Category: media

“Producers and broadcasters are feverishly searching for more and more places to sell their wares, from computer screens to cell phones to iPods and a plethora of miniature multimedia players. And more people are watching more TV shows when they want to, where they want to, not when or where the networks say they should. One result may be that Americans are growing closer to their gadgets, and apart from each other. Another may be that local television stations will lose some part of their audiences.”

Last month the network Showtime and the Smithsonian “announced the creation of Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture for original television programming on scientific, cultural and historical subjects whose first service would be an on-demand cable channel beginning this December. As part of the deal, Smithsonian Networks was to get the right of first refusal on commercial documentaries that relied significantly on the museum’s archives, curators or scientists.” Now, “more than 215 filmmakers, television executives and academics have signed a letter demanding that the Smithsonian, a publicly financed museum, not only reveal financial details of the joint venture but also abandon it.”

PBS is considering putting its shows online. “My goal in running PBS is that no matter what choice consumers in the digital age decide to do … we recognize the need to make content available to any of those platforms, and right now we’re moving in that direction.”

One of Leonardo’s most famous images is being used to promote “The Da Vinci Code” movie. But in licensed images, the figure’s “private parts” have been deleted from the image. Why? “The art was G-rated for products so they’d be accessible worldwide. Those interested in the unrated version can find it in the Da Vinci gallery of our movie website.”

The Chinese government is imposing new censorship rules on the country’s radio and TV stations. “The notice called for greater ‘political and propaganda discipline’ in the news and drama sectors. The move comes following the Communist Party’s crack down on newspapers and magazines in 2005. Last year, the government imposed a freeze on foreign investment in media ventures, from magazines to television stations.”

Four American TV networks are appealing FCC fines for “indecent” programming. “The move represents a protest against the aggressive enforcement of federal indecency rules that broadcasters have complained are vague and inconsistently applied. Millions of dollars in fines have been levied based on those rules.”

Opus Dei, the Catholic order portrayed in “The Da Vinci Code” as murderers, have asked Sony to issue a disclaimer that its forthcoming movie is “entirely fictional.” “Such a decision by Sony would be an expression of respect toward Jesus Christ, the history of the Church and the religious beliefs of viewers.”

Japanese cinemas are adding smell to their theatres. “Seven fragrances will waft from machines under back row seats during historical adventure The New World. A floral smell will accompany love scenes, with a mixture of peppermint and rosemary for tear-jerking moments. Cinemas across the country will be able to download programmes to control various sequences of fragrances for other upcoming films.”

Is it true that all the movie ideas have been taken and that “all of the great artistic statements have been made, and today’s artists are capable only of rehashing what was done in the past?” Dan Brown disagrees: “It saddens me that there are people who actually believe originality is over. The necessary corollory to that line of thought, of course, is that we should simply give up making films and every other kind of art. But I think this is all just a smokescreen…”

“Two weeks ago, that international cartel for salubrious children’s entertainment [known as Sesame Workshop] introduced ‘Sesame Beginnings,’ a series of half-hour DVD’s aimed at children 6 months to 2 years old. The content of the programs is innocuous and even enjoyable — a rainbow coalition of real and Muppet parents and babies loving on each other… The fact that these DVD’s exist at all, however, has incensed a clan of Boston-area child-health experts… who are determined not to let an absence of conclusive research get in the way of their conviction that television is noxious to developing minds.” Virginia Heffernan thinks all the fuss more than a bit absurd.