Nickelodeon, the number-one ranked cable network for 15 consecutive years, will debut GLENN MARTIN, DDS, the firs 3D animation television series to come from Michael Eisner’s Tornante Animation, on Monday, August 17 at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT) in its Nick at Nite primetime daypart. A contemporary comedy offering relatable characters and identifiable family situations, the stop-motion primetime series features an all-star voice-over cast that includes Kevin Nealon (WEEDS, ANGER MANAGEMENT) as Glenn Martin, Catherine O’Hara (FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION, CHICKEN LITTLE) as Jackie Martin and Judy Greer (27 DRESSES, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT) as Wendy Park. The Martins embark on the ultimate family getaway that hits every obstacle in their path — sometimes literally. Eric Fogel (MTV’s CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH) is an executive producer overseeing animation and Sivert Glarum and Michael Jamin (KING OF THE HILL, JUST SHOOT ME) serve as executive producers and show runners.

Following the series’ August 17 premiere, all-new episodes of GLENN MARTIN, DDS will run that week, August 18-20, at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT). The series will then move to its regular timeslot on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT) beginning August 24.

“This collaboration with Michael Eisner offers a new twist on the classic family sitcom that tweens and their parents can both enjoy,” said Marjorie Cohn, Nickelodeon’s Executive Vice President, Development and Original Programming. “We look forward to debuting this groundbreaking and much-anticipated series and introduce viewers to Nick at Nite’s new evening line-up.”

“GLENN MARTIN, DDS is a one-of-a-kind series that re-envisions the classic family sitcom,” added Michael Eisner, The Tornante Company. “It’s a perfect addition to Nick at Nite as it delivers humor in a mature, sophisticated manner.”

GLENN MARTIN, DDS follows the offbeat adventures of beleaguered dentist, Glenn, and his family — earnest yet slightly cynical wife, Jackie; hormone-addled son, Conor; power suit-wearing daughter, Courtney; her subservient assistant, Wendy; and family dog, Canine — who trade in the suburbs for a life on the road. Yearning for a deeper connection with his family, Glenn has packed up the Martins in an RV, which doubles as his dentist office, to go cross-country. They are beset by an array of colorful locals and crazy situations on this journey, taking them to places like Las Vegas, the Amish Country, the White House, Atlantic City and Hollywood. The Martins, who put the “fun” in dysfunctional, are a family who loves and can depend on one another, despite all the mayhem.

In addition to the series regulars, who include Peter Oldring (TOTAL DRAMA ISLAND) as 13-year-old Conor Martin and Jackie Clarke (STARVEILLANCE) as 11-year-old Courtney Martin, season one will feature celebrity appearances from Chrissie Hynde, Betty White, Gene Simmons and Wendie Malick, among others, who voice some of the many colorful characters the Martins encounter through their travels.

In the premiere episode, “Amish Anguish,” Glenn realizes his family, consumed by their cell phones, PDA devices and Game Boys, failed to appreciate the beauty of Niagara Falls and teaches them a lesson by stopping for a few days in an Amish village. Unfortunately, his plan backfires when his family enjoys the village more than he does. Glenn must learn to overcome his own fear of technology to save Conor from getting married and escape the Amish country with his family still intact. Additional episodes will chronicle the Martin family adventures as they continue their cross-country journey.

Prior to the August 17 television launch, viewers may visit the series website, GlennMartinDDS.com, which features original content, message boards, video clips, downloadables and actor bios.

The show web site: http://meetglennmartin.com/

Aliens are a common topic for science fiction series. Over the years this plot topic has been well discussed and dissected from the early 1960s and well into the 90s and in today’s generation. Men In Black, Star Trek, Star Wars. But sometimes it’s not the topic which makes a sci-fi series rather how it is made and treated.

This is what people may come to expect for BBC’s latest venture Torchwood. Starting in 2006, Torchwood is a sci-fi drama series which only requires subtle 3D animation sequences to make it work. Instead, Torchwood relies on the chemistry of its team of alien hunters from the fictional Torchwood Institute.

