Skiing for Armageddon

Here's a video from last weekend's ski trip to Breckenridge, Colorado.  We skiied and snowboarded at Breck, Vail, and Keystone, and celebrated the impending end of the world, the end of the world, and surviving the end of the world.

I shot the video with my GoPro Hero 2 and a friend shot with his GoPro Hero 2 as well.

New York Times Dealbook Conference

The New York Times Dealbook Conference is currently being broadcast live on their site and live on a Livestream channel page.  The conference confronts the question of what the economy will be like post election.  Speakers include Marc Andreessen, Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, and Eric Schmidt among others.

Watch live streaming video from dealbook at livestream.com

Advertisement in The New York Times

Food Network - Thanksgiving Live 2012

This past Sunday, Food Network presented a LIVE two-hour special hosted by Alton Brown, featuring Thanksgiving cooking tips from Rachael Ray, Anne Burrell, Sunny Anderson, Melissa d'Arabian and Bobby Flay.  Check out clips from the show below.
Food Network Specials

Target - Falling for You

Last month I helped coordinate a broadcast for the debut of Target's new Fall style line.  The Target campaign centered around a series of short films starring Kristen Bell that culminated in the live broadcast of the red carpet and performance, which was broadcast from Terminal 5 in New York.

view of the venue leading up to the show

For Netflix Original Content is King

Here's a great article about the return of Arrested Development, which is slated to debut on Netflix in Spring 2013.

The fact that Netflix is making an investment in a series (probably a multimillion-per-episode investment) shows that they are positioning themselves to compete with the likes of premium cable networks and other content creators.  This will decrease their reliance on paying huge fees for licensing content from studios, which is paramount for the future success of Netflix.  As streaming technology becomes more accessible, content creators like HBO are able to launch their own initiatives (like HBO GO) to offer distribution that bypasses the Netflix middleman.  Netflix needs a reason other than their infrastructure to be relevant, and original content, if executed well, could be that solution.  Netflix is continuing it's audience expansion efforts, and this month announced it hit 1 million new subscribers in the UK.  This pipeline to an audience, coupled by a strategy of vertically integrating it's content acquisition, will fortify Netflix against its competitors.  The strategy may also convince other companies to follow suit.  Youtube has taken a similar approach as they invest in content creators to help maintain their premium original content, and Hulu has made similar premium content partnerships too.  More and more tech companies are expanding and transforming into media companies as the barrier for entry for distribution slowly dissolves away.  I predict we'll see more tech companies transforming into media companies as content creators realize that direct distribution is easily accessible. 

Live Album Premieres

Promoting an artist's new album with a live streamed broadcast has become a trend. In April 2011, the Beastie Boys promoted their album Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 with a live stream of a boombox playing the album in its entirety from center court at Madison Square Garden.

The campaign was able to create social media buzz by connecting the stream with a website that offered downloads of the album and a music video that went viral.
This past Saturday, Rob Zombie premiered his new album Mondo Sex Head making use of the new livestream platform.
The live photo feed from the set can be seen HERE as the archived video was removed after the album became available to purchase.
As the music industry looks for new ways to monetize full albums, the concept of marketing an album launch as a real time event, and stealing a strategy from Hollywood's playbook, is becoming more common. I think we'll see more of this event-based marketing from record labels in the future.

Met Costume Gala

Join hosts Elettra Wiedemann and VOGUE's William Norwich on May 7th at 6:30pm (EST) for the live-stream of the star-studded arrivals at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala on Amazon.com/Fashion, Metmuseum.org, and Vogue.com.

Lake Tahoe Ski Trip

This past weekend I was skiing at Heavenly in Lake Tahoe. Here is a recap video from the trip:

Newlyweds Chat with Edward Burns

Last night, Ed Burns held a live chat (re-posted below) where he answered questions from viewers about his upcoming film Newlyweds.  The chat was moderated by Caryn James of the New York Times and hosted at the Livestream studio in New York.
One of the main goals of the chat was to encourage viewers to rent the film, which is currently available on demand in conjunction with Tribeca Film through In Demand, Comcast, Charter, Cox, and Time Warner Cable.
During the chat, Burns admits that the old model for independent film distribution is broken, and that by distributing the film through Video On Demand, he gives more people the opportunity to see the film (as opposed to showing the film on screens in New York and LA only).
At one point (about 35 mins) Burns talks about some advice from Tyler Perry in which Perry encouraged him to "serve his niche" more through tailoring his body of work to be more about Irish American families.  Give the people what they want.
The Internet's democratization of media allows for niche-tailored content to find an audience, and this is apparent more and more with the success of websites and online content becoming more catered to specific demographics.  If you have an audience, the Internet let's you find them.  When the content is valuable, and easily accessible, then fans will pay for it too.
Last month, Louis CK released his stand-up special to his fans with no DRM or pirating restrictions, and a note encouraging fans to just "buy the thing".  They did.  In return, he made much more of a profit than he would have had he distributed through other methods (related article).  It will be interesting to track theses two trends; artists continuing to serve a niche and artists distributing digitally without a middle man.  Traditionally, distributors allowed artists access to an audience, but on the Internet, if the content is appealing, then an audience will find it.

Watch live streaming video from tribecafilm at livestream.com