Category: media

Australian movies have had a tough time at the box office in recent years. “After last year’s record low box-office share of 1.3 per cent, the struggles of even huge budget Hollywood movies this year make finding an audience seem even tougher. A release that triumphs in the multiplexes and revitalises the film industry has proved desperately elusive since the Hollywood-backed Moulin Rouge took $27.4 million and Lantana made $9.8 million four years ago.” But some big-budget movies about to be released give Australian movie-makers hope.

There are fundamental changes taking place in the ways we’re getting our entertainment. “We are our own entertainment navigators now. We don’t need a middle man to figure out and present entertainment for us. We can create entertainment ourselves. That’s not a fad — that’s a fundamental shift. We are our own directors and our own producers now. That’s especially becoming a reality in home entertainment. We now can get a comparable moviegoing experience — quality picture and surround-sound effects — without going to the theater.”

A really unusual radio station that’s prospering? “Seattle’s 720-watt KEXP, partly funded by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, last month became the first station in the U.S. to offer a “podcast” of full-length songs from albums for Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod music players. Podcasts typically are free broadcasts delivered via the Web to computers, allowing users to transfer the digital audio and listen anytime. In the next few weeks, KEXP says it will become the first to make its live radio broadcasts suitable for cellphones and handheld organizers.”

American Idol has become a phenomenon. “You should be watching “American Idol” because not only is it riveting television, but it’s also one of those rare amalgamations that taps into the American imagination — there’s the dire need to be famous, the longshot-dreamer feel-good story, the bitter infighting and, most successfully, the idea of public humiliation. Make no mistake about it — “American Idol” succeeds primarily on its rampant, painful-to-watch, grounding down of wannabe stars.”

More than 5,000 CBC staff nationwide could be locked out if a labour agreement is not reached by 12:01 a.m. Monday, an event that would severely limit the public broadcaster’s news and current affairs programming.

Dreamworks Animation has posted a lost because of high DVD returns of its hit movie Shrek 2. “Some analysts have blamed the fall in sales reflects a shift in the DVD market. While overall sales have risen, studios are releasing more titles which are now having to compete for shelf space in stores. As a result, instead of reducing the price of films in sales, shops are now quicker to return unsold goods to the studios.”

Boston public radio station WGBH was falling short of funding a documentary on adoption. The station said “a pending commitment for partial funding of the documentary would be jeopardized unless the remainder is raised by year’s end. So, the station and the program’s co-producer launched a Web site, adoptionfilm.org, where individuals can make tax-free donations to the projected $1.6 million production budget.”

TV Guide was the first publication to take television seriously. And it had high aspirations. “Would you believe that Margaret Mead and James Michener penned articles for TV Guide? Yes? Then how about John Updike and S.J. Perelman? Lewis Mumford and Arthur Schlesinger Jr.? Alfred Kazin and William Saroyan? And, not least, there’s Salvador Dalí, who painted the magazine’s cover on June 8, 1968, and offered his unpasteurized thoughts on the future of the cool medium (“Laser beams … DNA … holograms!”).”

British movies did well at the UK box office last year, with admissions up sharply. Movie business was up to its highest level since 1972. Nearly a quarter of the films Brits saw were homegrown. But what exactly constitutes “Britishness”?

Sony Pictures settled a lawsuit last week over the imagiary critic it invented to say good things about terrible films, agreeing to pay $5 to anyone who claims to have seen one of the flicks because of the supposedly good review. This is madness, says Jeremy Dauber. “Isn’t it the case that anyone who is willing to be convinced under any circumstances to see the Rob Schneider picture ‘The Animal’ deserves what they get? You would think they might be thankful for the lesson.” Besides, how is what Sony did any worse than the common studio practice of twisting a critic’s words into a positive statement with the clever use of ellipses?