haven’t seen their website yet, you should check it out. My favorite feature is the smart way they had people request to see their movie across the country. The requests are represented visually by hearts. The bigger the heart, the more people. And of coarse they podcast and podcast often.

In fact, they were part of what inspired me to start learning about blogging and podcasting. Since they were one of the first video podcasts out there on Apple Itunes, they introduced me to the medium.

Pitch Your Film In 15 Seconds

CineWomen is a cool networking organization for women filmmakers in New York. This month, I am going to “Pitching in 15 Seconds!” a CineWomen workshop that will be given by Laura Allen, co-founder of 15 SecondPitch (and a good friend of mine, she even plays a cameo in my film). She will be custom designing this workshop to teach women how to pitch film projects. Laura is a huge inspiration to me and I’m really looking forward to this. 15 SecondPitch also has a free online network where you can practice pitching and learn more about marketing. Here’s a link to my page to see an example.

“Pitching in 15 Seconds!”
March 2007 (now being re-scheduled)
7:00 – 9:00 PM
NYWIFT Conference Room,
6 East 39th St., 12th Fl
New York, NY

Here’s the description from the CineWomen website:

“What’s your project about?”
It’s the first question anyone will ask.

Your 15SecondPitch™ lets you answer with confidence and get them interested in learning more. Workshop leader Laura Allen has developed a set of techniques to which help you craft your pitch and market yourself and your work more effectively.

Laura also has a bi-weekly networking group, 7 MINUTE MARKETING, for women in New York. It attracts some awesome women and is a great way to get ideas for your freelance business or a new job search. During last year’s networking group, I got a lot of support and help making my film. The next 7 MINUTE MARKETING meeting is February 15th. If you’re interested in signing up for that, email me at explodingtoad@gmail.com for more information.

XOMBIE!

(Illustration by James Farr from Xombified.com)

I’ve been enjoying XOMBIE (a self produced animated series) by James Farr for a while now, and I’m excited to learn he has his first book out based on the series. I can’t believe the dude is only 27 years old! It’s impressive. Anyway, XOMBIE: DEAD ON ARRIVAL is going to be available by the end of the month and you can pre-order it on Amazon. If you go to his website, you can check out his animations online from there. The animations are very well done, it’s hard to believe its the work of just one solitary guy. He also has some awesome T-Shirts for sale.

It’s really inspiring to see people with great ideas just independently producing content. As he says on his website Xombified.com:

“Xombie is a one-man operation, written, funded, storyboarded, animated, edited and published by me: James Farr. I do everything but the voices.”

Also, the News on 6 KOTV (I guess he lives in Oklahoma) has a news interview with James Farr here.

He also has an ingenius idea for raising donations to help him continue to work on his animations/books and other projects. Depending on the amount you donate, he thanks you in different ways. The most creative one is at a $250 donation, he will draw a zombie in your image as part of the story. What a brilliant idea!

Super Deluxe, Yeah!

Thanks to Nichelle from Chicks and Giggles for telling me about Super Deluxe, this very cool website dedicated to comedy online video shorts and series.

I uploaded CHEW on it last night. If you get a chance and haven’t seen my film yet, please check it out there and send me a wonderful comment there to pump up my ego! I’m also excited that CHEW has hit 333 views on You Tube so far.

Also on Super Deluxe, check out Dave Foley’s awesome online vid series, CAN’T SLEEP WITH DAVE FOLEY. Remember Dave? He’s the Kid in the Hall that looked the hottest in drag back in the day. He found a really creative way to do an online video talk show. Don’t wanna spoil it for you, so just watch!

I also liked the animated short series I AM BABY CAKES by Brad Neely. Seriously twisted and fun stuff. I am an instant fan!

THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED Documentary

I just rented THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED from Netflix.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing this ever since I personally had to deal with the MPAA when creating a film poster for a film that got a PG 13. The process is long – first you have to get the exact wording of the rating for the film along with the logo for that. Then you have to have the poster itself approved by the MPAA before they can be used. I guess the images on the poster have to match the rating it was given. Otherwise you’d have the possibility of naked copulating cartoon characters for kids’ movie posters I suppose? It’s a strange procedure. You can’t email them the proof of the poster, you have to actually mail them a physical copy and then you only get a letter that says that they conditionally approve the poster. Once the client has spent a bunch of money printing out the posters, you then have to mail another copy of the actual poster to them. So they have the power to pull the plug on your design even after it’s been printed. I bet they have a big movie poster collection – maybe they Ebay them off later.

Anyway, THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED is about the more widely known film ratings board that sets the ratings for movies. I don’t want to give away the plot, because it’s very clever. Let’s just say, they make the MPAA look very silly and they use their own language against them. It’s a very interesting commentary on censorship with some great interviews, notably John Waters and Kevin Smith, who both have a great sense of humor about all the sillyness involved.

See My Short Film, CHEW

Just posted my film, CHEW on YouTube! It’s a dark comedy about the worst date you’ve never been on.

CLICK HERE to see it!