Cynopsis: DIGITAL
12.04.12

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, December 4, 2012, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

The second season of the live-action web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy is scheduled to debut worldwide in the second quarter of 2013, exclusively on Machinima. Based on the bestselling video game franchise, it’s currently in production in Los Angeles, produced by Lance Sloane (H+: The Digital Series), Tancharoen, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. Kevin Tancharoen has returned to the director’s chair. He has also co-written the new crop of episodes with Josh Baizer and Marshall Johnson. The second season brings new characters Liu Kang and Ermac into the fold as they join a group of fighters battling for the fate of the world. The first season of Mortal Kombat: Legacy, which also aired on Machinima’s YouTube channel, has amassed over 60 million views to date. An exclusive clip of the season will premiere during the Streamy Awards on February 17.

Independent production studio Vuguru, in partnership with Content Media, has premiered a new web series called Pretty Tough on Hulu and Hulu Plus. Based on the eponymous novel from Liz Tigelaar, the show is set in a privileged high school in Malibu. It centers on two sisters at the opposite ends of the high school food chain, who must learn to work and play together on the soccer field and in life. Starring Adelaide Kane, Crystal Young, and Beth Behrs (Two Broke Girls), the show was written by Marguerite MacIntyre, directed by Stewart Hendler, and produced by Tim Williams. It will run for five episodes.

Gwist is an upcoming YouTube channel from Logo TV Founder and veteran cable executive Matt Farber designed specifically for LGBT and like-minded audiences. Scheduled to launch on January 14, 2013, the channel will feature weekly short-form series starring an array of established LGBT talent and gay YouTube stars (a full list of the initial slate is bulleted below). As an official YouTube partner channel, Gwist, which stands for “TV with a Gay Twist,” says it will work closely with the video site to incorporate Google+ Hangouts into its programming. The channel has inked deals with Bud Light, Orbitz, and the Atlantic City Alliance to include brand integrations into specific shows. These integrations as well as other creative and productions services for Gwist will be developed and produced by Bark Bark, an agency founded by Brian Tolleson, the original VP/Creative at Logo. Gwist says it has also teamed with the Gay Ad Network to provide ad services to reach brands that target gay and lesbian consumers.Initially, the plan is to roll out 10 series in the months following launch. They are:

• Gwissues with Howard Bragman: Panel discussions about a hot topic in the LGBT community.
• The Randy Rainbow Show: Comedy spoofs, sketches, and commentary from the host.
• The Untitled Spousal Equivalent Game with Judy Gold: A relationship game show in which gay and straight couples face off “to prove their marriages can be equally miserable.” It will be hosted by comedian Judy Gold.
• Miss Richfield 1981 Q and You: Comedy advice show.
• So Wrong! with Louis Virtel: Contrarian analysis from the host on pop culture stars and news.
• Love’N Mo: A gay girls guide to sex and relationships for straight men, starring former WNBA star Margo Clark.
• Steam Room Stories: Scripted series about a towel-clad group of guys (gay and straight) discussing a topic at the gym.
• Gay Snackbites: Stand-up comedy segments featuring LGBT comics.
• Cutentin’s Caddy Commentary: An animated talk show from Matthew I. Jenkins (Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Venture Bros.)
• Tina Cesa Ward Project (TBD): It will be a scripted drama from the lesbian filmmaker.

Crackle has unveiled its programming lineup for December. Aside from the third and fourth seasons of the critically acclaimed FX drama Rescue Me, Crackle is bringing Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the feature film starring John C. Reilly and a bunch of other comedy veterans, to its platform. Other titles scheduled to show up in December include The Big Hit, Harry Brown, and Joe Dirt, as well as TV series like Married… With Children and Jackie Chan Adventures. In addition, the service’s original music variety series, From the Basement, is set to premiere two new episodes on December 20, featuring a performance from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) has launched a new interactive storytelling initiative called Tribeca Hacks. Consisting of a series of six workshops, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ford Foundation, the initiative seeks to connect content creators with technology specialists “to increase understanding and broaden participation in the field of interactive storytelling.” The sessions begin with Tribeca Hacks Cambridge on December 8. It will feature Zeega, a provider of an HTML5 platform that allows filmmakers and media artists to author interactive experiences using a variety of different content types, including videos, photos, text audio, and maps. Participants of Tribeca Hacks Cambridge will receive assistance from Zeega’s team of documentarians, designers, and technologists to develop web-native, HTML5 interactive story experiences.

