Category: media

Friday March 29

TV FEEDS VIOLENCE: A new study links teens watching TV with a propensity for violence later in life. “The findings show that of children who watch less an hour of television a day at the age of 14, only 5.7% turned to violence between the ages of 16 to 22. For those who watch between one and three hours, this number jumped to 22.8%. The rate went up again to 28.8% for those who watched more than three hours a day.” BBC 03/29/02

ALTERED STATES: Popular culture has always influenced the way people perceive the world around them. “But now there is a new kind of medium, which has begun to close the gap between culture and life. It is an interactive medium, or, more specifically, video games. Compare games to earlier forms of pop culture, and you’ll soon realize that they are really different. The more closely games mimic life – with visual realism, emotional weight, an intuitive interface, conceptual rigor – the better they get. And most games try to do more than replicate life – they systematically probe the fantastic, the better-than-real. One senses that the best games aspire to supplant the living of life.” LAWeekly 03/28/02

• OUT OF THE ARCADE AND INTO THE LAB: Many of the ideas and tools that show up in popular culture have their doubles in scientific laboratories. For video games, the parallel is the study of artificial societies. A-society researchers have found that “they can create ‘societies’ of great complexity—ones that in many ways mirror what’s going on in the real world. These models imply that there are certain patterns into which human beings unconsciously arrange themselves—and the models help to identify what those patterns are.” The Atlantic Monthly 03/29/02

PUSHING TO “PROTECT”: The US Senate is already considering a bill to require digital copy protection to be built into new media playback devices. Now a similar bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives, in an effort to speed up enactment of such a law. Wired 03/28/02

TOWARDS A CLEANER TV: “A study released last week showed that between 1999 and 2001 the amount of sexual material on TV entertainment shows dropped 29 percent, and the amount of serious violence went down 17 percent. “Popular culture is not necessarily on a permanent and steeply downward slide, concludes the report, issued by the Center for Media and Public Affairs. Christian Science Monitor 03/29/02

WHEN MERCHANT IVORY RULED THE EARTH: For a good part of their 40-year collaboration, Ismail Merchant and James Ivory’s movie collaborations were must-watch affairs. “Watch a Merchant-Ivory movie these days and you feel like you’ve been languishing for 40 years in the company of the wearisomely refined (and interchangeable) director and producer.” The Times (UK) 03/29/02

HISTORIC? CERTAINLY. MEANINGFUL? WE’LL SEE: The parties are over, the smiles have faded, the tears have dried. Is there any reason to think that the Oscar wins by Halle Berry and Denzel Washington will translate into more equable representation of minorities in the movies? Or does it only mean, as one cynic puts it, that “more people will want to hire Denzel and more people will want to hire Halle Berry.” Los Angeles Times 02/29/02

Thursday March 28

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING HOLLYWOOD: A new report says that “Southern California’s economy shed about 18,000 motion picture and television industry jobs last year, or nearly 12% of Hollywood’s work force, largely when the rush to make movies before feared labor strikes gave way to months of relative inactivity.” Backstage 03/27/02

TOWERING GIANT: Clear Channel Communications has come to dominate America’s radio and concert business. “With holdings that include approximately 1,225 radio stations and 130 concert venues, the company in recent years has amassed unparalleled power in the music and entertainment industries. That power – and what it means for the music business, as well as for Clear Channel competitors – has been the topic of heated debate within the music industry for the last year.” Now government regulators are paying attention. Salon 03/27/02

UNCLE MILTIE PASSES ON: “Milton Berle, the brash comedian who emerged from vaudeville, nightclubs, radio and films to become the first star of television, igniting a national craze for the new medium in the late 1940’s, died yesterday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93.” The New York Times 03/28/02

Wednesday March 27

NUMBING DOWN: If the video images of September 11 seemed unreal, perhaps we should blame it on the numbing effect of film. “It should have been a massive wake up call, because for too long cinema had been playing with reality, playing with it in such a way as to allow actions to become divorced from their consequences. For too long sensation has come to eclipse almost everything: bigger and better explosions that miraculously don’t kill the most important of the protagonists, simulated plane crashes which the right people somehow survive, shootings that manage to create victims without widows or orphans.” The Guardian (UK) 03/26/02

IF THE FEW CONTROL THE ALL… “Media conglomerates are in a merger frenzy. Telecommunications monopolies are creating a cozy cartel, dividing up access to the online world. The entertainment industry is pushing for Draconian controls on the use and dissemination of digital information. If you’re not infuriated by these related trends, you should at least be worried.” San Jose Mercury News 03/26/02

RACIST BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY? While critics are hailing last week’s Academy Award wins by Denzel Washington and Halle Berry, British actors say that the UK film industry is not nearly so racially open. “The industry’s attitude is not malicious, it stems from ignorance. I only began to get properly cast as an actor in my own right 10 years after I left drama school. The US has huge race problems, but at least in US culture everyone gets a chance. Here, we are sidelined and insulted.” The Guardian (UK) 03/26/02

WHAT ABOUT OTHERS? Representatives of American minority groups wonder when the “breakthrough” for other minorities will happen in the movie industry. “What’s historic about equality? Historic for me will be when all people of color are represented and are capable of garnering these awards,” said Skyhawk, president of the advocacy group American Indians in Film. Newsday 03/26/02

WHITHER PBS? Last week, Maryland Public Television unceremoniously fired Louis Rukeyeser, the popular host of PBS’s “Wall $treet Week,” reigniting a familiar debate on the future of American public broadcasting. Increasingly, it seems that PBS is programming for high ratings, just as commercial networks do, rather than for diversity and quality, as was its original mission. But does PBS’s attempt to ‘skew younger’ and homogenize its programming reflect a move towards irrelevance, or just a desire to compete with private networks? Baltimore Sun 03/27/02

Tuesday March 26

ANALYZING THE REMAINS: This year’s Oscar race was “universally acknowledged to be the most petty and mean-spirited in memory.” Okay, but exactly what does that mean for those few of us who are not Hollywood insiders? Mostly, it was a behind the scenes, below-the-belt slugfest between Miramax and DreamWorks, with Matt Drudge and a few free-lance publicists as seconds. Los Angeles Times 03/26/02

Monday March 25

OSCAR COMES TOGETHER: “After an awards campaign season universally acknowledged to be the most petty and mean-spirited in memory, the entire Academy Awards process also got a heartening, emotionally stirring Hollywood ending. With Sidney Poitier’s special Oscar, Halle Berry’s best actress triumph and Denzel Washington’s best actor nod, the Oscar ceremony touched chords of genuine feeling you would have sworn were beyond the grasp of this often derided ceremony.” Los Angeles Times 03/25/02

• BUT IT’S SLOW: “Alas, TV’s most-watched slug crawled back into town last night, despite the exciting and unpredictable nature of the contests and the bang-up finale. As usual, the technical awards formed a Bermuda triangle in the middle of the show, and the film-clip fests and production numbers numbed our brains. Cirque du Soleil is spectacular, but could we take a rain check?” Boston Globe 03/25/02

GOOD TIMES UNDER DARK SKIES: “The average cost of making and marketing a film fell by about 4% to $79m last year, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the major studios. And this happened while box-office takings in America were growing to $8.4 billion, as Americans made almost 1.5 billion trips to the movies—the highest number since 1959. Everything seems wonderful, darling. And yet a shadow stalks Tinseltown. Beneath the bonhomie the industry’s leaders are increasingly nervous that Hollywood is about to be ‘Napsterised’.” The Economist 03/22/02

POOH ON YOU: The Winnie the Pooh franchise is a lucrative one, generating “somewhere between $1 billion and $6 billion a year for Disney.” But “for the past 11 years, the Disney Co. has been locked in a legal slugfest with the wealthy Slesinger family, which purchased some merchandising rights to Winnie-the-Pooh back in 1930.” The case is not going well for Disney. “Last summer, the judge slapped the company with a $90,000 fine for destroying relevant documents and issued a harsh set of orders that, experts say, will hamstring Disney’s lawyers.” New Times LA 03/23/02

Sunday March 24

GREEN RASPBERRIES: As Oscar hype winds up to a fever pitch, the “Razzies” step in to provide a modicum of sanity and humility to Hollywood’s self-congratulatory smarm. The awards honor the worst movie achievements of the year, and this year, in unprecedented fashion, the biggest winner was at the ceremony to accept his awards. Tom Green, the former MTV host and teen grossout movie specialist, picked up five awards for his monumentally disturbing flick Freddy Got Fingered, and became only the second star ever to accept the dubious honors in person. BBC 03/23/02

Friday March 22

FORCED TO PROTECT? US Senator Fritz Hollings has introduced his long-anticipated (dreaded?) bill to mandate copy protection on new digital media players. “The bill, called the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, prohibits the sale or distribution of nearly any kind of electronic device – unless that device includes copy-protection standards to be set by the federal government. Translation: Future MP3 players, PCs and handheld computers will no longer let you make all the copies you want.” Wired 03/21/02

ANY CHANCE OF MAKING JOAN RIVERS STAY HOME? Much has been made of the new venue built for the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. “The new 3,300-seat Kodak Theater, in Hollywood, has been custom-built for the Oscars. But it is significantly smaller than the show’s old sites in downtown Los Angeles.” How much smaller? Well, nearly 300 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will have to watch the show on television this year. BBC 03/22/02

• BRINGING OSCAR HOME: “The Academy hasn’t held the Oscar ceremonies in the real Hollywood since 1929, when it lasted all of 15 minutes, hardly long enough for a self-respecting celebrity to exit a limo these days. The $94 million Kodak Theatre, designed for the Oscar ceremonies, is pure nostalgia. It resembles a 1920s movie palace with stacked opera boxes.” But the Kodak sits in the middle of a strip mall, in a neighborhood known more for its drug dealers than its glitz and glamour. Is the project a laudable attempt to revitalize a landmark area, or a misguided plunge into a history that no longer exists? The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) 03/22/02

FILMFEST AS URBAN RENEWAL: “With judges ranging from the fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi to the former ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, the new TriBeCa Film Festival will try to rejuvenate downtown New York, it was announced yesterday by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, the festival’s co-founders. The festival was organized quickly, Ms. Rosenthal said, because it is intended more to save a neighborhood than to celebrate film.” The New York Times 03/22/02

SEX AND VIOLENCE DOWN: A new study says that sex and violence on TV has declined between 1998 and 2000. “There is evidence that television has started to clean up its act,” says the study. “As for movies, the study found, the amount of sex and violence in the most popular theatrical releases during the same time periods remained unchanged.” Nando Times (AP) 03/21/02

• THINGS YOU CAN’T SAY ON THE RADIO (UNLESS YOU WANT TO): “Accusing broadcasters of trolling ‘the depths of decadence,’ Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps challenged radio and television executives in early February to better police themselves regarding indecency and vulgarity on the airwaves and create a voluntary code of conduct, all by Easter Sunday. Normally, broadcasters abhor dead air. But with a week to go before Copps’ suggested deadline, their silence has been deafening.” Los Angeles Times 03/22/02

DISSING YOUR WRITERS: Screenwriters have a gripe about how they’re credited in the movies. Writing a movie is much more than writing snappy dialogue. Story ideas, character development, rewrites…in other words, years of work. And then along comes a director and when the movie gets to the screen it carries the tag “a movie by…” If you’re the writer, you’ve just been insulted. Slate 03/21/02

Thursday March 21

DIRTY TRICKS: This has been the ugliest Oscar campaign ever. “That new breed of film executive, the ‘Oscar consultant’, has introduced the sort of dirty tricks and whispering campaigns once restricted to the sleazy world of politics. This is nothing to do with art; this is business. The Oscar consultant is more than a spinner, he is a strategist who works out how to maximise the chances of a film and direct a campaign of flattery, propaganda and vilification to that end.” The Times (UK) 03/21/02

• A BEAUTIFUL MESS: The supposed smear campaign against the Oscar-nominated film A Beautiful Mind is not really about ‘revelations’ concerning the behavior of the main character. It’s about Hollywood choosing to bend the facts of true stories for narrative purposes. “The decision to change a true story — to delete material that may confuse or disturb viewers, to telescope chronology, to insert composite or entirely fictional characters into historical events — is as much an artistic (and therefore an ethical) choice as the casting of a certain actor or the selection of a camera angle. And such choices are the basis of critical judgment.” The New York Times 03/21/02

THE BRITNEY MUSICAL? With the critical and popular success of Moulin Rouge, many Broadway fans are predicting a renaissance of the movie musical. But even if the supposition turns out to be true, there may be a catch. “Moulin Rouge has nothing to do with the Broadway genre. If it becomes a model for Hollywood studios, as some industry insiders predict it will, the movie musical of the future will draw more heavily from MTV than from “My Fair Lady.” The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) 03/21/02

RATINGS THAT DON’T MEAN ANYTHING: Australian TV networks scrutinize every bit of minutiae of the ratings reports trying to find even the slightest advantage over rivals. But statistically… well, if you apply a standard statistical margin of error, the ratings are useless.  “Applying the error margin to the last full week of ratings available for Sydney (week 10), every show in the top 10 could be potentially moved to a different position, although they couldn’t be simply jumbled at will. Unless the two networks are split by at least 5 per cent, which they almost never are, the figures are statistically irrelevant. They’re just shadow boxing.” Sydney Morning Herald 03/21/02

Tuesday March 19

ELDER-HOSTILE: Older British TV viewers believe they’re ignored by programmers. “Around 70% of those questioned thought that the views of the over-65s were ignored by programme-makers. The figure was even higher for the over-75s, while half of those over 55s thought their age group was not portrayed realistically in news and factual programmes.” BBC 03/18/02 

MUCKING UP VENICE: Five months before it starts, the Venice Film Festival is in disarray. “By tradition the Venice Biennale is an extravaganza where up-and-coming artists carve international reputations, but the Italian prime minister hoped this one would also give his government an opportunity to showcase administrative skills and political savvy. Instead the government finds itself accused of incompetence, hypocrisy and a heavy-handed attempt to promote a rightwing agenda.” The Guardian (UK) 03/18/02

Monday March 18

TRYING TO TAKE DOWN PUBLIC BROADCASTING: Is Canada’s CBC-TV “irrelevant, unwatched and unloved? Do Canadians really not watch CBC-TV? Would they not miss it if it were sold? Is it a bureaucratic fat cat unanswerable to anybody?” That’s what Canada’s largest commercial media conglomerate believes. And – here’s a surprise – the company believes CBC ought to be privatized and relieved of its public funding. But their case looks to be based on a series of unsupported myths. Toronto Star 03/17/02  

ENTERTAINMENT BOOM: “Revenues in India’s entertainment industry rose 30% in 2001, seven times faster than the economy as a whole, and are expected to double over the next five years.” BBC 03/18/02

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: The Academy Awards have a new home – one especially designed for them. But with 3,100 seats it’s much smaller than Oscar’s old home, which had 5,600. That leaves a lot of Hollywood bigshots without seats. Think they’re happy about it? The New York Times 03/18/02 

SMEAR TACTICS: A nasty campaign smearing the character of John Nash, the subject of the Oscar-nominated film A Beautiful Mind is meant to dim the movie’s chances of winning. “The whisper campaigns, which reach a peak during Oscar balloting, are fueled, the film’s supporters say, by the Internet, by a fascination with tabloid-type scandals and by the rise of private Oscar strategists hired by the studios. But even in that context, the campaign against A Beautiful Mind has struck many in Hollywood as particularly brutal.” The New York Times 03/16/02 

GUERRILLA CINEMA: At the appointed hour, a car pulls up, the driver gets out, sets up his equipment, and “guerrilla drive-in” is up and running. In Los Angeles, a filmmaker projects his movies on the sides of buildings, broadcasting the sound on a local pirate radio frequency. “The director began projecting a two-hour cut of his three-hour movie onto the sides of buildings from Santa Monica to the Valley last summer. Sometimes he gets the owner’s permission; sometimes he doesn’t, a dicey prospect given tonight’s locale: behind the parking lot of the LAPD’s Hollywood station.” LA Weekly 03/14/02

Sunday March 17

THE OSCAR’S NICE, BUT… So there are three African-Americans nominated for Oscars this year. A breakthrough, right? Not at all. “There are a lot of people, mostly outside of Hollywood, making a big deal out of whether this year’s Oscar race is truly a turning point for blacks or just a blip on the fluke meter. Do nominations mean long-term gains for black artists, or come the Monday after the Sunday of the awards show, will talented brothers and sisters with Yale acting school degrees still be lining up for bit parts in keepers like How High? Sure, some actors got a nod, but where are the nominations for black directors, sound recorders and craft servicemen?” Los Angeles Times 03/17/02

• TOKEN EFFORT OR A TURNING TIDE? Long criticized for its lack of minority hiring, Hollywood is holding auditions. “While hoping for the break all actors long for, the performers at the minority showcases have become part of a larger game this spring—recruits in the primary networks’ first major quest for minority talent, timed to coincide with the frenzied casting season for series prototypes, or pilots. The showcases were born out of a controversy, making them significant not only to the minority actors who took the stage, but to the entire television industry. Some industry executives maintain that while they would like more minorities on comedies and dramas, the talent pool is not large enough.” Los Angeles Times 03/17/02

ET – THAT WAY SCARY ALIEN: Australia’s film rating board has upheld a decision to reclassify the rerelease of ET as “PG”. When it first played 20 years ago, ET had a “G” rating. ”Although the resolution of the film is positive, the children face difficult and complex situations without support. From a child’s perspective, many of these situations are menacing.” The Age (Melbourne) 03/17/02

Friday March 15

SCREEN SMOKES: A report details tobacco companies’ attempts to promote their products in movies. “In the 1970s and ’80s – Phillip Morris alone is credited with 191 placements in films including Grease, Die Hard, Field of Dreams and The Muppet Movie.” From a Phillip Morris marketing plan: “It is reasonable to assume that films and personalities have more influence on consumers than a static poster. … If branded cigarette advertising is to take full advantage of these images, it has to do more than simply achieve package recognition – it has to feed off and exploit the image source.” Hartford Courant 03/15/02

GENERALIST IN A WORLD OF SPECIALISTS: Canada’s CBC is a major cultural force in the country. But its audiences haven’t grown for years. Why? Maybe because the broadcaster has to be a little bit of everything, while cable has fractured audiences with numerous specialty channels. “Our experience at the CBC has confirmed that, given the opportunity, large numbers of Canadians will turn to high-quality, original Canadian programming. Our experience also shows that Canadians will not accept cheap alternatives simply because they are Canadian.” Toronto Star 03/15/02

X-RATED: In Britain, The Exorcist has finally passed the censor for video. But Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (1971) is still banned. This is the record of the retiring president of the censor board. “His four-and-a-half-year stint as Britain’s chief film classifier certainly saw the board gain a more permissive reputation.” The Guardian (UK) 03/15/02 

FAILURE TO PROTECT: Movie and music producers are trying to copy-protect their work. But “many critics are convinced that copy-protection technologies are doomed to failure. No system is perfectly secure, and anything that works too well is bound to annoy consumers. Veterans of the consumer industry recall the late 1980s, when many software manufacturers abandoned various copy-protection schemes as bad for business. That cycle, they argue, is set to repeat itself.” Salon 03/13/02

WHAT’S AN OSCAR WORTH? Well, it’s priceless, of course, a big boost to a career. But everyone appearing on the Oscar TV broadcast – presenters and performers alike – will go home with a goody bag worth £14,000 of presents and vouchers. “The bag will contain a £1,000 watch, and a £280 handbag from American designer CJ & Me.” BBC 03/15/02 

Thursday March 14

SHARE OF THE PROFITS: American actors have long been able to sign deals with movie studios for a share of profits. Now British actors can make the same deal with UK filmmakers, ending a six-month dispute that threatened to shut down filming. The Guardian (UK) 03/13/02

Wednesday March 13

UK STRIKE AVERTED: “A strike by British film and TV actors has been called off after a new deal for performers was agreed between actors union Equity and producers’ organisation Pact. The two-year agreement means performers will for the first time receive either a share of the profits of a film or a share of the proceeds from sales of films to television and for video and DVD sales and rentals.” BBC 03/12/02

DIGITAL RADIO DEBUTS: The BBC launched its new digital radio service this week. But there were probably only a few hundred listeners to listen in. Sales of digital radios, required to pick up the broadcast, have been slow in the UK because of their high cost. The Guardian (UK) 03/13/02

“TERRIFIC!” SENSATIONAL!” “I LOVED IT!”: Last year Sony made up a critic and newspaper to blurb glowing reviews of its movies. Now the company is paying the state of Connecticut “$326,000 for using fake reviews attributed to a local newspaper in promoting its films. Sony also has agreed to stop fabricating movie reviews, and to stop using ads in which Sony employees pose as moviegoers praising films they have just seen.” Nando Times (AP) 03/12/02

RADIO JUST ISN’T FOR MUSIC FANS: Blame it on a vast corporate conspiracy, a bad local program director, or anything you want, but radio’s small playlists and near-total unwillingness to play anything not backed up with reams of audience research and paid for by the big labels is unlikely to change anytime soon. So why do stations do it this way? Well, because most listeners seem to want nothing more than their favorite songs repeated over and over, and have no taste for experimentation. And the folks who run the stations admit that, if you’re a true music fan, you’re pretty much out of luck. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 03/13/02

Tuesday March 12

PAID TO SMOKE: “Tobacco companies, hoping that smoking scenes in Hollywood movies would increase sales, worked diligently through the 1980’s and early 90’s to get as much screen time for their brands as possible, a British medical report says, and at least one company went so far as to provide free cigarettes to actors and directors who might therefore be more inclined to light up when the cameras rolled.” The New York Times 03/12/02

• PAID NOT TO RUN ADS? Hollywood trade publications have refused to run ads for a group mounting a campaign against the portrayal of smoking in the movies. “At a time when smoking is banned in most public places, tobacco use is everywhere in movies. You can find stars smoking in three of the five films nominated for best picture.” Toronto Star 03/12/02

EMBRACE THE MACHINE: When VCR’s hit the market a few decades ago, movie studios went into a panic, calling them the “Boston Strangler” of the film business. Now they’re making the same noises about digital copying machines. But just as videotapes became the movie industry’s biggest profit center, might the same not also happen with new technologies? “New technology has a funny way of appearing scary at first glance, but it often opens the door for unforeseen business opportunities.” Los Angeles Times 03/12/02

A RECORD CURL: The hottest movie in Canada this week? It’s Men with Brooms, a film about curling. “Launched on 207 screens across the country, with a promotion budget in excess of $1-million, the Robert Lantos-produced film placed third nationally and topped Johnny Mnemonic (1995), the previous English-language Canadian winner for opening-weekend grosses.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/12/02

Monday March 11

BOLLYWOOD VS HOLLYWOOD: “As East and West eye continue this cultural flirtation, there’s money to be made on both sides. Bollywood’s film-makers have developed a shrewd eye for their market overseas, shaping films to appeal to non-resident Indians in the West. Meanwhile, Hollywood is manoeuvring its tanks on to Bollywood’s front lawn, launching films such as Jurassic Park, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings in India. Dubbed into Hindi, they have been big hits, and movies such as these accounted for almost five per cent of box-office receipts last year, a small but ominous figure.” The Telegraph (UK) 03/11/02

MORE MOVIE AWARDS: Another set of awards said to presage sentiment in Oscar voting. “Russell Crowe was named best actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday for his portrayal of delusional math genius John Nash in A Beautiful Mind, a win that could boost his chances to win back-to-back Academy Awards. Halle Berry won for best actress as the widow of an executed death row inmate who becomes involved with one of her husband’s guards in Monster’s Ball.” Nando Times (AP) 03/11/02

ART OF PROGRAMMING: How do radio programmers decide what music gets on the air? “How the man behind the curtain arrives at what we hear on the radio is somewhere between an art and a science. Although some people like to blame a big corporate conspiracy for the state of radio, much of what we hear is determined by a jury of our peers.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 03/10/02

Sunday March 10

SAG REELECTS GILBERT: The Screen Actors Guild has reelected Melissa Gilbert president in a special election. “Gilbert captured 21,351 of the vote to Valerie Harper’s 12,613 in a record turnout for a highly publicized race. The election has been one of the nastiest battles in the history of Hollywood unions, marked by accusations and name calling involving some of the industry’s best-known actors.” Los Angeles Times 03/08/02

• WHAT NEXT? “Despite an aggressive campaign, Harper, 61, was unable to convince members that her opponent allegedly was too cozy with agents, studios and others Hollywood unions at the expense of SAG. Gilbert’s margin of victory far exceeded what it was in November, when she pulled in 45.3 percent of the vote compared to Harper’s 39.4 percent.” Los Angeles Times 03/10/02

TV FOR ADULTS: The BBC’s launching of a new arts channel has been controversial – who needs an “arts ghetto?” But “halfway through its first week, BBC4 looks like the best thing that has happened to television for a long time. It gives the novel impression of being a channel produced by adults for adults. True, it sometimes resembles radio with a camera in the room, but that is more daring than the brand of television in which movement and noise are valued above intelligence. If you don’t employ bells and whistles, witlessness is not an option.” The Scotsman 03/09/02

Friday March 8

LEAVING FRANCE UNPROTECTED: Vivendi Universal chief Jean-Marie Messier is a major media player in France (as well as the US). So when he recently predicted the demise of “an intricate system of state subsidies that have protected the French movie industry for years against les grosses majors américaines” his countrymen were outraged. “France’s cultural elite view the subsidies program as a kind of national treasure.” New York Observer 03/06/02

SAG SOAP DRAGS ON: The controversy over last year’s Screen Actors’ Guild elections continues to rage, with stars on both sides squealing over who actually won the election for head of SAG, and whether a re-vote is necessary. The pointless arguing was bad enough, but then members “began to get inundated with e-rhetoric from those directly involved, those tangentially involved, and those who maybe wanted to get some publicity because they’re not on television anymore.” Backstage 03/07/02

A RETURN TO MOVIE MUSICALS? The success of Moulin Rouge seems to be leading the way to a predictable revival of the popularity of the movie musical. Studios are looking for attractive ways to package the new round of musicals, including using actors not known for their singing (as in Rouge) and debating whether revivals of classics like Chicago or development of new, modern musicals is the best way to go. USA Today 03/08/02

Thursday March 7

RECORD YEAR FOR MOVIES: Hollywood had a record year at the box office in 2001. “Films including Harry Potter, Shrek and Lord of the Rings helped the box office hit a record high of $8.41 billion, well above 2000’s $7.7 billion. The report by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents Hollywood’s major movie studios, shows that films are costing less to produce.” BBC 03/06/02

A KINDER GENTLER RUSSIAN TV: The three national TV channels in Russia run a lot of violent programs during the afternoon and evening hours. In fact, they routinely ignore the children’s programming quotas required by their license. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has two teen-age daughters, doesn’t like it. He urged the Russian media to make better children’s programs a priority. To emphasize his concern, he ordered the Press Ministry to start monitoring those quotas. The Moscow Times (AP) 02/06/02

Wednesday March 6

A MORE HARD-CORE ET? Australian film censors have given a tougher rating for the upcoming reissue of the movie ET than it got 20 years ago – the movie got a “G” rating then; now it gets a “PG” tag. “In reflecting contemporary community standards across all classifiable elements of the film, the supernatural themes and language could not currently be accommodated at the G level of classification. It is understandable that attitudes shift over a 20-year period. This results in some films receiving different classifications when classified now.” The Age (Melbourne) 03/06/02

TURKEY BANS FILM IT FUNDED: The Turkish Culture Ministry helped fund a movie it hoped would compete for a Best Foreign Film Oscar. But now the government has banned the movie in Turkey “on the grounds that it highlights Kurdish nationalism and portrays the Turkish police in a poor light.” The Guardian (UK) 03/05/02

Tuesday March 5

A FIRST – DVDs SURPASS VHS: For the first time since the DVD debuted nearly five years ago, DVD sales and rentals have outdone the more traditional videocassette format. Couple that with the fact that more than 26 million DVD players are in homes nationwide, and it’s no wonder that the figures are so staggering. In 2001, DVDs generated more than $4.6 billion in sales compared to just $3.8 billion for VHS.” Nando Times (Scripps Howard) 03/04/02

CONGRESS COOL TO ANTI-COPY LAW: Members of the US Congess appear to be cool to the idea of legislating copy protection into CD and DVD technology. Hollywood studios and recording companies looking for help in combatting digital piracy want to mandate the protections to prevent illegal copying. Wired 03/04/02

Monday March 4

THE ACTORS WHO WOULD BE PRESIDENT: The biggest battle in Hollywood this winter isn’t over the Oscars. It’s about who should be president of the Screen Actors Guild. “The campaign for the two-year term as guild president is a rerun of a race last fall in which Melissa Gilbert was declared the winner. She has been serving in the job since then, but the guild’s election committee nullified the results after some members complained of voting irregularities, prompting a second election and an investigation by the Labor Department that is continuing.” Valerie Harper is the challenger, and with ballots to be counted Friday, the race is too close to call. The New York Times 03/04/02

UNPREDICTABLE: “Predicting the Oscars used to be a relatively dependable business. The components of a potential Oscar-winner could be tallied up with almost scientific precision. Positive themes, worthy true-life tales of injustice and courage, ‘intelligent’ spectacle, crippling conditions overcome, terminal diseases not overcome, noble failures, heroic victories, big weepy farewells. But ever since Titanic swept the board in 1998, the academy’s voting patterns have become increasingly eccentric and youthful. The recent winners are not particularly undeserving, just out of sync with previous Oscar voting patterns.” The Times (UK) 03/04/02

IS TRADITIONAL ANIMATION DEAD? “On the surface, traditional animation is in trouble: witness the continuing layoffs at Disney, cradle of this 20th century art form. Rival studios Warners and Fox are still smarting from their humiliating attempts to emulate Disney’s 1994 triumph with The Lion King by setting up their own animation studios.” Steve Jobs says traditional drawing is over – computers do it better. Calgary Herald 03/03/02

