Category: media

Thursday May 31

ACTORS UNION SAGGING: While negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild and Hollywood producers seem well on the way to settlement on a new contract, peace within SAG ranks is remote. The union is torn between rival factions. Inside.com 05/31/01

SCREEN GAME: Movies released in America over the Memorial Day weekend took in more than $186 million. So business is good – except if you run a movie theatre. Because of overbuilding in the past few years, “we’ve estimated one-third of North American theaters or roughly 13,000 screens need to come off-line. The bankruptcy process is going to allow that to be expedited, but it does take time.” Washington Post 05/30/01

EVER WANTED A MUPPET OF YOUR OWN? “Two years ago, EM.TV paid $680 million for the characters. But the German company’s stock has collapsed in recent weeks, and its assets have been going on the block. The Germans already sold several Muppets characters to Sesame Street Television for $180 million.” But Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog are still available, if you’re interested. New York Post 05/31/01

RING DELAYS: More delays for The Lord of the Rings movies. Sir Ian McKellen, who plays the wizard Gandalf, says “he was called back to New Zealand for additional filming, and that almost all of the film’s dialogue has been re-recorded because the original sound studio was not sound-proof.” BBC 05/31/01

Wednesday May 30

WE’RE SHOCKED – THERE’S PAYOLA GOING ON? Federal agencies are investigating, and now a newspaper report details it: Radio stations are taking money to play recordings. But wait, says one promoter, you don’t understand: “The support I get from labels has no effect whatsoever on the musical decisions of the program directors at my stations. [Besides], I didn’t invent this thing. It’s standard operating procedure in the promotion business.” Los Angeles Times 05/29/01

THIS YEAR’S MARKETING GIMMICK? “Bonus” content packaged with DVD releases. Listen to the actors talk, the director, see bloopers, find out how the movie was made… But the trend is getting ridiculous – one director spews on for 105 minutes – and about a movie that was a box office dud… New York Post 05/30/01

Tuesday May 29

WHAT BECOMES A SUCCESSFUL RADIO CHANNEL? Passion, that’s what. The UK’s Radio 3 reinvents, and passion is the key ingredient. “In an age of informational overload – hundreds of CDs released each week and millions of websites – we need presenters as filters and editors we can trust.” The Telegraph (UK) 05/29/01

GRABBING CREDIT: “Outside of money, no topic generates more discussion in Hollywood than credit: whose names appear up there on the screen, how big and in what order. It was among the chief flash points in the recently concluded contract talks between writers and the major studios and networks. One result of those negotiations was that the writers, directors and others agreed to form a group to hash out all sorts of credit issues.” The New York Times 05/29/01 (one-time registration required for access)

STILL A RECORD: Hollywood reports that Pearl Habor took in $75 million over the Memorial Day weekend, making it the highest-grossing non-sequel for its first weekend. Los Angeles Times 05/29/01

• BOMBING THE TRUTH: “Even viewed through that gaping and forgiving lens, the new breed of histortainment – pictures like last summer’s The Patriot and now Pearl Harbor – invites just one appropriate response: jaw-dropping incredulity. The Pearl Harbor filmmakers claim they’ve been historically accurate, but they’ve done The Patriot one better: They’ve rendered accuracy beside the point.” Salon 05/28/01

Monday May 28

SO IS $80 MILLION A ‘FAILURE’? It was brave talk – predicting that Pearl Harbor might top $100 million at the box office on its opening weekend. Won’t happen though. Now Disney says “it was mathematically impossible for the film to gross $100 million over four days, as some people had been predicting.” CNN.com 05/27/01

FIRST TIME AT THE TOP: Film directors talk about their first-ever time in charge of a big production. “In our society every artist is an agonist; but the agon is harder for the artist who depends on others and on considerable money for the fulfillment of his work – outstandingly, the playwright, the composer, the architect, the film-maker.” The New Republic 05/25/01

Sunday May 27

BEETHOVEN, ABRIDGED: Classical music broadcasters worldwide continue to trim the scope and length of the works they present, as aficionados scream and purists sigh in resignation. Even Canada’s revered CBC Radio Two has resigned itself to playing single movements during drive time, to the disgust of even its own announcers. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/26/01

LOOKING FOR THE ‘P’ IN PUBLIC RADIO: “Public radio, once the province of obscure college FM stations and grown to cultural prominence on the back of the National Public Radio network… remains for many a salutary oasis of non-hit parade music and intelligent talk in the mostly conglomerate-controlled wasteland that is radio in general.” But is it even remotely public any more? Los Angeles Times 05/27/01

Friday May 25

WHO’LL SAY IT’S BAD? Movies are arguably the most influential artform of our age. Yet, complains Roger Ebert, “there is essentially no film criticism on national American television, except for our show, the critics on the morning programmes and on CNN. These are about the only places on American television where you might hear that a movie is bad. The other national shows essentially focus on chat, gossip, premiere sound bites, who’s in rehab, who’s getting divorced.” The Times (UK) 05/25/01

STOP-ACTION AT A PRICE: TiVo has been awarded a patent on the technology for its personal video recording device (PVRD), which allows viewers to pause live TV. Wall Street and potential advertisers Lexus and Miller Brewing are happy. Privacy advocates are not – it seems TiVo keeps track of what you watch, and reports that information back to corporate headquarters. Inside.com 05/25/01

YOU WANT ME TO FLY WHAT CLASS? In the current Hollywood negotiations, the actors’ unions want more money. The producers, apparently trying to avoid a strike, say they’re not asking for any major rollbacks. However, they would like to pay less for bit actors, and make performers fly business class instead of first class. Inside.com O5/25/01

Thursday May 24

ACTORS WANT – SURPRISE! – MORE MONEY: The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists represent about 130,000 actors. Here is some of what they want from Hollywood producers. Bigger residuals from Fox. A bigger share of foreign residuals. A pay boost for guest performers on TV shows. Inside.com 05/23/01

STEREOTYPE? WHAT STEREOTYPE? It arrived with bad press – complaints that it stereotyped Italians. And the sound track had to be dubbed, losing its New Jersey charm. So Italian TV hid The Sopranos away, at midnight on Wednesdays. Result? Big ratings anyway, and a new prime Saturday slot. New York Post 05/24/01

Wednesday May 23

BLACK & WHITE TV: “Although African-Americans have been a presence on television since its birth, their presence hasn’t always been a positive or representative one. Why? The answer varies depending upon whom you ask and what statistics you look at. Mostly, though, the question leads to the conclusion that TV is still considered a business that takes place in a vacuum rather than a cultural force with significant social side effects.” Salon 05/22/01

YANKEE STAY HOME: Producers who find Canada to be a cheap and attractive alternative to making their films in the U.S. are about to run smack into the Screen Actors’ Guild. SAG says that, as part of the negotiations to avoid a summer strike, it intends to curb the growth of so-called “runaway productions.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/23/01

Tuesday May 22

THE CASTRO SURVIVES: Even as single-screen cinemas are shutting down around the country, victims of the multiplex culture, San Francisco’s historic Castro Theatre is getting a new lease on life. The longtime owners of the movie palace will be taking over the theatre’s operations this summer, and are promising extensive refurbishing, and a renewed commitment to the community. San Francisco Chronicle 05/22/01

Monday May 21

CANNES WINNER: An Italian movie The Son’s Room, a “stirring account of a happy family shattered by the death of a teenage son,” won the Cannes Film Festival top prize Sunday evening. Los Angeles Times 05/20/01

RAINING BOMBS? As film critics converge on Hawaii for the $5 million party to open the $135 million movie Pearl Harbor, word from the advance screenings isn’t good. And some wonder about the appropriateness of the lavish event. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/21/01

HOORAY FOR WELLYWOOD? Okay, so they’ve filmed the $525 million Lord of the Rings movies in New Zealand. But the country has gone a bit punch-drunk with the Hobbit. “Wellington’s mayor wants to cash in on the anticipated international hobbit craze by selling the country’s capital city as Middle Earth. He plans to create a theme-park attraction in the city where visitors can descend into the kingdom of elves, orcs and trolls long after the three films have descended to video-rental status.” The Age (Melbourne) 05/21/01

THE TROUBLE WITH KIDS’ MOVIES: What’s with these lousy new kids’ movies? “These loud extravaganzas pummel children for attention, stunning them into a sugar-rush buzz that keeps them from realizing they’re getting less for their movie buck than they deserve. Like heart. Like soul. Like a good story.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution 05/20/01

Sunday May 20

CANNES WINNER: An Italian movie The Son’s Room, a “stirring account of a happy family shattered by the death of a teenage son,” won the Cannes Film Festival top prize Sunday evening. Ottawa Citizen (AP) 05/20/01

Friday May 18

A DRY WELL? Is this a particularly bad year for movies? “The early months of any year are usually lean, but this was extraordinary. It’s probably a good thing Hollywood was preoccupied by the looming (now averted) writer’s strike; otherwise they might have had to face the fact that the industry seems in the grip of a creative crisis.” MSNBC (Newsweek) 05/18/01

FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT: It is increasingly difficult for independent filmmakers to find screens to show their work. The big studios monopolize the multiplexes, and Roger Ebert says that indies are losing the will to fight on: “I’ve been emceeing this panel for 10 years or so, and never sensed such sadness on the part of directors who have made good films and now find it difficult to get them to North American audiences.” National Post (Canada) 05/18/01

RIVETTE WOWS CANNES: “Finally, the Aha! film of the 54th Cannes film festival. As in, ‘Aha! — we have finally seen a great film.’ The work in question is Va savoir! (Who Knows!) by veteran filmmaker Jacques Rivette, who helped launch the French New Wave 40 years ago.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/18/01

MUGGLE MUSIC: The “Harry Potter” movie due out this fall will, of course, be huge. So who better to provide the score than the man who made Darth Vader, Indiana Jones, and Superman inseperable from their respective music cues? Boston Globe 05/18/01

WE’VE COME A LONG WAY… Despite the continued complaints about the Hollywood’s “celluloid closet,” gays and lesbians are being courted by filmmakers like never before. In fact, many see the gay audience as a huge moviegoing demographic which has the potential to make a hit out of a small, scrappy film. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/18/01

Thursday May 17

THE WHOLE STORY: Technology continues to improve the sophistication of special effects. But even the effects artists say: “When the technology drives the project, it doesn’t work out very well. It’s ideas that drive the technique.” Wired 05/16/01

HOW TO SELL HIGH-BROW: Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge is all the rage at Cannes. But will the rest of the moviegoing world buy it? “[H]ow do you sell a movie set in the decadent underworld of late 19th-century Paris, complete with wacky physical comedy and tear-jerking melodrama, set to a contemporary sound track that includes unrecognizable reworkings of songs by Madonna, Cole Porter and Nirvana?” New York Post 05/17/01

Wednesday May 16

STEVEN SPIELBERG, NO. BRUCE WILLIS, MAYBE: For the first time in more than ten years, French film giant Jean-Luc Godard has an entry in the Cannes Festival. But as usual, Goddard himself is the bigger story: He doesn’t like Steven Spielberg. Doesn’t like American films. Doesn’t much like America. Still, he’d go see a Bruce Willis movie, adding “and I can’t tell you why.” Maybe it’s the special effects – technical aspects of film are a hot topic at the festival this year. The tech and computer folks seem agreed on one point: “When the technology drives the project, it doesn’t work out very well. It’s ideas that drive the technique.” Right. Los Angeles Times & Wired 05/16/01

SALON ISN’T THERE YET: Salon magazine losses are down, but so are revenues. So is readership (slightly). The on-line magazine projected break-even this summer – now it says that won’t happen until the end of the year. Inside.com 05/15/01

Tuesday May 15

NEW GOLDEN AGE FOR FILM? “It used to be said that imported films didn’t play many cities; today they don’t play many states. And yet there is hope. If you look at the movies themselves and not simply at the box office, American films are in an emerging golden age. It is possible to see inventive and even important new work every week of the year – if you live in a city with good cinemas, or have a cable system that offers Bravo, Sundance or the Independent Film Channel.” The Guardian (UK) 05/15/01

THE NEXT STAR WARS? The Lord of the Rings is the most expensive movie project ever made, costing $270 million. Of course there are those just waiting for it to fail, waiting for it to be the biggest flop in history. But the trailer is out, and the Rings website has 400 million hits on the Web site so far; and a record 1.7-million downloads of the trailer in the first weekend. Now the industry is talking Star Wars-big. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/15/01

HOLLYWOOD ACTORS’ STRIKE SEEMS UNLIKELY: “Although strike tensions have been deflated by the tentative settlement with writers actors nonetheless say they are determined to press for more money in several areas, with a focus on middle-income performers they believe are falling behind financially.” Los Angeles Times 05/14/01

EVEN IN FRANCE, THEY’RE SPEAKING ENGLISH: “At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, more than ever, English is the international language. That isn’t just a ploy to crack the American market…. It’s a play for markets including Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, France, Hong Kong, India and South Africa, where English is spoken by most educated filmgoers.” Chicago Sun-Times 05/14/01

WIN A LITTLE MORE, LIVE A LITTLE LONGER: “Oscar winners live nearly four years longer than either actors who were never nominated or those who were nominated and did not win. ‘Once you get the Oscar, it gives you an inner sense of peace and accomplishment that can last for your entire life, and that alters the way your body copes with stress on a day-to-day basis’.” Nando Times (AP) 05/14/01

Monday May 14

THE FIRST WEEK OF CANNES: An animated movie from Dreamworks that’s knocking the socks off everyone, a little Francis Ford Coppola retread, a gruesome French movie about people eating other people when they’re supposed to be kissing them… it’s just business as usual at the first week of Cannes. The Telegraph (UK) 05/14/01

• REDEMPTION NOW: The most notorious American film of the 1970s, the subject of mounting gossip and ridicule during its production and a painfully intimate documentary by wife Eleanor (Hearts of Darkness) years afterward, Apocalypse Now has been reborn at Cannes.” Chicago Tribune 05/14/01

THE MULTIMEDIA FUTURE: “Three new online projects hint at how a combination of audio, video and interactivity might inspire future audiences. One project lets users create music videos on a Web site. Another turns a music video into a computer game. A third illuminates a work of classical music with pictures, sound and text.” The New York Times 05/14/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Sunday May 13

