Category: media

“DreamWorks’ big-budget bet, ‘Monsters vs. Aliens,’ has faced one hurdle after another — including a whipping from the blogosphere over its extravagant Superbowl ad in January. But now comes the worst news yet: Fewer than half of the theaters that were supposed to be ready for digital 3D projection will be ready by the movie’s release on March 27. … [T]he economic recession has further delayed the already-long-delayed conversion of movie theaters to digital projection.”

“When I first joined Twitter, I felt like I was in a noisy bar where everyone was shouting and nobody was listening. Soon, I began to decode its many mysteries: how to find a flock of followers, how to talk to them in a medium that blasts to lots of people at once and how to be witty in very tiny doses.” (Also features Fran Drescher on twittering.)

“Twitter is also extremely simple – so simple that it’s often tempting to describe it as something more than it is. Perhaps that’s why, in trying to capture Twitter’s potential, boosters compare it to known successes – search engines and social networks. The trouble is, neither comparison makes much sense.”

Louise Richardson: “[After September 11,] I would have asked the media to make films of every Jordanian, every Egyptian, every Muslim family who had come to the US to live a peaceful and positive life, only to have it blown to smithereens by al-Qaeda. And I would have broadcast the films all over the Middle East.”

“The federal government announced yesterday that it is streamlining funding for film and television content, in an aim to adapt to the digital age and create fiercer competition among broadcasters for government dollars. Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore unveiled the Canada Media Fund,” saying “that Canadian consumers, particularly younger ones, are demanding greater choice in how they view programming and that both government and broadcasters must adapt.”

“YouTube in the UK is to be stripped of its most popular music videos after the site failed to agree a new licensing deal with the Performing Rights Society for Music, the trade body that collects music royalties. YouTube said today that after the expiry of its former deal, PRS had proposed new payment terms that would be financially prohibitive for the site and would require YouTube to pay out more than it makes from the ads next to each video.”

“The beleaguered CBC will not be getting any help from Ottawa to cope with its economic woes. Heritage Minister James Moore says the public broadcaster already receives substantial public funding each year and should not expect more.”

As the financially troubled Los Angeles Times significantly reconfigures its Hollywood coverage, Matt Holzman explains what the paper is up against and suggests one key way people in the business can pitch in: “Instead of bitching and moaning about the Times, why not call them with your breaking story or your anonymous tip? If they do something great with it, the [T]imes will become known as the go-to place for the Hollywood low-down and you’ll have helped save our newspaper.”

“Mr. Burns has made a string of high-profile public TV documentaries, including The Civil War, Jazz and Baseball. His last GM-backed project is The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, a six-part series airing this fall.”

“In these days of junk news, junk food, junk money and the junk self, authenticity in the realm of reality TV means adhering to Saul Bellow’s dictum of following a character not just into the bedroom but also the bathroom (and into rehab, the penis-enlargement clinic, the assisted-suicide facility, the dungeonous punishment pit).”