THUMBS DOWN ON CONFLICTS OF INTEREST? Film critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper are on a cruise – a cruise sponsored by Disney, which owns their show. Fans of the show can pay to go on the cruise and meet the critics. But “the cruise raises some questions about whether journalists and critics can navigate the tricky waters of cross-promotion and still avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.” Los Angeles Times 03/03/02 

MOVIE TIME IN NEW YORK: New York is planning to build a $375 million movie studio complex. “The 15-story Studio City will offer more than an acre of Hollywood-style backlot on the ninth floor, with a view of the New York skyline and the Hudson River. Planned on a West Side block between 10th and 11th avenues and 44th and 45th streets, the tower will provide production studios, equipment and offices to film, television and advertising companies.” Backstage (AP) 03/02/02

Sunday March 3

WHAT’S WRONG WITH AN ALL-ARTS CHANNEL? This weekend the BBC launches BBC4, its new arts channel. But not all arts lovers are cheering. “BBC4, for all its cultural riches, is not a creative channel in the way that BBC1 and BBC2 were at their best. Its philosophy is alien to the creative risk that produces great television. Rather, it stripmines other art forms and creates little that is new.” The Guardian (UK) 03/02/02 

ABC TO KILL NIGHTLINE? Is ABC planning to buy David Letterman to replace the network’s Nightline? “ABC News staffers, furious that network brass were working to replace their most prestigious program, launched an attack to try to save the show, led by news division President David Westin.” Washington Post 03/02/02

A REAL LOOK AT OSCAR? “Two women’s groups, the Guerilla Girls and Alice Locas, have mounted a giant billboard in the heart of Hollywood depicting an ‘anatomically correct oscar’ in the ungainly shape of a pudgy, middle-aged man. ‘We decided it was time for a little realism in Hollywood,” they said in an statement yesterday. So we redesigned the old boy so he more closely resembles the white males who take him home each year’.” Sydney Morning Herald (AFP) 03/03/02 

Friday March 1

OUR LIVES IN MOVIES: Film biographies rule the screen these days. But “the biopic is more than a film ‘based on a true story’ or a movie about historical events. In a secular society, biopics can be the closest we get to lives of the saints – or the sinners. They can be cautionary tales, inspirational stories, lenses through which we view the past – cheery hagiographies or bitter denunciations.” The Age (Melbourne) 03/01/02

ILLUSIONS OF QUALITY: Is Miramax “the world’s most annoying” film company? “Movies are all about illusion, and the greatest illusion of them all is the illusion of quality. This is Miramax’s stock-in-trade. It takes stories that seem a bit classy – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Shakespeare in Love, Chocolat – and turns them into cultureless mush, affected little movies which are grand in their own way, and which win Oscars, but which are actually meritless escapades fine-tuned to dupe the public.” The Telegraph (UK) 03/01/02

Thursday February 28

HANDS OFF OUR BUSINESS! With the US Congress threatening to write legislation requiring copy protection technology in new digital devices, tech companies pledge to come up with a standard of their own. The movie industry is worried that new devices will allow consumers to rip off their products. Wired 02/27/02

Wednesday February 27

NPR SCALING BACK ON CULTURE? “National Public Radio has begun an extensive review of its musical programming, and is considering overhauling or eliminating some of its venerable jazz and classical offerings. A strategy paper written by NPR’s top programming executive says some of the network’s live performance and recorded music shows ‘may disappear,’ although officials stress that nothing is final.” Washington Post 02/27/02

PROBLEM SOLVED? For the first time in 30 years, three African-American actors have been nominated for top acting Oscars. “But instead of drawing cheers from those who have been fighting for greater black representation at all levels of the entertainment industry, the situation is raising concerns that many people will conclude that the problem has been solved.” It hasn’t been. The New York Times 02/27/02

SYNERGY OR MONOPOLY? When Congress changed the rules of the broadcast industry back in the mid-90s, supporters claimed the new system would spur greater competition and better content for consumers. The exact opposite has been the case, as “old-fashioned, bare-knuckled competition grudgingly gives way to attempted “synergy,” as companies that bring us news, information and banal sitcoms keep getting bigger and more powerful, while simultaneously trying to use their various assets to prop up and support each other.” Los Angeles Times 02/27/02

Tuesday February 26

HOLLYWOOD UNDER ATTACK: Motion Picture Association president Jack Valenti has discovered who’s behind all those nasty accusations about Hollywood. It’s “a small community of professors.” Those blackguards, says Jack, have charged that “producers deliberately are holding back the exhibition of movies on the Net … and that copyright owners are stifling innovation in the digital world.” Nothing, he says, could be further from the truth. Washington Post 02/25/02

SUCCESFUL IN HOLLYWOOD, BUT BORED: Lasse Hallström is a hot director in Hollywood right now: Chocolat, The Shipping News. But he’s ready to go home to Sweden, so he can make films that are, well, less American. “”I think Americans are more likely to be satisfied by experiencing the expected,” he says. “They feel safer and have a better time. Europeans are more open to being genuinely surprised. I appreciate surprises and complexity.” The Telegraph (UK) 02/26/02

Monday February 25

RINGS WINS BAFTAS: Lord of the Rings wins big in the British Bafta awards. “The 4,500 members of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts gave it four awards, for best film, best director (Peter Jackson), best visual effects and best make-up/hair.” The Telegraph (UK) 02/25/02 

AUSTRALIA LURES FILMMAKERS: Australia is proud of its movie industry and hopes to attract more Hollywood productions. So the government has introduced a bill to give movie producers shooting in Australia a 12.5 percent tax rebate, which could save producers millions of dollars. Backers of the idea claim that “when coupled with Australia’s weak currency, state government incentives and cheap labour costs, Australia becomes one of the most viable places in the world to shoot a movie.” The Age (Melbourne) 02/25/02 

Sunday February 24

BBC4 – ARTS HAVEN OR CLEVER DODGE? For years now, Brits have complained that the BBC has been dumbing down the level of its arts programming, and bemoaning the recent lack of much in the way of live concerts or truly informative arts documentaries. The public broadcaster’s response has been to launch BBC4, a cable channel supposedly dedicated to the arts. But critics are howling still, saying that the arts should not be relegated to “niche” programming, but distributed throughout the BBC schedule as they once were. Sunday Times of London 02/24/02

CROSSING THE COLOR LINE: “The Academy Awards have long been known as a lily-white affair, with only six black actors ever winning an Oscar and 36 snagging nominations. So the Feb. 12 Oscar nominations of Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry have drawn the attention of many academy watchers. After all, this was the first time in the 73-year history of the Academy Awards that two African-Americans were nominated in the lead actor category, and the first time since 1973 that three black lead performers received nods.” Dallas Morning News 02/23/02

GRIEF AS A VOYEURISTIC EXPERIENCE: The trouble with portraying real mourning in a film is that most people do not express their grief by wailing uncontrollably for five minutes and then moving on with the plot of their lives, as movie scripts would tend to require. So historically, much of character grief in the movies has tended to occur off-screen. But a new batch of critically acclaimed films features human grief so prominently as to almost make it a character in itself. The New York Times 02/24/02

Friday February 22

A MATTER OF FREEDOM OF THE PRESS? It’s possible that some of the last remaining regulations on ownership of electronic broadcast media might go away. “Regulations still standing include: prohibiting the ownership of a TV station and a newspaper in the same community; limiting a company to owning not more than 35 percent of all TV stations in the United States; and limiting a single company to providing cable TV services to no more than 30 percent of the US population.” The American TV world may be about to change in a big way. For the better? The Nation 02/21/02

TALK OF THE NATION OR MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE? When the September 11 attacks knocked classical radio station WNYC-FM off the air, and threw the national media into a frenzy of information gathering, the station began simulcasting its AM sister station, which carries a public radio news/talk format. “It’s been five months now, with no move back to music. But listeners didn’t understand what was happening until 4 February 2002, when the astute weekly New York Observer detailed the unhappiness and off-air conflicts within the station… exploding with the news that the station was seriously considering dropping classical music almost completely.” Andante 02/22/02

• TAKING THE PUBLIC OUT OF THE EQUATION? Saint Paul, Minnesota seems like an unlikely place for the next nationally dominant, media behemoth to emerge. But according to some critics, in its ambitions, Minnesota Public Radio is the Microsoft of public broadcasting, combining for-profit enterprise with a non-profit patina. Speaking of which, those pledge drives conducted with such breathless earnestness? Oh, MPR still has them, but does it really need them? City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 02/20/02

YEAH, BUT NBC HAS KATIE COURIC! As Americans grumble about the lack of live coverage of the Olympics on NBC’s three available networks, the boring old BBC is blowing the doors off every other nation’s television coverage of the games. “Press the red interactive button and the BBC serves up three video feeds of live events to choose from, all accessed via the same screen. Scroll down to the action you want, and press the button for the full-screen version, or scroll back up and watch all three events at once.” Wired 02/22/02

LUCILLE LUND, 89: “Lucille Lund, an actress who appeared in dozens of films in the 1930’s with stars like the Three Stooges, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, died at her home here last Friday. She was 89. The actress, who co-starred in more than 30 films, is perhaps best known for playing the dual roles of Karloff’s wife and stepdaughter in The Black Cat.” The New York Times 02/22/02

Thursday February 21

A MAJOR TV RESTRUCTURING? Their audiences may be shrinking, but TV networks are still money machines. And it’s only going to get better if a federal appeals court decision this week is allowed to stand. The ruling, which would remove restrictions on networks owning local stations, could result in a buying spree that will see big conglomerates buy up and consolidate local stations around America. This is a good thing for whom? The New York Times 02/21/02

I WANT MY HDTV: “High-definition television, the long-awaited revolution that promised to dazzle our senses and transform the TV medium, is finally here. The fight over a uniform standard, which kept the technology on hold for a decade, is settled. Prices of high-def TV sets are plunging. All the commercial networks, plus HBO, Showtime, and PBS, now broadcast at least some of their programs in high-definition. You can even watch the Winter Olympics in HD. So, why does everyone seem to be keeping its arrival such a secret?” Obstacles. We got plenty of obstacles. Slate 02/21/02

DEFINITION PLEASE: What qualifies to be called a Hollywood movie these days? Some of the biggest studios are owned by non-Americans, stars are as likely to live in New Jersey or Montana or New York as LA, and few films are shot in California anymore… The Age (Melbourne) 02/21/02

THE THREE-FIGURE MOVIE: How much does it cost to make a movie? $545. That’s what a Vancouver filmmaker spent on his 60-minute film. – and the movie’s becoming a cult hit; so far it has played in 13 film festivals worldwide. Most of Bell’s $545 production budget was spent on shooting and editing equipment: $100 in Hi-8 videotapes, $80 in digital tapes, $20 in CDs, $45 on a microphone and the rest on renting the machine that would transfer analog video to mini-DV.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/21/02

MOVIES ON YOUR HARD DRIVE: MGM has decided to offer movies for downloading directly to consumers’ computer hard drives. “Only two films will be available for now – the 2001 comedy What’s the Worst That Could Happen and the four-year-old swashbuckler, The Man in the Iron Mask, starring Leonardo diCaprio. MGM’s willingness to risk software piracy is seen as an indication of its wish to pioneer direct-to consumer systems for Hollywood films.” BBC 02/21/02

Wednesday February 20

SHADY DEALS IN THE FILM INDUSTRY? NO!!“The Film Council, the UK’s grant-awarding body for film-makers, has been accused of ‘cronyism’ by the Conservative [Party]. The agency has been criticised for handing out lottery grants worth £23m to companies in which six of its directors have an interest.” BBC 02/20/02

BEYOND DVD: Major technology companies have unveiled what they expect will be the successor to the DVD disc format. “The new format, the Blu-ray Disc, will store more than 13 hours of film, compared with the current limit of 133 minutes. It is expected to come into its own as more viewers become able to record TV shows on DVD machines.” BBC 02/20/02

HARRY IS NO. 2: Harry Potter has passed Star Wars on the list of all-time biggest-grossing movies.  It has earned more than $926 million at cinemas around the world – but that is still a long way off the number one film, Titanic, which took more than $1.8 billion. BBC 02/20/02

Tuesday February 19

BANNING ADS FOR KIDS: The European Union may consider banning commercials from children’s television. “Powerful voices, citing statistical evidence, are building a case asserting that advertisements between cartoons and other shows for young people are behind increasing levels of child obesity.” New Zealand Herald 02/19/02

FAN INVOLVEMENT: Movie publicity at Hollywood studios is a highly developed science – the product of much market research and considerable effort. The first rule – never give up control of any aspect of your publicity campaign. But times are changing in movie marketing.” Studios are learning that involving fans in the creation and dissemination of marketing can pay off big. Los Angeles Tribune 02/19/02 

MAYBE SMART IS SEXY AFTER ALL: Advanced physics and mathematics, which are hard enough to explain in extensive graduate seminars, are being trotted out as the stuff of popular entertainment. There was Good Will Hunting, and now A Beautiful Mind, along with several other less-touted movies. On Broadway, Proof and Copenhagen, for example. What is going on here? Hartford Courant 02/17/02

Monday February 18

BERLINALE WINNERS: The Berlin Film Festival ended this weekend with the British film Bloody Sunday, about the troubles in Northern Ireland, sharing top honors with the Japanese film Spirited Away.‘ Nando Times (AP) 02/17/02

THE OSCAR EFFECT: Box office for movies nominated for Academy Awards last week soared over the weekend – In the Bedroom doubled its take, while most of the others were up at least 35 percent. New York Post 02/18/02

WE’LL HAVE TO GET BACK TO YOU ON THAT: “It may be a dim memory to some, but a little more than three months ago about two dozen Hollywood leaders stood shoulder to shoulder with President Bush’s senior adviser, Karl Rove, and vowed to work together to help fight the war on terror. Cameras whirred. Lenses clicked. Headlines were made. Whatever happened to that effort? Not terribly much, it seems.” Washington Post 02/18/02

Friday February 15

THE LITERARY MOVIE: All of a sudden a wave of British books is being made into movies. “These films may be thematically diverse, but they occupy a similar niche and cater to a similar demographic. They’re plush adult entertainments; popular yarns that trail literary prestige. Taken as a whole, this wave of Brit-lit cinema spotlights a complex waltz between the author, the book publisher and the film producer. But why is this happening now? And who is calling the tune?” The Guardian (UK) 02/15/02

NEXT UP, MAYBE, PAINTING THE SIT-COM: The BBC is launching its latest digital channel, BBC Four, with television’s first interactive art exhibition, focused on the weather. In Painting the Weather, a series of documentaries will examine the collection in the television exhibition, looking at the art in terms of different weather types. Featured works include Turner’s The Snowstorm, Monet’s Haystacks and Howard Hodgkin’s The Storm. BBC 02/14/02

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE: “Despite the cynicism and materialism of the post-modern era, despite irony as a lifestyle choice, and despite the prevalence of pseudo-science that argues for the utter selfishness of human beings, audiences in cultures all over the world recognize innocence when they needed it most.” And these days, we seem to want it in our movies. A slew of recent hits, from the French import Amelie to Hollywood’s blockbuster Lord of the Rings focus on the triumph of innocence, and more variations on the theme are sure to follow. The Christian Science Monitor 02/15/02

SOMETIMES IT’S HARD TO GET ATTENTION: It looked for a while as if no one was going to get indignant about posters for the new Costa-Gavras film. But now the Vatican says the image, a cross blending with a swastika, is unacceptable. The film, Amen, is about an SS officer who tried to get Church leaders to condemn the Holocaust. Dallas Morning News (AP) 02/14/02

L.A. PRIORITIES VS. NYC SENSIBILITIES: “Recently, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, which is moving its Manhattan operations to a former factory in Queens while the museum undergoes a three-year, $650-million renovation, announced that it is moving its renowned film stills archive, which includes more than 4 million stills, many of them found nowhere else, to Hamlin, Pennsylvania.” This being the type of thing that passes for great art in Los Angeles, a number of movie types have their knickers in a bunch. Los Angeles Times 02/15/02

Thursday February 14

SAG FIGHTING: The disputed election for leadership of the Screen Actors Guild has got nastier, with president Melissa Gilbert and contender Valerie Harper hurling accusations at one another. “Words such as ‘slug’, ‘hatchet man’ and accusations of hijacking the election are being hurled by supporters.” San Francisco Chronicle 02/14/02

WHAT’S QUALITY WITHOUT THE STARS? This year’s Berlin Film Festival is pretty good. So why is the mood a bit flat? Maybe its because of the lack of celebrity power to heat things up? A little star intensity never hurts. The Times (UK) 02/14/02

THE DOWNSIDE OF BOOK-BUYING FOR THE MOVIES: Movie producers buy the rights to books because they offer a readymade audience that is already familiar with the book. But there’s also a downside: “The lure and the curse of these books lie with their readers. It’s the struggle going on right now to get filmgoers interested in The Shipping News: the obvious audience, the people who have read E. Annie Proulx’s novel, are the most sceptical. You can tempt them with the Newfoundland scenery and a heavyweight cast but they are wary.” The Observer (UK) 02/10/02

Wednesday February 13

OSCAR’S REAL MEANING: History shows that all five films nominated yesterday for best picture will reap market benefits. Oscar contenders, on average, earn $30 million more in box office revenue.” The New York Times 02/13/02

• OSCAR TRIVIA: Who has more Oscar nominations than any other living person? What’s unusual about the 10 movies nominated for costume design and art direction? What Oscar record are Will Smith and Denzel Washington a part of? Here’s a list of quirky Academy Award factoids related to this year’s nominees. The Age (AFP) 02/13/02

MOVIES ON YOUR PHONE? Three companies are teaming up to provide technology to deliver video on wireless phones. “Apple Computers and Sun Microsystems are to provide the software for the new service, with Ericsson providing the network.” BBC 02/13/02

PROMOTING GERMANY: “Although Germany is the richest movie market after the United States, even in 2001, the German industry’s best year since the mid-1980’s, German films accounted for just 18 percent of the box office here.” That’s why the new director of the Berlin Film Festival decided to use this year’s festival to promote the home product. The New York Times 02/13/02

Tuesday February 12

OSCAR NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED: Lord of the Rings picks up 13 nominations. A Beautiful Mind and Moulin Rouge were tied for second place with eight nominations each, including acting nominations for Moulin Rouge‘s Nicole Kidman and A Beautiful Mind’s Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly.” Los Angeles Times (AP) 02/12/02

• COMPLETE LIST OF THE NOMINEES
• BUYING ON TO THE LIST: It was generally a weak year for movies. “In Hollywood, 2001 felt like a long string of disasters and nullities, and so we were left with an Academy Awards race that became a high-priced publicity campaign to remind industry figures that anything good happened last year. Never before have the movie studios spent so much money on those psychological-warfare operations known as Oscar campaigns, never before have they played such dirty tricks to undercut one another and never before have they done such silly things to get the attention of academy members.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/12/02

STUDIOS TRY TO BLOCK PERSONAL PROGRAMMING: TV and movie studios have sued makers of personal digital recorders to block them from adding features. “If a ReplayTV customer can simply type The X-Files or James Bond and have every episode of The X-Files and every James Bond film recorded in perfect digital form and organized, compiled and stored on the hard drive of his or her ReplayTV 4000 device, it will cause substantial harm to the market for prerecorded DVD, videocassette and other copies of those episodes and films,” the lawsuit states. Los Angeles Times 02/12/02

AN INDICTMENT OF IRRELEVANCE? During the fall and an audience turn to all-news channels, America’s PBS television network suffered a 19 percent decline in ratings, more than twice as steep a decline as the major TV networks. “The average primetime household rating for October-December 2001 dropped from 2.1 to 1.79 percent—down 0.4 points, representing a loss of about 350,000 households.” Current 01/28/02

MAKING UP REALITY: A film biography of writer Iris Murdoch makes up some of its scenes. They’re poignant, but not true. For filmmakers, “it is the image, not the reality, that comes first, and dramatic truth, not literal truth, is what matters.” But for book people, especially biographer, such tinkering with reality is an ugly blot on a story and it seriously mars what might have been a good film. New Statesman 02/11/02

Monday February 11

BETTER THAN FILM: A new generation of digital camera sensors promises to revolutionize photography. “There is no longer any need to use film.” The New York Times 02/11/02

Sunday February 10

HANDICAPPING THE OSCARS: “No matter what the critics think, the Oscars mean more to people – inside and outside show biz – than any other entertainment award. The Academy Awards may not recognize everyone’s favorite films and performances, but they at least tend to honor the highest meeting point of critical and popular tastes.” Chicago Tribune 02/10/02

THE NEW BERLINALE: Two years ago, fans of the Berlinale Film Festival seemed to be looking for something new. Now, with new leadership the Berlinale seems to have recovered, and “German cinema, whose weakness affected even the Berlinale, Germany’s most high-profile film festival, seems to be gradually recovering from its crisis. Today, there are so many interesting young filmmakers that talk of the end of German cinema seems premature.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 02/07/02

• WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL: In the past, it always seemed as though a peculiar gravitational force was preventing the annual film festival from really getting off the ground. The films were no worse than those in Cannes or Venice, and the stars were no fewer in number. Yet an inexplicable gloom always seemed to hang over the competition, a gloom that could not have been due to the February weather alone – but may have had something to do with the Berlinale’s management climate.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 02/07/02

Friday February 8

SCREENPLAY SCANDAL: The Writers’ Guild has announced its nominations for Screenplay of the Year, and two of the most praised scripts of the last year are not on the list. Why? Well, it seems that the authors of In The Bedroom and Memento weren’t members of the guild at the time the movies were made. Nando Times (UPI) 02/08/02

GETTING IN TOUCH WITH THE BBC: Is the BBC out of touch with its audiences? Greg Dyke, the corporation’s general director, thinks so. So he’s launched a plan to “urgently address the fact that young people and ethnic minorities feel that the BBC is out of touch, and get rid of the image of it concentrating on south east England.” BBC 02/07/02

Thursday February 7

HEADING NORTH: American film workers are increasingly upset about the number of productions leaving the US for Canada. “The U.S. Center for Entertainment Industry Data and Research estimated that, between 1998 and 2000 (the last year for which figures are available), cumulative budgets of features shot in Canada more than doubled to over $1-billion (U.S.). In the same period, feature spending within the United States shrunk by over $500-million to $3.37-billion. The centre also pointed out that in 2000, 37 U.S. movies were shot in Canada, compared with 18 the previous year, and 23 in 1998.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/06/02

THINK OF IT AS TIGHTER EDITING: Many TV stations are using a “time machine” to squeeze in extra commercials. “It works by going through programs frame-by-frame, and when two identical frames appear side-by-side, one is removed. Usually, this can be done enough in a 22-minute program to add 30 seconds of time.” Networks and ad agencies don’t like it. Viewers – so far – don’t seem to notice. Nando Times (AP) 02/06/02

MAYBE ARTHUR ANDERSON SHOULD BE TAKING NOTES: Price Waterhouse is a $20 billion dollar accounting firm. The contract to count the Oscar ballots is a tiny part of their business, but it’s the one that gets them attention. And a reputation: no one has ever demanded a recount; no one has ever pried loose some advance information. The man who counts the ballots says it’s easy. “Here’s what I’ve found. The way you keep a secret: You just don’t tell anybody.” CNN 02/06/02

TIME BEFORE DIGITAL: “There was a time – fast disappearing – when tape was wound, reels of film spooled, and images produced by the physical movement of materials. Etchings were carved in stone, lead and ink scratched on to paper, and silver oxide shifted on photographic plates. Matter was displaced so that ideas and images would place themselves in our minds. As we enter a new millennium, we are in the process of losing our biblical attachment to an entire form of communication: the graven image. From the carved tablets of the Ten Commandments, to walls of stone hieroglyphs, to the boxes of ancient magnetic tapes that Krapp lugs on to his desk, there was a physical cumbersomeness to these archives that related to their human origins. They were expressly handmade. They couldn’t betray their origins. They were touching, because they were made to be touched. Their exchange required a physical transfer.” The Guardian (UK) 02/07/02

Wednesday February 6

WHY AMERICAN TV “STINKS”: American network television is bad and getting worse, says Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the founders of Dreamworks Studios. Speaking at the World Economic Forum last week in New York “Katzenberg blamed the ownership structures of the networks — and their quest for greater profits — for how bad their programming is.” Toronto Star 02/06/02

THE NEW CBC RADIO: In its biggest programming shakeup in 30 years, Canada’s CBC is going to revamp its entire morning Radio One schedule. Instead of delaying programs to play at the same time in time zones across the country, the broadcaster intends to run live between 6 AM and noon. “I’d like us to be more spontaneous. Sometimes we’re too slow to react.” Toronto Star 02/05/02

STUFFING THE BALLOT BOX LEGALLY: Politicians and Oscar-award nominees have something in common: well-established rules about what they can and cannot do to win votes. They also have something else in common: a penchant for loopholes. The New York Times 02/06/02

CYNICAL IS OUT. SINCERE IS IN: “Just as culture in general is leaning toward the heroic, the comforting and the inspirational, so too is Hollywood, throwing its weight behind projects that cultivate familiar, all-American images and stories of bravery and goodness. ‘What we’re buying here is big, uplifting projects. People don’t want quirky, odd, Billy Bob Thornton movies’.” Washington Post 02/06/02

Tuesday February 5

ET TU, PBS? February is “sweeps month” in the U.S., the period when TV ratings companies measure who’s watching what, which has a lot to do with determining ad rates for the next six months. Naturally, the networks respond by airing their most shameless audience draws in February. But public broadcasting is immune, right? Um. Well. PBS’s documentary series Frontline seems to be gearing up for an episode titled “American Porn.” Are the days of public TV operating in a ratings vacuum gone? Boston Herald 02/05/02

BRITNEY BEAT PATRIOTS (ON TV, AT LEAST): What did viewers most want to see on Sunday’s Superbowl TV broadcast? Tivo, the device that enables viewers to do their own instant replay, “used its technology to analyze which football plays or TV ads its subscribers chose to view again or to see in slow motion. TiVo viewers did more instant replays of Super Bowl commercials than of the game itself, and the Pepsi ads featuring Spears were the MVP.” Nando Times (AP) 02/04/02

Monday February 4

THE SECRETIVE CENSOR: Two years ago Australia passed a law to censor internet sites that put up “overly sexually explicit or violent” material. Has the law been a success? Hard to know, since getting regulators to even say what they’ve censored hasn’t been possible…Wired 02/03/02

WHERE THE REAL DRAMA IS: TV soap operas are Britain’s “real National Theatre. Last year, more people discussed who shot Phil Mitchell than who would win the general election. Soaps provide a forum through which we learn about issues such as domestic violence, breast cancer and euthanasia. And, most significantly, British soaps are fundamentally egalitarian, one of the few places on TV where the poor, the fat, the old and the ugly are shown to be important.” New Statesman 02/04/02

THE DIGITAL ACTOR: Computer generated images are becoming so sophisticated and lifelike, some look forward to the day when digital manipulation will replace real-life actors on screen. But a pioneer in digital graphics says the day is a long way off. “I tell actors not to be frightened because nobody knows how to get there, so it’s not going to happen in our lifetime unless there’s a sudden and surprising breakthrough.” Nando Times (UPI) 02/03/02

Sunday February 2

BUYING OSCAR: Movie studios are busting their piggybanks trying to promote their films’ Oscar chances. “Spurred by a wide-open competition for some of the top nominations, the most aggressive studios have mounted campaigns that by some estimates have already cost more than $10 million, easily double what a successful effort totaled only two years ago. A campaign of that magnitude would involve spending more than $1,500 per Oscar voter in the effort to win nominations.” The New York Times 02/03/02

THE POPULAR NEW BBC – DUMBING DOWN FOR RATINGS? For the first time since commercial TV was introduced in Britain (in 1954), the BBC scored more viewers than its commercial competition. Good right? “But just as BBC executives were congratulating themselves, the sniping began. The Beeb, as it is widely known here, was obsessed with ratings, its critics complained. It had not become the world’s most prestigious public broadcaster by kowtowing to the masses. Indeed, to have nudged ahead of ITV in the scramble for audiences was the ultimate proof that it had dumbed down its programming.” The New York Times 02/03/02

• Previously: BBC SURGES: For the first time, the BBC1 TV channel has scored higher ratings for the year than chief competitior ITV1. “Ratings show BBC One with an audience share of 26.8% compared to 26.7% for ITV1.” BBC 01/01/02
• And: BBC RADIO AT RECORD LISTENERSHIP: BBC Radio listenership is up, beating out all commercial radio stations. “The number of people listening to BBC Radio each week has risen by 300,000 since September, taking the total to 32.7 million – a record since new monitoring methods were introduced in 1999.” BBC 02/01/02

SEE CANADIAN: In the last two weeks of 2001, Lord of the Rings took in $40 million at the box office in Canada. By comparison, the top grossing Canadian-made movie for all of 2001 sold about $3 million worth of tickets. Canada makes some good feature films – so why won’t the multiplexes show them and why won’t audiences demand them? The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/02/02

Friday February 1

SEE KOREAN: Since 1967, Korea has had a film quota that requires local theaters to screen Korean films at least 146 days a year. The local film industry has been doing well, so now the government wants to drastically reduce the quota. Filmmakers are protesting. Korea Herald 02/01/02

BBC RADIO AT RECORD LISTENERSHIP: BBC Radio listenership is up, beating out all commercial radio stations. “The number of people listening to BBC Radio each week has risen by 300,000 since September, taking the total to 32.7 million – a record since new monitoring methods were introduced in 1999.” BBC 02/01/02

Thursday January 31

POOH FIGHT: Disney has helped turn Winnie the Pooh into a merchandising juggernaut. But the family of the literary agent who “bought the rights to Pooh from author AA Milne in 1929, have filed a suit to terminate Disney’s licence and to claim damages for ‘hundreds of millions’ of dollars.” The Guardian (UK) 01/30/02

