Deluxe Bluepod and Cinema Scene Announce Marketing Deal

Deluxe Media Management and Retails Sales a subsidiary of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group a strategic alliance with Bluepod Media North America and Cinema Scene Marketing have announced a deal to offer location based marketing services at theatres in the U.S. The Bluepod Media interface puts users of handheld devices such as smart phones feature phones and gaming systems in control with simple content navigation allowing swift access to desired content and a branded experience. Users can engage directly with advertisers via Bluetooth and WiFi entirely for free. Content opportunities range from videos and wallpapers to apps calendar reminders and more. Campaigns will integrate with Cinema Scene's TrailerVision digital signage network. TrailerVision messaging will encourage moviegoers to browse Bluepod Media content on their mobile devices. Deluxe is delighted to be collaborating with Bluepod Media and Cinema Scene on the Location Based Marketing platform says Michael Alvarez president of Deluxe Media Management. By continually evolving our marketing services we are able to help our clients find new ways to speak to consumers. Bluepod Media is thrilled to be working with Deluxe and Cinema Scene in bringing a whole new cinema mobile experience into the theatre lobby. We look forward to rolling out the mobile proposition over the coming months says Tom Shrager co-founder Bluepod Media North America. “With our TrailerVision network. Location Based Marketing lends itself well to the cinema space and is a great benefit to our clients and exhibition partners says Joe Ross managing principal Cinema Scene Marketing. “With Deluxe as a leading provider of advertising and marketing distribution services to the entertainment industry Bluepod Media's location based mobile expertise and Cinema Scene's deep-rooted relationships with theatrical exhibitors Deluxe Bluepod and Cinema Scene can deliver consumer engagement of the highest quality for advertisers in theatres. Cinema Scene www.cinemascenemarketing.com Deluxe Entertainment Group www.bydeluxe.com ,2912
The Way Forward,2011-11-30, By Valentina I. Valentini At Variety’s First Annual Film Technology Summit held in Hollywood this month the prevailing winds were blowing toward a brighter faster and better future – just as digital has always promised. It’s not so much ‘What can we do’ anymore it’s more ‘How can we do it.’ One of the biggest changes is how the industry has become increasingly global. We no longer have to have an entire production and post-production crew centered around a sound stage – we can send data anywhere and receive it from anywhere. Technology is allowing the industry to spread out. However with that comes a decentralized feeling perhaps. “I still think the R&D part of what we do happens here in Los Angeles ” said Cliff Plumer CEO at Digital Domain Productions who sat on the panel The State of Technology in Film: From Production to Exhibition moderated David Cohen associate editor at Variety. “I think working closely with filmmakers and finding the objective of what they’re trying to create visually for a movie is still here. And once we’ve achieved that then it is about how we replicate that workflow elsewhere.” Cohen asked the panelists what they thought they might be losing and what they might be gaining in this transition to a digital workflow. Annie Kolbe senior vice president of visual effects at Warner Bros gave the VFX perspective admitting that they aren’t losing anything. In fact they’re only gaining – higher resolution and the ability to gain images faster are two huge assets for a studio VFX department. The technology committee of the ASC as panelist David Stump ASC explained has figured out the benchmark for what digital had to achieve to become widely accepted. “The expression we came up with was that it had to ‘meet or exceed the capabilities of film ’” said Stump. “In the last five years especially technology has begun to not only meet but to exceed our capabilities on film. With the Genesis the ARRI Alexa the Sony F65 we’re pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve.” Cohen aptly described Hollywood filmmaking as somewhat characteristic of a royal court where proximity to the King (the director) means prestige. He posed the idea to the panelists that because of technology these pecking orders no longer necessarily apply to how movies are made today. “The VFX supervisor is one of the first hires on the studio side ” Kolbe explained. “We’re sitting down with the director producers DP and the VFX supervisor to discuss how to achieve the look we want and how to do so cost effectively. They are absolutely a voice at that table because they are key in helping us understand what the images are that we have to achieve and then discussing them with the art director and production designer.” As a DP and a stereographer Stump insisted that learning your craft is an all day every day job. “When I’m not on a job I’m always going to camera houses manufacturers reading the technology studying the technology. If you want to be a leading image-maker you have to embrace it and educate yourself in an ongoing basis.” Ironically because of the swift digital changes occurring we’re often blinded so much by what just arrived that we begin to lose vision of what’s coming down the pipeline.  Cohen turned the audience’s attention to what we should be looking out for. Stump said that we’ve asked for and received true 4K that we’ve asked for and received higher frame rates. And now people are asking for brighter screen projection especially in the realm of 3D. Plumer pointed out that the amount of data from day one of pre-visualization all the way through on-set and post-production is enormous and how we’re now starting see to large research centers and data computing that doesn’t seem to have an end. Obviously we should be on the lookout for data storing devices. On the panel “New Realities on Set: How are the Roles of the Film Crew Impacted in the Digital Age?” indeed the new roles were discussed as well as new technologies and workflows and ways to improve upon the digital advances we’ve seen in the last decade. “The reality is we are shooting ones and zeros now ” Local 600 president Steven Poster said. “We’re in a period now after a hundred years of nobody even knowing the word ‘workflow’ but said workflow being simple and transparent. Now we are dealing with inventing the wheel every time we start a new picture.” Tom Myer panelist and production designer on such biggies as Reel Steel and the upcoming James Cameron