Babelgum Debuts New Web TV Software

LONDON, March 12:
Interactive web-TV platform Babelgum is kicking off the launch of its newest
software with the Babelgum Online Film Festival, a competition to be judged by
Spike Lee, among others.

More than a thousand
productions from 86 countries have entered into the competition, and the
Babelgum user community will decide the nominee shortlist by May. The finalists
will then be judged by director Spike Lee and a panel of film experts
from across the globe, including the directors of established film festivals,
film schools and film industry associations. The categories for the competition include shorts, “Looking For
Genius,” animation, music videos, social/environmental themes,
“Spot/Advertising” and documentaries.

“The standard of the entries we’ve received thus far has been outstanding,”
said Lee. “It just goes to show there is a wealth of talent out there that
wouldn’t usually get recognition or exposure if it wasn’t for festivals such as
this. It really does represent a new era in filmmaking and puts the filmmaker
in more control of getting their productions seen.”

Valerio
Zingarelli, the CEO of Babelgum, noted, “Films are now being made primarily
for consumption online or on other smaller-screen devices, with 60 percent of
entries received having been produced specifically for the small screen. This
supports the realization that to be successful, filmmakers need to go where
their potential audience is and Babelgum provides the perfect platform to do
so.”

All of the entries have
been released onto the Babelgum platform, which has unveiled a set of new
features for users and content producers. Users can now join and form
communities, which are niche collaborative environments that include video
clips, interactive message boards and links to custom profiles of other
members. Viewers can also save their favorites and create personal playlists.
In addition to communities, content on the downloadable platform can continue
to be accessed through the traditional genre or branded channels in the channel
directory, the search engine, the smart channels (created by each user and
personalized according to their interests), and the most-watched and
highest-rated videos.

Babelgum users are now
also able to share content with their friends and embed videos on personal
websites, blogs and in outside social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.

Significant changes have
also been made to the platform’s content-management system, utilized by
professional content producers, rights owners and program partners. In addition
to the ability to upload their video, content owners can use a video preview
option to see the video in its final format without making it publicly
available, and using the “working copy” feature, they can modify the clip
online without having to remove and re-upload it. Furthermore, owners can add
and edit “tags” to their content, controlling the keywords that the search
function will look for when seeking out video; and a new multiple-upload tool
allows producers to schedule the simultaneous upload of multiple pieces of
content.

“At Babelgum we are
committed to giving our viewers the best experience possible,” said Zingarelli.
“The new site’s sophistication, along with an ever burgeoning content library,
certainly ensures we are giving our users what they want and when they want to
view it but with much greater ease and enjoyment.”

—By Ned Berke