It’s a $44 billion business. But recently there have been layoffs. Workers have no protection. And some parts of the workforce barely make $10 an hour. Not the picture you thought, right? – The New York Times
Category: media
Emmett Till, Censorship, And The Creation Of ‘The Twilight Zone’
“[Rod] Serling, riding off the success of his most well-received teleplay to date, felt compelled write a teleplay around the racism that led to Till’s murder. But the censorship that followed by advertisers and networks, fearful of blowback from white, Southern audiences, forced Serling to rethink his approach. His response, ultimately, was The Twilight Zone, the iconic anthology series that spoke truth to the era’s social ills.” – Smithsonian Magazine
Australia Makes It A Crime For Social Media Platforms Not To Take Down ‘Abhorrent Violent Material’
“The crime would be punishable by three years in prison and a fine of 10.5 million Australian dollars ($7.5 million), or 10% of the platform’s annual turnover, whichever is larger. Abhorrent violent material is defined as acts of terrorism, murder, attempted murder, torture, rape and kidnapping.” – Yahoo! (AP)
US Justice Department Warns Movie Academy Against Excluding Netflix From Awards
“In the event that the Academy — an association that includes multiple competitors in its membership — establishes certain eligibility requirements for the Oscars that eliminate competition without procompetitive justification, such conduct may raise antitrust concerns.” – Variety
How George Harrison (Yes, The Beatle) Saved Monty Python’s ‘Life Of Brian’ — And Indie Filmmaking In Britain
Just as Life of Brian was about to start shooting, the chairman of EMI read the script and killed the project. So Eric Idle called Harrison, the richest person he knew — and thus was born HandMade Films, the independent studio that made such now-classics as The Long Good Friday, Time Bandits, Mona Lisa, and Withnail and I. Then an American mucked it all up. – The Guardian
Walt Disney Co. Sued For Systematically Underpaying Women
“The firm of Andrus Anderson LLP, based in San Francisco, seeks to represent all women employed by the Walt Disney Studios in California since 2015. The suit claims that corporate policies — including setting a new hire’s salary based on her salary at previous employers — has a discriminatory effect on women.” – Variety
In Its Biggest Deal Ever, BBC Sells Streaming Rights To Its Nature Docs For $391 Million
The ten-year, £300 million agreement will allow a new worldwide streaming service operated by the Discovery Channel to stream both new and archived natural history shows by the BBC to viewers everywhere but the UK, Ireland, and China. – BBC
After General Manager’s Ouster, WBUR Radio Considers Separating From Boston University
“Discussions began immediately after the group, known as WBUR’s Board of Overseers, learned that General Manager Charlie Kravetz” — credited with building the station into a public radio powerhouse that distributes numerous programs nationally — “would no longer oversee daily operations of the station and would leave, officially, at the end of June. Members of the board, which has no direct decision-making authority, say they felt blindsided by the decision and ignored by BU when they protested.” – WBUR (Boston)
How Did The Matrix, Which Was Super Weird For Its Day, Ever Get Made?
Truly, Hollywood is risk-averse, or at least its funders are. But “The Matrix was a mash-up of the Wachowskis’ many interests, blending their love of anime, martial-arts movies, cyberpunk literature, electronic music, and post-structuralist philosophy into a mainstream action flick. The siblings, still relatively unknown at the time, managed to do all of that on a moderate budget of $63 million, leaning on perfectly pre-visualized action sequences that helped define the next decade of cinema.” – The Atlantic
Thirty Years Ago, Winona Ryder’s Agent Begged Her Not To Star In ‘Heathers’
The cult classic turns 30 in a world where it could never get made again – and a world where Ryder became the representative for a certain section of her generation. Screenwriter Daniel Waters: “The triumph of the film is that Winona brings so much to the role. It’s so endearing. So, any rewrites I did, I ended up, I wouldn’t say softening her, but making her more real. Here I am trying to make a Stanley Kubrick teen film, a cold clinical dissection of teen films and I’ve got this pulsing heartbeat through Winona.” – Variety