Category: media

“The BBC was ordered to pay an unprecedented £50,000 fine today after asking a child from its Blue Peter studio audience to pose as the ‘fake’ winner of a premium-rate telephone competition, in which 40,000 youngsters had participated.”

Los Angeles has two movie complexes that illustrate the modern movie theatre business: the sleek new 12-screen Landmark complex alongside the Westside Pavilion and the handsome old Westwood Crest Theater, a 1940-era movie house on Westwood Boulevard. “As different as they may appear on the surface, they are fascinating examples of the brave new world of high-quality movie exhibition, a world full of movies aimed at — gasp — people who aren’t dying to see Transformers.”

Put off by a seemingly rising tide of coarse language on the airwaves? Turns out it’s not a recent phenomenon. “The zeal with which phonograph pioneers took to indecent material is a reminder that, from the Victrola to the Internet, smut peddlers have always been among the earliest and savviest adapters of new technologies.”

“According to the complaint, the standard contract the actors signed stated, ‘The company has the right to merchandise the contractor’s character for payment of 5 percent of net merchandising revenue…. This includes but is not limited to the right to use the contractor’s likeness as portrayed in the film and video games.’ But after reportedly reaping $100 million in merchandising revenue, New Line has yet to pay the 15 actors a penny from that revenue.”

“In international circles the BFI is now mentioned not as an enviable model but as an awful example of political vandalism. Variety magazine talks of the ‘tipping point’ at which the institute will cease to exist. In recent weeks the institute has announced that it can no longer support its publication division; its great library, the recipient of hundreds of valuable donations, from Derek Jarman to Richard Attenborough, is being offered to any university that will house it; and most recently the film archive itself has been declared in grave danger through lack of resources.”

“Despite Hollywood’s infatuation with youth, half of movie tickets are bought by people over 30. But although the book and magazine industries have come to accept that it’s the older generation that keeps them afloat, radio and TV continue to resist the idea that there’s merit or profits to be found in appealing to older audiences.”

“MTV joins a growing cadre of video services that give users increased creative control over an artist’s vision, among them Eyespot, Gotuit and, soon, Sony Music Box. These are not to be confused with services that simply add background music to photo slide shows. Their goal is twofold: Provide labels and artists with a new promotional tool and increase revenue potential for ad-supported online music videos. The strategy for both relies on raising the value of videos online.”

“For most of rap’s history, one-upmanship has been hip-hop’s engine of change. Recently, however, beefs have lost some of their creative spark, as battles have migrated from albums and mix tapes to YouTube. Today, a rapper with wounded pride is more likely to cut a made-for-YouTube video than to bother penning a vicious rhyme. The result: videos with laughably bad production values showcasing sloppy dis tracks (or worse, no track at all). Why waste time writing music–the vocation of a musician, in theory–when you can upload a rant?”

Even in hard times, Haitians go to the movies. Now they’re also making them in record numbers — about 10 feature films a year — rivaling Cuba as the Caribbean’s biggest movie producer and often outselling better-financed imports.

“Repeat programming will have to increase on the BBC as a consequence of a below-inflation licence-fee settlement, the corporation’s bosses said yesterday.”