THE BATTLE FOR WNYC: When New York public radio station WNYC lost its FM tower on the World Trade Center, its classical music programming got compressed to late night hours on its sister AM band. Now that FM is up and broadcasting again, the classical music hasn’t expanded to its former proportions again. Changes at the station signal a rift between WNYC’s ambitious corporate-style managers and more traditional staff. New York Observer 01/30/02

Wednesday January 30

LACK OF DIVERSITY: A new report chides the television industry once again for its white-maleness. “The report, which examined the 40 most popular series of the 2000-2001 season, reported that about 80% of drama and comedy episodes—or 663 of the 826 installments—were directed by white males. Black males directed 27 episodes, or about 3% of the total, while Latino males directed 15 episodes, or about 2%. Asian American males directed nine episodes. White females directed 87—or 11%—of the episodes.” Los Angeles Times 01/30/02

ARGENTINA – THE FUTURE IN FILM: Could anyone have predicted the collapse of Argentina? Bankers maybe. Also filmmakers: “The 1990s were a very false period. There was a lot of money around in a country that wasn’t growing. This feeling of menace that was coming was very clear many years ago. All these films are of course related to the situation.” The Guardian (UK) 01/30/02

VOTING WITH YOUR FEET: The ultimate, definitive criticism of a movie is simple and direct, and it’s available to anyone. Get up and walk out; if it’s really bad, demand your money back. People do it all the time. Well, some of the time. “The movie doesn’t even have to be a bomb. The films people leave the most are frequently also the most admired.” Los Angeles Times 01/30/02

Tuesday January 29

BAFTA NOMINEES: The British Bafta Award nominations are out. Nominated for best fim are: The Lord Of The Rings and Moulin Rouge (each picked up 12 nominations), the French-language hit Amelie, A Beautiful Mind, the animated adventure Shrek. Winners are announced Feruary 24. BBC 01/29/02

HOW TO WIN AN OSCAR: “It is Oscar season, when the great and the good of California’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gather, ponder the relative merits of the year’s best actors and films, and finally, amid great fanfare and weird interpretative dance numbers, give the Oscar to someone else.” So, if making a great film doesn’t get it done, what rules must be followed to take home the little gold man? Hmmm, where to begin? National Post (Daily Telegraph) 01/28/02

Monday January 28

HARD STUFF/HARD DECISIONS: “Last month, NBC began accepting ads for Smirnoff vodka, marking the first time such ads are appearing on broadcast networks since the programmers adopted a voluntary ban on the products shortly after the Second World War. Almost immediately after NBC’s announcement, an avalanche of attacks came crashing down onto NBC’s peacock tail, sending the billion-dollar network into a fetal position.” But the policy about hard liquor ads and TV is deeply conflicted… The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/28/02

Sunday January 27

DANGEROUS TO BE SO BIG? Clear Channel Communications now has its fingers in more and more of the average American’s entertainment choices. The company “garnered relatively little attention as it evolved during the 1990s from a family owned San Antonio radio chain into an international conglomerate that is now the size of NBC. Today it is the nation’s largest radio owner, and a world leader in outdoor advertising. And it is the largest promoter and presenter of live entertainment on the planet; CCE promotes and/or produces 26,000 events a year, drawing 62 million people to its 135 theaters, arenas, and amphitheaters around the globe, the company says.” Boston Globe 01/27/02

THE OSCAR SECRETS: Want to win an Oscar? Here’s how: “We all know that the Oscars bear scant relation to the merits of the films in question. So what do they bear relation to? In order to answer this question, we processed the winners and losers of the past 20 years into a computer and asked it to come up with a set of rules as to how you win an Oscar.” Some hints – it helps to be disabled and have a rousing end to your film. The Telegraph (UK) 01/26/02

Friday January 25

PRODUCE THIS: Movies and TV shows seem to be overrun with various types of ‘producers’ in some form or another. “Who are these people? What do they do? Do they get paid? Why do they need so many of them? These are legitimate questions. For while there are thousands of people roaming the streets of Los Angeles claiming to be producers, it takes more than a business card and an ugly sports jacket to truly merit the title. Moreover, even real producers carry less weight now that a few giant companies have swallowed Hollywood.” Los Angeles Times 01/24/02

THE SAD SACKS AT THE GOLDEN GLOBES: Why does anyone care about the Golden Globe Awards. They’re voted by the foreign press – “which is comprised of 80 journalists about whom movie folk could not care less during the other 11 months of the year. I have lived in Hollywood; I have seen the foreign press, and a more motley consortium of lumpy, hard-boiled, cocktail-happy flacks you could never meet. Agents, publicists and stars, do their best to avoid them (except during awards season), meeting them only in strictly supervised round-table interviews, chuckling behind their backs at their softball questions.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/25/02

TALK ABOUT REALITY: A Russian “reality TV” program shows a dozen young men and women living together in a single apartment. Cameras record their every action, and one-way mirrors let passers-by in the street watch as well. And it continues, regardless of the fact that the channel which used to broadcast it has been shut down. Moscow Times 01/24/02

Thursday January 24

MINORITY RECRUITING: Two years ago the major American TV networks came under fire for their lack of minority actors on programs. Now the networks are hosting “talent workshops” in an effort to recruit more minority actors. Critics say it’s about time: “We expect to see real change in the new shows, or else we’re going to have a real problem. The new shows will be announced in May, and we see it as a make or break time for the networks.” Toronto Star 01/23/02

Wednesday January 23

AMÉLIE OVERTAKES LA CAGE: “Amélie, the little French movie that could, has broken a longstanding record to become the highest-grossing French-language film to be released in the United States. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s whimsical tale has grossed $20.9 million, breaking the previous record, $20.4 million, held by La Cage Aux Folles since 1979. Last week Amélie crossed the $100 million mark for worldwide box-office receipts.” New York Post 01/23/02

BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY SAGS: According to the British Film Commission, “British film production dropped sharply in 2001, largely because of the threat of a strike by members of the U.S. film actors’ union; overall Britain’s film industry was worth about $602-million last year, compared with $1.1-billion in 2000.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/22/02

AUSSIE ASSAULT: With Australian movie folk cleaning up awards at the Golden Globes this week, “the Aussie assault was the main topic of conversation at the Globes’ after parties and on entertainment shows this morning.” The Age (Melbourne) 01/23/02

• AUSSIE HOTBED: Everyone’s talking about the film talent coming from Down Under right now. Says Steven Spielberg: “Australia has produced the most amazing new wave of talent since, probably, Britain in the 1940s.” The Age (Melbourne) 01/23/02

MORE THAN EVER, ART IS GROUNDED IN SCIENCE: “Increasingly, science, math and technology have emerged as serious themes in creative endeavors such as the current film A Beautiful Mind, recent plays such as Proof, Copenhagen, Arcadia and Q.E.D., the novels of writers Richard Powers and Andrea Barrett, and the visual artwork of Eduardo Kac. You cannot hope to understand contemporary life without a hard look at the ways that science and technology have overhauled every aspect of material existence.” Chicago Tribune 01/20/02

THE BBC AND ARTS: The BBC has come under fire recently for its arts programming. Some charge the corporation is lessening its commitment to the arts and plans to “ghettoize” the arts on the BBC’s new digital service. But BBC head Greg Dyke denies the charges: “Arts programmes would continue to take up a minimum of 230 hours a year across BBC One and BBC Two, he said, instead of being shifted to new digital channel BBC Four when it launches in March.” BBC 01/23/02

• SIGNAL TO NOISE: Has the BBC been reducing the quality of its digital audio bitrate signal? The music hasn’t been as crisp… Gramophone 01/23/02

Tuesday January 22

NOT MUCH OF A STRIKE, THEN, IS IT? The UK film industry is reeling from the effects of an actors’ strike that has been going on since December. Or is it? Despite calls for British actors to refuse all work until a settlement is reached, the union has allowed some studios to cross the picket line and sign individual deals with stars so current big-budget Hollywood productions are not halted. BBC 01/22/02

RECORD YEAR FOR AUSTRALIAN MOVIES: The Australian movie business did well last year. “Australian box office takings leapt to a record $812 million from $689.5 million in 2000. However, the news for locally made films was not entirely positive, with their market share slipping marginally from 7.9 to 7.8 per cent in 2001.” Sydney Morning Herald 01/22/02

Monday January 21

MOULIN ROUGE/BEAUTIFUL MIND BIG WINNERS AT GLOBES: Golden Globes, as chosen by the Hollywood foreign press, are given out. Best movies awards go to A Beautiful Mind and Moulin Rouge, which can be considered front-runners for the Academy Awards. Los Angeles Times 01/21/02

• COMING OUT PARTY: For many, the frivolity seemed to mark a psychic turning point for the industry. Hollywood was not only buffeted by the terrorist attacks, but also a slowdown in production due in part to a flood of activity in the first part of 2001 spurred by the threat of strikes. “The Hollywood movie business was completely stalled out for very good reason after 9/11. Now that there’s becoming enough distance between that tragic event and today, people are feeling very eager to work. Los Angeles Times 01/21/02
• TEDIOUS EXERCISE: The “59th Annual Golden Globe Awards, which anointed Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind as the flick to beat at the Oscars in March, was about as tedious as the longest Academy Award show. Ever.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution 01/21/02

SUNDANCE FINISHES STRONG: Expectations were definitely not high for this year’s Sundance Festival. But then, “the dark and innovative films that made up much of this year’s roster began to create a stir, and suddenly the odor of infirmity drifted away. Movies were selling left and right last week for more money than anyone would have predicted before the festival began on Jan. 10.” The New York Times 01/21/02

• THE MOST-HATED FILM AT SUNDANCE: Director Gus Van Sant used to be an art-film director. Then, after a breakout hit, he wasn’t. At this year’s Sundance he was back in high-art form again. “His feature Gerry may be one of the most hated movies in American film-festival history.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/21/02

Sunday January 20

AND THE WINNER IS… “Personal Velocity, a movie trilogy about three women confronted with momentous life crises, won the Sundance Film Festival’s grand jury prize Saturday, taking top dramatic honors at the 11-day independent cinema showcase. Sundance jurors gave the documentary grand jury prize to Daughter From Danang, which follows an Amerasian child of a Vietnamese woman and U.S. soldier who searches for her natural mother years after she was adopted by an American woman.” Nando Times (AP) 01/19/02

• SUNDANCE DOOR OPENS A LITTLE WIDER: The Sundance Film Festival is arguably the most successful showcase of independent film in the U.S. But for an event that purports to give voice to those normally shunned by major studios, Sundance has a fairly spotty record when it comes to screeing films by racial minorities. This year, however, the tide may be turning. Washington Post 01/19/02

LET’S HEAR IT FOR VOLTRON! “Japanese film has probably never been as popular internationally as it is right now. Its popularity, though, is not grounded in live action films, but in the animated features and television series that have come to be known as anime. It has been estimated that anime now account for 60 percent of Japanese film production.” The New York Times 01/20/02 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday January 18

THE GLORIES OF NEPOTISM: How do you get a job of have a movie made in Hollywood? You gotta know someone. “In fact, Hollywood happens to be one of the more democratic places to make it, so eager are they for the next big thing, so willing to believe that you could be It, or you, or you. It’s standard practice in L.A. that no phone call goes unreturned (even if it means rolling calls, deliberately returning them when they know you’ll be out), because everybody could end up working with anybody at any time.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/18/02

Thursday January 17

GOING TO PRAGUE: Where are all the movies going? To Prague. “A multi-million-dollar film industry has made Prague, the Czech capital, a European moviemaking mecca, second only to London. Since the fall of communism 11 years ago, hundreds of foreign productions have come here to take advantage of its extraordinarily low costs, highly skilled technicians, and stunning locations.” Christian Science Monitor 01/16/02

Wednesday January 16

THE DECLINE OF DISNEY? “After a renaissance in the mid-80s and for much of the 90s, Disney has been sliding. Its movie business is scoring fewer hits, attendance at theme parks has been disappointing of late. The company had its fingers severely burnt online and was forced to close an ambitious internet portal early last year and dissolved what was a separate new-media division.” The Guardian (UK) 01/15/02

Tuesday January 15

CLAIMS FOR FLOP INSURANCE: Banks financing Hollywood movies are going to court to try to collect on insurance claims worth more than $1 billion for movies that were flops. “Hundreds of cases are stacked up on both sides of the Atlantic, as London’s insurance market resists paying out on a slew of cinematic turkeys. Banks had lent money for productions with “shortfall insurance” – “policies that pay up if a film fails to make its projected revenue within (typically) two to three years.” Financial Times 01/14/02

CLOUDS AT SUNDANCE: The Sundance Festival is in full bloom, and there’s lots of good fare. But “the combination of several factors has shaped feelings about the festival beyond this. There is the important anniversary for an event that has visibly altered the shape of filmmaking, and there is the residue of the slumping economy. Though Main Street was a scramble of visitors dashing from one party to the next, as it was last year, a bit of a cloud hangs over the festival.” The New York Times 01/15/02

• A SERIOUS FOCUS: The opening festivities at Sundance this year have been dominated by films with extremely sober subjects. One focuses on the murder of Matthew Shephard, beaten to death in Wyoming because he was gay. Another, a documentary, examines the brutal dragging death of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas. Throw in a dark comedy about a sorority girl in love with a handicapped discus-thrower, and the festival is looking awfully edgy, even for independent film. Dallas Morning News 01/15/02 (one-time registration required for access)

SCORE ONE FOR THE CLASSICS: Okay, so country music may not exactly be Mozart. But in Nashville, and indeed across much of America, country is as classic as it gets, and “regular folks” are as loyal to it as opera fans. So when a legendary Nashville AM station (flagship of the Grand Ole Opry) announced it would be moving to a talk format, the listeners revolted. None of this, of course, is unusual in an age of huge broadcasting conglomerates. What is unusual is that the effort worked, and WSM will stay country, and stay unique in a sea of generic radio blather. Nashville Tennessean 01/15/02

RIPPING OFF EGYPTIAN MOVIES: Video piracy isn’t only a problem for American movies. Egyptian filmmakers estimate they lose $15 million in revenues a year due to video pirates. “Pirates manage to get a copy of a movie as soon as it is released, either on video cassette (mostly from Saudi Arabia) or on imported laser discs, sometimes recording them from the cinemas directly using a camcorder. These are then duplicated and distributed to the 2,000-odd video rental stores and clubs that specialize in selling pirated cassettes.” Middle East Times 01/11/02

INDEPENDENT FROM WHAT, EXACTLY? “Independent film companies Intermedia and Spyglass Entertainment Group on Monday announced a merger agreement that will form one of the world’s largest independent film companies. The merger is expected to be completed by the end of February.” Dallas Morning News (AP) 01/15/02 (one-time registration required for access)

Monday January 14

TAX BREAKS FOR HOLLYWOOD: California governor Gray Davis proposes tax breaks for movie companies shooting their productions in California. “Hollywood’s unions have pushed for years for state and federal incentives to fight runaway production. Canada’s weak dollar, combined with government incentives, make shooting there about 25% cheaper. Roughly one in four U.S.-developed productions shoot in foreign countries, mostly Canada. Los Angeles Times 01/13/02

Sunday January 13

THE RE/SELF-EDITED MOVIE: Fans are editing commercial movies on their own computers. A new artform, as some claim? Nope. “Digital technology may make it easier to appropriate and reinterpret existing art. But the tendency itself, the urge to do so, is a psychologically crucial element of contemporary thinking, and has more to do with zeitgeist than with technology. Quite simply, reappropriation is what we do these days, in high art and mass media: It’s part of postmodernity.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/12/02

GETTING TO THE THEATRE ON TIME: It has a script, then it doesn’t have a script. It has a $20 million budget, then it has a $6 million budget… how do movies ever get made? Here’s the chronicle of one movie-making experience. The Guardian (UK) 01/12/02

Friday January 11

DIGITAL IS YESTERDAY’S NEWS: The past two years, “digital” was the word at the Sundance Festival. “But the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, which opens here Thursday, looks to be relatively free of new-tech buzz. Press releases trumpeting the latest digital video innovations – a fax-jamming feature of Sundances past – have slowed to a trickle, and the Sundance press office seems to be barely keeping track of which films are digital and which aren’t.” Wired 01/10/02

PLAY ME AGAIN SAM: Now there’s no need for old actors to die on screen when they die in real life – they can just be digitized and live forever. The practice is growing in movies and in TV commercials. “With technology being where it is, hearse-loads of dead people could get in on the act. Computer graphics imaging (CGI) can create very convincing replicas of specific human beings. At the same time speech generation software replicates voices so successfully that to our merely human ears the sound is an exact duplicate.” Sydney Morning Herald 01/11/02

UNFRIENDLY? A Canadian conservation officer shut down an expensive film shoot in the Canadian Rockies for an American TV commercial this week because the crew didn’t have a required $57 permit. The incident has become very public and critics are charging that the government isn’t being helpful enough in helping American productions that want to film in Canada. “It’s just bad public relations. It’s an embarrassment to the Alberta tourism and film industry.” National Post 01/11/02

Thursday January 10

BACKING AWAY FROM THE FAMILY: Family-friendly programs been a centerpiece of TV programming since day one. But no more, at least not at NBC. “We don’t see them as really the kinds of shows that are in our wheelhouse,” says the network’s west coast president. As for those successful family shows on Fox and ABC, “They don’t have the upscale demos that we want that would allow us to keep them on the air.” Nando Times 01/09/02

Wednesday January 9

SAGGING SPIRITS: “Hollywood’s actors union, The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has announced plans to re-run its hotly disputed presidential contest. Former Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert was elected president last November by a large majority over rival actress Valerie Harper, who starred in Rhoda. However it has since emerged that the vote violated the union’s constitution.” BBC 01/09/02

Tuesday January 8

BUILDING A CULTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE: The Canadian government wants to invest in the “construction of a Canadian cultural infrastructure on the web.” But how to build it? “This is the medium that will be the chief means to reach people now in the 13-17 age group.” One group of multimedia artists thinks they have the answer. Toronto Star 01/07/02

JUST WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS: “Leni Riefenstahl, who produced masterful propaganda films for the Nazis, plans her first movie release in nearly 50 years to coincide with her 100th birthday this summer. Impressions Under Water, a 45-minute film about the underwater world of the Indian Ocean, is the result of dives between 1974 and 2000, Riefenstahl told Germany’s Die Welt newspaper in a rare interview.” Toronto Star (AP) 01/08/02

Monday January 7

DVD’S ARE HOT: “The number of films sold on DVD more than doubled last year, to more than 37 million, according to industry figures. Almost 2.4 million DVD players were also bought in the past year, 550,000 of them in the run-up to Christmas, the British Video Association (BVA) says.” BBC 01/06/02

DIGITAL RADIO: Will people pay for radio? Apparently: Digital radio is hot. “Since its national debut in mid- November, XM Satellite Radio has sold 25,000 to 30,000 subscriptions to its new national radio service, XM Radio. In the same period, consumer electronics stores sold nearly an equal number of the specialized radios necessary to receive the signals, making national satellite radio one of the fastest-growing new products the audio industry has seen in years.” The New York Times 01/07/02

BEST FILM OF 2001: The National Society of Film Critics voted Mulholland Drive as the best movie of 2001. “Robert Altman’s satirical Gosford Park came in second as best picture, while the fantasy hit The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was third.” Nando Times (AP) 01/06/02

SELF-CENSORSHIP IN SPADES: Don’t like a scene in a movie you’d like to watch at home? Three companies in Utah “have developed technology that allows DVDs to be manipulated and cleaned up.” You can edit out that offensive sex scene or clean up the violence. “Wouldn’t it have been easier, perhaps, to skip the movie? Why not say to young Jimmy, ‘Son, The Matrix is too violent. We’re not going to buy that DVD for you. But here, have this Lassie movie instead. Now, let’s go get some hot cocoa.” San Francisco Chronicle 01/06/02

THE VALUES THING: The White House is encouraging filmmakers to make movies with “American values.” But “what would a film bursting with ‘American values’ actually look like? Probably what the president and his advisors had in mind are films that celebrate patriotism or wholesome attributes such as family togetherness, self-sacrifice and courage under fire. But are any of these upright virtues inherently American?” Los Angeles Times 01/06/02

FEEDING ON ITSELF: The FBI’s famous internet surveillance program has become inspiration for a group of new-media artists. “In a collaborative art project called, creatively enough, Carnivore, Flash guru Joshua Davis and digital artist Mark Napier, along with other artists, have crafted programs that create audiovisual representations of data traffic that’s observed and hijacked from a local area network.” Wired 01/06/02

Sunday January 6 RINGS PICKS UP FIRST AWARDS: The American Film Institute kicks off the awards season by naming the best of the big and little screens Saturday night. AFI decides Lord of the Rings is the best movie of 2001. Chicago Sun-Times 01/06/02

• WHAT WAS THE YEAR’S BEST MOVIE? There seems to be no consensus “best movie” of the year among American film critics. Here’s a list of critics’ Top 10 lists for 2001. Chicago Tribune 01/06/02

SUNDANCE TURNS 20: “Sundance used to be shorthand for artistic legitimacy, a way for filmmakers to place themselves firmly outside the corrupt commercial imperatives of the studio system. Then the studios jumped atop the bandwagon. As the Sundance Institute celebrates its 20th anniversary with the start of its annual film festival on Thursday, organizers are grappling with how to maintain the fest’s indie appeal and credibility, while accepting the fact that the 10-day event has been co-opted by many of the major studios as just another way to grab attention for a movie.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/05/02

THE CAMERA LIES: When Michael Jackson appeared on a TV special last fall, producers thought he looked too white compared to his brothers, so they “color corrected” him on the screen. Then they thought Whitney Houston looked too skinny, so they added a little weight to her in post-production. “Over the past two decades, the advent of digital technology and the increasing sophistication of CGI (computer graphics interface) software has radically transformed production of everything from feature films and television shows to music videos and advertising spots. Now, virtually anything is possible. ‘If you can think it or dream it, you can do it’.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/05/02

Friday January 4

SAVE OUR SHOWS: A lifeguard frustrated that TV networks canceled some of his favorite shows has started a website (www.SaveThatShow.com) to allow viewers to vote for retaining their favorites. “The site allows viewers to voice their opinions about their favourite shows, before they’re yanked off the air, by using an on-line form. The poll results and suggestions for change are also sent to network executives by e-mail on a monthly basis (although he has yet to hear back from anyone).” Toronto Star 01/04/02

Thursday January 3

REVISIONISTS UNDER ATTACK: “The real Mao Tse-tung hounded critics to death. But in the latest version of history according to China’s state film industry, Mao treasures free speech and criticism of his regime.” Like most state films featuring such blatant revisionist history, the movie bombed in China. But the widow of an American journalist portrayed in the film is furious over the inaccuracies, and is creating quite a stir. Cleveland Plain Dealer (AP) 01/03/02

GETTING BACK TO WORK: “Afghan filmmakers are shooting their first movie in 10 years following the fall of the Taleban regime. The film, The Speculator, is being specially made for screening on Afghan television because the station is short of material.” BBC 01/03/02

Wednesday January 2

RECORD MOVIE YEAR: The movie industry ended 2001 with its best year ever. “Movie-ticket sales for 2001 will total an estimated $8.35 billion by the end of New Year’s Eve, up from last year’s record of $7.7 billion, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. Factoring in an estimated 4 percent rise in average ticket prices, admissions were up about 5 percent, the first increase since 1998.” Nando Times (AP) 01/01/02

THE END OF CLASSICAL RADIO: When Miami classical radio station WTMI was sold last year for $100 million, it was inevitable the classical format was doomed, no matter what the new owners said. Classical can’t hope to produce the kind of revenues a $100 million purchase demands. Sure enough, this week the station abandoned classical for dance music. Miami Herald 01/01/02

BALKING AT THE BONUSES: Fans of DVD’s have been attracted to the new format in part because of “bonus” material often included on the discs – interviews with cast and crew, and behind-the-scenes scenes. But the “extra material could start to disappear thanks to escalating costs and demands by talent and guilds. Studios are balking at new fees for script use and star participation, even as overall DVD sales surge and consumers embrace “special edition” packages.” Toronto Star 01/01/02

UNDERSTANDING NIELSEN: The Nielsen Company has a new leader. In the US, “from a commercial and perhaps even cultural perspective, few enterprises may be more influential, and less understood, than Nielsen, which provides the television ratings that networks and media buyers rely upon to negotiate advertising rates. Beyond governing more than $50 billion in annual spending on TV ads, the information serves as a cultural touchstone, a tool people use to gauge the prevailing public mood and tastes.” Los Angeles Times 01/02/02

BBC SURGES: For the first time, the BBC1 TV channel has scored higher ratings for the year than chief competitior ITV1. “Ratings show BBC One with an audience share of 26.8% compared to 26.7% for ITV1.” BBC 01/01/02

Monday December 31

THE LOWLY WRITER: So TV writers’ pay is getting cut because the American networks are losing money? No one’s getting rich here, certainly not writers. “There are about 150 series per year with about an average of 10 staffers each, or about 1,500 staff writer/writer-producer, prime-time jobs per year. There are a required two freelance scripts given out per series for a maximum of about 300 freelance scripts per year. That’s 1,800 possible jobs being fought for by over 10,000 active WGA West members (not including East Coast WGA members) and the additional how-many-more tens of thousands more non-guild members attempting to break in.” Los Angeles Times 12/31/01

• Previously: LOWLY SCREENWRITERS REGAIN THEIR LOWLY PLACE: For a brief time in the mid-90s, screenwriters were pulling in multi-million-dollar contracts for scripts they hadn’t even written yet. But after some high-profile flops, “screenwriters are back to being the bastard children of Hollywood. There was a bit of a backlash to all the big screenplay deals in the late 80’s and early 90’s. We’re paying for it now.” The New York Times 12/09/01 (one-time registration required for access)

NOT INTERESTED IN DIGITAL TV: One year after digital TV became available in Australia, fewer than 10,000 Australian households have bought digital converters. That’s 80 percent below projections. “Advocates of the new digital technology – which allows for interactive viewing – hope for improved sales next year.” Sydney Morning Herald 12/31/01

THE STAR IS A MURDERER? The Iranian movie Kandahar has had rave reviews in the international press this year. “However, it is now being claimed that one of the film’s amateur actors is in fact the prime suspect in a political assassination that took place more than 20 years ago.” BBC 12/30/01

Sunday December 30

AT ODDS WITH THE CRITICS: The Top 10 Movie lists of critics and audiences are very different. “Comparing our Top 10 list with theirs is like scanning the menus at McDonald’s and Chez Panisse. Both have potatoes. We loved Rush Hour 2. The critics adored The Man Who Wasn’t There. We dug The Mummy Returns. They preferred Ghost World. Not a single foreign word appears on our list.” So what good are critics? Washington Post 12/27/01

ANOTHER SIGN OF MOVIES MOVING OUT OF AMERICA: Every American state has one – a state film office that markets locations and facilitates permits for the movie industry. Now Washington State, which attracted $50 million worth of movie business in 2000, is considering closing its film office because of huge state revenue shortfalls. One reason for the cut? Movie business has dried up in the state as productions shoot in Canada. Seattle Times 12/30/01

Friday December 28

THE EVIL THAT IS HOLLYWOOD: Is the Hollywood film industry “a sort of Frankenstein that has high-concepted itself into a weird, ugly blandness while stomping on fragile cinematic cultures worldwide even as it attempts to befriend, co-opt, and sometimes imitate them?” A new book charges corruption and coziness between Hollywood and the American government, which encourages a bland status quo. American Prospect 12/17/01

• CONSPIRACY OR PLAIN INCOMPETENCE? So when exactly did Hollywood go bad? The whole culture of big-budget filmmaking is so generic and unadventurous that even as earth-shaking an event as 9/11 failed to change anything in the long term. And most films these days seem to be little more than “sense-stimulating bombardments designed for pacification and crude social programming.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 12/28/01

Thursday December 27

SUCCESS ABROAD DOESN’T TRANSLATE AT HOME: India is the biggest producer of movies in the world. But India’s film industry is trying to crack the world movie market outside India. Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum (“Sometimes Joy Sometimes Sorrow”) is the most expensive Indian film ever made. “The 400 million rupee ($8.3 million) production made it to number three in Britain in its first week, the highest position an Indian movie has ever reached in the British top ten, and earned 450,000 pounds ($647,000) in the weekend ending Dec. 16.” But at home the movie is not faring well… Nando Times (AP) 12/24/01

TOTAL OVERREACTION 101: In the mid-90s, the satirist Christopher Buckley penned a novel in which Big Tobacco concocted a scheme to pay Hollywood to feature its top actors and actresses smoking onscreen. There’s no evidence that this ever actually happened, but an astounding number of movie characters seem to be leaning fairly heavily on the nicotine crutch these days, even as “real” people are cutting down. One California professor is agitating for an automatic ‘R’ rating for any film containing smoking. San Francisco Chronicle 12/27/01

DIETRICH AT 100: “Marlene Dietrich’s 100th birthday is being celebrated in Berlin, the home city of the late Hollywood star.” Among many events celebrating Germany’s dark diva, “the Berlin Film Museum is staging a special exhibition and showing never-before-seen private films of the late star.” BBC 12/27/01

Wednesday December 26

THE NEED FOR QUALITY TV: Many critics have been predicting the end of quality television drama. “Television’s perennial problem, which can only worsen during an economic downturn, is that ‘formulaic’ is far cheaper than ‘original’.” But “unless television produces big, event pieces that cannot be seen anywhere else, it’s just going to become an output box for movies — a worthless piece of machinery.” The Times (UK) 12/26/01

BOOKS ON SCREEN: “The process of turning novels into movies is an inexact science. When it happens, it happens. Getting there, novelists and filmmakers said, can be delicate and harrowing.” Los Angeles Times 12/26/01