SO AMERICA DOESN’T TOTALLY SUCK: America is, of course, the world’s foremost purveyor of lowbrow culture, from the WWF to John Tesh to whatever it is that Rosie O’Donnell does. So it may come as a surprise to Americans to learn that a nation as culturally advanced as Canada might envy us a part of our vast artistic wasteland. But they do: Canada, you see, does not have NPR. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/12/01

Friday May 11

AGAINST ALL ODDS: It’s hard enough to make a movie and get it noticed when you live in a bustling film town like L.A. or Toronto. But let’s say you live somewhere north of the Arctic circle in Canada, deep in Inuit territory, and you’d like the Cannes Film Festival to screen your creation. You’d better have a ten-year plan… Ottawa Citizen 05/11/01

BUT CAN JULIA ROBERTS SING? The upside of being the hotshot du jour at Cannes is that everyone will listen to anything you have to say, and they’ll do it with a straight face. Director Baz Luhrmann is taking full advantage, declaring that the movie musical is about to make a comeback. San Jose Mercury News (AP) 05/11/01

HOLDING OUT HOPE: The head of the Screen Actors Guild isn’t giving up on a strike-free summer just yet, but tough issues remain unresolved. “One of SAG’s chief concerns going into the talks is the plight of the so-called ‘middle-class’ actor — working actors who in recent years have fallen on hard times due to a phenomena known as ‘salary compression.'” Inside.com 05/10/01

Thursday May 10

THE CANNES CAN: Anticipation is running high at the world’s most prestigious film festival, even among old cynics like Roger Ebert. “Last year’s festival was generally thought to be below par. This year’s is anticipated with intense excitement by the moviegoers gathering on the French Riviera. Of course, until we see the movies we won’t know for sure, but on the basis of track records, preview screenings and buzz, important films are about to be seen.” National Post (Canada) 05/10/01

• GOTTA TALK ABOUT SOMETHING: Of course, no film festival would be complete without a good dose of controversy, gossip-mongering, and over-exposure. This time around, the focus of the Cannes grapevine is Nicole Kidman, who stars in the opening night extravaganza, “Moulin Rouge,” directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann. Ottawa Citizen 05/10/01

GUILD TO VOTE ON CONTRACT: “The heads of the Hollywood writers union agreed Tuesday to forward a tentative contract settlement to the guild’s nearly 11,000 members to vote on by June 4. The guild requires a simple majority of votes to certify the three-year pact, which negotiators recommended on Friday after a series of marathon bargaining sessions.” Nando Times (AP) 05/10/01

Wednesday May 9

CANNES DO: The Cannes Film Festival opens, this year with a distinctly arty non-Hollywood tone.”The official selection includes 22 films in competition and 24 in the non-competitive section, Un Certain Regard, which is, this year, a roll-call of unfamiliar names.” Sydney Morning Herald 05/09/01

• CELEBRATING THE BACK END: It’s been only in the past four years that the Cannes festival has paid much attention to the technology which makes movies possible. But with direct satellite feeds to theaters, computer animation, and digital cameras – among others – ready to revolutionize the industry, the technology is hard to ignore. Wired 05/09/01

A NEW DIRECTION: In movies, the director is everything. Not so TV, where, in the early days, directors were hired “more for their ability to handle the newfangled equipment than for creativity. Interesting directors did venture into live television but… speed generally was valued over artistry.” Now, things are changing, dramatically. Washington Times 05/09/01

A CARFUL OF FLOWERS WILL DO THAT FOR YOU: Ismail Merchant is the salesman half of the Merchant-Ivory team, which has made such movies as Room With A View and Remains of the Day. As a boy, he once went to a movie with an actress: “We arrived at the theater surrounded by people. And they were throwing marigolds on us. And we were submerged in flowers – actually submerged. I said, ‘My God, if you’re making a movie, you’re submerged in flowers!'” He’s been hooked ever since. Nando Times 05/08/01

Tuesday May 8

COMING SOON, SMART AND SMARTER? It used to be that independent filmmakers could trade on the business of being smart, edgy and challenging. “But ‘too smart’, like ‘arty’, has entered the film industry lexicon as a pejorative description,” and the indies have started acting like the more conservative commercially-motivated studios. But the new cult-hit smart thriller Memento is finding an audience, and making money – so…. Los Angeles Times 05/07/01

HOW DO YOU MARKET AN ADULT FILM? “There’s no good rating for a serious movie about adult issues,” filmmakers complain. Most theaters won’t show it, and papers won’t advertise it. One answer is to edit enough controversial scenes to get an R rating. Another – which is gaining popularity among filmmakers – is to skip the ratings board and release a film with no rating at all. Rocky Mountain News 05/07/01

Monday May 7

THE ARTE OF TV: America has no similar TV channel devoted to culture. But Arte, the German-French culture channel, turned 10 last week. It has risen from its initial underdog status to become a luminous figure on Europe’s media landscape and now – having survived labor pains and sundry attacks on its young life – it is at another crossroads.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 05/06/01

THE CRUCIAL MOVIE INGREDIENT: Why are there no great New Zealand movies? “One thing everyone does agree on is that our scripts suck. In the past 20 years our actors, technicians and deal-makers have all improved radically, whereas our scripts have, at best, marked time. At worst, they have regressed.” New Zealand Herald 05/07/01

NOW IT’S THE ACTORS’ TURN: Hollywood’s writers may have settled their contract, averting a stike. But 135,000 actors represented by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have their contract with production companies expire at midnight on June 30, and talks have yet to begin. The New York Times 05/07/01 (one-time registration required for access)

• DEFINING THE INTERNET: One of the more complex issues facing SAG and AFTRA in their fight with Hollywood moguls is whether to insist on extra compensation if their work is to be distributed online. The Internet is a whole new media ballgame, and no one wants to be left behind in setting a payment precedent. Nando Times (AP) 05/06/01

Sunday May 6

WRITERS SETTLE: Hollywood producers and writers settle on a new contract, averting a much anticipated strike. “The agreement was valued by the Writers Guild of America and the industry’s Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers at about $41 million over three years, less than the nearly $100 million writers had hoped for.” Los Angeles Times 05/05/01

• RELIEF ALL AROUND: “Though they had yet to learn the details of the agreement, many members of the Writers Guild of America said they were thrilled, certain that even a minimal gain was better than a strike.” Los Angeles Times 05/05/01
• ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO… So now all the big shots in Hollywood can breathe a big sigh of relief, thank the money gods for their benevolence, and down a refreshing glass of wheat grass juice in celebration. And then it’s right back to the bargaining table: the actors union will see you now. BBC 05/06/01

VIRTUAL SUPERSTARS: Ever since movie technology started to become truly impressive, producers have used it primarily to distract viewers from either the lack of a coherent plot line or the inability of certain leading actors to, well, act. But a new wave of computer-animated films aims to use technology to create frighteningly accurate virtual facsimiles of the famous actors behind the characters’ voices. Boston Globe 05/06/01

Friday May 4

REINVENTING PUBLIC TV: American public broadcaster PBS is trying to reinvent itself. It’s essential – the network is facing increased combination from all sorts of specialty channels, and its core audience has shrunk. The changes, though, are controversial. Christian Science Monitor 05/04/01

ANOTHER WEEK IN LA: “AOL Time Warner boss Gerald Levin last year earned stock options worth $153 million, $53 million more than the entire Writers’ Guild membership is seeking over the next three years. The studio heads – none of whom earned less than $60 million last year – seem happy to endure strikes that the LA mayor’s office estimates will cost the Los Angeles economy $6 billion. And while the majors are counselling fiscal austerity, Disney is spending $5 million (a tax- deductible expense) on its Pearl Harbor premiere – to be held on a specially-converted aircraft carrier – just as it announces 4,000 layoffs, the kind of fuck-you, scorched-earth management of which Walt would heartily approve.” The Guardian (UK) 05/04/01

THE DOWNSIDE OF FILMING IN CANADA (FOR CANADIANS): The Hollywood writers strike won’t have much impact on production in Canada. But some Canadian producers are hoping for a bit of a break. “Because of government tax credits and the favourable currency exchange rate, it’s cheap to film here if you are Disney, Fox or Warner Bros., but for local producers it’s become one of the most expensive places in the world to shoot.” National Post (Canada) 05/04/01

Thursday May 3

BUY AUSSIE? Australia ponders dropping its Australian-content laws for the Australian Broadcasting Company. The quotas currently stipulate a minimum amount of Australian-produced content must be shown. Sydney Morning Herald 05/03/01

NEGOTIATING IN PUBLIC: The Writers Guild and Hollywood producers are now into the second day of negotiating past the negotiating deadline, trying to agree on a contract to keep the vast US movie machine running smoothly. Maybe one reason they can’t wrap it up is that they spend so much time leaking details and denying leaks… Inside.com 05/03/01

Wednesday May 2

HOLLYWOOD TALKS CONTINUE PAST DEADLINE: The deadline for negotiations between Hollywood writers and producers was midnight, but the two sides kept on talking. They adjourned early this morning, and will resume later in the day, apparently indicating some progress has been made. However, “writers still haven’t bridged a $100 million gap in salary demands, according to sources close to negotiations.” CNN 05/02/01

WISHFUL DREAMING? With Hollywood maybe about to go on strike, and despite considerable grumbling about the quality of product the industry has recently put out, some movie execs are ultra-hyping the summer season: “This will be the biggest summer in history, no doubt. I can identify at least 10 movies off the top of my head that will gross over US$100-million.” National Post (AP) 05/02/01

Tuesday May 1

ONE LAST CHANCE: Hoping to avert an expected strike by the entertainment industry’s writers, studio representatives and Writer’s Guild negotiators went back to the bargaining table yesterday. No one is particularly optimistic. Boston Herald (AP) 05/01/01

TV’s RACIAL GAP STILL A CANYON: A new study of the racial makeup of television’s prime time programming reveals that integration is still beyond the grasp of the major networks. The lack of multiracial casts is particularly noticeable in the first hour of prime time, which is supposed to be the “family hour.” Los Angeles Times 05/01/01

Monday April 30

GIANT RADIO: “Radio stations that once were proudly local are now being programmed from hundreds of miles away. Increasingly, the very DJs are in a different city as well.” And the biggest of these in America specializes in “dirty tricks and crappy programming.” Salon 04/30/01

HOLLYWOOD SLOWING DOWN: “From costume shops to caterers, grips to gaffers, businesses and laborers who support the entertainment industry are bracing for a summer that could range from merely slow, if there are no strikes, to devastating if writers and actors shut Hollywood down.” Backstage 04/27/01

• WHO PAYS: With Hollywood preparing for work stoppages, the various parties try to add up the potential losses. They could be as much as $6.9 billion. The New York Times 04/30/01 (one-time registration required for access)
• DEJA VU: The last time Hollywood’s writers went on strike was 1988 (over many of the same issues driving this year’s strike). “That walkout lasted 22 weeks, stretching from mid-March to early August, and left the TV networks in disarray while costing the industry an estimated $500 million.” SFGate (AP) 04/30/01

Friday April 27

GLOBAL CROSSING: Countries around the world struggle to shore up their local cultures in the face of pervasive and seductive American popular culture. Are Americans the bad guys? Part I – The Movies. ArtsJournal.com 04/27/01

FOR THE SOUL OF PUBLIC RADIO: “Public radio has come a long, long way from the 1970s, when the image it projected was one of earnest granola-crunchers trying to save the world. Today, public radio is a big business (if a nonprofit one) with big money and big egos — a high-quality source of news and information for the well-educated, well-heeled professionals who can afford to contribute, and for the corporate underwriters (read: advertisers) who cater to them.” Boston Phoenix 04/26/01

SENATORS ATTACK MOVIES: US Senator and former vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman has introduced a bill that would “make it illegal to market to minors R-rated movies, M-rated video games and music with parental advisories. Industry officials said the proposal tramples on free-speech rights and would be rejected by the courts. The senators disagreed.” Dallas Morning News 04/27/01

REAL ANIMATED: Two new animated movies are about to arrive in theatres. “They have been years in the making, and their nearly simultaneous arrival in theaters represents a watershed moment – the closest animated films have ever come to replicating human life.” San Jose Mercury News 04/27/01

Thursday April 26

AS SEEN ON TV… The Australian government has become a big TV commercial advertiser – ads promoting going to school, promoting the country’s centernary… Just what is government trying to promote here and why? Sydney Morning Herald 04/26/01

HOORAY FOR BOLLYWOOD: The Indian film industry – known as Bollywood – serves an audience of one billion, with “films that have transparent plots and enough buoyancy to float the length of the Ganges. People don’t like realistic movies. Day to day life is tough. When they go to the movies, they want a fantasy trail. Any movie that touches real life is always a flop.” Hundreds of such films are made each year, and they’re beginning to find an audience in the US. Newsday 04/25/01

Tuesday April 24

THE BOOK WAS BETTER? “After death and taxes, the third certainty of life is that the release of a movie adaptation of a classic novel will be the occasion for some littérateur to compare the two forms and find movies wanting.” But they’re different animals aren’t they? Salon 04/23/01

REALITY, ANYONE? Hollywood has never been about subtlety and nuance, but many in Tinseltown are disturbed at the seeming inability of filmmakers to portray Mexicans as anything but the most blatantly stereotypical characters. In movie after blockbuster movie, Mexicans show up either as the conniving, evil villains, or as the poor-as-dirt peasants praying at the shrine of American power for their salvation. Los Angeles Times 04/24/01

Monday April 23

IT’S A LONG ROAD FROM SUNDANCE TO THE BANK: First prize at the Sundance Festival went to The Believer, the story of a young Jewish neo-Nazi. Several major companies were ready to buy it, until someone checked with people at the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. They did not like the film. Now, no one seems interested in buying it. The Boston Globe 04/22/01

NON-SURGICAL INVASIVENESS: TV ratings, the joke goes, are determined by the kind of people who will let strangers put a meter on their TV sets. A new company wants to change that. They want to give everyone in your home a button to push while watching TV. Oh yeah, they also plan to put a meter on your set. Boston Herald 04/23/01

