LOS ANGELES, Jan. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IC Places Inc.
(OTCQB: ICPA) is pleased to release its State of the Company
address by CEO Steven Samblis.
From 2005 to 2011, we focused our efforts on building the IC
Places website. The main goal was to enhance content and create
stickiness. The strategic value of our websites is the fan
base which grew around them.
The value of this fan base have been proven over the years. As
an example, movie studios have worked with us promoting their new
release movies and DVDs. With the movies, we have been able to
consistently fill theater seats. With DVD/Blu-ray we have been able
to drive sales. The plan has always been to one day do the
same for our own products or services.
Guiding Forces
In August of 2011 we signed respected Hollywood insiders Charlotte Parker and Joel Parker to our board of advisors. In their
roles with the company, the Parkers consult in the development of
content and programming.
Charlotte Parker is well known as
the publicist for Arnold
Schwarzenegger from the time he began acting. She also
guided the public images of over 200 celebrities, politicians,
executives and corporations. Parker launched the publicity
campaigns of director James Cameron
and producer Gale Anne Hurd. She
represented director John
Frankenheimer and many films, including The Terminator,
Aliens, Total Recall, and the animated classic The Swan
Princess.
Joel Parker began his career in
the News & Information Department of the RCA Corporation. He
worked at the NBC Television Network for 10 years in the programing
department and Creative Services, where he managed the publicity
accounts of several high profile series including the Super Bowl,
NBC News and The Tonight Show. Joel also teaches television
production at the University of Southern
California.
Transition to Hollywood
With the Parkers in place, it was time to create a foothold in
Hollywood. In September of 2011 we
formed a production and marketing partnership with Hi Point
Studios. Hi Point Studios is nestled between Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
Under the partnership, we moved our production offices from
Winter Park, Florida to Hi Point
Studios in Hollywood,
California.
Under the partnership, IC Places is granted exclusive access to
the television shows and movies being filmed at Hi Point Studios.
We then deliver to our viewers, behind the scenes, "1st Look" shows
featuring the actors, directors and producers of these films and
television shows.
The partnership gives IC Places additional content for our
websites. It spreads the word about Hi Point Studios as well as the
movies and TV shows being shot there. Most importantly, for
IC Places, it gave us the studio space we needed to begin creating
long form TV shows.
Act 1
Our long term goal for IC Places is to become a New Media
Entertainment company that will create personality-driven
entertainment for online, television and film.
In November 2011, we began
production on our first TV show in Hollywood. The show, Static, was
created with partner FunnyBrand777, a company helmed by
Brandon Gibson a veteran filmmaker,
actor and comedian.
The show is a combination of In Living Color, Upright Citizens
Brigade and Monty Python with even more irreverence.
Along with Brandon, the cast includes...
Brandon Brooks - NBC's
Malibu, Ca, Las Vegas, CSI
Cheryl Texiera - How to be a
Gentleman, Parks & Recreation & It's Always Sunny in
Philadelphia
Maronzio Vance - Last Comic Standing, Naked but Funny, The Last
Laugh
Tom Choi - Hall Pass, Franklin
& Bash, Chuck, Suite Life on Deck, Prison Break
Angelina Spicer - Late Night w/
Conan O'Brien, Worst Week, Platonic
Daren Dukes - NFL on FOX, The
Dallas Cowboy Show
Joaquin Garay III - Unacceptable
Behavior, Strangers Online, Rob
Grace Lee - The Quarter Lifers,
The Grace Lee Project
Shante Reese - Three Simple
Steps, Loveless in Los Angeles
We shot four episodes in December
2011. We are currently editing them for TV. We are in
talks with a comedy-based television network to become the home of
the show.
Act 2 - The Bigger Screen
In the 4th quarter of 2011 Netflix users watched more than 2
billion hours of streaming video, according to a recent
announcement from the company. That equates to each subscriber
watching about 30 hours per month, or an hour a day, which is 4.5
times higher than the time spent with YouTube. The TV screen is
still king. When mixed with time shifted, video on demand
programing we enter what is now the most popular way to use the
TV.
