Meet Extragram, a Slick Web App for Instagram - Mashable

Media_http8mshcdncomw_hbbkf

From Mashable:

"...Developed by a five-man team, Extragram is a slick web client that lets Instagram users log in to access photos on the web, instead of just via the iPhone app.

“We just loved how beautiful Instragram made the images look,” says co-creator Karthikeyan Mani. “We wanted to come up with a really good user interface that would complement the beautiful photos Instagram churns out and we wanted to make it easy for our users to discover more of these lovely images and users through our web interface.”

Extragram gives Instagram members three different views for feed and popular photos — Grid, Filmstrip or Map view. Each offers an artistic or place-based interpretation of the original feed format in the Instagram app. In any of the views, users can interact with photos; on photo mouse over, the user sees heart and comments icons he can click on to view and add “likes” or comments...."

Smart Smart Smart: The Anti-Blockbuster Way: Disrupt Your Business Rituals Before Someone Else Does | Fast Company

Media_httpimagesfastc_rvvvr

Excerpt from Martin Lindstrom's Fast Company article:

"...Science has shown that human beings prefer routine roughly 12 times more than they do change. The more pressure we’re under, the more we seek to surround ourselves with familiar rituals and protocols to maintain an ongoing (if slightly spurious) peace of mind. This holds true for business leaders and managers, as well as consumers. Which helps explain why in the wake of the recession, such stalwart, time-tested toys such as LEGO, the Rubik's Cube and even Barbie continued boasting brisk sales. In shaky or uncertain environments, we slide by default into the proven, the tried and true.

Yet paradoxically, there’s no better time than in the midst of routine to disrupt business as usual by coming up with an apparently wild idea that thumbs its nose at every entrenched wisdom your company holds dear. Along the way, you might stumble across a random slogan that transforms your industry’s future.

Let me give you an example.

Less than a year after the Internet exploded into the mainstream, LEGO hired me to help them answer the question: Where should our brand go from here? Two weeks later, I showed up in LEGO’s company boardroom armed with a very simple strategy: Quit with the plastic pieces. Go digital..."

I'm sure you can see where this is going... read the full post on Fastcompany.com

Orange TV (French) launches Transmedia Series Detective Avenue

From an Orange TV March 30, 2011 Press Release:


Interactive and multi-screen TV


Orange is presenting an iPhone application « Rendez-vous » that allows Orange TV customers to interact with TV programs while they are being broadcast. The app automatically recognizes the show viewers are watching and allows them to easily access a range of personalized content and interactive services, adapted to each show. Users can chat about the show with their friends via Facebook and change channel directly from their phone. This application will soon be available from the AppStore.


View the demonstration video at : www.orange-innovation.tv/rendez-vous


The Orange cinéma séries package now offers its Android application for mobiles and tablets, downloadable free from Android Market or from Orange’s App Shop. It allows Orange cinéma séries TV and mobile subscribers to download via WiFi a selection of recent films and unreleased series with voice-overs and subtitles, at no extra charge (the mobile subscribers also have access live to the 5 channels of Orange cinema series). Programs can be watched over one or several viewings, even when the viewer is not online, up to 30 days after their first broadcast on Orange cinéma séries.


Transmedia


Since 2009 Orange has been supporting a wide range of transmedia projects, new forms of storytelling adapted for broadcast over different media (TV, the web, mobiles, social networks, etc.) which invite the audience to interact with the story. Orange is presenting two new projects: Detective Avenue produced by Murmures Productions, and a transmedia project based on the release of a brand new film in May 2011.


Check out the video on Detective avenue : www.orange-innovation.tv/detective-avenue

James Cameron Siding With Theater Owners Against Studios' Premium VOD Plan - The Hollywood Reporter

Media_httpwwwhollywoo_lblfj

Excerpt:

"On Wednesday, Cinemark Entertainment told the four studios it won't carry trailers, or put up signage, for any movie until the studio notifies it in writing whether the title will be part of the premium VOD offering down the road. Cinemark also could refuse to play a film.

"We are not here to market movies for DirecTV and VOD. We are demanding they tell us upfront what movies those are," Cinemark CEO Alan Stock told The Hollywood Reporter. "Our goal is to promote and advertise movies for their theatrical run."

Cinemark's stern warning came one day after Regal Entertainment told the four studios that it is slashing by half the number of all trailers it plays from them. Nor will it play a spot for any film that's slotted for premium VOD. The policy takes effect April 15.

