Village Gamer

Scooby, Shaggy and the gang bring a dose of mystery to the TELETOON schedule in the highly anticipated premiere of the brand new live-action movie Scooby-Doo: Curse of the Lake Monster on Saturday, October 30 at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Leading up to the film premiere, TELETOON will broadcast a nightly lineup of spooky Scooby-Doo specials and other Halloween programming from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET/PT every weeknight starting on October 18. Viewers can also catch special Halloween programming Saturdays starting at 4 p.m. ET/PT and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET/PT throughout this period.

Scooby Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster is an all-new, live-action sequel to the 2009 smash hit Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins. The film follows Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo to their summer jobs at a country club owned by Daphne’s uncle. While there, the Mystery Inc. gang stumbles upon some strange happenings around the local lake – including mystical moonstones, creepy characters and a Frog Monster on the loose. Viewers can catch the action a second time during an encore presentation of the film on Sunday, October 31 at 9 a.m. ET/PT and 12 p.m. ET/PT.

Continuing on the spooky Scooby theme, the brand new animated feature Scooby Doo! Abracadabra-Doo has its TELETOON premiere on Saturday, October 23 at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Scooby-Doo and the gang go on a trip to visit Daphne’s sister, Madelyn. She has been studying magic at the Whirlen Merlin Magic Academy, where sightings of a giant dragon have been scaring all the students away. The gang smells trouble and sets out to investigate. Encore presentations of the film will be broadcast on Sunday, October 24 at 9 a.m. ET/PT and Thursday, October 28 at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Read the rest of this entry »

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is launching the fourth edition of Get Animated!, a series of free animation screenings and activities from October 26 to November 7, 2010, in cities across Canada. An internationally renowned producer of auteur animation, the NFB created Get Animated! as its contribution to International Animation Day, October 28.

Get Animated! will feature new releases from the NFB’s Oscar-winning animation studios, a Fairy Tales for All program for all ages, master classes by renowned NFB animators as well as additional programming in selected cities. The NFB website will also offer a special Get Animated! playlist.

Get Animated! kicks off in Toronto at the NFB Mediatheque, where it runs from October 26 to 31, followed by Montreal at the NFB CinéRobothèque (October 28–31), Winnipeg (October 28–31), Edmonton (October 28), Halifax (October 28–29, November 6–7), Vancouver (October 28–November 1), Moncton (October 31) and Calgary (November 6–7). Please visit the Get Animated! site for the complete schedule.

New releases

Ten new animated releases will be featured in Get Animated! this year, including Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life, a puppet-animated work by Oscar nominees Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Madame Tutli-Putli), based on the book by Maurice Sendak, featuring the voices of Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker and produced in association with Warner Home Video. Read the rest of this entry »

Join Wired Woman and four fantastic, experienced guest speakers for an evening of interactive roundtable discussions focusing on issues facing technology start-ups. At Growing Your Business: Tips for Entrepreneurs, topics will be focused on financing, legal issues and knowing your market. The evening will conclude with a couple of start-up success stories to finish off the night so you will leave with lots of energy and momentum to take with you into your business.

Date: Monday, November 1, 2010
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Place: ING Direct Café 466 Howe Street, Vancouver
Cost: $35 for members and $40 for non-members (but membership is free)

Speakers and Topics:

Bob de Witt, New Ventures BC on financing your business
Valerie Mann, Lawson Lundell LLP on legal issues for the entrepreneur
Bill Tam, CEO in Residence (Vancouver) on knowing and understanding your market
Jeanette Jackson, CEO , Light-Based Technologies an entrepreneural success story

KPMG has released its KPMG App for iPad on the App Store. This free app was developed in response to KPMG clients’ desire for faster and easier access to the KPMG’s insight and thought leadership while on-the-go.

