... our needs," said Ricky Tse, General Manager, Sales & Distribution, Media Asia Films. ... Dolby's virtual press kit is available at dolby.com/press.
Investing directly in a movie could be a perilous endeavor. Scouting the right talent, managing production costs and finding the right distributor are but a few of the hurdles that investors share as the production moves forward to fruition or perdition. The hardest to gauge is the personal whim of the moviegoer. Taste is fickle. A story with a broad appeal in one decade could fall flat in the next. If a movie does well, it may open the possibilities of a franchise; if it flops, it could claim numerous casualties, from studios to the careers of actors.
Considerations Before Investing
Good investors use due diligence. So it is with investing in movies. The private equity/hedge fund vehicle appears to be the most common means for direct investment. Unsophisticated investors need not apply. The risks of such an enterprise can be substantial and are better suited for the family office or pension client.
Due diligence throughout is critical. Offering documents must accord with applicable securities law. What is the producer’s reputation? Experience? Backing one with nary a track record is akin to investing in a mutual fund with rookie portfolio managers. What is the film’s potential market? Blockbusters tend to have a broad appeal; foreign films and documentaries, black and white and silent films have less appeal. Notable exceptions would be Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” and the recently feted best picture, “The Artist.”
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/05/10/investopedia79237.DTL#ixzz1uriT0lyb
Roku launched a new streaming-media box, Roku HD, recently, which is an upgrade to Roku LT, according to the company. However, after combing the specifications list, the claim seems to be doubtful on various accounts. Moreover, the device is $10 expensive than LT version at $60.
The new device sports a black body with a purple base. A host of applications like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, HBO Go, Pandora, Mog, Rdio, and MLB.TV, which can also be found on the LT are included in the list. Moreover, the new device now has local media streaming function via an app called Plex.
On the downside it is larger and does not offer 1080p video support, which is not a bummer in a sense, that 720p offers more or less the same quality. There is no Ethernet port as well.
The most amazing feature in the HD is that it comes with AV socket set in the casing, instead of one consolidated socket in the LT with breaks out into three cinches. Therefore, like the LT, HD can connect to a CRT television in a more convenient way.
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Viewers who stream network TV shows may soon discover the free ride is not so free.
Hulu, which attracted 31 million unique users in March under a free-for-all model, is taking its first steps to change to a model where viewers will have to prove they are a pay-TV customer to watch their favorite shows, according to sources.
In fact, the move by Hulu toward the new model — called authentication because viewers would have to log in with their cable or satellite TV account number — was behind the move last week by Providence Equity Partners to cash out of Hulu after five years, these sources said.
And it’s not just Hulu making it tougher for cable-cutters to stream shows and other content.
Fox, owned by News Corp., which also owns the New York Post, the FOX Business Network, and NewsCore, is expected to begin talks soon with Comcast on a TV Everywhere deal that will require authentication. Plus, Philadelphia-based Comcast is expected to switch to an authentication model for this summer’s Olympic Games.
The move toward authentication is fueled by cable companies and networks looking to protect and profit from their content.
Consumers Don’t Like Being Forced to Do Things, But That’s What We’re Doing In Video
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Lost time is never found again.” And that couldn’t be truer as time has never been more valuable. In an increasingly digital world – as we move from one site, app and connected device to another – time is of the essence, even in 15 and 30-second bites.
We measure the value of digital activity in part by the time it takes to complete an action. We’ve always cringed at the thought of valuable time lost over waiting in line or sitting through a bad movie. And today we scrutinize the slightest digital exercise if it takes us 90 seconds off our navigational course.
Watching online videos has become a mainstay for most of us, yet our content is often accompanied by time-consuming video ads. In fact, in March, 181 million U.S. Internet viewers watched 8.3 billion video ads,according to comScore. At 15 to 30 seconds a pop, that’s a lot of time spent that we can’t get back. Well, maybe in that time the Mets might finally win another World Series! With many ads lacking any meaningful personal relevance, after a while we can become desensitized to the whole thing.
Of course, this assumes that each of those video ads was viewed in its entirety, which is where we have a problem. Consumers generally don’t like being forced to do anything, especially being forced to watch ads. We know this, but in an industry that doesn’t lack for innovation, we’ve yet to come up with an alternative to the 15- or 30-second pre-roll that many consumers see as nothing more than an obtrusive time delay.
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Robert Johnson, the nation’s first African American billionaire, has invested in professional basketball teams, real estate, mortgage-backed securities and midsize hotels. Now he is returning to his old stamping grounds: media.
The founder of BET, the first cable television network specifically targeted to African Americans, is rolling up a pair of small video firms to form a new publicly traded venture, RLJ Entertainment. The 66-year-old entrepreneur plans to create an online distribution company that syndicates programming, including titles made by producers and directors who have been unable to penetrate the barriers of Hollywood.