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PointRoll has launched Composer, a self-service, web-based ad creation tool that’s available via OnPoint, the company’s ad creation, delivery, and measurement platform. PointRoll says the tool enables publishers, agencies, and brands to quickly (“in minutes”) produce and deliver rich, interactive display ads in both Flash and HTML5 formats, without needing to know a single line of code. The tool also enables them to include video and/or social options within rich media and mobile ads if they so choose. Among the other features, Composer simultaneously creates and delivers ads for PCs and mobile via a single ad tag, which is capable of detecting a user’s device and then serving the appropriate ad, according to PointRoll. Composer is originally from Rovion, a digital ad tech provider that was recently purchased by PointRoll.

Social media sites take up roughly 20% of consumers’ total time spent online when they’re logged into the web via a personal computer. This is according to the latest Social Media Report from Nielsen and NM Incite. The social web’s share is even higher when consumers are logged in via a mobile device, with social media sites accounting for 30% total time spent online in such cases. On the social TV front, Nielsen and NM Incite say that as of July 2012, over 33% of Twitter users had actively tweeted about TV-related content. In addition, some 44% of US tablet owners and US smartphone owners use their devices daily to access social media while watching TV. Among the other findings in the report, Nielsen and NM Incite report that the total time spent on social media in the US across PCs and mobile devices jumped to 121 billion minutes in July 2012, an increase of 37% from 88 billion in July 2011. Facebook still has a stranglehold on the social web; it was the most-visited social network in the US via PC (152.2 million visitors in July 2012); mobile apps (78.4 million users), and mobile web (74.3 million visitors).

IDG Research Services recently surveyed over 3,100 visitors to IDG tech media sites in the US (PCWorld, Macworld, CIO, and Computerworld) to determine consumption behaviors of tech consumers in the country. According to the findings, when it comes to tech buyers in the US, social, mobile, and video play an important role in the purchase decision-making process. Per the survey results: 95% of respondents use one or more social media sites. Among those, 44% of respondents said their experience with tech marketers on social media has improved the likelihood that they’d make a purchase from that company. In addition, 66% of respondents own or regularly use two or more devices, and 33% of the time they spend each week accessing tech info online is via a mobile device. And when it comes to video, the IDG survey finds that 93% of respondents said they watch tech-related videos online, and 72% reported that they have forwarded, shared, or posted videos in the past. What’s more, 40% of respondents indicated that they watch videos via a smartphone or tablet. Videos seem to be driving purchase behavior. 64% of respondents said they have researched a product as a result of watching a tech-related video in recent months, and 44% said they’ve purchased a product after doing so.

New research from Parks Associates indicates that US consumers plan on spending $1,058 per household on new consumer electronics (CE) devices during the 2012 holiday season. This, if it holds, would be 33% more than the $793 US households spent on average in 2011. The survey of 2,500 US broadband households, which was conducted in October and November of this year, also found that 63% of households plan to make a CE purchase this holiday season, a 37% increase over last year. Shopping for these CE products online will also be on the rise, according to the study. For example, 47% of tablet shoppers plan to purchase online, versus 32% last year.

The iPhone 5 will be available in South Korea on December 7. Two weeks later, it will have arrived in 50 additional markets, including Brazil, Russia, and Taiwan, according to an announcement from Apple yesterday. The latest iteration of Apple’s mega-popular smartphone line is currently available in 47 countries, from the US and Canada to Australia and Japan.

As part of PointRoll‘s acquisition of Rovion, members of Rovion’s leadership team have joined PointRoll in various executive capacities. Brian Goss has been appointed as the new Chief Technology Officer at PointRoll. He will be responsible for managing technology strategy and platform development, while also focusing on developing new ways to create effective and efficient ad solutions. Joining Goss is David Arslanian, PointRoll’s new VP/Integration Strategy. Arslanian will focus on ensuring the end-to-end integration of Rovion and its Composer tool within PointRoll as well as across all of parent company Gannett’s sites. The final addition is David Simon, the company’s new VP/Business Development and Client Solutions. He will be responsible for developing strategic partnerships, client solutions, and product positioning in the marketplace.

Non-fiction production company part2 pictures has added Kim Woodard its senior management team in the newly created role of Executive-in-Charge. She will assume oversight of production and development for new and existing programming. Most recently, Woodard served as VP/Development and Production at the National Geographic Channel. She will report to part2 Co-Founders and Creative Directors, David Shadrack Smith and Greg Henry. Along with its slate of television content, part2 produces web content for clients ranging from the World Bank to David Yurman, and is planning on ramping up its shot-form digital content production.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

The Unofficial Google+ Film Festival (UGFF) — “an online, interactive, live, international short film festival” — took place during this past weekend, offering several days of screenings and panel sessions that people could watch online. UGFF also had public showings in Asheville, NC, and Los Angeles, CA, which people were free to attend in-person. Though its come and gone, I’ve been told that films screened at UGFF will be available online for the rest of this week, while the panels should be up forevermore. Give it a look.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Editor for Cynopsis Digital
12.04.12

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