project Fantastic Voyage applauded the new changes in technology and how they have collapsed a barrier between departments and communication. “I think when we first started off in the digital realm ” he said “we’d do our data acquisition and months later we’d see what our result was. Now everything is happening real time. And by collapsing these barriers it’s also collapsing that technological language barrier between different departments.” Indeed streamlining departments and their duties has always been a part of filmmaking but more so now than ever we see the lines blurred between duties. One such instance which was discussed on the panel is the role of the Digital Imaging Technician (DIT). Director of Photography Oliver Bokelberg (Win Win The Visitor The Station Agent) talked about using DPLite on his set and the comfort in knowing there’s no surprise at the other end. “My DIT and I are coloring on the set ” he explained. “I’m lighting and simultaneously coloring. We don’t embed this information into our raw footage but we transfer that information onto a USB stick that goes to the lab and they put those numbers into the dailies. Everyone the next day sees on set exactly what I was intending. I’ve come to really like the process of being able to color on set.” Poster echoed Bokelberg’s sentiments and added that the DIT is the only qualified person on set to be calibrating the monitors – another possible issue of digital shooting. “In terms of monitoring on the set monitors are a virtual representation of what is being recorded ” explained Poster. “Understand that those monitors are one kind of color space and the DI is another kind of color space and somewhere in the middle is this virtual image that we have to call reality is imperative. You have to have a trained person that knows how to calibrate these monitors on set as you move them as the temperature changes or even the lighting around the monitor changes or else some people are going to see something different than you are.” Panelist and Director of Photography Steven Fierberg (Ten Year The Oranges Love and Other Drugs) explained how he gets around the issue of discrepancies between color spaces by testing every digital camera all the way through every step of the process from shooting to print. “The monitor only gives me an indication of what I’m going to get ” he says. Another byproduct of digital filmmaking was discussed on the panel. More and more the art of craft of cinematography and filmmaking in general is becoming a collaborative effort. No longer is it the film crew filming handing off the footage to an editor and then back to a lab to print it out. Now it’s a fully integrated effort on all parts. Visual effects artists are brought on in the first pre-visualization meetings editors and colorists are on set and studios are seeing faster releases. “I’ve seen over the last few years how the crew has come together ” said panelist Bill Bannerman co-producer and aerial unit director on the Twilight franchise. “It seems to have made them feel that they’re more integrated into the digital world. They’ve learned a lot in these last years.” Panelist Josh McLaglen executive producer and first AD (Reel Steel Avatar) added that pre-visualization can be one of the best tools ever and especially has far has tied in all departments into how they’re going to execute a particular sequence. “Instead of having a 10-year-old boy out in the rain at night who turns into a pumpkin we can get it all road mapped out and shoot it in a studio.” The filmmaker today has so many more choices than they ever had. Just the sheer diversity of technology alone is staggering never mind all the things you can do with it like create entire environments through post-production technology or change your depth of field after actually shooting. These and more topics were discussed during a panel at the first Annual Film Technology Summit’s panel ‘Understanding the New Technology Landscape – 4K 3D Higher Frame Rates and More.’ During the advent of digital cinema panelist Wendy Aylsworth senior vice president of technology at Warner Bros. Technical Operations feels it was a technically emphasized topic with the focus mainly on the engineers and the cameras. “Now ” she said “we’re getting to a point where a lot of the cinematographers directors and editors are becoming more comfortable with all these technologies so that the creatives are pushing the envelope.” Higher frame rates 4K and 3D new pre-visualization tools on-set color and virtual reality management – all of which are exciting and certainly can add to the cinematic experience. However is it possible to mix and match these technologies and simultaneously support them? You can put 4K with 3D but it’s difficult to project 3D at 4K or you add higher frame rates to that but then you’re talking about impossible amounts of data. “The job of us technologists ” said panelist Peter Lude president of the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers “is to provide those arrows that connect these different technologies. We don’t want to limit our filmmakers’ preferences but the challenge is that all of these things together could prove to be a lot of overhead in terms of data bandwidth and storage. We need to figure out how to harmonize and accommodate all the different options.” Director of Photography Roberto Schaeffer ASC offered interesting insight from the creative perspective and cautioned that all these new technological options are great but his fear is that the new options become the norm and the earlier options disappear. “3D has its place ” said Schaeffer “I’m not sure why there is this drive for extra clarity via 4K and I don’t understand why you would ever want to shoot higher frame rates for a motion picture in the theatre that’s telling a dramatic story because it seems to have the same feeling of a daytime soap opera. Higher frame rates are great for amusements parks or installations or if you want to feel the ride and the reality of it.” Pierre Ruthier vice president of 3D product strategy and business development at Technicolor reassured Schaeffer’s concerns by adding that he believes their role is to provide the technology for the directors and DPs to have the creative freedom that they seek. “I think we’re at a crossroads right now ” Routhier added. “I see two paths in the creative world: some that consider film like it has always been and some that are blending the lines between filmmaking and what I call simulation – going for ultra realism higher frame rates higher resolution 3D CG motion capture – and using this to redefine what their view of filmmaking is.