Carl Freer, David Warnock and Simon Davies Resolve Their Legal Dispute and Announce Joint Commercial Plan

Huntermay Announces Agreement that Affirms Mutual Commitment to the Future of Vision Recognition Software Development

Carl Freer

Los Angeles, CA – Carl Freer, David Warnock and Simon Davies have reached an amicable resolution to their differences. Huntermay, a corporate investigations and negotiations firm made this announcement today (7 March 2012).

The parties have dismissed the lawsuits and withdrawn their respective allegations. Messrs Warnock and Davies have also agreed to terminate the public campaign focused on Carl Freer and supervise where possible the removal of any derogatory content from the internet regarding Mr. Freer and the companies which he has founded.

As part of the campaign, public allegations were made that the FBI and the SEC were investigating Mr. Freer and his companies. While the lawsuit was pending, Mr. Freer’s counsel established that these allegations were untrue and that Messrs Warnock and Davies had been misled by their advisors. Once Mr. Warnock discovered the problem, he immediately took action to correct matters.

Carl Freer stated, “After some open dialogue, it became obvious that tensions between us grew as a result of unwise counsel rather than from a genuine dispute between the parties. I applaud the courage and diligence on all sides to work through all of our differences and move forward. We can now focus on rekindling our friendships and strengthening our businesses relationships.”

David Warnock said, “I am extremely pleased that we were able to amicably resolve our differences. This resolution ends all legal disputes and allows us to work together in a positive fashion to explore opportunities that will be mutually beneficial to all parties. We are looking forward to our new ventures and utilizing our core strengths of product innovation and business development to exploit significant opportunities in the market.”

Simon Davies added that he “looks forward to moving ahead and is pleased with the outcome.”

About Carl Freer

Carl Freer was born on the 9th of May in 1970, in Stockholm, Sweden. Holding numerous international patents, Carl Freer has developed an array of successful technology companies across the globe. One of his U.S. patents, number 20060064350, protects a proprietary method of delivering optimal advertising content to users. His current business endeavor, is currently developing an advanced technology that can connect a mobile device to a company’s website by having the user say the product’s name aloud or take a picture of the logo with their camera phone. Carl Freer designed this technology to provide a wealth of navigational information while users venture through cities and public sites; it even has an opt-in coupon service allowing consumers to receive timely savings from their favorite companies. As the President and Founder of the enterprise, Carl Freer not only develops the products, but also oversees all aspects of brand integration and product promotion. Carl Freer has previously served in the business development industry for several technology companies, including The Media Power Group, which also utilized augmented reality technology to deliver individualized messages to consumers. He gained additional experience with developing applications for mobile devices while at Magitech Games. In addition, Freer served as the Chairman of Tiger Telematics, Inc., the company behind the Gizmondo handheld gaming system. Aside from his work in technology, Carl Freer helps other people realize their educational goals through his support of the Back on Track organization.

For further information, contact:

James Huntermay
Huntermay
33 London Road
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Kent
TN4 0PB

United Kingdom

enquiry@huntermay.net
http://www.huntermay.net

Startup Looks Set to Flip the Switch on 3-D Movie Re-Releases

FilmFunds’ process speeds up converting from 2-D to 3-D and lowers the cost

Los Angeles - After a 3-D re-release of “The Lion King” roared at the box office last year, a pipeline of 3-D theatrical re-releases is in place for this year. But Carl Freer, founder of L.A. startup FilmFunds, thinks there’s room for even more. His startup just started selling 3-D conversion technology to studios that allows them to quickly convert content for less than going to a third-party conversion company.

“We’ll allow them to knock themselves out,” Freer said.

He launched the company with a website in October that allows movie fans to vote on films they’d like to see re-released in 3-D, such as 1980’s Warner Bros. classic “Blade Runner” and Universal’s “Back to the Future.” He plans to use the site as market research to show studios that films can be successful in re-release.

He acquired the conversion technology in December when FilmFunds bought Duran Duboi U.S. for an undisclosed amount. Duran Duboi is a postproduction house in Los Angeles that handled the 3-D conversion for last year’s Lions Gate release “Conan the Barbarian.”

FilmFunds’ technology converts 2-D to 3-D in real-time using software that can analyze a screen at the rate of 60 frames per second. Freer declined to discuss a price for the device, but did note that he plans to make money servicing the devices.

Freer expects much of the opportunity to come from home video re-releases through digital distribution channels like Netflix Inc., once 3-D-enabled TVs become more common. That’s in part because home video re-releases require less-expensive conversions and also because studios are more receptive to simultaneous home releases for 3-D reboots than for new releases.
Another factor for the slow pace of theatrical re-releases is that the cost of theatrical-quality conversion often ranges between $10 million to $20 million.

“The studios and networks are indecisive because of the big cost additive,” he said.

Small Screen
Craig Tanner, co-founder of production company Digital Revolution Studios, is also banking on 3-D-enabled consumer devices. He has amassed some 500 minutes of 3-D video content that he plans to license once 3-D-enabled handheld devices become more common.

“It’s on a shelf ready to go for the handheld consumer,” Tanner said.

He got a peek of the coming action when he produced a 3-D music video for the song “Don’t Stop” by L.A. alternative rock band Foster the People. The video was available for free download by owners of the Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming system in December.

For Tanner, who spent three years as a visual effects editor on “Avatar,” the two-day music video shoot was a first. But with device makers coming out with 3-D enabled smartphones this year, he said, manufacturers are increasingly asking him to produce short-form content that can fill-out their download stores, as he did for Nintendo.

“It sparked an interest in our company,” he said. “We plan on doing quite a few music videos this year.”

He’s now in talks with music labels and device makers, and expects to put out about 10 music videos from major recording artists this year. Whereas the Nintendo video was a free download, he expects future videos to be monetized similarly to Apple Inc.’s iTunes store, which splits revenue with content creators.

Fine-Tuning
Burbank public TV station KCET-TV (28) continues to roll out new productions, even as funding is down. Last week, the station announced a new slate of programming to debut in March, including talk show “L.A. Tonight With Roy Firestone” and documentary series “Your Turn to Care.”

The programming push is part of the station’s effort to win back viewers that left the station after it severed ties with PBS. In the station’s first month without PBS programming, January 2011, prime time ratings bottomed out at an average of 18,000 viewers.

But a station spokeswoman said prime time viewership was up 78 percent last month, compared with a year earlier, to 32,000. That’s due to higher-performing shows such as British comedy show “Doc Martin,” which brought the station’s largest viewing audience of 150,000 on Jan. 5 since going independent.

Still, funding for the station has withered without PBS. According to the station’s last audited statement, donations dropped some $15 million to $22.3 million for the year ended June 30. That drop reflected a half-year without PBS.

About FilmFunds
Headquartered in Los Angeles, FilmFunds offers a 360-degree solution for Hollywood to test nascent film projects, helping move content through the pipeline by creating an audience for it, while giving fans a unprecedented opportunity to be part of the green-light process. FilmFunds utilizes crowd-sourced social marketing research to replace the costly live test-screening model used since Hollywood’s Golden Era. A social environment where Hollywood filmmakers can meet their real audience, with the most accurate, state-of-the-art diagnostics guiding their efforts to improve and build support for their product, FilmFunds is a place where film lovers have a chance to make it their movie. For more information, please visit http://www.FilmFunds.com.

For further information, please contact:

Rich Jenkins, CTO
FilmFunds, Inc.
3000 Olympic Blvd.
Building 5, Suite 2100
Santa Monica, CA 90404
USA

+1 310 315 4790
rich@filmfunds.com
http://www.filmfunds.com