Category: media

At a recent industry gathering on the future of television, the president of TiVo declared that “Attention Deficit Disorder is not just a disease, it’s a lifestyle.” And if Americans – particularly young Americans – are determined to watch what they want, when they want it, and to surf the ‘net for ‘extras’ and discuss what they’re watching in a chat room while the program is still on the air, who is anyone to stand in their way? Joanne Ostrow doesn’t particularly like the way this type of thinking points: “Judging by the panel, those in charge of capturing our attention in coming years are blind to any unpleasant sociological fallout.”

“Advance information about upcoming film releases is stampeding online faster than ever — and studios are finally learning to fight back. As the Internet matures and the film industry gets smarter, the two are increasingly engaged in a pas de deux of guerrilla marketing, official leaks, manipulated early reviews, and legal strong-arming.”

NBC’s newest entry in the Reality TV sweepstakes is called The Restaurant, and it chronicles the inner workings of an actual Manhattan eatery, from the chef to the busboys to the customers. The network wasn’t wild about the concept initially, but when the show’s creator pitched it to ad execs, he found more support than he ever could have dreamed of. “Product placement is hardly a new phenomenon on TV — think Coca-Cola’s imprint on Fox’s American Idol — but Restaurant represents what could be a new breed of TV program built around marketing messages.”

Editorial cartooning increasingly seems to be a dying art form, with one cartoonist after another falling prey to the budget axe in the increasingly profit-driven and corporate-dominated newspaper industry. But the tradition of the editorial cartoon is a vital part of American art culture, says Patrick Reardon, and deserves to be recognized as such. “Editorial cartoons are savage snarls. They’re rude and gross, crude and unfair. They ridicule the high and mighty. They slap down the pompous. They sting. They get the blood boiling. And they make their point — with the clarity and nuance of a right uppercut.”

In India there is a tradition of artists painting large murals advertising the latest movies. “Their work is stacked against each other, huge displays in bright epic colours, the faces of heroes and heroines, dwarfing the men on ladders touching up their lips and eyelashes.” But technology and the movie poster are killing this tradion. “No one wants our hand-painted work anymore. Everything is becoming computerised and the cinemas are being made into these multi-plexes.”

“They’re b-a-a-a-a-ack. Once again come nominations for the Emmys, television’s annual thundering belch of gaseous self-praise that matters to only the dolled-up, high-fiving industry and the critics writing about it. Like, yes, the one you’re reading right now. Thursday’s nominations set the stage for yet another feelgood pantheon of cosmic hair, high-wattage frozen smiles and red-carpeted designer name-dropping from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.”

This year’s Emmy nominations are out. HBO’s “Six Feet Under” got the most nominations, with 16, followed by three-time best drama winner “The West Wing” with 15. HBO’s “The Sopranos” received 13 nominations, along with the comedies “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Sex and the City.”

Some 200 people in Sydney gathered this week for an illegal viewing of the American film “Ken Park” which has been banned in Australia. “A copy of the film, which was downloaded from the internet, was screened last night at a secret Sydney location without police action to close it down. The crowd of more than 200 had been told of the screening by email and word of mouth over the past 24 hours in a bid to avoid publicity and police scrutiny. The independent film was refused classification in May because of its depictions of teenage sex, incest and auto-erotic asphyxiation.”

There’s a growing force in Congress to try to roll back the FCC’s relaxed new regulations on TV ownership. But just as members of the Senate attempt to derail the new regs, lobbyists for big media companies are streaming in to Washington to oppose the rollback…

While big blockbuster movie fatigue seems to be setting in this summer, a handfull of documentaries are finding traction. A few can even be called big successes – by documentary standards…”Even the most costly docs rarely exceed a $1 million budget. Whereas a blockbuster like ‘Terminator 3’ might play on 3,500 screens, documentaries are lucky to make it onto 100. In the world of blockbusters, the (box office) mark to hit is $100 million, but in the world of documentaries, it’s $1 million.”