On December 20th, 2011 IC Places
signed its first television programing agreement with Brighthouse
Networks. The agreement is for our new TV show "IC Places
Hollywood." Under the agreement, the show will air in six cities
and IC Places receives half of the commercial revenues.
IC Places Hollywood will be available on demand. This
gives viewers the on demand access Netflix viewers get without
being tethered to internet quality issues.
The show is an upbeat, funny and informative weekly recap of
everything that is hot in the world of movies. The 30-minute weekly
entertainment show will focus on providing "ahead of the curve"
information for people who love movies by providing comprehensive
coverage on everything that is hot in entertainment.
Each episode will offer exclusive one on one interviews with
Hollywood's movers and shakers.
The show will take viewers behind the scenes from the creation of
movies to the red carpet.
The premiere episode was filmed on the red carpet of the 17th
Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards held Thursday, January 12, 2012. During the
star-studded night I had the opportunity to interview Hollywood's most illustrious actors, writers
and directors. We started the evening on the red carpet and
ended in the decidedly less glamorous press tent where all of the
big winners are paraded in front of an eager group of reporters
frantically typing on their laptops and scrambling to ask the most
pithy questions in front of all of our peers.
This was a very important night for Hollywood. Since its inception in 1995, the
Critics' Choice Movie Awards has been a star-studded bellwether
event of the movie awards season. Historically, the Critics'
Choice Movie Awards are the most accurate predictor of the Academy
Award nominations. Last year, for example, all four of the acting
category winners at the Oscars – Colin
Firth, Natalie Portman,
Christian Bale and Melissa Leo – first accepted their awards in the
same categories at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards. In all,
18 of the 20 actors nominated for Oscars were first Critics' Choice
Movie Awards nominees.
This annual awards show comes from The Broadcast Film Critics
Association (BFCA) which is the largest film critics organization
in the United States and
Canada, representing more than 250
television, radio and online critics. BFCA members are the
primary source of information for today's film going public.
The very first opinion a moviegoer hears about new releases at the
multiplex or the art house usually comes from one of its
members. I have been honored to have the opportunity to join
the BFCA this year.
The premiere episode of IC Places Hollywood will air
January 20th.
The show will be seen in the following cities...
Bakersfield on channel 300
Birmingham on channel 1040
Detroit on channel 123
Indianapolis on channel 600
Tampa on channel 340
Orlando on channel 300
Additional cable systems will be added in the near future to
further expand the shows audience.
Maintaining the Expansion of Our Base... There's an App For
That!
While focusing on longer format video production it was
important to maintain the growth of the IC Places websites. To do
this we needed a viral component.
In December of 2011 we released the Instant Restaurant Review
iPhone app. The Instant Restaurant Review App can be downloaded
from the iTunes store.
Link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-instant-restaurant-review/id489857259?mt=8
The name "Instant Restaurant Review" says exactly what the app
does; it provides consumers with the ability to instantly share
their dining experience with the world.
In our December 2011 press release
I stated, "This App could quietly become a game changer for IC
Places and the review industry as a whole."
The Instant Restaurant Review App does two very important
things. It puts a face on every review and the App will only record
a review within 250 feet of the restaurant you are reviewing.
Adding a human face to a review and forcing proximity to the
restaurant will help to eliminate fake reviews.
IC Places currently covers 350 major US cities. The Instant
Restaurant Review App will help organically and automatically build
the IC Places footprint.
Apple just approved the app for its advertising program which
places non-obtrusive ads into the app, creating a new revenue
stream for IC Places.
Staying true to our roots
In January we formed a distribution partnership with awards
winning film maker Robby Valls to
air 6 episodes of his web series "Life in the Greek" on
icplaces.com and Mevio.com. The series is a "mocumentary" on
the life and times of the brothers of Tau Tau.
In the series, The newest chapter of Tau Tau has just been
chartered at Florida National
University (home of the cougars). It's a small College
growing in the heart of Miami. A
camera crew has been following the new brothers of Tau Tau as they
go about their every day "frat boy" lives.
Tau Tau is nationally very small with only 6 chapters nation
wide. The purpose behind the camera crew is to document these young
men to inspire the growth of the fraternity nation wide. The
cameras will be following the brothers around campus, at their
homes, to parties, mixers, philanthropy events, etc...
