Category: media

The head of a top American movie theatre chain says that “box office results from the handful of 3D films released so far convinced him of the potential advantages for theaters, not just studios in switching to digital projection systems that support modern 3D technology… Audiences were willing to pay premium ticket prices for 3D films, and said they preferred them by a 2-to-1 margin.”

“It’s an amazing bait-and-switch. Every few months, your local PBS station begs you – and Viewers Like You – to support their programming for the rest of the year, yet they do this by cramming their schedule with shows which they ONLY air when they’re pleading for dough. If PBS has to tart itself up as something it’s not in order to attract donors, isn’t that a de facto admission that their regular schedule isn’t enough of a draw to justify their existence?”

“Now we have the 2006 YouTube Video Awards, a product — so the intro on the awards page says — of ‘the YouTube community.’ But given that the rushed and almost certainly screwy voting commenced only once the nominees were published by YouTube, this community project doesn’t seem quite organic. The dread idea of arts administration has come to YouTube. And in a real insult to the speedy Web world, this 2006 event has happened well into spring 2007, honoring bygone achievements.”

Used to be that when a TV network passed on a pilot, the show sank into oblivion. No longer, thanks to YouTube. “Thanks to the Web, TV fans can now make their own judgments about whether a network chief’s decision to ax a show was a smart move or sheer idiocy.”

“Once upon a time, every TV show had one, many of them memorable, if not great. Viewers who never sat through an entire episode of ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ or ‘Gilligan’s Island’ can nevertheless hum the songs and recall the little stories these title sequences told. In recent years, pressure to keep viewers from flirting with the remote when familiar theme music starts up has made the cold open more popular. But the memorable title sequence is far from dead.”

“For comedians who aspire to break into television, it’s no longer necessary to spend years cracking one-liners at stand-up clubs in hopes of landing an HBO special or a sidekick role on a network sitcom. With clever material, an act that mixes live skits and multimedia, and, especially, some savvy use of the Internet, members of a young comedy troupe can suddenly find themselves starring in their own cable series.”

“The Federal Trade Commission is putting the final touches on a follow-up to its September 2000 report on the marketing to children of violent movies, music and video games. The first such assessment in three years, it will examine the selling practices of a mainstream entertainment industry that in the interim has become increasingly dependent on abductions, maimings, decapitations and other mayhem once kept away from studio slates.”

“Is it fair to burden YouTube with finding content on its site that infringes others’ copyright? Putting the burden on the owners of creative works would require every copyright owner, big and small, to patrol the Web continually on an ever-burgeoning number of sites. That’s hardly a workable or equitable solution. Under the law, the obligation is right where it belongs: on the people who derive a benefit from the creative works and are in the position to keep infringement out of their businesses.”

“Unlike a standard set-top digital video recorder with a built-in hard drive, which allows TV viewers to store and play back shows when they like and also to skip through commercials, a network DVR would allow any customer with a digital set-top box to record and play back shows in the same way, with the programs being stored in remote computer servers maintained by Cablevision.” Hollywood studios say this violated their copyright.

“Our national film industry is not in the greatest of shape at the moment, even in Quebec where the distinct society has forged a distinct film culture. The Canadian dollar is no longer the bargain it once was, the lingering affects of SARS still haunts Toronto, and American states are much more aggressive about offering tax incentives to convince their homegrown filmmakers to stay home. Worse still is the indifference by Canadians towards their own films.”