Happy New Year, everyone!

As we enter the first week of 2011, we come to you with some exciting news, featuring new tools, new films, filmmakers, and Web TV channels.

The big news is that all users on Film Annex now have their own Web TV channels. You don't have to be a filmmaker to request a channel. You can be a viewer and curate your own channel, which you can monetize. Please read more about this great opportunity on our blog.

Last week, we implemented a new tool that shows you your social networking score as well as your ad performance score. What does this mean? To make sure that your films reach their target audience, most of you use social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. Some of you write blog posts to let your audience know about your work in more depth. We measure your online social skills and give you a number on a scale from 1 to 10, so you have something tangible to rely on. This score will tell you how well your web channel is doing and what you need to do if you're not doing enough.

What is social networking score?

Social Networking Score (SNS) is a number that indicates how well your Web TV is doing in terms of traffic, popularity, and outreach. Scores below 1 are indicative or poor social networking performance and may lead to a critical loss of revenue. Number of (Facebook Likes + Tweets + Blog posts)100 / Total number of impressions = Social Networking Score.

What is Ad Performance Score?

Clickthrough rate or CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the "number of users who clicked on an ad" on a web page by the "number of times the ad was delivered" (impressions). For example, if a banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and 1 person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent. Performance below 0.5% may result in critical loss of revenues.

To see your current score, log in to your Film Annex account, visit your MyPage, and click on "Admin your Web TVs." The scores are visible on the right hand side of the page.

Our featured film this week is Ordaemonium by London-based filmmaker, Gergely Wootsch. In this black and white, highly creative animated short film, the filmmaker explores the narrow gap between chaos and order, dream and reality, childhood trauma and spaghetti.

This week's filmmaker is Israel-based filmmaker, Tal Haring, who continues to make powerful and moving short films. Haring seems to pay careful attention to character study, as all of his characters have much depth and intriguing back stories that make his films appealing and engaging to the audience. We think the viewers will soon see big productions by this filmmaker, so make sure to check out his films and keep an eye on his future work!

Lastly, check out Tarzan Web TV, presenting, Tarzan, the NBC TV series from 1966. You can watch all episodes in full length and for free. If you’re a Tarzan fan or tired of living in our civilized world like Tarzan, then we invite you to take a trip to the jungle to find yourself again.

For the latest news and updates in 2011, follow us on Twitter and Facebook!