Did the voters love the final season of Game of Thrones more than mere mortals did? And how many nominations can the second season of Fleabag get when the first season got exactly zero? – Los Angeles Times
Category: media
Producers Of ‘Big Little Lies’ Promised A Woman Director Complete Creative Control – And Then Yanked It Back
Showrunner David E. Kelley had a plan, but he didn’t share it with British filmmaker Andrea Arnold before shooting began … or finished. “There was a dramatic shift in late 2018 as the show was yanked away from Arnold, and creative control was handed over to executive producer and Season 1 director Jean-Marc Vallée. The goal was to unify the visual style of Season 1 and 2. In other words, after all the episodes had been shot, take Arnold’s work and make it look and feel like the familiar style Vallée brought to the hit first season.” – IndieWire
Why YouTube’s Feedback Loop Is So Toxic
It COULD get fixed, but it probably won’t. Why? Engagement. “As the AI improves, it will be able to more precisely predict who is interested in this content; thus, it’s also less likely to recommend such content to those who aren’t. At that stage, problems with the algorithm become exponentially harder to notice, as content is unlikely to be flagged or reported.” – Wired
The Stampede To Chase Streaming Video Subscribers Is Creating An Avalanche Of Content
As AT&T/Time Warner/HBO, NBC Universal, Disney, and Apple rush to compete with Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime (who, of course, all compete with each other), streaming television has become a giant maw that must be constantly fed with new shows. Yes, this gives showrunners plenty of room for creativity with material and format, but it’s also leading from the “Golden Age” of TV to the era of “good enough.” Jonah Weiner offers a longread about the prospects, good and bad. – The New York Times Magazine
New York Is Becoming Hollywood East
Propelled by a soaring demand for original streaming content and a generous state tax incentive program, New York has become an entertainment powerhouse, attracting major feature films and award-winning television shows. Last year, 332 movies were filmed in New York City, officials said. In 1980, there were 121. – The New York Times
More Stars Say Hosting An Awards Show Just Isn’t Worth The Headaches
“According to insiders who spoke … on the condition of anonymity, there are plenty of reasons big-name celebrities are increasingly reluctant to join forces with awards shows. Some of these issues, like the time commitment a gig like this requires, have always been factors. Others — like the hazard of getting mercilessly roasted on Twitter over a bit gone wrong — are a bit newer.” – Vanity Fair
What It Takes To Make And Show Queer-Themed Films In Homophobic Countries
From lying about your script to the people who live where you’re shooting to having bodyguards on set to sending your stars abroad when the film debuts to fighting off right-wing religious groups who disrupt screenings, here’s how filmmakers in gay-hostile places get their work done. – The Guardian
Warner Announces New Streaming Service Built Around HBO – A Really Dumb Idea?
Some 35 million households now subscribe to HBO either via their cable service or the HBO Now streaming service. They’re used to paying for premium content. HBO is betting that they’ll pay roughly the same amount for a lot more of this other stuff. HBO Max subscribers will get everything a current HBO subscription delivers plus a lot more from TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network and CNN. – Washington Post
Really Good Nature Documentaries ‘Are Great Art, Maybe The Greatest Art Of Our Time’
Sebastian Smee: “I realize the claim sounds odd. After all, they weren’t really intended as high art. They’re television documentaries. They were created primarily to educate and to entertain. And yet a lot of things we now display in our museums and think of as art were never intended as such. African carvings. Russian icons. Minoan ceramics. Egyptian statues. … The best nature documentaries … [are] great in this important sense, too: Like those Impressionist paintings, they are ahead of their time. We are not yet ready to see them from the perspective of the future. But soon we will be.” – The Washington Post
Hollywood Is Betting Big On Remakes. But New Study Suggests Audiences Aren’t Thrilled
The study found that fully 91 percent of remakes drew a less positive audience score than the original. Among critics, the remakes received a lower Metacritic score just slightly less frequently -— 87 percent of the time. – Washington Post