Hollywood2020

How to sell your games, movies & music to THE NEW HOLLYWOOD!

 STAR*COURSE How to promote, market & sell Your Products to the New Hollywood

by Joyce Schwarz at 12:29 AM PDT, May 3, 2009

What if you could turn your book or short stories into a movie? YES, even non-fiction. Well the good news is that 38 of my clients have done just that. They've gotten what's called options on their books for potential Hollywood movies, games or videos! SOUND IMPOSSIBLE it's not.

 

 

Author & Hollywood new company/product launch strategist Joyce Schwarz (pictured on the right of Tom Cruise in upper corner of this photo)  has introduced more than 75 venture funded companies to the NEW HOLLYWOOD marketplace. Want to sell your project? Check out the famous STAR*COURSE!

For more than 10 yeasr I taught a similar class called STAR*COURSE at Learning Annex and at my office theatre at 953 North Highland in Hollywood. Now for the first time ever, you can see a video preview of that class -- and it's a fun one too.See Star*course video 

 

 A picture from an early STAR*COURSE workshop on how to sell your project to the NEW HOLLYWOOD conducted by author & emerging entertainment strategist Joyce Schwarz

Meanwhile take a look at these pictures from and about the class. ENJOY. For more info on this class and others including being a CERTIFIED VISION BOARD COUNSELOR (May sold out in 2 hours) go to: www.visionboard.info or email: joyceschwarz@gmail.com 

 

Joyce Schwarz books include:   TechTV's Cutting the Cord: A Wireless Consumer's Guide   

The Vision Board: The Secret to an Extraordinary Life 

WII BALANCE BOARD -- Is it the tipping point?

Nintendo's Wii remote control system clicked us into the next-generation of video games, blogged by Joyce Schwarz @ www.hollywoood2020.blogs.com. But now the addition of a new peripheral (additional device you buy and plug into the Wii system) that looks like a household scale and allows people of all ages to step into a whole new world of immersive experiences Now you can simulate fitness exercises and even experience sports 'simulations' iike ski and skating. Who knows soon we may be dancing with the stars or jumping into the boots of a Hollywood stuntman or woman. Shown below Wii remote pix front and back from wikipedia.com

My question is -- is this the tipping point for the next-generation of immersive movies, truly interactive television and even a next -generation of sports spectatorship. Why just sit at an Xgames event if you can bring your remote Wii balance board and simulate the experience on the big screen or on center stage. Anything's possible in this always on, wireless environment of enter- tainment!

EYE TRACKING FOR GAMING FOR DISABLED --OTHER APPS?

FROM NEW SCIENTIST: .....Technology is being developed to allow people with severe motor disabilities to play 3D computer games like World of Warcraft using only their eyes. NewScientist is reporting that further research is progressing on new types of user input devices. Specifically, "gaze gaming",(as reported in Slashdot.

Since the 1990s, gaze technology has helped people with conditions such as motor neurone disease (MND), cerebral palsy and other "locked-in syndromes" to control 2D desktop environments and communicate using visual keyboards.

Users typically guide a cursor with their eyes, staring at objects for a time to emulate a mouse click. But that is too laborious to let users to match the speed and accuracy of real-time 3D games, says lead researcher on the project, Stephen Vickers, of De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.

His team is developing the software as part of the EU-funded project Communication by Gaze Interaction (COGAIN).http://www.cogain.org/user_involvement/users/letter-from-sarah

WHAT ARE THE OTHER APPS -- Joyce Schwarz brainstorms here:

1) Multi-platform usage-- easier to glance than to keyboard or 'touch' multiple screens OR other devices. Could set up equivalent of a panel on an airplane dash?

2) Airplane/navigational use-- once again the dash might be easier to use with glances.

3) No multinational -- no international keyboard symbols needed -- I can use the visual interface ivn China as well as France and not  POINT OF SALE -- no input device needed.

4) Security -- combine eye tracking/gaze with biometrics?

What are your ideas??

Kurzweil comparison Terminator 2029 -- AMAZING

The Terminator 2029
Developer(s)	Bethesda Softworks
Publisher(s)	Bethesda Softworks
Platform(s)	DOS
Release date	1992
Genre(s)	Action/Adventure
Mode(s)	Single pl

Leave it to a game blogger to figure this one out -- I love it....as noted I'm a big Ray Kurzweil fan and he keynoted at the GDC (Game Developers Conference) in SFO today-- blogged by Joyce Schwarz @ www.hollywood2020.blogs.com.

But Kurzweil has been in the news all week talking and doing interviews about Singularity -- based on his best selling book . However, this is the first time I've seen a comparison to his forecast for the year 2029 with the old Terminator 2029 that came out back in 1992-- leave it to a game blogger Nick Breckon @ Shacknews and Shackblog --to come up with this one-- nice photoshop on Ray too by the way js.

