Category: media

What is a podcast? It’s the latest in shared music. “A sort of TiVo for amateur online audio, podcasts are radio-style audio files posted inside blogs as MP3s that can be downloaded to an iPod or other portable player. And they represent the next wave of peer-to-peer content sharing – unlimited by available FM/AM spectrum, untouched by FCC regulation, portable and full of possibility.”

“Conservatives do not have a reputation for making good documentaries, mainly because they do not have a reputation for making them at all.” But a fledgling movement is aiming to change that, as intensely conservative film festivals have begun to spring up around the country in response to the commercial success of left-wing films like Fahrenheit 9/11. Screenings frequently begin with group prayers and recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance, and the only thing the crowds seem to enjoy more than a good sympathetic portrait of President Bush is a film that carves up Michael Moore like a Thanksgiving turkey.

A new holiday movie is quietly ushering in a new revolution in digital animation. The Polar Express was performed by real actors covered in motion sensors, whose movements were converted into animation in post-production. The result is a new breed of film blurring the line between live-action and animation, and “from a technical perspective it could mark a turning point in the gradual transition from an analog to a digital cinema.”

The comparison is already being drawn between this year’s ultra-close, ultra-partisan U.S. presidential election and the Nixon/Kennedy race in 1960. But the similarity goes deeper than mere politics: the movies of 2004 are looking strikingly like the flicks churned out in the ’60s, presenting opposing takes on issues of national import and satirizing anything that sits still long enough to become a target.

Viacom and Disney have been fined a collective $1.5 million for exceeding the number of commercials aired during children’s programs. “The advertising violations were discovered in routine audits of cable system operators. Federal regulations stipulate that children’s programming may contain no more than 10 1/2 minutes of advertising per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays.
Viacom acknowledges that Nickelodeon violated that regulation nearly 600 times over approximately 10 months, representing the equivalent of 1,021 extra 30-second ads.”

Tim Goodman says that his TV provider tells him he has 210 channels. “I have no idea. It looks like I’m capable of receiving 400, possibly 700 or so channels, but only half that comes into the house.” But even with 200 channels – shouldn’t the programming be better? Why is it there never seems to be much good on? Why doesn’t it get better? Becase: “It’s the money thing. For future reference: It’s always the money thing.”

This has been the year of the political film in America. “Beyond the partisan bickering and charges that these films are merely political propaganda or media manipulation, some observers even see them signaling a new era in the way Americans choose to be politically informed. Such films, they suggest, may represent a seismic shift in American journalism.”

Artist Tracey Emin is showing her first film at the London Film Festival. But she’s angry at the UK ratings board who gave the movie a rating that bans kids from seeing it. “Top Spot, which receives its premiere at the London film festival today, was awarded its rating by the British Board of Film Classification for its depiction of suicide. But the decision has surprised and dismayed the 41-year-old artist, who hoped her ‘modern morality tale’ would be watched by teenagers.”

The world of Australian TV management has traditionally been dominated by testosterone. But there are signs this is changing, as more women get power in the corporate offices of the country’s commercial TV companies.

The BBC’s digital radio stations are doing well. Very well, in fact, and commercial stations are complaining of “unfair competition”…