A New MicroSeries “RPM”

• The 2009 Lincoln MKS plays a leading role in “RPM,” a new crime thriller microseries on TNT, which will be featured within primetime episodes of “Law & Order” Oct. 21 and 29.  Ten two-minute dramas will air during each program.
• In “RPM,” the lead character will use features available in the new Lincoln MKS – such as the next generation navigation with SIRIUS® Travel Link™ and SYNC – to help solve a crime.
• In conjunction with “RPM,” Lincoln and TNT.tv also will present the “Lincoln RPM Sweepstakes,” which will allow viewers to register online for the chance to win a new 2009 Lincoln MKS.

DEARBORN, Mich., Oct. 15, 2008 – The 2009 Lincoln MKS stars in “RPM,” a new crime thriller microseries on TNT that will air during Lincoln-sponsored commercial breaks in back-to-back one-hour episodes of “Law & Order” starting at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21, and Wednesday, Oct. 29.

“By working with Turner to develop the series from the ground up, we were able to infuse Lincoln’s DNA into every element of ‘RPM.’  The Lincoln MKS is an integral part of the storyline, specifically how the vehicle’s technology is used and the main character’s interaction with it,” said Thomais Zaremba, Lincoln communications manager.  “This type of unique branded entertainment enables us to reach our target customers through engaging, entertaining, richer content.”

Written by Wendy West (“The Closer”) and directed by Steve Shill (“Deadwood,” “Dexter”), “RPM” centers around the character of Reed Marks, played by actor Jonathan Schaech, who is a former homicide detective called back to duty to help solve a four-year-old murder investigation.

Throughout the microseries, Marks utilizes the advanced technology available in his Lincoln MKS, such as the next-generation navigation system with SIRIUS Travel Link, which is voice-activated and offers up-to-the-minute travel information, as well as the award-winning, industry-exclusive SYNC voice-activated hands-free communications system, to crack the case.

“Branded entertainment on TNT has dramatically evolved over the last few years, becoming more sophisticated alongside our consumers and technology,” said Linda Yaccarino, executive vice president and general sales manager, Turner Entertainment Ad Sales & Marketing.  “Through custom content like our microseries, we are able to leverage our marketing partners’ brand attributes with compelling storylines and content from some of the top names in Hollywood.”

In conjunction with “RPM,” TNT.tv also will host the “Lincoln RPM Sweepstakes,” starting Oct. 17.  TNT will drive awareness for the consumer promotion both on-air and online, while Lincoln will feature the promotion on the Lincoln MKS Showcase on DISH Network.  The grand prize winner will receive a new 2009 Lincoln MKS.

About Turner Network Television (TNT)
Turner Network Television (TNT), television’s destination for drama and one of cable’s top-rated networks, offers original series, such as the acclaimed and highly popular detective drama “The Closer,” starring Kyra Sedgwick.  TNT is also home to powerful one-hour dramas, such as “Bones,” “Cold Case,” and “Law & Order;” broadcast premiere movies; compelling prime-time specials, such as the “Screen Actors Guild Awards®;” and championship sports coverage, including NASCAR and the NBA.

Reprinted from:  http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=29240

TBS will try to help General Motors Inc. sell vehicles with a two-minute microseries that will run within specialized commercial breaks in its House of Payne comedy series.

Linda Yaccarino, executive vice president and COO of Turner Entertainment ad sales/marketing and acquisitions, explained that House of Payne is one of television’s top rated series among African-American viewers. As such, the microseries offers GM an opportunity to target this audience through a trusted branded environment in which to promote its 2009 Chevrolet Traverse Crossover.

The two-minute episodes of the microseries, called “My Manny,” debuts Jan. 28. It stars Elise Neal (Hustle & Flow) stars as a widow in her 30s who is trying to juggle a career and motherhood. When her nanny calls in sick, an agency sends her a handsome “manny” (Shariff Atkins of ER) as a replacement. The busy mom soon finds her manny, and his Chevy Traverse, indispensable. The series is produced by State Line Films.  The microseries will encore on tbs.com, which will feature a custom My Manny section with cast bios, photography and other background. The episodes will include a pre-roll on the Traverse.

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TNT and Acura Team up on “Blank Slate“.

Following in the footsteps of Dove/MTV (”Fresh Takes”), TNT is teaming up with Acura to present an original “microseries” starring Eric Stoltz, called “Blank Slate.”  The 80-min long series will be broken into 4-minute segments and here’s the best part (via NewTeeVee)

“The show will have an overly-complicated release schedule on the network: It will be spread out over five back-to-back hours of Law & Order over two days, across two consecutive weeks (I know, it’s confusing). But Slate will also be available on TNT.tv and on Acura’s site, where the “microseries” will become a web series.”

