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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 premieres on Thursday in London, and fans of the franchise can check out the red carpet action live on YouTube and via Ustream and Livestream.
You can check out the Ustream above (or Livestream), or head over to YouTube, which has multiple angles of the event. YouTube has also packed the Harry Potter channel channel with all seven films (which one can rent), behind-the-scenes footage, parodies and interviews.
Livestreamed premieres are becoming an increasingly common practice on the web. YouTube streamed the premiere of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse last June, and MTV.com showcased the NYC premiere for the last Potter flick, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, last November.
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Jimmy McMillan may have been toiling away at his political career for nearly 10 years now, but it took YouTube fame to catapult him into the public eye. Now he’s the subject of a new documentary — titled Damn! — premiering in August.
The film, which garnered funds via a Kickstarter campaign and has been making the festival rounds, will be released on DVD and digital download on August 16. You can check out the full trailer above, premiering exclusively on Mashable today.
Since the advent of the shareable, Internet video (starting with pre-YouTube classics, like the Star Wars kid), we’ve been seeing a new brand of star: The Viral Everyman, a unique brand of celebrity whose relevance is not based so much on talent or perseverance, but novelty and entertainment value.
Some have gained fame and fortune as a result of their sudden celebrity (see: Antoine Dodson). Others, like Golden Voiced Homeless Man, Ted Williams, have had a harder time with the sudden fame.
That’s the conceit behind Damn! “Documenting this journey, the film is able to raise many difficult, yet critical, questions,” says director Aaron Fisher-Cohen. “Are viral hits victimized by the media or are they complicit? Have we all been transformed into attention-mongers, willing to sacrifice dignity for, now quantifiable, views on a screen? What drives some individuals to seek this sort of attention, and what compels society to grant it to certain people over others? How does social media drive these sensational events and people? How is our increasingly diminishing attention span affecting the state of politics?”
The film follows McMillan throughout his 2010 New York gubernatorial campaign, under the now famous — and much-remixed — party and party line, “The Rent Is Too Damn High.”
“This is the first documentary that I am aware of that captures a subject as their viral fame unfolds,” says Fisher-Cohen. “It exposes how unlimited access to media, and the ability of most individuals to produce their own, has changed both us and the media-conglomerates. While it does not offer any solutions, I believe it highlights how critical it is that these questions be taken seriously.”
More About: Film, Jimmy McMillan, video, viral video, youtube
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 premieres on July 7 in London, and fans of the franchise can check out the action on the red carpet live on YouTube.
The event will go down on YouTube’s Harry Potter channel from 8 to 11 p.m. PT and will feature the cast of the film as well as author J.K. Rowling. In preparation, YouTube has packed the Potter channel with all seven films (which one can rent), behind-the-scenes footage, parodies and interviews.
Livestreamed premieres are becoming an increasingly common practice on the web. YouTube streamed the premiere of Twilight Eclipse last June, and MTV.com showcased the NYC premiere for the last Potter flick, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, last November.
Still, this premiere really shows off two of YouTube’s latest innovations: its expanded livestreaming platform, and the addition of major studio movies to its rental service.
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Scenes From the Suburbs — a companion film to Arcade Fire’s Grammy-winning album, The Suburbs — has made its way onto the web in its entirety.
The short film, directed by Spike Jonze and co-written by Jonze and brothers Will and Win Butler, jumps on the dystopian childhood bandwagon that’s been chugging around town lately (see books like The Hunger Games and Divergent).
I know how I’ll be spending the remaining 30 minutes of the work day…
More About: arcade-fire, music, Scenes From the Suburbs, Spike Jonze, The Suburbs, video, viral video, viral-video-of-day, youtube
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A new startup, MoviePass, is hoping that film fans will be interested in paying $50 a month to see an unlimited number of movies in the theater. Kicking off its private beta in the San Francisco Bay Area just in time for the big Fourth of July movie weekend, MoviePass is hoping to bring the subscription model that Netflix pioneered for movie rentals to physical movie tickets.
We spoke with Stacy Spikes, the co-founder of MoviePass, about the service, its plans for other markets, and other details.
The idea behind MoviePass is an enticing one. The price of movie tickets increases every year, so a monthly $50 subscription could pay for itself with just a few shows.
Right now, MoviePass is making deals directly with the major online ticketing services, which means that as long as a theater is serviced by a MoviePass ticketing provider, you can go to that theater.
Using a geo-aware HTML5 web app (with native apps in the works), you can buy tickets day-of-show from standard online ticketing companies like MovieTickets.com. Once you’re at the theater, the app will give you the redemption code to snag tickets from a kiosk or ticket counter.
To prevent abuse, there are a few rules and regulations regarding the service.
San Francisco is the private beta market, in part because of the wide-range of ticket prices at theaters throughout the Bay area. During the beta, the MoviePass team hopes to discover what price works best for customers and how the service can bring them more value.