Shacknews

Subject: Ray Kurzweil is a Terminator. Shacknews - 12 hours ago Listen: Ray Kurzweil invented the flatbed scanner and the first text-to-speech synthesizer. He predicted the advent of flash memory and the defeat of Gary ... Here's a JPEG of Nick's blog which features a photoshopped Ray to look like who else -- THE TERMINATOR???? js

PS3 $399 Price & 80GB Price Cut KaChings 100,000

Yep, 100,000 consoles in one week according to news reports from Sony-- Howard Stringer according to an AP report and the opening of an article on 1up.com. PRICE, PRICE, PRICE....find the pricepoint and you're golden is what I've always said -- Joyce Schwarz blogging at www.hollywood2020.blogs.com. It used to be $299 for major purchases like these 'toys' but now it looks like it's upped to $399...but the results of this are stunning...from 35,000 to 75,000 or the 80GB price cut!

In an Associated Press article, CEO Howard Stringer said that the new $399 PlayStation 3, combined with the 80GB price cut, helped to sell over 100,000 consoles in America in the week ending November 11. The article in 1Up.com urges readers to:

Multiply that by four weeks in a month, and you have a serious contender on your hands and explains that Stringer was frank in his comments about the rocky road to financial success. "It's the breakthrough we've been anticipating," he said. "We've been holding our breath." And that breath-holding was with good reason, considering the PlayStation 3 has been selling about 35,000 consoles per week. Following the 80GB price cut, the company reports its sales rose to 75,000 in a week. The new 40GB model pushed it up to 100,000.

Texyt

Price Cut Doubles PS3 Sales 1UP.com - 2 hours ago By Steve Watts, 11/15/2007 playstation 3's flagging sales have been a pretty hefty topic of conversation for the last year, not to mention a headache for Sony's finances. November a Good Month for Sony playstation 3 CIO Today Sony's PS3 With Blu-ray Gets Back In the Game CNBC Escapist Magazine - Punch Jump - Digitaltrends.com - Electronista all 299 news articles »

EYE OF JUDGEMENT -- OFFLINE CARDS CAN BE COPIED...SONY CHALLENGE??

Wow, Hollywood2020.blogs.com blogger Joyce Schwarz just saw the first promo for this new game on Saturday morning TV (yes, we do watch it!) and here it is now-- already being copied/hacked etc....well, some people believe all publicity is good publicity...anyway read about the concept -- I think it's brilliant actually -- goes along with MORE BARBIE DOLLS than humans connected to the internet phiisophy I talk about so much -- quoting Negroponte!

PlayStation 3: Eye of Judgment Demonstration 8 min - Sep 20, 2006 -   (149 ratings)   Judgment Demonstration...Demonstration of the the upcoming "augmented reality" game for the PS3 by Senior Game Designer, Watanabe-san....augmented reality http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebHilAXNHSY

SlashGear

Err of Judgement - Eye of Judgement cards can be easily duplicated SlashGear, AZ - Oct 26, 2007 We’ve told you about the playstation Eye, and the game with which it will be bundled, Eye of Judgment. It’sa game played using collectible cards that are ...

AU Shippin' Out October 25-October 26: Eye of Judgement, The ... GameSpot - Oct 22, 2007 Eye of Judgement will be available on October 25 Australia-wide. Virtual cops rejoice, as SWAT: Target Liberty blasts its way onto the playstation Portable ...

MARGE SIMPSON GAMER ---Earthland Realms

YouTube - Earthland Realms Word of Warcraft Parody (The ... A Clip from the season 18 episode also see Marge on google ... Watch video - 9 min - www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWyGCtNbcNU Somehow I missed this episode in April -- but now I saw it tonight-- Marge really gets into the game... Great quotes: My son is an evil knight -- the most successful evil knight There are turkeys in every realm online and off

SIMS -- AVATARS & CLOTHES -- WINNING DUO @ THE CASH REGISTER

THE SIMS & CLOTHES & PRODUCT PLACEMENT ....BLOGGED BY jOYCE Schwarz @www.hollywood2020.blogs.com. Anyone that knows me knows that I've been talking about 'dressing-up' avatars for years, it seems.

In fact a couple of years ago when I was working as a consultant for eco-luxury designer Linda Loudermilk,(www.lindaloudermilk.com) I even got into a bit of a discussion at one of her planning meetings with another consultant who was kind of making fun of my idea to product place Linda's amazingly glamourous clothes on avatars in video games! That deal didn't move forward but it should have -- her designs are so forward thinking they deserve to be in the spotlight!