SOMETHING ABOUT AUSTRALIA fascinates Americans. Maybe it’s the Crocodile Dundee effect. “Dundee is a cowboy. A hundred years ago, he might have been at home in California, while now [he] is flummoxed by flaky Hollywood types. That clash of stereotypes may be at the core of the U.S. fascination with Australians: They seem like what Americans used to be, or thought they were.” Then again, it may be something even more basic. In addition to cowboys types, Australia lately has produced several actresses who are, well, fascinating. CNN (AP) and National Post (Canada) 04/22/01

SHOOTING LOOTING IN CAMBODIA: Phnom Penh is known for cheap dope, under-age sex and corrupt cops. What better place for Hollywood to shoot Tomb Raider? The locals are happy to pick up extra money, but UN officials don’t like shooting a movie “among those ancient temples in northwestern Cambodia. Aside from fear of physical damage, the film’s very title rang foul, given that the temples are still being mercilessly pilfered by antique hunters.” Fox News 04/21/01

Friday April 20

ALL OVER A FEW WRITERS: A report commissioned by Los Angeles’ mayor suggests the city’s economy will lose $6.9 billion if Hollywood’s writers and actors go on strike for five months. Inside.com 04/19/01

MOVIELAND SILVER LININGS IN NEW YORK: East-coast independent filmmakers would be affected by a Hollywood strike, but some are philosophical. “The first thing I thought of was, ‘Great! There won’t be an Adam Sandler movie next summer.’ Writers won’t write crap, and actors won’t have to act in it… culturally, it’s one of the best things that could happen to our incredibly vacuous, bloated media industry.” Village Voice 04/18/01

MORE HOLLYWOOD THAN USUAL AT CANNES: Hollywood often ignores the Cannes Film Festival. This year, however, five American films are on the schedule. That includes Shrek, the first animated film to compete for the top prize. One high-profile US entry was rejected: a new film by Jodie Foster. Foster had accepted the presidency of the festival jury, then backed out. “The French were really insulted when she backed out, even if it was to accept a $12 million acting gig. So they ditched her film.” Nando Times (AP) and New York Post 04/20/01

Thursday April 19

SKIPPING THE MAIN COURSE: Harry Potter fans anxious to see the trailer for the movie version of their hero are paying to get into movies that are running the preview. Then walking out before the movie they’ve paid to see actually runs. CBC 04/18/01

Wednesday April 18

A BLOCKBUSTER EVERY WEEK. WELL, ALMOST: Does it matter whether a new film is released early in the summer, or late? Apparently not. This year’s release schedule has the high-profile films – and there are many – scattered throughout the season. Los Angeles Times 04/17/01

MORE CHARGES AGAINST ABC: Australia’s independent filmmakers charge that the Australian Broadcasting Co. is abusing its dominant position in the market, forcing lousy deals on producers of content. The Age (Melbourne) 04/18/01

Monday April 16

THE EROSION OF PUBLIC TELEVISION: America’s PBS is losing members and viewers. Between 1993 and 1999, stations suffered a slow net loss of 376,000 members, or 7.4 percent, according to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s latest comprehensive financial report. During the same period, public radio gained 740,000 members.” Current 04/12/01

OF SALARIES AND SUPPORT: Last month Christopher Lydon and his producer quit their WBUR Boston public radio show The Connection after the station refused to give them a stake in ownership of the show. “Lydon was making $230,000 a year as host of The Connection, and had been offered a financial package that could have increased his compensation to $330,000 next year.” One station supporter wonders what effect such large salaries have on supporters’ willingness to contribute. Boston Globe 04/15/01

MISSING LINK: Everyone seems to want video on demand in the comfort of your own home. “The technology exists. The carriers and infrastructure exist. The few customers who have it seem hooked. And yet VOD is stuck in perpetual pause. Why? Because Hollywood, which controls the movie supply, doesn’t want it yet, or at least doesn’t want it delivered in the same way that cable operators and other would-be providers do.” Inside.com 04/16/01

EVERYONE DUMPS ON ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is under attack from all sides – too liberal, too narrow, too irrelevant, too provincial, too narrow, too generational… But the broad range of critics prove the ABC’s broad constituency, writes one ABCer in defense. Sydney Morning Herald 04/16/01

Sunday April 15

DIGITAL FILM – It’s a better image and cheaper to distribute to theatres. So “ditch the film projectors, buy the new technology and everybody saves money, right? But so far, the digital movie-theater revolution hasn’t quite taken hold yet. Several important questions have to be answered before both distributors and exhibitors agree to join the revolution – on the same side.” Chicago Tribune 04/15/01

• THE ONLINE TICKET: Access movie information, buy your movie tickets online…the digital revolution is changing the business of how movie-goers choose movies and buy their tickets. Chicago Tribune 04/15/01

DON’T BE DISSING TV: It’s so easy to get down on TV – the “500-channel universe” has become a pejorative rather than an opportunity. But one critic believes the expanding spectrum means there is more good TV on now than ever before. Saturday Night 04/14/01

THE MOVIE RELIGION: The movies don’t take on religion very often. Why? “Does the scarcity of religious movies result from a lack of interest on the part of filmmakers and audiences? Or is there something about cinema that leads it to shy away from the spiritual? Are materialistic by their very nature, which makes them unsuitable for exploring spiritual themes?” Christian Science Monitor 04/15/01

THE ONLINE “BRIDGET”: Bridget Jones has been a book and a movie. Now she’s an e-mail too. “The linchpin of the campaign is a daily text message from Bridget which gives details of her weight, how many alcohol units she’s consumed, how many cigarettes she’s had and any other facts that might draw you into her life, and encouraging you to text her back. Bridget will become your friend, if you allow her to, and suck you into her life. Before you realise, you may find yourself asking a fictional character for advice on men, sex, diet, drugs or alcohol.” Daily Telegraph & Guardian (South Africa) 04/15/01

Friday April 13

THE INVISIBLE STRIKE: What if the movie writers go out on strike and no one notices? Fact is – no one will. If last summer’s Screen Actors Guild strike was any indication, viewers aren’t likely to care – or even notice – if movie writers go out on strike next month. Nothing against writers, but movies are about a lot more than the script. ArtsJournal.com 04/13/01

• LITTLE SYMPATHY: “I’m sorry, writers’ and performers’ compensation demands are never going to command sympathy among the general public. The average earnings last year for ‘working writers,’ according to the TV and movie producers’ association, was more than $200,000. The Writers Guild says the median income for writers was only $84,000. But whatever. It’s not bad money.” Public Arts 04/13/01
• HEARD OF ‘REALITY’ TV? A study suggests TV viwership will decline this fall if the writers strike happens, but that the networks are “strangely complacent” about a potential strike. Nando Times (AP) 04/13/01

SO SHOULD WE START NAKED ARTSJOURNAL.COM? The Naked News website has hired a man to strip down while reading the latest headlines; he joins a previously all-female team. But here’s the real meat of this story – Nakednews.com, the Toronto-based website that launched last year, gets 5.7 million visitors a month – that compared to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation website, which delivers the news in more conventional format and only gets a few hundred thousand visits. National Post (Canada) 04/13/01

Thursday April 12

VON TRAPP KARAOKE: The newest craze in interactive entertainment is not a cell phone, not a palm pilot, and has nothing to do with the internet. It is (deep breath, please) a sing-along version of “The Sound of Music.” Audiences often come in costume, a la Rocky Horror, and the lyrics to the film’s songs appear on the screen to assist in the exercise. Boston Globe 04/12/01

THE NEW MOVIES: New generation digital cameras and inexpensive software are putting movie-making into the hands of a new breed of low-budget filmmakers. Maybe no stars yet, but they’re bound to emerge. The Age (Melbourne) 04/12/01

TAKING THE PICTURES TO THE PEOPLE: After decades of catering almost exclusively to white audiences during apartheid, South Africa’s biggest cinema operator is using traveling road shows to show free videos to the country’s historically neglected black communities, hoping to eventually lure them to the big screen (that is, when theaters are actually built anywhere near their neighborhoods). “There are still many, many people who have not experienced a movie or television. When I say a few, I mean a few million.” ABC News (Reuters) 4/11/01

HOW ABOUT “SPINAL TAP” IN IMAX? Imax films, the giant screen movie format employed to great effect in science museums across the country, are expanding beyond the usual landscape adventure format. A new documentary captures the excitement of a sold-out concert in digital clarity, and creates a worthy successor to the great rockumentaries of the past. Chicago Tribune 04/12/01

THE COST OF A STRIKE: L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan is stepping up efforts to avert this fall’s impending writers and actors strike by launching a PR campaign exposing the potential economic effects of a walkout – especially on those outside the entertainment industry. Initial estimates say the Southern California economy would lose $500 million per week in wages, taxes, and other losses. Backstage 4/11/01

Wednesday April 11

B-MOVIES ARE BACK: Used to be, Hollywood studios all had their own specialties – remember the MGM musical? Now it’s the Paramount thriller. “The movies largely share a similar formula – morality tales laced with enough sex and surprise twists to attract two key audience quadrants: young women and older men…. they are our modern-day B-movies, the cinematic equivalent of airport thrillers – the kind of paperback page-turner people pick up at LAX when they’re afraid there might not be a good movie on the flight to Boston.” Los Angeles Times 04/10/01

GAINING AMERICAN GLOSS, LOSING EUROPEAN INTEGRITY: A frustrated English novelist explains why so many British books wind up as American movies. “We may be brilliant at creating what Variety calls ‘first-rate source material’ but we’re crap at making it work for us… The French, whose domestic audience is the same size as ours, have never consented to see themselves through American eyes, but guarded their golden stories and pumped up commercial muscle.” Guardian 04/10/01

Tuesday April 10

RIGHTS TO ANNE FRANK: “Who owns the rights to Anne Frank’s life? Some of the controversy has been simmering for years: Has Anne’s Jewishness — which, after all, was the reason she perished — been muted, even neutralized, to turn her into a universal symbol? The latest flashpoint is a four-hour ABC mini-series, Anne Frank, to be shown on May 20 and May 21.” The New York Times 04/10/01 (one-time registration required for access)

TRYING AGAIN: Hollywood’s major studios are headed back to the bargaining table with actors and writers threatening to strike this summer, but no one on either side sounds terribly optimistic. Inside.com 04/09/01

THE POPCORN LINE MUST BE BRUTAL: “Domenic Romano would like to invite you to a movie. You and 400 of his closest friends — because when Domenic Romano goes to a movie, he likes a little company. Welcome to the Sunday Movie Group.” National Post (Canada) 04/10/01

Monday April 9

NO BAN FOR EXORCIST: Australian government reverses ban on showing The Exorcist in movie theatres next weekend. “Under state law, cinemas must apply to show films on Good Friday and Christmas Day and those shown must not contain religious satire or violence.” The Age (Melbourne) 04/09/01

DIGITAL SALVATION? It’s increasingly difficult to physically preserve books and records. Many think the solution is to save materials digitally. Critics disagree: “The integrity of the historical record is the single most important consideration. If you tamper with that, it’s very difficult to reconstruct.” Wired 04/09/01

Sunday April 8

SECOND RATE: Hollywood’s ratings system has come under fire. It’s a shoddy system in which 13 people rate 760 films a year – and it makes the Motion Picture Association a great deal of money. Washington Post 04/08/01

Friday April 6

DEFINE DESTRUCTIVE: Despite protests from artists and civil liberties groups, Australia’s Victoria state government has banned the screening of “The Exorcist: The Director’s Cut” on Good Friday, under the 1926 Theatres Act which grants the government power to order which films can be shown on Christian holy days. “It is curious that on Good Friday the casino, other gambling venues and hotels which can have an equally destructive impact on society are not impeded from their trade.” The Age (Melbourne) 4/06/01

IF IT’S A ROLE, IT’S A FIGHT: At first, a film biography of the artist Frida Kahlo might not seem the kind of role that movie goddesses fight over. But it is, or has been. Madonna and Jennifer Lopez are out; the lead will go to Mexican actress Salma Hayek. Newsday (AP) 04/05/01

SUING FOR RESPECT: Nothing remarkable about lawyers suing someone. It’s what they want that makes a group of Chicago lawyers distinctive. “The group, called the American Italian Defense Association (AIDA), isn’t asking for monetary damages. Instead, the lawyers simply want a jury to declare that The Sopranos does, indeed, offend Italian-Americans.” New York Post 04/06/01

SMART – AND YET…  Encyclopedia Britannica ought to have been a big winner on the internet. The medium ought to have rescued lagging hard copy sales, and Britannica’s name ought to have given it authority. But despite more than 2 million visitors a month, Britannica.com has been a rousing failure… The Standard 04/04/01

Thursday April 5

MOVIES ON DEMAND: The Motion Picture Association of America says movies will be available for downloading legally within 4-6 months. “It is estimated that today some 350,000 movies are being downloaded, illegitimately, every day. By the end of the year it is estimated that one million illegal downloads will take place every day.” CBC 04/04/01

BYE BYE PROJECTORS: “The days of watching films flicker on the cinema screen may be numbered, as one of the last bastions of 19th-century technology makes way for the digital juggernaut. The first specks of dust have hardly settled settled on this year’s Oscars than boffins are working out how to make film redundant.” The Age (Melbourne) 04/05/01

Tuesday April 3

LOST – OR MISPLACED – IN THE TRANSLATION: Ever have trouble making sense of the English-language dubbing in foreign films? Wonder if maybe the translator missed a key item? Russians have the same problems with movies in English. The Moscow Times 04/03/01

HOW TO LEARN?: Colleges and universities are rushing to create new departments to focus on digital art. However, “student interest has become more vocational and the proliferation of digital art offerings can be confusing for students negotiating the intersection of acquiring technology skills and the art making process.” ArtsWire 04/03/01

A CLASSIC, HEARTILY DECONSTRUCTED: It’s worth noting that even classics can get drubbed the first time around. Case in point – Citizen Kane is one of the landmarks of US film; indeed, some would say it’s one of the best films ever made anywhere. Some would, some didn’t. One who didn’t was Otis Ferguson, whose 1941 two-part review has been called called “a magisterial rebuke… the most sustained and perhaps most perceptive contemporary analysis of the film.” The New Republic (archive)