Monday December 24

THE DIGITAL MARCH: Digital art flourished in 2001, even as the Dot-bust gained momentum. Perhaps they were motivated by the recognition that making digital art might yield greater, if less tangible, rewards. ‘We’re past the initial glow of excitement about a new medium. Now the challenge is to take this beyond a small group of intrepid explorers and the gee-whiz of a new technology and into an art form that can engage a larger audience and sustain itself in the long run’.” New York Times 12/24/01 (one-time registration required

Friday December 21

AWARDS SEASON GETS GOING: The Golden Globe nominations help clarify the Oscar field. “The competition for best dramatic film pits A Beautiful Mind, Ron Howard’s adaptation of the story of a brilliant but schizophrenic mathematician, which earned six nominations, against Peter Jackson’s epic adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; Todd Field’s intense In the Bedroom, about a middle- aged couple torn apart by the murder of their son; David Lynch’s nightmarish and enigmatic Mulholland Drive; and Joel Coen’s black- and-white neo-noir The Man Who Wasn’t There.” The New York Times 12/21/01 (one-time registration required for access)

NOT TO MENTION THE PRICE OF REAL ACTORS: Animation used to take time: each frame was a separate work of art, and 7200 of them were needed for a five minute film. But with computer techniques, the task has been considerably quickened and simplified. Add to that an audience willing to accept a less-polished look, and suddenly there’s a rush of animated films showing up on line, at festivals, and in theaters. Wired 12/20/01

JOKE-WORTHY: How will we know when computers can really think? One criterion might be the ability to tell a joke. Off the evidence so far, computers still fall short. In a recent survey of humor – 100,000 people from 69 countries – the jokes generated by computers were far less funny than those made up by people. Then again, maybe we just don’t know what computers laugh at. The New Scientist 12/20/01

Thursday December 20RECORD YEAR FOR MOVIES: Hollywood has already surpassed its biggest grossing year – last year’s record $7.7 billion. “We’re definitely going to surpass $8 billion – it’s just a matter of by how much.” BBC 12/19/01

• THE BILLION DOLLAR CLUB: Think it was a bad year for movies? Think again. Three Hollywood movie studies each made more than a billion dollars this year. “Buena Vista International, a unit of entertainment giant Walt Disney Co has joined fellow studios Warner Bros and Universal in hitting the coveted target, marking the first time since 1999 that three studios have hit the billion mark.” Sydney Morning Herald (AFP) 12/20/01

THE EMPEROR’S NEW MOVIE: The movie Mulholland Drive was put together with left-over bits of a rejected network TV series. Critics across the country love it, but “their endorsement reflects the ultimate example of intellectual hubris – the assumption if you don’t understand it, it must be brilliant. Because the film was stitched together with less of a blueprint than Frankenstein’s monster. Not to sound like an old fuddy-duddy, but the only real problem with Mulholland Dr. the movie, is that due to the way Lynch patched it together, it makes absolutely no sense.” Los Angeles Times 12/19/01

• Previously: NY CRITICS IGNORE HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTERS: “In a snub to Hollywood, the New York Film Critics Circle yesterday named David Lynch’s cryptic, arty thriller Mulholland Drive the best movie of 2001. At the same time, In the Bedroom, the directorial debut by actor Todd Field, snagged three prizes, best actor (Tom Wilkinson), best actress (Sissy Spacek) and best first film.” New York Post 12/14/01

THE NEW NEMESIS OF FRENCH FILM: “When French media mogul Jean- Marie Messier announced he had bought the entertainment arm of USA Networks in a multibillion-dollar deal, stock markets cheered but the French cinema world went into mourning. Film producers fear the deal, which gives Messier’s Vivendi Universal conglomerate a U.S. outlet for its blockbuster movies like Jurassic Park and The Mummy, will sound the death knell for the financing system that is the lifeblood of French film.” MSNBC 12/20/01

Wednesday December 19

NAVEL-GAZING OF THE BEST KIND: The story couldn’t be any more perfect for Hollywood. A bitter, divisive politician gains an inordinate amount of power in a difficult time for the nation, and draws up a list of people who are anti-American, parading them and their supposed wrongs in public view, ruining careers, families, and lives before he is finally stopped by the prevailing of common sense. So why has it taken so long for a decent movie to be made about Joe McCarthy’s blacklist? The Christian Science Monitor 12/19/01

Tuesday December 18

VALENTI’S (NOT-SO-VEILED) THREAT: Motion picture industry lobbyist Jack Valenti took his campaign for new forms of digital copyright protection to a government-organized technodweeb seminar this week, warning that if new forms of encryption are not voluntarily developed for the predicted influx of broadband video content, he and his pals in Congress will not hesitate to force the issue. Wired 12/18/01

DISNEY BUYS HIGH-PLACED HELP: The Disney Company is competing with the BBC as commercial broadcasters go head to head on new services with the government-owned broadcaster. Now Disney has hired former culture minister Chris Smith as a “senior consultant” “Mr Smith’s appointment comes in the run-up to the planned launch by the BBC of two new children’s digital channels, which will be competing with Disney for an audience.” BBC 12/18/01

Monday December 17

CULTURE WIRE: All over Europe, new cultural centers devoted to digital art are coming into being. “We want to bring digital art and its creation to a wider audience, as well as provide a suitable base for artists-in-residence to use the Cube as a type of personal studio. We also want to function as a sort of creative launching-pad for artists to explore new forms of artistic expression using digital technologies.” Wired 12/17/01

REAL MONEY: The thing about TV reality shows is – they’re cheap to make. You have to pay actors a lot of money, while reality TV participants get peanuts. Participants on MTV’s The Real World have been paid as little as $5000 in one-time payments for their participation, even as the shows have found a lucrative afterlife in reruns. Now, some of the Real Worlders are demanding more of the pie. The New York Times 12/16/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Sunday December 16

NOT OKAY TO BE SMART: “In Hollywood, you can never be too rich or too thin, but you can be too smart. It’s OK to have a beautiful face. It’s not OK to have a beautiful mind. Smart people are socially inept, inward-looking and compulsive, bedeviled by their obsession with whatever it is that they do, be it mathematics, piano, painting, lexicography, chess, cryptography or just general “Jeopardy!”-like knowledgeableness. Lurking in the background is the computer nerd. There has been a frenzy of projects featuring such characters recently, and there’s more to come.” Los Angeles Times 12/16/01

THE PROBLEM WITH DIGITAL ART: “Galleries don’t really show a lot of new media – it’s hard for them to present it. It’s not like a painting that they know how to hang. Another problem is commercial: Many pieces aren’t meant to be sold, and in any case, the market for such works is small. Part of that is due to newness; part is due to ‘problems of the future’ – like, is there tech support for the art when things break down?” Los Angeles Times 12/16/01

ALL ABOUT DREAMING: The movies encourage dreaming. But “a trio of films that ask us to dream about dreaming. Like other recent movies – including the virtual reality universe of The Matrix and the disorienting backward narrative of Memento – the new dream movies look to shake up our thinking and get us to question our perceptions of reality. They don’t just feature dream sequences; they want us to think about the process of dreaming itself. But they also go a step further by making the connection between dream and death.” Dallas Morning News 12/16/01

ALL ABOUT THE SCREENWRITING… How is it that a country that could produce Shakespeare has so few decent screenwriters? “There’s a dearth of film dramatists in this country. When you try to think of writers to attach to projects it’s very hard. You could recite a rosary of [accomplished] British screenwriters and it wouldn’t go beyond a few… ” The Guardian (UK) 12/15/01

Friday December 14

FINALLY – PEACE AT PACIFICA: The board of Pacifica Radio Network has been at war with some of its long-time fans and supporters for two years as the board tried to professionalize the operation while listeners (and many staff) tried to preserve the network’s alternative community base. Now the factions have come to a settlement that will return control of Pacifica’s stations back to local interests. San Francisco Chronicle 12/13/01

NY CRITICS IGNORE HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTERS: “In a snub to Hollywood, the New York Film Critics Circle yesterday named David Lynch’s cryptic, arty thriller Mulholland Drive the best movie of 2001. At the same time, In the Bedroom, the directorial debut by actor Todd Field, snagged three prizes, best actor (Tom Wilkinson), best actress (Sissy Spacek) and best first film.” New York Post 12/14/01

Thursday December 13

ARTS ON AUSSIE TV – M.I.A.: For the first time in a decade, the Australian Broadcasting Company doesn’t have an arts magazine to broadcast in prime time. “The ABC is now asking whether the arts-magazine format has had its day and whether a more cost-effective and successful way to cover the arts is through documentaries and specials.” The question is whether ABC is living up to its charter obligation to provide arts programming. The Age (Melbourne) 12/13/01

WHO KNEW THEY HAD A UNION? “On Wednesday, the Hollywood directors union reached a tentative deal on a new contract, almost seven months before the current agreement expires.” Nando Times (AP) 12/12/01

Wednesday December 12

PAYING FOR WEBCASTING: The Canadian government is acting to stop free re-broadcasting of TV programs over the web. “For the first time, we’re introducing creative recognition of artistic production on the Net. ‘If you want to take someone else’s signal, you’ll have to pay for the creative rights. Producers and broadcasters have to pay the actors, pay the producers, pay the news people. This creates a level playing field between traditional forms of transmission, satellite and cable, and the Internet.” Toronto Star 12/12/01

Monday December 10

PENALTIES FOR FILM SUBSIDIES? US filmworkers have filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Commission “asking the government to examine the legality of Canada’s subsidies to U.S. filmmakers. It proposes tariffs be levelled against U.S. filmmakers in the exact amount of the Canadian subsidy they receive.” Predictably, Hollywood studios oppose the idea. Toronto Star 12/09/01

TECH PERFORMANCE: Some internet art is evolving into performance art. One project at the Brooklyn Academy of Music monitors “the live activity in thousands of Internet chat rooms and message boards, then converting these public conversations into a computer-generated opera. The New York Times 12/08/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Sunday December 9

THE POWER BEHIND THE AWARDS: We’re getting into movie critic awards season. Though they’re not as widely recognized by the general public, critics associations have enormous influence. “Film reviewers’ organizations abound, but only three really rate in Hollywood: New York, L.A. and the overall National Society of Film Critics. These media prizes may be widely esteemed, insomnia-inducing and even copied by the Oscars, but they also have a scandalous history. The voting conclaves are so mysterious – and regarded by many as being so sacred – that it may seem as if the critics are powwowing to pick a pope, but in fact their secret antics can be quite devilish.” Los Angeles Times 12/09/01

LOWLY SCREENWRITERS REGAIN THEIR LOWLY PLACE: For a brief time in the mid-90s, screenwriters were pulling in multi-million-dollar contracts for scripts they hadn’t even written yet. But after some high-profile flops, “screenwriters are back to being the bastard children of Hollywood. There was a bit of a backlash to all the big screenplay deals in the late 80’s and early 90’s. We’re paying for it now.” The New York Times 12/09/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday December 7

ONE BILLION SERVED: “It is estimated that by the end of its cinema release more than one billion children will have seen Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. This is on top of the those who have read the books, which thus far have sold more than 160 million copies throughout the world.” The Age (Melbourne) 12/08/01

Thursday December 6

TARGETING KIDS: Last year, the Federal Trade Commission reported that adult-rated movies, records, and electronic games were being marketed to children. This year, the FTC reports some improvement. “The movie and video game industries have largely stopped the direct targeting of adult-rated materials to children. The bad news is that the music industry has done little if anything to curb the marketing of inappropriate records to kids, or to provide parents with better information about lyrical content.” Boston Globe 12/06/01

TRAILER TRASH: Is there a growing backlash against the pile-up of movie trailers theatres are forcing audiences to watch before the main attraction this holiday season? “Now, most moviegoers enjoy a trailer or two. But the half-dozen or more they get during the holiday season, when the studios trumpet new pictures, strikes some as too much of a good thing. Traffic in movie trailers has reached gridlock proportions.” Philadelphia Inquirer 12/06/01

OR MAYBE THE SHOWS THEMSELVES ARE DUMB: Weakest Link and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire are still on the air – barely. “Viewers who once tuned in to watch ordinary people compete for big bucks are tuning out at the first glimpse of another tiresome group of pseudo-celebs – who have included everyone from grown-up Brady Bunch kids to Playboy Playmates. What ordinary people learn most often when celebrities take over a quiz show is that some celebrities are as dumb as fence posts.” New York Post 12/06/01

Wednesday December 5

WALT’S CENTENARY: “Hollywood is celebrating the life and career of one of entertainment’s most influential figures. Walt Disney, who would have been 100 years old on Wednesday, played a pivotal role in developing family entertainment – most significantly as a pioneering animator. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organisation which stages the Oscars, is presenting a special tribute at its Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills.” BBC 12/05/01

• HATING DISNEY: What could be more American than the love of that creator of Snow White, that father of The Mouse, that delighter of children worldwise, Walter E. Disney? Um, despising him, actually. Washington Post 12/05/01

Monday December 3

TOLKIEN FAMILY DISPUTE: A dispute over the soon-to-be-released Lord of the Rings movie has split members of the Tolkien family. “J. R. R. Tolkien signed away the film rights to The Lord of the Rings for just £10,000 in 1968, five years before his death at the age of 81.” New Zealand Herald 12/03/01

Sunday December 2

THE PROBLEM WITH COMMUNITY STANDARDS: The movie Fat Girl has been banned in Ontario because it violates “community standards.” Of all the reasons to ban something, this kis the most idiotic. “Quite simply, there is no community. There are thousands of communities. And there is no reason for the most conservative and least sophisticated of those communities to impose their standards – to impose what amounts, at root, to taste – on my community. Just as my community doesn’t force other communities to watch French art films.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/01/01

THE NEW FACE OF ART FILMS: “A new kind of art house movie has come to town, a distinctive type of picture with its own audience that exists alongside traditional (and still very much admired) fare, but is as different from it as chalk proverbially is from cheese. Several qualities, at times together, at times standing alone, typify these new kinds of films. But it’s what they lack that defines them: Let’s call these features, for shorthand’s sake, heartless art films. It’s the new face of alternative cinema, so we’d better get used to it.” Los Angeles Times 12/02/01

THE NEXT DISNEY? John Lasseter, the animation wiz behind Toy Story is being called the Walt Disney of the 21st Century. “He gives the impression of being a sane man who has, until recently, been considered crazy. ‘In order to work in animation, part of you has to be a child that’s never grown up.” The Telegraph (UK) 12/01/01

Friday November 30

MOVIE PROTECTIONISM: Hollywood film workers, including high-profile stars, rally against shooting movies outside the US. “Now is the time we all band together and work toward keeping our jobs in the USA, jobs that will help keep the delicate fabric of our economy whole.” The Age (Melbourne) 11/30/01

Thursday November 29

IT’S TOUGH TO BE A KID, AT LEAST ON TV: “Forget about the innocent challenges of flirtation and infatuation. Forget about exfoliation, and the sting of the Stridex pad. Today’s TV teens wrestle with nothing less than alienation, isolation, spiritual hunger and the emotional pitfalls of irony. When it comes to coming-of-age TV, the teen-age wasteland is more T. S. Eliot than Pete Townshend.” Orange County Register 11/28/01

EVERYTHING’S WORSE IN RUSSIA: Most reality TV simply appeals to our inner moron. But the Russian version – Za Steklom – is even more insidious. “We are made to believe that we are witnessing something of significance, of import – something gripping. I think Za Steklom more than any other program has exposed that there is a concerted effort to turn us into morons.” The Moscow Times 11/28/01

Wednesday November 28

FRANCHISE PLAYER: “In the 1930s, Hollywood’s best movies were musicals and screwball comedies. In the ’70s, films were full of loners, losers and brooding antiheroes. But the movies that exemplify the spirit of our time are part of a genre that has more to do with corporate profits than content: the ‘franchise film’. And in an age when much of pop culture is based on borrowed references, whether it’s advertisers using dead celebrities to sell beer or hiphop music creating hits out of melodies lifted from old pop songs, it’s no surprise that success in modernday Hollywood is increasingly dependent on cultivating the familiar.” The Age (Melbourne) 11/28/01

THEY AIN’T OVER ‘TIL THEY’RE OVER: Ratings are way down for “reality” TV shows; in fact, several have been dumped. Still, “the assumption that some sort of collective wakeup call will chase Survivor and its ilk into full-blown retreat is simply misguided. Millions of viewers like these shows, and networks have a strong financial incentive to put them on, largely because most of them cost relatively little to produce, an attribute that’s hard to overstate given the current advertising downturn and weakened economy.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune 11/27/01

WAR, COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU: After shilly-shallying for a month or more as they tried to read the mood of America, Hollywood producers have decided that war movies are a good idea. A couple that had been shelved or hidden in mid-September are being hustled out into the light, release dates have been pushed ahead on others, and still more are in the works. USAToday 11/27/01

Monday November 26

BIG BOX OFFICE: So Harry Potter opened big. Very big, racking up record box office in its first week of business. But will it topple Titanic’s $600 million take at theatres? Titanic was more of a marathon runner, as people returned again and again to see it. And Harry? So far, it’s in a head-on sprint. Will it have legs? The New York Times 11/26/01 (one-time registration required for access)

MOVIE LOTTO: Ten thousand movie-producer wannabes submit their scripts in competition for a $1 million prize to film their project and be distributed by Miramax. Is this any way to make a movie? New York Magazine 11/26/01

Sunday November 25

TRAILING EDGE: Want to see the Harry Potter movie? Wait. Literally. Warner had so much clout with this hit that it forced movie theatres to show twice the number of trailers usually shown before the movie. And theatres are loading up on commercials before the feature starts, so after eight or nine trailers and commercials, 15 minutes or more has gone by before the movie begins. Washington Post 11/25/01

WHO CARES ABOUT THE CRITICS? When a blockbuster movie like Harry Potter comes out, who cares about the critics? Masses of people will go to it no matter what. For that matter, what use are newspaper movie reviewers anyway? “In these days of massive promotional campaigns and instant Internet buzz, has the newspaper reviewer gone the way of shepherds and 8-tracks? Does the consumer really need yet another guide? In short, movie boy, rationalize your existence, justify your salary.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/24/01

• WHY REVIEW MOVIES? “Reviewing is not grounded in theory. We describe a movie as ‘good’ without bothering to offer a definition of ‘the Good,’ but the discussion is also about ethics and aesthetics. The strength of movie reviewing is that it still deals in evaluation, not just as consumer tips, but also in terms of these matters. Though cultural relativism is indisputable, generalizations are justified; film is as close to a universal language as we possess.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/24/01

CENSORING THE FAT GIRL: A French film Fat Girl has run afoul of Ontario’s censors. “Unless the distributors cut the offending scenes of nudity and explicit sex, or successfully overturn the board’s decision in an Ontario district court, Fat Girl will be barred from theatrical release in Ontario. The chorus of protest has been vociferous. The distributors, predictably, heaped abuse on the Dark Age custom of censorship. Two dissenting board members filed letters of objection, lauding the film. A cadre of Canada’s most prominent filmmakers and academics excoriated the OFRB’s decision, comparing it to the Taliban.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/24/01

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY ELVIS: What becomes a classic? Advertisers would like us to believe that anything we’ve heard of a few times qualifies. A new TV program “takes real things, but shows how we imbue them with meaning which they never had and how that becomes an important part of who we are as Americans,” thereby making them classics. Christian Science Monitor 11/23/01

Thursday November 23A WAY WITH ART: Critics hated entertainer Rolf Harris’s show on art Rolf on Art last Sunday, deriding its “patronising format and embarrassing, simplistic script”. Evidently the TV audience disagreed, though. More than 6.8 million people tuned into the show on BBC1, the most ever for any cultural show on any channel. The Guardian (UK) 11/23/01

• UNDER THE INFLUENCE: The show was seen by 6.8 million, “compared to the 800,000 who watched Robert Hughes’ American Visions on the BBC in 1996. The Australian artist and musician appeared to have done more to interest the masses in art than any of the more lofty television critics such as Hughes or Andrew Graham-Dixon.” The Age (Melbourne) 11/23/01

TOO BIG TO COMPETE? With 1,200 radio stations in the US, Clear Channel Communications is by far the largest radio company in America. The company grew to its current size consolidating numerous stations in the 1990s, and since “FCC rules limit companies from owning too many stations in one broadcast market, the commission approved many of those consolidations on the condition that the ever-growing company divest itself of certain stations in some cities. Now, voices are beginning to charge that Clear Channel may have in fact retained control of some of those stations – an unprecedented flouting of commission rules.” Salon 11/20/01

WHY FILM SCHOOLS FAIL: “Film schools are flourishing, but that their graduates seem rarely to realise their filmmaking ambitions, despite shelling out the same fees as a medical or law student – up to $100,000 – but with a roughly 5% chance of recouping a cent. Film schools, are essentially factories whose primary product is not film-makers per se, but rather the smelly little orthodoxies of modern film-making.” The Guardian (UK) 11/23/0

REINVENTING THE FILM BOARD: Canada’s venerable National Film Board is so…well…venerable. It’s award-winning films were made well in the past, and it’s hard to imagine edgy new filmmakers embracing the NFB. Now the board’s new director wants to shake things up. “I want to make sure the NFB will play its role as a talent scout and incubator for emerging talent all across the country.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/23/01

Wednesday November 22

NO PAY, ADS INSTEAD: For months music and movie fans have been waiting for big recording and movie companies to introduce pay-to-play online music and movie services. But Vivendi, one of the world’s largest producers, has decided against paid subscriptions. “The plan would radically alter the business landscape that online entertainment companies have been gearing up for, namely, the advent of subscription models. In its place would be a recycled advertising-based model that would keep consumers from paying for movies and music online.” Wired 11/21/01

TIME STEALER: A new machine that discreetly shortens live TV programs by fractions, allowing stations to insert extra commercials has irked producers of programs, who object that their content is being altered. “The device, which sells for US$93,000, is able to generate millions of dollars in extra advertising revenues for the stations, but it comes at the expense of discreetly altering the content that people tune in to see.” National Post (Canada) 11/21/01

ERRORS EVEN WITH A $125 MILLION BUDGET: Harry Potter fans have spotted at least 17 mistakes in the movie. They’re minor things – like a character sitting on one side in a shot, suddenly sitting on the other in the next frame, or shadows that run the wrong way. New York Post 11/21/01

Tuesday November 20

DIRECT TO DISK: The Harry Potter movie just opened last weekend in the US. But already by Tuesday in Chine, “video disc peddlers were selling illegal copies of the smash movie, with Chinese subtitles, for roughly $1.20 US. The packaging showed the boy wizard on a flying broom and shots from the film.” National Post (AP) 11/20/01

THIRST FOR MOVIES: Crowds packed a Kabul movie theatre Monday as the theatre reopened with first movie to be shown in Afghanistan in five years. The departed Taliban had banned entertainments such as movies. “Hundreds of people were turned away from the packed theater, which was showing the popular Afghan film Ascension. Finally, soldiers with rifles intervened, pushing the crowd away from the front gate.” Nando Times (AP) 11/19/01

BETTING THE FRANCHISE: “In the 1930s, Hollywood’s best movies were musicals and screwball comedies. In the 1970s, films were full of loners, losers and brooding antiheroes. But the movies that exemplify the spirit of our time are part of a genre that has more to do with corporate profits than content: the Franchise Film. The Franchise Film is not so much a movie as a self-perpetuating commodity, a carefully constructed cash cow designed to appeal to the widest possible spectrum of moviegoers, fueling merchandising tie-ins, DVD sales, theme park attractions and video game spinoffs, all geared to keeping consumers occupied until the next movie starts the cycle again.” Los Angeles Times 11/20/01

NOT JUST THE POPCORN: A Toronto filmmaker is deconstructing the movie-going experience in an attempt to find out how movies take hold of an audience. He “believes movies have a direct conduit to our emotions through our eyes. That’s because humans rely on subtle movements of facial muscles to tell them how others are feeling, and a movie screen, of course, is like looking through a magnifying glass at an actor’s face. If the actor is convincing, then it enables us to suspend our disbelief by plugging us directly in to the emotional content of the film.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/20/01

Monday November 19

HARRY ON TOP: The Harry Potter movie breaks box office records with a $93.5 million opening weekend. “We obviously knew going in we were going to have a great opening. Nobody anticipated such a staggering number that would shatter every industry record.” Dallas Morning News (AP) 11/18/01

• MAKING A PITCH FOR HARRY’S DARK SIDE: As movie-goers in Peterborough, Ontario were filing in to see Harry Potter this weekend they were handed copies of a letter attributed to the city’s mayor, “warning of the ‘satanic’ and ‘evil’ elements in the film. The letter charges that more than 14 million children belong to the Church of Satan, ‘thanks largely to the unassuming boy wizard from 4 Privet Drive’.” The mayor says the letters were fakes – she didn’t write them. National Post (Canada) 11/19/01

BOOSTING RATINGS WITH THE ARTS: The UK’s channel 5 is known for its tacky lowbrow fare. But with ratings slipping and advertising down, the channel is trying a surprising tactic – going up-market with new arts programming. The Independent 11/18/01

Sunday November 18

YOU DON’T NEED TO TELL THEM TWICE: It raised quite a few eyebrows last week when word leaked out that the U.S. government had been prevailing upon Hollywood to get cracking on a new batch of good old-fashioned, ass-kicking American Patriot movies, preferably involving shady Afghan terrorists. But as critics are beginning to point out, Hollywood really doesn’t need any encouragement to churn out such mind-numbing propaganda. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 11/17/01

HEY, WE ALL LIKED ‘RUN, LOLA, RUN’: “German cinema has been promoted with public funds for as long as anyone can remember; in 1966, a law was even passed to govern how films are funded. None of this helped. Funds are flowing, but the movie industry has faltered. As the number of German productions goes up, their international reputation goes down.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 11/16/01

Friday November 16

THE SELLING OF HARRY: Is all the merchandising hype going to ruin Harry Potter? “Some fans of the book say all this Potter paraphernalia is ruining a wonderful tale. But pundits of popular storytelling suggest that this charge may sell everybody short: Books differ from movies, which differ from video games or Legos or stuffed animals. Each medium can have something to contribute to experiencing a great story, they say.” Christian Science Monitor 11/16/01

ONTARIO CENSORS FAT GIRL: “French film director Catherine Breillat says she is ‘stupefied’ by the Ontario Film Review Board’s decision to demand cuts from her movie Fat Girl,and has written to the board to request it rescind its ‘unique’ decision. The film is playing uncut in Europe, and has passed Britain’s severe film-classification procedure without cuts as well.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 11/16/01

WHEN COLLABORATORS TAKE OVER: When the writer of Billy Elliot went to make his next film, he assumed he’d have more creative say in the script. “Any screenwriter knows that a screenplay is more like a recipe than a sonnet, and much of the fun and best creative discoveries are gained by getting your hands dirty with your collaborators as you make the pudding.” But by the time the movie came out, it was unrecognizeable. The Guardian (UK) 11/16/01

AMERICANS LOOK TO BRITAIN FOR NEWS: “Americans in search of news and opinion on world events since Sept. 11 are looking across the Atlantic to broaden their perspective. Websites for British papers like The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph are seeing increased traffic from the US. And more public TV stations in America are offering world news from the BBC and ITN – programs that are also drawing larger audiences.” Christian Science Monitor 11/15/01

Thursday November 15

9-11, THE MOVIE: Maybe it’s too soon to talk about yet, and it’ll probably take a year or two. “However, scholars and critics have no doubt: theatrical films dealing exclusively with the terrorist attacks [of Sepetmber 11] are just around the corner. Nando Times (Scripps Howard) 11/14/01

Wednesday November 14

MUDDLING MOVIES AND THE REALITY OF WAR: So the White House is asking Hollywood to supply ideas for the war on terrorism. There’s a problem here. The movies already have too much influence on the imaginations of American leaders. Just because they’ve seen it in the movies doesn’t mean it ought to happen. The Guardian (UK) 11/14/01

RECONSIDERING AUSTRALIAN CONTENT: Australian regulators are going to review regulations mandating the amount of Australian content that must be shown. The last time regulations were changed, it was decided that New Zealand programs could count as homegrown. But with most station showing more Aussie shows than required, some tweaking of the rules may be in order. The Age (Melbourne) 11/014/01

BEAUTIFUL NEWS: Why must the people who read us the news be “beautiful people?” “Hiring attractive people is certainly nothing new in television, but the premium on Barbie-doll looks seems more pronounced than ever, with newswomen overtly trading on their sexuality as a come-on to viewers.” Los Angeles Times 11/14/01

BUYING AUSTRALIAN: A weak Australian dollar brought foreign movie makers to shoot their films Down Under. Foreign producers spent “a record $191 million in Australia in the 2000-1 financial year,” and the movie industry increased expenditures to $808 million. The Age (Melbourne) 11/14/01

Tuesday November 13

CULTURE WARS TRUCE: It wasn’t so long ago that Washington was attacking Hollywood “to score points in the arguments over violence, sexuality and blasphemy in films, pop music, museum shows, video games and television shows — part of a larger set of issues known collectively as the ‘culture wars,’ which has become in recent years a flashpoint for political partisanship. Now, although people on each side say they remain vigilant about transgressions by their opponents, the mood in the great, unified mainstream seems decidedly different.” A truce has been called. The New York Times 11/13/01 (one-time registration required for access)

DOWN WITH THE ARTS: Has the BBC, once an exemplar of arts programming, failed the arts? “High culture, alas, is something in which the mainstream BBC has lost practically all interest. Curiously this notion that ‘the arts’ is simply a highbrow ghetto rather than something that ought to be part of all our individual lives rises above the current cultural landscape like a kind of mantra.” The Times (UK) 11/13/01

THE MERCHANDISING OF HARRY: The new Harry Potter movie figures to be the most-hyped film in history. Can the story survive the merchandising? “Much has been made of Joanne Rowling’s insistence on probity in the merchandising, but the reality is frankly horrific. A trip to Hamley’s (“the biggest toyshop in the world”) reveals something far darker.” Irish Times 11/12/01

