Those Crazy Cutting Edge Japanese Kids and Their…Rubber Stamps?

Lots of blogs have been posting the video below of a young Japanese girl going absolutely insane when she meets Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliff on the set of the last film.

What I thought was most fascinating about the video was a tiny detail: at around the 4:00 mark, the girl gives Daniel a present that turns out to be a rubber stamp embossed with the Japanese character for her name.

Considering the Japanese love for all things techie, it was surprising to me to see that this decidedly old-world object would be the special gift to an apparent idol.

I also think it is one of many signs that points to a wonderful duality in many of today’s youth – a desire for the ephemeral joys of text messaging and for the more permanent marks that they can leave on the world and on each other.

Marketing Lesson from the Guerilla Drive-In

There is a nice appreciation of the group, Guerilla Drive-In, which holds “secret” screenings of movies project in 16MM from the back of a motorcycle sidecar.

Making things even more interesting, is what one has to do to become a member of the audience:

The process to gain admittance to the GDI’s member list is an adventure in and of itself. Prospective members need to find the “MacGuffin” – an orange Pelican case filled with an AM transmitter, wired to an ex-Retropod Sony Sports Walkman, playing a continuous-loop answering machine cassette that plays the secret access code needed to join. After finding the MacGuffin, you have to take a picture of yourself with it, email the access code and picture, and you’re in. Once on the list, details on how to get to the screenings are sent out the week of the showing.     LINK

What I find most fascinating, and the lesson here for all marketers, is that GDI isn’t showing movies that are hard to find.  Recent screenings include Caddyshack and Meatballs, movies easily found online or on DVD.  Yet, because they have made it a fun challenge to become a part of their secret society, people are willing to jump through quite a series of hoops just to be there at end.

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Pirates Don’t Hurt Wolverine Opening

If you listened to the MPAA, you would think that the leaked “Wolverine” workprint from last month was going to cause some sort of disasterous damage to the film’s potential when it was officially released to theaters this past weekend.

Instead, “Wolverine” was far-and-away the biggest movie in the US this weekend, grossing $87,000,000 making it Fox’s fourth best results ever and the biggest opening of 2009, so far.

This truly begs the question, what the hell is the MPAA so upset about?  If anything, the leaked workprint raised awareness and interest in the film.  About the only thing I can see that really hurt the film’s opening weekend was a slew of mediocre-poor reviews from the critics.

Of course, the MPAA had a fit over pirated copies of “The Dark Knight” available online and that was the highest-grossing film of 2008, so expect them to spin this whole thing to make it look like P2P file-sharers will bring down Hollywood.

LINK

RIP! Producers Offer Pay-What-You-Want Downloads

The producers of a very cool documentary called “RIP! A Remix Manifesto” faced a common dillema in the film these days.  Their investors wanted to make sure that their chances of recouping weren’t undermined by piracy and the films DVD and theatrical distributors had similar concerns.

In an interview in Wired.com the producer said something quite smart:

We knew the film would appear on file-sharing networks immediately and we knew the audience for the film wanted and expected it to be online. So knowing that, we wanted there to be a method for those who wanted to pay to do so.

So, instead of figuring out a way to limit the reach of the film or threatening to sue and prosecute potential fans and evangelists, they decided to put up a “pay-what-you-want” download of the film.

It makes so much more sense to embrace the current technology and the desire of fans to access content in a flexible manner than it does to try and handcuff your content and treat potential fans like potential criminals.

LINK

Metered Broadband from TWC = $20 Movie Downloads?!

Nobody seems very happy about Time Warner Cable’s experimental rollout of metered broadband that basically sets your monthly fee for internet service on how much content you view and/or download while online.

TWC would like you to believe that this sort of plan is only fair since some people only use a little bit of broadband while others (like those horrible people who watch Hulu instead of paying for Time Warner Cable TV) are big ol’ internet pigs.  The thing is, it doesn’t take much to build up a nasty bill under their plan.  How nasty?

Well, the good folks at Gigaom did the math:

Time Warner’s price per GB for its proposed tiers ranges from 75 cents to $15 (unless you max out the overage fees on the 100 GB per month tier and default into unlimited service for $150). This means the bandwidth for “Twilight” would cost between $2.85 and $20.60. After adding in the $3.99 rental fee, the evening at home costs between $6.84 and $24.59.

The only way that TWC will be able to get away with this sort of highway robbery will be if there is no legitimate competing service – like, for instance, in Manhattan.

Maybe this is why both regular folks and politicians are starting to take a closer look at Time Warner Cable’s plans.  Let’s hope that this is the dumb move that forces TWC to change it’s ways for the better.  Don’t hold your breath.

