Digital HD had a big year in 2013, and 2014 will likely have more in store for digital home and on-the-go entertainment. Though the model of renting or buying physical movies still exists, a shift in the standard model was palpable as streaming and electronic sell-through methods became increasingly popular. This was intensified by the commonplace offers from studios to consumers for early online releases of movies before physical copies hit the shelves. Continue reading 2013 a Big Year for Digital HD: Expected to Continue in 2014

Amazon Studios, the film and TV production arm of Amazon.com, announced this week that it plans to shoot all of its original series next year in 4K Ultra HD. Amazon plans to debut five new comedy and drama pilots in 2014, from producers and performers such as Chris Carter, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, Michael Strahan and others. Viewers will help determine which pilots should be produced as exclusive series on Prime Instant Video and LOVEFiLM in the UK. Continue reading Amazon Studios to Shoot Original Programming in 4K Ultra HD

As its contracts with producers come up for renewal, YouTube is changing its terms for ad revenue splits, no longer providing major Hollywood players like CBS or Warner Bros. with special deals over smaller names such as Machinima or AwesomenessTV. Previously, YouTube offered up to 70 percent of its ad revenue to encourage film and TV producers to place content on the site. Now that YouTube has exploded in popularity, it plans to keep 45 percent of all advertising profits starting in January. Continue reading YouTube Changes Ad Revenue Split: No More Sweetheart Deals

Netflix posted its third quarter earnings yesterday, announcing that it has added 1.3 million U.S. customers. The video service ended the quarter with 29.93 million paid domestic users. While Netflix’s latest figures suggest the service has surpassed HBO and Showtime in number of U.S. customers, the company’s profit margin remains low in comparison to leading premium cable networks. Regardless, stock was up nearly 10 percent following the earnings results. Continue reading Netflix Sees Spike in Subscriber Base, Profits Remain Slim

Microsoft is expanding its TV programming in order to market the Xbox One as a portal for games, music and video content. Microsoft hopes its new console will merge television viewing and video game playing. Additionally, the company is producing a live action “Halo” show that will involve director Steven Spielberg and a concept development team in the Los Angeles area. This show is just one of many ideas currently being developed by Microsoft. Continue reading Microsoft Expands TV Efforts, Sees Xbox One as Media Portal

Online movie ticket service Fandango has entered an agreement to purchase Quantum Loyalty Solutions, a competitor that runs the popular Hollywood Movie Money gift certificate system. Studios often use Hollywood Movie Money to promote DVD and Blu-ray releases with tickets to theatrical releases. Fandango, which has been working on its own voucher system, generates revenue by processing online ticket sales and selling advertising on its site. Continue reading Fandango to Acquire Hollywood Movie Money in Quantum Deal

The Visual Effects Society (VES), the industry’s professional honorary society, released “The State of the Global VFX Industry 2013,” a comprehensive strategic analysis of the business drivers impacting all sectors of the VFX industry working in film production and presentation of solutions to mitigate instability. Initial recommendations focus on improving business and financial management acumen among artists and facilities management through training programs and new standards and practices. Continue reading VES Publishes Analysis: The State of the Global VFX Industry

Reality series “Summer Break,” scheduled to premiere on Monday, is taking a nontraditional approach by distributing its content exclusively via social media sites such as Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. Producer Peter Chernin of the Chernin Group sees the future of entertainment in social media and his new show will test this theory, targeting a younger audience he hopes will turn to their mobile devices to follow the unscripted stories. Continue reading Summer Break: Reality Series Exclusively for Social Media

Amazon Studios, the production arm of Amazon.com, has introduced a new tool called Amazon Storyteller to help with its initiative to develop original movies and TV series. The free online tool enables writers and content producers to easily convert RTF scripts into storyboards. According to Amazon, Storyteller scans the script and then “identifies the scenes, locations and characters from scene descriptions, and ‘casts’ them from a library of thousands of characters, props and backgrounds.” Continue reading Free Amazon Storyteller Tool Converts Scripts to Storyboards

The National Association of Theater Owners is proposing a new approach to marketing that will include limiting the running time of movie trailers. The controversial move, which is reportedly part of an effort to provide exhibitors with more control over how movies are marketed inside their cinemas, would reduce trailers to two minutes (30 seconds shorter than the norm). Theater owners have argued that trailers can be too long and often reveal too much of a movie’s plot. Continue reading Theater Owners Pursue Guidelines to Shorten Movie Trailers

The Entertainment Technology Center @ USC will announce the launch of “Production in the Cloud” today, a new project that brings together key media and cloud-resource leaders to develop guidelines and accelerate innovation and adoption of next-gen cloud-based content creation, production, and distribution tools and processes. Senior executives from the six major studios in coordination with Rackspace, EMC, EVault, Dell and other cloud companies convened recently to serve as governing body to collectively guide this process. Continue reading ETC Announces Launch of Production in the Cloud Project

While retailers continue to successfully use content sharing service Pinterest to help boost product sales, the strategy has drawn the attention of major Hollywood studios. Marketers are experimenting with ways that would help movie posters and promotional stills that are pinned to the site translate into ticket sales. Although transactions do note occur directly on Pinterest, clicking a pinned image can redirect users to other sites. Continue reading Pinterest: Hollywood Studios May Go Social to Market Films

Speaking at the Variety Entertainment Technology Summit, Paramount Film Group President Adam Goodman discussed the need to protect the moviegoing experience, while remaining open to the possibilities that new technologies provide. “With an increasing amount of Paramount’s movies taking advantage of 3D and other innovations in display on the silver screen, he sees theaters continuing to be the first driver of content across the various windows,” reports Variety. Continue reading Paramount Exec Sees Theaters as First Driver of Content

Last week, Cinedigm announced it was partnering with BitTorrent to help promote the release of Dante Ariola’s “Arthur Newman,” starring Colin Firth and Emily Blunt, which debuted in limited release over the weekend. In less than five days, users of the file-sharing app downloaded one million copies of the film’s 10-minute preview. By comparison, the studio’s official trailer had less than 20,000 views on YouTube over the past three weeks. Continue reading Will BitTorrent Prove a Viable Marketing Tool for Hollywood?