Trailer for Machinima's 'Omega' -- aka -- The Next Cool Movie You'll Watch Online 12 Minutes At A Time For Free (While Generating Gobs Of Cash For Machinima)

YouTube (aka The New Cable TV) is home to Machinima which is becoming the next HBO. They have a great model: Put cool content up, with great production value, charge nothing for it, get tons of hits.

How do you make money? Simple. Play ads before (and during if possible) the movie/content.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Having just teamed with Ridley Scott for 12 short sci-fi flicks, Machinima is setting the pace for serialized internet movies. (And, if per-play ad revenue seems a tad lightweight [which I'm sure it ain't] wait till these become available, as a collection, on DVD/Blu-ray/rental/stream/subscription-based mobile viewing/regular TV/cable/etc).

Yeah. This is probably the new model. Somebody call Hollywood -- let em know.

Here's a trailer for their latest, 'Omega'.




















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YouTube Announces Your Film Festival

To be run by Ridley Scott, the film fest will accept shorts of up to 15 minutes. These will be judged by Scott and his team, who will select 50 films. These 50 will be voted on by YouTube viewers who will choose 10 finalists which will show at the Venice Film Festival this year. The winning film will be selected by Scott and the other judges at Venice.

Top prize is a $500,000 budget and a chance to turn your short into a feature-length movie with Scott's production company. Entries can be submitted starting February 2.

Details at YouTube's site.


















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'Life in a Day' Trailer

YouTube's blog announces 'Life in a Day', directed by Kevin McDonald and produced by Ridley Scott, will premiere at Sundance January 27.

Here's a teaser trailer:



Looks great. Wonderful. Can't wait.

YouTube To Show Complete Movies

According to NYT, YouTube will show selected TV shows and movies from MGM, like 'The Magnificent Seven'. From NYT story:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios will kick off the partnership by posting episodes of its decade-old "American Gladiators" program to YouTube, along with full-length action films like "Bulletproof Monk" and "The Magnificent Seven" and clips from popular movies like "Legally Blonde." These will be free to watch, with ads running alongside the video.