MovieReading app transforms cinema experience for the vision-impaired

CLIENT: DEMAND.FILM
OUTLET: ABC NEWS

Cinemagoers are usually urged to switch off mobile phones when the lights dim for a movie, but a new app for the vision-impaired will transform their device and film-going experience.

Adelaide woman Sarah Savage said her impairment meant she had never before been to the cinema, and she missed out as well when she and her husband watched TV or movies at home.

"I miss most of the detail, especially if there's lots of darkness," she said.

The MovieReading app detects the point the film is at, via the phone's microphone, and streams a detailed descriptive audio track, which tells the user what is appearing on the big screen.

Travelling tradies can see the country by going where the work is

CLIENT: WORKFAST
OUTLET: CAREERONE - NEWS.COM.AU (NATIONAL SYNDICATION)

TRADESPEOPLE and labourers willing to go where the work is and take on temporary assignments can use their careers to see the country.

Tradies hoping to explore the Northern Territory on a working holiday are best placed as refrigeration technicians, plumbers or labourers. If Queensland is more their style, bricklayers, labourers and shopfitters are in luck.

Tim Nieuwenhuis, managing director of Workfast, says apps such as his connect tradespeople with the marketplace and allow them to find work all over the country.

Michael Smith, Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year Appears On Triple M

CLIENT: DEMAND.FILM
OUTLET: TRIPLE M

The 'Voyage of the Southern Sun' follows Michael Smith's journey  in a solo circumnavigation in his tiny amphibious flying boat, Southern Sun, that retraced historical Qantas, Imperial and Pan Am airmail routes, in search of the glory days of 1930’s aviation.

The Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year joins Lu and Matt to talk about his adventure and the new documentary to be screened via demand.film

The Plastic Ocean exposes the shocking reality of sea pollution

CLIENT: DEMAND.FILM
OUTLET: THE DAILY EDITION

Sea Shepherd coordinator Liza Dicks joins Ryan and Sarah on The Daily Edition to discuss the dire state of our coastal environment.

In this adventure documentary, 'A Plastic Ocean', Craig Leeson teams up with free diver Tanya Streeter and an international team of scientists and researchers to explore the fragile state of our oceans, uncover alarming truths about plastic pollution, and reveal working solutions that can be put into immediate effect.

For session times go to demand.film

MovieReading app brings cinema experience to the blind

CLIENT: DEMAND.FILM
OUTLET: THE AUSTRALIAN

An Australian-first smartphone app will allow visually impaired people to fully experience movies at the cinema, in a new trial designed to make films more accessible.An Australian-first smartphone app will allow visually impaired people to fully experience movies at the cinema, in a new trial designed to make films more accessible.

“The technology behind the app ‘listens’ to the regular audio of the film and synchronises with it and then adds the enhanced audio elements on top of the regular soundtrack,” Demand.film chief executive David Doepel says.

Demand.film, a Perth-based firm with offices in Wellington, London and Los Angeles, lets any person or organisation “host” a film listed on the Demand.film site and create an event around it.

One in three Aussies primed for Easter, Anzac Day sickie snatch

CLIENT: WORKFAST
OUTLET: NEWS.COM.AU

WORKPLACES are gearing up for a flood of sickies on Monday, April 24, fearing the Anzac Day public holiday on Tuesday, coming so close to the Easter break, will see employees treat themselves to a second four-day long weekend.

Tim Nieuwenhuis, CEO of on-demand labour-hire app Workfast, said businesses are already ‘sickie-proofing’, placing temps on standby to fill in for staff who are no-shows.

How recruitment startup Workfast hit $1 million in revenue within two months of launching

CLIENT: WORKFAST
OUTLET: SMART COMPANY

Sydney-founded Workfast is an online platform enabling businesses to hire workers at short notice around Australia.Two months after launching in September 2016, it topped $1 million in revenue and within the next 18 months, Workfast co-founder and chief executive Tim Nieuwenhuis is aiming to hit $30 million.

The Workfast team spent around 18 months testing, tweaking, iterating and developing the product before releasing the full version.“Even after launch, we had to pivot a little bit,” he says. Reflecting on the experience, Nieuwenhuis shares four tips for startups to grow without external funding.

The Eyes Of The World Are On Australia’s Fight For Same-Sex Marriage

CLIENT: DEMAND.FILM
OULET: BUZZFEED

Freedom to Marry is also the title of a documentary about the fight to legislate for same-sex marriage in the US. It premiered at the Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney on February 22.

It features Wolfson, who for 40 years has waged a campaign for marriage reform, and lawyer Mary Bonauto, who argued the case for same-sex marriage before the US Supreme Court in 2015.

Australian Marriage Equality plans to hold screenings of the documentary in regional areas including Shepparton, Lismore, Kiama and Port Hedland.

Same-sex marriage will happen in Australia, and here’s how. The ‘yes’ campaign’s secret weapon is coming

CLIENT: DEMAND.FILM
OUTLET: NEWS.COM.AU

SAME-sex marriage will happen in Australia sooner rather than later, the architect of the successful US campaign for equality says, and he’s coming down to help.

Evan Wolfson was the founder of Freedom to Marry, a strategic hub for the national equality battle in America that ultimately won in 2015.

A documentary about the US campaign, titled The Freedom To Marry, premiered at the Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney last night and will now begin a nationwide tour. “The (film) has the potential to affect real change ... and its important narrative will resonate with communities across Australia”

Australia can’t give advice on territorial matters while still in dispute with East Timor: Bracks

CLIENT: DEMAND.FILM
OUTLET: NEWS.COM.AU

AUSTRALIA can’t lecture anyone on a solution for the South China Sea until it sorts out its own long-running sea border dispute with East Timor where $40 billion in oil and gas resources is in play.

Mr Bracks’ comments come as a new documentary outlining the long running dispute between the two nations screens around Australia over the next three months.

Time to Draw the Line outlines Australia and East Timor’s long relationship from WWII to more recent allegations of spying by Australian intelligence operatives.