The Grass is "Greener"... on our side

Gemini at Rosh Pina TV & Film Festival פסטיבל טלוויזיה וקולנוע ראש פינה

Those of you who have been following my blog might remember a year ago I wrote about the great experience I had at the Rosh Pina Film Festival.

The Event is taking place again this weekend (time flies...)

Following the positive experience last year and my funds focus on New Media, Gemini will be sponsoring this year's event. I'm really glad about this, since:

• There is great talent in Israel with knowledge in Media and Consumer - that is applicable for the investments we make in New Media
• This is another first for my fund - we'll be the only VC at the event (I managed to find this one piece in English)
• I had no small part in making this happen ;)

If you are interested in the future of media - or just want a great weekend up north with the "Branja"* (and a us VCs) you should plan to drive up north this weekend.

* Branja = Hebrew slang  for media Celebes

Technorati Tags: Israel, Rosh Pina, Film, TV, Festival, 2007

Transformers - More than meets the eyes

If you read the title of this post, and started humming the song... I'll bet I can guess your age (~28-38?...)

As a response to Ouriel's post - I just had to share the clip below... Its another great example of the "transformation" that animation technology has gone through over the last 23 years (since 1984).

This is 1984:

And this is today:

(BTW - If any of you still have an action figure - I'm sure prices will be going up!)

Tags: Transformers, 1984 cartoon, 2007 movie, animation

A great startup CEO comparable

A great comment came up in one of my meetings today - which I just had to share:

It seems that the CEO of a startup lives in a constant state of emergency, and insufficient resources... To exemplify great execution of leadership and crisis management, one of my partners pointed to a timeless scene from Pulp Fiction.

It's the scene in which Winston Wolf, the "Problem Solver", is called in to solve the body situation... Its really amazing to see time management, people management, situation analysis, assertiveness, attention to details, delegation, and more... All packed into a 3 minute script.

I really recommend watching this (or  the whole movie) again...

Back to the future - We're almost there

I just remembered one of the all time best movies (of the 80s): Back to the Future
This was following several companies I've been hearing about that are into BioMass - Basically, turning junk into energy.

In the movie, there's a great scene in which Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) needs to power his car (in the future) - so he dumps his garbage into Mr. Fusion, and gets energy...

In the movie it was 2015... It seems that this will be (almost) our reality very soon... Quite exciting to see the future come to life.

So here's a short tribute to the movie (for those of us that grew up in the 80s)

BTW... Great soundtrack!

Original Animation - AniBoom

Aniboom just mentioned in TechCrunch... I think AniBoom has collected some really great projects. Will be interesting to see how the Techcrunch post will impact the results of the user rated animation competition that's running there (Since Mike posted a specific animation in his post, I'm willing to bet who the winner in the competition is going to be) So Just to help even it out:

Here are two favorites from the site:

The first was created by Eric, a young  Israeli animator, who created this clip as part of his final project at the Betzalel Academy)

The second is a 3D Music clip for Ivri Leader (top Israeli artist) - the 3D characters will be included in Ivri's upcoming concerts - in Hologram technology (I'll mention that it was created by HandsUp, a company founded by my brother)

Gemini - Microsoft Future of TV Event - Presentations

Here you can now view the full presentations and video clips from the Gemini-Microsoft event.

(Sorry for all the English speakers - most of the event was in Hebrew)...

Rosh Pina Film Festival - The Speaker Presentations

One final post on this event:

Here you can watch all the speaker presentations. A few I attended, addressing the future of TV:

• Uri Shinar's presentation (Hebrew) - Talking about how mainstream media is reacting to the "Net threat"...
• Yossi Vardi's Panel (Hebrew) - I recommend waiting (or skipping) to the 26th minute - and watching Yossi's promotion for channel 33 (I'm sure you'll agree - this guy has guts!)
• I couldn't find Pulver's presentation (The only one in English). It might be posted soon, in the meanwhile, he shares the slides here

Tags: Rosh Pina, Film, TV, Festival, Israel, 2006

Rosh Pina TV Fest - Some photos

Jeff Pulver posted some additional photos from the Rosh Pina event. If you're from the area, you'll be able to spot some local celebes, and more importantly celeb Startup entrepreneurs amongst them (including Metacafe, GooMe, and BestTv)

Great shots, and they give a good sense of what was going on there...

BTW I'm looking forward to a party Jeff is hosting tonight - at the Galina bar, in the Namal.

(PS - I gave out no signatures)

Free episodes of Simpsons, Seinfeld, and more

It seems that all the web sites listing the free episodes of Simpsons that I mentioned previously have been shut down (Someone is after these guys, and I wouldn't be surprised if Fox has something to do with this)

But new ones pop up like "mushrooms after the rain". I can already bet on who's going to lose this battle...

So here goes, an update:

Free Simpsons episodes (and now Seinfeld as well) can be found here (for now at least)!

Enjoy!

Tags: Free, Simpsons, Episodes, TV,  Seinfeld

Israel TV and Film Festival in Rosh Pina פסטיבל טלוויזיה וקולנוע ראש פינה h

I just got back from the Israel TV and Film Festival held in Rosh Pina

Here are a few facts about the event:

   
• Its a get together of Israel's Media Industry
   
• This was the 7th year of the event
   
• It takes place in Rosh Pina, in the North of Israel

And thoughts:

   
• Over the last few years this event was all about the broadcasters, media figures, and Celebes. This year the "Geeks" (i.e. us technology folks) managed to infiltrate the ranks. My Prediction: In the coming years the "Geeks" will become more significant in this event (and others of its kind around the world), as the media industry and new media technologies continue to converge.
   
• It seems the crowd is slowly becoming aware to this shift. But they (Israeli broadcasting and media figures) are still very far from understanding what its all about. For example, when Jeff Pulver spoke about on demand-on the net, and the world of "Roketboom", blank stares from the audience were easily noticeable
   
• I have a feeling things will move faster than most of the people at the event would like to believe - A lot due to the fact that it (luckily) won't be under their control

And finally, some thoughts on the event location:

   
• Someone at a local restaurant asked me: "Did you stamp your passport"? I really feel like I just got back from 2 days in a different country, even thought its only two hours drive from Tel Aviv (the new #6 road heading north even feels like the AutoBahn)
   
• Rosh Pina is an Amazingly beautiful place - It resembles a small village in the south of France. (or the European alps, given the winter weather we had)

One final comment about the Israeli Media crowd (and maybe the Media world in general) - Some of these people are really in love with themselves... At times it seemed like the birthday of a 6 year old kid - Filming, speaking, and listening to themselves... I had to put this quote in (taken from the event website), which says it best:

(Its hard to translate, but says something like "The "Branja" (the cool crowd) heads up north")