HOLLYWOOD ON NORMAL: “Like the news media and Madison Avenue—in fact, like the country itself—the movie industry has been wrestling with a tangle of conflicting currents and mixed messages. People go to movies to escape! Patriotism sells! Go have fun! Be alert for terrorists! Nothing has changed! Everything has changed! Even studio marketing experts, who make a living out of figuring out audience tastes, have had a hard time reading the national mood.” Los Angeles Times 11/12/01

THE FRENCH ARE COMING. AGAIN: “Record numbers of French moviegoers stormed cinemas to see a rich variety of films produced by a domestic film industry that has reinvented itself as both a substitute for, and an alternative to, American films. Heads aren’t rolling in Hollywood studio offices just yet – but the French film industry is taking on Hollywood at its own game.” Christian Science Monitor 11/09/01

Monday November 12

THERE GOES PUBLIC BROADCASTING: Canada’s culture minister suggests that the publicly-owned CBC ought to make a partnership with rival commercial network CTV. “Sheila Copps told MPs the multi-channel universe has left CBC-TV and private broadcasters struggling against one another for shrinking audiences.” CBC 11/10/01

LA’S NEW THEATRE FOR A STATUE: Los Angeles has a new opera house. OK, it was designed for the Academy Awards, and it’s located in a shopping mall. It was also designed “with blind eye and tin ear.” It’s designed for TV and it’s an “ungracious building” for a human audience. “Inside the theater, the assault never ceases.” And the acoustics? A mess. Los Angeles Times 11/12/01

Sunday November 11

THE SOUND OF PUBLIC RADIO: In recent months, protests over program changes at public radio stations around the country have been successfully fought. The protests trace back to David Giovannoni. “A brilliant analyst of public radio’s audience — who it is, how much it listens, when it listens, what it listens to, when and why it donates money — he is quite possibly the most influential figure in shaping the sound of National Public Radio today, the sound heard by upward of 20 million Americans weekly.” The New York Times 11/11/01 (one-time registration required for access)

FANTASY THINKING: Hollywood hopes that in troubled times America is into fantasy. Numerous fantasy movies are due to be released in the next few weeks, and “in a coincidence remarkable even by Hollywood standards, at a moment when Americans are understandably enthusiastic about psychological escape, two widely popular epics of 20th century fantasy literature are coming to the screen to anchor the holiday movie schedule.” Los Angeles Times 11/11/01

HARRY VS HOBBIT: Which will do better at the box office this winter – Harry Potter or the first Lord of the Rings movie? If you feel strongly about it, you can bet. Oddsmakers are taking a variety of wagers on the box office: will Harry Potter tie or break the “first-five-days-of-release gross” record of $100-million set by George Lucas’s The Phantom Menace in 1999? “The odds are 1 to 2 that it will tie or break, 3 to 2 that it will not.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/10/01

NO FUN FAT: Plus-size advocates are protesting the new Shallow Hal movie: “Thin stars wearing fat suits to performing in blackface, now considered offensive and demeaning to blacks. If we wanted white actors to play black people, would we paint their faces black? No way.” Hartford Courant 11/11/01

Friday November 9

TWO MINUTE WARNING: Artist Jonty Semper has spent two years collecting every surviving recording of the two minutes of silence marking Armistice and Remembrance Days since 1929. In the 1988 ceremony a baby cried. It’s a double-cd. He’d like you to listen. “I really don’t think people will find it boring. All the silences are quite distinctive. What is remarkable is how different they are.” The Guardian (UK) 11/09/01

MEDIA ART FROM – LITERALLY – THE DUSTBIN: In the early years, TV programmes on BBC often were not recorded, or the recordings were lost or destroyed. A recent public appeal has turned up more than a hundred such “lost” shows. Among the recovered gems, a 1963 appearance by the Beatles on a TV chart show (they evaluated an Elvis recording), and a 1962 Benny Hill show. CNN 11/08/01

FILE-SHARING GOES TO WAR: “The Pentagon is taking a friendlier view of Napster’s file-sharing concept than are America’s big entertainment companies. Rather than trying to shut down the new computer networks that allow people to directly connect other personal computers, the military wants to enlist their creators in the war against terrorism.” Washington Post 11/08/01

Thursday November 8

WHITE HOUSE WANTS HOLLYWOOD TO HELP: “Several dozen top executives in the film and television industry plan to meet on Sunday morning with Karl Rove, a senior White House adviser, to discuss what Hollywood can do to aid the war effort. ‘The gathering is to brief studio executives on the war on terrorism and to discuss with them future projects that may be undertaken by the industry,’ a White House spokesman said. ‘The White House has great respect for the creativity of the industry and recognizes its impact and ability to educate at home and abroad.’ Several executives emphasized today that they were not interested in making propaganda films.” The New York Times 11/08/01 (one-time registration required for access)

HOLLYWOOD HELPS ITSELF: “While denying any attempt to exploit the mood of the country, two major Hollywood studios have moved patriotic war movies to this year from 2002. John Moore’s Behind Enemy Lines has been moved from Jan. 18 to Nov. 30 by 20th Century Fox. Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, from Sony Pictures, will open Dec. 28.” New York Daily News 11/08/01

Wednesday November 7

DOWNSIZING PBS: Commercial broadcasting isn’t the only sector laying off employees in the economic downturn. PBS is cutting its staff by more than 10%, (59 jobs). “The cuts, to be made through a combination of 27 layoffs and the rest in unfilled positions, follow a 9% staffing reduction, or 60 positions, in March, and will bring PBS’ total number of employees to just over 500.” Los Angeles Times 11/06/01

Tuesday November 6

CBS, FOX IN POST-EMMY PISSING MATCH: So the Emmy Awards, desperate to get their ceremony in before the winners were too old to make it to the stage, scheduled the telecast against Game 7 of the World Series. So Emmy host Ellen DeGeneres promised to announce the score of the game repeatedly during the show. So Fox decided to list the Emmy winners in a screen crawl during the game. So West Coast viewers knew the winners several hours before the broadcast aired in their time zone. Ain’t television a blast? Washington Post 11/06/01

Monday November 5

THIRD TIME’S A CHARM: After being canceled twice, the Emmy Awards finally go off when planned. West Wing wins most statues, while Sex in the City becomes the first cable comedy series to win best comedy series. Ten of the 27 winners were not in attendance. Los Angeles Times 11/05/01

Friday November 2

DEATH FOR “MIS-USING” ART? Tahmineh Milani is one of Iran’s top movie directors, “thanks largely to her consistent focus on the plight of Iranian women.” But now she faces execution , “charged with ‘supporting factions waging war against God’ and misusing the arts in support of counterrevolutionary and armed opposition groups.” Hollywood has taken up her cause. The Guardian (UK) 11/02/01

DVD COPYING, FOR NOW, IS STILL LEGAL: The movie industry has been encrypting dvd’s so they can’t be copied. Trouble is, they can be, and movie producers want courts to ban distribution of the software that cracks the code. The court (so far) says no. The software, the court says, is protected free speech. Business 2.0 11/02/02

…BUT IT’S NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE BOOK: Pre-release reviews of the Harry Potter film are in. Are they good? Not Really. Are they bad? Not really. Will the vast audience of true Harry Potter believers care either way? Not really. The Guardian (UK) 11/02/01

Thursday November 1

SURVEY DOWN, BOX OFFICE UP: A new survey says 60 percent of adults over 35 don’t want to go to movies right now. So then what accounts for the increased box office every week since one but September 11? Fall receipts are 9 percent ahead of last year. MSNBC (Variety) 10/30/01

AUSSIE MOVIE RENTAL BATTLE: Australia’s movie rental stores are fighting with movie studios. “Warner simultaneously releases DVDs to the retail and rental market. They are color coded – silver for retail at a wholesale price of $24, and blue for rental, wholesaling at $55. When Warner threatened to sue video shops caught renting the retail-designated DVD, the association – representing 55 per cent of Australian video shops – took the offensive. It argues that under the Copyright Act, Warner cannot restrict the rental of DVD movies.” The Age (Melbourne) 11/01/01

GET READY TO HUM: Okay, so the Harry Potter soundtrack may not be John Williams’s greatest work ever. (You try following up Star Wars and Schindler’s List.) But the fact that it’s one of a dwindling number of big-budget films to even bother with a full orchestral soundtrack says something about Williams’s ability to draw us into fictional worlds, and at least one of the pieces in the score is almost guaranteed to stick in your head for days. Philadelphia Inquirer 11/01/01

Wednesday October 31

VIDEO WHEN YOU WANT IT: HBO introduces video-on-demand. “Video-on-demand is like having access to a virtual video store with no tapes or late fees to worry about. It not only gives viewers absolute control over viewing times, it also offers VCR-like functionality: Viewers can pause, rewind and fast-forward programs.” Wired 10/30/01

I WANT MY MTV (SMALLER): After decades of growth, MTV says it’s time to contract. The network will lay off 450. Officials say “the reorganization was motivated by a need for changes in MTV Networks’ structure as well as by the poor advertising market.” CNN.com 10/30/01

NEW YORK-BASED TV – TALK SHOWS: TV talk shows based in New York report they’re having trouble booking guests lately, because many celebrities are reluctant to travel. Among recent no-shows were Emeril Lagasse, Steve Harvey, Drew Barrymore, and Heather Graham. At the same time, David Letterman’s ratings are shooting up. Hmm. Nando Times (AP) 10/30/01

Sunday October 28

THE END OF PRIME TIME? American TV networks are getting out of the big-budget big-show must-watch prime time TV production. “This week, Fox, the fourth-largest network, shut down its entire in-house production division. And the other three networks all announced major cuts and layoffs. ABC, for one, says it will cut the number of shows it develops by 25 to 40 per cent. Prime-time TV no longer interests them. This is, in part, because the big shows are no longer very profitable – the huge star salaries and development costs have outstripped the advertising revenues.” Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/27/01

WHY CANADIAN TV DOESN’T WORK: This week’s awards show for Canadian television isn’t likely to be watched by many Canadians. Canadian TV has difficulty competing with American. “Most Canadian TV, with the exception of news and sports, is a money-losing proposition. That’s because a domestic drama series costs a network about $200,000 an episode while earning maybe $125,000 in ads. That’s an automatic loss of $75,000. Meanwhile, a typical U.S. series costs some $80,000 an episode while generating $200,000 in ads – for a cool $120,000 profit per hour.” Toronto Star 10/28/01

Friday October 26

RETURN OF THE HORROR FILM: It never went away, of course. But it may be that genre, rather than the action movie, with which Hollywood gives us a metaphor for our times. “It might not be giant bugs, but some sort of shape will be found to symbolize today’s faceless villain. The horror movie is going to move away from the age of Godzilla. Instead, it’s going to be much more on the ‘X-Files’ model, where the villain is elusive and perhaps conspiratorial.” International Herald Tribune 10/26/01

Thursday October 25

SHOULD HAVE WON BEST TITLE, TOO: The British Independent Film Awards have been handed out, and the big winner is a charming little gangster flick called Sexy Beast. BIFA organizers said that it was a particularly good year for independent film. BBC 10/25/01

GRAMM GOES HOLLYWOOD:Retiring Senator Phil Gramm of Texas has been cast in an upcoming movie, playing (surprise) a Southern politician. The senator’s role is, fortunately for those who like to understand the dialogue in the films they attend, a non-speaking one. Nando Times 10/25/01

GLASS IN HOLLYWOOD: Considering the low esteem in which the public has generally held minimalist art, the continued popularity of composer Philip Glass is nothing short of astonishing. Somehow, Glass seems to have managed to bring life and surprise to a musical form designed to remove both, and his forays into the world of film scoring brought his work to a wide audience. A new project in L.A. offers audiences the chance to watch a “live” soundtrack: an ensemble playing Glass’s music accompanies a series of new film shorts. Los Angeles Times 10/25/01

Wednesday October 24

DIVERSITY IN MONOPOLY? The consolidation of media outlets into a few giant companies the past decade has been breathtaking. But while the chairman of the FCC concedes “there is ‘rightful anxiety’ about concentration of media ownership, he stressed that rules curtailing entertainment giants are outdated and the government must be shown strong justification to maintain them. Given the proliferation of channels, he added, television and media are ‘more diverse in 2001 than at any time in their history’.” Los Angeles Times 10/24/01

SUBSIDIZING AMERICAN CONSUMPTION? Are “Canada’s private TV networks are using tax-funded subsidies to help finance a program buying spree in Hollywood?” A new report says the networks are lessening their commitments to Canadian programming in favor of American shows. National Post (Canada) 10/24/01

MOVIES ON THE COUCH: Movies often depict psychiatrists in central roles. But while moviemakers often go to great lengths to try to portray these medical professionals in realistic ways, they rarely succeed. “The practice of movie psychiatry bears almost no resemblance to real-world psychiatry. In movies, psychotherapy is generally used only as a plot device.” Los Angeles Times 10/24/01

Tuesday October 23

SOLIDARITY FOREVER, PLEASE: “The US actors’ union has backed its UK counterpart over a planned strike by British actors that is due to start in December. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has urged its members not to sign up for UK films that could hamper British union Equity’s chances of striking a new deal with producers.” BBC 10/23/01

Monday October 22

THE MATTER WITH HARRY? A documentary film maker charges that the Harry Potter movie (and books) are anti-Christian and that “under the guise of harmless children’s fantasy literature, a massive effort to draw children around the world to the occult threatens to undermine Christianity.” New Times Los Angeles 10/18/01

Sunday October 21

ENTERTAINING WAR: Television executives met with White House officials last week to plot what ways the TV industry might be helpful in the American war effort. “We listened to their ideas, we talked about resources we might have in government to be helpful to them,” said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan. “The purpose of this meeting was to open a dialogue and provide a source or channel of information.” Washington Post 10/20/01

FEAR OF MAIL: Movie studios are changing their working routines. Among the changes: “Notices are going out from production and casting companies advising agents and managers that mailed submissions of actors’ photos and résumés will no longer be allowed.” San Jose Mercury News 10/21/01

Thursday October 18

TWICE-CANCELED EMMYS RESCHEDULED: They’ll be held Nov. 4 in Los Angeles. “Still unknown is how many top-drawer nominees will show up Nov. 4. Some stars, including Dennis Franz, the Emmy-nominated actor on ABC’s NYPD Blue, have expressed the hope that the Emmys wouldn’t be held this year. The canceled Oct. 7 telecast had planned a bicoastal component, enabling nominees of New York-based shows to attend without boarding a plane. The Nov. 4 event will have no such element.” Los Angeles Times 10/18/01

RATING THE CREDIBILITY OF HOLLYWOOD SCI-FI: So the American military is consulting Hollywood over high-tech battle scenarios…How plausible are the movie-makers’ techno-dreams? Two tech pioneers rate the ideas versus reality: Data-chip brain implants in Johnny Mnemonic – only 30 percent. The paranoid computer in 2001 – 90 percent, but still 20 to 30 years away. Uploading a virus to incapacitate a ship’s computer in Independence Day – don’t look now, but it’s already here. Silicon.com 10/16/01

Tuesday October 16

ON SECOND THOUGHT… Pauline Kael on the art of watching movies: “I still don’t look at movies twice. It’s funny, I just feel I got it the first time. People respond so differently to the whole issue of seeing a movie many times. I’m astonished when I talk to really good critics, who know their stuff and will see a film eight or ten or twelve times. I don’t see how they can do it without hating the movie. I would.” The New Yorker 10/15/01

STEP ASIDE, ARNOLD, HERE COMES JET LI: “Asian movies are red-hot. From a purely commercial standpoint, Hollywood is betting that Hong Kong-style martial arts films, which put more emphasis on gravity-defying stunts than on blood-drenched gunplay, can deliver a new generation of action icons to replace aging stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.” Los Angeles Times 10/16/01

YES, VERY ROMANTIC. VERY COMEDIC. VERY APPROPRIATE: Pity poor CBS president Les Moonves. People are jumping all over him just because he said “his network is mulling a romantic comedy about two people who meet after their spouses are killed in the WTC destruction.” That’s not exploitive, he insists, adding, “You want relevance when appropriate.” Boston Globe 10/16/01

Monday October 15

SOMEBODY’S GOT TO DO IT: The Hollywood junket has got a bad name. But “for many reporters, especially those from smaller outlets or overseas, paid junkets are the only way they can afford to get access to the celebrities their readers and viewers demand to know about. We don’t think of the jaunts to Hollywood to stay in posh hotels and interview stars as vacations but as giving up our weekends and time with our families to work.” Sydney Morning Herald 10/15/01

A MOMENT IN WEB TIME: Thousands of webpages commemorating various aspects of the World Trade Center attacks have sprung up since September 11. Now an attempt to organize them in a central repository. “From mayoral papers to fliers of the missing, the artifacts from this event will be of potential interest to historians.” The New York Times 10/15/01 (one-time registration required for access)

WORKING TITLE – MURDER, SHE CHUCKLED:“The CBS network is considering a sitcom arising from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed more than 5,000 people. Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS Television, told the Los Angeles Times that the proposed series was drawn up before the attacks on New York and Washington, and in the aftermath of the bombings, the writer suggested that they ‘heighten the stakes.'” National Post (Canada) 10/15/01

Sunday October 14

FATHER, SON, & HOL(L)Y(WOOD) SPIRIT: With the events of September 11 permanently burned into the minds of Americans, filmmakers are exploiting the ‘good vs. evil’ mindset with a slew of Christian-themed movies. Hoping to follow up the success of last year’s The Omega Code, the new wave of ‘Godsploitation’ films may tap an underserved niche market. Or they may find themselves on the scrapheap with religious clunkers Left Behind and Battlefield Earth . The Christian Science Monitor 10/12/01

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE TIMING: “2001: A Space Odyssey, originally budgeted at $6 million, ultimately cost MGM $11 million. And [director Stanley] Kubrick missed the intended delivery date by two full years. So some may find it appropriate — a joke of cosmic proportions? — that the newly restored 2001 won’t be coming to a theater near you … until 2002.” Wired 10/13/01

GOLDIE WON’T BE STARRING IN IT, WILL SHE? “Film rights to a newly published Mark Twain novelette have been sold by the Buffalo library to the Hollywood production company owned by movie stars Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Cosmic Entertainment will have exclusive rights to “A Murder, A Mystery and a Marriage,” written by Twain in 1876 but published for the first time this year, Buffalo & Erie County Public Library executives said Thursday.” Baltimore Sun (AP) 10/12/01

Friday October 12

THE TROUBLE WITH TODAY’S FILM CRITICS: “In an age of critical bet-hedging, when an urge to spot the next trend, defend mediocre Hollywood product, go along with the critical consensus or appeal to one’s audience/employer is the order of the day, few critics have the bite, the ferocity, the assurance of opinion and a willingness to offend.” creativeloafing 10/11/01

CLASSICfM FACES LISTENER INPUT: “Classic fM – Britain’s most popular classical music broadcaster – is to set up an independent consumer panel to assess the radio station’s performance. The move is in response to the UK government’s proposed changes to broadcasting regulations, outlined in a communications ‘white paper’.” Gramophone 10/12/01

Thursday October 11

IT’S NOT UNDERWRITING, IT’S ADVERTISING: “Federal regulators are leaning toward approving today a controversial proposal to allow public TV stations to sell advertising… Under the plan, the Federal Communications Commission would let PBS affiliates and other public TV stations show ads on data or subscription services they offer as they roll out digital TV.” USAToday 10/10/01

ON-BASE EMMYS? “Television officials, looking for a new place to stage the twice-postponed Emmy awards, are considering moving the ceremony to a California military base. CBS and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences are working on a plan for the ceremony to air before the end of the year, although details remain unsettled.” New York Post 10/11/01

TIMES CHANGE. PEOPLE DON’T: The conventional wisdom suggested that “in this time of war, audiences would shy away from violent movies and seek out an uplifting story, sentimental nostalgia, or silly fluff.” So what happened? The Michael Douglas “kidnap thriller Don’t Say a Word… has now grossed $32 million. Denzel Washington had his best opening ever, to the tune of $22 million, as a corrupt, killer LAPD detective in Training Day.” So Hollywood is adapting, and quickly. “What the audience wants, for better or worse, is what the audience gets.” Boston Herald & MSNBC (Newsweek) 10/11/01

Wednesday October 10

ARTS MAN TO HEAD RUSSIAN TV: “The Hermitage director, Mikhail Piotrovsky, has been elected chairman of the board of Russia’s largest television network, ORT. The move is part of the government’s bid to bring order to the station which has long been embroiled in conflict and corruption.” The Art Newspaper 10/08/01

FOR NOW, BIG BROTHER IS A HERO: “For more than 30 years, a staple of popular culture in movies, books and television has been the depiction of the government as a hostile, corrupt, even evil force spinning elaborate conspiracies to manipulate and suppress Americans.” Even before September 11, however, that was changing. And now it’s definitely taboo as a premise. The New York Times 10/10/01 (one-time registration required for access)

DIRECTOR ROSS DIES: “Herbert Ross, a choreographer and director who worked on films including Funny Lady with Barbra Streisand and Steel Magnolias with Julia Roberts, died Tuesday. He was 74.” Dallas Morning News (AP) 10/10/01

AND SHE WISHES SHE’D REVIEWED DEEP THROAT: Pauline Kael, who died last month, was the film critic in many minds. Why? Chaplin, she thought, “pushed too hard.” Spielberg has “become so uninteresting now.” In comedy, her favorites were the Ritz Brothers. And those awful taboos: “There’s almost no one you can make fun of now. The women’s movement, in particular, has added many taboos. You can’t have a dumb blonde anymore, and the dumb blonde was such a wonderful stereotype.” The New Yorker 10/08/01

Tuesday October 9

BEFORE AND AFTER: Several of the world’s top film festivals have come and gone in the last month. Ordinarily, each would be measured equally, but not this year. “Usually, festivals are measured by which premieres and stars they snag, which prizes are awarded. This year, however, only one factor comes into play: whether festivals and films ran before or after September 11.” The Nation 10/22/01

IT’S A GUY THING: Whether it’s Don Quixote or Of Mice and Men, there just seems to be something fascinating about the idea of two guys taking off and doing something. “It’s the most enduring genre in Hollywood. Westerns are dead. Detective movies are gone. Screwball comedies are kaput. But buddy films are still alive and well.” Los Angeles Times 10/09/01

EMMY AWARDS MAY BE A NO SHOW: This year’s Emmy Awards show, already postponed twice, may not happen at all. If that’s the case, the awards will probably be handed out at a dinner or a press conference. “Many in the industry, including producers and casts of TV shows, had called to express reluctance at taking part in the ceremony.” At last report, the next big award show is still on. That’s the Gramophone Awards,the Oscars of recorded classical music. It will be October 19, at the Barbican Hall in London. Nando Times (AP) & Gramophone 10/08/01

Monday October 8

STRIKE TWO FOR EMMYS: “Originally scheduled for Sept. 16, less than a week after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Emmys were postponed to Oct. 7 and redesigned as a simulcast from New York to accommodate actors who were reluctant to board a plane for an awards show. In this atmosphere, the Emmys – compromised and chastened but emboldened to continue nevertheless – were pitched by academy leaders as nothing less than a retort to the terrorists.” That’s why Sunday’s second cancellation caught many off guard. Los Angeles Times 10/08/01

HOLLYWOOD’S DISASTER SCENARIO: The US government is consulting with real experts in terrorist scenarios – Hollywood action movie makers. “An ad hoc working group convened at the University of Southern California just last week at the behest of the U.S. Army. The goal was to brainstorm about possible terrorist targets and schemes in America and to offer solutions to those threats, in light of the aerial assaults on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.” Washington Post (Variety) 10/08/01

Friday October 5

PUBLIC RADIO’S DOWNSTREAM: Public radio stations are beginning to wonder if streaming their content over the web is such a good idea. “At issue are the fees that copyright holders demand from streamers for use of their works online. The debates between rights-holders and broadcasters have sparked court challenges and tense negotiations. For public radio, with its limited resources, the squeeze is always felt more acutely.” Current 09/01

Thursday October 4

SHOCK TO THE BETTER: What if movies got better because of September 11? “Maybe a time of crisis is what it takes to make us question the shape, texture and direction of movie culture. In the aftermath of the attack, executives in Hollywood, seemingly as shaken up as the rest of the nation, were acknowledging that quite a few things would have to change. Isn’t right now the best possible time to throw down a challenge to Hollywood?” Salon 10/04/01

• WILL MOVIES CHANGE? YES AND NO: “We’ll be reminded of just why Busby Berkeley was so successful in the Depression era, designing ostentatious musicals to take people’s minds off their troubles. Expect escapism for shot nerves. [But] Hollywood will know how to fit the new stories into its existing formulas without blinking an eye. Film history offers a host of examples of what gifted filmmakers living in times of national catastrophe can produce.” The Nation 10/15/01
• WILL MOVIES CHANGE? PROBABLY: Movie producers know they’re in a different world now, but aren’t sure what to do about it. “At some point Hollywood will stop dithering and decide. And there is an emerging consensus, however vague, on the kinds of films that will be made. Graphic violence will be out for a while, say the voices of experience in Hollywood. Light comedy and heroic tales will be the order of the day.” Washington Post 10/03/01
• WILL MOVIES CHANGE? PROBABLY NOT: Popular culture, as measured by audience response rather than producers’ plans, seems not to have changed a great deal in a month. “[W]hat’s most striking is how unchanged the appetite for popular culture seems to be. People are returning to the kinds of television programs they usually watch, the movies they normally go out to see, the music that they buy, and… the kinds of books they read.” The New York Times 10/04/01 (one-time registration required for access)

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BART: “Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie are becoming distinguished figures on theological courses, and in texts for students training to be priests. A new book claims that far from being subversive of the moral fibre of America, the Simpsons embody its sturdiest values and impart a highly religious tone to viewers.” The Guardian (UK) 10/01/01

Wednesday October 3

WHAT MOVIES? Hollywood movie studios are paralysed into inaction. “What will the American public want to see? Action? Romance? Light humor? In a city where a year ago there was a frantic drive to shoot movies in anticipation of an entertainment industry strike, there is a sudden calm. Some might call it a near-paralysis. Sony has no movies in production until the end of this year; last year in the fourth quarter it had nine. Warner Bros. has three movies in production; last year at this time it had 15. The other major studios have similarly sparse schedules. Producers say they are not sure what to offer.” Washington Post 10/03/01

• ART IN DISASTER: Can Hollywood make something meaningful out of the World Trade Center disaster? Director Henry Bean: “The real difference is that in the movies the crashes don’t happen amidst all my thoughts, in the midst of my life. One of the things art could do is to bring these events into the midst of our lives. Tolstoy could do both, juxtapose the petty and the daily with the grandiose. A plane hits the tower and blows my personal life out of the water. My personal life returns altered by these events. That takes an artist.” Los Angeles Times 10/03/01

Tuesday October 2

“REALITY” NO MATCH FOR REALITY: Television’s numbing parade of “reality programming” seems to be slowing. Ratings for most such shows are down. “In the face of such immense real-life loss and destruction, viewers may no longer be as interested in the petty bickering that’s become the hallmark of the genre.” MSNBC 10/01/01

Monday October 1

COUNTING ON ENTERTAINMENT: During the Great Depression, entertainment flourished as people looked for ways to distract themselves. After a couple of weeks of lacklustre admissions to movies, business surged over the weekend. “Ticket sales for the top 12 films were up a sharp 25% from the same weekend last year.” Los Angeles Times 10/01/01

BI-EMMYS: This year’s Emmy Awards will be split between New York and Los Angeles. “The awards ceremony of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences used to be a bi-coastal affair, and the tradition has been revived, as many Americans have declined to fly in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 hijackings.” The show won’t be the typical high-dress glamor affair. “Designers, stylists and stars are in a race to interpret the new ‘elegant business’ dress code established last Wednesday by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.” New York Post 10/01/01

Sunday September 30

FORCED SUBTLETY: As America struggles to avoid persecution of its Arab citizens in the wake of the September 11 disaster, a film festival in Boston is seeming awfully timely. The “Festival of Films From Iran” provides a unique look at the film industry in a nation where heavy censorship and strict moral guidelines are the rule. Boston Globe 09/30/01

ALL ABOUT THE PRODUCT TIE-INS: Two blockbuster movies are about to come out – installing the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter franchises on the big screen. But aside from questions about whether or not the movies will be any good, are the merchandising issues. There are billions (yes that’s with a ‘b’) at stake. The Telegraph (UK) 09/29/01

Friday September 28

HELPING OR EXPLOITING? “Do movies distort our views of past events? Or do they do a service by arousing our curiosity to find out what really happened? At the moment, it’s hard to imagine Hollywood making a movie based on the events of Sept. 11. But the industry track record shows it is merely a matter of time.” The Christian Science Monitor 09/28/01

Thursday September 27

EMMY AWARDS TO BE LOW-KEY: The TV awards show, postponed from September 16 to October 7, will be a dress-down affair. No glamorous outfits, no red carpet. And because of the changed schedule, the new complications of cross-country travel, and doubts about the appropriateness of awards at this time, several nominees and winners may not be there either. New York Post 09/27/01

FILMING RESUMES IN MANHATTAN: For the first time since September 11, New York City is issuing permits for filming in Manhattan; filming in the outer boroughs began last week. Several commercials and at least five feature films are lined up, along with the 13 TV series which film there regularly. New York Post 09/27/01

THE REALITY OF ENTERTAINMENT: It used to be that the media had to apologize for faking reality. Now it’s the other way around. BBC is trying to deny that it’s setting up “a new department dedicated to factual entertainment programmes.” BBC 09/25/01

Wednesday September 26

WHAT MOVIES DO: Do violent movies reflect society or influence it? A long-pondered question. “Apart from their profitability for producers, simplified treatments of disturbing topics give audiences a feeling of togetherness in a world that’s sometimes too scattered and confusing for comfort. This can have a calming effect, but it can also promote negative attitudes of prejudice and xenophobia.” Christian Science Monitor 09/26/01

