Second Team

Second Team is a situational comedy with a modicum of satire and a lot of malice. This comedy pilot portrays the madness behind the camera and chronicles the misadventures of a group of stand-ins. After the big names walk of set, they call Second Team! This is a Hollywood story, only it's not about actors, sex fame and fortune. Its about the lowest of the low. The people who stand at the bottom of the totem pole and don't matter on the movie set. They are known as the stand-ins. 


For this blog post I decided to interview the head writer and director of the show David Gabos. David came up with the idea for this show while interning on the set of an MTV production, when a group of stand-ins came forward and said, "Hey, you should make a show about us". Ever since then, it's been a marathon to get this show on the web. During the last week, David has worked hard and patiently with his team to get the first episode up and running and when funding is low, it's hard to keep your soldiers in line. Even though he is in-charge of getting the show done, he still takes the time to make sure that the needs of his team are met such as food and money. 

David and his executive producer Kyle have negotiated with the crew on payments. They have had the crew sign contracts, which entails that each person will be paid on the number of hours they have worked. Even though it's not much, they promise that once they have the show up and running and have a stable profit coming in they will provide an advance to all members of the team. This type of negotiation, in mind would be mutual benefit. This is a win-win situation for both David and his crew and in my eyes I feel that this show will be successful. So far, there does not seem to be any problems between anyone on the crew, which shows David's appreciation for the people he works with. 


Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao6Ew_l5144


Image: Facebook - Second Team

Activision vs. EA

During the last two months, EA went on to release a new addition to the Battlefield family, Battlefield 3, while on Tuesday, Activision released the much awaited Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Both titles have been going head-to-head, and are expected to be among the gaming industry's top sellers for the year. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Activision earns half its annual revenue in the years' final quarter". Both giants have adopted the strategy of releasing fewer, better-quality titles each year and according to Matthew Jacob of ITG Investment Research, this forces them to lean heavily on the new launches. 

As of now, Call of Duty seems to have the upper hand, selling a total of 9 million copies in the first twenty-four hours. IN the case of Battlefield, they sold a total of 8 million copies within the first week of its release. Analysts from Wedbush Securities believe that the newest version of Call of Duty should generate a revenue of $1billion and also become the highest selling game of all time. On Tuesday, Activision raised their outlook for 2011, after report a third quarter profit nearly tripled to $148 million on a 1% revenue gain, to $754 million. They predict full-year sales to be $4.33 billion and per-share earnings of 76 cents. 


EA definitely out-matches Activision when it comes to diversity, with titles such as Madden NFL, FIFA soccer, but lacks a blockbuster in the shooting-game category to match the heavyweight Call of Duty. Both games have been released with perfect timing, giving the video game industry the push it needs to strive in the current economy. Currently, sales of video games and consoles are $1.16 billion, which is down by 6% as compared to last years' $1.23 billion.  


Image Source:
http://criticalgamingnetwork.blogspot.com/2011/07/ea-vs-activision-round-one.html

Weak Ticket Sales Contribute to Large Loss for Live Nation

Live Nation Entertainment, the music and ticketing giant created in 2010 by the merger of Ticket Master and Live Nation, reported a loss of $228.4 million for 2010, due to a low touring season. According to Ben Sisario, "ticket sales for concerts were down by 10 percent. Live Nation has gone on to report a revenue of $5.06 billion for the year, a 9 percent drop for the year before and $63.7 million in terms of operating losses". The merger between the two giants (Live Nation and Ticketmaster) took place in January 2010. Live Nation stated that "it lost $1.39 a share last year, compared to a loss of 73 cents a share a year earlier". 

For the annual year, analysts at Live Nation Entertainment expected revenue of $4.95 billion. Chief executive Michael Rapino, said their losses were caused due to high ticket prices and therefore customers were un-willing to spend money for concerts last year. At concerts in the summer of last year, hawkers stood outside Live Nation's amphitheaters selling tickets for "fire-sale" prices. Most of the money from ticket sales is given to the artist, while Live Nation profits from parking, concessions, merchandise and other related sales. 

