Next2Friends™ Delivers 360 Degrees of Drawn by Pain

New York, NY, September 21, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Next2Friends™, the Mobile Social Platform, is teaming up with Webby Award winning web-series Drawn By Pain to create a 360° experience around its upcoming Tribeca Cinemas feature-length version screening on October 4th, 2008.

Series creator/director Jesse Cowell just debuted the series’ finale episode and is hosting the Tribeca Cinemas event in celebration of a hugely successful year. Next2Friends™ (www.Next2Friends.com) is sponsoring the event and will be on hand to create an all-encompassing experience out of the film screening festivities, through the exclusive use of its mobile tools. “Citizen Journalists” and fans will be capturing all the pre and post show excitement by streaming live video, creating real-time opinion polls, and uploading photos of the event straight from their mobile phones. There will also be live streamed exclusive content such as interviews with some of the key players of Drawn By Pain, and live coverage of the post screening Q&A with creator/director Jesse Cowell.

Winning the 2008 Online Film and Video Webby People’s Voice Award for “Best Use of Animation/Motion Graphics” was the culmination of a very momentous year for Cowell. Starting in late January, Cowell announced a non-exclusive content deal between his banner Jeskid Productions and VUZE, the world’s most popular web portals. Soon after, Cowell was asked by The Independent Film Channel (IFC) to appear on their new online Lunchbox Show, which featured interviews with Cowell along with clips from the series. In addition, Cowell agreed to have the official Drawn By Pain site www.drawnbypain.com powered by Blip.TV, the world's leading videoblogging and podcasting service. The series was listed on the “What’s Hot” list for iTunes and was a featured exhibitor at New York ComicCon at the Javits Center in Manhattan. Drawn By Pain joined forces with The Escapist website in May of this year, on which it has been serialized in 12 episodes each Monday. The Drawn By Pain promotional spots airing on Escapist’s Zero Punctuation series translated into a huge jump in brand awareness for the series. The numbers of views & downloads for the series were now breaking the one-million mark across the board.

“We created Next2Friends so people could experience and share their world in ways not possible before;” commented Roy Shelton, CEO of Next2Friends™. “The great thing about fans using Next2Friends at the Drawn By Pain release is that not only will they be more deeply engaged with the event, but their energy and excitement will be broadcast to the millions of other fans across the globe. Next2Friends™ mobile platform is a great example of how technology can bridge the real and virtual worlds and brings us closer together.”

The use of technology and new media has opened up a whole new world of interaction and participation for fans, and Next2Friends™ delivers this better than any other social network today. Driven by Next2Friends’ mobile tools, the paradigm is shifting from fans being the passive “recipients” of events to the engaged creators of content that reflect their excitement and experience. At the heart of this transformation and central to Next2Friends™ is the mobile phone, which acts as a conduit and extension of all the ways a person wants to interact with a network of people in real life. This gets amplified at real world events, such as the Drawn By Pain screening, where people can suddenly share what they’re seeing using Next2Friends™ Live, snap and instantly upload photos for others to view using Next2Friends™ Snap Up, or ask and receive real time feedback from their network using Next2Friends™ Ask.

Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind screening event at 6:30pm on Saturday, October 4th at Tribeca Cinemas - 54 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10013. See Next2Friends™ in action by attending in person or simply tune in to www.Next2Friends.com on the eve of the event. For a free press pass to attend please contact Rachel Wilde at Rachel@Next2Friends.com. There will be a reception with food, drinks and special reels of behind-the-scenes footage following the show. For non-press reserved seating please contact info@drawnbypain.com. Tickets are $20.

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About Next2Friends™
Next2Friends™ (www.next2friends.com), the mobile social media platform, delivers content and connections that entertain, engage and enhance life. Bringing together the full capabilities of both mobile and PC-based internet technology, the comprehensive suite of applications and features provide rich media, commercial and communication services to today’s connected consumer.

Key applications include:
· Live – true, real-time video streaming from mobile device to web.
· Ask – opinion gathering and decision making on the move.
· Snap Up – automatic streaming of images captured while out and about.
· Tag & Meet – intelligent matching of virtual profiles in the physical world.

The Next2Friends™ platform utilises patent-pending, proprietary technology to ensure consumers, businesses and brands enjoy the full value of the mobile internet. The UK Limited Company, formed in 2007, is an equal opportunities employer and has offices in the UK and US, in addition to R&D divisions on three continents.