Earth/SOS Teams Up With National Geographic Digital Film Archive to Fight Global Warming
National Geographic Digital Motion Provides Exclusive Film Archive Footage To SOS Filmmakers
WASHINGTON (July 2, 2007)—National Geographic’s Jocelyn Shearer and Live Earth/SOS founder Kevin Wall today announced that the Live Earth/SOS concert series is collaborating with National Geographic’s digital film archive, Digital Motion, in the campaign to fight global warming. The National Geographic film archive footage is being used by international filmmakers in short movies about climate change that will be shown at nine concerts scheduled for July 7, 2007, around the world.
“National Geographic Digital Motion is pleased to offer film and video producers open access to our vast online digital archive,” said Shearer, vice president, video licensing and archive management, National Geographic Digital Motion. “NGDM is honored to be a major content resource behind Live Earth/SOS to support this one-of-a-kind concert series.”
“National Geographic brings the world together like no other organization, through scientific research, media and outreach to all,” Wall said. “Live Earth is about linking people to every corner of the planet for a common purpose — to combat global warming. National Geographic has the unmatched ability to help us achieve that goal.”
On July 7, Live Earth/SOS will use the footage from National Geographic Digital Motion, the digital film archive containing moving images from more than 40 years of National Geographic wildlife and other documentary film production, to help convey the true impact of the climate crisis. Video will be displayed on Jumbotrons at the nine live concerts and as part of the global broadcast that will be carried worldwide by more than 100 television networks and LiveEarth.msn.com.
NGDM opened its film vaults to play a key role in the SOS film program. SOS has commissioned 60 short films to urge theater and television audiences to take action on the climate crisis. To date, 13 filmmakers have accessed the NGDM film library at www.ngdigitalmotion.com, receiving more than 100 hours of footage. The goal of the SOS film program is to create lasting media that will echo the call to action that the Live Earth concerts will deliver. This year’s Tribeca Film Festival kicked off with the premieres of nine of the SOS films.
About National Geographic Digital Motion
National Geographic Digital Motion (formerly National Geographic Film Library) is the stock footage service of National Geographic Digital Media. This service licenses the Emmy Award-winning National Geographic Television and film programming. In addition, Digital Motion agents represent peer-level archives, including Australian Broadcasting Corporation, INA of France, National Film Board of Canada, the White House Historical Association, ZDF Enterprises of Germany and the World Bank, in select territories around the world. The Digital Motion searchable video archive database is at www.ngdigitalmotion.com.
About Live Earth
Live Earth is a monumental music event that will bring together more than 2 billion people on July 7, 2007, to combat the climate crisis. Live Earth will stage concerts in New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Hamburg, and will feature more than 150 of the world’s best music acts — a mix of both legendary music acts like The Police, Genesis, Bon Jovi and Madonna with the latest headliners like Kanye West, Kelly Clarkson, Black Eyed Peas and Jack Johnson.
Live Earth’s 24 hours of music across seven continents will deliver a worldwide call to action and the solutions necessary to answer that call. Live Earth marks the beginning of a multiyear campaign to drive individuals, corporations and governments to take action to solve the climate crisis. Live Earth is partnering with the Alliance for Climate Protection, The Climate Group, Stop Climate Chaos and other international organizations in this ongoing effort. Live Earth was founded by Kevin Wall, CEO of Control Room, the company producing the concerts globally. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is the chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection and a partner of Live Earth.
Exclusive online media partner MSN is helping Live Earth reach people in every corner of the globe. Official Live Earth concerts will be streamed live at http://liveearth.msn.com. MSN’s 39 localized Web portals worldwide attract 465 million monthly users.
For more information, visit www.liveearth.org or www.liveearth.msn.com.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Ethan Fried
(202) 857-7037
efried@ngs.org
Yusef K. Robb
(323) 384-1789
press@liveearth.org