Torchwood is actually a rip-off of the highly successful and long-running series Doctor Who. In fact, look closely and you’ll see that when you jumble the words of Torchwood, it will spell Doctor Who.

Yes, an anagram.

Torchwood returned to broadcast form with the release of the third series, a five part mini-series entitled Torchwood: Children of Earth. It aired between July 6 to July 10, 2009. Don’t worry if you missed it; it will be released via DVD and Blu-ray this coming July 28, 2009. Here is a video to keep you glued:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AizV9vmGG0

With its distinct blend of sensuality, science fiction, humor and adrenaline-pumping action, viewers who have come to enjoyed Torchwood will be blown away with the latest series. It reunites us with Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). If your lead character is immortal and wears a World War II inspired attire then you can see the potential of narratives played in this series.]

So where will the story pick up? If you have been following this constantly, you’ll know that two main cast died: the medic Owen Harper and the techie boy Toshiko Sato. But that’s just the start of their problems. The children of the world are being used by their alien nemesis, the 456, as a transport for communication.

Torchwood was created by Russell T. Davies as a complementary show for Doctor Who yet has the pattern of Angel or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The main cast consists of John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd. Gorman and Mori left the programme after the second series, with Kai Owen promoted from a recurring role to the main cast in series 3.

As a spin-off it is closely interlinked with Doctor Who. The first series kicks off after the finale of the season two of Doctor Who where the fictional Torchwood Headquarters was destroyed. Torchwood is a special team which handles extra-terrestrial cases. According to its leader Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood is separate from the government, outside of the police and beyond the United Nations.

Basically, that means they can do everything they want. Good thing they are one of the good guys.

Filming for Children of Earth started as recent as last year in 2008 and was principally done in Cardiff with some parts shot in London. Other locations are Newport and Bristol where another BBC show Casualty is shooting.

On top of that, John Barrowman (Captain Jack) said, “Someone is hunting Torchwood down to destroy us. And it turns out to be the government. It’s a double-edged sword: We’re trying to save ourselves and the planet.”

Torchwood is an example that you can have less reliance on special computer-generated imagery and still make a show a big hit. Story is always king and when there is excellent content, a show can be sure that viewers will keep on coming. This is especially true for drama where the premium is in the intricacies and depth of character interactions

By Daniel Ravner

Let’s talk about sex. Knew that would catch your attention. Ok, but seriously now, let’s talk about sex’s influence on the internet.  From a technological viewpoint, the sex industry has deeply influenced the technological video development on the internet, since sex is one of the most profitable industries on the net that is based on something visual.

If content is the king, then in our case, the king is naked. Video site’s most watched videos usually have some kind of sexual element. How do you get your video clicked on? It’s all in the thumbnail, and the leading keywords in search engines are sex related.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLavzoyexjU

Young American Bodies, an internet series that is now in its third season, deals with the real conflict and drama around sex. Though the series contains a great deal of nudity, it’s hard to describe it as sexy, the actors are far from being models and the shooting is far from being refined. The internet series resembles that of 9songs or the television series of Tell Me that You Love Me by describing the drama between two people in bed with all the uncertainty, sweat, and cellulite. The series began as a video production by Nerve magazine as a website that portrayed the sexual culture in an intelligent and open manner. The series’ success speaks for itself, as it is already on its third season and has reached over 2 million views through the first two seasons alone. Just when they thought things couldn’t get any better, IFC, an American film distribution company, partnered up with them on the third season and considers Young American Bodies as one of its best internet series.

Joe Swanberg, an independent filmmaker, wrote and directed Young American Bodies. The series is filmed on a DV camera, giving us a documentary feel with many close ups and much room for impromptu in the script. This style creates an intimate feel, but might feel unrefined to those who are not big fans of the genre.

