Disney Junior Channel looking for "unique" homes to shoot promo videos

News alert from Film Friendly Georgia.

If you're interested, don't delay - they are scouting locations fitting the description below immediately.

The City of Dunwoody does not require a SLUP for this type of commercial activity in a home, so the City of Dunwoody will not require paperwork from homeowners.  (Only the production crew.)  But if you are willing to engage in this or any other media activity, please be a good neighbor to the homeowners around yours:

• Advise them well in advance of the shoot schedule.  One day is not enough.
• Speak with your neighbors in person.  Taping a flyer to a mailbox is not only illegal, (per US Postal Inspector) but comes across as rude.
• Make every effort to mitigate any inconvenience to other homeowners.  Listen to their concerns, even the cranky NIMBY ones.  Convey them to the producers and advise the film crew how to avoid encroaching on neighbors property and driveways.
• Remember, other home business owners can be cited for merely having a "commercial vehicle" parked in front of their house.  Even if you are not bound by the same standards, they're good to follow for film crews as well.

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The Disney Junior digital cable and satellite television network is scouting for a very unique home to feature in an upcoming series of on air promos that will feature young children embracing the fantasy of being their favorite Disney character in the confines of their lovely home.

Production is planning to film over a three day period of filming- PLUS one prep and one wrap day – July 15-19, 2014.

The key attributes of the home Disney Junior is hoping to find and film within 30 miles of Atlanta are:

• Approx. 4000 square feet home.
• 2 car garage would be helpful for green screen.
• Nice GREEN GRASS sod yard. Rolling hill a bonus
• Needs wooded- forest like area near or behind…hope to have sidewalk.
• The look is typical American Suburban w/ Pottery Barn & Crate Barrel stylings not Ikea or Modern.
• 4 to 6 bedrooms or rooms that could play as bedrooms for children. Cast will be 4 - 6 years of age.
• Fantasy request girls bedroom w/ built in stage.
• Would like to allow wardrobe/mu and bathrooms in house.
• A deep back yard – maybe 25 feet or larger wide. Portion of yard fenced in.
• Nice Large Kitchen and or dining room
• Other attribute requests will surface later during pre-production.

Because of the impending July 4th holiday, the required bi-coastal location approvals, prop preparations and the permitting process, all scouting needs to hopefully be finished by this Thursday, June 26.

Please send pics to FFGpics@gmail.com TODAY. We will be touring locations tomorrow/Wednesday.






HOW IT ALL STARTED

Wanda Morganstern had this wild idea during a conversation with a location manager while on set. With all the film work pouring into Georgia, it seemed silly to not have a comprehensive database of locations where the property owners have already agreed to have their property used for filming!!

Solace, starring Anthony Hopkins, was FFG's first location for a film and we haven't looked back!!

20+ years of commercial real estate experience in Atlanta and throughout the state allowed Wanda to create a company that eases the process for location managers while representing the property owners to the film and TV industry. The FFG team brought hundreds of locations to the table and our database was born! Within a few chaotic months that wild idea turned into Film Friendly GA.

As Georgia's film industry continues to grow, FFG makes the job of searching for locations easier for the entire film production team.

Please let us know if you'd like your property included in our database!

See you in the movies!
Wanda & the FFG team
www.filmfriendlyga.com
Like us on Facebook!
@FilmFriendlyGA

It's Official: Free Organic Facebook Advertising is Out the Door

From Forbes Magazine on June 6:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/06/06/facebook-puts-everyone-on-notice-about-the-death-of-organic-reach/

Facebook’s Brian Boland has taken to a Facebook blog to talk about the decline of a post’s organic reach in the social network. In his role as ‎VP Ads Product Marketing, he walked through the implications as organic reach becomes a less effective engagement tool.

Boland has suggested why brands should continue to engage in Facebook and gather fans, but the suggestions all feel rather ‘second tier’ to me; fans give you credibility; fans can offer insights into your customer base; fans can be used to create social context which improves auction price for advertising; and fans can make ads more effective when they interact with them, increasing the chances of them being shown on the news feeds of other fans.

Those last two points are my big takeaway. Not that fans can improve your adverts, but Facebook signalling that you should be using adverts around your brand on Facebook if you want to reach your fans and other users. For all the talk of improving the news feed and making it a more engaging place, these efforts are on making it a better place for users. Not for brands.

From Boland's Blog specifically:

There is now far more content being made than there is time to absorb it. On average, there are 1,500 stories that could appear in a person’s News Feed each time they log onto Facebook. For people with lots of friends and Page likes, as many as 15,000 potential stories could appear any time they log on.
As a result, competition in News Feed — the place on Facebook where people view content from their family and friends, as well as businesses — is increasing, and it’s becoming harder for any story to gain exposure in News Feed. In addition to the growth in content, people are also liking more Pages. Facebook’s director of product management for News Feed told TechCrunch this April the total number of Pages liked by the typical Facebook user grew more than 50% last year. With each new Page like, competition in News Feed increases even further.
The second reason involves how News Feed works. Rather than showing people all possible content, News Feed is designed to show each person on Facebook the content that’s most relevant to them. Of the 1,500+ stories a person might see whenever they log onto Facebook, News Feed displays approximately 300. To choose which stories to show, News Feed ranks each possible story (from more to less important) by looking at thousands of factors relative to each person.