The new KPMG App for iPad hosts hundreds of articles, publications, surveys and studies, providing instant and interactive access to a robust library of insightful business thought leadership covering a wide range of topics including Industry, Advisory, Tax and Audit. Every week, new global publications will be added to the app, so users will always find something new, current and relevant. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re looking for a game jam, the Winnitron 1000 will be taking place in Winnipeg at the New Media Manitoba office, 1000 Waverly Street (back entrance) beginning on Friday, October 22nd and running until Sunday, October 24th. The jam’s web page needs updating with finalized date and location, but you can register for the jam. You can also get more information about the jam on Infinite Ammo’s blog.

There is still a bit of time to get your Masterclass submissions in for Merging Media. The deadline is October 15th, so if you want to attend what promises to be a great event led by international transmedia specialist Anita Ondine-Smith, head over to the registration page to check out the eligibility guidelines.

The Merging+Media Masterclass and Workshops will bring together media producers who have cross-media projects and concepts in development, to fine-tune their cross-media proposals and business plans. The small group sessions mentored by a group of international and local industry professionals will ensure access to high level advice and attention.

All BC participants are eligible to pitch for the Merging+Media BC Film Award of $10,000 if they have a cross-media idea in hand, plus the top five pitches will receive a pass to Whistler Summit 2010 (formerly known as the Whistler Filmmaker Forum), which will take place during the Whistler Film Festival, December 1st – 5th. The Top Five will have the opportunity to pitch at the Merging+Media Pitch Session during the Summit to an International Panel.

Tickets for Toronto’s GamerCamp are now on sale. Taking place on November 13th at the Toronto Underground Cinema and 14th at the School of Design at George Brown College, GamerCamp is a celebration of the art, creativity and fun of video games, and with an offering of over 50 games and 30 guest speakers, GamerCamp offers a great return on investment with tickets for the entire event priced at only $30.00 each.

Attendees will have the opportunity to take part in demo and concept talks from developers with a property currently in development, get in on some arcade action, as well as screen short films whose focus is on games and party the night away at the 1UP Bash with Anamanaguchi and Star Scream (tickets for the Bash are sold separately).

Meanwhile, back in Vancouver, Anomaly H2O has confirmed the addition of a new keynote session, Starcraft 2 “The Making of Kerrigan”, presented by Blizzard Entertainment’s Senior LookDev Artist, Steven Chen, and Cinematic Character Supervisor, Xin Wang.

Other featured artists include: Anna Fehr, Cesar Rizo, Craig Mullins, Daryl Mandryk, Jake Collinge, Jason Stokes, Jesse Turner, Marco Menco, Matthew Barrett, Richard Anderson, Thomas Scholes, Tran Nguyen and Ty Shelton.

Anomaly H2O, an event which melds together a dynamic showcase of talented 2D/3D artists from across North America, an art workshop and a party is an evening of shared inspiration and creativity. This year’s event will take place on October 30th at the Vancouver Aquarium. Tickets are $65.00 each ($55.00 for students) and include:

* Admission to Anomaly presentations and party
* One year CGmovement membership
* Raffle ticket for door prizes
* Complimentary event t-shirt
* Snacks throughout the event

EA Sports™ has announced the signing of global tennis superstar Venus Williams as North American brand ambassador for EA Sports Active 2, an innovative line of interactive fitness products that feature personalized, customizable workouts. Williams will act as the franchise spokesperson and will join the EA Sports Active family along with David Beckham, who was recently named brand ambassador in Europe and Australia. EA Sports Active 2 focuses on improving muscular strength, endurance and flexibility, while providing an intense cardio workout; it will combine a heart rate monitor and wireless motion tracking data to deliver a fitness experience that achieves authentic, measurable results. EA Sports Active 2 will be available on Kinect™ for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 and Wii™, in North America on November 16 as well as iPhone® and iPod touch® at a later date.

“Venus is one of the most recognizable, popular and accomplished tennis players in the world; her success can be attributed to both her talent as well as her dedication to fitness,” says Jon Slavet, EA Sports Active Vice President, Product Strategy. “Her commitment to healthy living and ability to inspire others makes her a natural fit for EA Sports Active 2.”