So, does the nudity add to the series’ success? Of course, but viewers can find sex everywhere. The ultra-realistic manner in which sex is portrayed in Young American Bodies separates it from the rest and turns it into the perfect match for an internet series. The series is bold, fresh and young, and blurs the boundaries of what is accepted and not accepted to show by making use of the platform available to expose a different side of sex.

]]> http://blog.theboxsite.com/?feed=rss2&p=33 3 http://blog.theboxsite.com/?p=94 http://blog.theboxsite.com/?p=94#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:30:51 +0000 admin http://www.pintophotography.com/enblog/?p=94 By Yanny Hanegbi

Anyone who’s involved in the advertising industry and works on any type of account dealing with baby products has interaction with mothers who strongly believe that their baby is the most suitable baby for the brand. And no matter how talented the mother, it’s no doubt thatthe babies are more talented, especially the ones in this commercial.

So what happens when a bottled water company like Evian spends a bit of time with these talented babies? Evian’s Roller Babies commercial features adorable babies on skates dancing to the rhythm of the song in the background and presenting the babies performing funny stunts that bring smiles to viewers’ faces.

Though dancing babies in commercials is nothing new, this specific commercial, part of Evian’s Live Young campaign, takes dancing one step further. The campaign’s website contains other features that transform these babies into celebrities. On the homepage users can see the babies’ Facebook profiles, interviews, behind the scene shots, and more.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PHnRIn74Ag

 By Daniel Ravner

Anyone who uploads a video onto the net, wants people to see it. There’s no such thing as a video clip that was created to be locked up in drawer. However, receiving a significant number of views is not that simple as the number of videos being uploaded per minute is endless. Therefore, many people’s videos will only be watched if someone specifically searches for it using keywords.

Here are a few tips on how to get more views:
1. Keywords: Keywords act as identifiers for search engines that pull up results within the website, according to the words that users search for. Therefore, it does not matter if you are an ordinary Joe uploading a video, or President Obama. Using keywords, sexy, sex, sexiness with your name, will increase the chances of your name coming up on Google or on a website.
2. Video Clip Length: Length is a deciding factor. Shorter clips (ranging from 30 seconds to 2 and a half minutes) will be clicked on more frequently. People are slowly gaining more patience to watch longer clips, but be patient, we’re not there yet.
3. Thumbnails: A picture is worth a thousand words. A sexy picture is worth a thousand views. The only problem is that the computer usually gives you three options to choose from. So, how can you get around this? On YouTube, you simply need to place the thumbnail you want exactly on the center of the player…

4. Title: The more provocative, the better.
5. Sleep with the Editor: Video websites have a section on the homepage titled, sdflksdflkj. The site editor can choose to put your video in this section and have it featured on the homepage.
6. Fast Experience: Internet users won’t wait around for the credits to roll since the video content is free (this is untrue for mobile phone content). Users are always a second away from skipping over to the next video
7. Main Streaming: Though many wish that the mainstream trend would fade out over the internet, the truth remains that the most clicked videos are those that have to do with something mainstream.
8. Commitment: This is mostly true for series, as most series have more views than stand alone videos. However, one must prove
9. Comments: Positive comments and high rankings improve your video’s accessibility on the stie. And, be cleaver and write yourself a few positive comments, and ask your friends to do the same.
10. Many Views: I know this may not be the best advice, but the more views you have, the higher your chances are of being watched by new viewers
11. Knowledge: Decide whether you will publish your video on one site, or many sites. Concentrating your efforts on one specific site raises your chances of having high rankings on one site. Know everything – what your audience wants, what they desire, and what they love. Know the website on which you choose to upload your video – what the site’s demographics are, what they desire, what the site’s branding communicates, and who the site’s most frequent visitors are.
12. Distribution: Upload the video onto Facebook, advertise it on forums, add it as a video response to popular videos, and email it to your friends. In order to raise the number of views for your video, it’s important to add the link to the video located on the most popular video site that targets your audience.
13. Only the daring thrive: By definition, viral success is surprising. Science claims that viral distribution can only prove tens of thousands of views, but not more. The net is full of thousands of videos that are marketed correctly and compete against each other. However, the internet loves hunger and thus, it is important to remain credible and show the effort behind your production. And so, only after your vision is complete, you will be able to see where you came from in relation to your competition.