A Facebook presence still has a role to play in boosting your SEO via Open Graph Protocol.  By associating your personal Facebook ID with your website, or individual pages within it, the site's content has more credibility as that created by a human being, rather than mass spam content from Timbuktu.  Which can improve your search engine rankings and increase your visibility.  It will also improve your site's appearance on Facebook or Google + if a visitor shares the info on their personal profile.   Of course you can always pay for ad placement in Facebook and adjust your advertising budget accordingly.

But at the end of the day, whether your website makes sales or changes a visitor's mind on an issue, depends on the quality of what you say and the quality of the visual presentation.  As usual, the techniques to get them through the website front door are constantly changing and require more than one approach, including the old-fashioned, in-person handshake.

Dunwoody Town Hall hosted by District 3 - TONIGHT

You wanted 'em, you got 'em!  The next in the local neighborhood Town Hall series is at the Dunwoody North Driving Club tonight.

A word to the wise:  everybody has something they disagree with City Council on.  (Ask me how I know this...!)  Give them a chance to answer questions, even if you're pissed about something.  It's the courtesy you would want from them.  Hear the answers and give them a shot before blowing off the official you already decided you don't like.  Some of the nasty comments in the gallery after the first town hall at DHS directed at Mike Davis were really discouraging.

Due to work obligations I can't attend tonight, but I do have some questions of my own.  If you seven folks are reading, please consider an answer to the following.

1)  Feelings about developments at Brook Run are still raw.  Some will never forget the number of trees that were removed for the walking trail.  There is still conflict over the location of the dog park and whether the trees there are in fact harmed by the dogs.  Then you have the nearby neighborhoods who are watching for any trouble due to both of these.  You're also in the process of (finally!  thank you!) destroying the unusable buildings toward the front.  The trail is as yet unfinished and the outcome of the dog park move remains to be seen.  Why would you consider an unsolicited offer from a company to make use of the park for an obstacle course (which is not even close to being on the parks master plan) when there are still conflicts and concerns for "negative impact" over current developments?  Why was it necessary to move ahead with a treetop obstacle course plan when current development in other areas is still underway and their benefit and potential problems are far from clear?  Why did you not choose to put this request on hold until prior developments and their questions were closer to resolution?

2)  Congratulations on the state grant to fund the redevelopment of the Tilly Mill/N. P'tree/Peeler intersection.  As a resident who drives through it several times a day I concur it is long overdue.  I would have been satisfied with any plan, so long as it expedited traffic through the intersection safely.

With that said, there is much more to safety and shorter wait times than just infrastructure.  Because these roads are arteries to I285 and Georgia Perimeter College (GPC) you have some additional issues:  namely, a large concentration of college students with a limited amount of driving experience and the "ten-feet-tall-and-bulletproof" view of themselves that all college students experience.  Infrastructure alone - including striping, bike lanes, signage, lights, etc - does not necessarily persuade drivers (including bicyclists) to drive safely.  In addition to speed traps and occasional jaywalking warnings at the college itself, how is the City working with GPC to reinforce and encourage safe driving/bicycling habits in this population?

2a)  Even though a street is on the drawing board for redevelopment, the lane striping still needs maintenance.  It is not acceptable for striping to be allowed to disappear from use just because a refurbishment is coming.  That's an accident waiting to happen and you don't need the liability.  Try driving south on N. Peachtree approaching Tilly Mill.  The center yellow lines are *gone* and it is almost impossible to determine where the left-hand turn lane ends and the northbound lane begins.  See above re:  college students.  You also have a population driving through here that doesn't live in Dunwoody, is not as familiar with the streets as those who live on them and an accident is bound to happen.

3)  You may be interested to know that if the City plans to install tennis courts at Brook Run in place of the office buildings (thank you, again!) and even refurbish those at Windwood Hollow Park (please?), facilities grants are available from the USTA for their installation.  (http://www.usta.com/About-USTA/USTA-Awards/grants/ - scroll down to "Facilities".)  Milam Park in Clarkston (http://www.southern.usta.com/milam_park_conversion_opens_in_clarkston_ga/) was a recipient of one of these grants and they created an outstanding facility for their community, including scaled-down "quickstart" courts for smaller children.

If/when these courts are installed/upgraded, please consider additional markings to scale the courts down to 60' and 36' for younger players.  (aka, "blended lines")  You don't have the space for dedicated smaller childrens' courts, and I'm sure you're not planning any professional-grade play, so additional blended lines will do the job.  (For info see:  http://www.usta.com/Facilities/facilities_frequently_asked_questions/#1345)

This is just an FYI from a tennis mom who has seen kids of all ages enjoy the sport when it is scaled for them.  I'm sure other sports enthusiasts can include their two-cents on other sport amenities.

Thanks for hosting this event tonight and I look forward to hearing your responses to the above questions and more.  Please give answers as honest as the questions.  They are going to be posted somewhere, right?