Another big brand is taking advantage of web video marketing in the form of the Wall Street Journal. Before you switch over though its not going to be all stocks and shares. The channel will be based on the lifestyle “soft news” that can be seen in the WSJ Weekend section.

Hosted by WSJ reporter Wendy Bounds, the web video channel will focus on cultural topics from food to fashion, music, movies, travel and tech. The launch week will see a focus on the Superbowl as well as interviews with some of music’s biggest stars including Paul Stanley of Kiss and Soulja Boy, discussing the current state of the music industry.

Will this turn to the lighter side of news for web video lose the WSJ its viewership potential? There are already plenty of lifestyle and entertainment shows and channels on YouTube as it is clearly not the most serious place on the Internet; it will certainly be a difficult market to crack.

If you have a video production that you would like to place on YouTube then why not get in touch.

Thanks to the popularity and availability of web video, the films that would usually have never made it to the cinema and merely languished in the back of the rental store gathering dust, now have an opportunity to be marketed to their often deserved extent and viewed online.

The cinema experience is by no means dead but the films that are no longer suited to the £15 ticket and 30 minutes worth of trailers treatment will certainly fair better with the comprehensive video marketing that sites like YouTube and Netflix.

Tim and Eric are two American comics with an immensely niche following, their hilarious sketch programme ‘Awesome Show’ has amassed a huge cult following and they are both active on the popular comedy web video site Funny or Die. Their ‘Billion Dollar Movie’ is a perfect example of the plus points of the online movie experience.

The film was released for streaming on January 27^th and will hit cinemas in March. Most T&E are going to get their online fix before the hardcore fan base visit the cinemas…if they can. There is an online petition to get the film distributed in the UK that can be found on Facebook.

If you have a video production you want to get up and running on the web then why not get in touch. 

Filmmakers have become accustomed to feverish hordes of hopefuls, but things can still turn sour when one is directing one of the most anticipated films of 2012. Last week, ‘The Hobbit’ -Tolkien’s whistle wetter prequel to the trilogy of the one ring - got a few more hobbits at the door than anyone anticipated.

Peter Jackson’s film production team – 3foot7 – were swarmed by over 3000 hopefuls at their open auditions in Lower Hutt, near Wellington, forcing police to shut the operation down after only 800 were seen. The casting call described a search for men under 164cm and women under 155cm, which makes me wince with regret at the thought of living so far away from Wellington.

Though some have claimed that the original trilogy has not aged well, when I sit down to watch Lord of the Rings I always cast one eye upon just how truly awful the series could have been. All things considered, it is on an infinitesimally small list of fantasy features which won’t leave you feel dirty in the morning. I am hopeful that The Hobbit, too, can join that list.

Perhaps, Mr Jackson, a stampede of rabbling hopefuls is a fitting karmic punishment for releasing the trailer a full year before release? My anticipation is as hot as the fires of Mount Doom!

Do you toy with the idea of creating your own fantasy promo through green-screen? Check out our very lavishly furnished film studios today!

A video marketing article by yours truly appeared on this blog last Friday, detailing the link-up between Star Wars and children’s charity Variety. Whaddya mean you didn’t read it? Well, Kate Walker, digital media officer at Variety did, and she subsequently got in touch, in order to clarify a couple of points that she felt needed clarifying. And where clarification is concerned, this weblog is only ever too happy to oblige.

In my article last week, I wrote that ‘Variety’ was the rebranded name of the venerable UK charity, shortened from ‘Variety Club’. Close, but not entirely correct, pointed out Kate, as the organisation will actually be henceforth known as ‘Varity, the Children’s Charity’, thereby bringing it into line with its branches in the US, Canada and Australia.

Kate was also eager to point out that the new Star Wars gold heart badge and accompanying video marketing campaign are not directly linked to the rebrand, but rather the latest iteration of the charity’s annual Gold Hearts fundraising campaign. Clarification accomplished, you can now watch the C-3PO and R2-D2 video again. Yes, you can.

Make sure you check out Spectrecom’s video marketing services.      

Video Production can be excruciatingly cool when it wants to be, and post-apocalyptia is about as cool as a genre can be. This is fundamental to what Freud called our ‘death-wish’. You just need to spend enough time on a delayed tube-carriage or in a cheap dentist chair to experience the rogue fantasy of it all coming to an end. After all, humans are aggressive, territorial, solipsistic primates. But panda-bears …well...they’re damned cute. And it would appear that they are capable of exceeding Mad Mel’s acting talents too.

The below trailer for ‘Wastelander Panda’ was created by Epic Films, an independent film group out of Australia. According to the company's description, this is the prologue for a television production. By my own reckoning it looks like a happy mix between the Road, Sweet-Tooth and Mad Max 3 – Beyond Thunderdome, all presented with a seductively simple game-changer  - The panda bear.

Throwing a panda into the mix could be just the ticket to ensure that this production doesn’t fall into the genre’s pitfalls of bland characterisation, pseudo-religiosity and masturbatory self-seriousness (See ‘Book of Eli’ for an example of all three).Here is wishing the guys at Epic Films all the best of luck in getting their web video developed into a fully-fledged television show.

Wastelander Panda Prologue from Epic Films on Vimeo.

Would you like to shoot your own promotional prologue? Get in touch today to find out how we can make it happen.