Category: media

“It makes no difference how often government ministers and quangos like the UK Film Council talk up the British film industry, it doesn’t exist. Let me repeat that: the British film industry doesn’t exist. It hasn’t existed for more than 30 years. In the past few decades we’ve had some very nice arts ministers, but they’ve been unable to help British films because of the impotence of their departments. The only route to a British film revival is through legislation, but no arts minister has had the power in Cabinet to make this happen – though some have tried.”

“Why are audiences simultaneously drawn to, and seriously disturbed by, gruesome portrayals of torture? There is something so compelling about the psychosis driving those scenes. They tend to take place in close-up and are often about a conversation. There’s a lot of dialogue — not the quips you would get from an Arnold Schwarzenegger or a Bruce Willis. There’s often this element of `How much can they withstand before they lose touch with who they are — their psychic identity?’ which can be a much scarier concept than the violence. In other words, depictions of torture have an uncanny way of tapping into our most suppressed fears.”

“Mobile phones that rock, jam, thunder, and swing are on the way. Wireless operators around the globe are working with music studios, phone makers, and artists such as Sean “P. Diddy” Combs in a sweeping effort to turn the mobile phone into a go-anywhere digital jukebox.”

Infinity Broadcasting plans to start broadcasting programming to mobile phones. “The plan would let cellphone users view song titles and artists’ names, check concert dates, buy tickets, ring tones and other content, and participate in station promotions.”

“The avalanche of money generated by DVDs has transformed Hollywood, swinging profitability from the multiplex ticket window to the Wal-Mart checkout line. Income from the sale and rental of new movies, television series and classic films accounts for as much as 60% of a major studio’s profits, as DVDs have become a consumer electronics phenomenon. Yet even in a business that trumpets every nickel of box-office grosses, a title’s precise DVD profits remain one of the industry’s best-kept — and, increasingly, most divisive — secrets.”

A year ago an Ontario judge stripped the Ontario Film Review Board of its censorship powers, ruling that “sections of the Theatres Act, which require all films and videos to be submitted to the board for approval, violate guarantees of freedom of expression under the Charter and are an unjustified form of prior restraint.” Now the Ontario government is seeking an extension of the deadline to make the censorship rule changes…

Three new US TV networks hoping to attract gay and lesbian viewers are launching. “There’s definitely an audience out there that is hungry to see their stories being told. We’ve seen this with the tremendous success of ‘Queer as Folk’ and ‘The L Word.'”

Why is mainstream Hollywood suddenly making religious-themed programming? “First, and perhaps most important, is the general misperception – shared by Hollywood – that the number of evangelical Christians in the United States is growing. According to church estimates, the actual number (somewhere between 25 million and 75 million, depending on the definition) has remained steady over the past three decades. Instead, the Christian entertainment industry has simply become more sophisticated.”

Bollywood is the world’s biggest producer of movies. But its marketing efforts are weak and uncoordinated, says a top Indian star. “Bollywood is a movement known to Americans only through satire. That needs to change. The Americans have a very good marketing system in place… which can, and should be emulated.”

A growing number of companies are offering “sanitized” versions of music and movies. They remove scenes or language they believe is offensive and sell the cleaned up versions. But what about the integrity of the original work? What about the rights of the artist to control how his or her work is used? “The challenge of ensuring artistic integrity in a digital age will only grow as the free market offers new ways to customize what we view, read and hear. Copyright protections have changed enormously since the introduction of the printing press to England in the late 15th century. They’re about to change again.”