From this week's Screen International...

The anatomy of BUZZ

I'm continuing to keep track of coverage as I come across it. It seems to be breaking down into the following basic categories.

Q&A REPORTAGE
Most of this appeared early on shortly after the press event (see previous posts), but we're still seeing articles spring up timed to coincide with local release dates:
le Repubblica XL
ComingSoon.net
VH1
Orange.es
SLinside.de

EXPO BLOGGERS
We're also coming across more and more charming reviews of the expo -and Silverscreen itself - posted by bloggers who've paid us a visit and had a good look around:
Natalia's Second Life Diary Blog
Livin' La Vida Segunda
fluctuat.net
Kate's So-Called Second Life
Art through Machinima
DaybyDay
travelog of a fashionist
Rob's Blog
Second News! Brasil
Mundo Linden

SYNDICATED CONTENT
All the following articles are syndicated from the French site Allocine - just goes to show the value of getting a piece placed on a good content provider:
Yahoo! France
Orange France
01Men
alldivx.com
club internet
ados
neuf

PRESS RELEASE REPRO
These are guys who've just taken the official Warner Bros press release and reproduced it wholesale:
CanMag
Superhero Hype!
Comics2Film
Comic Book Resources
SuperheroFlix
Gerard Butler Dot Net
Stoplatka
etu.pl
Student NEWS
Cinema.com.pl
KINO.DE

JAPANESE COVERAGE
tvblog.jp
Red Garden
GRAFAiN +2.1

Stay tuned for some interesting new developments in coming days. You'll hear it here first!

$48m. And that ain't Linden Dollars.

I saw this photo today on Dedric Mauriac's blog, A Second Life of Programming, along with a glowing review of Silverscreen and the 300 Movie Expo. I love the angle the photo is taken from; a nice one from which to reflect how far the sim has come since we first broke virtual ground.

And all on the day we learn that "300" took $48m from 5,000 print in 33 markets over the weekend, including $8.9m in the UK, $6.3m in Spain, $5.6m in France and $5.3m in Italy, opening at number one in 20 markets.

In other news, further coverage of our event spotted in The Avastar and on the Second Life News Network. Two very different 'native' SL publications, and both worth checking out.

STOP PRESS!

Nice to see we made the cover of this week's Metaverse Messenger, courtesy of staff writer and press event attendee Phoenix Psaltery. The Messenger is one of two SL publications distributed as a PDF (the other being The Avastar). Seems peculiar at first, but it's actually pretty cool once you get used to it.

Plus, check out several more write-ups in languages I'm sure I used to understand:

Second Life Master
Warner Bros fait la promo du film 300 dans Second Life
March 22, 2007

MSN Entertainment Filmnieuws
300 in Second Life
March 22, 2007

A l'envers A l'endroit
300 sur second life: Conference de presse
March 19, 2007

hoyCinema
Rueda de Prensa OnLine de '300'
March 19, 2007

SLObserver.com
This is Sparta!
March 19, 2007

Plus one piece in a language I definitely never understood, but which is apparently 'in the biggest polish internet page'. Sounds promising.

ONET.pl PLAY
Matrix pod Termopilami
March 22. 2007

Read all about it...

Lots of great '300 in Second Life' posts appearing all over the shop. Here's the pick of them:

New World Notes
Tateru's Monday Reality Mix
March 19, 2007

Comic Book Resources
300 Online Press Events Are Good
March 19, 2007

Second Style
Custom Avatars for 300
March 19, 2007

NevilleHobson.com
300 in Second Life: Bringing something new to the virtual table
March 18, 2007

Linden Lifestyles
300 Spartans walk into a bar...
March 18, 2007

Second Life Insider
This is Sparta!
March 17, 2007

The Click Heard Around The World
"THIS.... IS ... SECOND LIFE!" Cool virtual promotion for "300"
March 17, 2007

Times Online
Ancient legend gets Second Life
March 17, 2007

Moviehole
Revelations from the 300 Press Conference
March 17, 2007

The Beat
300 Second Life Press Conference
March 16, 2007

MTV Movie News
Minds Behind '300' Reveal Real News About 'Sin City 2,' 'Watchmen' In Virtual World
March 16, 2007

If you see anything that I've missed pls post it in a comment.

THIS IS SPARTA!

(Sorry to post a press release wholesale, but I have to rush off to Brussels for the day. So much more to write about, but all in good time I guess.)

Warner Bros. Pictures Goes Virtual with the "300" Movie Expo

Q&A With Director Zack Snyder, Graphic Novelist Frank Miller, Gerard Butler, Lena Headey and Rodrigo Santoro Launch Month-Long "300" Movie Expo Within the Online World of Second Life

Los Angeles, CA, March XX, 2007 - In anticipation of the worldwide release of the epic action adventure "300," Warner Bros. Pictures launched an immersive 3-D exposition within the fast-growing online community known as Second Life. A live Q&A with the film's director, Zack Snyder, award-winning graphic novelist Frank Miller, and the film's stars Gerard Butler, Lena Headey and Rodrigo Santoro kicked off the month-long 3-D exposition on Friday, March 16, 2007. Following the press event, the "300" Movie Expo is now open and available to any of the free service's 4.6 million users.

Warner Bros. Pictures International worked with the creative marketing agency Picture Production Company (PPC) to create the "300" Movie Expo within Second Life. The "300" Movie Expo is set on a virtual island on which four "expodomes" have been created especially to showcase the unique look and feel of the film.

• This is Sparta. An interactive exhibit inspired by the Spartan aesthetic, this environment will offer users "in-world" collectibles and a specially created 10 minute featurette from the film.

• Cinema. The "300" Movie Expo also contains an outdoor theater in which users can view audiovisual materials from the film.

• Gallery. An art gallery featuring production images, as well as frames from Frank Miller's award-winning graphic novel and concept art from the film.
  

• Reading Room. An open-air lounge that allows users to flip through select pages from 300: THE ART OF THE FILM and listen to music from the soundtrack.

>> The shape of things to come <<

The first piece of coverage for 300 in Second Life - a hastily arranged spot in the Popbitch newsletter, going out to 350,000 buzz-hungry sneezers, technophiles and media sluts the day before the expo launches - reproduced here on a nice little blog eponymously named FREE REIN.

So how did we sell it into the source that can't be bought? Well, we didn't... we got lucky.

We seem to be getting quite good at that.