This Christmas, don't send a card, send a movie. And save the planet twice over

Nov. 27, 2007 - PRLog -- This Christmas, sending MovieTexts is the new way to show you care.  About your loved ones.  And about the environment.

The makers of these unique personalised movie greetings have teamed up with charity Tree Aid to give people the best ever reasons to switch from paper to e-greetings.

www.movietexts.com

The next generation of egreetings with eye-popping personalisation
MovieTexts are a completely new kind of egreeting.  They're real little movies starring your words. Your message is right there as part of the scene - not just stuck on the end of 2d cartoons. And because MovieTexts are movies you can send them not just via email, but also to any phone that can play videos.

They’re made by multi-award winning television commercials director and digital artist John Clive using the kind of high end computer graphics you see in the cinema to create eye-popping personalization in movies that are designed to be fun for people of all ages.

The catalogue includes a dancing snowman, a video blog from a depressed elf and Father Christmas behaving, er, unusually.

The movies are intended to persuade people to switch from sending paper cards to less environmentally damaging egreetings.  More than 900,000 trees are cut down each year to supply the card industry in the UK and US alone.

“It’s understandable,” says Clive, “that some people see ordinary flash animation ecards as downmarket and impersonal.  It’s quite a tired format.  That’s why we’re determined to provide a new standard in creativity and personalisation of egreetings – providing real entertainment and pleasure– and completely free of advertising.”



Saving the world makes financial sense too

To encourage people to use egreetings the MovieTexts creators have come up with an unusual offer.

You send MovieTexts to your friends and family.  Every time one of them signs up as a result, you get £1.  You can either keep the money, or you can allow Movietexts to donate it to Tree Aid, a charity which  is transforming the lives of villagers in Africa hit hardest by deforestation and restoring their environment .  It’s an unlimited offer. The more people sign up the more cash you earn – for yourself or for Tree Aid.

And, to encourage people to donate the cash they earn, MovieTexts will match every £1 donated to tree aid through this scheme with a further £1.

Says Clive: “We don’t think people should switch to egreetings just because they’re green.  We think they should do it because they provide something of real quality.  And because it makes good financial sense.  People can effectively pay nothing for a whole year of egreetings, which is good for them and the environment.  Or they can double the impact and help Tree Aid in its vital work.”

Environmentally and financially responsible - and really good fun. How often do you get all of that in one place?


Release date: 21 November 2007

For further information, please contact:

Richard Gold
07974 917 840
richardgold@121movies.com



NOTES TO EDITORS:

About MovieTexts

Movietexts is the consumer egreetings service from 121movies ltd

121movies was founded in 2006 by multi-award winning commercials and film director John Clive with the aim of creating a new standard in creativity and personalisation of egreetings and other messaging.

Unique to 121movies is its proprietary software MTXpress that lets users automatically personalise video content for greetings and messages (MovieTexts) and video ringtones (MovieTones). Input text is photo-realistically integrated into short movies. The software is the product of an unusual collaboration of professional skills: typography, filmmaking, 3d animation and programming.

Movietexts to mobiles is currently available only in the UK.

The company’s corporate egreetings offer can be found at: www.121movies.com
The consumer website is at: www.movietexts.com


About the offer

Here’s how it works:

•   I take a MovieTexts annual subscription for £8.75, allowing me to send unlimited email Movietexts for personal use
•   When someone I sent a MovieText to signs up, the system checks who was the first person to send them one.
•   If it was me, my Movietext account is credited with £1
•   At the end of the month, I can either claim the money I’ve earned, which will be paid to me via a PayPal account
•   Or I can elect to donate the money via MovieTexts to Tree Aid
•   The offer is unlimited in terms of the amount I can earn, so I could end up sending all my cards for free
•   And to encourage people to donate the money, rather than keep it, 121movies will match every donated £1 with a further £1.
•   If no-one has referred a new subscriber, 121movies will in any case donate £1 to Tree Aid


About Tree Aid

In rural Africa, trees feed, house, provide energy and improve the environment for millions of families. But rapid deforestation in the drylands of Africa is depriving people of these essential resources.

TREE AID works village by village to support communities to meet their basic needs and secure vital income from trees. We do this through training for and funding of community forestry projects.

TREE AID is the UK's only forestry-focused development charity providing funding and on-the-ground training and support to local organisations in the Sahel. TREE AID works where people need trees most: in the poorest villages in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, northern Ghana and Mali where 90% depend on trees for basic survival needs.
In the words of one farmer on a TREE AID funded project, 'without trees we have no life'.

Key Achievements:
•   Over £5.2 million has been raised, with nearly £4 million spent on our charitable objectives
•   More than 300,000 villagers have directly benefited from our support, and over 1 million have indirectly benefited from an improved environment
•   Over 6.5 million trees have been planted and many more have been protected
•   More than 40,000 villagers have been trained in forestry techniques, soil conservation and credit
•   120km of rock lines have been constructed to prevent soil erosion
•   Just over 400 community nurseries have been established, plus another 700 private nurseries
•   13,000 fuelwood efficient stoves have been installed.


About the environmental cost of paper greeting cards

Virgin paper and resource us e.
•   Around 900,000 trees are felled each year to supply the 9.7 billion greetings cards sent annually in the U.S. & U.K. alone.
•   Some manufacturers use recycled paper, however, despite pressure, this has not become a high priority in the industry.
•   Other environmentally damaging practices used to make paper greeting cards include the use of toxic inks, fixing agents and plastic embellishments
•   Again, some manufacturers are using less toxic alternatives, but even in the best case, there are still significant carbon emissions generated by the manufacturing process.

Transportation costs and added postage weight.
•   Long before a card is purchased by the consumer there is a chain of transportation. The shipping of lumber, the delivery of paper stock and the distribution to the point of sale of the manufactured product.  All this must be added to the carbon emissions caused by the massive seasonal surge in postal deliveries.

Disposal.
•   A small percentage of greeting cards get saved by the recipient. Most end up in landfills. A U.S. research programme, “Project Garbage”, has now discovered that paper products do not biodegrade normally in landfill, due to a lack of oxygen and water.
•   Even in the best case, where greetings cards are recycled, there are energy and pollution costs associated with transporting and converting the waste into reusable paper.

All these environmental costs can be eliminated by the use of e-greetings.

Website: www.movietexts.com