Seems that I was just a year or so too early. According to a recent BUSINESSWEEK.COM article - "This coming winter, video game publisher Electronic Arts (ERTS) and clothing retailer H&M plan to transform the bits and bytes of the digital world into a physical product. While they're going the more traditional route, featuring H&M fashions in recently released Sims software, the companies are also holding an online contest to allow a Sims 2 player to design clothes that might be produced and sold in the real world. "

Facts are according to that report: The Sims franchise, which has sold 85 million copies in 22 languages in its seven-year history has never featured a major brand before; nor has H&M, the Sweden-based designer and retailer, ever appeared in a video game .Steve Lubomski, U.S. advertising manager for H&M, wrote in an e-mail to BusinessWeek that the idea of the partnership is to attract new customers and engage existing buyers in a fresh way. . "We are really more of a lifestyle brand," says Nancy Smith, president of EA’s Sims Div. in San Francisco. As such, the connection with a hot apparel brand seems to make sense.

This blogger was just wondering what happened to the H&M partnership announced last fall and it was buried in the last graph of the BUSINESSWEEK.com story ....Last December, H&M sent a group of stylists to work directly with the Sims team to help design virtual garments and accessories. The Sims 2 H&M Stuff Pack, which allows players to design an H&M store and dress their avatars in H&M clothes, was released in North America earlier this month, and has been a top seller since its release.

GAMERS DO WANT ACTION FIGURES....Halo branded merchandise

At Digital Wire's Los Angeles Game Show last fall, this blogger Joyce Schwarz, JCOM, www.joycecom.com, JCOM emerging tech & entertainment...caused a bit of discussion from the audience when she asked a VIP panel about why no one is merchandising their games with branded peripherals or action figures....one VIP answered that GAMERS DON'T WANT ACTION FIGURES...so I asked that dude -- how do you know...and he says -- we asked them. RIGHT...ask someone if they want to buy something they haven't seen or tried and see what they say about anything...???

YET, we almost missed GAMESPOT.com's coverage of the new Halo controllers and action figures... See thumbnail JPEG of Gamespot.com post announcing the new branded merchandise....also note that they went farther than we could even imagine with a branded controller...now you can't tell me that would not work with WORLD OF WARCRAFT...seems to me that every guild would pay to have their own skin?? Am I nutz or whatA???

Be fascinating to see what's at the Licensing Show in New York City this week in terms of interactive entertainment...and who was that dude that told me gamers don't want action figures???? What company was he at?? hmmmprobably not worth the effort to go back and shuffle the business cards from the conference and send him this blog anonymously....20 years in advertising, marketing & new product development...PRICELESS.........

New Halo controllers-- as seen on Gamespot.com -- here are links to the articles about the new branded peripherals and the action figures...fyi .....js.

Digitaltrends.com

McFarlane prepping full line of Halo 3 toys GameSpot - Spawn creator planning five action figures, three vehicles based on Microsoft's first-person shooter for release next spring. By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot With the announcement that Microsoft's upcoming Halo 3-branded Xbox 360 controllers will feature ... McFarlane Toys partners with Microsoft to create Halo action figures Canada.com McFarlane Toys Will Produce Halo Action Figures Portal IT Mobile Digest - Game Guru - GameSHOUT - Phoenix Business Journal all 28 news articles » 19 hours ago

MSNBC's NEWSBREAKER --part Pointcast, part game

A cross-between a game and a personal content manager, MSNBC's NEWSBREAKER is certainly 'breaking' new ground, pun intended...blogged by Joyce Schwarz, Hollywood2020.blogs.com.

msnbc's Newsbreaker-- multi-colored --part game/part personal content manager....shades of Pointcast for the web 3.0 crowd...

NEWSBREAKER MOVES INTO THEATRES....breaks monotony of pre-movie ads/promos...Here's the first graph of MSNBC's press release which explains the app which has gone into local movie theatres....Explore the Works of Bob Bejan

Explore the Works of Bob Bejan. Explore the Works of Bob Bejan. Writer: Bob Bejan. I'm Your Man (1992). Director: Bob Bejan ... www.amazon.com/gp/imdb/actor/nm0067335 - 33k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this )

Redmond, Wash. - May 7, 2007 - Msnbc.com liberates movie audiences from the out-of-date trivia, static billboards and the impatience of waiting for the summer blockbusters to begin with NewsBreaker Live, the first in-theater, audience participatory video game. Modeled after classic video games, NewsBreaker Live combines live msnbc.com RSS newsfeeds, the movement of the audience as a human joystick, and the big screen as a game board to bust audiences out of their pre-movie doldrums with an interactive game that delivers real-time news headlines to kick start the moviegoing experience.04-02-07: MSNBC.com launches 'A Fuller Spectrum of News' Brand ...

"NewsBreaker," an online RSS-fed game developed with Fuel Industries, will allow the consumer to interact with the day's headlines from msnbc.com in a ... www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17912203/ - 37k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Wonder what my long time pals like Bob Bejan from Interfilm Inc. would say about this-- they were the ones who created an interactive movie called "I'm Your Man" in 1992 that encouraged audiences to use retrofitted pistol grips to vote on the endings of movies and even which movie they were going to see...(you can actually buy the DVD version of this