Representatives from AMC Entertainment met with studios Wednesday to discuss the steps it plans on taking...."

cont.

"...Last week, director Todd Phillips spoke out against the premium VOD service when attending CinemaCon, the annual convention of theater owners. He was there as part of the Warner Bros. contingent, promoting his The Hangover Part II.
Phillips told theater owners he makes his films for the big screen, not for the small screen. Otherwise, he would be have been a television director.

Cameron also attended CinemaCon to discuss the future of digital cinema and give a demonstration on frame rates. He repeatedly told exhibitors that the theatrical experience can't be repeated in the home, particularly when it comes to digital 3D and new technologies....

Wow! Tribeca Film Festival makes Video Game from Rockstar 'L.A. Noire's' an Official Selection - The Hollywood Reporter

Media_httpwwwhollywoo_bcdbf

Houser also discusses the convergence of Hollywood and video games, and why we haven’t seen a "Grand Theft Auto" movie yet.

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival has broken with tradition and included the first video game to be honored as an Official Selection. Game publisher Rockstar Games’ L.A. Noire, which was developed by Team Bondi, allows players to enter the violent world of 1947 Los Angeles as an LAPD detective fighting against the criminal underbelly that ruled the streets during Hollywood’s Golden Age.... "

From the interview with Dan Houser cont.

"...Another hot topic these days is transmedia -- what are your thoughts on the role video games play today in launching new properties that span all sorts of entertainment?

No one has done it very successfully yet. Virtually all movies made from games are awful, while many games made from movies are also pretty horrible. This will change, but with an ever more discerning audience, the goals of taking something from film-to-games or game-to-film have to be more than financial. If you feel the property has something about it that is universal or could work in another medium, and it is not simply about making easy money, then that is something worthwhile. Too often, however, the aim appears to be to cash-in on the success of a particular game, book, pop singer, website, etc., and that usually produces mediocre results.

Why haven’t we seen a movie based on any of Rockstar Games’ blockbuster franchises?

We have explored a lot of movie deals, but we have just chosen not to make a movie. We love movies, but we also love games and that is what we remain focused on. If we were to attempt to make a movie, we would like to make it ourselves, or at least work in collaboration with the best talent, so at least if it is bad, we can know we failed on our own terms. But doing that takes time, and making games properly takes a lot of time. So, we may make movies one day, with the right property and the right partnership, but we have not found the time to do that yet.

Would something like LA Noire work on the big screen today?

Well, we spent a long time being told Westerns were dead, then we made Red Dead Redemption, which along with True Grit showed that well-made classic Westerns have life left in them in any medium. The same could be said of classic Noir - a great film could be successful now, just as Chinatown and LA Confidential were long after the 1940s."

Future of Film - Timing & Access - Couldn't agree more| Exhibition and Distribution in the Digital Age

Media_httpmediatribec_pnkdp

Excerpt from Todd Wagner's post on Tribecafilm.com:

"Personally, by the time a movie is out on pay-per-view or DVD, I often don’t care about it anymore because it’s simply off my radar. People aren’t talking about it, and I’ve got new movies or other entertainment choices that are more top of mind at that moment. So they’ve lost me as a potential customer. The goal here is to grow the customer pie, and share it.

According to the Nielsen study, avid moviegoers – those who go to 10 or more movies per year – said they would go to a theatre even if movies were available simultaneously on DVD or for download. So your bread and butter (the aforementioned 80 percent of revenues) aren’t leaving, but yes, you must sell to the lighter movie-goers or risk losing them to the alternatives. I think that’s healthy, and I think that with things like IMAX, 3D and all sorts of new enhancements on the horizon, there will be even more reasons to go to the theatre. But exhibition cannot afford to ignore the changing marketplace. The Nielsen study goes on to state: “The data highlights an interrelationship between movie-going, DVD sales, DVD rentals, suggesting that multiple platforms for movie consumption could be expanding total revenue, bringing once active, now inactive, or potentially never active, movie consumers into the family, as opposed to cannibalizing and shrinking revenues. Movie fans are likely to consume a greater frequency of movies as complementary platforms emerge to accommodate their lifestyle and preferences. If the movie industry can overcome the short-term business issues and resolve to empower consumer choice in what today feels like a risky proposition, it might very well be rewarding in the long run...”