Monday April 2

IDEAS OVER PRESENTATION: “Technology can kill words and wreck language. It’s worth asking why an era of intense technological revolution is being accompanied by an era of cultural recycling, safe products, manufactured pop groups, formula broadcasting and journalistic punditry.” Sydney Morning Herald 04/02/01

Sunday April 1

CELEBRATING TV: Television is the most popular medium of our age. Yet it is constantly denigrated. “Is it an art? Well, artists certainly work in it: writers, directors, actors, cameramen, film and tape editors. Whether an agglomeration of artists turns a medium into an art form is a nice point. No doubt theses are on their way.” The Observer (London) 04/01/01

Friday March 30

NO INSURANCE: Making movies is a huge financial risk. Nine out of ten Holywood movies lose money. So a few years ago someone came up with the idea of writing insurance policies against production costs. It worked great for producers, but was a disaster for insurers. The Economist 03/30/01

PAY TO READ? “A survey published by the Consumer Electronics Manufacturer’s Association last month found that 77 percent of consumers objected to paying for online news, driving directions, financial reports and other ‘commodity’ information.” Nonetheless, desperate to earn money, more and more content sites are beginning to charge subscriptions. Wired 03/30/01

THE COST OF A STRIKE: According to the Screen Actors Guild’s latest earnings report, SAG members lost more than $100 million in income during last year’s six-month strike against the advertising industry – and that doesn’t include the losses suffered by SAG’s sister union, the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, whose commercial earnings losses are estimated at another $15 million. Backstage 3/29/01

Thursday March 29

TAKING TINSELTOWN TO TASK: Critics and serious moviegoers have always complained about the lackluster fare coming out of Hollywood. But lately the grumblings of the discontent have reached a fever pitch. “You could look at any of these trends as proof of a new brand of adventurousness sweeping the land, as evidence that moviegoers are more open to nonmainstream pictures than they’ve ever been. But there’s more than a whiff of sanctimoniousness in the anti-Hollywood sentiment that’s been going around.” Salon 3/29/01

Wednesday March 28

ALL IN THE NAME OF POLITICS: Last year during the American presidential campaign, Al Gore and Joe Lieberman attacked Hollywood for its violent ways. But new numbers show that “the number of R-rated wide releases from the studios had dropped 33 percent last year compared to 1999, to 58 from 87.” Inside.com 03/27/01

Tuesday March 27

WE KNEW THERE HAD TO BE A CATCH: 154,000 Americans are subscribed to the “TiVo” service, which allows the user, among other things, to pause live TV, skip commercials, and record hundreds of hours of programming digitally. But a new report charges that TiVo is using its equipment to spy on users, and sell information on their viewing habits to the highest bidder. New York Post 03/27/01

HOW TO MAKE AN AD COST $10 MILLION: With the continued blurring of the always-fuzzy line between entertainment and advertising, many of Hollywood’s biggest stars have begun to pop up in high-end ad campaigns. In past years, movie stars considered such shilling beneath them, but ads are apparently now considered “art”, and that makes it all better. New York Post 03/27/01

Monday March 26

OSCAR WRAPUP: Just in case you fell asleep before the end finally came, here’s the short list: Julia, Russell, Soderbergh, and “Gladiator.” (Here’s the complete list of winners.) “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” won several awards, but none of the big ones, and Bjork wore what appeared to be a dead swan wrapped around her neck. All part of the fun on Hollywood’s Biggest Night. Los Angeles Times 03/26/01

IS HOLLYWOOD FUNDAMENTALLY CONSERVATIVE? “Look into the very heart of American counter-culture and you will find films like Taxi Driver and Blue Velvet, films which penetrated the mainstream with a spirit of the avant-garde. Yet at the core of their innovative visions there is also a spirit of right-wing libertarianism and rage against modernity.” Prospect 04/01

Sunday March 25

OSCAR AND THE NATIONAL ZEITGEIST: Tonight is, of course, Oscar night, and the whole country will be watching. But the Academy Awards are part of a dying cultural tradition – the TV event that is “required viewing” for nearly everyone. In an age of ever-widening programming choice and the continued factionalizing of the populace in general, some experts are worried that Americans just don’t have enough common ground anymore. Dallas Morning News 03/25/01

• IT’S TOO FLIPPIN’ LONG! How long is the average Oscar broadcast? Wagner’s “Ring” cycle is the picture of brevity by comparison. This year, the producer of the telecast has promised a free high-def TV to the winner who gives the shortest acceptance speech. Philadelphia Inquirer 03/25/01

THE FAILING FRENCH: In the 50s, 60s and 70s French cinema was a vibrant art that caught the world’s attention. No more. The industry is in the doldrums. “Last year, for the first time in history, the share of French films at the domestic box office dropped below 30 per cent – and at the same time, it’s getting harder to export French cinema.” The Telegraph (London) 03/24/01

THE ART OF MOVIES: Julian Schnabel was a celebrated artist before he started making movies. “Making a movie was similar to making art, Schnabel found. A movie was like a series of paintings. He tried to create those images in the moment, without much rehearsal. And he exercised a gruff authority.” New York Times Magazine 03/25/01 (one-time registration required)

Friday March 23

A SLICE OF THE PIE: Latest estimates of the global media/entertainment market peg its value at about $5 trillion. So how to get your slice? “With the average American now cramming 11 hours of leisure into seven hours a day by multi-tasking even rest and recreation (for instance, by watching TV while surfing the Net), the biggest problem, according to some of the panelists, lies in sorting things out.” Inside.com 03/23/01

GOING GLOBAL: It may be difficult to define, but globalization sure is easy to spot on screen. “A handful of recent films – from different corners of the world, divergent in style and scope – address globalization not as an idea, or even as a theme, but rather as a half-invisible context, a source of jokes, stories and serendipitous metaphors.” New York Times 3/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)

BETTER THAN OSCAR? It’s here – award weekend, when all of Hollywood gears up to collect miniature statues in exchange for movie excellence. Oh, and the Oscars are next week, too. But for true film connoisseurs, it just doesn’t get any better than the Independent Spirit Awards, which have risen from obscurity to become highly coveted commendations. New York Post 03/23/01

Thursday March 22

MOVIE MAN: In a little more than a year, Philip Anschutz — whose net worth is listed at $18 billion in Forbes (the country’s 6th-richest person) — has taken over three of the nation’s largest movie-theater chains, and now controls one-fifth of America’s movie screens. This when movie houses are losing money and declaring bankruptcy. What does he know that the rest of the industry doesn’t? Go digital. New York Observer 03/21/01

A FILM BY… Hollywood directors have rejected writers’ demands to end the practice of tagging a movie as “a film by” and crediting a director. Writers feel the proactice belittles the writers’ contributions. CNN 03/21/01

Wednesday March 21

A DISASTER AT ABC: The Australian public broadcaster ABC has had a rocky first year under chief John Shier. Now one of the broadcaster’s unions has written to the ABC board to urge that Shier be reigned in. He’s not competent. “Under his stewardship the ABC has wasted millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money on a restructure that is ineffective and unworkable.” The Age (Melbourne) 03/21/01

HOLLYWOOD WRITERS’ STRIKE? MAYBE NOT: “[T]he two sides’ bargaining positions aren’t really all that far apart. When contract talks recessed on March 1, the negotiators for the Writers Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers were only about $70 million-$80 million apart on their proposals for a new three-year contract. That’s a difference of only about $25 million a year — chump change, by Hollywood’s standards.” Backstage 03/20/01

Tuesday March 20

D IS FOR DOCUMENTARY: To the academy handing out Oscars, “documentary is less a popular art form than a public service medium: Over the past decade, the films nominated, with a few honorable exceptions, have been the cinematic equivalent of castor oil. Then-New York Times critic Janet Maslin described them as ‘films about the Holocaust, the disabled, hard-working artists and inspirational programs in the inner city’ – worthy subjects that all too often get mediocre or sentimental treatment.” The Nation 04/02/01

HITCHCOCK BEFORE HE WAS FAMOUS: Even as a young director, Alfred Hitchcock impressed critics. “He works with the mind of an intelligent child who gets angry when his adventure story bogs down midway with talk of love, duty, and other abstractions. Let’s skip that part, he says; what happens after that? Hitchcock’s favorite story is the odyssey, the journey made in a great cause, with the hero beset by plots, accidents, and malign coincidences.” The New Yorker 03/19/01

Monday March 19

CHINESE CINEMA LANGUISHES AWAY FROM HOLLYWOOD: “Chinese cinema has come into the media spotlight in the wake of Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s martial arts box office smash ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.’ But while Chinese directors in Hong Kong and Taiwan have wooed international markets with a vision of China gone by, mainland cinema is in the doldrums and getting progressively worse.” China Times (Taiwan) 03/19/01

AS SEEN ON… “Now that museums are commissioning Internet-based art projects, they are confronting a digital dilemma: how to present virtual, small- screen art in a real-world, public space.” The New York Times 03/19/01 (one-time registration required for access)

A WORRIED HOLLYWOOD: It’s movie award season. But “while nominees jet from award show to award show, the mood for the rest of Hollywood remains glum. Indeed, for those not directly involved in the festivities, the hubbub of the Oscar season sounds much like the band playing as the Titanic went down, so palpable is the sense of foreboding that has begun to circle the industry.” Los Angeles Times 03/19/01

Sunday March 18

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PROCESS: Seven German artists are bringing the spectacle of creating art to the public with a seven-day marathon Internet broadcast. “Art lovers around the world can go to www.live-art.tv and watch one participant a day paint, develop or sculpt an original work to be completed within seven hours in a studio at the Museum of Fine Arts in the western German city of Celle.” Nando Times 03/18/01

DIGITAL MOVIES ARRIVE: The time for digital movies has arrived. Within a few years, movie theaters without digital projection systems won’t be able to show the most popular movies. “This is the future. Six months ago, people were saying it would take five years to get to this point, but here we are. We love that there are no more cans of film to fall off trucks.” Christian Science Monitor 03/17/01

PHONY APPRAISERS INDICTED: Two antiques experts are indicted for staging phony appraisals on the popular PBS antiques appraisal program “Antiques Roadshow.” Boston Herald 03/17/01

TV TURNS TO THE STAGE: The next few weeks will see an astonishing number of stage plays make their debut on the small screen. And while the struggling world of theatre is certainly in need of the boost TV can provide, there is always the risk that the dumbed-down, sound-bitten world of the tube can suck the life out of a great stage piece. San Jose Mercury News 03/18/01

Friday March 16

TOEING THE UNION LINE: The battle between the big Hollywood studios and the Writer’s Guild is ongoing, and with a strike looming if a settlement is not reached soon, analysts are weighing in on the union’s chances. “While studios dig in their heels against what they say are unprecedented union demands, both sides must weigh the realities of a slowing economy, changing industry, and labor relations in Los Angeles.” Boston Globe (AP) 03/16/01

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: The Oscar-nominated “Traffic” opens in Mexico this weekend, amid shrieks of protest and sad smiles of recognition. The film, which focuses on the darkest aspects of the Mexican and American drug trades, is cutting awfully close to the bone in a country overwhelmed by poverty and the fear of powerful drug kingpins, and many Mexicans hope that the movie somehow raises American awareness of the problem. Dallas Morning News 03/16/01

DRIPPER’S LEGACY: Ed Harris’s riveting portrayal of one of the 20th century’s most fascinating artists has earned “Pollock” an Oscar nod and critical raves. But art historians have been irked by Harris’s decision to make it seem as if Jackson Pollock’s innovations were nothing more than an outgrowth of his descent into madness. “Pollock’s epiphany likely didn’t arise out of locking himself in a Greenwich Village walkup for three weeks, as the film suggests. Abstract Expressionism built on European modernist painting.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 03/16/01

Thursday March 15

WHAT IF NOBODY CAME? Last year, convergence – the idea that all media would come together and be distributed through portals – was all the rage. This year the talk has died. A high-profile panel on the subject at a prominent internet convention in Hollywood failed to attract anyone to even talk about it. Toronto Star 03/14/01

Wednesday March 14

KEEP IT SHORT: One hundred Academy Award nominees gathered at the annual pre-Oscars lunch on Tuesday were urged by the ceremony’s producers to keep their acceptance speeches brief. The show clocked in at just under 4 hours last year, and the show producers fear its length is costing them viewers. “The Academy is calling upon all nominees to write up a laundry list of people to thank. Winners’ lists will be immediately posted on the Oscar Web site, Oscar.com..” Variety 3/14/01

Tuesday March 13

THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF-DESTRUCT… An Austin-based software firm comprised largely of former intelligence agents has developed the next generation of copy protection for online media. The program works by taking control of your computer, and disallowing the copying of trademarked material. Try to hack the nearly invisible program, and it destroys itself, and all your copyrighted files. No doubt, some 15-year-old in Topeka is already working on how to crack this one. Inside.com 03/13/01

HOW KIDS WATCH TV: It used to be that teenagers all watched more or less the same TV programs. No more. “This fragmentation of viewers has become a disturbing fact of life for television executives, especially at the three traditional broadcast networks. Once they could ignore teenagers, figuring that they would watch the networks because they had no choice. The changes in the past decade have left those executives feeling rather like children after a visit to the planetarium, realizing that they are not the center of the universe but only a speck in the cosmos.” The New York Times 03/13/01 (one-time registration required for access)

THE DAY THE BLACKLIST BROKE: For more than a decade, the Hollywood blacklist drove writers, actors, and directors underground, with Joe McCarthy’s reign of terror helped along by the complicity of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. But then, one glittering evening in 1957, the chokehold began to loosen, when a blacklisted writer, working under a pseudonym, was awarded the Oscar for Best Motion Picture Story. Los Angeles Times 03/13/01

Monday March 12

AUSTRALIA’S ABC IN TURMOIL: Australia’s ABC, the country’s public broadcaster and one of its primary cultural institutions, seems to be unraveling in some important ways. John Shier has been running the corporation for a year now, and his vision for the company seems increasingly difficult to comprehend. Sydney Morning Herald 03/12/01

