Startup News – A Mug’s Game

Startup’s software allows users to insert 3-D versions of their faces in videos, photos, online content.

By CHARLES PROCTOR
Los Angeles Business Journal Staff
Posted date: 11/10/2008
How many people want to see themselves in a clip from “Phantom of the Opera” or “The A-Team”? Enough to build a business?

Pasadena Startup Big Stage Entertainment Inc. is about to find out. The company last week publicly launched a software program that creates a 3-D image from photos of a person’s face. The image can then be placed over the heads of actors in movie clips and still photos at the company’s Web site, giving users the appearance of being, say, Mr. T or in a scene from “Night of the Living Dead.”

At this stage of Big Stage, which was founded two years ago by entrepreneurs Jonathan Strietzel, Jon Kraft and Jon Snoddy, the choice of clips and photos into which your likeness can be integrated is limited. Phil Ressler, the company’s chief executive, said Big Stage is in conversations with movie studios, video game publishers and ad agencies to offer more content for people to pop up in. He envisions a day when Big Stage users – he calls them “actors” – will be able to insert themselves into sites all over the Internet.

Read more

Jonathan Strietzel: “Creating the Digital You”

By Dog and Pony Editor – November 6th, 2008 @ 3:21 pm

Jonathan Strietzel is the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of BigStage.com a new digital media company that is bringing digital versions of real people to life. For those of you who’ve dreamed of staring in a blockbuster movie or TV show alongside their favorite actor, or perhaps you’ve wanted to save the world in a video game, rock out on a music video, BigStage.com offers you the opportunity to do so in less than 30 seconds. Sound like fun? Well this seemingly innocuous idea turns out to be big business. This completely new entertainment vertical will be a big win for advertisers who are constantly looking for creative new ways for people to interact with their product.

Web customization, in the cyberworld, is growth of user-centric Facebook applications, YouTube videos, and MySpace pages. What started out as merely cartoon-like image engines, shifted toward three-dimensional architectures where users have been able to give life to their pint-size replicates. BigStage.com has taken it one step further from a static format into a fully interactive functionality, where the possibilities are seemingly endless. The genius behind this company is that it takes an “open stage” platform, where users can simply download an API toolkit and use structural bits of content to create king

This is evidenced just by looking at the explosive their own microsight. In essence, the site turns into a network engine where users build, customize and improve features and contribute directly to the site’s growth.

All the World’s a Stage and You’re a Player In It…

Distorted-Loop.com – Repost by Jonathan Strietzel

Posted by Jonny on November 5th, 2008
Can’t get enough of karaoke? Like to take space in the spotlight? Possessed by a pathological need to put yourself across?

Big Stage Entertainment’s new service could be a bit of fun for you, as it lets you pop self-made animated 3D performances into your Facebook or MySpace profile.

Phil Ressler, Big Stage Entertainment CEO said, “Big Stage Entertainment is making complex 3D modeling technology accessible for everyone to create a realistic, animated facial clone of themselves for the very first time.”

BigStage.com is a website where anyone can create a free, animated 3D “Digital You” for instant projection into the online landscape. Click across to the site and you’re promised tools to use to easily create a sophisticated, animated, 3D model of your face using only one to three photos taken with a digital camera.

Called an @ctor, The Digital You can be customized with accessories and then inserted into a growing selection of movie scenes, TV clips, music videos, virtual worlds, social networks, still images, video games, advertisements and more to share with friends, family and colleagues – here’s a video that tries to explain a little about this:

Users must install the Big Stage Media Player to create and see these creations. Once the player is installed, @ctors can be styled with hair, eyeglasses, hats and clothing, and can be projected into social networks, online communities, video clips, backgrounds, still images, greetings and more – including YouTube clips.

BigStage.com users are required to install the free Big Stage Media Player on their PC to experience BigStage.com. System requirements are a PC running the Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Vista operating systems, as well as the Firefox 2+ or Internet Explorer 6+ Web browsers.

A Mac OS version of the Big Stage Media Player is planned but “not yet scheduled,” the company said.