Burger King is to internet advertising what Absolut Vodka is to print advertising, and what Apple is to television advertising. Like the latter brands Burger King gained a cool and authentic aura through creative and effective use of new media.  It developed a PR strategy that does not tip-toe around the buyer, but rather provocatively grabs his attention. So, will the Whopper be tastier after seeing a few of Burger King’s campaigns? Of course!

One of the first uses of Burger King’s internet advertising is the Subservient Chicken site, where a person dressed as a chicken mascot stands in front of a webcam and follows users’ commands. After users type in words such as jump or dance and hit the enter key, the chicken mascot does as told. If you’ve seen something similar, it was mostly likely an imitation of the Subservient Chicken (launched in 2004). There are over 300 commands that the chicken will agree to perform without coming up to the screen and saying no. Here’s part of the list.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMOPj6-4nDU

The Whopper Freakout, is a recent video campaign featuring a documentary of people’s reactions to the question, “What will the world be like without Burger King’s Whopper?” Customers were asked this question after they were told that the Whopper had been discontinued. Their reactions were filmed and combined together to create the film.

Burger King created a Facebook application that promises users a free Whopper, in exchange for a 10 friend sacrifice, (and once you delete a friend on Facebook, there’s no going back). This Whopper Sacrifice application completely contradicted with the goal of social networks for people to have as many friends as possible. Within just one week, 83,000 people deleted 233,000 thousand friends. Thus, Facebook approached Burger King and asked them to either delete the application or create a more positive application that does not interfere with Facebook’s goals. Burger King would not change the principle of their campaign and thus deleted the application. Nonetheless, the application’s one week run was more than enough to create worldwide buzz and turn this campaign worthy of Burger King’s Wall of Fame.

In another well received effort Burger King teamed up with Family Guy’s creator, Seth McFarlane to sponsor his Cavalcade of Comedy. Burger King asked Seth to create 50 two-minute episodes to be distributed throughout the internet through Google AdSense (a small advertisement video player, rather than Google advertisement text) to sites that are demographically aligned. Google placed these ads as prerolls or overolls. In this way, Burger King was the company that inititated the new kind of product placement that appeared in ten videos. This caused Burger King to gain distribution, buzz and PR around their innovative campaign. The first six videos reached 14 million views in three weeks.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_kbOQIg4sM

This type of video advertisement differentiates the company from its competitors in the fast food world. As those fast food companies who aim to reach everyone, keep their advertisements conservative and relatable by people off all backgrounds and ages. Those conservative commercials get lost in the pond together with all of the other millions of “safe” commercials out there. Burger King’s web campaigns speaks the language of its web audience  who respond by turning those  commercials into a viral phenomenon that is then talked about in forums and blogs, like BK Banned and BK Offensive and Seth McFarlane’s  BK on Youtube. The key here does not lie in mature executives creating “something that the kids will love,” but rather in working with teams that live on the net and ask them to create something that they will like.

]]> http://blog.theboxsite.com/?feed=rss2&p=86 5 http://blog.theboxsite.com/?p=80 http://blog.theboxsite.com/?p=80#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:34:26 +0000 admin http://www.pintophotography.com/enblog/?p=80  By Daniel Ravner

Strike.TV
This internet television website was created as a result of the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike. Hollywood artists created Strike.TV as a launch pad for the development of original concepts by talented creators in the industry with spare time on their hands. Website developers agreed to create this site in return for the content, and to donate all profits to the EAP, which helps people in the entertainment industry who were economically hurt as a result of the strike and recession. So, what is our end result? The video site with the highest quality video content out there created by top-notch people in the television and film industry.