On the court Williams has achieved great success since she turned pro at the age of 14 with 41 career titles, including seven Grand Slam Titles as well as three Olympic Gold medals. In July 2008 Venus won her fifth Wimbledon® singles title and joins Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf as the only ladies in the Open-era to have won five or more Championships. She is currently ranked third in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

DHX Media is pleased to announce the US television premiere of its pre-school hit TV series Animal Mechanicals. The preschool series premiered today at 10:00am EST on the new Hasbro/Discovery Communications children’s network ‘The Hub’.

The Hub will air Animal Mechanicals Monday-Thursday at 10:00am and 12:00pm, as well as Saturday mornings at 7:30 EST. The series consistently achieves high ratings amongst 4-6 year olds in many territories around the world.

Animal Mechanicals is produced by DHX Media for CBC in Canada, where the series is one of the highest-rating preschool shows. The Disney Channels in the UK and Asia; Radio-Canada, Discovery Latin America, Romania’s HOP, EBS in Korea; okto Singapore; Al-Jazeera Children Channel have all licensed the series along with Prava I Prevodi, who acquired the title for Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. Animal Mechanicals is an action adventure series for preschoolers that combines fantastical worlds, mythical animals and cool quests.

The largest ever global research project into people’s online activities and behaviour – Digital Life – was released today, Digital Day, by TNS, the world’s largest custom research company. Covering 88% of the world’s online population through 50,000 interviews with consumers in 46 countries including all of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China), the study reveals a number of very significant findings and provides indicators for the future of the world’s online behaviour.

Core data from the study is being made publicly available via an interactive website, with TNS providing more detailed reports and breakdowns to its clients.

“This study covers more than twice the markets of any other research of this kind. So, it will really allow us to determine Canada’s position in the online world.” said Michael Ennamorato, TNS Canada’s Managing Director. “Plus, we have taken the research to the next level by going beyond basic behaviour to provide more detailed data into attitudes and emotional drivers of that behaviour.”

A main take-away is that when it comes to online behaviours, Canada, despite being a mature market with advanced infrastructure, is being hopscotched by the rapid growth markets:

* Canada lags in digital engagement. When looking at behaviour online, rapid growth markets such as Egypt (56%) and China (54%) have much higher levels of digital engagement – that is, they are more active with the technology – than mature markets such as Canada (37%), Japan (20%), Denmark (25%) or Finland (26%). Read the rest of this entry »

Voices.com has released its newest educational offering, Voices.com Webinars. Webinars produced by Voices.com feature top voice over consultants and industry professionals with how-to sessions in one convenient place.

Stephanie Ciccarelli, co-founder/CMO, hosts the interactive webinars and Scott Lumley, Job Postings Manager, moderates the much anticipated virtual events. The company’s webinar series offers free on-going training for those new to voice overs or those looking to learn more about the industry and about Voices.com. The hour long webinars are designed to educate, entertain and engage the listener, allowing them to participate live during the event and ask questions of the experts on the line.

‘I’ve found our webinars to be incredibly useful and informative for our subscribers and even our staff. It seems like every time we get someone to join us and share their knowledge, I learn something new,” Scott Lumley says. “We’ve had people join our webinars and freely share so much information that it becomes a problem trying to remember it all. That’s why we provide audio recordings of the webinar material.’’

Broken into two parts, participants receive a half hour filled with pearls of wisdom from industry professionals followed by a half hour question and answer period. Registered users of Voices.com and their fans on Facebook are informed of these opportunities in advance and can call in to participate on the live webinar. Audio recordings of the webinar are then emailed to those who registered to enjoy again at their convenience.

An archive of all free webinars has been made available and is frequently updated for anyone who can not make it to the live events. Mobile users can subscribe to Voices.com’s webinars via iTunes.

