ROK's Fun Little Movies wins MEFFY Award

ROK Entertainment subsidiary, Fun Little Movies won the Content Award for its Fun Little Movies Channel at the prestigious 2008 Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) in Cannes last week.

Fun Little Movies, based in California, specializes in the development, production and distribution of original video content for global distribution to mobile network operators and was the first US company to produce comedic films for mobile phones worldwide, when it launched as a channel on Sprint TV back in in 2004. Shows include the animated series such as Hoota N Snoz, Doodlez (above), Ms. Rabbble and more.

The Meffy awards, which received applications from 21 countries across four continents, are judged by an independent panel of national media and leading trade journalists and analysts. The Content Award shortlist, which received the third highest number of entries, included FLM, MTV Networks International, and Orange.

This isn't the first award for the company: FLM's "Fun Funny Phone Films" have won 22 awards to date, including CTIA's "World Smallest Film Festival" and two Golden Eagles at the American Cine' Awards, as well as The Content Award at Cannes in 2008, over MTV and Orange. FLM was also a finalist at the Cannes Film Festival for Best Short Film and the 2008 Mobile Content Award in London.

Commenting on FLM's success, Rimma Perelmuter, MEF Executive Director, said "With distribution from Brunei to Bethlehem to Burbank, Fun Little Movies' collection of funny, short, made-for-mobile comedy films has proven the universal appeal of laughter and snackable content."

"Our gratitude goes first to ROK Entertainment Group," said FLM's President and Chief Creative Officer Frank Chindamo, "who, since acquiring FLM in 2007, have supported and helped enhance our product offering, such as in partnership with ROK Motion.

"We would also like to thank the MEF, our own creative staff, and all the filmmakers with whom we have partnered or whose work we have licensed. In fact, look for our latest production, HighSpeed Dating, written and directed by Terry Rossio and Jocelyn Stamat. Terry wrote and/or produced the Shrek, National Treasure and Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and we have high hopes for the series release later this year."

"We're delighted to have won this award and congratulate the FLM team," added Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK. "This award demonstrates the success of ROK's growth strategy as well as recognition that the creation and delivery of relevant, funny and fast-paced mobile content is great for mobile consumption. FLM faced tough competition and this award is proof of their position in the market for the production and delivery of mobile content."

Fun Little Movies have played on numerous US TV networks worldwide including HBO, Showtime, CBS, Playboy, MTV and Comedy Central. FLM's mobile comedy can be watched on Sprint, Verizon, Nokia, Motorola and ATT mobile phones, on Veoh.com, Revver.com, Vuze.com and many other top video sites, and on other mobile and Internet platforms. FLM also has distribution deals with several handset makers and overseas partners, from China and Japan to Europe, Africa and South America.

• Visit the Fun Little Movies website

ROK Comics supports new Charity Comic

ROK Comics is backing Floods, a new charity comic created to raise funds for the Red Cross and available now from lulu.com. Initiated by Adam R. Grose, publisher of Clown Press, a wide selection of writers and artists have come together to create this book.

Creators include Ben Womack, Simon Spurrier, Simon Mackie, David Hailwood, Tom Millsom, Nick Miller and others, and features a special drabble -- a 100 word story -- by Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell.

It was Adam who came up with the project last year after parts of Britain were hit by disastrous bad weather. Since then, of course, many places across the globe have suffered devastation from floods and other terrible weather, including Bangladesh, southern Africa and, only this month, Burma.

Adam was moved to try and inspire the comics community to create a collection of one page strips and raise funds for flood relief.

"The UK experienced some of the most horrendous weather, with a month's worth of rain falling in 24 hours," Adam explains. "During this time, many of our fellow citizens experienced flooding, unknown to many of us.

"I decided to put together a comic to help raise awareness of our changing world, the environment and the increasing floods and disasters, that seem ever increasing since the turn of the millennium.

"The book will help raise money for the Red Cross and victims of the floods. Hopefully, this will be available the world over and help to bring more awareness to our world community."

Some of the strips have also been adapted for the ROK Comics mobile format, as a means of promoting the project, with profits from sales going to the Floods cause. (ROK Comics has kindly agreed to do the adaptation work for any creators who would like to see their "Floods" strip in this format. (Contact us if you'd like to do a mobile "Floods" strip, but basically you need to come up with a ten frame strip, each frame 480 x 480 pixel in size, 18 point lettering with a "floods" theme or link).

Adam hopes to add to the existing book with more strips so if you would like to contribute a strip to an expanded edition of the book -- which may eventually see real world publication -- get in touch with him via the Clown Press web site.

• The ROK "Floods" comics can be viewed at www.rokcomics.com/floods.php
• Buy the Floods book from lulu.com

Moon Queen: Jelston's Lesson

Everyone loves our superhero the Moon Queen - but she's blissfully unaware of it! Her best friend is the Bee - the only one who doesn't seem to want something from her. MQ's real name is Agnes Bale, she can fly and has super powers but she is far from invulnerable.

In Jelston's Lesson, the latest Moon Queen adventure to appear on ROK Comics, jealous Blink Bonny makes her life a misery!

Creator Chris Reynolds, who has been publishing Moon Queen on ROK Comics for a while now, created the classic graphic novel Mauretania first published by Penguin Books. His most famous character is Monitor, the strange, helmeted, spaceman aged between about eight and thirty, who had many strange and nostalgic adventures. Now Chris' latest character is the Moon Queen. She's sensitive like Monitor, but her adventures take place in a more colourful, sunny, upland world!

• You can view them all the Moon Queen strips on your mobile by subscribing to our WAP service.

Simply choose a strip you like on the main ROK Comics site, then follow the download to mobile links and choose the subscribe option (or just subscribe right out the door). When you receive a WAP push message to your phone, connect to the site using that link using your mobile, bookmark it, and you'll be subscribed to ROK Comics Mobile for the next month.

This link is exclusive to your phone, so don't lose it!

Italian Vampire Tales

Italian artist Rodrigo Diaz is a new face on ROK Comics, trying out the service to deliver a great looking vampire tale called Ligea. We're looking forward to seeing more soon!

More about Rodrigo on his deviantart web site (in Italian!)

ROK Buys Jalipo Media

ROK Entertainment Group Inc., the global mobile entertainment group and owners of ROK Comics, has announced that it has acquired 100 per cent of the issued and to be issued share capital of Jalipo Ltd for total consideration of 600,000 ordinary shares.

Jalipo Media Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jalipo Ltd and the only operating function therein, is a UK Registered IPTV company which offers live streaming of TV content over the internet. Jalipo is the first online marketplace for TV and video, allowing content owners to
use the internet to offer their channels, video-on-demand and live events direct to viewers around the world.

TV Channels currently featured on the service include BBC World, Sky News, Al Jazeera, and shows such as the anime Paradise Dolls, Cosmo Warrior, Saiyuki, Izumo and many animated short films.

“This acquisition is of great strategic importance to ROK,” commented Laurence Alexander, CEO of ROK, “as it furthers our presence in the mobile TV market. There are significant synergies between Jalipo’s product offering and our own, which we look forward to incorporating within and, as a result, enhancing, ROK’s delivery portfolio.”

• ROK Corp Web Site