MOVIE THEATRES IN DANGER? “No one believes that movie theaters are in immediate danger of losing their cherished theatrical primacy — it is too ingrained, and the buzz that a film’s initial release creates is still the greatest engine for its subsequent earnings — but there are some disturbing trends for theater owners.” The New York Times 03/12/01 (one-time registration required for access)

PUMP EM UP, MOVE EM OUT: Vancouver is the third-largest film-making city in the world (after Los Angeles and New York), and the second-largest TV-series factory. About $1.8 billion is spent on making movies there. But here’s a secret no one talks about: they’re almost all bad movies. The reason – the cheap Canadian dollar lures cheap, mediocre productions. Ottawa Citizen 03/12/01

OF MYTH AND POLLOCK: The new bio-pic of Jackson Pollock has a lot to cram into it. But, beautiful as it is, it’s not possible to fully put into perspective the artist’s life, legend and myth. Herewith an attempt at clarification. The Idler 03/12/01

Sunday March 11

SOMETHING YOU CAN’T SELL ON EBAY: Lucien Lallouz had what he thought was a great idea. The Ebay auctioneer offered a deluxe trip to the Academy Awards – including admission to the Oscars ceremony and the Governors’ Ball. But the Academy threatened legal action – Oscar tickets are “non-transferable” – and Lallouz backed down – even though bidding had reached $11,000. Inside.com 03/09/01

Friday March 9

PITY THE POOR DESPISED CRITIC: “I’ve been examining fictional works that include critics as characters. The result? Forget about positive role models. Each film critic I’ve discovered in a movie is a walking and laboriously talking stereotype. Some portraits are playful and satirical; others are malicious. In every case, though, the film reviewer is boorish, obsessive, and neurotic (and almost invariably male), someone you wouldn’t want to be stuck next to at a movie. Boston Phoenix 03/09/01

THERE’S GOLD IN THEM THAR KERNELS: The most intense battle for movie-goers’ money is not at the box office. It’s at the concession stand. Dozens of new flavors of cookies and pretzels and countless new varieties of candy are available, at a mark-up of 300 to 500 percent. The money-making champ, though, is still popcorn: one brand promises theater owners a 2500 percent markup. Newsweek 03/09/01

Thursday March 8

TV AND ALZHEIMER’S: Researchers have discovered that those who spend a lot of time in passive activities – like watching TV – in their middle years are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s later in life. Exercising your brain by reading, on the other hand, helps delay onset of the disease. The Age (Melbourne) 03/07/01

THE END OF CELLULOID? Two of Hollywood’s biggest technology vendors are trying to sell their plan to finance the conversion of America’s movie theaters to full digital projection. The conversion would allow distributors to send pictures to theaters electronically, but would require a large capital investment. The plan is for a small portion of each ticket sold to go towards the conversion, and execs doubt that theater owners will go for it. Variety 03/08/01

Wednesday March 7

CAN THEY GET ANY BIGGER? AOL Time Warner is merging the Turner Cable networks with the WB television network, creating the nation’s largest television group. How large? The group will include the WB, TBS, TNT, TCM, Cartoon Network, CNN, Headline News, CNNFN, CNNSI, and several others we’ve forgotten the initials for. Nando Times (AP) 03/06/01

MOVIES ON DEMAND: Movie studios are set to start offering movies for downloading over the internet. “At least three studios or more will begin offering movies that can be downloaded in a form of video-on-demand or pay-per-view type of service” within three to six months. Wired 03/07/01

PRAYING FOR DAYLIGHT: The Screen Writers’ Guild is trying to quash the notion that a strike is inevitable in the ongoing dispute between writers and Hollywood studios. “‘To put it in football terms, this is half-time,’ said John McLean, chief negotiator and exec director of the Writers Guild of America, during a town hall meeting at the Sheraton Universal. ‘We’ve got eight more weeks.'” Variety 03/07/01

THE STORY OF “O”: Miramax has shelved, for the second time, its modern-day remake of Shakespeare’s “Othello,” in the aftermath of Monday’s school shooting in California. “O” ends with a shootout in a high school that kills off four main characters. The studio had previously delayed the release date following the Columbine massacre. New York Post 03/07/01

REDEFINING PUBLIC TV: Public broadcasting is feeling pressure everywhere – in Britain, in Canada, and in Australia. The head of Australia’s ABC lays out a roadmap for the next five years: “To do nothing is not an option for the ABC. We are at an early point in the digital communications revolution – one in which the rules will be rewritten for all, commercial and public broadcasters alike.” The Age (Melbourne) 03/07/01

Tuesday March 6

THE TITLE SAYS IT ALL: Universal Pictures has decided not to release the debut movie of one of its hottest directors. In the carefully-chosen yet highly-revealing words of one executive, “We have the utmost respect for Rob [Zombie], who made a really intense and compelling movie, but it turned out far more intense than we could have possibly imagined.” The title? House of 1000 Corpses. Los Angeles Times 03/06/01

Monday March 5

NEXT GENERATION HYPERTEXT: A number of digital artists are “using the interactive elements of motion graphics (as online animations are called)” to enhance their stories. “Characters and objects may move on the screen, but what matters more is that they also respond to the reader’s mouse click. The story will progress without any help, yet a click can change what the reader sees and feels.” The New York Times 03/05/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Sunday March 4

THE QUESTIONS OF SUCCESS: So PBS’ “Jazz” was a big hit. “As PBS congratulates itself for making a program that many Americans actually wanted to watch (creating Sidney Bechet and Bix Beiderbecke fans in Iowa in the process), this uncomfortable question pops up: Why can’t more of its shows be like that?” San Francisco Chronicle 03/04/01

THE CASE FOR MICRO-RADIO: The US Congress has all but killed a plan that would have allowed thousands of small micro-radio stations in the US. “To low-power advocates, radio deserves special government protection because it is or ought to be the ultimate grass-roots medium. Even in the age of the Internet and cable television, radio remains the cheapest way (short of a bullhorn) to be heard by your friends and neighbors.” The New York Times 03/03/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday March 2

“HARRY POTTER” TRAILER: The trailer for the movie adaptation of “Harry Potter” went live on the film’s official web site Thursday. “Early evidence suggests a high-gloss tale strung someplace between Roald Dahl and Charles Dickens.” The Guardian (London) 3/02/01

NO DEAL: After nearly six weeks of haggling over a new contract for Hollywood’s writers, negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and film and TV producers broke down on Thursday, making the prospect of a summer strike even more likely. “There’s still one major factor keeping them apart: Money.” E! Online 3/01/01

US STRIKE A MIXED BLESSING UP NORTH: A strike in Hollywood will have a pronounced ripple effect in Canada, where some 300 US movies and TV shows are shot every year. There will be less big-dollar work from the south, but it may re-focus some energy on the Canadian culture. As one Toronto film maker noted, “From a strictly selfish point of view, this would make it a lot easier to make a movie.” Globe and Mail (Canada) 03/02/01

Thursday March 1

A NO WIN: The British Board of Film Classification is all over the news lately, and for two seemingly contradictory charges: granting two extremely violent foreign films certification, and recent remarks by its director that suggested the end of mandatory ratings. But is anyone asking if Britain still needs an official censor? The Guardian (London) 3/01/01

GOING DIGITAL: Digital filmmaking has been steadily gaining popularity in Hollywood, and now director Robert Zemeckis has founded a 35,000-square-foot digital arts center to show new filmmakers the ropes. “The grand opening is as good an occasion as any to ask how the rapidly evolving digital world will influence new filmmakers, many of whom grew up with home video cameras and have never worked with film in their lives.” New York Times 3/01/01 (one-time registration required for access)

GOING OUT WITH A CYBER-FLOURISH: If you don’t watch “The Sopranos” on HBO – and many millions do – you may not know about Livia, Tony’s mother. Think Lady Macbeth. Think Mommy Dearest. Nancy Marchand, the actress who played Livia, died last year, but like any good villainess, Livia isn’t quite gone yet. With file footage and computer wizardry, the show’s third season will debut Sunday with a four-minute death bed tirade by the old girl. New York Post 02/28/01

Wednesday February 28

• MAD FOR MOVIES: The audience for movies in Korea grew by 12 percent last year. But that audience wasn’t wild about the home team. “The audience share of Korean films decreased 3.2 percent to 32.6 percent, with foreign films attracting 67.4 percent of the audience.” Korea Times 02/28/01
• WHERE CREDIT IS DUE: One of the major gripes the Writers’ Guild has with Hollywood studios is the “A Film By…” credit that directors of motion pictures love to tack on to the beginning of a movie. In the television world, where directors are considered expendable, that type of all-encompassing credit could only go to a writer, and the Guild would like the same to become true of the big screen. Los Angeles Times 02/28/01

Tuesday February 27

• MOVIE TRAIN: Seoul officials are trying to get more people to use the subway. But no reducing the fare here. Instead the movies will be shown on the train. “There will be 10 shows per day shown on LCD monitors installed throughout the trains, to be called Cinetrain during this time.” Korea Herald 02/27/01

Monday February 26

• BOYCOTTING HARRY: A group of kids from around the world is banding together to lobby kids to boycott the forthcoming Harry Potter movie after producers of the film moved last week to shut down kids’ Harry Potter fan websites with legal threats. “The Defense Against the Dark Arts says it is prepared to announce and encourage a full-on boycott against every single Harry Potter related product created or subsidized by AOL-Time Warner. This includes all Harry Potter toys, calendars, ornaments, paraphernalia, and the Harry Potter movie, set for release late 2001.” Ottawa Citizen 02/26/01
• THE $10 MOVIE: As of Friday, movie admission will cost $10 in New York. How long until the rest of the country catches up? “Ten dollars has kind of been the magic number for a while that no one had hit yet. What remains to be seen is if people will go along.” Chicago Sun-Times 02/26/01
• BRITS HONOR ROMANS: “Gladiator” swept the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) in London on Sunday, winning five awards including best picture. BBC 2/26/01
  • COMPLETE LIST:A list of all the BAFTA Winners. BBC 2/26/01
• THE CANADIAN HOLLYWOOD: Helped by last year’s Screen Actors Guild strike against Hollywood, movie and TV production in Canada went up again last year. The Canadian Hollywood? British Columbia, which saw production increase for the ninth straight year. Variety 02/26/01

Sunday February 25

• THE NEW RADIO? As the globalization of the entertainment industry continues, several companies are hoping to be the first to bring the newest broadcasting technologies to the public. Gone will be such outmoded concepts as commercials, station IDs, and traditional on-air personalities. The new subscription-based satellite radio will take advantage of Internet, cable, and satellite technologies to provide the ultimate in narrowcasting, all for just pennies a day… Chicago Tribune 02/25/01

Friday February 23

• HOW MODERN STARS ARE BORN: Make a short film, preferably short, funny, and off-beat. Post it on a web site. Talent agents call. Offers (and money) pour in. It worked for several young directors who are suddenly making big-budget films and TV programs. But it may not work much longer. So many young directors are doing it that there’s a glut of film shorts on the Internet. The Boston Herald 02/23/01
• NOT SO WILD ABOUT HARRY: Warner Brothers has a PR problem. Several Harry Potter fans set up web sites in honor of their young hero. Warner Brothers lawyers sent them letters threatening legal action for copyright violation. Now the fans are banding together, and threatening a boycott of Harry Potter merchandise. “They fired off this letter without looking at the site. It was obviously a fan site, nobody making money. It was just kids who loved Harry Potter.” USA Today 02/22/01

Thursday February 22

• HOLLYWOOD WORRIES: Yet another twist in the likely Screen Actors Guild strike this summer has surfaced. Hollywood’s marketing machine is wondering if such a work stoppage would also shut down their most effective means of selling their product. “The issue, or rather, fear at this point, is whether [SAG] . . . would forbid its members to participate in promotional and publicity activities during a strike.” Inside.com 02/21/01
• EXPENSIVE RATINGS: Television networks in Australia are using a new ratings service and some of the networks are unhappy. “The most remarkable finding so far is that we actually are watching much less TV than the old Nielsen surveys asserted. Last week, in some prime, mid-evening timeslots, OzTam/ATR reported 200,000 to 300,000 fewer people watching TV in Melbourne than under Nielsen.” Each drop of a rating point means a loss of $25 million in revenue for a network. The Age (Melbourne) 02/22/01

Wednesday February 21

• THINK THE MOVIE WILL BE A HIT? Coca-Cola has made a deal worth $150 million for the global marketing rights for the first film version of the popular Harry Potter children’s novels. It’s believed to be one of the most expensive sponsorship deals ever, and on the scale of what the firm spent to sponsor the recent Olympics. The Guardian (London) 02/21/01

Tuesday February 20

• MAKING AN EXAMPLE: The Screen Actors Guild has banned an actress from membership “for the maximum allowable period” of five years. Christine Blackburn acted in multiple non-union commercials during last year’s SAG strike against advertisers, officially earning the title of “scab.” Blackburn charges that the union’s action is unfair and inconsistent, since famous athletes who also crossed the picket line were merely fined. Variety 02/20/01

Monday February 19

• FRENCH MOVIE WINS BERLINALE FESTIVAL: “Intimacy,” an English-language film by French director Patrice Chereau, and one of the most controversial films at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, has won the first prize. It contains explicit scenes of oral sex, in telling its tale of sexual obsession. It beat 22 films including “Traffic,” directed by Steven Soderbergh. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 02/19/01
• THE BBC’S FADED GLORY? Some 150 million people worldwide tune in to the BBC every week. “But it isn’t only resentful professionals from rival companies who now wonder if the BBC’s reputation may not be a shadow—albeit an awfully big shadow—of former glories. The past year has seen turmoil at the corporation’s London headquarters and heavy criticism of the BBC as an institution, not for the first time but in a manner more insidious and damaging than ever.” The Atlantic 03/01
• MOVIE DRAIN: A new US Commerce Department study says foreign governments (particularly Canada) are spending billions in tax incentives to lure American movie productions outside of the US. It’s a matter of money, the report says, and producers shoot where it’s cheapest. National Post (Canada) 02/19/01
• ALL MUSIC ALL THE TIME: Chicago radio station WNIB played classical music for 27 years until new owners took over. A week ago the classical format disappeared, and the music, announcers and commercials have been replaced by a lonely six-CD player set on continuous play. What’s going on? New owners are just trying to figure out what the new format will be – and losing millions of dollars in the meantime. Chicago Tribune 02/19/01