The quality of series on Strike.TV לסדרות בstrike.tv יש ערכי הפקה שמקובלים לתוכן פרימיום באינטרנט אבל איכות התכנים הממוצעת גבוהה בהרבה מאתרים אחרים a. No genre is left behind here, the site contains everything from drama, to soap operas, animated series, action and horror. And there is without a doubt a great deal of comedy אבל לא כזו שמחפשת להסתחבק עם בוגרי קולג’a . The general consensus appears to be content for series (or pilots) with a blog and forum for each one. The user experience is worth mentioning since, contrary to many sites where the content serves the website, here the website serves the content. The main player on the site only presents one series at a time, thus straying away from the common surplus of content available. The site has high streaming quality and simply displays a 15-30 second pre-roll instead of bombarding users with banners. The site was promoted two months before its release in October of 2008. The following link contains an interview with Strike.TV’s founder, Peter Hyoguchi, where he discusses his definition of a hit and explains why he thinks the best storytellers are round up in Hollywood.

Here are a few recommended series from the 30 found on the site:
Speedie Date -
A series that reveals the truth behind the initial moments of a potential couple getting to know each other (resembles the true Speed Date).

With the Angels –
A drama series about a small town Arkansas girl’s arrival into the new life of Hollywood and how her shyness leads her to communicate with her neighbors through a video camera (from the creators of Lonely Girl).

Five or Die –
A series about the terror that begins when one of the main characters receives an insane chain letter by email, warning him that it if it is not passed on within 5 minutes, the main character and his friend will die.

Joe And Kate –
Written and performed by Joe Kelly (Saturday Night Live) and Kate Purdy (MadTV), the series features short episodes about couples life.

Daryl from Oncar -
A series about a customer service representative that becomes a useful part ordinary man’s life.

Me First –
A parody about a docu-drama in which businessmen, life-coaches, and celebrities come to individuals’ houses, claiming they will help change their lives.

In the western world, we sanctify freedom through our ability to choose. In our mind as consumers, the more options we have available, the more freedom we have. The Paradox of Choice is a theory that claims that if we limit the number of options available to consumers, we will in turn, increase satisfaction gained from the product. I think it’s worth thinking about its relation to new media, specifically when talking about the endless number of video search engines, which according to this theory, are damaging.

In his book The Paradox of Choice, psychologist Barry Schwartz writes, “choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.”

In a society that strives for perfection, too many choices cause dissatisfaction even before a decision has been made. The idea of having to choose is exhausting, and continually causes people to put things off, over and over. This theory claims that consumers will appreciate being saved hassle of choice and thus, will feel more satisfied with their choice when provided with fewer options.

 httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6XEQIsCoM&eurl=http://www.ravner.tv/%3Fp%3D120&feature=player_embedded

So, let’s get back to the world of new media. As users enter a video website or website portal, they encounter so much information that their first experience with the site is pure shock. And though it appears that today’s approach is to display as much content as possible on the homepage( to demonstrate the website’s wide variety), this, according to The Paradox of Choice theory, is counterproductive for both, the user and the website. And while there are endless ways to spend ten minutes on a video site, the variety will not necessarily create a positive user experience. However, those initial ten minutes will affect the number of return visits.

Another principle that is also worth putting some thought into is the 80/20 principle, known as the Pareto Principle. The principle can be applied to video sites that imitate VOD services since the theory claims “80% of activities come from 20% of the active causes.” Though the percentages are not precise, the theory claims that there is always an imbalance that conflicts with our balanced cause and effect logic. There are many videos out there and the amount of views is far from being evenly dispersed. Thus, a handful of videos in a particular category, usually those with the highest views, are the ones that will receive the most exposure.

The constant uploading of videos onto video sites is good proof that the The Paradox of Choice theory is correct. Having more content does not necessarily play out as a benefit for the site, but having tailored content can. A smart user interface can direct users to specific content without letting them feel like they are being manipulated. Clear tagging, targeting developed niches, and being chosen as “the editor’s choice,” are all possible solutions. Of course, there are more solutions that you can choose from, but we’ll leave it at that for now.

