The provincial government of British Columbia has dealt a crippling blow to the province’s once-thriving film industry, declining to fund BC Film, a non-profit agency providing CAN$4 million a year in equity financing for Canadian films, in this year’s budget. The demise of BC Film will likely have a profound effect on the entire country’s film scene, since filmmakers typically assemble funding from a variety of sources, creating a money tree which, “like a delicate house of cards,” can collapse if one of the key components is missing.
Month: April 2004
Nielsen Delays New Ratings Technique
Responding to concerns that its new “people meter” ratings technology would significantly undercount minority viewers, Nielsen Media Research, which tracks TV viewership in the U.S., has announced that it will delay the new product’s national rollout, even as it insists that the numbers generated by the meters are accurate. “In tests of the new system, almost all of the most popular shows in black households dropped in the ratings, some by as much as 60 percent.” TV stations don’t like the system either, largely because the meters do a more accurate job of recording how often viewers flip between channels than the traditional handwritten viewer diaries ever did.
Boyle Reups With Scottish Arts Council
“The chairman of the Scottish Arts Council, James Boyle, is set to remain in the post for a second three-year term, the Scottish Executive said yesterday… The move caused surprise and interest across the Scottish arts scene yesterday. The arts council’s own future is said to be in doubt, with the Executive promising to reshape arts policy and funding in Scotland in its forthcoming cultural review. As recently as this January, it was thought that Mr Boyle might renew his contract for only a year. Many in the arts world had the impression he was ready to leave the council, but he signalled in a recent interview that he would be happy to stay on.”
How Great (Really) Was Wynton Marsalis?
Was Wynton Marsalis ever really all that good? He’s a legend, sure, write Fred Kaplan, but he disappoints. “Marsalis, who’s now 42, is a superb trumpeter and a brilliant educator. (His schoolhouse lectures on music, which aired on PBS a few years ago, are the best of their kind since Leonard Bernstein’s telecasts in the ’60s.) But he has never been a great bandleader or a composer. He’s written and recorded scores of compositions, but I defy anyone to hum a few.”
Would It Be Illegal To Just Beat Them With Sticks?
The Shanghai Grand Theater, which spent over $36,000 on an electronic jamming system to disable cell phones and wireless pagers in its performance space, is being forced to turn off the system after being told that using it is illegal. The theater says that it will begin politely asking patrons to turn off their mobile devices, which performers claim ring “from start to finish,” but some theatergoers insist that they should have the right to stay in touch with the outside world, even if it means disrupting the show.
Music Sales Down Worldwide In 2003
Sales of recorded music sales fell by more than 7% worldwide in 2003 says the International Federation of Phonographic Industries. Germany led the biggest decline with a drop of 19 percent. The organization reported said that “internet piracy was a major factor in the decline. It said sales had fallen 20% over three years.”
Looking To The Bottom Line in Baltimore
As orchestras around North America struggle to adapt to a harsh new funding climate, a dividing line is appearing between those ensembles which choose their leaders based mainly on their perceived business savvy, and those which prefer to be led by individuals with experience in the arts and non-profit sectors. This week, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is expected to take the former course, promoting its 49-year-old marketing director James Glicker, who had never worked for an orchestra before being hired to his current position in January, to the post of executive director.
Oakland Ballet Cancels Season
Facing a $250,000 shortfall on a budget of $1.25 million, the Oakland Ballet has decided to scrap its 2004-05 fall season to save money. The company, which is known for the diversity of its dancers, is hoping to raise $500,000 in the next few weeks, and will focus on finding a secure financial footing before launching its 40th anniversary season in fall 2005.
David Beckham, Award-Winning Author
“David Beckham has won a special prize at the British Book Awards for his book My Side, the fastest-selling biography or autobiography of all time. Lynne Truss’ bestselling grammar guide Eats, Shoots and Leaves picked up the book of the year award, while Alexander McCall Smith was named best author.”
New Kipling Story Published
“A recently-discovered story by Rudyard Kipling has been published for the first time. The tale, part of the Stalky & Co saga, is called Scylla and Charybdis, and sees Stalky and his friends catch a colonel cheating on the golf course. The manuscript was uncovered by an archivist at the Haileybury and Imperial Service College in Windsor, the successor to Kipling’s old school.”