Category: media

Pixar is well known for having changed animation forever, by hiring the top talent in the business and spending lavishly on the best technology money could buy. Of course, relying on computers inevitably means dealing with their obsolescence, which often comes astonishingly quickly.

“Members of the striking Writers Guild of America will gather Saturday in Los Angeles and New York to be briefed on a possible contract with Hollywood studios… Guild leaders remained cautious about a settlement while a proposed contract was being drafted based on last week’s breakthrough talks with studio executives.”

The dial is full of “reality” shows. These shows are typically rife with product tie-ins and placements, a trend that gleeful advertisers say is sure to grow. During the May sweep, NBC will air a reality special, “America’s Favorite Mom,” that was actually created and will be overseen by Los Angeles-based flower purveyor Teleflora.

“Negotiators for Hollywood studios and striking writers have agreed to terms of a new contract that could be presented to union leaders in days and, if approved, end their three-month-old labor clash later this week.”

“Under Bush’s plan, the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, a private nonprofit that distributes the funds to local stations, would lose $420 million of the $820 million in federal funds it was set to receive over the next two years. In addition, the White House budget does not include advance funding for the 2011 fiscal year.”

A record 97.5 million Americans tuned in to Sunday’s upset victory by the New York Giants over the New England Patriots, marking the biggest TV audience in Super Bowl history and the second most-watched U.S. telecast ever.

The Producers’ Guild of America has given its award for best film of the year to the Coen brothers’ adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. “The movie, which stars Javier Bardem as a hitman pursuing Josh Brolin, is nominated for eight Academy Awards. It has also won the top prizes from the actors’ and directors’ guilds.”

“Oscar-nominated films are often small, dark and unintended for mass audiences. They’re about art, after all, not commerce. But that’s especially true of this year’s crop, which has little mainstream buzz and among the lowest box-office totals in recent years.”

“The prolonged writers’ strike had triggered a serious look by the U.S. broadcasters into local series in the top English-language markets — Canada, the U.K. and Australia — reversing a decades-long programming flow in the other direction. But Canada is getting all the attention these days. Canada is the next big thing,’ a U.S. agent said.”

Neal Shapiro, president of the New York public television station WNET, Channel 13, comes from the commercial side of television. Now he wants to make public TV more nimble and timely. It means challenging some long-held ways of doing business.