Category: media

“A new online distribution system for documentaries launched in July has found widespread consumer adoption, but is still not close to providing substantive income to documentary or low-budget filmmakers. SnagFilms, launched by former National Geographic Films chief C. Richard Allen and former AOL executive Ted Leonsis, is geared to using the social networking tools of the web to feed a new distribution model for low-budget films.”

“After several years of moaning that hedge funds had overfilled the release schedule, studios began threatening to cut back their slates. Now, they may be cutting back more than they wanted. Their output has hit a serious speed bump, thanks to a number of factors: The economic crash and retreat of private equity money, a protracted writers walkout, a production slowdown over fear of an actors strike and the dismantling of studio specialty labels.”

“About 100 Russian film projects have been canceled or suspended since the fall, when the film industry experienced the impact of the economic crisis, according to the Russian film industry’s trade journal, Byulleten kinoprokatchuika. Earlier this year, Mosfilm, the country’s largest studio complex, said it had no films being shot in its studios.”

“Canadian Internet users are world leaders when it comes to watching video online, according to a study from digital tracking firm comScore Inc. The company’s Media Metrix service found 88 per cent of Canadians who use the Internet viewed a video online in January; during that month Canadians watched close to 3.1 billion videos.”

Product placement will remain banned on UK television, after the government ruled there is a “lack of evidence of economic benefits” for allowing it.

“The new series is called Cast Offs and follows six characters – each played by an actor with a different disability – who are left to fend for themselves for a year on a remote island. Although the series is entirely fictional, Channel 4 has said that it will be filmed in a mock-documentary style.”

“The recession has spread from Wall Street to Sesame Street. The home of Elmo and Oscar the Grouch announced yesterday that it would cut a fifth of its 355-strong workforce as market turmoil ate into its income and assets. Sesame Workshop, the 41-year-old non-profit educational organisation behind the Sesame Street television programmes, toys and community projects, said it was ‘not immune to the unprecedented challenges of today’s economic environment’.”

“The Senator Theatre’s bank has notified the city and the owner of the historic movie house that it intends to foreclose on the property. The North Baltimore landmark could stop showing films as early as next week and be sold at auction next month. Owner Tom Kiefaber had been in talks with the city to turn the long-struggling theater into a nonprofit community center that would offer a range of activities beyond movies.”

James Kettle: “What I am worried about is that sitting down and engaging in the ritual of watching a 30-minute sketch show seems at odds with the way we consume comedy these days. […] And the basic unit of comedy on YouTube, whether it’s a revoiced advert, surreal spoof journalism or yet another bloody take-off of Downfall, is a sketch – a self-contained burst of comedy that lasts no more than a couple of minutes.”

“The Sundance Film Festival on Wednesday named veteran John Cooper as its new director, signaling the top U.S. gathering for independent movies remains on a even keel in choppy economic waters. … He had previously been the festival’s director of film programming as well as director of creative development for the Sundance Institute, which he joined in 1989.”