Iomega and Independent Pictures Partner to Pre-Load Digitized Movie Trailers On 150,000 High-Capacity Jaz Computer Disks.Entertainment Editors NOTE TO MEDIA: Photo is available in a Smart News Release(TM) on Business Wire's Home Page at www.businesswire.com NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Nov. 1, 2000 Campaign Inaugurates Bundling Free "Coming Attractions" On Removable Storage Media Cary Woods' Independent Pictures will be the first motion picture production company to pre-load movie trailers on blank high-capacity computer disks manufactured by industry leader Iomega Corporation (company, storage) Iomega Corporation - A storage device manufacturer whose major products are the Zip and Jaz removable disk drives and Ditto tape drives. They became popular with an early product called the Bernoulli Box. . (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : IOM IOM See: Index and Option Market ). Consumers who buy specially-marked Iomega(R) Jaz(R) disks will soon be able to view a "coming attraction" of Independent Pictures' upcoming film noir film noir (French; “dark film”) Film genre that offers dark or fatalistic interpretations of reality. The term is applied to U.S. films of the late 1940s and early '50s that often portrayed a seamy or criminal underworld and cynical characters. "The Prime Gig" straight off the disk without having to log on the Internet. At the end of the two-minute video presentation, users will be able to easily erase the trailer, watch it again, or link to an Iomega contest Web site and register to win one of five pairs of tickets to the film's premiere in February. Independent Pictures, a small New York-based film company, will benefit from the promotion of its film, (which stars Vince Vaughn, Julia Ormond Julia Karin Ormond (born January 4 1965) is a British actress who, like her fellow thespian Britons, Helena Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson, has taken her acting talents from the London stage to the Hollywood big screen. and Ed Harris For other persons of the same name, see Edward Harris. Edward Allen Harris (born November 28, 1950) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor, known for his performances in The Right Stuff, The Abyss, Apollo 13, Pollock, and ) in computer stores across the country, including CompUSA, Office Depot Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) is one of the world's leading suppliers of office products and services. The Company's selection of brand name office supplies includes business machines, computers, computer software and office furniture, while its business services encompass copying, , Staples, Fry's Electronics Fry's Electronics is a specialty retailer of software, consumer electronics, computer hardware and household appliances with a chain of superstores headquartered in Silicon Valley. Starting with one store located in Sunnyvale, California, USA, the chain now boasts sales of $2. , and Micro Center Computer Department Stores This is a list of department stores. In the case of department store groups the location of the flagship store is given. This list does not include large specialist stores, which sometimes resemble department stores. . Iomega will use the venture to showcase its drives' ability to handle full-motion video Video transmission that changes the image 30 frames per second (30 fps). Motion pictures are run at 24 fps, which is the minimum frequency required to eliminate the perception of moving frames and make the images appear visually fluid to the eye. , to explore a new source of advertising revenue, and to add value for its customers. "The volume of blank Jaz and Zip disks Iomega sells each month essentially mirrors the circulation of a major national magazine like Glamour or GQ," said Woods, producer of the original "Scream," "KIDS" and "So I Married An Axe Murderer," among others. "It makes sense to fill the space they have available with free content so that consumers will look forward to buying new blank disks. By the same token, as one of the few independent film companies that creates its own marketing materials and ad campaigns, it behooves us to reach out to as many partnership resources as possible." Following the success of Artisan Entertainment's "The Blair Witch Project" in 1999, Hollywood studios made Internet marketing a top priority, digitizing movie trailers and making publicity stills available for Web surfers. However, technological limitations have made digitized trailers and film clips cumbersome for most users to download. Additionally, increasingly complicated Web addresses like that of "Coyote Ugly," located at http://studio.go.com/movies/coyoteugly/intro.html, have proven discouraging to movie fans forced to remember long URL's. With the trailers pre-loaded onto 150,000 Jaz disks, usable on Mac and PC platforms, executives at Independent Pictures and Iomega believe that more potential moviegoers will actually view the "Prime Gig" trailer and be inspired to learn more about the film. "We applaud Iomega's farsightedness farsightedness or hyperopia, condition in which far objects can be seen easily but there is difficulty in near vision. It is caused by a defect of refraction in which the image is focused behind the retina of the eye rather than upon it, either and enthusiasm in responding to our overtures," said Woods. "We also appreciate a company of their stature being sensitive to the needs of an independent film studio in helping us publicize `The Prime Gig' in a novel way." Furthermore, Independent Pictures and Iomega feel a correlation exists between their target audiences. As the popularity of MP3 music and digital video editing at home have caught on, Jaz disks have become one of the storage transportation methods of choice among young, tech-savvy consumers. "Not only are Jaz users the right demographic to be interested in the movie, but they are generally comfortable with e-mail, instant message services, and online tools that can quickly spread the word about the film," said Bruce Albertson, president and chief executive officer, Iomega Corporation. "This promotion demonstrates Iomega's unique opportunity to offer value-added content to a highly targeted group of consumers." This entertainment-focused demographic is widely-credited with helping "The X-Men," "The Matrix," "Blair Witch," and "Blade" get a leg up at the box office. Greg Bartels, Worldwide Director, Jaz and Accessories Product Management at Iomega believes the "Find Your Own Prime Gig" promotion will strike a chord with this highly sought-after group as well. "We are very excited to be partnering with a film company that like us, has a reputation for defining the cutting edge," said Bartels. "Trailers have been available on the Internet for some time but movie fans have had to endure glacial