VOD Spotlight: Nolan GallagherMarch 11, 2010

Gravitas Ventures

Nolan Gallagher is the founder of Gravitas Ventures, a Video On Demand distributor with over 350 titles available a year. On Demand Weekly interviewed Gallagher about his perspective on Video On Demand and what Gravitas has to offer to TV viewers.

On Demand Weekly: How did you get started in the Video On Demand (VOD) industry?

Nolan Gallagher: I had the good fortune to work at Comcast back when VOD was first being rolled out nationwide. Part of my role was to work with all of the studios to market their films and the VOD service as a great new way for consumers to enjoy movie watching in the home.

ODW: When did you launch Gravitas Ventures?

NG: Gravitas Ventures was launched in 2006 soon after I completed my MBA and signed a license agreement with Warner Digital Distribution.

ODW: Can you elaborate on the amount of programming and the categories Gravitas provides to VOD users monthly?

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WE LIVE IN PUBLIC: On DemandMarch 11, 2010

WE LIVE IN PUBLIC

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the perspective of watching them from the comfort of your home. This week, Gravitas Ventures WE LIVE IN PUBLIC. Learn more about Gravitas with our one-on-one interview with founder Nolan Gallagher here.

Award-winning director Ondi Timoner’s (DIG!) latest documentary comes to Video On Demand. WE LIVE IN PUBLIC covers the career of who the film feels is “the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of”, Pseudo founder Pseudo Josh Harris. Not dissimilar to DIG!’s main subject, the rock band’s Brian Jonestown Massacre’s lead man Anton Newcombe, Timoner has found a public visionary that goes to the beat of his own drum, even if that means destruction.

The film’s decade-long journey following Harris also wants to be a cautionary tale of the internet controlling our lives. “Everything he does is a precursor to something that will happen to all of us,” said Josh Harris’ brother Tom.

Harris, once called the “Warhol of the Web”, made his first fortune with his consulting and analysis firm Jupiter Communications. In the mid 1990’s he then launched Pseudo, an internet network of web-based video programs. It was with Pseudo where he became a more public figure, including threatening to replace entrenched networks like CBS on 60 Minutes of all places. His peculiarity would then reveal itself when he descended into his elderly, clown-like character Luvvy, who he channeled from Gilligan’s Island and perhaps his version of his estranged mother.

Following the success of Pseudo, the artistically frustrated Harris then funded controversial multimedia projects: In 1999, with the new millennium approaching and Y2K front and center in the public mind (thanks to overhyped media). he created “Quiet,” a basement of pods for people to live in equipped with cameras and TVs. Everything was provided for the participants, but Harris made it clear he owned the video. What could go wrong in a bunker complete with free food, an armory of guns and its own “Interrogation Artist?” Lucky for them, the New York City police shut it down.

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IP MAN - On DemandAugust 24, 2010

Gravitas Ventures

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: IP MAN from Gravitas Ventures.
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Ip Man (or Yip Man as many know him) was a legend in his own time. However, the history and ongoing saga of IP MAN “the movie” has become legendary.

Having exhausted every potential iteration of the exploits of hero Wong Fei Hung, save perhaps some futuristic sci-fi variant where he wakes from cryogenic freezing on a China-owned space station to beat some occupying Cylon ass (I get a story credit if this idea is produced), the Chinese movie industry seized upon another obvious choice for deification. Bruce Lee’s teacher. Indeed, Mr. Man (my mom used to call me that when she was cross with me) has a great deal more mystery than his well-documented and infinitely more famous protégé, so the opportunities for exploring variations on his official life and history abound.

Corey Yuen (FONG SAI-YUK, THE TRANSPORTER) was to direct the first version but the studio producing the film shuttered before lift-off. Producer Raymond Wong (producer of at least sixty titles you’ve never heard of though you may have seen his face as an actor (in another fifty) if you watch Hong Kong cinema) then took up the mantle and proceeded to produce his own Ip Man “biopic.” Donnie Yen (IRON MONKEY) was attached to both to play Mr. Man.

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BANKSY’S COMING FOR DINNER - Now On DemandSeptember 02, 2010

Circus Road

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: BANKSY’S COMING FOR DINNER.

Imagine that you have 17 hours to shoot a movie about art’s most anonymous hero. You can’t show his face. You even have to mask his voice like some mob informant. You have one shot at this so you’d better get it right. This is the first time he’s ever done this and it might be the last. If you pull it off, it could kick start your career. If you blow it, it’s over.

Banksy
Banksy?

Director Ivan Massow accepted his own challenge to film a documentary about a dinner with graffiti artist Banksy and an assortment of British celebrities who you probably wouldn’t cross the street to meet.

Charismatic grande dame Joan Collins is our hostess on the grounds of her gilded estate, complete with a herd of deer and the occasional peacock: a fitting anti-setting for an artist who'd probably stencil a heroin spoon instead of a lobster fork. Maybe he’ll tag her pool house on his way out.