CNM Short Takes

Get BOOKED with Reel Girls Media Produced by Reel Girls Media, BOOKED.TV is a dynamic, interactive project that exploits the runaway popularity of forensic crime in popular culture. Using the latest in Web technology, BOOKED.TV offers webisodes, podcasts, expert chats and a discussion forum, designed to deliver information straight from Canada’s CSI teams. Our experts include (but are not limited to): Blood Spatter Analyst, Criminal Intelligence Analyst, DNA Specialist, Crown Prosecutor, Technology and Internet Crime, Ento-mologist, Forensic Odontologist, Private Investigator, Explosives Technician, Hom-icide Detective, Physical Anthropologist, Undercover Detective, and Terrorism and Emergency Response Specialist. BOOKED.TV showcases real "CCSI" - Canadian Crime Scene Investigators - and makes use of real cases and fictional crimes to analyze crime-fighting and investigative techniques, to understand criminal behaviour and the criminal mind. Ongoing contests and events including conversations with forensic experts or crime fiction stars keep the membership engaged, and the ongoing discussions and contributions of the membership will help to contribute to the dynamic nature of the website. Reel Girls Media built audience awareness of the site through partnerships with book-stores, libraries, crime fiction festivals and on-line resources, including reciprocal link agreements. Site awareness was also enhanced by embedding the URL in the graphics for the television series. Financing to produce the website came from licenses from Book TV, Court TV, Access Television, Canadian Learning Television and Bravo! along with the financial participation of the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund and Telefilm Canada. Come and meet our experts at www.booked.tv Ontario budget holds bonuses for OMDCApril showers may bring May flowers, but everything was coming up roses in March at the Ontario Media Development Corp. (OMDC). The agency, which provides funding for and promotes the province’s film, television and new media production industries, received an extra $7.5 million over the next three years for a new Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund when the Ontario budget was released on March 23. The fund will be administered by OMDC, and will earmark money for developing products and skills at media producers throughout the province as well as aiding their marketing efforts. The budget also held a boost for the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit (OIDMTC), which will now be worth 30% for qualifying firms, up from the old 20% credit. Finally, shortly after the announcement Ontario minister of culture Madeleine Meilleur announced a one-time $23 million award to the OMDC. That money will be allocated among all six of the sectors OMDC services: film, television, books, magazines, music, and interactive digital media. No further details on the $23-million payment, such as timelines for disseminating the funds or how the process might unfold, were forthcoming. New online ad formats announcedThe Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB) has released its new standards for rich media advertising on the Internet. Version 2.0 of the CAB’s Canadian Universal Ad Package (CUAP) features guidelines and specifications for expanding, floating and interstitial ads that utilize more dynamic programming, such as Flash animation or Javascript, to make it possible to utilize video, games and other retentive content within advertisements. Frank Duyvelshoff, VP of the 2006 publisher council at the IAB, said in a media release that the new standards improve on Version 1.0 of the CUAP by "allowing advertisers to showcase their brands on the larger canvases that the expanding, floating and between-page ads allow." Mainframe’s skateboarding film gets distribution partnerVancouver CGI animation shop Mainframe Entertainment Inc. is teaming up with Navarre Corp.’s Funimation Entertainment division to distribute its new computer graphics-laden feature, Tony Hawk in Boom Boom Sabotage. The film, produced in Mainframe’s high-tech Vancouver studio, features skateboarding icon Tony Hawk as the leader of a traveling extreme sports show, and will be released direct to DVD in the fall. Funimation has acquired rights to distribute the movie both domestically and in Japan, and will promote the feature with online and viral marketing as well as more traditional TV, radio, print, online and out-of-home advertising spots. D-Box introduces gaming chair at SF eventLongueuil QC’s D-Box Technologies Inc. formalized its foray into the video game market last month with the premier of its new gaming technology at the Game Developers Conference, held in San Francisco from March 20 to 24. The Quebec firm, which had previously focused more on home theatre and other movie-related applications, brought a prototype of its motion-enabled chair for the gamer market to the show, and invited attendees to try out games, including Microsoft Corp.’s Flight Simulator and Heart Attack, an offroad racing game. "Our technology can bring a huge competitive advantage to the video game industry, bringing the new dimension of motion simulation to home entertainment," D-Box president and CEO Claude McMaster said in a media release. Online contest aims to boost blood banksCanadian Blood Services, the agency that runs Canada’s blood banks, has teamed up with Dell Canada Inc. and Yahoo Canada Co. to offer an interactive music trivia game aimed at enticing younger Canadians to donate blood. The game features MP3s and other musical content, and players must listen to a snippet of a song then successfully name the artist, song title, or both. The most successful players can win subscriptions to Yahoo Canada’s Music Unlimited service, Dell MP3 players, and a Dell HDTV set. Natural resources TV ready to launchAn aspiring broadcaster focusing on investment in Canada’s natural resources sector is ramping up to launch live TV both online and through cable and satellite specialty channels. Natural Resources Television (IDNR-TV) has a full archive of interviews and live coverage drawn from events such as the recent Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2006 conference, but the firm says it will begin broadcasting live sometime in the next few months. It was awarded a Category 2 specialty channel licence by the CRTC in October 2004, and covers such industries as mining, oil and gas exploration, fisheries and aquaculture, and hydroelectric power. Quebec filmmaker hopes eBay spoof will pay >In a rather bizarre yet inventive scheme, an aspiring Montreal filmmaker will offer imaginary objects on online auction site eBay in an attempt to secure financing for his short movie. Martin Plourde will attempt to sell invisible dentures with smart chips embedded in the teeth that count calories while the user chews – an obviously fictitious invention. Any interested buyers must agree to leave negative feedback for Plourde, who hopes to become the most vilified eBay seller in the site’s history. Video ringtones now on Virgin Mobile Virtual wireless network operator Virgin Mobile Canada is now offering video ringtones, thanks to Nokia’s new 3155i handset, dubbed "The Groove". The video content – ringtones, clips and screensavers – can be downloaded from the virginmobile.ca website in partnership with mobile content distributor m-Qube, and are priced from $1.50 to $4.99 each. The Nokia 3155i is a foldable phone that features twin video screens – outside and inside – as well as 12 Mb of internal memory and an integrated FM radio.

CNM Short Takes

News | 04/17/2006 4:00 am EDT

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