Category: media

Where are filmmakers finding fresh, undiscovered talent for their movies these days? Why, online, of course…

Britain’s Channel Four is planning to cut way back on the number of American TV programs it airs, and will recommit itself both to homegrown dramas and documentaries. The costs of changing over to digital broadcasting and a need for more government funding are behind the change in philosophy.

“The ability to deliver audiences that advertisers can measure is still key to the business model for distributing freely accessible content on the Internet. Nobody else can come close to aggregating audiences the way the networks still can,”

The American regulatory agency is a mess bureaucratically, and can’t enforce its own rules…

The writers’ strike may have ended, but don’t think that means that television is back to normal. “At a time in the year when the networks would normally be getting ready to roll out season finales, March and April are instead being seen as a crucial window to win back audiences for next year, and to soothe jittery advertisers.”

“A new study by The Nielsen Co. has found that the PG-rated movies with the least profanity made the most money at the U.S. box office. Sexuality or violence in those films had less to do with success than the language.”

Hollywood studios want to start releasing 3-D movies again, using new technology that goes well beyond the cellophane glasses of the ’70s. But with many theaters not yet equipped with digital projection equipment, “the slow rollout of 3-D projection systems raises the specter of a competitive bloodbath, as too many movies overwhelm the available outlets.”

It’s been a while since Saturday Night Live was really a part of the national political discussion, eclipsed as it’s been by Jon Stewart and various online voices. But apparently, all it took to reclaim an important satirical place in presidential politics was a few sketches that some viewed as blatantly in favor of one particular candidate.

“A tax loophole that some experts believe was worth up to £1bn to the global film industry has been closed.”

“After months of rumors, Warner Bros. and the producers of the massively successful movies will announce Thursday that they plan to split “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final “Potter” novel, into two blockbuster films — one to be released in November 2010 and the second in May 2011.”