“The Internet changes that paradigm,” Johnson said in an interview last week. “The gatekeepers have been, for practical purposes, disassembled. If you can identify and curate the content, there is nothing keeping you from reaching a global audience.”
The usually press-shy businessman plans to merge one of his investment vehicles with two small video distributors, Image Entertainment and Acorn Media Group. The companies hold rights to an eclectic mix of programming, including Agatha Christie films, British comedies, horror movies, exercise videos, urban entertainment and the work of stand-up comedians.
Johnson said the new venture would acquire other film libraries and would license its programming on DVDs and streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.com.
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 Movie distribution is changing fast. A few years back, it was impossible to get your movie seen and sold without finding a traditional distributor willing to take a gamble with your title. And in those days, if you did not garner a deal, your movie died in quiet obscurity.
Thankfully the era of modern movie distribution has arrived. With companies like distribber (full disclosure – they pay me to promote), filmmakers can now access popular marketplaces without asking permission. This means, that unlike the old days where you based your business plan on the Sundance lottery, you can now plan a marketing and sales strategy that YOU control.
While both iTunes and Amazon are awesome marketplaces for filmmakers, one of the most exciting outlets to emerge on the indie scene is Hulu. Unlike the other marketplaces, Hulu does not require viewers to enter a credit card to access your content. They make their money on advertising. This means that once you get your movie into Hulu, a viewer can find your content and watch it without obstacles.
To get your movie onto Hulu, visit distribber and sign up for the service. With distribber there is a one-time upfront fee of $750. But unlike the traditional middle-men, deals with distribber are non-exclusive and you can cancel any time. In the event paying the upfront fee sounds crazy, because distribber is owned by Indie GoGo, you can always create a crowdfunding campaign to cover the cost.
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Movie distribution marketing fees and independent filmmakers make love or war. Through social networking with filmmakers online and meeting up with friends in the business to share war stories at a pub, film distribution money is always a hot topic about making movies. Studio films with Hollywood stars spend tens of millions of dollars to market the release of a movie. That is entirely different than what happens in the independent film scene.
One indie filmmaker Princeton Holt I thought expressed it well, “Indie film distribution is like having kids. Great idea, but maybe not for everyone. It happens to work for us, but we still fight.” Movie distribution companies that cater to releasing indie movies do not run commercials, radio spots, or invest money in an aggressive online SEO marketing campaign to connect with viewers.
The likely scenario is they create an 8.5 x 11 artwork one-sheet poster that is sent out to their movie buyers like a Blockbuster. They add a thumbnail of the one-sheet, movie synopsis, director and main cast credits, and film trailer to their website. The movie distribution company will attend different film sales markets where your movie might or might not have a full size poster displayed at their booth or suite. There is always a catalog for film buyers to browse that contains all artwork one-sheets of titles they have.
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David Board may be obsessed with life on other planets, but gamers globally may soon find plenty to obsess over in the virtual world of his creation, “Lifeless Planet.”
Board is a partner in Palmer-based State 2 Studios, which has announced a deal with London-based adventure game publisher Lace Mamba Global for worldwide distribution of the independently developed action-adventure video game.
“This is kind of a big deal for us,” Board said. “Indie games and indie game developers like myself can easily distribute your game online, but with limited resources, getting the word out or retail packaging to sit on store shelves (can be difficult) and we don’t have the distribution channels.”
That’s where Lace Mamba Global comes in, he said. Board recently returned from a trip to meet with the distributor and came away with an agreement to produce “Lifeless Planet” for both PC and Mac computer platforms. The company also has strong distribution ties throughout much of Europe and Australia, he said.
“They’re going to facilitate not only distributing it in England, but in countries all around Europe, a little bit in Asia, and they’re really big in Australia,” Board said. “That means translating the text into about 10 different languages.”
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 New Delhi: Well-known documentary filmmaker Ashvin Kumar, who had to wait for four years to release his first feature film “The Forest”, says the unsystematic distribution system in the industry is the reason behind such a long delay that is often killing good content-based cinema.
“For the last four years, I have been walking to every door to release the film. There are many companies in Bollywood who made me wait for a year or so, and then they backed out. So you can imagine how much time I spent to get the distributors,” Kumar told IANS in an interview.
Kumar has merged complications of human relationship with wildlife in “The Forrest”, a triangular love story with a subplot of a man-eating leopard. It will hit the screens across April 13. Nandana Sen, Ankur Vikal and Javed Jaffrey are playing the lead roles in the movie.
“There is very, very good space for content-based cinema here, we just need to train our country. Today everybody is running after the star but what about content-based cinema?
“Filmmaker like Anurag Kashyap had to wait for years to release `Gulaal` and now me. I had to wait for four years. Despite content-based cinema doing well at the box-office, distribution system is ruined in Bollywood in such a way that they are only interested in one kind of film,” he added.
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