Category: media

Where are the great British films? They’re shorts, and these are some of the most interesting films being made today. “Short films are traditionally dismissed in industry circles as mere calling cards for young directors hoping to make full-length features. But there is a growing appreciation of shorts as an art form in their own right.”

“The Toronto International Film Festival Group announced yesterday that it had pumped $67-million into the economy in 2002, more than double the nearly $30-million the organization generated in 1993, the date of its last study of economic impact. In addition, the September film festival, widely considered second only to Cannes on the global stage, was responsible for $22.2-million in documented sales of four films, based on reports in trade papers such as Variety. However, the festival office says that sales figure is conservative, because a total of 41 films were sold, although not all prices are known.”

Sopranos obsessives, you may resume breathing now. HBO reached a contract settlement with disgruntled star James Gandolfini this week, and the hit (no pun intended) series will not have to delay production. Gandolfini and HBO had filed lawsuits against each other after the network missed a deadline in the actor’s contract process. Conventional wisdom held that Gandolfini was angling for a raise. He got one.

Now that “Chicago” is a favorite for an Academy Award, those involved in the project are putting up a happy front. But the years it took to wrestle “Chicago” to the screen was a battle – stars and songs and collaborators and scripts coming and going…

New York is building a $150 million 15-acre movie studio complex in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. “Steiner Studios, named for the shopping center tycoons who are funding the mega-project out of their own pockets, promises to be in operation next year. Their hope is to regenerate a Gotham entertainment business that peaked back in 1998—when 221 films were shot in the city (compared with 180 last year) and the plans for the Brooklyn studio first emerged. But now, while producers, crews, and city officials agree that New York’s film and TV infrastructure seriously needs a face-lift, there are doubts about whether our entertainment sector—already struggling with the flight of productions to cheaper locales—can sustain such an ambitious venture.”

A new report says that since the Canadian government loosened requirements for Canadian content on TV, “the number of hours devoted to English-language, Canadian-made dramas during peak hours has steadily dropped. Programming dollars have been diverted to non-drama programming, and Canadian dramas have been loaded into less important time periods and away from crucial November sweeps.” This is a problem because “television drama is the most powerful cultural medium a nation has to reflect history, character and values. Our report clearly demonstrates that the current Canadian broadcasting system has all but abandoned this reflection.”

Violence in movies has escalated to higher levels than ever before. “Explicit film content ebbs and flows through the years. But lately, partly because of an influx of controversial imports, the flow has become a gush of blood. The standards of what can and can’t be shown have been blasted away like a Peckinpah anti-hero. And not everyone thinks that’s such a bad thing.”

Why are there fewer Canadian dramas on Canadian TV? “It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: Don’t promote the shows, they don’t get watched. No ratings result in no promotion. No ratings and no promotion means no program, except by regulatory fiat. The amount of disrespect that broadcasters such as CTV and Global have for their own Canadian programming extends to how they tend to schedule it — in so-called “shoulder periods” out of the primest primetime or on nights (Fridays and Saturdays) when audiences are smallest. Add to that how the networks bounce the series around to capitalize on simulcasts of their American acquisitions and the Canadian series don’t stand a fighting chance.”

Is the BBC “arrogant, unfairly subsidised, dumbed-down, imperialistic and creatively barren.” Those are certainly the charges critics fling at Britain’s national broadcaster. And now there’s to be a major review of the corporation leading to its charter renewal in 2006. “So the past few months have seen the BBC launch a charm counter-offensive. If, as a columnist and media pundit, you turn around in the pub you find yourself facing a free drink wielded with intent by a top executive who will tell you of the wonderful highbrow things being made by his or her department…”

“While many editorial cartoonists use the Internet to exhibit their printed drawings to a broader audience, the Internet’s audio and video capabilities have also inspired a few cartoonists to create animated political cartoons for the Web. During the dot-com boom, cartoonists of all kinds, lured by the promise of Internet riches, tried producing online work, both static and animated. When the money stopped flowing, most abandoned the medium. But it may be time for renewed interest in the genre.”