LOS ANGELES--A Paramount Pictures executive added to the chorus of positive reviews for Big Stage's face-mapping technology during the Digital Hollywood conference on Tuesday.
Paramount Pictures' Derek Broes says advertisers have failed at being creative with new technologies
(Credit: Greg Sandoval)Derek Broes, Paramount Pictures executive vice president of worldwide business development, was asked during a panel discussion about what interesting new technologies he's seen.
Broes said he was impressed by Big Stage and the start-up's system for manipulating digital recreations of a person's face. The company snaps three photographs of someone's face and processes the photos on its servers to create a digital model of the face. It can then make the image smile, wink, and change expressions.
Webware's Rafe Needleman calls it an automatic avatar builder. Broes sees it as a potentially revolutionary tool for advertisers.
"The technology was very, very compelling," said Broes, a former Microsoft senior director of global wireless. "Hey, if I can actually star in my own commercials, I'm going to watch them...If you look at a Facebook environment; if my face is in a database there, and I watch a...let's say a Mountain Dew commercial (about) a rock concert and I'm the lead singer. Let's say my friends have their heads in the database and they become members of the band. Then it becomes entertaining and it's no longer a commercial."
He criticized the advertising sector for being too slow to profit from these sorts of technologies.
"This is where the advertising community has completely failed at adjusting and adapting and being creative," Broes said, adding that if they did, "I think we would see a much higher cpm value for video."
A joint venture featuring heavyweight Hollywood studios is looking to fall 2009 to launch a premium television channel and video-on-demand service that will offer feature films and original television series.
The unnamed venture, and the unnamed channel it will produce, has the backing of Viacom and its Paramount Pictures unit; MGM Studios; and Lionsgate. Films to be offered will include new titles from Paramount and Paramount Vantage released in theaters after January 1, 2008, and new titles from MGM, United Artists, and Lionsgate released after January 1, 2009, according to a statement from the companies on Sunday.
The studios will also make available many older titles, including Braveheart, Forrest Gump, and The Blair Witch Project, along with titles from the Godfather, Star Trek, and James Bond franchises.
In addition, the venture will feature new, original television series.
The companies made no specific mention of an online component for the venture, but did make reference to "the digital marketplace of the future," and offered this rather generic promise: "We are building an innovative service that will use traditional and new digital distribution technologies to bring great film and television entertainment directly to the consumer."
LAS VEGAS--Studios know how to make money in the traditional way--in the theater, via broadcast television. But the Internet still has them slightly flummoxed.
True, most of the major film and television studios are embracing the Web. But the exact formula for distributing their content while still making money remains somewhat up in the air.
Here at CES during a panel sponsored by Hollywood trade pub Variety, the heads of digitial distribution for Disney/ABC, Fox, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros. discussed what is and isn't working for them.
All present were adamant that there is no one good way to make money online yet. "We're using every model because consumers will ultimately decide how they want to consume (content)," said Tom Lesinski, president of Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment. For Paramount, that means downloads of its films via iTunes, Xbox Live, Netflix Watch it Now, and the Vudu set-top box.
The head of Fox Entertainment's digital media group, Dan Fawcett, said the best way is to give content to people the way they're used to. "People online want things for free. They can get it for free on piracy sites," he said. "They are inclined to watch it with a reasonable amount of advertising, but downloading a movie that takes a couple of hours just to own it doesn't seem to be a very compelling consumer experience."
This, of course, gave Fawcett the opportunity to plug Hulu.com, the online video partnership between Fox and NBC Universal where some of the two companies' most popular shows are viewable for free with some ads.
Paramount's Lesinski agreed that studios have to "give (content) to people anyway they want," he said.
Digital content heads of major Hollywood studios at CES.
(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News.com)And so did everyone else: a constant familiar refrain from all of them was "letting consumers consume content when and how they want." But isn't the way they want it instant and free?
Other tidbits: All of them profess to like Steve Jobs. Some think Apple and its iTunes Store hold too much sway over the download business, but those on the panel didn't seem to agree. Warner Bros. called Apple "a great partner," and Paramount is really, really happy that 5- and 10-year-old film titles are selling in volumes of hundreds of thousands today on iTunes. Disney, perhaps unsurprisingly, was almost defensive of Apple. (Jobs is Disney's largest shareholder.)
"Apple wanted to legitimize the marketplace," said Albert Cheng, executive vice president of digital media for Disney-ABC Television. "They compete with so many other different options, including piracy. To say Apple has so much control is looking at a very narrow slice of pie."
All had plenty to say on the impact of the Web on professional content. But despite talk of successes with viral video, streaming branded sites, and partnership deals across different platforms, none had an articulate response when an audience member asked when online revenue would surpass traditional revenue sources for each.
After some amused stares with each other, finally Fox's Fawcett was able to stammer: "Nowhere in the forseeable future."
View complete CES 2008 coverage from CNET.
Just when it looked like Blu-ray was getting the best of HD DVD, the latter scores a combination like Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation.
Both companies announced on Monday that they had agreed to release exclusively on the HD DVD format, which is battling with rival Blu-ray to become the high-definition successor to the DVD disc.
The move by Paramount represents a setback for Blu-ray. The studio has supported both formats and the tally of studios exclusively committed to each format stands at 3-2 in favor of Blu-ray.
Sony, Disney and Fox support Blu-ray, but the momentum may be swinging back in favor of HD DVD.
Paramount, owned by entertainment juggernaut Viacom, saw some sister companies, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, commit to HD DVD as well.
Paramount and DreamWorks Animation citied lower manufacturing costs of the HD DVD discs and lower prices for its players as reasons why deciding to go with the format.
"I believe HD DVD is not only the affordable high-quality choice for consumers, but also the smart choice for Paramount," said Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, which is currently the leading studio in domestic box office.
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up--Vince Lombardi
(Credit: codyl.com)Just when you thought the next-gen DVD war was on the verge of being over, a couple of studios decide to muck things up even further. Today, Paramount and DreamWorks Animation announced that they will exclusively support HD DVD on a worldwide basis.
According to the press release, "The exclusive HD DVD commitment will include all movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, as well as movies from DreamWorks Animation, which are distributed exclusively by Paramount Home Entertainment."
"The companies each said that the decision to distribute exclusively in the HD DVD format resulted from an extensive evaluation of current market offerings, which confirmed the clear benefits of HD DVD, particularly its market-ready technology and lower manufacturing costs. Paramount Home Entertainment will launch its exclusive HD DVD program with the release of the blockbuster comedy hit 'Blades of Glory' on August 28th and follow with two of the biggest grossing movies of the year 'Transformers' and 'Shrek the Third'."
Until today, Paramount was putting out movies on both Blu-ray and HD DVD, so needless to say, the announcement came as a surprise. Also, all of this comes in the face of reports that on the software front, Blu-ray was outselling HD DVD by a 2-1 margin, and that both Blockbuster and Target would be pushing the Blu-ray format in stores. (Note HD DVD fans: Yes, Target will continue to carry the XBox 360's add-on HD DVD player). Consensus was that things were looking pretty bleak for HD DVD. Is this a game changer?
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