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Telemundo and Ford are Breaking Out a New Cross-Platform MicroSeries.

Spanish-language network Telemundo is teaming with Ford Motor Co. on a new 20-episode cross-platform microseries for TV, cable, online and mobile to promote the launch of the carmaker’s 2010 Fusion brand.

The series will bow on July 27 on Telemundo TV stations in five key Hispanic markets: Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Dallas and Chicago, and on cable network Mun2, Web site Holamun2.com and mobile platform A La Mano.

Ford is also buying a series of traditional TV spots to support the series, titled, Amores de Luna: Nuevos Caminos (Lovers of the Moon: New Paths).

Each episode lasts three minutes and will air on broadcast in the commercial pod leading out of the late newscast at 11:30 p.m.

The series, produced by Telemundo, is the second installment of the Amores de Luna integration. In its first season last year, Ford used the content to promote its Flex crossover vehicle.

Flatmates from beActive on Vimeo.

A Cross-Platform, Blended Genre Example of TV and New Media…

NEWS BRIEF: Flatmates, the second web series from Sofia’s Diary creator BeActive, has been commissioned for TV series, as anticipated by C21 earlier this year.

Like Sofia’s Diary, Flatmates has been picked up by Portuguese pubcaster RTP. The shortform, live-action comedy-drama will begin airing daily on RTP in February.

beActive is a young Portuguese company, created in 2002, with an already proven track record of successful cross-media entertainment formats, such as the interactive teen TV Series “Sofia’s Diary”. beActive launched “Sofia’s Diary” in 2003 in Portugal and the multi-channel interactive hit has been conquering worldwide TV screens ever since. beActive specializes in distinctive services supporting the creation, development and production of creative and innovative content. The company offers a catalogue of branded content for all screens, from TV to mobile phones.

Having produced 50 different programs totalling more than 1000 broadcasting hours in 2007, Nordisk Film TV is a prime creator and producer of television content in the Nordic countries. In their TV production companies in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki, they create and produce creative international and home-grown TV formats in a wide variety of genres, including entertainment, serial drama, factual entertainment, lifestyle, and much more.

In its 11th season 71 Degrees North is still one of the most spectacular reality formats in the world and it is also one of the greatest rating successes in history. By combining spectacular nature, harsh competition and constant challenges of completing a 2000 km journey on snow, ice and water every episode provides new excitement for the viewers. A group of 12 will have to travel from the south of Norway all the way north to Nordcap (71 degrees north), an extreme journey in the incredible nature of Norway. Teamwork is essential, but it is also a competition. Who will be your true friend when temperatures drop and contestants crosses the Artic Circle on their way to reach 71 Degrees North.

Watch trailer here ….  http://www.nordiskfilmtv.com/video.aspx?url=upload/21_NORTHKaroline.flv

MIPCOM NEWS: Trade in international television formats has generated productions worth around €9.3bn (US$13.5bn), according to a report from the Format Recognition and Protection Association (FRAPA).

Launched in Cannes, FRAPA Report 2009 – TV Formats to the World says the volume of production on the back of traded formats mushroomed into a €9.3bn industry during 2006-08, up 45% since the organisation’s first report charted the sector’s activity between 2002 and 2004.

A total of 445 original formats were adapted abroad during 2006-08, almost twice as many as 2002-04. Ute Biernat, chairman of FRAPA and CEO of Grundy Light Entertainment, said this made “the relevance of the protection of format rights more and more obvious.”

The new report, which focuses on Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Spain, the UK, US, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, shows that the UK tops the format export table, followed by the US, the Netherlands and Argentina.

However, it also reveals significant improvements to format businesses in other countries, such as Germany, Spain and Italy, with even self-sufficient countries such as Japan now more disposed towards the format trade.

David Lyle, a FRAPA board member and president of Fox Reality Channel, described the report as a “world almanac” of the format business.

“It has both a global overview of the size and scope of the business, in terms of which sorts of formats are earning the big bucks, and a detailed local view of the evolving opportunities in each of the major territories,” he said.

The FRAPA report was compiled in association with the global TV research agency The WIT and international programme research outfit TV Sisters, and is available on the FRAPA website, here.