Live Nation's fourth quater results that ended December 31st, were also down. It showed that the company an operating loss of $86.1 million, compared to the year before, where operating losses were $29.7 million for the same period. Live Nation's revenue was down by 2 percent, to $1.24 billion. Chief Executive, Michael Rapino has assured that the concert business will start to pick up in 2011. Front Line Management, which is a part of Live Nation, is the largest artist management, representing over 200 artist, such as the Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Neil Diamond and Jimmy Buffet. Rapino stated that, "half his clients waited out the dry season in 2010, but that 75 percent of its artist would be on the road this year".

JK Rowling - The Fringe Benefits of Failure

JK Rowling is the well-known British author of the famous Harry Potter series. In 2008 she was given the chance to speak at a Harvard graduation about the benefits of failure. As the speech goes into depth, she discusses her life story with the graduates and her want to study English Literature, but unfortunately came from poverty-stricken family. According to Rowling, "poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is something on, which to pride yourself". It was never poverty that affected JK, but failure, and she was unfortunate to experience it seven years after she finished university, when her marriage broke up, lost her job, and was left to raise her child alone. The fact that she had to go through all this hardship, she started to question herself and wonder if the light at the end of the tunnel was hope or reality. The press called her life somewhat of a fairytale.


"Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I built my life". JK goes on to describe what failure meant to her. It meant the stripping of the inessential. She goes on to say that failure is a gift and it taught her well. Self-discipline and will power were just some of the things she gained out of it and it also made her appreciate the smaller things in life such as the friends that surrounded her. "The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks, means that you are, ever after secure in your ability to survive".


What makes this speech important to me is the fact that we all fail. Life is full of ups and downs and we, as humans are the roller coasters on those tracks. I've learnt that you can't live life too cautiously, because then you haven't lived life at all and fail by default. Rowling learnt to face failure and it taught her many things, and this in-turn gives me the confidence and motivation I need to face the fear that torments everyone.

SXSW - South By Southwest

The first of the South By Southwest music conference and festival was held in 1987 in Austin, Texas. Despite the fact that this city was not on the list of major markets, the background and characteristics of the city made it a perfect place to host this event. Today this conference/festival attracts people with interests in music and film from all over the world. This major event is broken up into a film, music and interactive festival. The film festival brings together industry leaders and talent in a uniquely creative environment. This allows for invaluable networking opportunities and dives into the art and business of independent film making. The music festival showcases informative panel discussions, featuring some of the key players in the industry today. This allows for people to gain an insight of the music industry by sitting in on a keynote. The SXSW Interactive show offers people the chance to attend presentations that discuss the future of technology from the brightest minds in emerging media. Some of these include best new websites, digital projects, wireless applications, video games and much more. 


SXSW uses a variety of marketing tools to get their message across, such as program guides, which provide people with an in-depth look into what they expect to see at this festival such as, session descriptions, film and band listings, schedules, maps, official events and much more. They also publish five issues of their magazine called SXSWORLD, annually, offering people a unique opportunity to reach out to the SXSW community before, during and after the event. This magazine provides cultural and industry features, as well as interviews and news and also influences readers from the interactive, film and music industries. Today's generation spends alto of time on the Internet, and SXSW has taken the initiative to start their own Youtube channel, providing people with footage of their past events as well as music videos and film trailers from upcoming SXSW participants. This is a great marketing tool to use when one is trying to reach a large audience. SXSW demographic attracts a large audience between the ages of 31-40, who generate income between $85,000 - $150,000 and total of 20,457 subscribers on Youtube. 


After spending some time on this site, I've come to realize that SXSW has marketed themselves in a great. They have managed to bring in more than 40,000 attendants to their event. The fact that they also bring diversity to the table, by inclining themselves in different parts of the industry, makes me think as an entrepreneur on what I can take from this conference/festival and apply to my own business.


Sources:
http://sxsw.com/

Inside the iPhone 5 - Is it Worth The Wait?