Tuesday September 25

MEANING ON THE SCREEN: Director Wim Wenders on reality and fiction on the screen: “Of course cinema and reality are two different things. But the insight that what we saw was real does not change the phenomenology of the situation: We sit in front of the television and watch. To begin with, they are both just images. And for many people, the real dimensions became clear only after several days. At the beginning, the division between fiction and reality was extremely blurred.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 09/24/01

SCREEN TEST: “Using test audiences to see how a film plays during editing has long been standard practice in Hollywood. Traditionally, Australian film-makers have filled screenings with collaborators, advisers and trusted friends without formally measuring their response. This is partly a reflection of the industry’s defiant independence from Hollywood commerciality; partly scepticism about using market research to improve films; and partly a reflection of limited budgets for test screenings and correcting problems. But faced with the ever-tougher challenge of competing in cinemas, test screenings are becoming more frequent.” Sydney Morning Herald 09/25/01

CHANGING HOLLYWOOD: “Everywhere you look in Hollywood since that tragic day, the entertainment landscape has been transformed, as if ripped asunder by a massive earthquake. People have come to work feeling like jittery sleepwalkers, especially after the studios received FBI warnings late last week that they could be possible targets for terrorism. Nearly every studio has been postponing films, giving them face lifts or tossing scripts out the window.” Los Angeles Times 09/25/01

Sunday September 23

INDEPENDENT FAILURE: Independent film producer Shooting Gallery was hailed as one of the most innovative, successful indie producers. Founded with $7,000 in 1991, Shooting Gallery epitomized the ethos of guerrilla filmmaking, in which hustle and chutzpah-and artistic freedom-made up for lack of financial resources.” But with a string of successes and awards, how did the company lose $70 million and go bankrupt? Los Angeles Times 09/23/01

Friday September 21

STAR CLUSTER: Tonight’s two-hour A-list celebrity telethon to benefit the rebuilding and victims in New York is involving cooperation in the entertainment industry on an unprecedented scale. Dozens of stars are involved and “more than 31 cable channels, including FX, TNT, Discovery and BET, will air the program.” Organizers hope to raise $30 million. Los Angeles Times 09/21/01

• FROM A SECRET LOCATION: “We’re not even disclosing where the show is going to be done. There will be no audience, no commercials, and no press. … It’s a very special thing, dedicated for a very special reason, and not to be commercialized.” San Francisco Chronicle 09/21/01

NOT WILD ABOUT HARRY: Christian fundamentalist attacks on Harry Potter increase. “Primarily, there’s the suggestion that Rowling is promoting occultism, witchcraft, mysticism, and ‘magick,’ or sorcery, in her books. The Potter books, ‘placed in a culture that glorifies, promotes, and markets witchcraft to teens, especially teen girls’ – Buffy, check your pager – ‘can translate into involvement with the occult.’ Boston Globe 09/20/01

DISASTER RELIEF: It’s amazing how many movies feature the World Trade Center, how many songs have references that now seem inappropriate. “The news profoundly affected our movies and TV, just as in small, weird ways, TV and movies influenced the coverage of the events themselves.” The Guardian (UK) 09/21/01

WHEN REALITY INTRUDES ON LAFF TRACKS: How will characters in tv sitcoms deal with the World Trade Center tragedy? “One option is to continue with a simulation of a New York City that no longer exists. The other is to move into some television version of the new New York City. Last week’s tragedy seems too big, too powerful, too overwhelming for anyone – even TV characters – to escape.” Dallas Morning News 09/20/01

REALITY INTRUDES: “Now, as life begins to return to something approaching normal, Hollywood has a dilemma: Does it return to its traditional offerings of blood-and-guts movies while the country is still hurting? And another question: Will TV shows featuring terrorists and bomb threats still play? Complicating all this is the fact that business plain stinks for just about everyone in media these days.” Businessweek 09/21/01

COMING OF AGE: One Hollywood producer suggests “This could be a coming of age for our nation. It depends on which way we go. I’d like to see us start looking at the process of recovery, and if entertainment has any job, it’s to put this suffering in a kind of context and prepare people for what’s next.” Christian Science Monitor 09/21/01

HARD TARGET: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation notified the major film studios in Los Angeles yesterday that one of them could be the target of a terrorist bombing if the United States attacked Afghan targets.” The New York Times 09/21/01

THE GREAT PREDICTER? “Nostradamus” was the top search word on the internet in the past week “Net surfers scoured the Web for information on the 16th-century soothsayer after a widely circulated e-mail hoax suggested he had predicted the tragedy. Top-ranked Nostradamus and other terms related to the terrorist attacks have been the most requested search items on the Web indexes Google, Lycos and Yahoo! over the past eight days.” National Post (Daily News) 09/21/01

Thursday September 20

NEW HEAD OF BBC, WITH STRINGS ATTACHED: “Gavyn Davies, the former Labour donor who was yesterday appointed BBC chairman, vehemently denied he was a ‘Labour crony’ and urged ministers to appoint a Tory deputy to preserve the corporation’s impartiality. Resigning his Labour party membership, he said the traditional ‘mix’ at the top of the BBC should be maintained. But the Tories were furious, declaring the process an ‘insult to people’s intelligence’.” The Guardian (UK) 09/20/01

NO TIME FOR FUN RIGHT NOW: The host of a Canadian TV show which pokes fun at the differences between Canada and the United States has withdrawn his nomination for a Gemini award, saying “this is a time to offer unconditional support to Americans.” CBC 09/20/01

THE MEANING OF LIFE: A new seven-part series Evolution is hyped as ” the most comprehensive and far-reaching examination of evolution to date.” It’s also a milestone for public television. “Evolution is a dizzying tour that takes us all over the world and packs its engaging episodes with food for thought. It’s an Achievement. But even eight hours can’t do more than scratch the surface when it comes to explaining the change over time of all living things.” Boston Phoenix 09/19/01

THE SOPRANOS WILL KEEP ON SINGING: A US judge in Chicago has dismissed a lawsuit which claimed that the TV show The Sopranos was defamatory to Italian-Americans. He said the group which brought the suit had no basis for suing, because it had suffered no injury. “He also ruled that the HBO-made show had a constitutional right to air its depiction of a fictional New Jersey family of Mafia members.” BBC 09/20/01

Wednesday September 19

VIOLENCE SELLS: Are American movie-makers too good at producing violence on the screen? “We have to face the question of violence as our country’s cultural touchstone. If it’s not our native tongue heard in the movies that we send around the globe, then it’s the language we speak most ardently. The graphic image of the White House exploding in Independence Day has a frightening quality, and in hindsight, since the Bush administration has said the White House was a target of the terrorists, perhaps suggested the way to unlock the door to our national nightmares — a horror-movie symbolism that shows the power of a grand gesture.” The New York Times 09/18/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday September 18

NY W/O TV: The World Trade Center disaster knocked 10 New York TV stations off over-the-air broadcast, because the stations’ transmitters were located on the towers. “At least four will resume transmissions from the relatively remote – and shorter – Armstrong radio tower on the Palisades at Alpine, N.J. Two other stations are installing transmitters and antennas atop the already-crowded Empire State Building – the original home of New York’s TV stations until the taller World Trade Center was completed in the early ’70s.” New York Post 09/17/01

SANITIZING THE CRISIS: Clear Channel Communications, one of the world’s largest media companies, has circulated a memo to its radio stations across the U.S. “suggesting” the removal of some 150 songs from station playlists in the wake of last week’s attack. Program directors have been left to wonder what could possibly be objectionable about the Beatles’ “Obla-Di Obla-Da” or Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World.” St. Paul Pioneer Press 09/18/01

NOT SO PERFECT AFTER ALL: Satellite radio has been touted as the medium’s savior: convenient, marketable, and oh, that clear, digital sound! But, as it turns out, the signal has trouble reaching rural areas. And big cities. The FCC is trying to help. Nando Times (AP) 09/17/01

Monday September 17

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL PRIZE: The film Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet wins top prize at the Toronto Film Festival. “The final press conference – usually a sit-down brunch with much applause and laughter – was a conventional press conference, attended mostly by Canadians and a few stranded travellers, and felt less like a celebration than a funeral reception.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/17/01

• TORONTO TROUBLE: Last week’s terrorism deflated the Toronto Film Festival. With transportation down, “the result was massive trouble for the festival’s guest office and for major hotels. Some festival guests couldn’t get to Toronto; certain films had to be cancelled because prints did not arrive; and many festival guests who were already here found themselves unable to leave town.” Toronto Star 09/17/01

AUDIENCES RETURN TO MOVIES: “Cinemas were relatively empty on Friday as many Americans watched events on television news, but on Saturday cinema audiences returned.” BBC 09/17/01

THE POWER OF IMAGES: “As several columnists have noted, these attacks stem in part from a disgust with the modern world, with the huge and potentially crippling cultural impact our music, our mores and, inevitably, our movies are having on the traditional ways of life these people are committed to preserve at all costs. They see our films as infecting their world, changing their children’s attitudes, in ways they find abhorrent. Given all that, what can be said for film in these terrible days?” Los Angeles Times 09/17/01

Sunday September 16

BBC COMMITS TO ARTS: The BBC replies to charges that creating an arts channel dumbs down the broadcaster’s commitment to arts programming. “BBC1 is going through a transition – for the better. It is now, and will remain, the showcase channel for the best programmes on the BBC, including arts. This is not lip-service, it’s a serious commitment.” The Observer (UK) 09/16/01

REEL DECISION: The Toronto Film Festival weighs whether to finish up the festival or cancel. “Movies reflect the world around them, and so do film festivals – even when that world is plunged for a time into chaos and the dark. Was it right to continue an event that celebrates art and entertainment, in the midst of real-life madness and death?” Chicago Tribune 09/15/01

WHEN TORONTO IS THE BRONX: Hollywood is drawn to filming projects in Canada by the cheap Canadian dollar (and government tax incentives). But rarely do the scripts call for Canadian locations, so Vancouver masquerades as San Francisco, Toronto as the Bronx, and… Saturday Night (Canada) 09/15/01

Friday September 14

BBC’S NEW CULTURE CHANNEL: The BBC is granted three new channels, including “BBC4, a new channel devoted to culture, the arts and ideas, and two new children’s channels.” The government’s culture minister says that BBC4 is “a distinctive, well defined service intended to create a forum for debate.” The Times (UK) 09/14/01

• Previously: ATTACKING BBC ON ARTS: Has the BBC abdicated its responsibility for arts programming? One critic thinks so: “Proms attendances are going up and just try to get into the Tate Modern on a Saturday afternoon – but that is not reflected on BBC One.” BBC 09/12/01

THE UNCERTAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ART AND LIFE: For the past three days, the script for reality came out of a Hollywood cataclysm movie. But, “The world is a more complex place, more like a John le Carre novel with shifting truths than a Hollywood movie of good guys and bad guys.” And the people who anticipated reality with special effects are finding that their make-believe world too is changed forever. Boston Globe & BBC 09/13/01

LET THE BAD TIMES ROLL: The terrorist attacks have provoked some changes and delays in plans for violent movies and TV shows. But how long will that last? “Few producers, actors, or outside observers expect Hollywood to holler ‘Cut!’ In fact, some believe cinematic treatments of violent episodes such as terrorist attacks may actually increase.” It needn’t be that way, of course; it’s possible to hope for “something that travels thoughtfully beyond the panoramic rubble, and obvious individual and collective pain, to greater universal truths that define us as a society.” Boston Globe & Los Angeles Times 09/14/01

Thursday September 13

NETWORK DELAYS SEASON: NBC TV delays next week’s scheduled debut of its fall TV season. Inside.com 09/12/01

• TERRORISM SUDDENLY ISN’T SO ENTERTAINING: Hollywood wonders about postponing release of action movies and TV shows that feature terrorist stories. “Sony Pictures removed a trailer from theaters and the Internet for the adventure Spider-Man because of a scene in which a helicopter carrying fleeing robbers gets trapped in a giant spider web strung between the two towers of the World Trade Center.” Nando Times (AP) 09/12/01

ATTACKING BBC ON ARTS: Has the BBC abdicated its responsibility for arts programming? One critic thinks so: “Proms attendances are going up and just try to get into the Tate Modern on a Saturday afternoon – but that is not reflected on BBC One.” BBC 09/12/01

• Previously: THE ARTS GHETTO: The BBC declares that niche broadcasting is the road to the future. So arts programming – better, more arts programming – ought to get its own digital channel. Critics are skeptical: “Whether we watch highbrow programmes in droves or not, we prefer them to be available to all, not hived off to the other side of the digital divide and held up to ransom.” The Telegraph (UK) 09/08/01

HOW TO USE THE BUZZ GENERATOR: A research firm claims that properly deployed Internet marketing could increase box-office receipts by $15 million per film, and could as much as double book sales. “Marketeers understand that the internet and word of mouth can help generate buzz, but they don’t know how to foster it to extend awareness of a product beyond its initial release.” screendaily 09/12/01

THE NEW BIG THING IN COLLECTIBLES: All right, it’s not really big. It’s not really art, either. It’s a Hollywood Oscar – a very hot item on the auction circuit. “An Oscar won by movie composer George Stoll has been bought at auction by Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey for $156,875 (£106,972) – seven times more than expected.” It’s also seven times more than was paid for the composer’s German viola. BBC & Nando Times 09/13/01

Wednesday September 12

POINTS OF REFERENCE HARD TO COME BY AFTER ATTACK: Over and over on Tuesday, reporters and witnesses were forced to describe the chaos in New York following a horrific terrorist attack as being “like something out of a movie.” CNN interviewed author Tom Clancy, and more than one witness cited the 1998 movie The Siege to describe what they were seeing. “The power of pop culture never seemed so real – or so terrifying.” Dallas Morning News 09/12/01

SQUARING A TERRIFYING REALITY WITH THE TV NATION: “And what will TV and the movies do now with their storytelling? To take the most trivial example — and yet so much of creative life will seem trivial for a long time to come — how will the producers of Sex and the City or Law & Order create a fictive New York that in any way corresponds to the world that has just been overturned?” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 09/12/01

Tuesday September 11

WATCHING ONLINE: Downloadable movies are about to be practical. “A new format, DivX, makes it possible to compress any film down to about 600MB – small enough to fit on an ordinary data CD but still high enough quality for comfortable viewing. For people with broadband connections, watching films online is within reach.” Will movie companies be any smarter about digital downloads than music producers were? The Telegraph (UK) 09/11/01

RADIONEXT: “Satellite radio is to start broadcasting in the U.S. on Wednesday, backed by major car manufacturers. It promises 100 channels of digital radio ranging from modern jazz to comedy to 24-hour news for a monthly subscription fee of $9.99.” BBC 09/11/01

THE OTHER ACTORS’ STRIKE: So the dreaded Hollywood actors’ strike planned for earlier this summer was averted, and everything was fine in the world of performer/producer relations, right? Wrong. “The final countdown to a possible strike by UK actors over pay and conditions is to get under way on Tuesday… [and] threatens to bring the UK film industry to a standstill.” BBC 09/10/01

THAT’S PRONOUNCED “O-LEE”: “A big-budget movie about the life of Norwegian virtuoso violinist and composer Ole Bull is to be released in 2005 to celebrate Norway’s 100 years of independence. . . Bull was Norway’s first international star, a Paganini-type womaniser who prompted hysteria with his playing all over Europe and the US.” Gramophone 09/11/01

Monday September 10

VENICE WINNER: The grand prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival has been won by an Indian film, Monsoon Wedding. “The film, directed by Mira Nair, is a comedy about an extended family reuniting from around the globe for an arranged marriage in India’s capital, Delhi.” BBC 09/10/01

Sunday September 9

THE ARTS GHETTO: The BBC declares that niche broadcasting is the road to the future. So arts programming – better, more arts programming – ought to get its own digital channel. Critics are skeptical: “Whether we watch highbrow programmes in droves or not, we prefer them to be available to all, not hived off to the other side of the digital divide and held up to ransom.” The Telegraph (UK) 09/08/01

TAKING THE RISK OUT OF INDIE: Independent film used to be the domain of risky fare that wasn’t commercially hit-worthy. But now “the indie domain now takes in everything from edgy, offbeat fare to genre flicks (sci-fi, horror and thrillers) to star vehicles that could just as easily be released by major studios—and often is by their ‘art-house’ distribution arms.” Is there still room in Indie for risky work? Los Angeles Times 09/09/01

ROGER DOES TORONTO: The Toronto Film Festival is one of the world’s busiest. Roger Ebert tries to sort it out: “The opening three days are so insanely front-loaded that critics go nuts trying to map out their schedules; they stand in the lobby of the Varsity, crossing screenings off their lists.” National Post (Canada) 09/08/01

Friday September 7

DIGITAL RADIO IN THE UK – NO SALE: Technically and artistically, digital radio is a terrific idea. Economically, not so. The former director of radio at the BBC explains that “listeners really believe that radio is free. The average UK household owns five radio sets, scattered around the house or in the car. We might just conceivably be persuaded to pay a slight premium to replace one of them — but all five? No thanks.” The Times (UK) 09/07/01

SO GOOD SHE’S BAD? Pauline Kael was a great film critic. But was she so good she was bad for film? “The long-term result of such an influential critic ignoring so much worthwhile foreign work is that just about every other mainstream critic has followed suit. This has dampened the desire of filmgoers to see foreign movies (since they rarely hear about them), with the upshot that distributors – who pay more attention to critics than you might think – are much warier of picking them up than they were in the 1970s.” The Guardian (UK) 09/07/01

ANOTHER LAYER IN THE “WHAT IS ART” CONTROVERSY: Within the world of art, there’s a debate about just where to put electronic arts. And within the world of electronic arts, there’s a debate about whether or not games should be included. Either way, some of the games are winning prizes as art. Wired 09/07/01

MOVIE STUDIOS INVADED BY HUMAN BEINGS: After a summer of films starring monsters, cartoons, and bombs (literal and figurative), we may be coming into an autumn filled with movies starring real people. Many of whom can act. Christian Science Monitor 09/07/01

BEATING HOLLYWOOD AT ITS OWN GAME: “You want to know the Christians’ biggest mistake? Not recognizing the neutrality of media. You don’t like the movies they’re showing downtown? Then make some of your own.” And not just tiny-budget sermonettes. We’re talking epic thrillers, with 8-figure budgets and big-name performers. The splashiest and so-far most successful of them are based on the apocalyptic Book of Revelation. The New Yorker 09/10/01

COURT UPHOLDS EBAY ON COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT: A federal judge has ruled that the Internet auction company eBay “was not liable for copyright infringement because bootleg copies of a Charles Manson documentary were sold using the site. The judge said it was the first case to test whether a Web site has a ‘safe harbor’ if people use the site to sell items that infringe on copyrights.” Nando Times 09/06/01

Thursday September 6

OLD HABITS DIE HARD: From Birth of a Nation through Gone With the Wind, Hollywood was accused of fostering racial stereotypes. But hasn’t the big West Coast Fantasy Factory learned its lesson? Not really. Minorities are still underrepresented in the movies, and “the lack of minority images in the movies is even more destructive than the stereotypes. When minorities do appear, critics say, they tend to be in the background, or cast as expendable sidekicks to white male star.” NPR 09/06/01

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, TELL A STORY: There’s good news and bad news about the increased capability and lowered costs of special effects in the movies. The good news is, small companies can now compete with the big ones. The bad news is, companies big and small are subordinating story to technical wizardry. “I think it’s very important to have a message. Storytelling is not just ‘this happened and this happened and this happened’.” Wired 09/05/01

FASTER THAN A SPEEDING CENSOR, MORE POWERFUL THAN A CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE: To the list of those unseen factors which influence television programming, you now can add the insurance underwriter. Many of the “reality” shows put participants at risk – less than it seems, but risk nonetheless. And “one thing that is certain is the approval of insurance companies can be crucial to the decision behind whether or not to include a certain stunt in a show.” ABC 09/05/01

Tuesday September 4

AUSSIE FILM BREAKS: The Australian government is promising $90 million in aid plus tax credits for investors of movies shot Down Under. “The announcement is intended to reassure the local industry, still reeling from last month’s Tax Office ruling that outlawed tax-minimising investments in the hit films Moulin Rouge and The Matrix, among others.” The Age (Melbourne) 09/04/01

MAD AS HELL AND CONTINUING TO TAKE IT: Has the entertainment industry become so dedicated to appealing to the lowest common denominator that it is dragging the nation’s critics down into lowbrow hell? “I find myself constantly reading favorable reviews of lousy films. . . written by estimable critics who have been around a long time and who, 10 or 15 years ago, wouldn’t have had any patience with any of these movies. But like everyone else, critics have been conditioned to give in and go along — or be branded a ‘drag’ and left behind.” Sacramento Bee 09/04/01

Monday September 3

THE MEANING OF (ELECTRONIC) ART: The Ars Electronica Festival is a “mecca for Internet artists, computer-music composers and others working in the digital realm.” The Festival awards a prize for best electronic art. But what exactly qualifies as digital art? Software code? Music? Videos? It’s a question even the artists are confused about. The New York Times 09/03/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Sunday September 2

TV, TV, AND MORE TV: This week Canada gets 47 new cable TV specialty channels. But the available audience is small, the cost is high, and many wonder how much consumers will be willing to spend on niche offerings. “The CRTC may have approved 283 digital licences, but no one knows exactly if or when they will make it to air.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/01/01

ART OF PUBLICITY: Some of the most powerful people in the film business are publicists – they manage stars and the press, trying to make the numbers (a polite way to say ‘money’) work out. And they’ll go to any lengths… The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/01/01

Friday August 31

IRANIAN FILMMAKER ARRESTED: “A chill wind blew through the Iranian film world yesterday, with the news that feminist filmmaker Tahmineh Milani has been arrested. Milani is a heroine of the New Iranian Cinema, which, despite the restrictive politics of the fundamentalist regime, has produced some of the best recent films on the world scene.” National Post (Canada) 08/31/01

THE DIGITAL RADIO GAMBLE: The whole idea of digital radio is a giant gamble. Unlike cellphones, home computers or VCRs (which all started small and quietly snowballed across the country), the digital radio people are starting very, very big. They launched a multimillion-dollar satellite. They’re installing antennas (like those you find for cellphones) across the country. They’ve hired the likes of Wynton Marsalis and Quincy Jones. They got George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic to make their commercials for them. Then they’ll ask consumers to shell out a bunch of money in the hopes that they really do want to hear something different.” Will it fly? New York Press 08/30/01

TRADES ON THE LINE: “The ‘trades’ are two newspapers, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, that between them have the circulation of a small-town daily. But the small town they cover is Hollywood and their influence can be considerable. Now both papers have become mired in controversy, including accusations of conflict of interest. The turmoil shows how the trades’ role and readership are changing as the entertainment industry expands.” Backstage 08/30/01

VIOLENCE HITS VENICE: This year’s installment of the Venice Film Festival seems to be full of films dripping with sex, violence, and brutality, causing no small amount of concern among festivalgoers and observors. The criticism has been so heavy that one local TV star has erected a complaint board in the center of town. “The writer of the best vitriol about a movie will be awarded the Golden Refund on 7 September.” BBC 08/31/01

Thursday August 30

MONTREAL ACTORS OFFER “NO STRIKE” DEAL: Film and TV actors in Eastern Canada begin negotiating a new contract in October. To mollify producers worried about a strike in the middle of shooting, the actors’ union “has guaranteed that any film that begins shooting before January 16th will not face a work stoppage.” Actors in Vancouver work under a different contract, which doesn’t expire until next March. CBC 08/29/01

HIJACKING HIS NAME: Canadian artist Freeman Patterson has had his name hijacked for a pornographic website. When visitors click on the artist’s name as expressed as a web address, they are directed to a porn site. The site offers to “sell” the address to anyone willing to offer more than $550. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/29/01

HARD TO IMITATE, HARD TO REMEMBER: Most of the movie directors who made a splash in the Seventies are now regarded as giants. That’s not true, however, of the man who made Blume in Love, An Unmarried Woman, Moscow on the Hudson, and Down and Out in Beverly Hills. How come? “Maybe part of the reason [Paul] Mazursky’s work has been ignored is that he’s the hardest to imitate.” The New York Times 08/30/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Wednesday August 29

WORLDWIDE ROOTLESS: Globalization is seen by many as a homogenizer of movies. But increasingly art-movie makers are enthusiastically embracing globalization as a way to get projects done – but “the stories themselves increasingly display symptoms of what the Soviet authorities used to anathematize as ‘rootless cosmopolitanism’.” International Herald Tribune 08/29/01

THE 58TH VENICE FILM FESTIVAL: There are 41 films contending for two top prizes at this year’s Venice Film Festival, which begins today. More than a hundred others – including most of the US entries – are being shown out of competition, giving them a shot at publicity without the risk of failure. Nando Times 08/28/01

SUMMER MOVIES – WHY THEY WERE SO BAD: Studios get up to eighty percent of the first week take from a movie; after that, their percentage drops. So less effort goes into making a good movie than into creating an atmosphere in which “people have got to see the movie the first weekend they can. After that, the frenzy is over.” The Irish Times 08/28/01

• SUMMER MOVIES – BETTER THINGS ARE COMING: “October is the start of Oscar season, that all too-brief 10-week window when the studios shed their ripped-T-shirted summer wardrobe, put on their holiday tuxedos and opt for class over crass. From Oct. 5 to year’s end, not a weekend will go by without at least one Oscar-friendly film hitting the theaters.” Los Angeles Times 08/28/01

Tuesday August 28

LONELY FOR SOMETHING BAD: More than half the residents of the UK say they would be “lonely” without their televisions, says a new poll. “In the 597 representative households questioned, more than 40% had the TV on for at least six hours a day. But the survey also showed how, despite this dependence, most people – 67% – believed there is often nothing worth watching.” BBC 08/28/01

Monday August 27

THE SOUND OF MOVIES: “In an age in which the film company often is the record company, the soundtrack album is a model of cross-pollination: it moves CD units, it sells movie tickets, and it can launch an artist’s career into the stratosphere. But have audiences lost something? The fact is, even the best collection of pop songs is no substitute for an original score – which is now relegated to the filler material between the pop extravaganzas in a film, its chief mandate to be unobtrusive, bland.” Saturday Night 08/25/01

Sunday August 26

ALL ABOUT THE MONEY: Movie rental companies, particularly Blockbuster, are feuding with major studios about profits and revenue sharing. So movie studios are playing with the idea of quitting the rental business and selling movies directly to consumers. Don’t think it could happen? Last year The Perfect Storm earned $182 million in direct-to-consumer sales. Boston Herald (Variety) 08/26/01

OPEN BIG AND DIE: “Today’s movies, if this summer is an indication, have achieved an ultimate Hollywood dream: They’ve been genetically engineered to make their content irrelevant, to earn a ton of money even if everyone who takes a bite—not just critics, but everyone—finds them as tasteless as those bogus tomatoes.” Los Angeles Times 08/26/01

Friday August 24

MORE MULTICULTURAL TV: Five years ago only one program appeared on the most popular 20 TV show lists of both black and white American viewers. Now there are nine, and some credit the change to programming of more multi-racial casts. Philadelphia Inquirer (AP) 08/24/01

CENSORING MOVIES: Australia is trying out some new movie censorship proposals. “The guidelines suggest new restrictions on nudity, violence, drugs and ‘the inappropriate use of substances that damage health or are legally restricted to adults.’ Films would be banned if ‘reasonable adults’ might be offended by the sight of an actor who ‘looks like a person under 18’ being nude, violent or taking drugs. The draft guidelines spell out a concept of ‘imitability’ that could provoke consumer warnings or censorship cuts: Dangerous or illegal actions within films or computer games which are authentic or close to real life that can be imitated by children.” Sydney Morning Herald 08/24/01

UNSEASONED: This summer’s movie season was an unqualified dud. “The immense promise of A.I. was only partly met, the Planet of the Apes remake was a dud, most of the others were instantly forgettable, and altogether too many had a 2 or III after their titles, sending a message of creative abdication.” Boston Globe 08/24/01

SHORT-TIMERS: Why do movies stick around for such a short time at local theatres? It’s a stratgy “that floods a film onto more than 3,000 screens the first weekend, so that a studio can make lots of money before poor word of mouth and bad reviews scare moviegoers away. The result is that theater marquees are changing faster than airport-departure monitors. More important, it’s set up an unusual cultural dichotomy: More people say there’s nothing they want to see, but Hollywood is making more money than ever. In fact, this weekend it expects to break the summer box-office record of $3 billion.” Christian Science Monitor 08/24/01

Thursday August 23

MAYBE WE CAN HEAD THEM OFF AT THE DVD: Competing movie studios have at least one goal in common: stave off the Web pirates. But the way they’re going about it is drawing heavy criticism, because “the movie industry has to learn a lesson that the music industry failed to learn, which is that you have to put a service out there that is high in quality and beats anything else that’s out there. You can’t lock it up. If you treat your customers like criminals, it just doesn’t do any good.” Chicago Tribune 08/22/01

THE BUDGET FILM FESTIVAL: Most film festivals are trendy, glitzy, edgy. Places for stars and wannabes to be seen. Then there’s the Quentin Tarantino Film Festival, where you can see “Spaghetti Westerns,” “Bunch of Guys on a Mission War Movies,” and “Martial Arts Epic Adventure Night.” It’s B movies at their best. The New York Times 08/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Wednesday August 22

PENALTIES FOR TRAVELING ABROAD: “The Screen Actors Guild has backed proposed legislation under which American studios and networks benefiting from foreign production subsidies would have to pay a tariff of the same amount to distribute their films in the US. This steps up the campaign by Hollywood to stop runaway production, which has seen an estimated $10 billion lost annually from the US.” Sydney Morning Herald 08/22/01