The first episode will air online January
25th.
Next...
On January 11th, 2011, we shot the
premiere episodes of our new urban voice TV show "I Love Black
Movies."
Like IC Places Hollywood, "I Love Black Movies: is a half-hour
show. In December of 2011 we signed a production partnership
with Nikki Love Productions to create a new voice in entertainment
news.
Nikki Love is guided by
Shawn Edwards. Shawn is the creator
of iloveblackmovies.com, and a film critic for Fox 4 News
in Kansas City,
Missouri. Edwards is one of the few nationally recognized
African American film critics in the country. The award-winning
journalist has won seven National Entertainment Journalism Awards,
including Best TV Film Critic in 2009 and 2008.
"I Love Black Movies TV" is a half-hour TV show that covers
everything that is black cinema and television from the classics to
new releases. The show will provide comprehensive coverage on
everything that is black Hollywood. The 30-minute entertainment show
will focus on new black movie releases (or movies that feature
blacks in the lead role), new black movie DVD releases, TV shows
that feature black talent, black entertainment news, celebrity
interviews with Hollywood's
leading black stars, black movie and TV set visits, red carpet
premieres of black movies and TV shows and retro reviews of classic
black movies.
The TV show will complement the popular website
iloveblackmovies.com, the official site of Black Hollywood. Hosted
by Ciarra Carter and Thomas Anthony Jones, "I Love Black Movies TV"
promises to be an energetic blast of fun and information.
About the Host:
Co-Host, Thomas Anthony
Jones
Thomas Anthony Jones, a native of
Cleveland, began his acting career
on the TV series "Living Single" starring Academy Award nominee
Queen Latifah. Since then, he's
appeared in many commercials, sitcoms and TV dramas. Jones is also
one of the industry's leading models. He also creates educational
media components for NASA to support President Obama's STEM
initiative, and helps make science and math fun for disadvantaged
children.
Co-Host, Ciarra Carter
Ciara Carter, a native of
Nashville, Tennessee, is one of
the industry's top models and has begun a career in acting. She has
appeared in several national and international advertising
campaigns.
In Summary
2011 was the year that everything came together for IC
Places. I knew that the long-term goal of building a mass fan
base was more important than focusing just on short-term revenues.
We now are able to approach cable or broadcast networks with
something no other production company has, a built in fan
base.
Life is about the people you meet and the things you create with
them. Everything that happened this past year was because of the
people who have joined forces with us.
With this extremely creative team in place we will continue to
develop new shows for television and eventually focus on the big
screen.
Lastly, in Q1 2012, IC Places will have officially moved out of
the status of a development state company on our filings and be
classified as a fully operating company.
About IC Places:
IC Places is a Multi Media Entertainment Company.
The company produces "Made for TV" and "New Media" video
programs which are watched by millions of people every month on
several different platforms.
At the core of IC Places is a network of 350 city-based
entertainment websites. This foundation allows IC Places the unique
advantage having a built in fan based for the TV and New Media
programs it produces.
Each IC Places City website offers a virtual keyhole view of
life in each community. Every unique aspect of a city's social,
business, and cultural life is available right at each city's IC
Places homepage. IC Places provides the entire community a place to
talk, do business and get connected. Businesses are given amazing
tools to tell their stories in the best way possible and visitors
get unfettered access to businesses, events and people in each
city. To see one of the IC Places City sites in action, please
visit http://www.icPlaces.com.com/orlando.
IC Places programs can be found through distribution
partnerships with Mevio.com, The IndoorDIRECT network of
restaurants and Brighthouse Networks Cable.
IC Places Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These
forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and
expectations of management and are subject to a number of
uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the
company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results
of operations and financial condition. A more extensive listing of
risks and factors that may affect the company's business prospects
and cause actual results to differ materially from those described
in the forward-looking statements can be found in the reports and
other documents filed by the company with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether
as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Contact Information:
Steven Samblis
IC Places, Inc.
407-442-0309
info@icplaces.com
SOURCE IC Places Inc.