Spikes says that the plan is to expand the beta into more markets by August and to go nationwide this fall. He also told us that do to the difference in ticket prices in different markets, it’s possible that the $50 price point might not be consistent across the country. In New York and Los Angeles, where movie tickets are most expensive, a monthly pass might cost more than in Atlanta or Austin.
I asked Spikes about whether a MoviePass subscription will be valid in multiple cities and he said that the company is looking at possibly offering a “roaming” or “nationwide” plan for an extra fee.
He also pointed out that as MoviePass builds subscribers, it can offer more incentives and better pricing. He likened this to Netflix’s subscription history. Through the years, Netflix has been able to lower its base subscription rate (even for by-mail subscribers) because for every person that consistently rents 20 or 30 movies each month, another dozen only rent one or two.
We really like the idea behind MoviePass and think that the way it is using geolocation to authorize identity and provide tickets is smart. We also like that the company is working with popular online ticketing services to open its base of theaters.
We look forward to seeing how the beta goes in San Francisco and we hope we can try the system out in New York City in time for the fall movie season.
What do you think of the idea behind MoviePass? Would you like to pay a flat-fee for unlimited movie tickets?
More About: Film, moviepass, Movies, movietickets.com, netflix
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Been itching to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon? Well now you and your friends can buy tickets to the third installment of the nostalgia-drenched series via Facebook.
Paramount and social shopping company 8thBridge teamed up to create the promotion, which is activated when you “Like” Transformers: Dark of the Moon on Facebook. From there, users will be able to buy tickets to the movie and invite friends to purchase tix as well.
This isn’t the first time Facebookers have been able to buy tickets via the social network. Last June, Disney launched Disney Tickets Together, which let users pre-order passes to Toy Story 3, as well as invite friends along.
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Last week, Harry Potter fans were in a tizzy over a mysterious site called Pottermore, which many were guessing could be an online game, a new fansite or a digital encyclopedia. Well, it seems that those who wagered on it being a game get a cigar.
Author J.K. Rowling is set to make an announcement regarding the site on the morning of June 23 (U.K. time), and has even set up a YouTube page counting down to the moment of the reveal.
However, it seems, we have a leak on our hands. The London Times (payment required) has got its mitts on a memo which describes Pottermore as an online game that features clues to prizes secreted in the real world. Apparently, the prizes are magic wands hidden in Britain and the U.S. It’s not clear whether Pottermore is the product here or if it’s a marketing campaign for something else. The whole thing is being handled by PR company Adam & Eve.
We’ll keep a close eye on Pottermore.com to see what materializes, but right now it appears 1,282 of you who voted that the site would manifest itself as an online game are correct. Sorry to the 1,418 hoping for another book.
[via Film, games, harry potter, jk rowling, pottermore, social media
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The first full-length trailer for the upcoming Footloose, a remake of the iconic 1984 film starring Kevin Bacon, has hit the web. The movie, which stars Dennis Quaid, Dancing With the Stars dancer Julianne Hough and Kenny Wormald, arrives in theaters on October 14.
As tends to be the case with these types of films, the saga behind getting the film into theaters seems far more compelling than the movie itself. High School Musical director Kenny Ortega was originally attached to the remake, along with Zac Efron, however both left the project in 2009. Gossip Girls star Chace Crawford then replaced Efron in the lead role, but he also backed out because of scheduling difficulties.
Finally, Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) signed on to the project as co-writer and director. Originally slated for an April 2011 release, Paramount moved the film back to October of this year.
It’ll be interesting to see how the film performs at the box office, given how much time has passed since the project was originally conceived. Three years ago, Hollywood was in the midst of a teen musical-renaissance, thanks to the success of films like Hairspray and High School Musical 3.
Since then, however, films like 2009′s Fame remake have failed to connect with audiences. Herbert Ross’s Footloose was a breakthrough in 1984 and some of us wonder why it needs to be remade at all. What do you think of the trailer? Let us know.
[via Film, footloose, movie trailers, Movies
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Monday, friends and fans of Jackass star Ryan Dunn took to Twitter to post farewell messages and remembrances about the deceased actor.
Dunn, who perished in a car crash early Monday morning, posted a picture of himself drinking with friends just hours before the car he was driving crashed, killing both Dunn and another adult passenger.
While some, such as iconic film critic Roger Ebert, have criticized Dunn’s actions, many refuse to speak ill at this time, instead focusing on the humor Dunn brought to their lives and the memories they shared with him.
Here are some tweets from other celebrities who were close to Dunn as well as fans.
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Monday, friends and fans of Jackass star Ryan Dunn took to Twitter to post farewell messages and remembrances about the deceased actor.
Dunn, who perished in a car crash early Monday morning, posted a picture of himself drinking with friends just hours before the car he was driving crashed, killing both Dunn and another adult passenger.
While some, such as iconic film critic Roger Ebert, have criticized Dunn’s actions, many refuse to speak ill at this time, instead focusing on the humor Dunn brought to their lives and the memories they shared with him.
Here are some tweets from other celebrities who were close to Dunn as well as fans.
More About: drunk driving, Jackass, Ryan Dunn, twitter