A RULE’S A RULE: MTV has a strict policy – it doesn’t show people doing drugs. Not even a song that chronicles the downside of drug-taking? Nope. The song Because I Got High tells how a singer’s life was ruined by smoking marijuana and shows people smoking. The tune has been getting heavy airplay around the US, and MTV wanted to air it – so the network asked the video’s director to take out the smoking scenes and he complied. “They told us what their concerns were, and, in our desire to achieve maximum exposure, we made those accommodations.” New York Post 08/22/01

UNKNOWN DIRECTORS’ WELL-KNOWN MOVIES: Those movies that at the beginning of summer looked like sure-fire blockbusters…well, we don’t want to embarrass anyone by naming names, but the fact is, the big money this year goes to relatively unheralded movies made by previously unknown directors: Shrek, The Fast and the Furious, Cats & Dogs, and Legally Blonde. Los Angeles Times 08/22/01

Tuesday August 21

NPR DUMPS WILLIAMS: National Public Radio has dumped Juan Williams as host of Talk of the Nation. He’s had the job only 18 months, and the show’s audience grew during that time. But it was dropped in New York, and critics complained Williams often sounded “distracted on the show. His last show will be August 30. Washington Post (second item) 08/21/01

PUTTING A NEW FACE ON PACIFICA: America’s Pacifica network has been under seige in the past two years as management of the lefty network has tried to professionalize operations. Longtime Pacifica employees and fans charge the network has been moving away from its roots. Now “management has hired a high-profile public relations firm and some big-gun lawyers, and is recruiting some well-known lefties to be on the Pacifica board – former D.C. mayor Marion Barry among them – to replace the previous ones.” Washington Post 08/21/01

CONDEMNING HOLLYWOOD’S IMPERIAL FANTASIES: European authors at the Edinburgh book fair decry the “cultural imperialism” of American films. “This domination of the popular imagination has been allowed to go to ridiculous lengths. What worries me most is that it has become an almost instinctive reaction now, so you have British and European films incorporating these pointless American elements now too. That is very worrying and quite dangerous.” The Guardian (UK) 08/20/01

Monday August 20

500 CHANNELS THAT MATTER? In one big bang, about 90 new specialty channels are about to launch in Canada. There’s a catch though – you can only get them if you’ve got digital cable. And, after a 90-day free period, each channel will be able to charge what it wants for its service. “We’re talking about an unregulated tier of channels; in principle, the distributors can charge what the market will bear.” Toronto Star 08/19/01

A FOR-PROFIT BBC? “The idea that the BBC might go commercial alarms many people, both inside and outside the organisation. Yet the arguments for having a huge state-financed corporation dominate the broadcasting business were formulated in a different broadcasting era. Few hold today.” The Economist 08/16/01

Sunday August 19

FRENCH DUB: “Because of the overwhelming visibility and clout of the American film industry, Quebec’s Francophone government requires that all U.S. films released here be dubbed in French. But a loophole in an agreement between Quebec and the Motion Picture Assn. of America means that more and more Hollywood studios are doing their dubbing in France, depriving actors in Quebec of a once lucrative sideline.” Now Quebec is trying to get the Quebec accent back into dubbing. Los Angeles Times 08/19/01

Friday August 17

MOVIE DOWNLOADS: In an effort to thwart pirates, five Hollywood movie studios – MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Vivendi Universal and Warner Bros – are forming a company to distribute their movies over the internet. Computer users with broadband connections will be able to download movies directly into their computers. BBC 08/17/01

DOROTHY RETURNS: Warner Brothers is said to be developing a new TV series based on The Wizard of Oz. “According to trade reports, the series would center on a 20-something woman who lands in Oz – to lead a revolt against Emerald City.” New York Post 08/17/01

Thursday August 16

DISPUTED REPRESENTATION: The American NAACP is contesting a Screen Actors Guild report that minority representation in the television industry was up last year. “The civil rights group says there were small gains in hiring minority actors for prime-time series. But it says there was little progress in minority representation at the executive and board levels.” CBC 08/15/01

• Previously: MORE MINORITIES: Minority groups have been complaining for years about the underrepresentation of minorities in Hollywood projects. Now a new survey says that last year a record number of minority actors won roles. “Of the 53,134 movie or TV roles, 11,930 went to people of color White actors still dominate the industry, however, playing 76.1 percent of all roles. About 14.8 percent of all roles went to blacks, the highest percentage since the guild began compiling statistics in 1992.” Dallas Morning News 08/14/01

BOOK TALK: A Germany literary institution is coming to an end. For 13 years, the show Literary Quartet presented a series of discussions about books. “No other literary discussion program on German television lasted as long or accomplished as much. Books were made, and careers were endangered, if not ended. No other broadcast influenced as many people with nothing but words, something that borders on blasphemy in German television.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 08/15/01

BESIDES, THEY’LL ALWAYS NEED WAITERS IN HOLLYWOOD: The fully-computerized actor, like the paper-free office, may be one of those concepts which will never be realized. In fact, the digital graphics people themselves sometimes say, “Use real actors.” An example: For the upcoming Harry Potter movie, “It ended up that the most natural way to get (some scenes) was to create it on the computer and then go back in and insert real people, rather than the other way around.” Wired 08/16/01

ADVERTAINMENT? A series of new short films featuring BMW’s and directed by A-list directors blurs the line between art and advertising. “Each is under ten minutes long, each stars a character known as the Driver and a late-model BMW, and each features fancy wheelwork that showcases the cars’ many qualities. Is this as hideous as it sounds?” The New Republic 08/15/01

IT GOES BACK AT LEAST TO THE ILIAD: “[W]ar has been a favorite subject of filmmakers since cinema began. But just because a genre is old doesn’t mean audiences will keep lining up for it. Westerns have bitten the dust, and traditional musicals have danced into near oblivion. Why do war movies keep parading across movie screens despite shifts in social attitudes and Hollywood fashions?” Christian Science Monitor 08/10/01

Wednesday August 15

LISTENING TRUMPS VIEWING: In the UK more people now listen to radio than watch TV. “Last week we learned that audience figures for radio broadcasts had overtaken those for television. It follows hard on the heels of the news that Radio 2, once considered a tragically unhip station for cardigan-wearing codgers, had overtaken ‘wunnerful’ Radio 1 to become Britain’s top station.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/15/01

WATCH ON YOUR OWN: In New Zealand, early release of DVD’s is having an effect on movie theater ticket sales. “While there were other factors, including the lowering of the drinking age, box office revenue in country areas fell by an average 21 per cent last year. In one area, it was down 33 per cent.” Sydney Morning Herald 08/15/01

NOT THAT YOU WERE GOING TO BUY ONE, BUT....the current asking price for a 30-second ad during next year’s Super Bowl is about two and a half million dollars. That also was the starting price for the last game; the actual game-time price was about two million. For Super Bowl I, in 1967, a 30-second spot cost $42 thousand. New York Post 08/14/01

MAYBE IT WAS THOSE TEPID REVIEWS FOR A.I.: Steven Spielberg’s Band of Brothers is a World War II drama series. With a $115 million budget, it’s the most expensive made-for-TV film ever made. However, the BBC has decided that it is “too niche” for most British viewers, and will show it on BBC2 instead of the mainstream BBC1. The Guardian (UK) 08/15/01

Tuesday August 14

MORE MINORITIES: Minority groups have been complaining for years about the underrepresentation of minorities in Hollywood projects. Now a new survey says that last year a record number of minority actors won roles. “Of the 53,134 movie or TV roles, 11,930 went to people of color White actors still dominate the industry, however, playing 76.1 percent of all roles. About 14.8 percent of all roles went to blacks, the highest percentage since the guild began compiling statistics in 1992.” Dallas Morning News 08/14/01

DEAL ON FAKES: After Sony was caught promoting movies with a fake critic, several US states launched investigations into the practice. Now Oregon is the first to sign a deal with Sony curbing the use of fakes. “In the pact signed Monday, Sony said it would either use quotes from actual reviews by professional film critics or admit that the people touting the film were studio employees.” Ottawa Citizen (CP) 08/14/01

SAVING AUSTRALIAN FILM: Australia’s film industry is warning that the $3.5 billion business is in trouble unless confusing tax laws are changed. The Age (Melbourne) 08/14/01

THE OLD NEW THING: Was Richard Wagner the father of multimedia? “The revelation that multimedia is nothing new shouldn’t be a buzz kill—it places today’s multimedia within a more profound context than just the hot new thing.” Rhizome 08/05/01

Monday August 13

BIG BANG THEORY: “Something profound is happening at the megaplexes, and it has little to do with what appears on the screen. Rather, it is about how those movies are being seen. The summer hits of 2001 are making about as much money as hits from previous summers, but they are making it quicker, making more of it than ever on opening weekend.” The New York Times 08/13/01 (one-time resistration required for access)

MANDATED INTEGRATION: As ordered by Canada’s broadcast regulatory commision (CRTC) Canadian TV networks “must submit plans within three months on how they will increase the number of visible minorities employed on staff and used as sources for stories. They must ensure that coverage of minorities goes beyond crime and cultural festivals, and that minority reporters aren’t confined to doing stories about their communities. They’ll also have to report progress once a year, and come up with ways to get feedback from the minority communities.” Toronto Star 08/12/01

SUBSIDIES FOR HOLLYWOOD? Hollywood is concerned about the number of productions now being filmed outside the US. So it has put its weight behind a bill in Congress “designed to curb the flow of film and TV production fleeing U.S. soil by providing financial incentives to producers who shoot within U.S. borders.” Backstage 08/10/01

PRICES DRIVE MOVIE GOERS AWAY: A movie industry consultant is predicting that movie ticket sales will go down this year and next. “A major factor in this slowdown is increasing admission prices, which are turning moviegoers away.” National Post (Reuters) (Canada) 08/13/01

Friday August 10

DIGITAL PROTECTION: Suddenly Hollywood movie studios are discovering they’re being seriously hacked, and their movies copied. So they’re trying to create protection measures. BBC 08/10/01

Thursday August 9

STEALING MOVIES: Hackers are infiltrating the computers that are increasingly used to edit movies, and stealing copies. And, “as digital technology makes its mark on every aspect of the film industry, it becomes easier for ordinary computer users to reach into cyberspace and grab whatever goodies take their fancy.” New Zealand Herald 08/09/01

• ANYTHING YOU WANT: Top movies are now available in pirated versions over the internet within days of their theatre release. It’s obvious that “the Napster file-trading phenomenon that has rocked the music industry over the past year has caught up to Hollywood with a vengeance.” Toronto Star 08/08/01

IT’S NOT ART IN VIDEO GAMES, IT’S VIDEO GAMES IN ART: Serious artists get interested in video games, and not just for fun. For many of them, the attraction is having discovered “that they can bring their own agendas to games to subvert traditional game rules… they like the sense of space conveyed by video games and the way the games draw the participant into the field of action.” The New York Times 08/09/01 (one-time registration required for access)

NOW MAY BE THE TIME FOR HEAVENLY INTERVENTION: Despite the suggestions to the contrary posed by contemporary programming, there is a patron saint of television. She’s an Italian noblewoman from the 12th century, named St. Clare. New York Post 09/09/01

Wednesday August 8

WHAT HAPPENED TO GOOD MOVIES? “Today mainstream cinema looks stupider than it has for a long time. This is real middlebrow moronism of the kind we haven’t seen since Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep got their parcels mixed up in Falling In Love in 1984. We have become used to expecting more of cinema. We’re going to suffer now.” Where to turn for good art films? The Guardian (UK) 08/08/01

ELIZABETHAN RAUNCH: They usually try to obscure it in high school, but by the time you get to college, English instructors are pretty honest about it. Yes, there is sex in Shakespeare. But what happened onstage at the Globe was nothing like what’s happening now, on cable and in XXX videos. It’s a whole new genre: Shakespearean Porn. Lingua Franca 09/01

HUNK FACTOR: Are movie actors better looking than TV actors? Just compare awards – Emmys versus Oscars. Skeptical? Think Dennis Franz. Think James Gandolfini. Los Angeles Times 08/08/01

Tuesday August 7

THE GENERIC SOUND OF PUBLIC RADIO: “One of the biggest listener complaints with commercial radio is that the rock stations here in Washington sound just like the rock stations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. But the same thing is happening in public radio. Further, public radio stations in the same city are increasingly starting to sound alike. And, unlike in commercial radio, your tax dollars help pay for this duplication. At least two members of Congress aren’t happy about it.” Washington Post 08/07/01

Monday August 6

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UNDERRATED: An American publishing house has released a new survey of the best, most overrated, and most underrated film scripts in history, as judged by screenwriters themselves. Citizen Kane and Casablanca made both the best and most overrated lists, with Groundhog Day taking the prize for most underrated. BBC 08/05/01

Sunday August 5

WAITING FOR DIGITAL RADIO: With all the hoopla surrounding the coming of digital television, radio’s digital potential has been largely ignored by press and public alike. But radio is mostly about music these days, and the benefits of a full digital conversion would likely be far greater than any television will realize. Still, there may not be enough interest to get the change done in the near term. Washington Post 08/05/01

Friday August 3

ACTING UP IN CANADA: American movie producers may have settled contracts with the actors union, but the Canadian actors union is just coming up on negotiations. “Among other issues on the table, the union hopes to narrow the gap between the $510 Canadian movie and TV actors earn for a day’s work in Canada, and the $950 ($636 U.S.) paid to American actors.” Toronto Star 08/02/01

VIDEO ISN’T THE SAME AS FILM. HERE’S WHY: “Footage shot on digital video looks noticeably less crisp than footage shot on film. Where film can produce a remarkable sensation of deep space, video emphasizes the plane of the screen – its images seem flatter… video encourages lo-fi, do-it-yourself effects to achieve a completely natural, sketchlike style… just as you get different kinds of sound from a compact disc and vinyl, it seems clear that the new medium of DV will continue to have qualities distinct from film.” The New Republic 07/31/01

NOT SO SPECIAL: Movie special effects have become boring. “Over the past decade, computing power has greatly increased while the cost and complexity involved in using it has greatly decreased. Computer generated images have become commonplace to the point of banality. They now clutter everything from the biggest Hollywood productions to the lowest-budget TV commercial, and their magic and power – the ability to simply wow us – has vanished. If a computer can create a screen image of anything the mind can conjure, what is left to surprise us?” Toronto Star 08/03/01

NOTHING ON: What has happened to British documentaries? Once they aspired to greatness. Now: “From the precious nonsense that was served up as Modern Times, to the vapid, middle-class obsessions of Cutting Edge, it would be easy to argue that the box in the corner of your living room boasts little but a white, English, terribly middle-class belly button.” The Times 08/03/01

“TOO AGGRESSIVE ON A TAX BASIS”? Australia, like many countries, gives tax breaks to American production companies who shoot in their country. But the recent denial of tax credits to producers of Moulin Rouge has the Aussie film industry worried. Sydney Morning Herald 08/03/01

PASADENA NORTH: Pasadena is what, a few miles up the road from Hollywood? That’s Hollywood as in where they make movies and TV…So how come a new TV series called Pasadena is being shot not in Pasadena? Or even Hollywood. But in Canada. “For Hollywood unions, shooting a TV show about the scandals of Pasadena society in a Canadian city 1,200 miles to the north is the perfect symbol of how bad the problem of runaway production to cheaper locales has gotten. Who would think of shooting a Beverly Hills, 90210 or L.A. Law in a foreign country?” Los Angeles Times 08/03/01

Thursday August 2

WHAT DID YOU WATCH? NEVER MIND, WE ALREADY KNOW: Arbitron is introducing the portable people meter. “The PPM, which is carried by participants, detects codes that broadcasters place in their programming… and records the signals, whether at home or outside it. When the PPM is recharged on its base every night, the base sends the collected codes to Arbitron.” Chicago Tribune 08/01/01

WANNA SEE A REALLY GOOD MOVIE? TOO BAD This is not a vintage summer for movies. It’s not even a good one. In fact, it’s… well, “If it weren’t for Shrek, the puckish computer-animated children’s fable about an antisocial ogre who learns to love, this summer at the multiplexes would really, really reek.” Philadelphia Inquirer 08/02/01

THE ULTIMATE ADVERTISING MACHINE: Internet movies have mostly been flops. One series of shorts, however, has been highly successful. As you might guess, they’re commercials, “six-minute shorts that are so unlike regular commercials, you could watch them without recognizing the product being sold. An easy mistake to make, since there’s no advertising slogan, no pitchman and no logos.” Toronto Star 08/01/01

PUBLIC MERGER: America’s largest public broadcasting station – New York’s WNET – is merging with the country’s fourth largest station – Long Island’s WLIW. “The merger, which would leave the management of WNET in charge of the stations, would be the first of its kind among public television stations.” The New York Times 08/02/01 (one-time registration required for access)

THE BEST MTV VIDEO OF ALL TIME: Assuming that you think MTV videos are any good in the first place, and that you think 20 years qualifies for “all time” status, and that you agree with the British voters, the best is neither Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” nor Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Hint: it’s by the same man who made Being John Malkovich. The Independent (UK) 08/01/01

Wednesday August 1

DOWNWARD CHASE: British television seems to be spiraling downmarket in an attempt to capture larger audiences. “The worst part of it is that the more trivial and mindless the television offerings become, the more eagerly the newspapers promote them in order to play leapfrog.” Financial Times (UK) 08/01/01

Monday July 30

LONGEST FILM: A Scottish artist has taken John Wayne’s film The Searchers and slowed it down so it will take five years – the length of time the film’s story covers. It has been “digitally slowed, real-time version, which runs at one frame every 24 minutes rather than 24 frames a second.” Sunday Times (UK) 07/29/01

Sunday July 29

WHERE’S THE ART? Animation produced with computers is producing images that are startlingly close to real life. But “a handful of critics and thinkers are questioning this new hyperreal aesthetic, suggesting that it’s a limited and uninspired use of the available technology. After all, if the end result is a photorealist version of our world, then why use animation at all?” Boston Globe 07/29/01

THE NEXT THING IN RADIO: In September, satellite radio debuts in America. Its high fidelity and constant signal strength coast-to-coast could make it The Next Big Thing. Or will it? Listeners must pay $9.99-12.95 a month for the service. You get 100 channels for that, but “there’s all that new equipment to buy – head units, receivers, antennas – which could cost anywhere from $200 to $600.” Dallas Morning News 07/29/01

Thursday July 26

FINANCING BOLLYWOOD: India’s Bollywood is the world’s biggest producer of movies (700 a year) but until now banks have not financed movies. That is about to change, as Bollywood seeks to increase production. Still, “banks are likely to remain cautious in advancing loans to what is seen as a high risk sector, as 80% of Indian films fail at the box office.” BBC 07/26/01

Wednesday July 25

TEST-MARKETING ‘THE NEW RADIO’: Dallas and San Diego have been identified as the first test markets for one of the two companies planning to launch major satellite radio operations this fall. There is little doubt that XM Satellite Radio and its competitors are offering a music product superior to conventional radio, but the high cost and inconvenience of procuring all-new equipment may put many consumers off. Dallas Morning News 07/25/01

DO VIRTUAL ACTORS HAVE TO PAY UNION DUES? The furor that has erupted over the computer-generated “Final Fantasy” film has been almost comical in its hysteria. No less venerable a personage than Tom Hanks has voiced his concern that virtual actors might someday replace flesh-and-bone thespians, and the Screen Actors Guild has been shrilling its objections ever since the mediocre film’s release. But the man behind the computer magic laughs at the notion that his creations could ever do what human actors can. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 07/25/01

SONGWRITERS GETTING LEFT BEHIND: Lost in the debate over compensation for musicians whose work is distributed online has been the plight of the folks who create the songs to begin with. Songwriters, who have always had a tough time getting proper compensation for their efforts, are worried that they’re being ignored by both performers and the online music industry. Wired 07/25/01

Tuesday July 24

MORE THAN ENTERTAINMENT? Black Entertainment Television (BET) is 20 years old. BET’s founder says the network is “a powerhouse creatively and financially.” But critics lament that “the network had failed to fulfill its potential, focusing too much attention on music-related programming — particularly hip-hop videos with scantily clad women.” Los Angeles Times 07/24/01

COLORFUL DREAMS: Technicolor is synonymous with color movies. Now the company wants to be a leader in digital movie projectors, but some in the industry are anxious. “The company’s business model called for taking a small cut from every ticket sold for a digital presentation. Besides cutting into profits, the plan would be difficult to administer because of the complex formula governing the box-office haul split between studios and exhibitors.” Industry Standard 07/30/01

Monday July 23

CAN’T TRUST THE REVIEWS: “If I were a critic today, I’d certainly be a sucker for a film with some flesh on the bone. Today’s reviewers see so much slop that it’s almost inevitable that they overpraise the few movies that exhibit even a whiff of heft or ambition. A movie critic today must feel like the restaurant reviewer who has been forced to spend months munching on french fries and cheeseburgers at McDonald’s. When someone finally takes them to a decent neighborhood cafe, they go nuts.” Chicago Tribune 07/23/01

Sunday July 22THE JUNKET REVIEW: Some movie fans in Los Angeles are suing movie studios claiming that producers try to bribe critics with screenings, junkets and gifts, and that the reviews that result are frauds. Los Angeles Times 07/20/01

• THOSE HARD-WORKING JUNKETEERS: “Junkets are to journalism as marketing is to the truth. Junket reporters are journalistically, if not ethically, challenged. At a typical junket, dozens of print and electronic journalists are flown to, say, New York or L.A., often on the studio’s nickel, put up in a hotel, fed, bused to a screening and then herded to suites where they get about 20 minutes with the stars and the director and sometimes the producer of a movie. Nobody likes this arrangement, not the stars, not the press, not even the publicists, but the studios do, and it works.” Los Angeles Times 07/22/01

AN ACTOR WHO’LL NEVER NEGOTIATE HIS CONTRACT: Will computer-generators actors replace the human variety in movies? Maybe, but it’s complicated. An earlier casualty would seem to be old-style cartoons. San Francisco Chronicle 07/22/01

Friday July 20

ART OF THE GAME: Are video games art? “Gaming as an art form has gone widely unrecognized and is often dismissed by serious critics. But recently, a growing number of scholars and artists have turned their attention to video games.” Wired 07/20/01

Tuesday July 17

THE MOVIE NAPSTER: The Motion Picture Association of America claims that boot-leg prints of movies are costing Hollywood $2.5 billion a year. A big chunk of that is accounted for by movies like Snatch and Shrek, which can be downloaded from the Internet. “While the means of piracy distribution has gone high-tech, the means of gaining the material has remained the same–bootleggers take video cameras into theaters.” Chicago Tribune 07/16/01

REALITY – WHAT A CONCEPT: When summer ends and TV season begins, there will be 15 or 20 new reality shows on the tube. Critics hope such shows will eventually be killed off by “the propensity of network programmers to take every original idea and beat it quickly and thoroughly to death.” Don’t count on it, though, because “if young people are hooked on these programs, whatever else is said about them does not matter. More than ever, network television is steered by youth culture.” The New York Times 07/17/01 (one-time registration required for access)

THE ONLINE THEATRE: Want to avoid the movie ticket lines? Theatres are increasingly beginning to sell tickets online – so far available in Texas, Utah and New York. CNN 07/16/01

Monday July 16

CAN’T BUY ME (VIRTUAL) LOVE: Disney came to Chicago with an ambitious high-tech virtual reality arcade. Now it’s closing. “In the end, DisneyQuest proves that some principles of family entertainment are impervious to technology, even patently old-fashioned – things like variety, convenience, parking, the demands of age ranges and tastes, even good food and comfortable surroundings.” Chicago Tribune 07/16/01

RATED “S” FOR SMOKING? In New Zealand, anti-smoking advocates want to ban young people from movies where characters are portrayed smoking. Ottawa Citizen (AP) 07/16/01

Sunday July 15

BRITISH CULTURE GOES HOLLYWOOD? Britain’s new culture minister says he prefers Hollywood movies to British films. This makes him “an odd choice to oversee the development of British cinema, though this may well be in keeping with the honorary knighthood conferred on Steven Spielberg.” The Observer (UK) 07/15/01

BUT WHAT ABOUT BUFFY? What’s with those Emmy judges? Are they all 108 years old? How else to explain the shows nominated for awards this year? “These people are so decrepit that they can’t even change the channel to see what else is on the tube beside The Sopranos, The West Wing, ER, Law & Order and The Practice, the same gang of five that topped the nominations last year.” Toronto Star 07/15/01

Friday July 13

EMMY NOMINATIONS: The Sopranos (22) and The West Wing (18) win most Emmy nominations on American television. The New York Times 07/13/01 (one-time registration required for access)

NOT EXACTLY THE WHITE KNIGHT THEY HAD IN MIND: A 24-year-old Internet whiz-kid says he wants to buy Salon, the struggling on-line magazine. He says he can cut costs by firing most of the staff and replacing them “with syndicated articles from magazines like Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker.” As you might expect, Salon considers the offer a hostile one. Inside.com 07/12/01

Thursday July 12

MOVIE BOYCOTT: Movie ticket prices are up 10 percent over a year ago in the US. Enough! cries a group of movie enthusiasts. Time to protest with a boycott. This Friday (July 13) the group proposes a boycott of movie houses across the country. BBC 07/12/01

MEXICO + HOLLYWOOD, A SLOW-BUILDING ROMANCE: It began more than 50 years ago, with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; with The Mexican last year and Frida this year, it’s finally taking shape. The biggest attraction of all may be down-and-dirty practical, as the Mexican government has “streamlined permit applications for filmmakers who want to work in Mexico and overhauled union rules and tax laws.” USAToday 07/11/01

Tuesday July 10

HARRY GOES FOR BIG BUCKS: Producers of the Harry Potter movie are reportedly asking American TV networks for a record $70 million for the right to air the movie. The previous record of $30 million was for Titanic. BBC 07/09/01

THE SCARIEST THING IN HOLLYWOOD – AN ABSTRACT IDEA: As a literary genre, science fiction “has transcended its pulp origins and gained an enormous amount of credibility over the last 25 years.” Not so the movies, where space operas and alien-invasions are the norm. Why do so few thoughtful sci-fi novels make it to the screen? “People in Hollywood are afraid that anything that is perceived as an abstract idea will drive people from the theater.” The New York Times 07/08/01 (one-time registration required for access)

MUSEUM OF THE DEAD: What happens to all those websites that have gone bust? Some of them stay online, ghost ships without pilots. Others disappear. Now a museum has collected screenshots of dead sites, recording them for posterity. ABCNews.com 07/09/01

Sunday July 8

REPLACING ACTORS WITH PIXELS: “The specter of the digital actor — a kind of cyberslave who does the producer’s bidding without a whimper or salary — has been a figure of terror for the last few years in Hollywood, as early technical experiments proved that it was at least possible to create a computer image that could plausibly replace a human being. But as “Final Fantasy” makes its way into theaters — the first of what promises to be a string of movies trying to put this challenge to the test — many wonder if the threat is as real as it once seemed, or if it simply takes computer animation down a fruitless cul-de-sac.” The New York Times 07/08/01 (one-time registration required for access)

‘SCOTTISH SCREEN’ SUPERVISOR SCOTCHED: “The chief executive of Scotland’s national film agency, Scottish Screen, has resigned. . . Scottish Screen has been under fire recently because of the film projects it has funded. It is been criticised for not funding a wide enough range of films, or enough commercially successful ones. It is also been accused of ‘cronyism’ favouring a small group of filmmakers already known to the board.” BBC 07/07/01

GAMBLING ON THE SATELLITE: Satellite radio is coming, and no one seems quite sure what effect it will have on the way the world listens to music. It could turn AM and FM into dinosaurs in a matter of a few years. “Or, with billions already invested in multiple satellites as well as programmers, air talent, advertising, and new technologies, we may be on the verge of the most expensive technological misfire since Beta-format video.” Boston Globe 07/08/01

FALLOUT FROM A NON-STRIKE: “Now that Hollywood’s actors have found labour peace with the movie studios and TV networks, the entertainment business faces a major hangover after a year of binge preparations for a lengthy labour shutdown that never materialized.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 07/07/01

Friday July 6

SELLING IT DOOR TO DOOR: Movie studios have slowly been adjusting the way they advertise their product to the younger generation in recent years, trying to take advantage of new technologies to hawk their old-tech movies. But one of the most successful new marketing methods could not be more low-tech: teams of streetwise salesman, selling a movie one-on-one in the clubs and dance halls frequented my Hollywood’s favorite demographic set. Los Angeles Times 07/06/01

DIGITAL DELAYS: While the U.S. government continues to threaten American television stations with license revocation if deadlines for conversion to digital technology are not met, the BBC is facing the opposite problem in the U.K. Britain’s dominant broadcaster is set to roll out an array of new digital services, but the government is demanding more information on the proposals before approving the plan. BBC 07/05/01

INTERACTIVE CINEMA: San Francisco Cinematheque is one of America’s most venerable alternative-film organizations, and over the four decades of its existence, it has crossed back and forth over the avant-garde line so many times that it would seem to have nothing “new” left to try. But it’s trying anyway, with an interactive multimedia blowout to celebrate its 40th anniversary. “The night begins with bingo and ends with participants wandering into showings of dozens of experimental film and video pieces by local artists.” San Francisco Chronicle 07/06/01

Thursday July 5

SORKIN DEFENDS HIMSELF: West Wing creator and chief writer Aaron Sorkin is defending the show against charges that it is shorting its writers in order to cut costs. National Post 07/05/01

Wednesday July 4

ACTORS/PRODUCERS SETTLE: Actors and Hollywood producers reach a contract agreement, avoiding a strike. Terms were not immediately available. Nando Times (AP) 07/04/01

BBC INCREASES BUDGET: Despite – or perhaps because of – a drop in audience share, BBC has pledged an additional £67 million for drama, entertainment, and factual programming in the coming year. It’s part of an overall 20% increase, the largest in BBC history. BBC 07/04/01

