Category: media

US broadcast TV networks have been repeatedly dirticized for their lack of diversity. Now CBS says it has a plan. “The CBS Diversity Institute, announced Wednesday, combines mentoring programs for new writers and directors with existing talent showcases for minority performers.”

“For its passionate fans, radio drama is a radical performance mode, a near-telepathic transfer of audio cues from the speaker to the listener’s brain, intensely visual because the hearer supplies the images and completely different from the more communal experience of movie or television viewing.”

“For the movie industry, the DVD has become so important that the tail now appears to be wagging the dog. The studios — and the rest of us — have realized that nothing they put on screen will ever go away again. As a result, features that were created to appeal to connoisseurs, and that were once available only on large, unwieldy and expensive laser discs, are now routinely enjoyed by mass-market film fans. The esoterica of film culture, formerly consumed by a moneyed geek elite, is now aimed directly at — and snapped up by — the broader public.”

A new wave of immigrants is making its mark on Hollywood. “Of course, Hollywood, built by immigrants, always has taken the world’s best: Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Evelyn Waugh, Ernst Lubitsch, to name just a few from the 1930s and 1940s. But this latest wave comes from Asia, Latin America, Australia, as well as from Europe, reflecting contemporary immigration patterns and some of the globe’s hottest movie-making regions. Unlike previous generations, this group tends to be well-educated, show-business-savvy young men and women with a hunger to learn from the world’s leading exporter of entertainment.”

The thousands of extras required for the movie “Seabiscuit” aren’t people. Nor are they computer generated. They’re blow-up dolls – not that you could tell… “At a time when filmmakers are increasingly relying on digital imaging and special effects, the blowup extras represent something of a low-tech throwback. It recalls an earlier Hollywood era when production problems were solved through old-fashioned ingenuity, not high-tech trickery. Like so many interesting innovations in movie history, the inflatable dolls were born out of filmmaking necessity.”

Movie roles for older women are almost non-existant. A new documentary explores the problem. “There’s more dignity in aging in France and England and Europe. You see many more women having better careers in their 50s and 60s. Here it’s Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Sean Connery. Name three women of that age that are still working.”

Korean cinema is making a comeback with Korean audiences. “Last month, 45.9 percent of all moviegoers went to see Korean movies. This level is an all-time high for the month of July since the government removed the restrictions on foreign movie imports in 1985.”

WQXR radio announcer Gregg Whiteside, whose voice was “synonymous with classical music in New York for 25 years” was fired by the station without notice or severance this week. “The station said the firing was ‘because of inappropriate comments which he admitted making’. Neither Whiteside nor the station would say exactly what those comments were.”

Environmentalists are protesting Disney’s plans to begin producing disposable DVDs. “The DVDs are designed for those who find renting inconvenient. Sealed in an airtight package, the DVD is usable for two days once opened. A customer can watch the flick as often as they want during that time period. When the time expires, bonding resin on the DVD reacts with the air around it, making the DVD unreadable.”

So it’s fair to say that “Canadian Idol,” the TV talent show competition, is a hit in Canada this summer. But it isn’t just a hit – it’s a ratings monster, scoring some of the best numbers ever for a Canadian TV show. “The show pits young Canadian crooners against each other for a shot at a recording contract. It has become so popular that it is even beating some numbers from this year’s Stanley Cup.”