Sunday February 18

• TURNING THE SUPERTANKER: American public braodcaster PBS is “a system plagued by sagging ratings, aging members, and internal tension between a few major producers and far-flung member stations.” New president Pat Mitchell is making changes and shaking things up, but that has stations and some longtime fans anxious. Boston Globe 02/18/01
• THE NEW FILMMAKERS: “The American cinema’s past has for the last 30 years been intertwined with the rise of American film schools. Many of the producers, directors, writers, cinematographers and editors making mainstream movies today are graduates of those schools, and, like me, most have made their movies on 35- millimeter motion picture film. But a friend who teaches cinematography at a major film school recently lamented that his students were refusing to shoot their projects on film. This generation of filmmakers-to-be grew up with camcorders, and they find it bothersome to learn what they call the ‘technical stuff,’ like focus and exposure. They relish the immediacy of video and consider its hands-on ease of operation a birthright.” The New York Times 02/18/01

Friday February 16

• FADE TO BLACK: The latest casualty in the failing movie-theater industry is Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp. (the US’s number-two movie chain), which filed for bankruptcy on Thursday. “How the industry got into this mess after a decade of uninhibited theater building in just about every mall in every one-horse town in America has nothing to do with Hollywood and everything to do with real estate.” ABC News (Reuters) 2/15/01
• THE IMAGE WARS: Colombia is in the news for its civil war, for drug trafficking, and for US aid. It’s also in US movies a lot lately, and Colombians don’t like it. The US, they believe, “tends to look for someone bad outside the country who poses a danger or threat. And this is reflected in its movies — whether the bad guys are Nazis, communists, Iraqis or, currently, Colombians.” The Globe and Mail 02/16/01
• WELL, IT’S SPORTS ISN’T IT? They say sports is one of the biggest draws on the internet. So now you can now watch wrestling on your computer. WWF. The real thing. In fact, more people watch that than any other online streaming video. According to researchers who track these things, “WWF.com has been one of the most consistent streaming video sites on the Internet. It’s a true cross-platform brand.” Editor & Publisher 02/15/01
• WRITING ON THE WALL: Everybody’s talking about a possible Hollywood strike by screen writers this summer. But the president of the Intl. Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees denounced the WGA’s strike goals as hazy and wrongheaded: “You can’t disrupt an industry entirely like that. You’re not even dealing with egos here. You’re dealing with megalomaniacs.” Variety 02/16/01

Thursday February 15

• HOME FIELD (DIS)ADVANTAGE: Heralded as the rebirth of the martial-arts epic, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” has wowed audiences all over the world – everywhere, that it, except Hong Kong. “It might look exotic to foreign audiences but it has been done before, and better, in other Hong Kong films.” China Times 2/15/01

Wednesday February 14

• WHO WOULDA COULDA SHOULDA: No Academy Award winners have been announced yet, but just getting nominated is seen as a kind of victory. Particularly by those who weren’t nominated. Boston Herald 02/14/01
  • INCREDIBLE! UNPARALLELED! PHENOMENAL! And all bad. Teamed with the Oscars, the Razzies – annual awards for Hollywood’s worst. Although John Travolta seems a shoo-in for individual honors, “Arnold Schwarzenegger picked up three nominations by himself for worst actor, worst supporting actor, and worst couple, all for ‘The 6th Day,’ in which he played a helicopter pilot named Adam Gibson and Gibson’s clone.” CNN 02/12/01
• TROUBLING TIMES FOR ABC: From the outside, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation looks to be in turmoil. This week ABC’s head of new programing abruptly left. His departure after only six months on the job after a disagreement with ABC boss Jonathan Shier has has unsettled many senior staff in an organisation already reeling from Mr. Shier’s many management changes. The Age (Melbourne) 02/14/01
• DOES THIS MEAN OUR COLLECTIVE TASTE HAS IMPROVED? A few years ago TV tabloids were all over the set competing for viewers and sensational stories. Only one remains – “Inside Edition” is readying its 4000th broadcast. It’s even outlasted the “tabloid” label. Washington Times 02/14/01
• THE COMPASSIONATE PORNOGRAPHER: Expecting the Bush administration to crack down on XXX videos, the industry is strategizing. “Anxious to sanitize their product to the point where it passes muster with compassionate conservatives everywhere, especially those living on Pennsylvania Avenue, major producers in the industry are proposing to discard or ban a host of sexual acts and scenarios that have in some instances become staples of the genre. Welcome to the era of kinder, gentler smut.” The Nation 02/26/01

Tuesday February 13

• GET YOUR OSCAR FIX HERE: ArtsJournal readers love to claim the highbrow ground, but we know what you want. The nominations, from best actress to best key grip, all conveniently linked for your voyeuristic, Tinseltown-saturated convenience. E! Online 02/13/01
• NO SUCH THING AS BAD PUBLICITY: Pariahs that they are, the big tobacco companies are understandably reluctant to release information about where they do their product placement in Hollywood films. But twelve years after the industry promised to stop paying for such exposure, 85% of feature films contain prominent scenes of smoking, and 28% feature visible brand names, according to a new study. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 02/13/01
• CELEBRITY PACK JOURNALISM: The media that cover Hollywood increasingly do a superficial and formulaic job, say critics. Reporters prefer reporting quick hit gossip or meaningless data rather than doing stories that reveal how the entertainment industry really works. For example, “the media’s obsession with opening weekend grosses is as ironic as it may be destructive. Why? Because virtually everyone in Hollywood agrees that most of the numbers the studios report to the media are inaccurate, if not downright dishonest. ‘They’re made up – fabricated – every week’.” Los Angeles Times 02/12/01
• BERLIN LOOKING FOR NEW BLOOD: The Berlin Film Festival struggles to find an identity – a German identity. After 22 years, Moritz de Hadeln is leaving as festival director, and many critics feel the Berlinale “desperately needs new blood and fresh ideas. During the cold war, the festival provided a valuable display window for movies from the Soviet bloc. In the 1990’s, though, it has been used increasingly as a springboard for the release of American movies in Europe.” The New York Times 03/13/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Monday February 12

• ON AIR INFORMANTS: It has been revealed that “some of the editors at the central German state broadcasting corporation Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) had been informers for East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi.” And now questions about why they still have jobs. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 02/12/01
• OSCAR’S FOREIGN MEANING: “This year a record 46 countries have entered films in the foreign-language category, building on a decade-long trend. For little-known foreign films, an Oscar nomination is a prize almost as coveted as the gilded statue itself. It can mean picking up an American distributor, which in turn can open up markets, even those close to home that are otherwise inaccessible.” The New York Times 02/11/01 (one-time registration required for access)
• BLACK AND WHITE TV: The racial divide between what blacks and whites watch on American TV seems to be closing. “According to a fall 2000 study of American television, released this week, ‘Monday Night Football’ was the No. 1 series among blacks, while ‘ER’ was tops with whites. That marks the first time in years that the top choice with blacks also appeared in the top 20 among whites, and vice versa (‘MNF’ is No. 14 among whites, while ‘ER’ ranks No. 8 with blacks).” Variety 02/12/01

Friday February 9

• NPR AGAINST MICRO-RADIO: Last year the American Federal Communications Commission decided to allow micro-radio broadcasting. The commercial radio industry screamed in protest. And so did National Public Radio. Indeed, NPR’s objection to the plan is seen as one reason the idea (intended to help diversity in a rapidly consolidating radio market) might fail to be implemented. The New Republic 02/05/01
• FILM DETECTIVES: Indian censors routinely censor racey scenes from movies. But many theatres quietly insert the cut scenes back into the movies. So the government is hiring “film detectives” to go into some 800 cinemas and find out whether banned scenes have been restored to movies. BBC 02/08/01
• ARE THEY SCREENING GLADIATOR? The Berlin International Film Festival, which opened this week, seems to be struggling to find German films to screen as part of its main competition. Europe at large is well-represented, as is the U.S. But most of the German features have been relegated to the smaller side shows, and the festival continues to be dominated by Hollywood. Boston Globe (AP) 02/09/01
• PLANNING AHEAD: The looming strikes by Hollywood’s writers and actors may not be as devastating as some have predicted, since the industry appears to have a record number of big-budget blockbusters already in the can. The studios’ effort to be ready to release new films throughout the strike was helped along by many major stars, who can’t bear the thought of having their names out of circulation for months. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 02/09/01

Thursday February 8

• BROUGHT TO YOU BY… As a public broadcaster, National Public Radio can’t sell ads on-air. But what about its building? NPR has leased space for giant ads on the side of its Washington headquarters. “This is an arrangement that creates revenue for NPR and allows us to enhance our services while reducing reliance on member-station contributions. There is nothing morally or ethically wrong with this arrangement.” Washington Post 02/08/01
• THE ART OF PAC MAN: Should video games be considered a legitimate art form? Enthusiasts make the case: “American consumers now spend more on video games than on movie tickets — with video game hardware and software sales now totaling about $8.9 billion per year, compared with about $7.3 billion in box office receipts. And video game characters — from the cartoonish Mario Brothers to the curvaceous Lara Croft — have become cultural icons.” The New York Times 02/08/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Wednesday February 7

• MORE TIME FOR THE ARTS: After a period of widespread questioning of the BBC’s commitment to the arts (given the many months it spent without anyone in charge of its arts programming), a new initiative has been announced to upgrade and expand its arts coverage. The most significant change is an extra half-hour devoted to culture built into its flagship Friday-night news program. The Independent (London) 2/07/01
  • AN INTERVIEW WITH BBC ART CHIEF: “I want to remind people why we have the programmes in the first place. It’s about belief: making the best cultural experience more available is a social good. People [in the BBC] have woken, if not from a sleep, then from a nap.” The Independent (London) 2/07/01
  • ARTS TO NUMBER 2: After 34 years on the first channel, BBC moves its premiere arts series “Omnibus,” from BBC1 to BBC2, leading some to question the corporation’s commitment to arts programming. “Because of the extra investment in BBC1, there is going to be an increase in entertainment and drama programming, although BBC1 will retain a commitment to arts programmes.” The Guardian (London) 02/07/01
• SEX SEX SEX (AND MORE ALL THE TIME): A new study says sex on American TV is on the rise. Three-quarters of prime-time TV shows last year had sexual content; two years earlier, it was only two-thirds. Most of that increase was in sitcoms. Dallas News 02/07/01
• HISTORY WORTH REVISITING: A new American miniseries staring Natasha Richardson is unusually brazen in its portrayal of the US’s wartime indifference to the atrocities of the Holocaust. Says Richardson: “What shocked me was not only the indifference of the United States, but also England and Ireland and so many other countries. They knew what was going on. They didn’t want to rock the boat. It was nothing less than fear and prejudice.” New York Times 2/07/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday February 6

• CAMBODIAN CINEMA CPR : With a daring new film about to open, director Fay Sam Ang is hoping to breathe new life into Cambodia’s almost defunct film industry. “Considering the recent history of the land of the Killing Fields, few countries have more stories to tell on film, but no one’s telling them.” Time (Asia) 2/12/01
• BECKETT ON FILM: The huge project of filming the entire Beckett canon of plays has finally been completed, and the results were screened at a launch party in Dublin over the weekend. “After I had seen 14 of the 19 works an extraordinary phenomenon became clear: the spectacle of a man from the grave gently taming 19 of the world’s most individual directors.” The Guardian (London) 2/06/01
  • THE RIGHT INTENT: Beckett himself would probably have grimaced at the effort, but audiences will likely cheer. “The 19 Beckett films unfolding over the weekend are evidence of a deep desire for the Nobel laureate’s canonisation as a self-renewing god of Irish culture. The films rise out of admiration and loyalty to the texts, and they will probably serve to bring a new generation to the work and its influence.” The Telegraph (London) 2/06/01
• THE PRICE OF PIRACY: Despite heavy lobbying by the US entertainment industry, a European Union parliamentary committee has refused to introduce restrictions on free online music downloading into its new copyright regulations. “One area under contention is a possible extension of national levies currently charged in some EU countries on blank videotapes, compact discs, recorders or players, surcharges meant to compensate artists for pirated copies.” Inside.com (AP) 2/05/01

Monday February 5

• TOO MUCH SEX? Sex sells, doesn’t it? Evidently not for the American Fox TV network. Fox is getting big-league ratings with the likes of ‘Temptation Island’. But “the racy content in the current wave of reality TV is making some advertisers question the line between good marketing and good taste. As a result, many big-name companies have chosen to vote themselves off shows displaying questionable content.” Christian Science Monitor 02/05/01
• THE MEANING OF ART: “Does an artist’s touch turn an everyday object into an art object? How does an artwork receive its value? How does one’s possessions define an identity?” An artist is selling his possesions by auction on Ebay – and hoping to make a point about such questions. The New York Times 02/05/01 (one-time registration required for access)
• LOOKING FOR A WAY OUT: The Writer’s Guild has extended its negotiating deadline with Hollywood’s movie and television producers, in the hope that further discussions may avoid a crippling strike. Observers are hopeful that the move means that the two sides are closer than previously thought. Inside.com 02/03/01

Sunday February 4

• “HIDEOUSLY WHITE”: Black and Asian writers are marginal to the BBC’s schedules. No actors from a multi-ethnic background are currently winning the hearts and minds of viewers in drama. It’s worth remembering a time when things were different at the BBC.” The Telegraph (London) 02/03/01
• MAD MARIA DISEASE: What is it about the “Sound of Music” movie that has thousands dressing up in their underwear to sing at theater screens? “Thirty-fifth-anniversary videos, CDs and DVDs have recently been issued, yet the print we’re seeing is old and scratchy; its colour changes disconcertingly from reel to reel. We don’t care. We’ve paid our $22.50 for the subtitles. The men beside me are Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With Strings. I, in my nightie, am the Maria who sings ‘My Favorite Things’. And this is ‘Sing-A-Long Sound of Music’.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/03/01
• SAFE TO COME OUT: A film version of Joyce’s “Ulysses” shot 30 years ago was banned in Ireland all this time. “The script was lifted straight from the book, and its reception mirrored the response to Ulysses in 1922 when the Dublin press howled that it was ‘written by a perverted lunatic who has made a speciality of the literature of the latrine’.” This week it finally opens there… The Guardian 02/03/01