With the date for the release of the iPhone 5 draws closer, anticipation is at an all time high, as most of the focus has been shifted away from the glamour and exterior features. Questions are being asked on what will make this smart phone tick. The latest in Apple's smart phone arsenal is said to pack the A5 silicon, a Qualcomm 3G chip and circuits that support a higher-resolution camera. The A5 chip will house the main processor, that will give power to the phone. This is the same chip that currently powers the iPad2. This is different from its predecessor (A4), which is being used in the iPhone 4, as it has two processor cores and will also provide the user with better and faster graphics. Two cores allows the device to multitask better than a single core.

According to macrumors.com, "The iPhone 5 is expected to be a world mode phone capable of running on both GSM and CDMA networks". It is rumored that OmniVision will be supplying the 8-megapixel CMOS sensor, that comprises of the sensors that will be required to power the iPhone 5's camera. There is also the question of whether or not this phone will run o 3G or LTE (Long Term Evolution). This is a faster broadband technology sometimes also referred to as 4G, but Will Strauss of Forward Concepts, a company that tracks the phone chip market sees it differently and feels that the new iPhone will not use this technology. 

Apart from the speed and improved graphics, it has been said that the A5 chip is overheating and could delay the launch of the new iPhone. Since Apple is adding one more core, it means that it will be producing more heat than a single core. Apple is still looking for a solution to this problem and if they are unable to come up with anything shortly, they might be unveiling a smart phone based on their current iPhone to buy more time.


Sources:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20101365-92/inside-the-iphone-5/?tag=mncol;txt


http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_a5_chip_overheating_might_be_delaying_the_iphone_5_launch-news-2893.php


http://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/26/photos-of-iphone-4s5-logic-board-suggest-a5-processor/ 

The Playstation 4 'Eco-Concept'

With Nintendo recently announcing the successor to the popular Wii video game console, the world has now shifted the lights towards Microsoft and Sony for hints and rumors of what the future holds for each company's consoles. Neither have said anything officially, but there have been leaks released all over the internet about future consoles. A DigiTimes report said, "Sony is prepping a new console for release in 2012 while a director of operations for chipmaker AMD claimed that the next Xbox will produce graphics rivaling the scenes in James Cameron's Avatar".


The most appreciative part are of the console's use of energy efficiency and also good, sustainable manufacturing. Since the release of the Playstation 3 in 2006, Sony has been revising the hardware to be more energy efficient. The first generation ran on a 380W power supply, while the new system has adopted 200W. Sony has made the right choice to make this move to work towards more energy efficient consoles. According to this site, "NRDC recommended in a study that the next generation of systems have power management features built in", a sleep mode option and also a power down so that the system automatically turns off after inactivity. 


It is rumored that the next generation of the Playstation series will consist of specs every gaming nerd wishes to have on their consoles. Some of these include a 1.5TB hardrive, full 3D compatibility, 3D Blu-ray, USB 3.0 and many more. Whatever Sony releases next year will change the way people play video games. Apart from that we can expect these consoles to perform faster (due to energy efficient settings) and send their predecessors into the history books. 


Sources:
http://blogs.forbes.com/eco-nomics/2011/07/22/playstation-4-eco-concept-is-gorgeous/

Futuristic BMW i3 Electric and i8 Hybrid Unveiled

BMW has recently unveiled their new set of futuristic cars. The following videos will go into more detail



http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/futuristic-bmw-i3-electric-and-i8-hybrid-unveiled

What the iPhone 5 Might Look Like

A designer by the name of Michal Bonikowski has been hearing speculations on what the new iPhone may look like. Apple plans to release this product in September. Follow the link below for more images.


http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/what-the-iphone-5-might-look-like

Emulator - The Next Generation of DJ Performance Technology

The Emulator is the world's first and only customizable multi touch software, which is being made available to DJs and music producers. This product was designed by the creators at Smithson Martin with a focus on the music business. For more information on this product follow the link below the video:






http://www.flylyf.com/emulator-the-next-generation-of-dj-performance-technology/