The amount of videos available on the internet is as vast and endless as the internet itself. There are over millions of video hours available, with YouTube alone contributing an additional 13 hours of video content every minute. With so many videos available, the search for the right one becomes more and more challenging.

Even YouTube, with its reputation as the central video site, does not offer a lot of what the internet has to offer. This includes original content, TV content, sport content, non-mainstream content and other questionable material (in order to become more profitable, Youtube is cleaning up the site of anything that advertisers might shy away from).

Search engines are the gateway to the internet and internet video clips. And so, the growth of the industry has created a need for video catering search engines.

The three main video search engines include: LoomTV, Cast TV, and Blinkx.  They differ in the way they scan the web video landscapes, and in the way they present the user with the results.

LoomTV is a video search engine that also features a media player. Search results appear on a side bar that fades out once users choose to view a specific video. The video is then played in the center of the screen on LoomTV’s media player. The website is ideal for people who connect their television sets to the internet since the entire experience (search, search results, video watching) occurs on one page. Additionally, the website allows users to create their own playlists, chat, and personalize the actual search page. LoomTV’s only downside is that the video player only works with websites that allow embedding. In conclusion, decent search engine, great user experience.

Cast TV also plays videos from websites that allow embedding, but also provides search results from other websites (and directs users directly to that external site). The search results are compiled from many different websites, and include episodes from TV series, news stories and updates. Additionally, the homepage provides editor choices. In conclusion, good search engine, good user experience.

Blinkx is the most extensive video search engine. It uses a variety of indications, like tags, to find relevant articles that were linked to specific videos, and also uses a technology that features the audio file as text. Thus, it allows for a better indexing of the content of the videos. Users are provided with a quick 15 second preview to all of the search results, played in sequence. Clicking play at any time leads to the full video played on the player. Results are also clickable and users are directed to the actual page where the video was taken from. In conclusion, great search engine, good user experience. 

 By Daniel Ravner

Horrible People is an on-line soap that revolves around an engagement party. The dazzling revelation continues as guests wait for the toast, which they never get to. The series is from the same creators as AD Miles, who directed segments of programs like Saturday Night Live.

G-DCAST  takes education to the next level through innovative education about the weekly Torah parsha. This weekly animated cartoon (4 minutes) presents the parsha through animated stories, country songs and even hip hop. New videos are available every Monday.

MoCap Movie LLC is a humorous series that presents a behind-the-scenes look of the inner workings of a company who recreates the wild computerized stunts performed in video games. This is a low budget, low morale, will do anything for the money kind of company.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDLfoQc7w0k

Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy – Seth MacFarlane created this internet series that is released on YouTube. The series consists of comic cartoon shorts unrelated to each other. These 50 episodes are sponsored by Google’s Adsense. The series’ first six episodes received over 14 million views within the first three weeks.

The All-For-Notes docu-comedy, by Vuguru, a new media studio for Michael Eisner’s The Tornate Company, follows the next great indie-rock-pop-punk-Americana band on a road trip through America.

Italian Spiderman is an Australian parody about trashy European films from the 70s that portrays a low budget version of American superheroes . Most of the series is filmed using chroma key and features a superhero who loves espresso and has mind control abilities over penguins.  

Drawn By Pain is a dramatic action packed series that was listed on the “What’s Hot” list for iTunes. The series combines animation and video  as it tells the story of a young girl who grew up in a house where all she saw was brutality and how she tries to deal with the monster that awoke within her. Drawn By Pain is one of the leading web drama series. 

The Writers Room – This Web series for Sony-owned online video destination, Crackle, depicts the inner workings of group of TV writers as they brainstorm ideas for a late night show. The 10-espisode Web series was filmed in only five days and features true television writers.

Wainy Days – Winner of the 2008 Webby Awards as the funnies internet series, Wainy Days portrays David Wain’s attempt to form relationships with numerous women.