Friday February 2

• TRYING TO BLOCK BLOCKBUSTER: Some 200 American video store owners have sued Blockbuster Video, saying the movie-rental giant is trying to monopolize the business and drive indies out of business with unfair business practices. Nando Times 02/02/01

Thursday February 1

• THE ULTIMATE SELLOUT: The future is now, and apparently, it’s product placement. As independent filmmakers search for ways to use new technologies to get their films made, many are expressing interest in the next generation of paid product inserts. Like the look of the suit Robert DeNiro’s wearing in this scene? Just point and click… Wired, 02/01/01
• THE ART OF ADAPTATION: Adapting literary classics to the screen (or “versioning,” as literary critics like to call it) has become increasingly popular in recent years. But, what do we really want when we go to the movies – faithful adaptations in period dress, or films that riff off a novel’s themes in their own unique ways? “My own preference is for versionings that make the audience work a bit for the payoff. Films, that is, whose core literary inspiration is not released as part of the advertising package.” The Guardian (London) 02/01/01
• MAKING BECKETT CRINGE: If Samuel Beckett were alive today, what would he make of the fact that 19 films of his plays are about to be released? Let’s just say the directors should probably be glad he’s not around to comment. “If he took such a hard line against anyone taking liberties with the plays, it seems obvious that he would have been utterly outraged by the far more violent act of changing the entire form from live theatre to film.” Irish Times 02/01/01
• ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: One of the major sticking points between Hollywood execs and the Writers’ Guild is the way screenwriters are credited – or not credited – for the scripts they pen. The traditional directorial credit “A film by…” is a source of particular irritation. Rocky Mountain News (AP), 02/01/01
• BRACING FOR IMPACT: Many American movies and TV programs are currently filmed in Canada, because of the favorable exchange rate, and the film and TV industry is worth a cool $4 billion per year to Canada’s economy. But with massive strikes threatening to cripple the American entertainment megaplex this summer, Canadian production companies are preparing for a season without U.S. assistance. CBC 01/31/01

Wednesday January 31

• WHEN MORE ISN’T NECESSARILY BETTER: Minority activists have been complaining that American TV networks have not portrayed enough minorities on television. A few recent shows have included more, but “do Latinos come out looking like a bunch of losers and victims? Because that’s no victory. Don’t do us a favor, OK?” Los Angeles Times 01/31/01
• JAZZ HAS RATINGS JUICE: So the critics may have been jousting over Ken Burns’ PBS “Jazz,” but what about viewers? “On the average, 10.3 million Americans a night have watched “Jazz,” whose final chapter airs tonight. The series has averaged a 3.6 rating nationally,” tiny by commercial network standards, and small by Burns’ 9.0 “Civil War” series numbers. “But they’re big for a program dedicated to an art form that hasn’t had a mass audience in 60 years. PBS’ five-part series ‘Rock and Roll’ a few years ago drew fewer viewers, scoring an average 3.3 rating.” San Francisco Chronicle 01/31/01
• DOIN’ THE DANCE: This year’s Sundance Festival felt “more like a festival” than the commercial bazaar it has been in recent editions. But the downside was that there were fewer commercial distribution deals and [from a distributor’s point of view] they cost more. Variety 01/31/01

Tuesday January 30

• CANADA’S OSCARS: “Maelstrom,” an attention-getter at Sundance and Canada’s hope for a foreign-film nomination at the Academy Awards, won Best Picture and four other prizes at the Genie Awards Monday night. The Genies honor Canada’s best films. Ottawa Citizen 01/30/01
  • ..BUT HOW MANY CANADIANS HAVE SEEN IT? Canadian films account for only two percent of the Candian box office gross. Why? No big-name stars. Tiny promotional budgets. And that movie juggernaut to the South. One frustrated film maker says, “[N]o civilization.. has survived without protecting its culture. If we want this one to survive, we have to, too.” National Post (Canada) 01/29/01
• DOING GOD’S WORK? There seems to be a growing audience for Christian movies. “Left Behind,” based on an evangelical book that sold 30 million copies, hopes to “tap into the enormous spending power of the millions of North American Christians who want to see movies with a religious bent. In an unorthodox twist, the film’s producers are asking potential audience members to help pay for the film’s distribution in order to get the film’s message out to as many people as possible.” The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 01/30/01
• LAND OF OPPORTUNITY: The British movie industry is hoping to cash in this summer if Hollywood’s actors and writers go on strike. “With the dollar so strong and Hollywood winding down as the strikes loom, relocating films to London – with its large and relatively low-paid pool of both acting and writing talent – has never looked so good.” The Guardian (London) 1/30/01
• THE ONLINE NEW YORKER: The New Yorker magazine has made a deal with Microsoft and Barnes & Noble to publish e-books. And while most Conde Nast magazines have had their websites postponed to later this summer, the New Yorker was granted special dispensation to hit the web in February. Variety 01/30/01
• YOU MEAN, SOME CALLERS ARE REAL? Professional callers are the latest weapon in the ratings wars among radio talk-show hosts. A New York syndication company supplies glib, witty, provocative callers to energize the airwaves when real people are just too dull. Some radio execs are critical: “Why not start making up news stories on slow news days?” New York Post 01/29/01
• WE MAY BE SLEEPING BUT WE STILL THINK YOU’RE SWELL: Sean Connery and Julie Walters have been voted the greatest British movie actors of all time in a poll conducted by the Orange British Academy. But perhaps the survey’s more interesting finding was “that cinemagoers find the experience so relaxing that many fall asleep. Nearly half of all those who took part had fallen asleep at the cinema and almost a quarter had nodded off in the past three months.” BBC 1/29/01

Monday January 29

• TRUE “BELIEVER”: Henry Bean’s “The Believer” took the top picture award at the Sundance Festival while Kate Davis’ “Southern Comfort” won for best documentary. “The smart, provocative “Believer” was an unexpected but popular choice for the top prize. Los Angeles Times 01/29/01
  • ALL IN ALL A GOOD YEAR: “Although the audience awards and the jury awards often went to the same films, one got the feeling that the votes were awfully close because there were so many good pictures here this year. The 2001 slate wasn’t filled with the kind of high-concept fodder that forces money to change hands faster than the action at a high school poker game.” The New York Times 01/29/01 (one-time registration required for access)
• MIXED MESSAGE: “From the silent era, when few police adventures were complete without a chase through a Chinatown opium den, Hollywood has treated drugs with an unstable mixture of fear and fascination, moralism and concern.” The Economist 01/25/01

Sunday January 27

• WORLD-BEATERS: Is the combination of Time Warner and AOL (whose merger was approved last week) going to fundamentally change the landscape of the media business? The Telegraph (London) 01/27/01

Friday January 26

• FAIR TURNAROUND? Last year EToys, the toy retailer, tried to shut down the website of etoy, the European artist group, for infringing on its name. Now etoy has slapped EToys with a trademark infringement suit. “Etoy, which may be the world’s only artists’ collective with a business plan, alleges that because it was around before eToys, the toy retailer should not be allowed to use a similar name that could be confused with its own.” Wired (Reuters) 01/25/01
• HOLLYWOOD’S GIDDY NUMBERS AND DIRE CAUTIONS: Hollywood raked in billions last year – $7.5 billion in box-office sales, and a whopping $20 billion in video rental and sales. “After this record year, in possession of these gigantic numbers, studio chiefs should be slapping backs and passing out cigars; there should be hullabaloos up and down Wilshire Boulevard. Instead, they are battening down the hatches, composing secret lists of who to axe, and talking doomsday.” Globe and Mail (Toronto), 01/26/01
• THE NEXT HOLLYWOOD? Hollywood is already screaming that too much movie production is moving north to Canada. Recognizing opportunity (and acknowledging its Canadian roots) the newly-formed Vivendi Universal corporation (created when Seagram’s merged with Vivendi SA) announced that it plans to invest some $300 million in Canadian film, music, and online industries over the next few years. Toronto Star 01/26/01
• MAY THE MUGGLES BE WITH YOU: John Williams has agreed to compose the score for the movie version of J.K. Rowling’s wildly popular “Harry Potter” series.  Not only that, Williams even read the book before starting to compose. Boston Globe 01/26/01

Thursday January 25

• ABC ARTS CUTS: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation cuts its arts programming budget by a third. “The cuts will come from production, and mean less money is available for commissioning of artists, including musicians, writers and composers. Arts programs planned for Classic FM and Radio National have been cancelled, with an ABC source saying yesterday scripts were being returned to writers.” Sydney Morning Herald 01/25/01
• MOVIE THEATRES PLAN CLOSINGS: Movie theatre chain AMC says it will close 500 screens and multiplexes (about 20 percent of its total) in an effort to stave off bankruptcy. “Even the No. 2 U.S. exhibitor, Loews Cineplex Entertainment, which thus far has avoided bankruptcy, Monday confirmed plans to shut 675 screens, or almost 25% of its circuit.” Variety 01/25/01
• BITING THE HAND THAT FEEDS:  Minnesota Public Radio is the 800-lb. gorilla of classical music radio. The network not only broadcasts throughout the Upper Midwest, its “Classical 24” satellite service provides programming to more than 250 stations nationwide. Increasingly, MPR is under fire for the incessant “dumbing down” of classical music on the air, and one of the network’s own news-talk hosts took on the man in charge of such programming on her public affairs show. “Midmorning,” Minnesota Public Radio 1/23/01 [RealAudio file]
• SLOW DANCING: “Mirroring the changes in the American independent film movement that it helped create, Sundance is a film festival in transition. The jampacked parties with sadistic doormen are still here, and the hot-air buzz and the leather-clad celebrities, but rarer these days are the ragged, unsophisticated filmmakers rolling in from the hinterlands with a fresh, raw vision to unleash. The bidding wars over film rights that once turned untested directors and unknown actors into overnight sensations also appear to have faded from the scene.” The New York Times 01/25/01 (one-time registration required for access)
• BITING THE HAND: A Quebec filmmaker speaks out against how films are funded in Canada: “In this country, the system of filmmaking is a state system. So it’s exactly the same system as in Poland, or in Russia or in Czechoslovakia, before. That means that they nourish the artist, but at the same time they control him. And so all the artists here, I think, are on a leash, and if you want to eat, you have to wag your tail. And if you don’t wag it a good way, they don’t put food on the plate.” National Post (Canada) 01/25/01
• TURNING OFF THE TUBE: The amount of time Canadians watch TV declined in 1999. “Average TV time fell to 21.6 hours a week, an hour less than in 1998 and well below the peak of 23.5 hours set in 1998. All age and sex groups watched less, and only Newfoundland and British Columbia showed small increases.” Ottawa Citizen 01/25/01

Wednesday January 24

• WHO’S WATCHING WHAT? Movie attendance is booming in Europe, with overall attendance up 40% since 1990, but what are people watching? Hollywood blockbusters. “Three-quarters of EU cinema-goers watch U.S releases, a figure which rises to 82 percent in Britain and 90 percent in the Netherlands. Even in France, renowned for its pride in its own movies, 64 percent of cinema receipts come from U.S. films. In contrast, 95 percent of films seen in U.S. movie theatres are home-grown.” Yahoo! News (Reuters) 1/23/01
• GOING DARK: Moviegoers are avoiding older theaters and flocking instead to newer multiplexes. So Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp. is closing 112 of its classic movie theaters in the U.S. and Canada. A total of 675 screens will go dark. Nando Times (AP) 1/23/01
• THE CELLULOID GLUT: As the multiplex culture continues to take firm hold, neighborhood theatres are gradually forced out. Minneapolis recently broke ground on a new downtown 17-screen chain theatre, and small moviehouse owners worry that the flood of multiscreen complexes spells doom for the industry as a whole. City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 1/24/01

Tuesday January 23

• SEE KOREAN: Korean movies have become very popular at home. “The share of Korean movies in the local market has grown from 15 percent to 35 percent during the past 4 to 5 years.” That makes the Korean movie market the local market with the highest percentage of movies made locally of any country in the world. Korea Times 01/23/01
• ARTS ON TV: PBS announces national backing/distribution of “Egg,” the arts show. “Egg profiles performers and other artists with highly edited, verite mini-docs, without host narration. They define art broadly—from the street to the museum and stage—but stay clear of the pop stars who are the grist for Entertainment Tonight.” Current 01/15/01

Monday January 22

• GOLDEN GLOBES: “Gladiator” and “Almost Famous” were the big winners at Sunday night’s Golden Globe awards. Los Angeles Times 01/22/01
• THE CHANGING MOVIE BIZ: “Moviegoers are abandoning older theatres for neon-trimmed mega-multiplexes with high-tech sound systems, large screens, stadium seating and enough concession stands to make you feel you’re at a year-round county fair. Older theatres just don’t cut it.” Toronto Star 01/22/01

Friday January 19

• RUNAWAY FILM: A new report says that the number of film and video productions leaving Hollywood to be shot elsewhere is increasing. “It cites one study showing domestic production of made-for-TV movies declined by more than 33% in the last six years, while production at foreign locations rose 55%.” Variety 01/19/01
• THE PAMPLONA OF FILMS? In the beginning Sundance was a haven for films that were different from mainstream Hollywood. “But the success of Sundance hits broadened the definition of commercial acceptability in movies. Suddenly, filmmakers had a template for an indie hit. And films started showing up at Sundance that looked different in exactly the same way.” National Post (Canada) 01/19/01
• INDIGENOUS FILM: Native peoples are increasingly making their own films to depict themselves. “Thanks in part to plummeting equipment costs and a growing access to information via the Internet, filmmaking has become possible in communities who historically have been caught on the wrong side of the camera.” Wired 01/19/01

