DIGITAL L.A. ONLINE FILM FESTIVAL COMING TO A STREET NEAR YOU.Byline: David Bloom David Bloom (May 22, 1963 – April 6, 2003) was an NBC journalist (co-anchor of Weekend Today and reporter) until his sudden death in 2003 at the age of 39. Early life Film festivals have been hot tickets in recent years, giving independent filmmakers a chance to reach audiences - and distribution deals - they might not otherwise ever find. Such festivals have even migrated to the Internet, an odd notion given that the Net's biggest virtue is to let filmmakers dispense with annoyances like distribution deals and instead have their work seen year round, worldwide (albeit slowly and on a small-screen window). But what are we to make of an online film festival being held offline? That's the question That's the Question is an American quiz game show on GSN, hosted by game show veteran and former Entertainment Tonight reporter, Bob Goen, which premiered in October 2006. for this week's Yahoo! Internet Life Yahoo! Internet Life was a monthly magazine published by Ziff-Davis, which licensed the name from Yahoo!, a well known search engine website. It was created and launched by Barry Golson, the former executive editor of Playboy and TV guide. Online Film Festival, which will be camping out on the Sunset Strip The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile and a half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's east border with Hollywood at Marmont Lane to its west border with Beverly Hills at Phyllis street. this Wednesday and Thursday (and online at www.onlinefilmfestival.com). ``There are other online film festivals that are strictly online, but our belief is the Net won't completely replace in-person viewing, it will just augment it,'' said Jesse Jacobs, the festival director. The festival's online component is nonetheless strong. A jury winnowed down entries to a manageable dozen shorts and animated pieces, which viewers at the festival's site voted on. The jury also picked six feature- length shows with some significant Net relationship, such as being cast or financed online. Combined with about three-dozen exhibitors and a series of substantial panels and keynote speakers, the festival looks like it'll be a worthwhile warm-up and counterpoint counterpoint, in music, the art of combining melodies each of which is independent though forming part of a homogeneous texture. The term derives from the Latin for "point against point," meaning note against note in referring to the notation of plainsong. to next weekend's Oscars. Keynote speakers include film critic Roger Ebert, producer Peter Guber and Powerful Media's Kurt Andersen Kurt Andersen (born August 22, 1954) is an American novelist who is currently a columnist for New York Magazine ("The Imperial City"), and host of the Peabody-winning public radio program Studio 360 . Discussion panels will feature many of the up-and-coming online content companies - AtomFilms, Wirebreak.com, Load Media, IFILM, Sightsound.com, Mediatrip.com, Nibblebox.com and Threshold Entertainment. The features on display include the premiere of ``Time Code'' by Oscar- nominated writer/director Mike Figgis, the Oscar-nominated short ``Humdrum'' from Aardman Animation's Peter Peake and the Web documentary A web documentary is a documentary production that differs from the more traditional forms—video, audio, photographic—by applying a full complement of multimedia tools. ``Home Page.'' ``The idea was to elevate this whole space, to take it offline, off Yahoo! and into the real world,'' Jacobs said. BRUCE THE BRAND MAN Bruce Haring had one of the bully pulpits of the technology age, writing about digital entertainment for USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. for five years. Then he did what a lot of journalists have been doing lately: going Web. In fact, after covering music and technology for USA Today, Daily Variety, Billboard and other publications, he's taken it a step further, creating a site built around his own writing. The result is OFF the CHARTS (at www.offthecharts.com). He'll syndicate material, including a column called ``The Line'' about digital convergence In the days of the first computers, transaction and company data were the first types of information digitized. Then came text, opening the world to word processing, followed by audio CDs and finally video. issues, to other sites and also plans to bring other writers on board to create yet more syndicated content. To help build interest, Haring said he expects to soon announce deals with five ``tastemaker'' music sites and their collections of online music. ``We're aiming off the charts, instead of the mainstream, focusing on ways the musicians out there can bring themselves to the market,'' Haring said. Haring, 44, also will write a column analyzing music industry trends for another interesting startup, Powerful Media's new entertainment industry site, www.inside.com. Haring has his old-media moments still, of course. He just published ``Beyond the Charts,'' a book about MP-3 audio software's impact on the music business. But even with the book, Haring isn't totally old school: He self-published the first 5,000 copies and is selling it through his own site and ``finer online booksellers everywhere.'' Haring said he will remain based in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , calling it ``sort of ground-zero for the digital music revolution.'' The lesson of Web music, however, could be the lesson for Haring's own move to become the Brand Man. ``You can do it yourself,'' Haring said. ``That's one of the messages being obscured right now because the majors are getting into it.'' SITE OF THE WEEK --Oscar.com: The official site for next week's Academy Awards, with lots of material on all the events building up to and moving into Hollywood's biggest night. --Where: www.oscar.com --What's cool: Behind-the-scenes video of Oscar preparations, the nominees luncheon and other events; fashion history and commentary; lots of video on the big night of red-carpet arrivals, backstage winners' interviews and Governors Ball entrances. --Features: A ton of historical data on previous winners; details on best picture nominees; transcripts of acceptance speeches (shudder); trivia; electronic greeting cards See e-card. ; printable print·a·ble adj. 1. Capable of being printed or of producing a print: printable negatives. 2. Fit for publication: printable language. ballots (great for your Oscar night party); video clips of all the nominated films and performers; a contest to predict the winners. --You'll like this if: You're a serious Oscar freak, or you're totally clueless clue·less adj. Lacking understanding or knowledge. clueless Adjective Slang helpless or stupid Adj. 1. but have to pick winners for your office pool or if you're throwing an Oscar night party. Last year, the site had nearly 1.5 million users. More are expected this year with dozens of Oscar-related sites. Think your Web fave fave Informal n. One that is preferred above others or likely to win; a favorite. adj. Favorite. [Short for favorite.] is good enough for Site of the Week? Send your suggestions to davidbloom(at)earthlink.net CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: no caption (Web site) Box: SITE OF THE WEEK (See text) |
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