New England Film Movement Blog for Michael Durwin

BMW Shoots Viral Piece, Does it Hit or Miss?

mdurwin

<a href="http://mdurwin.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/the-ramp.jpg"><img src="http://mdurwin.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/the-ramp.jpg" alt="BMW movie The Ramp" width="390" height="257" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-69" /></a> Earlier this year BMW launched a viral video to promote the launch of it's new model in the U.S. The video was released as a documentary following the stories of a small Bavarian town nam [...]

Cease and Desist Received: No Portfolio Work Allowed

mdurwin

2 years ago I was hired by a video production house to create several animations for an infomercial for Kaballah Center International, Inc. Since they were completed I've been showing them off as part of my portfolio. In early March I decided to expand the reach of my portfolio by setting up the video hosting part of it on YouTube. Last Thursday I received a Cease and Desist letter from their law firm, Wolff & Samson P.C., demanding that I remove the videos as I was infringing on [...]

Big business to steal artwork, sponsored by our Congress

mdurwin

Please be aware of and spread the word on this important bills now being presented to Congress:
The Orphan Works Act of 2008
Bill # H.R.5889

The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008
Bill # S.2913

These bills effectively release creative work, whose authors or originators cannot be found, to use by anyone, including major corporations. This will allow large corporations to take advantage of the limited understanding of copyright law by artists, illustrators [...]

The Failure of Advertisers in Social Networks

mdurwin

There has of course been alot of buzz about social networking. Cyber-bullying, child safety, personal information security, and the lot have all been hot subjects among consumers. For Big Business there has been one subject that has dominated conversation: How do we leverage social networks to make money. From an objective standpoint no one can blame companies for wanting to make money, otherwise we couldn't check out Facebook email on our iPhones, or download the latest Justi [...]

Can This Man Command a Spacecraft?

mdurwin

I know this is WAY off topic but since it was brought to my attention via social network, I figured that six degrees of separation still allows me to post it here. <br/><br/> The Star Trek franchise will finally crash. <br/><br/> For those of you who don't know, I was raised on Star Trek. It went off the air the year I was born but technically I could hear it through my mother's stomach. As both my mother and father were avid fans, my early yet formative years wer [...]

Open Platforms, Open Doors

mdurwin

There has been a great deal of excitement around the fact that MySpace and Friendster would be going open source. This follows the rush for social networks such as LinkedIn, hi5, Bebo, and Facebook to go open source begun by Linden Labs' announcement that Second Life would open it's platform to developers. Google even has several open source projects in the works including the rumored gPhone.

Open source simply means that software code is released to the general pub [...]

StoryLink - Social Network For Screenwriters

mdurwin

I write a blog on social networking, online gaming, viral video, ARGs, etc. Just about anything related to web2.0 for advertisers and marketers. In my research I came across an interesting site that Beanywood users might like. It's called Storylink. It's kind of a Facebook for screenwriters. That may sound a bit minute for some but from my research and insight I can tell you that social networks will become more and more niche as time goes by. Take Beanywood as a great example. Who wo [...]

New shows on NBC - Review

mdurwin

I watched all four of the new shows onDemand under Network Shows.
Now for the reviews:

Bionic Woman - I grew up in the 70s so I have a certain amount of nostalgia for this show and I'm a big Battlestar Galactica fan with a slight crush in Katee Sackhoff, but none of that could save the pilot for me. The avting was stiff, the dialogue and direction weak. Like all good sci-fi shows, it will probably need a season or two in order to get its bearings but knowing the networks' [...]

Earache my eye

mdurwin

Dear Hollywood,When I view the credits at the end of your movies I'm impressed on the number of people working on the film. One thing I wonder about though is the sound crew. Are they really necessary? From the perpective of a rabid movie watcher it seems like they've been severely underutilized. I recently watched the Robin Williams, Toni Collete film Night Listener. A good movie by all accounts. I enjoyed watching it. I did not, however, enjoy listening to it.�
Because I'm a b [...]

Oh, Snap! Web 2.0 is Destroying the World?

mdurwin

Andrew Keen was interviewed in today’s Metro Boston discussing who Web2.0 was ruining the Internet and culture in general. He states in his new book “The Cult of Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture”:
“millions of millions of exuberant monkeys … are creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity,”

Original link: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200706/20070611/article_319089.htm

Keen rips apart use [...]

Keep Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

mdurwin

I agree with Jack Myers in his appreciation of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (see original article at the link at bottom). It seems that broadcasters are so hungry for a show that targets the entire population that it overlooks shows that can attract a smaller, intelligent viewership. With that idealit’s no wonder that almost every show on is so watered down, politically correct and intent on being unoffending that they don’t strongly appeal to anyone. I remember heated debates ab [...]

Failure to Launch (Correctly)

mdurwin

I just saw a preview for the new movie Vacancy. Kate Beckinsale is in it so of course I’ll see it, when it comes to OnDemand. The trailer was interesting enough, mostly because Kate Beckinsale was in it, but I was most intrigued by a bit of text at the end of the trailer under the In Theaters…

The text gave a number: 1-888-VACANCY. So of course, being the marketing/tech geek that I am, I ran to my phone to give the number a call. 1-888-982-2262(9) for those who can’t [...]

SXSWClick: web and mobile films

mdurwin

SXSW has expanded it's festival opportunities. SXSWClick offers mobile video and web video makers their very own festival. THe following catagories are offered:

Old-School Shorts › Tried'n true narrative shorts, shot on anything you like.
Really Real Shorts › Documentary shorts, real stuff.
Animate-it › Flash and traditional animation.
Sound Checks › A.K.A. music videos.
What the F*#!? › What the "film." Experimental and Machinima. [...]

NXNE? Boston is missing out!

mdurwin

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Independent FIlm and Interactive portion os SXSW. As you may or may not know SXSW began a a music festival that eventually attracted signed acts, celebrities and record companies. It has since expanded to include independent films and interactive marketing. I've blogged several times on what a great experience being involved in SXSW/INT was but not about SXSW/Film.Boston of course has IFF, BUFF and others across the eastern part of [...]