Dealflicks uses iPhone app to fill empty theater seats

With movie prices having increased to nearly $15 a ticket in places like New York City, it is no wonder that 88% of seats go unsold. Dealflicks is trying to change that. The Silicon Valley start-up, which recently released its iPhone app, allows theaters to discount seats that might otherwise remain empty. Although constrained by their contracts with distributors, theaters are able to offer Dealflicks users a discount of up to 60%, with such offers frequently being for weekday tickets or package deals. A typical offer might consist of a ticket, popcorn and soda for the normal price of a ticket.

First digital TV conference to be held in Santa Monica

Bonico Communications, the Canadian company that publishes the nonfiction film and TV industry magazine Realscreen and the children’s entertainment industry mag Kidscreen, announced recently that it will be holding the first conference and market devoted to original digital television. Stream, as it’s being called, will take place at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows in Santa Monica on June 3 and 4. The conference aims to bring “the independent production community together with the leading internet TV development executives, media agencies and brands to network, do business and learn how to work together more effectively.”

Vevo launches 24-hour music video channel

Vevo, the music video platform delivering content on-demand for three of the four major record labels (Sony, Universal, and EMI), recently launched Vevo TV, a new linear channel that will broadcast videos 24/7 in much the same way that MTV once did. Of course, “TV” doesn’t mean the same thing these days; viewers can access the channel on their television via Roku and Xbox 360, on iOS, Android and Windows devices, or on the web, and can save videos to a personal playlist to watch later. The channel shows videos in one-hour blocks curated by its staff, as well as live events and original programming like CBS’ Live on Letterman, American Express’ Unstaged and Vevo’s own Music Is My Sport. Vevo hopes the broadcast-style format will differentiate the platform from YouTube, as well as appeal to millennials who never experienced MTV in is original incarnation and older generations nostalgic for the heyday of the music video.

New horror flick uses smartphone app to scare audiences

While movie theaters have taken creative approaches to combat the use of cell phones, a new horror flick is actually encouraging audience members to use their smartphones. Working with Service2Media, Dutch film company 2CFilm has created an app to accompany the latest film from director Bobby Boerman, a chiller appropriately titled App. Moviegoers can download the app for free, and during the film they will receive the same frightening text messages as the film’s protagonist, a psychology student who is being terrorized by an app called Isis that has mysteriously appeared on her phone.

JVC launches shoulder-mounted camera that costs less than $2,000

JVC’s Professional Products division announced earlier this week that it will be releasing the GY-HM70 ProHD shoulder-supported camcorder in May. Priced at less than $2,000, delivering 60p full HD images, and including a swappable dual-battery system, among other features, this new camera is an attractive entry-level full-size camera. And with its 1/2.3-inch 12 megapixel CMOS imager capable of 1080/60p, 1080/60i, and 480/60i (SD) footage at various bit rates, the camera has the potential for many professional uses. It will also shoot at 300 fps, but only at 720×480.

Condé Nast launches video networks

As the magazine and newspaper industries have continued to shift their focus from print to digital, media companies have naturally been gravitating toward video. To wit, both the The New York Times and Time have devoted new resources to video production in recent months. Now, Condé Nast, one of the largest magazine publishing houses, has launched online video networks for two of its 18 titles, Glamour and GQ. The new venture, which is being sponsored exclusively by Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, and Mondelēz International, is being overseen by the company’s president of entertainment, Dawn Ostroff, who previously held the same position at The CW and, before that, was executive vice president at Lifetime.

Funny Or Die to start producing films

Via a feature in The Hollywood Reporter, Funny Or Die, the comedy video website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, recently announced that it is making the move to the big screen. The company has partnered with production company Scott Pictures and is set to begin work on its first feature films as early as this summer. The site, which launched in 2007, generates more than 60 million page views a month by 20 million unique visitors, has garnered 5 million Twitter followers, and has grown into a studio replete with a stable of writers, directors and comedians. Last year, the Funny Or Die team helped produce Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, though the film was really the creative product of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, who wrote and directed it. In the new venture, Funny Or Die hopes to produce two or three movies a year and establish itself as a mark of comedic quality, much like National Lampoon did in the ’70s and ’80s.

DreamWorks producing Netflix’s first original kids show

Following the success of its first original series, House of Cards, Netflix recently announced that it is teaming with DreamWorks for its first original kids series. The show will be titled Turbo: F.A.S.T. and will be based on the movie Turbo, which DreamWorks is releasing this summer. The movie, which is about a snail who is given super speed in a freak accident and attempts to compete in the Indy 500, features the voices of Ryan Reynolds, Snoop Lion, Samuel L. Jackson and Paul Giamatti, but it remains to be seen who will voice the characters in the Netflix spin-off when it launches in December.

HBO Go now on Apple TV

At last week’s D: Dive Into Media conference, HBO President and COO Eric Kessler announced that HBO Go, the network’s mobile app, as well as sister station Cinemax’s MAX Go app, has been updated to enable streaming via Apple TV. (Users must update the HBO Go app for the new feature to work.) While there still isn’t a native HBO Go app available for Apple TV (as there is with Roku and Xbox), the update allows users to stream from their iPhone or iPad to their television using AirPlay, though Kessler said that eventually HBO “will get on Apple TV.”

Microsoft launches video production studio

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced at the D: Dive Into Media conference that it has opened a video production studio in Santa Monica that houses 125 employees. The news was shared by Entertainment & Digital Media President Nancy Tellem, the former CBS executive Microsoft hired last year to spearhead the creation of original content for its Xbox Live platform. Tellem said that the company is focusing on interactive media that potentially could be used with its Xbox Kinnect system, of which Microsoft has sold 24 million units since releasing the device in 2010. “We’re in a unique position to produce content with a much higher level of interactivity,” she said.