download times and unstable modem connections. The Jaz drive can play back full-motion video at a maximum sustained transfer rate of eight megabytes per second (unit) megabytes per second - (MBps, MB/s) Millions of bytes per second. A unit of data rate. 1 MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes per second (not 1,048,576). or a burst rate as high as twenty megabytes per second." Anyone accessing the "Find Your Own Prime Gig" sweepstakes at www.iomega.com/promos/sweepstakes.html, can enter to win one of 35 copies of "The Prime Gig" on videocassette A removable magnetic tape module for storing video data. The cassette contains supply and takeup reel (hubs) in the same housing. See VCR. , one of 25 blank Jaz disks, one of 15 new Iomega(R) HipZip(TM) digital audio players, one of five Iomega(R) FotoShow(TM) digital image centers, or one of the five grand prizes, which include airfare to New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of courtesy of Northwest Airlines, a weekend at the luxurious "W" Hotel Union Square Hotel Union Square is located in San Francisco, California. The Hotel features 131 guest rooms and suites, including the famed Dashiell Hammett Suite. The hotel has kept it's original 1915 Egyptian-motif mosaic murals, located in the lobby entryway. - New York, and two VIP passes to the "Prime Gig" premiere. (No purchase necessary, void where prohibited, open to U.S. and Canadian residents (except residents of Quebec) 18 years of age or older as of November 1, 2000, sweepstakes must be entered online, all entries for grand prize must be received by December 21, 2000, see Official Rules for details.) "When Independent Pictures decided to do something new and inventive to promote `The Prime Gig,' they came to the right place," Bartels said. "Iomega has a 20 year history of innovation in both the technology and the marketing arena. The pre-formatted space on blank Jaz disks has been underutilized e-advertising real estate: an empty billboard with millions of cars going past." Independent Pictures' innovative use of pre-formatted computer disks to publicize "The Prime Gig" is in keeping with the company's mission to seek out revolutionary story ideas and choose the path not taken. "This is an exciting partnership that plants the Independent Pictures' flag in a new media platform," said Woods. "Someday viewing trailers on high capacity blank disks may be as popular as sending or receiving e-mail." About "The Prime Gig" "The Prime Gig," is a noir thriller in the spirit of "The Grifters," "Glengarry Glen Ross," and "The Usual Suspects." The film opens in Q1 - 2001 and stars Vince Vaughn, Julia Ormond, and Academy Award nominee Ed Harris. "The Prime Gig" follows the rise of a successful young salesman who lands a dream job and a dream girl, only to realize that his new life may not be all that it appears. The film was written by Bill Wheeler and directed by renowned Broadway stage director Gregory Mosher. The film also stars Wallace Shawn ("The Princess Bride," "Clueless clue·less adj. Lacking understanding or knowledge. clueless Adjective Slang helpless or stupid Adj. 1. ") and George Wendt ("Dreamscape dream·scape n. A dreamlike scene or picture having surreal qualities. [dream + (land)scape.] ," "Cheers"). About Independent Pictures Independent Pictures is run by its Chairman Cary Woods who produced the first efforts of leading filmmakers like "Sixth Sense" writer-director M. Night Shyamalan Manoj Nelliattu Shyamalan (born August 6, 1970), known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, /'ʃæ.mæ.lɔːn , "Election" writer-director Alexander Payne, and "Kiss The Girls" director Gary Fleder. Woods' tenure as a leading agent at The William Morris Agency Founded in 1898, the William Morris Agency is the largest diversified talent and literary agency in the world, with offices in New York City, Beverly Hills, Nashville, Miami, London, and Shanghai. in Los Angeles and as a leading producer at Miramax Films in New York have made him a force in both the low-budget and mainstream film worlds. Woods has championed the work of cutting-edge filmmakers like Doug Liman ("Swingers," "Go"), Harmony Korine ("Julien Donkey-Boy," "Gummo"), and other new artists, securing his place as an icon among screenwriters, directors, and actors drawn to compelling and uncompromising cinema. Whether making movies in the commercial mainstream or on the cutting-edge, Woods' philosophy is that independent filmmaking is less a financing strategy than a way to cultivate new ideas, nurture fresh talent, and protect unique perspectives. Defining his philosophy of creative risk-taking, 14 of the 18 films Woods has produced have been directed and/or written by first-time filmmakers. Woods' eye for talent and his access to a veritable family of artists has given Independent Pictures access to some of the top creative minds and tastemakers in any industry. About Iomega and Iomega's Jaz Drive Iomega Corporation (NYSE:IOM) manufactures and markets the award-winning Zip(R), Jaz(R) and PocketZip(TM) drives and disks and markets Iomega CD-RW (CD-ReWritable) The only rewritable CD technology. CD-RW disks look like other CD media, but with close inspection, they have a more polished surface with a very dark blue-gray cast. drives and discs. Iomega's products help people to save, share, manage and create important information such as spreadsheets, slides, Internet downloads, audio files and personal photographs, while helping protect that content from viruses and hackers. Used in homes, businesses, government and educational facilities and by creative professionals everywhere, Iomega storage solutions are the enabling technologies preferred by millions. The Company can be reached at 1-888-4 IOMEGA (1-888-446-6342), or on the Web at http://www.iomega.com. The Jaz(R) drive and Jaz 1GB and 2GB disks offer removable storage capacity at speeds matching many existing hard drives, providing high performance back-up with easy recovery; an indispensable tool for audio/video development and for graphics professionals, CAD/CAM CAD/CAM in full computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing. Integration of design and manufacturing into a system under direct control of digital computers. applications and storing financial data. The Jaz drive is compatible with Windows(R) 95/98/NT 4.0 and 2000, as well as Mac OS 8.1 through 9.x. Iomega, Zip, Jaz, and PocketZip are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Iomega Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Certain other product names, brand names and company names may be trademarks or designations of their respective owners. Note: A Photo is available at URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.110100/bb8 |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion