10 films about Journalism that you need to watch

April 12th, 2012 Posted in Film, Journalism No Comments

Here are ten great films about journalism that should be on any PR, Communications, Media or Journalism professional’s must see list. How many have you seen?

1. A Mighty Heart. The story of journalist couple Daniel and Mariane Pearl and the latter’s search for her husband after he went missing when interviewing an Islamic fundamentalist in Pakistan. A reminder of the great risks some journalists have to make.

2. Ace in the Hole. This 1951 film stars Kirk Douglas as a failing reporter who gets a chance to break a once-in-a-lifetime story. It was Oscar nominated for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay so you know it’s good.

3. Absence of Malice. An interesting one as it deals with the perils and implications of false accusations, something infinitely more relevant now than in 1981 when the film was made. A frustrated prosecutor falsely accuses a mafia boss’s son of murder, then leaks the information to a journalist who covers the story.

4. All The President’s Men. The classic tale of the investigate journalism that led to the Watergate scandal, starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford. If you haven’t seen it put it at the top of your list now.

5. Almost Famous. The story of Director Cameron Crowe’s young days and how he landed his dream job of reporting for Rolling Stone. It won an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay.

6. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. A hilarious parody of the broadcast news business in the 1970s that people all over the world can quote verbatim. Rumour has it there’s a sequel in the works, too.

7. Balibo. A film about war correspondent Roger East and Nobel Prize winner Jose Romos-Horta covernig the murders of five journalists that went missing as Indonesia prepared to invade East Timor in 1975. Definitely worth a watch.

8. Broadcast News. IMDB’s description says it all. ‘Take two rival TV reporters: one handsome, one talented, both male. Add one producer, female. Mix well and watch the sparks fly.‘

9. Capote. This chronicles author Truman Capote and his research for the book ‘In Cold Blood’, about the murder of the Clutter family in Kansas. An excellent performace by Philip Seymour Hoffman as Capote.

10. Citizen Kane. A group of reporters attempt to figure out newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane’s dying word, ‘Rosebud’. A classic.

Source: PR Daily

Psycho Siri

February 17th, 2012 Posted in Apple, Film, Youtube No Comments

Siri, the digital assistant featured on the latest iPhone, is well known for having a bank of witty responses to the inevitable stupid questions it gets asked. It’s been at the receiving end of many YouTube parodies, but this is one of the better ones we’ve seen.

Psycho Siri is the story of a jealous, possessive iPhone (yes, really) with a penchant for weaponry and explosions. The video was made by 18 year old YouTuber Andrew McMurry from Arizona and boasts some impressive visual effects.

Our favourite part is the not so subtle Apple reference at 01:30.

If the video below doesn’t work for you, you can also watch it here.

Source: Digital Buzz Blog

HMV to launch on-demand films

November 28th, 2011 Posted in Film, Internet, Online, trends No Comments

HMV and FilmFle x have teamed up to launch HMVon-demand, an online film service that will offer films from more than 30 distributors, including all of the major Hollywood studios.

The troubled music and film retailer is joining the ranks of Amazon’s LoveFilm, Tesco’s BlinkBox, and Netflix amid a 15% fall in in-store sales and the closure of 30 stores (and counting).

The film service will be available on PCs, with plans to expand to other devices long-term. Models including download-to-own and cloud-based locker services are also in the works.

Source: Guardian

Twihards get bitten by Hackers

November 15th, 2011 Posted in Film, Internet, Search Engine Optimisation No Comments

Fans of the Twilight movie franchise are in for a shock if they decide to google certain topics relating to the final film release of the series, ‘Breaking Dawn’. Norton by Symantec have warned the largely teenage fanbase not to search for phrases like ‘nude pictures of Taylor Lautner’, ‘Twilight true love’ or ‘Robert and Kristin kissing’ as unidentified hackers have planted malicious software in common searches (otherwise known as SEO poisoning).

When clicked, the poisoned links can automatically unleash viruses and keylogging programs onto your device, be it a smartphone, computer or tablet.

A Norton spokesperson said ‘We have seen a spike in these poisoned search results with the impending release of the movie, and expect even more Twilight related poisoned search results, scams and spam as the curiosity continues to peak.’

Source: Silicon Republic

Netflix reverses decision to split services

October 13th, 2011 Posted in Crisis Management, Film, Internet, Online, TV No Comments

Netflix has listened to its many outraged customers and stopped its plans to split their DVD rental and film-streaming services.

The company’s Chief Executive, Reed Hastings said in a statement that “there is a difference between moving quickly — which Netflix has done very well for years — and moving too fast, which is what we did in this case.”

The company announced a 60% price hike a few weeks ago along with their intentions to launch a new site, Qwikster, which would handle the film-streaming operation.

Thousands of loyal customers were enraged and Netflix stock plummeted to one-third of its value. While the price increase remains, all plans for launching Qwikster have now been abandoned.

It seems that Netflix are finally striving to fix their mistakes and build a better relationship with their customers. The only question that remains is, why did they wait so long?

Source: New York Times

How Netflix burst its own brand bubble

September 29th, 2011 Posted in Film, TV No Comments

Until recently Netflix were considered a strong, innovative and most importantly, a popular online DVD rental company. Users were able to rent films as soon as they were released on DVD and were also offered a live-streaming service, all for $9.99 a month.

Earlier this year they announced the splitting of the company into two parts – Qwikster, the live-streaming branch, and Netflix, the DVD rental service. With this came a splitting of prices; $7.99 a month for each service, so users who wanted both faced a price hike of 60%.

It really is a great PR lesson in what not to do. Here’s what they did wrong:

Raised prices without considering or consulting their customer base, leaving them feeling confused and betrayed
Made one huge jump in price instead of incremental increases
Did it all from the top down, letting the CEO make the announcements instead of a more relatable, human voice
Kept loyal customers waiting for months for an insincere apology
Made no use of social media to engage its audiences (when social networks were almost overloaded with discussion of the fiasco)
Diluted their brand image by splitting the company

Source: Bulldog Reporter

Irish tech journalist wins film award

September 13th, 2011 Posted in Film No Comments

Freelance technology journalist Ian Campbell has picked up an award for best foreign film at the prestigious Action/Cut short film awards in Los Angeles. Campbell is a first time director and his film, ‘Nothing Nowhere’, was made on a shoestring budget with a cast who worked for free. It was shot entirely on location in Bray, Wicklow, and starts two local actors, Patrick Dunne and Nigel McGuinness.

The only reason he was able to compete in one of the top ten short film competitions in the world, he says, is because of the high quality equipment he was able to borrow and the talent he managed to assemble for the production.

Campbell says he is a huge film fan and has written ‘loads of scripts unseen by millions’. His next short film is already in pre-production.

Source: Silicon Republic

The world’s largest stop-motion film

August 16th, 2011 Posted in Film, Mobile No Comments

Aardman Animations (of Wallace and Gromit fame) and Wieden + Kennedy London have joined forces to create this amazing animation, entitled ‘Gulp’, for Nokia’s latest phone, the N8.

Not only is it amazing to look at and a highly creative concept, but the whole video was shot using the Nokia N8, in an effort to showcase its 12-megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics.

They placed three phones on cranes 36m in the air to cover a 42 x 42 metre canvas. The whole thing was filmed on a beach in South Wales using as many animation students and volunteers that could be found.

And yes, it is a real man in a real boat. Watch the making of the video if you don’t believe us!

Source: Digital Buzz

First glance at Pottermore.com revealed

July 12th, 2011 Posted in Books, Film, Internet, Online, Websites we like No Comments

As the final Harry Potter film opens this week, the buzz around author JK Rowling’s newest venture, Pottermore.com, continues to get louder.

The site, announced last month (see our previous blog post about it), will be a social hub of all things Potter-related with forums, games, additional content and a platform for selling e-books and audiobooks.

The Pottermore twitter account released three sneak images (here’s one) of the site last week which gave fans a decent idea of how the site will work. The story begins with the Hogwarts Express and will allow users to explore chapters of the first book of the series. Additional content about the train journey is due to be released by Rowling on the site too, judging by this image.

You can register your interest in the site by submitting your e-mail at Pottermore.com. It’s launching in October but a lucky few will be let in at the end of this month.

Source: Geek Sugar

Winklevoss twins end Facebook lawsuit

June 24th, 2011 Posted in Facebook, Film No Comments

The epic lawsuit battle between Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg and his former classmates Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss has finally reached a settlement.

The case was made famous after the 2010 film The Social Network, which chronicles the time the men spent together at Harvard University.

The twins ended the legal proceedings by accepting a 2008 settlement that gave them a mixture of $20 million cash and Facebook stock then worth an estimated $45 million, according to the Guardian.

As Facebook’s value has grown enormously in the three years since the original settlement, the Winklevoss’ stock could now be worth up to $150 million.

They had originally intended to take the case to the US Supreme Court, but last week filed a one-paragraph document stating that they would accept the 2008 terms.

Zuckerberg’s legal woes aren’t over yet, however, as he still has another ongoing case with Paul Ceglia who claims he too is entitled to shares in the company.

(Source: The Guardian)

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