Beginning this week, ESPN will debut a series of films at the upstart FiveThirtyEight site. As the FiveThirtyEight site deals with analytics and data, so will the film series that will be branded “Signals” and will be produced by ESPN Films.
The first film, “The Man Vs. The Machine” which premieres on October 22, will delve into the famous chess matches between then-World Champion Gary Kasparov and the IBM “Deep Blue” computer.
As with the critically-acclaimed “30 for 30” series, the FiveThirtyEight films will be directed by those who have Hollywood connections. Frank Marshall who has worked with Steven Spielberg on many of his blockbusters directed the Kasparov movie. Community’s Gillian Jacobs directed a film under the “Signals” brand that will debut in January 2015.
The films will be similar to the “30 for 30 Shorts” which run under 20 minutes in length. Not only will they be promoted by ESPN, but they will be supported by ABC News bringing the shorts to a different audience other than sports fans.
FiveThirtyEight has gotten off to a slow start since launching under ESPN’s auspices back in March. The content has ranged all over the place from its traditional subjects of politics and sports to grading burritos and monitoring AccuWeather’s forecasts.
While its ComScore numbers are low compared to more popular websites, ESPN is hoping the original films will be able to drive traffic to the site.
Here’s a list and brief synopsis of the films debuting on FiveThirtyEight over the next few months.
The Man Vs. The Machine
Chess champion Gary Kasparov takes on IBM’s “Deep Blue” computer.
The Cowboys and The Indian
The Dallas Cowboys develop a computer to review draft picks with the help of an Indian computer programmer.
The Queens of Code
A look at the early days of computers and the development of software code.
Zormelo
The melding of advanced analytics and basketball.
Gold Hunters
The discovery of a sunken ship full of gold off the Carolinas and the hunt for one of the explorers.
The subjects might be dry to laypeople, but they may attract the target audience that FiveThirtyEight is seeking.
[ESPN]