FEWER STARS, MORE BALANCE: “The Toronto International Film Festival is quietly cutting back on its Hollywood glitter quotient, in response to growing criticism that the annual September event is becoming too star-struck for its own good. Two new programs — one a showcase for experimental works and the other a Canadian film retrospective series — will help restore ‘balance’ to the festival’s offerings.” Toronto Star 07/04/01

VIDEO ON DEMAND, BUT DON’T DEMAND JUST YET: “If takes off with consumers, it could well be the biggest billion-dollar bonanza since videocassettes and VCRs in the 1980s. And yet, ironically, the major Hollywood studios – which have much to gain from VOD’s success – are using their clout to thwart VOD’s market launch.” National Post (Canada) 07/03/01

Tuesday July 3

UNDUE INFLUENCE: Movie fans in Los Angeles are suing movie studios for “bribing” critics. “The lawsuits allege that the studios are engaging in fraud and unfair and deceptive business practices by using the glowing reviews about their films in advertisements without letting the public know that the reviewers may have received goodies or travel and meal accommodations in connection to attending the film screening.” Inside.com 07/02/01

REINVENTING PUBLIC TV: It’s been a year-and-a-half since Pat Mitchell became president of PBS, and her mission is to reinvent the public broadcaster. She’s juggling the prime time schedule for the first time in twenty years, and bringing in American mysteries to replace the standard British mysteries. And she wants to change fund-raising by local stations. “We’ve got to think of a new way. We can’t just sit here and watch our viewership go down for 10 years.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution 07/01/01

FILMING EAST AFRICA: Some 100 films and documentaries are being screened at East Africa’s largest cultural event, the Zanzibar Film Festival. The festival, which runs through the middle of July, also includes film, video, music, dance, and theater performances. It’s called Festival of the Dhow Countries, after “the dhow, a wooden oceangoing sailing vessel that has brought together people and cultures from around the rim of the Indian Ocean for centuries.” Nando Times (AP) 07/02/01

ROBOTS – NOTHING NEW THERE: Long before Steven Spielberg’s A.I., there were humanoid robots in the arts – Coppélia, Petrouchka, Pinocchio, and Capek’s R.U.R., which gave us the word “robot.” In fact, long before A.I. there were many humanoid robots in the movies. The Economist 06/28/01

Monday July 1

NATIONAL PUBLIC WHAT? National Public Radio is 30 years old. But what are we celebrating? “Poor NPR. Emasculated, lost its nuts, and at such a young age. They say it happened sometime in the ’90s, when Congress insisted that NPR become self-supporting. But that’s not it.” Salon 07/02/01

• AWWW QWITCHERBEEFIN: “This is the same kind of elitist baloney I have heard for years, and I feel sorry for the glass-half-empty crowd that has taken on the supposed spiritual demise of public radio.” Fact is, public radio is thriving. Salon 07/02/01

JUST SAY WHOA: The White House has stopped a program by its drug office that paid American TV networks to insert anti-drug messages into the plotlines of popular TV sitcoms and dramas. Salon 07/02/01

TOUGH TIME FOR NETWORKS: American TV networks have sold $7 billion of commercials for the upcoming season. Sounds like a lot, except that the take is down about $1 billion from last season – a startling decline. Inside 07/01/01

LEADERSHIP VACANCY: Top leadership of three of Canada’s cultural institutions – the CBC, the CRTC and Telefilm – has been missing in action for several months, and critics are accusing Prime Minister Jean Chretien of letting them drift. Ottawa Citizen 07/02/01

Sunday July 1

BUYING TIME: Talks between the Screen Actors Guild and the major Hollywood studios have been extended as all sides work to avert an actors’ strike. BBC 07/01/01

NOT ENOUGH CAR CRASHES, APPARENTLY: “Looking at television news, you could reasonably arrive at the ridiculous conclusion that people almost never talk about books, movies, television or theater. . . Television news has many habits that send occasional viewers to newspapers or National Public Radio in exasperation, but one of its most perplexing mistakes, on both the local and national levels, has been its virtual failure to acknowledge this most vital aspect of existence, the glass through which we interpret what it means to be human.” Chicago Tribune 07/01/01

METHOD IN THE MADNESS: “Europeans ridicule it and David Mamet calls it ‘nonsense.’ Yet 50 years after it invaded America, Method acting’s dominance in Hollywood is virtually complete.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 07/01/01

A DIFFERENT KIND OF RATINGS WAR: The dirtiest thing you can say to a Hollywood producer is “NC-17.” The rating, which is assigned to American movies deemed inappropriate for children of any age, is considered the kiss of death for a film, and producers will jump through any number of hoops to avoid being slapped with it. But “a new wave of explicit films featuring full frames of hard-core action will soon invade theaters across the country, as directors and distributors push the limits of what’s acceptable and thumb their noses at the movie rating system.” New York Post 07/01/01

• SEX ON SCREEN: “[A]udiences have always been ambivalent about what they do and do not want to see on the screen — even when a sex scene was but a first kiss and a racy cut to the cigarette. We might think we like our movies hot, but in reality a sex scene is more often something to be endured, an uncomfortable moment before the audience breathes again. Mysterious as desire itself, what one person finds sexy is vulgar to another.” The New York Times 07/01/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday June 29

ANTICIPATING AI: The most carefully watched-for movie of the season, after Pearl Harbor, is probably A.I., which has just opened. It began as a Stanley Kubrick project and was finished after his death by Steven Spielberg. Early reviews are mixed on the effectiveness of the collaboration: it’s “fascinating but cold,” “a movie at war with itself,” “uneven and ultimately rather silly,” or “the best fairy tale Mr. Spielberg has made.” Toronto Star (AP), Los Angeles Times, Boston Herald, Washington Post, New York Times 06/29/01

Thursday June 28

HELP WANTED. WIMPS NEED NOT APPLY: Somewhat in defiance of his own name, Sir Christopher Bland says that whoever succeeds him as chairman of the BBC will have to be controversial. If not, “you have appointed the wrong man or woman. There are difficulties attached to any real people and this is a job that deserves and needs a real person.” The Guardian (UK) 06/27/01

IS DISNEY CHEAPING OUT? With its recently released Atlantis, Disney has racked up another animated dud. Indeed, it’s been some time since the studio produced a quality animated picture. Some say Disney has lost its creative edge, and, struggling with trying to balance its budget, that Disney has gone cheap in its production values. New York Observer 06/27/01

Wednesday June 27

PUNISHING THE MESSENGER: The Cincinnati movie theatre that cut a movie without telling patrons or the film’s owners has banned the reporter who reported the action from its theatres. The ban comes a week after Steve Ramos reported the operator had illicitly altered a film, and led the film’s distributor to withdraw it from the theatre, prompting widespread media coverage. Cincinnati City Beat 06/26/01

CRACKING DOWN: The Screen Actors Guild is taking a new hard line against members who ignore union calls for strikes and other labor action. Several prominent actors casually crossed the picket lines in last year’s action against advertisers, and SAG wants to make sure that the same thing could not happen in a strike against the major Hollywood studios. BBC 06/27/01

POLS AGAINST SEX/VIOLENCE: Crusading against violence and sex on TV and in movies is popular with some US politicians. But “the main reason these bills are likely to fail, like so many similar ones in the past, is not the political influence of the entertainment industry, though the influence is formidable. Television, movie and music companies gave a total of $13.7 million to candidates for federal office last year, more than the oil and gas industry, banks or drug companies. The New York Times 06/27/01 (one-time registration required for access)

RIDING THE LIGHT: High speed fibre-optic data transfer was supposed to revolutionize the way we live.”We all were supposed to be sitting back now, watching interactive sports programs on TV and DVD-quality movies on demand; we were all supposed to be buying shirts and spice, pizza and pears with our remote control.” But the promise has fizzled, “and a hapless communications industry is having embarrassing and endless difficulty making the service work for those who do want it.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/27/01

EMBRACING THE FORCE: Australian Star Wars fans want to have the Jedi philosophy counted as an official religion, and will mark it on upcoming census forms. “We have submitted a written proposal to have the Jedi Faith entered into the, already substantial, Religions Database. If this is approved, the Jedi figures (on the census forms) will be recorded.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/27/01

Tuesday June 26

LOOKING FOR ART ON TV: Why aren’t there more arts on TV? “Mainstream channels lazily assume we are a philistine nation made up largely of home-improving cooks. Don’t they know more people go to the theatre than to soccer matches? Haven’t they clocked the astonishing attendance figures for Tate Modern? Terrestrial TV’s treatment of the arts is a shabby disgrace.” Thank god for the new Artsworld channel. The Guardian (UK) 06/26/01

THE TV BECKETT: For the first time, 19 Beckett plays are being broadcast on TV in the UK, produced by all-star talent. The playwright was known to not want his plays on the tube, since he felt they didn’t work there. Nonetheless, the project was “given the go-ahead by the Beckett Estate, notoriously zealous in its clampdowns on those perceived to have flouted the author’s wishes. The directors nonetheless operated under strict conditions. Not a word could be cut, nor a bar of music added. Such newfound freedom as there was resided in the lens.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/26/01

PAYING FOR THE WEST WING: Even the lowest-paid youngest writer on a hit American TV drama earns $100,000-$120,000 a season. But The West Wing is looking to cut costs from its $2 million/show budget, and so, even though the show’s writers were due to get raises after the recent Writers Guild contract agreement, the show is declining to grant them. The New York Times 06/26/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Sunday June 24

NOW THAT’S MARKETING: Quick: who is Jeanine Salla? If you answered, “I don’t know, but she’s got something to do with that new Spielberg flick,” you’re half right. The truth is, Jeanine Salla is a nonexistent creation of Warner Brothers’ marketing department, a fictional scientist specializing in robotic intelligence who supposedly consulted on “A.I.,” expected to be this summer’s hottest movie. Salla has her own website, and, incredibly, her own plotline, completely independent of the film. New York Post 06/24/01

• HOLLYWOOD ETHICS – AN OXYMORON? Okay, so Sony got caught trying to pass off PR blurbs as independent reviews, and several other studios have copped to similar stunts. Hollywood must have some folks left with a sense of right and wrong, right? Right? Um, hello? Anybody? Los Angeles Times 06/24/01

REALITY IS BORING: For as long as filmmakers have been making movies about classical music, musicologists have been complaining about the lack of historical accuracy. But now, a historically perfect film about music has arrived, and it is so boring that no one cares how truthful it is. Is there a middle ground, or are these musical biopics doomed to be exercises in either fantasy or monotony? Minneapolis Star Tribune 06/24/01

COMEDY CLUB OF THE MIND: Radio long ago surrendered to television in the war for the hearts and minds of the public, and retreated into the limited world of drive-time music blocks, stock market updates, and shrieking talk show hosts. But in the UK, radio seems to be making a stab at returning to the days when the best comedy on the air was aural, not visual. “While every mediocre stand-up appears to be given a TV series on the strength of a couple of years on the circuit and a reasonably well-reviewed Edinburgh Fringe show, Radio 4 attracts less egotistical, less pushy talents.” The Telegraph (London) 06/23/01

NEW HOPE FOR ROOTS MUSIC? This summer, a film called “Songcatcher” will have industry experts on the edge of their trend-chasing seats, but they could care less whether the movie itself is a success. “[T]hey are watching to see how the Vanguard soundtrack does, believing its success may reveal whether ”O Brother, Wher Art Thou” which has sold more than 1.2 million CDs and spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the country chart (longer than any other CD this year), is a fluke or the bellwether of a trend toward American roots music.” Boston Globe 06/24/01

Friday June 22

INDIA WANTS TO GO GLOBAL: India’s Bollywood film industry is by far the largest in the world, producing about 800 feature movies a year (compared to the 100 or so made in Hollywood). But Indian filmmakers “desperately want to increase their market share of $3.5 billion in a $300 billion global industry. There are just 12 cinemas per million people in Indian compared to 116 per million in America.” BBC 06/21/01

SURVIVING CHINA: China is producing its own TV version of Survivor. “Contestants will be let loose in the uninhabited area with 10 matches and enough food for 10 days. What is perhaps surprising is that there is room for a survival program in a country where physical survival is a day-to-day reality for about 200 million Chinese estimated to be living in absolute poverty. More than 200,000 people aged between 12 and 70 have signed up in a bid to be among the 18 finalists chosen.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/22/01

WAITING FOR DIGITAL: One in three U.K. households now has digital television, with at least five years to go before analog signals are switched off permanently. But although Britons appear to be ahead of (ahem) certain other countries in preparing for the transition to digital, concerns remain about how to get the entire country switched over in time. BBC 06/22/01

• NOT BUYING IT: In Canada, where dozens of digital cable channels are slated for launch this fall, a new survey has ominous news for the industry: only 10% of Canadians are even considering signing on for the “digital tier” when it becomes available. If accurate, those numbers could spell doom for a large number of the new channels. Ottawa Citizen (CP) 06/22/01

NO, YOU CAN’T SIT IN HIS CHAIR NOW: If ever anyone managed to elevate the lowly sitcom to the level of high art, it was Carroll O’Connor, whose portrayal of lovable bigot Archie Bunker in Norman Lear’s All in the Family pushed the TV envelope like nothing that had come before. O’Connor died Thursday of an apparent heart attack. He was 76. The New York Times 06/22/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Thursday June 21

SORT-OF FREE SPEECH? The US Congress will consider legislation that will sic the Federal Trade Commission on entertainment producers who are accused of marketing adult entertainment to children. Meanwhile a watchdog group is calling for a common rating system for TV and movies. Washington Post 06/21/01

DEFINITION OF A FAILURE? It’s already earned more than $120 million at the box office, and is expected to bring in $250 million worldwide, but analysts are saying that Peral Harbor is a failure. Why? Because it cost $140 million to make, and expectations were so high. Nando Times (AP) 06/21/01

• SOMEBODY HAS TO PAY: Disney Studios chief Peter Schneider is leaving the company after the Pearl Harbor disappointment. Inside.com 06/21/01
• BACK ON BROADWAY: Schneider will form his own Broadway theatre production company. Theatre.com 06/21/01

CAN’T TRUST THE BUZZ: A few weeks ago Sony got caught inventing a critic to say nice things abut its movies. Then the studio admitted it had used actors to pose as movie-goers raving about what they had seen in “coming-out-of-the-theatre” commercials. Now other studios say they too use actors for such commercials. Dallas Morning News (AP) 06/21/01

Wednesday June 20

CBC CUTS JOBS: Canada’s public broadcaster CBC yesterday announced the elimination of 50 jobs, “mostly in the arts and entertainment production section of CBC TV.” Ottawa Citizen 06/20/01

• CBC WANTS MORE: Over the past decade the Canadian government has slashed the budget of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation by $400 million. This year it restored $60 million of those cuts in a one-time programming boost. Now CBC president Robert Rabinovich says the increase should be permanently renewed.”Iif tomorrow the money disappeared, we’d be in a deep hole. We’d be in a very serious programming problem.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/20/01

Tuesday June 19

SONY FESSES UP AGAIN: “About two weeks ago, Sony’s Columbia Pictures admitted inventing a fake critic named David Manning to pump several films in print advertisements. . . Now the studio has copped to using two of its employees, pretending to be unbiased moviegoers, in televised testimonials for Mel Gibson’s 2000 Revolutionary War epic, ‘The Patriot.’ With some African-Americans critical about how the film overlooked slavery in colonial times, Columbia plucked two of its black employees. . . to crow about how the film was the ‘perfect date movie.'” Boston Globe 06/19/01

IGNORING DIVERSITY: Apparently, the six major U.S. broadcast TV networks are not frightened of the NAACP and it’s influential head man, Kweisi Mfume. A few short months after promising Mfume and his organization that they would do everything possible to increase diversity on network television, all six networks have unveiled fall lineups that are as white as a poodle in a snowstorm, seemingly challenging the NAACP to make good on its boycott threats. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 06/19/01

SAG/AFTRA STRIKE IMPROBABLE: “The prospect of a summer walkout by two of America’s largest actors’ unions is beginning to look increasingly unlikely.” BBC 06/19/01

A LAUGHMASTER HANGS IT UP: How to explain to non-Canadians what John Morgan’s retirement means to fans of the CBC’s Royal Canadian Air Farce? It’s like Dana Carvey leaving Saturday Night Live or John Cleese departing Monty Python. Morgan, who has been writing and performing comedy for the CBC since 1967, is retiring at the age of 70. Two of his fellow cast members offer some memories and thoughts on what made the man so funny. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/19/01

Monday June 18

NOT MUCH LEFT OVER AFTER $20 MILLION: One of the big issues in current negotiations between actors and producers is pay for mid-tier actors. “With $20-million paydays for major box office stars, the working men and women of the film and television industry, those actors not always in the spotlight, are being squeezed.” The New York Times 06/18/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Sunday June 17

DO VIEWERS WANT MORE? Is Super Tempting Millionaire Survivor Island the only thing TV viewers want to watch? A group of activists thinks not and is trying to “take back the airwaves.” One such group is going out, taking video and recording events such as last year’s World Trade Organization conference in Seattle. “If you document the abuses, the perpetrators can no longer hide. We’re talking about video as a deterrent.” Toronto Star 06/15/01

PSYCHOANALYZING THE MOVIES: Psychoanalysis and the movies are closely linked – those images you see up on the screen play on our subconscious. “At least since the Seventies, film theorists have used psychoanalysis to interpret movies, applying its tools to both content and form. The First European Psychoanalytic Film Festival will bring together psychoanalysts, filmmakers and film historians from different countries.” The Observer (UK) 06/17/01

Friday June 15

HAS POP CULTURE LOST ITS BUZZ? Have the US TV networks lost touch with their audiences so profoundly that they’re collectively unable to come up with a single new concept in which any significant number of viewers are interested? Is Viewer Apathy the cultural equivalent of Voter Apathy? More to the point, is what we see reflected in the mirror of popular culture a representation of who we really are these days, or just an image of who they think we are, or require us to be?” The Guardian (UK) 06/15/01

A CHICKEN/EGG THING: Does Hollywood’s fare lead us down the path to brain rot? Or do we get the movies we want/deserve? “In short, are we living in a lively age of motion-picture pleasures – or are we witnessing what some critics call the dumbing down of American cinema?” Christian Science Monitor 06/15/01

TRUTH ABOUT BLURBS: So who cares about Sony’s made-up movie critic? Movie pr types do much worse every day. “The simplest trick in the ad man’s book is the one word quote. ‘Astonishing!’ ‘Brilliant!’ ‘Thrilling!’ ‘Beautiful!’ Invariably you are meant to assume that the ripe adjective is describing the movie itself. But it’s just as likely that it was the star’s shoes that were ‘beautiful,’ the book the movie was based on that was ‘brilliant,’ a single sequence that was ‘thrilling’ and a particularly egregious bit of miscasting that the critic found ‘astonishing.’ A good rule of thumb: any word preceded by … and followed by … is no more to be trusted than a campaign promise by our current president.” MSNBC (Newsweek) 06/14/01

WEB DREAMS: With online publications going out of business or cutting back, Salon’s David Talbot has high hopes for his site’s new subscription service. By next year, he says, “most of the stuff will be by subscription. There is even a school of thought within Salon management that we should go there sooner. It would be a shock to the system and a huge risk, but if we were to shut the gates entirely, even this year we could probably get at the very least … 300,000 people to sign up. At $30 a piece, that’s $9 million, which is really close to break-even.” Wired 06/15/01

TO BE FOLLOWED, NO DOUBT, BY MCVEIGH: THE MUSICAL: “CBS has optioned the rights to turn the book, American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing into a miniseries that could air as soon as next year.” New York Post 06/15/01

Thursday June 14

THE ABC MESS: The Australian Broadcasting Company is in turmoil, and the blame is being laid on embattled director Jonathan Shier. Rightly so, says one critic. But who hired him? And why was someone with so little experience tapped for the job? Audiences are down, programming is a shambles and staff are deserting. Where’s the ABC board, and the government that oversees everything? Sydney Morning Herald 06/14/01

LANDMARK BACK ON TRACK? San Francisco’s Landmark Theatres, the Bay Area’s largest collection of moviehouses showing independent films, appears to be on its way back from bankruptcy, under the guidance of a new owner and two managers from the old days. San Francisco Chronicle 06/14/01

Wednesday June 13

AUSSIE RADIO STRIKE: Staff at ABC Radio National in Sydney went out on strike for 24 hours yesterday after the sacking of Radio National arts editor Ros Cheney. Sydney Morning Herald 06/13/01

• Previously: ABC TO AX ARTS EDITOR: The Australian Broadcasting Company radio network is axing its arts editor as part of a “restructuring.” But the current editor hasn’t yet been officially told; she “returned from a four-week break overseas last Thursday to receive a telephone call from a colleague warning that her job had been made redundant.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/12/01

Tuesday June 12

ABC TO AX ARTS EDITOR: The Australian Broadcasting Company radio network is axing its arts editor as part of a “restructuring.” But the current editor hasn’t yet been officially told; she “returned from a four-week break overseas last Thursday to receive a telephone call from a colleague warning that her job had been made redundant.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/12/01

HOLLYWOOD NORTH: Toronto is awash in movie productions. “The influx of television and film production from the United States because of tax incentives and the cheap dollar has plainly altered the city’s hotels and restaurants and served as an economic boon to the city of 2.5 million. But some people see a downside to the boom and wonder whether Toronto hasn’t overextended itself to accommodate film and television production companies.” The New York Times 06/12/01 (one-time registration required for access)

MEMO TO SPIELBERG, CAMERON, ET AL: How much time do you need to develop a story line, assemble a cast and crew, shoot and edit film, and have the final product ready for the critics? Five days. Really. And as for budget… you won’t believe the budget. Nando Times (AP) 06/11/01

THE LIMBO OF FAILED TV PILOTS: Among them, the six TV broadcast networks – yep, there are six – introduced 29 new shows this year. But they made pilots for about a hundred. What happens to the other seventy? “Despite a $40 million investment per network, not much.” Inside.com 06/11/01

JUST SHOW THEM THE MONEY: “When local television stations assemble their daily schedules, the idea in theory is to put together a lineup that will be most attractive to viewers within their community. Yet increasingly, stations appear to be falling back on a somewhat different equation, one based not on what will garner the most eyeballs but who will pay the most money.” Los Angeles Times 06/12/01

Monday June 11

SEATTLE SCREENS: What’s America’s largest film festival? Sundance? New York? No – it’s Seattle, and “this year’s festival of 250 films from 50 countries will be seen by 150,000 film fans at a half-dozen venues. MSNBC 06/11/01

CRUEL CUTS: Cincinnati’s Esquire Theatre is known for showing challenging movies. So patrons were shocked to find out that scenes from a Wayne Wang erotic drama The Center of the World were cut “without telling ticket-buyers or the film’s distributor. ‘If an artist can’t even trust that their material is going to be presented in its intended form … then who can you trust other than yourself to be distributing your material?’ ” Cincinnati Enquirer 06/08/01

Sunday June 10

BLACKLISTING THE AGED: “The latest Writers Guild statistics—compiled in 1998—find that out of the 122 prime-time TV series, 77 of them did not employ a single writer older than 50. Five years earlier, only 19 of them didn’t. Over-50 writers make up one-third of guild membership, but only 5% of those writing on episodic comedies. Three years later, it can only be worse.” So the over-50s are suing. Los Angeles Times 06/10/01

THE CANNES OF TV: The international TV world is gathering in Banff, Canada. “Founded in 1979 after a decade of struggle to put in place the building blocks for a viable industry, the Banff Television Festival emerged as the place for innovation, excellence and opportunity.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/09/01

Friday June 8

PBS MAKES AN EFFORT: America’s Public Broadcasting Service announced what it called a major programming shake-up for the coming fall season. Changes include a new free-flowing documentary program which sounds an awful lot like public radio’s “This American Life,” and a slot for some vaguely defined “reality TV.” Even with the changes, however, PBS still isn’t taking any serious chances to attract new viewers. Nando Times (AP) 06/08/01

MOVIE FANS SUE SONY: Sony has now repeatedly apologized for creating a ficticious blurbmesiter to hype Sony movies. But that’s not good enough for two movie fans, who are suing Sony for “deceptive, unfair and unlawful business practices.” YThey mean to hurt Sony. Inside.com 06/08/02

• SONY FINDS SCAPEGOATS: “Sony Pictures has reprimanded and suspended two of its advertising executives for their roles in the creation of a fake film critic. The employees have been told to stay away from work for 30 days without pay. Sony would not confirm their names.” BBC 06/08/01
• BOY, IS THEIR FACE, UM, ROUGED: “In another embarrassment for Hollywood studio marketing efforts, ads for 20th Century Fox’s “Moulin Rouge” attributed a positive comment about the film to the trade publication the Hollywood Reporter when the critic is actually employed by an online entertainment site.” Los Angeles Times 06/08/01

Thursday June 7

SALMAN RUSHDIE ON THE EVILS OF REALITY TV: “The television set, once so idealistically thought of as our window on the world, has become a $2-shop mirror instead. Who needs images of the world’s rich otherness, when you can watch these half-familiar avatars of yourself – these half-attractive half-persons – enacting ordinary life under weird conditions? Who needs talent, when the unashamed self-display of the talentless is constantly on offer?” The Age (Melbourne) 06/07/01

“MANNING” SPEAKS OUT: Recently, Sony Pictures was forced to admit that several glowing quotes being used to market its movies came from “David Manning,” a nonexistent critic. A Boston journalist has tracked Manning down in the zen ether, however, and finds out that “you’re better off not existing. You think Roger Ebert exists? At this point, he’s just a concatenation of pixels.” Boston Herald 06/07/01

Wednesday June 6

THE CASE OF THE FAKE BLURBS: Just why would Sony make up blurbs by a fake critic to hype its movies? And why such lame blurbs at that? Does anyone really pay attention to those unfailingly positive snippets from critics published in movie ads? Critics know the worth of their opinions don’t they? MSNBC 06/06/01

Tuesday June 5

RUNNING IN PLACE: Is the Australian Broadcasting Company sinking? Management is deserting, and “ratings have dropped by 20 per cent since the start of the year, and the national broadcaster now has a low 13 per cent share of the audience in five capital cities, down from an all-time high of 24 per cent.” Why? ABC’s schedule is essentially the same as it was five years ago. The Age (Melbourne) 06/04/01

GOING PUBLIC IN L.A.: If it’s true that Los Angeles lags in public broadcasting, that may be “about to change. Minnesota Public Radio, a growing national programmer with deep pockets, showed up in town last year to take out a long-term lease on Pasadena City College station KPCC, then acquired Marketplace while vowing to ‘establish Los Angeles as a new creative center for the development of public radio broadcasting’.” Los Angeles Times 06/04/01

Monday June 4

“R” – KISS OF DEATH: A new study says that movies receding an “R” rating “can lose as much as 40 percent of potential opening-weekend earnings because of stricter compliance with the R rating’s ban on viewers under 17 who aren’t accompanied by a parent or guardian.” Boston Herald (AP) 06/04/01

TRAILER WARS: One of the best ways to hype a movie is to get the film’s trailer played as often as possible. “In the past, the fierce competition for trailer placement has been one of the best-kept secrets in the movie business. But that all changed last week. That’s when the news broke that Sony Pictures had quietly made a deal paying four major theater chains to guarantee they would play a trailer for the studio’s upcoming Rob Schneider comedy, The Animal, before showing The Mummy Returns.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 06/04/01

ABC MANAGEMENT TURMOIL: A third member of the Australian Broadcasting Company has resigned, renewing questions about ABC chief Jonathan Shier’s ability to lead the public broadcaster. The Age (Melbourne) 06/04/01

A VERY BIG BOMB: Pearl Harbor might have received bad reviews, but evidently everyone still wants to see it. The movie took in $30 million its second weekend out, bringing its 10-day total to $120 million. Meanwhile, it looks like Shrek is on its way to being the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. Los Angeles Times 06/04/01

Sunday June 3

LAUNCHING PUBLIC RADIO: Jay Allison got the idea that Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket ought to have their own public radio station. So he raised some money, convinced the FCC to grant a license and… The New York Times 06/03/01 (one-time registration required for access)

NATIONAL EXPOSURE: Why does Los Angeles’ public television station produce so little national programming? “Sitting in the nation’s film and television production capital, not to mention its second-largest TV market, KCET contributes relatively little original programming to PBS’s national schedule. Its 45 hours in fiscal 1999 were approximately one-fifth of what PBS’s top producer, WNET in New York, provided.” The New York Times 06/03/01 (one-time registration required for access)

SPECTACULAR! BRILLIANT! NON-EXISTENT! David Manning had a tendency to love films – but only Sony films. Turns out someone at Sony pictures invented Manning as a blurbmeister touting the company’s movies in ads. Houston Chronicle (AP) 06/03/01

Friday June 1

SOME OLD TIME COPYRIGHT: Napster is in legal difficulty again. The copyright owner of some old time radio shows charges that the Napster system illegally “allows users to swap copies of Fibber McGee and Abbott and Costello radio shows.” The Age (AFP) 06/01/01

RIEFENSTAHL’S LEGACY: So who is the most influential filmmaker of the last hundred years? Spielberg? Nah. Hitchcock, Eisenstein, or Disney? Not a chance. “If the defining modes of the modern blockbuster are the romance of power and technology, and if its primary purpose is to overwhelm our senses into a state of rapturous submission to spectacle, no filmmaker laid more groundwork, nor groundwork that was more enduringly fertile, than the woman Adolf Hitler once engaged as his personal propagandist.” Toronto Star 06/01/01

FROM BAD TO WORSE: “Offering more bad news in the wake of failed merger talks, the head of German media giant Bertelsmann AG’s music unit said his division wouldn’t post a profit this year… Earlier this month, merger talks between BMG and British rival EMI Group PLC fell through, with EMI citing insurmountable regulatory hurdles thrown in the way by European and U.S. antitrust authorities.” Nando Times (AP) 05/31/01