Gün Akyuz
7 Oct 2009
© C21 Media 2009

Paranormal State is a docudrama reality television series for A&E; about a student-led college club, the Pennsylvania State University Paranormal Research Society. The show depicts the students’ investigations of paranormal activity and supernatural phenomena. The show is produced by Four Seasons Productions International and Go Go Luckey Productions (which produced MTV’s Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and Newport Harbor: The Real Orange County, and A&E’s now-cancelled Rollergirls). Gary Auerbach and Julie Auerbach (who head Go Go Luckey Productions) and Betsy Schechter (Four Seasons) are the executive producers. The show was tentatively titled “Out There,” “Dead Time” and “Paranormal U” before being called “Paranormal State”. Every episode of the show is outlined by the production team first, co-executive producer Tina Gazzerro has stated, to ensure that a producible episode will result. “We try to identify where we get our discovery moments, our ‘Ah-ha!’ moments.”

Rescue 911 was an informational reality-based television series, hosted by William Shatner. Originally intended to be only a set of three TV specials, Rescue 911 was picked up by CBS for the 1989 Fall season after two specials aired on April 18, 1989 and May 9, 1989. Rescue 911 began airing as a regular series on September 5, 1989 and ran for 7 seasons, with the last new episode airing on August 27, 1996. The last episode to air on CBS (a repeat) aired on September 3, 1996. Throughout its duration, most episodes aired on Tuesday, though occasionally, the show aired on other days of the week, either as an additional episode shown during that week or a temporary rearrangement to make room for another program. Though never intended as a teaching tool, various viewers used the knowledge they obtained watching Rescue 911.

The Lives of Mexican Immigrants / Docudrama; Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike; Producer: Lucy Hibberd

¿A DONDE FUE JUAN JOSE? (2003) is a story of dreams destroyed – hopes crushed. It is a compelling tale of an all too typical immigration from Mexico to the United States. The film artfully chronicles the plight of desperately poor Mexicans seeking a better life in the North. Two brothers, Juan Jose and Marcos leave their family in Mexico to come to the United States to find work. Their first attempt to cross the border ends in defeat when the Coyote steals their money. Their second attempt succeeds, but only after a near-death trek through the cast Sonoran desert. They finally arrive at the house of their Aunt Silvia who finds jobs for them with her friend Manuel, the Jefe of a large ranch. They are happy, working hard, sending money home to Mexico when tragedy strikes. ¿A DONDE FUE JUAN JOSE? depicts the lives of Mexican Immigrants. It is not a film you’ll soon forget. Mexican immigrants, along with their Mexican American descendants, occupy a unique place in the story of U.S. immigration. They are known by many different names, come from divergent origins, and took widely different paths to becoming part of the United States. Millions of people in the United States today identify themselves as Mexican immigrants or Mexican Americans. They are among both the oldest and newest inhabitants of the nation. Some Mexicans were already living in the Southern and Western regions of the North American continent centuries before the United States existed. Many more Mexicans came to the country during the 20th century, and Mexican immigrants continue to arrive today. The multicultural inheritance of Mexican Americans is rich and complex. It reflects the influences of Spain, Mexico, and indigenous cultures, and has been shaped by hundreds of years of survival and adaptation in the crucible of North American history. Their history was also shaped by wars and depressions, by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase, and by shifting attitudes toward immigration. Mexican immigration occupies a complex position in the U.S. legal system and in U.S. public opinion. Immigration law has swung back and forth throughout the 20th century, at times welcoming Mexican immigrants and at other times slamming the door shut on them. The public reception of this immigrant group has also been unpredictable; Mexican immigrants have been able to make a place for themselves in communities across the United States, but frequently have had to battle hostile elements in those same communities to survive. In many ways, this push-and-pull dynamic continues today. Mexican immigrants and their descendants now make up a significant portion of the U.S. population and have become one of the most influential social and cultural groups in the country. Mexican American culture will likely continue to shape U.S. life in language, politics, food, and daily living and will help define the nation’s identity for a new century. Producer: Lucy Hibberd; Contact Information: lucy hibberd – 970 920 1338; Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike

A docudrama is a dramatization of actual historical events. As a ocufiction, the terms is new.  Docufiction is a neologism which refers to a cinematographic work mixing fiction and documentary.Concerning a film genre in expansion, the new term appeared at the beginning of the 21st century… dramas tend to demonstrate some or most of the following characteristics:

Docudramas, then, are distinct both from the main line of historical fiction, in which the historical setting is a mere backdrop for a plot that could be set in many periods, and from straight documentary or journalistic writing in its creation of a coherent narrative out of the materials of history.  impulse to incorporate historical material into literary texts has been an intermittent feature of literature in the west since its earliest days.

A Docusoap:  Blend of ‘documentary’ and ‘soap’.  (soap opera: sentimental TV serial)  A ‘docusoap’ is a reality television programme in the style of a documentary.

Dramedy:  Combination of  ‘drama’ and ‘comedy’.  A film, play or TV programme that mixes drama and comedy.