Movies

YouTube has premiered its first full-length studio film, “The Princess of Nebraska,” by Wayne Wang and has garnered some 160,000 views since Friday night and a positive review in today’s New York Times by movie critic A.O. Scott.

Video streaming solution DigiMeld will broadcast PublicScope Film’s “The Third Jihad” online at 2 p.m. today, at the same time as the film’s theatrical release, the company announced. I interviewed DigiMeld Executive Chairman Alex Mashisky last week about how the company’s recent launch of SuperStream grid streaming technology, which allows online video to reach large […]

Scott Kirsner, Editor of CinemaTech and contributor to Variety, will be one of the hosts of a conference called “The Conversation” taking place October 17-18 in Berkeley. The focus will be on the interaction of cinema, online video, and games. Andy interviewed Kirsner last week at the EmTech08 conference at MIT.

RealDVD, a legal program that allows consumers to burn an unlimited number of DVDs on up to five PCs, will go on sale today at www.realdvd.com for $29.95. I interviewed RealNetworks VP of Video Product and Development Jeff Chasen in the Beet offices earlier this month, where he gave me a demonstration of the program.

Michael Arrington wrote that Animoto “is one of those start-ups that has success written all over it,” and it’s hard not to be impressed by their platform. Users simply upload pictures and music and Animoto automatically makes them into a high-production quality 30-second video; longer videos cost $3 a piece or $30 a year.

I’m not sure if the expected announcement at CES of a new industry-wide system to make downloaded media work on any device will become a reality, as Chris Albrecht at NewTeeVee writes today, but it is surely needed.  Here’s the take on this by Cliff Edwards at Business Week.

SAN FRANCISCO — Ashton Kutcher was in San Francisco yesterday at the TechCrunch 50 conference to debut his new animated video celebrity site Blah Girls.  Liz Gannes from NewTeeVee was on the scene with with her video camera and got this interview the Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg. — Andy Plesser, Executive Producer P.S. Thanks […]

SAN DIEGO, CA — Later this morning at DEMO, RealNetworks will introduce a $30 software program which will allow users to save theatrical DVD’s to their PC or detachable drive.  They use the program to save DVD’s to up to five PC’s.

When I first blogged about film distribution site Jaman, I noted that the company had carved out a niche for itself in a crowded market by focusing on independent and international films. Jaman’s deal with Paramount means the site will host mainstream content–and that it will now have to compete heavyweights like Apple, Wal-Mart, Netflix, […]

HOLLYWOOD — Here on Wednesday night at the Henry Fonda Theater, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley kicked off YouTube’s debut of a new showcase for long and short-form films.   Beet.TV was on the scene. The YouTube Screening Room has attracted several highly regarded filmmakers — and not just for the online exposure of the mega video […]