LINK

ABC Vs. YouTube

I love the ongoing “pissing into the wind” approach of big media in their battle against the ease and speed with which any and all content will be spread:

Looking for highlights of last night’s Oscars on YouTube? Good luck.

That’s because ABC, which broadcast last night’s show, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which produces the event, don’t want clips of last night’s show on the world’s biggest video site. Instead, they’d prefer that you watch highlights on ABC’s Oscar.com site. (via)

Aside from the fact that I was able to find a number of live streaming links of the Academy Awards last night (on of them was even on the popular Justin.tv) there are literally hundreds of clips of last night’s show on YouTube and elsewhere.

Oh, and you can also download the entire thing from any number of P2P sites.

The point is that ABC has wasted time and energy trying to protect their property instead of working with the powerful distribution forces that were going to win either way.

The Ninja That Isn’t AskANinja

I’m not totally sure what to make of ‘Katana,’ the latest webseries pilot from the folks at Strike.TV.

It is a completely earnest attempt at making a ninja-revenge action film reminiscent of those from the ’70’s complete with well-choreographed fight sequences from clearly professional stunt fighters.  As TubeFilter told me:

The  hard hitting show stars John Koyama and Yuji Okumoto (also the writer-producer) alongside stunt superstars Al Goto, Sam Looc, and Don Tai. If you haven’t recognized any of those names, check out those IMDB listings, because you’ve definitely seen their movies.

‘Katana’ is part of a new wave of low-budget professionally produced fare finding its way to the web, much of it in the form of tried-and-true film genres like sci-fi and horror. The big question will be whether or not enough fans of these very specific genres will a) find these programs considering the overall lack of marketing budgets and b) if they do, will they really be interested in watching what boils down to cheaper versions of what they get plenty of on both TV and the big screen.

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Pirates Beat Oscars Again – Suck It MPAA

Every year the MPAA claims to be doing everything in its power to stop pirates from destroying the film industry.  Of course, what they really mean is that they are wasting millions of dollars and work-hours.

Not only does there seem to be little proof that pirated downloads are actually hurting the film industry’s bottomline but the efforts of the MPAA are doing nothing to stop it:

Waxy.org’s Andy Baio has once again published an extensive collection of data about this year’s Oscar nominations and their availability on P2P networks. He’s been doing this for the last seven years, during which the overall picture has remained pretty much the same; almost all Oscar nominated movies are available on file-sharing networks before the annual awards ceremony. In fact of the 26 movies that were nominated this year, 23 are already available in DVD quality on P2P networks. (via NewTeeVee)

While this same article points out that it is taking longer for pirates to get copies to the internet, by a matter of days from year-to-year, it makes it very clear that the major studios are going to have to figure out a new approach to fighting the pirates other than chasing them around the net with “cease and desist” orders and dragging fans into court.

Maybe they should, um, take a few lessons from the pirates and begin releasing usable digital copies themselves without endless forms of DRM that cripple the end-users ability to do what they want with the movie.

Just a thought.

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Scotty Got an Office Job and Damn is it Funny

Let’s face it, the world of cubicle humor, while ripe for the picking, tends to end up being either a ripoff of “Office Space” or “Dilbert.”  What makes “Scotty Got an Office Job” so fantastic is that it captures the essence of office life in a completely original and authentic way.

If we are to believe the creator, star, director and editor, Scotty, these are all short films made without the knowledge of his coworkers or superiors.  Using a clever combination of webcam and phone-cam along with some great sound effects, Scotty has produced over twenty gloriously short episodes – most are less than a minute.

While this might not be the breakout hit of the season, his work deserves to be seen and appreciated.

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Dr. Horrible Demonstrates Wonderful Potential for Post-Web Profits

While it certainly helps that the very successful webseries “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog” featured a name cast and was created by the much loved (especially by the net-saavy) Joss Whedon, there is a lot for all of us to learn about how to monetize web video.

The secret for Dr. Horrible lies in the use of release windows much like the movie studios have employed for decades.

First, the episodes were available for free streaming online, but only for a limited time.

Next, you were able to pay to download the episodes at iTunes for a small fee.  The fee was fair because now you had a version that could travel with you.

Now, Joss and company are releasing a jam-packed DVD with all sorts of value-added extras for even more money.

I’m sure there is a TV license window yet to be exploited as well.

Oh, there’s a soundtrack available, too.

Not only was Whedon able to get enormous amounts of free press and fan favor from the free release but he has understood how to build on that base to actually come out with some cash in his pocket.

While every webseries is not going to be able to do exactly what Whedon has done, it is very important to understand all of the distribution channels that exist and examine how each can best be exploited for your project.

Good article in TubeFilter, too.

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