Thursday January 18

• THE CORPORATIZATION OF PACIFICA: The management of the 50-year-old lefty US Pacifica radio network has been systematically transforming its stations from “locally based and left-oriented outlets into centrally controlled, mainstream institutions. The nonprofit Pacifica Foundation, which holds the broadcast licenses for WBAI and four other listener-sponsored stations, has been systematically reining its stations in, one by one, for the last four years.” Village Voice 01/18/01
• THE DANCE AT SUNDANCE: Last year the Sundance Film Festival was crawling with do-commies making bold promises. “Many of those dot-coms have already collapsed, but those that survive are expected to be a significant presence at this year’s festival. Digital cinema, in which filmmakers use relatively cheaper video equipment to make and distribute their films, has so far not resulted in the flood of fresh voices that many hoped it would produce.” New York Times 01/18/01 (one-time registration required for access)
  • GOING DIGITAL AT SUNDANCE: Digital filmmaking will take center stage this year at Sundance. “Organizers expect attendance to more than double for the digital new media center, but the move of the Sundance Digital Center from its tiny satellite site to the new 10,000-square-foot Main Street building represents more than increased foot traffic. It also signals a shift in the attitude of the United States’ biggest film festival toward new technologies.” Wired 01/18/01
• ABOUT THE MONEY AND… Sure the impending writers’ strike against movie producers is about the money (when isn’t it about the money?). But high up also are a couple of respect issues. “We’re basically treated like dirt. Over the past 15 years, the situation has gotten substantially worse.” Dallas Morning News 01/18/01

Wednesday January 17

• MINORITY OWNERSHIP DOWN: Minority ownership of American television stations “declined to the lowest point since the US Commerce Department began collecting data in 1990. Last year, minorities owned 23 full-power commercial TV stations, representing 1.9 percent of the nation’s total licensed stations. Minorities owned as many as 38 TV stations in 1995. Nando Times (AP) 01/17/01
• RABBIS AGAINST REDEVELOPMENT: A New York plan to redevelop the city’s naval yards into a giant film studio precinct in the Brooklyn suburb, which is home to many of New York’s Hasidic Jewish population, is being fiercely contested by a group of local rabbis. “In what sounds like a scene from an early Woody Allen movie, a group of combative Brooklyn rabbis have banded together to fight the redevelopment.” The Age (Melbourne) 1/17/01
• FOSTER LEADS CANNES: Jody Foster has been named to head the Cannes Film Festival jury. Nando Times (AP) 01/17/01

Tuesday January 16

• HARD TO SUPPORT THE COMMERCIALS: Why did last year’s major strike by actors in TV commercials go largely ignored in the general press? “Most television commercials are regarded as cultural offal to be ignored, muted and clicked away from at every opportunity. One might enthusiastically support sanitation workers who rid the streets of garbage. That same level of support or even sympathy is unlikely for someone perceived to be making a good living by helping to create cultural pollution, i.e., commercials.” MediaChannel 01/13/01 
• BOLLYWOOD AND THE MOB: Speculation over possible links between Bombay’s film industry and the Indian mafia have been confirmed with the recent arrest of Bharat Shah, Bollywood’s leading financier. “Everyone in Bollywood knows that films have been used by Bombay’s mafia as a way of laundering dirty money – with the prospect of huge profits if the film is a success.” The Guardian (London) 1/16/01
• WHO ARE THE BIGGEST MOVIE STARS? A new ranking system takes away all the subjectivity and reduces it to a formula. The biggest? Bruce Willis. Overpaid? Kevin Costner and John Travolta. Chicago Sun-Times 01/16/01
• ART OF THE PITCH: The movies, see, they want you to pitch your script in person – producers get more of a sense of the story when it’s told to them. “In Hollywood, up to 15 per cent of a film’s budget is spent on developing the script. In the UK it’s more like 3 per cent, which goes some way to explaining the discrepancy between the success of films created on either side of the Atlantic.” The Scotsman 01/15/01

Monday January 15

• TV’S GOLDEN AGE? No question a lot of what plays on TV is schlock. But amid the vast wasteland, there are many quality programs, and the current lineup of TV dramas suggests we may be in the “Golden Age” of TV theatre. Los Angeles Times 01/15/01
• THE INEVITABLE STRIKE: Hollywood producers say they think a writers’ strike is inevitable this year. “While unanimous in their opinion that a shutdown would have disastrous consequences for the industry, the toppers also had only one answer when asked whether they believed there will be a strike. ‘Unfortunately, yes’.” Variety 01/15/01
• MESSAGE MATTERS: In a rare move for the Anti-Defamation League (the largest international organization fighting anti-Semitism worldwide), the organization has publicly lauded the new film “Chocolat” for “addressing and challenging prejudice and intolerance in a sensitive and entertaining manner.” Variety 1/12/01
• FINDING CULTUREFINDER: The arts site Culturefinder.com has laid off its staff and is seeking to reorganize as a non-profit company. The site tried to survive as a lister of arts events and original editorial content. Gramophone 01/12/01

Sunday January 14

• CAUGHT UP SHORT: The web has brought about a rebirth in interest in short films. But “just as film aficionados — and aspiring auteurs with student projects under their belts — began hailing the Web for fostering a new golden age of short films, many of the sites that had featured them began to crash and burn.” The New York Times 01/14/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday January 12

• “JAZZ” A RATINGS HIT: PBS ratings for the show are double its usual prime time numbers. “The first three segments, tracing jazz from its ragtime roots through the Roaring ’20s, averaged a 4.1 household rating and 5.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research figures for 48 selected cities. That is more than twice the 2.0 rating and 2.7 million viewers that PBS normally averages during prime-time.” National Post 01/12/01
• SUNDANCING: “In the 16 years that the Sundance Film Institute – founded by Robert Redford in the hardcore ski town of Park City, Utah – has presided over the festival, the event has run the customary pop-culture slalom from hip, vital and alternative to sold-out, mainstream and commercial. Just ask anybody who goes every year: they’ll tell you Sundance isn’t what it used to be, but they keep coming back anyway.” Toronto Star 01/12/01
• CAMPAIGNING FOR OSCAR: Winning an Oscar means making money. So studios campaign vigorously to get their pictures included. “Behind the pomp and spectacle of the Academy Awards are hundreds of studio strategists who spend extraordinary amounts of time and money getting their films and actors into the minds of the people who vote on the Oscars. ‘You’ve got to be relentless, and you’ve got to be persistent, and it costs more and more money every year’.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/12/01
• FIT THE FORMAT: Sale of classical music station WNIB in Chicago is sure to bring a format change. “Whatever the new format, the change looks to be another example of the accelerating homogenization of radio since federal deregulation of the industry in 1996. Giant radio station owners have feverishly snatched up independent operations like WNIB and turned the medium nationwide into a cesspool of sameness, with a handful of generic, tightly defined formats being replicated from city to city.” Chicago Tribune 01/12/01
• HYPING THE HOBBIT: Still almost a year away before the film opens, “The Hobbit” is shaping up to be one of the most-hyped movies in history. “But while they may have captured Middle-Earth, will they capture Middle America? That’s the question New Line Cinema faces as it tries to draw the fans out of their hobbit holes.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/12/01
• BLAME THE GAMES: Movie attendance in Australia has fallen for the first time in 13 years, and some are blaming the Olympics for siphoning audiences. The new GST and the growing number of multiplex cinemas are also being held accountable. Sydney Morning Herald 1/12/01
• SO YOU WANT TO BE A MOVIE CRITIC: “Early in life, develop no practical skills. I advise watching nothing but television until the age of about 9, then venturing out. Practise emotional repression. Not only will this help you keep a useful distance from everyone around you, it will force you to displace your emotional response to utterly useless things. Like movies. Hold strong views on things that don’t matter to anyone else.” Toronto Star 01/12/01
• THE KING AND I SAY NO: Thailand’s culture censors have banned 20^th Century Fox’s film “Anna and the King” from being screened in the country, on the grounds that it is an inaccurate portrayal of the monarchy. “The film could be shown here if it was cut, but after the cutting it would probably last about 20 minutes.” Times of India (AP) 11/02/00

Tuesday January 9

• MOVIE KILLER? Movie studio executives “have been studying the music industry’s experience with file-swapping services such as Napster. And while no one will say it out loud, privately they admit they’re terrified Hollywood will be Napsterized: that some college kid will post a movie-swapping program that will explode in popularity, swiftly creating a ravenous audience of millions of users who will expect free access to Hollywood blockbusters.” Industry Standard 01/09/01
• DREADING THE HOBBIT: Interest in the forthcoming “Lord of the Rings” movie is intense. But while fans can hardly wait, members of JR Tolkein’s family are dreading it. “Father John Tolkien, a retired Roman Catholic priest, says family members are already constantly harassed by devotees of his father’s work. He predicts the extra interest generated by the films will mean anyone with the Tolkien name will have to disguise their origins.” The Age (Melbourne) 01/09/01

Monday January 8

• A SAGGING UNION: Just out of one strike and on the verge of possibly calling another that could shut down Hollywood production, the Screen Actors Guild has another problem on its hands. A consultant’s report, a “two-inch-thick document, paints a relentlessly unflattering picture of the world’s best-known performers’ union” and says it suffers from “organizational chaos.” Variety 01/08/01
• ART FILMS’ TOUGH TIMES: “The art cinema in America is in crisis. Cable television has increasing muscle and, after contributing to the costs of a movie, wants the kudos of its premiere. There are more art film distributors than ever, yet this sector of the US box office is down 15 per cent over last year, and an alarming 31 per cent over the past decade — not allowing for inflation.” The Times (London) 01/08/01

Sunday January 7

• BRING OUT YOUR DEAD: “With the Screen Actors Guild strike threatening to paralyse Hollywood, this year could be boom time for dead thesps. Many of the greatest (deceased) actors in history are as busy as ever, toiling overtime, doing everything from celebrity endorsements to cameo film roles. Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, James Cagney: all are proving veritable cash cows for their respective estates, digitally reanimated for a whole new audience.” Sunday Times (London) 01/07/01

Friday January 5

• RADIO STATION UNDER SEIGE: “WBAI, the voice of the left on New York’s radio dial for more than 40 years, is in turmoil after the FM station’s owners fired the longtime general manager and two other employees and changed the locks to keep the purged from coming back.” The station is owned by Pacifica, which last year battled with one of its California stations in a similar dispute. Nando Times (AP) 01/05/01
• THE ART OF SELF-PROMOTION: “Once again, after a year of producing largely dreary commercial product, Hollywood has put on its straightest face to pretend that all it has ever really cared about is quality. And once again it can point to a (very small) handful of films that almost justify the chest-thumping pomposity.” New York Times 01/05/01 (one-time registration required for access)
• HOLLYWOOD NEGOTIATES: Increasingly worried about threats of major strikes by writers this summer, Hollywood producers are anxious to negotiate. “With less than four months left on its current film-TV contract, the Writers Guild made a surprise about-face Tuesday, saying it was ready to hold early talks with producers for two weeks beginning Jan. 22.” Producers respond: “We’d meet them in a parking lot if that’s what they want.” Variety 01/05/01
• RADIO DRAMA REVIVAL: Radio drama, a staple of pre-television’s golden age, is making a comeback, with vintage radio shows being converted to MP3 files. Los Angeles is the center of the current craze and the city boasts three groups that produce radio drama on a regular basis and is home to an important archive devoted to vintage radio. “The radio performer was a species unto himself.” NPR 01/04/01 [Real audio file]
• JUST IN CASE: The Academy of Motion Pictures was in turmoil last year when someone stole a batch of Oscar statuettes before the annual award ceremony. So this year the Academy has ordered a spare set just in case. Nando Times (AP) 01/05/01

Thursday January 4

• DOCUMENTARY CRISIS: “Millions of viewers have been drawn to lavish multipart series on public television, like those made by Bill Moyers and like Ken Burns’s 19- hour ‘Jazz’. But at the same time many longtime documentary filmmakers say things have only gotten tougher for them. They say that the filmmakers have been facing a crisis in financing from nonprofit sources that has had a profound effect on what kind of documentaries are made, how they are made and where filmmakers go for money.” New York Times 01/04/01 (one-time registration required for access)
• TAKING THE REMAKE: “If production schedules are any guide, movie studios will flood the market with sequels and prequels in 2002 and 2003. Following the ‘two-thirds rule’ – that a sequel will make at least two-thirds the box office of an original – conservative studios, faced with varying prerogatives and pressures, are seemingly agreed on the reliability of sequels.” Sydney Morning Herald 01/04/01

Wednesday January 3

• AN EXTENDED FEDEX AD? The movie “Cast Away” has been earning good reviews and phenomenal box office. But however good the movie is, it is a masterpiece of product placement. Much of the movie is little more than a thinly-disguised ad for Federal Express. Is it excessive? Worrisome? Feed 01/02/01
• ART ON CABLE? REALLY? With line-ups that include film adaptations of stage plays and intimate ensemble dramas, cable networks are making more “Serious Films,” filling the gap between independent film-making aspirations and the pressures major studios feel to produce huge-grossing blockbusters. Now the cable co’s free-reign formula increasingly includes projects that feature big-name talent and directors like Norman Jewison and Mike Nichols. New York Times 01/03/2001 (one-time registration required for access)
• PRESSURE FOR PROFIT: American independent films are not the only ones that come up for scrutiny when it comes to making a profit: “Only one of the 11 films released and funded through Britain’s National Lottery money has made a profit, according to latest figures.” BBC 01/03/2001
• GLOBAL SLOWDOWN: For the second year in a row, Hollywood’s international box office take has tumbled. In an international marketplace plagued by depreciating local currencies, escalating marketing costs and a global exhibition slowdown, distributors will be lucky to clear $6 billion, down 10% on last year’s $6.66 billion target and way short of 1998’s boffo $6.8 billion.”Variety 01/03/01
• GLOBAL SLOWDOWN: For the second year in a row, Hollywood’s international box office take has tumbled. In an international marketplace plagued by depreciating local currencies, escalating marketing costs and a global exhibition slowdown, distributors will be lucky to clear $6 billion, down 10% on last year’s $6.66 billion target and way short of 1998’s boffo $6.8 billion.”Variety 01/03/01

Tuesday  January 2

• WE LOVE THE MOVIES: Quality-wise, 2000 might not have been a blockbuster year. But American theatres still took in record receipts. Box office was $7.7 billion, a 2.7 percent increase over last year’s record. It was the ninth straight year that revenues climbed. But movie attendance may have fallen as much as 3 percent, depending on how much ticket prices rose in 2000.” Nando Times (AP) 01/01/01