More than a year after the 2018 Best Actress Oscar winner called for her colleagues to demand a rider to their contracts obligating producers and studios to diversify their crews, “it is hard to identify more than a handful of productions that have adopted the rider outright.” – The New York Times
Category: media
‘The Wild Bunch’: At 50, It’s Aged Disturbingly Well
“[Sam] Peckinpah’s notion that mercy and virtue may be outmoded ideas in the hectic, grabby sprawl of the 20th century has ossified into prophecy as we’ve rolled into the 21st. … His work resonates wherever betrayal can be adopted as an acceptable strategy for success.” – The Guardian
In Indie Films, At Least, Female Writers And Directors Are Making Progress (If Not Yet Parity)
“Women made up nearly a third of the directors, executive producers, writers, cinematographers and editors, and though they were still outnumbered by men two to one, the new figures represented a leap: A decade ago, women occupied just 24 percent of those positions.” – The New York Times
Warner Is Paying Nearly Half A Billion Dollars To Keep J.J. Abrams
“Following a months-long courting process that included multiple suitors, WarnerMedia is in final negotiations for a new partnership with [Abrams’s company,] Bad Robot, sources say. … Abrams, who is currently editing Star Wars: Episode IX for Disney, was among the top producers in Warners’ TV fold at a time when brand-name showrunners are in increasingly high demand.” – The Hollywood Reporter
No More All-Male Comedy-Writing Teams, Declares UK TV Network
“ITV will no longer commission comedy shows with all-male writers’ rooms, the broadcaster’s head of comedy has said. Saskia Schuster said she realised last year that ‘an awful lot of my comedy entertainment shows are made up of all-male writing teams. … Too often the writing room is not sensitively run. It can be aggressive and slightly bullying.'” – BBC
How The Trump Era Has Changed Comedy
“When satire is doing a good job, it’s not just punching up. It’s reminding us of our complicity.” But there’s no double meaning in outrage: “Outrage tells you, ‘Here is the thing, here is the thing that’s bad, here is the thing that’s good. … It says exactly what it should conclude. You don’t have to draw conclusions.” – Politico
First Time: More Millennials Are Paying For Video Games Than For TV
About 53% of people born between 1983 and 1996 now pay for gaming services, versus 51% who pay for television, according to a survey from the accounting and professional services firm Deloitte. That is compared with Deloitte’s survey last year, in which paid subscriptions among millennials were 44% for video games and 52% for television. – New York Post
Cuba’s Tiny Movie “Palaces”
During Cuba’s Special Period, a time of deprivation following the collapse of the Soviet Union, many cinemas closed due to lack of funding, so the state opened small “video rooms” to screen movies on VHS. For mere pennies, Cubans across the island can enjoy a day at the movies. It’s so cheap that some locals pay the admission simply to enjoy the air conditioning, which seems to be more modern than some of the cinemas’ technical equipment. – The Daily Beast
YouTube’s Content Problem Can’t Be Fixed With An Algorithm Tweak
YouTube’s recommendation engine can lead you astray pretty quickly, jumping down rabbit holes of unsafe or misleading content. Figuring out an algorithmic fix is more difficult than it seems. – The New York Times
HBO’s ‘Chernobyl’ Has Turned The Actual Town Into A Tourist Mecca
“In a strange turn more than three decades after the meltdown, the exclusion area around Chernobyl is gaining a following as a tourism destination, apparently propelled by the popularity of a TV mini-series about the blast that was broadcast in the United States and Britain last month.” – The New York Times