Category: media

“After rejecting a version of the film submitted last Wednesday, the China Film Bureau agreed to a request from the filmmakers to watch it again on Monday. The story has been redirected. Some relationships have been completely cut out. That version, with more than 15 minutes of footage and an entire story line cut, passed muster.”

The industry wants to show lawmakers how important movies are. “Showing policy wonks what Hollywood is all about is part of the MPAA’s goal of going beyond the movie screenings, celebrity congressional witnesses and star-studded campaign fundraisers to showcase how entertainment makes multibillion-dollar contributions to the economy and the nation’s balance of trade. In doing so, the industry hopes to underscore that Washington needs to strengthen copyright protection and to crack down on global piracy.”

“The Senator Theatre, one of the last of the nation’s once numerous art deco movie palaces and the only one still showing films in Baltimore, is to be sold at a foreclosure auction Feb. 21. … City officials, who have come to the Senator’s aid in the past, say they are unlikely to do so again.”

“Wal-Mart Stores Inc. today begins selling films online as the leading seller of DVDs stakes a claim in the emerging market of movie downloading. The store … makes Wal-Mart the first major retailer to offer downloadable digital movies from all the major Hollywood studios.”

“Walt Disney Co. started a new company with the producers of ‘Polar Express’ to make animated films based in part on the movements of actors.”

“The EC argues that new broadcasters are effectively competing for viewers and advertising and should be subject to the same rules. But the all-party Lords European Union Committee rejected this, saying it was not the role of regulation to protect established broadcasters from new competition operating under different business models.”

“The European Union has proposed getting rid of ad breaks in all children’s and news shows lasting 30 minutes or less. The House of Lords European Union Committee said it was ‘concerned about the likely implications of these rules for free-to-air programming’.”

A number of successful young directors have taken a great deal of time between projects in the past few years. “Is it a sign of timidity, or laziness, or some unexpected lack of drive? Is it a lack of interesting material? Is it the fault of the studio system and its emphasis on high-paying, mind-numbing commercial fare?”

“The marketing world has been abuzz about the concept of consumer-generated ads, drawn to the democratic aura YouTube and other websites have created by letting anyone post videos.”
But the contests are attracting pros. “Attracting pros to a contest billed as being for average Janes and Joes has generated controversy in the advertising world. After all, the competitions are overseen by ad agencies.”

“Just as early tsk-tskers of such derided mass products as comic books (today they’re called graphic novels), radio (people will stop reading books!), dime paperbacks (people won’t read the right books!) and TV (two words: Paddy Chayefsky) were proven wrong, those who summarily relegate YouTube to the low-cultural ashcan are missing not only its artistic potential, but the artistry that can already be found there.”