A new fundraising campaign from Sears Canada and Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada (BGCC) is inviting the public to visit the Sears Canada website and help support Canada’s children and youth with just the click of a mouse.

“Click for Kids” is setting out to raise $100,000 to support Boys and Girls Clubs across the country who are providing essential after school programs. By simply visiting www.sears.ca/clickforkids and clicking on the “Click for Kids” button, $1 will be donated by Sears to BGCC for each “click”, up to a maximum of $100,000. Sears support, through initiatives like “Click for Kids,” has allowed Clubs to provide valuable after school programming to tens of thousands of additional children and youth for 45 years.

One of the most significant programs recently initiated by Sears is the Sears After School Enhancement Grants program. This year, 18 Clubs will each be receiving $10,000 to deliver specialized programs that meet the needs of children in their communities. These range from academic support to technology skills development to nutritious meals to working with children with special needs. Through the Sears After School Enhancement Grants program, more than $2 million has been provided since 2001 to enhance and expand programs that help children and youth realize their full potential.

“For 45 years, Sears Canada has partnered with Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada to create positive opportunities for young people coast to coast,” said Dene Rogers, President and CEO, Sears Canada. “The ‘Click for Kids’ campaign is a wonderful way to involve our customers in marking this special anniversary while making a difference for families in communities across the country.”

“Forty-five years is a remarkable amount of time for a company to support a non-profit organization,” said Pam Jolliffe, President and CEO, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada. “But even more impressive than the length of Sears’ commitment is their continued interest in deepening support to help even more young people have access to safe, enriching programs after school. Through innovative fundraising ideas like ‘Click for Kids’ and helping even more Clubs through the Sears After School Enhancement Grants, this partnership is having a tremendous impact on the lives of the children, youth and families we serve.” Read the rest of this entry »

At a news conference today, members of the Ontario AMBER Alert Program launched an effective new broadcast tool and announced an important new partner to help police locate abducted children when an AMBER Alert is initiated anywhere in Ontario, becoming the third province to add Facebook as an alert tool. New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island both launched AMBER Alert Facebook pages earlier this year.

“The public’s help is critical in locating an abducted child and thanks to our new partner Facebook,” said OPP Commissioner Chris D. Lewis. “We now have a special AMBER Alert Facebook page we can use as an important broadcast medium when we issue AMBER Alerts in Ontario.”

Ontario AMBER Alert partners have teamed up with Facebook to create a special Ontario AMBER Alert Facebook page on this popular social media network. The Facebook page will now broadcast all AMBER Alerts that are issued in the province, and Facebook users who subscribe to this new page will receive critical AMBER Alert information when police activate the system.

“Protecting children is a responsibility shared by parents, educators, members of the public sector, and companies like Facebook.” commented Jordan Banks, Managing Director for Facebook Canada. “As a father of two, I sincerely hope that we never again have to activate an AMBER alert in Ontario or anywhere else in Canada. However, we are thrilled to be part of this important initiative and would like to thank the many AMBER Alert partners for their dedication to it. I’m also proud that Canada is the first country in the world to broadcast AMBER alerts via Facebook.”

This new partnership was forged through the efforts of the New Brunswick-based child safety non-profit Child Safety Research and Innovation Centre along with WiredSafety.org, a key member of Facebook’s Security Advisory Board.

“The expansion of the AMBER Alert program to Facebook will provide police with another tool to help locate abducted children, as well as give the families of these children the additional comfort of knowing that we are able to do more to improve the safety of our children.” stated Jim Bradley, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

The Ontario Provincial Police facilitates the Amber Alert program under the direction of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, and collaborates with its many partners throughout the province to locate children who are abducted in Ontario, and as part of new recommendations that were implemented in 2009, the program now has a dedicated AMBER Alert Coordinator who is responsible for all aspects of the program, including training, education/awareness, communication, ongoing enhancements and expansion of the program.

Canadians can also sign up to receive Wireless Amber Alerts on their smart phones.