Category: media

Women actors of Hollywood get together to talk about the politics of taking their clothes off in front of the camera. Who decides what. – New York Times Magazine 06/25/00

Hollywood is courting the new internet taste-makers. “The rules of the Hollywood marketing game are being reinvented overnight. Box office is booming thanks in part to an explosion of media coverage of movies, in traditional outlets like newspapers and magazines as well as a fast-growing body of Internet fan, news and gossip outlets. But the boom in Internet movie coverage has been a double-edged sword for filmmakers and movie marketers, rife with as many pitfalls as possibilities.” – Los Angeles Times 06/25/00  

Woody Allen still makes movies, but why? “Most of us broke our Woody Allen habit ages ago. We moved on while he stayed in some Upper West Side fugue state. Over the arc of his long outpatient career, we first adored, then admired, then tolerated, and finally ignored him. He should take a break. Do stand-up in Vegas. Write for radio. Grow orchids.” – Boston Globe 06/25/00

Earlier this month the Academy Awards folks decreed that any movie shown over the internet before it hits the theaters would not be eligible for an Oscar next year. Dumb, eh? So now, enterprising net-heads are planning to open a small movie theater series in Los Angeles to screen movies that will likely play on the web. – Wired 06/23/00

Last year was the best ever for the Korean film industry. The country produced its top blockbuster of all time, earned record revenues at the box office, and this year sent five films to the Cannes Festival, including Korea’s first-ever to the main competition. But this year the number of tickets sold to domestic films plunged from 3.94 million last year to 2.52 million this year. – Korea Herald 06/22/00

Movie trailers: They can have a kind of rough poetry (think the blood splashing out of the elevator for Kubrick’s “The Shining”) or can enticingly juxtapose key visual moments from the upcoming feature. But they’ve really gone down hill lately. “Today, they’re infuriatingly generic, manically edited, and ruined by plot spoilers.” – Salon 06/20/00

Virtual casting for movies is catching on. “Dismissed in their early days, a mere three or four years ago, as one more way of exploiting desperate movie wannabes, Internet talent showcases are being embraced by the industry” who find them an easy way to screen talent. – San Francisco Examiner (Reuters) 06/20/00

Public radio is facing a talent crisis, some say. “With many stations doing well financially, some are expanding and adding production capabilities, new shows and local news teams, he said. But competition in the overheated job market leaves a shrunken pool of applicants. That has many pubcasters worried about the future.” – Current 06/19/00

As exported Indian movies get increasingly sophisticated (no longer just those epic musical romances), they are becoming big draws in Britain and are giving Hollywood a run for its money at the box office. Three Bollywood productions recently entered the UK’s top-10 list, and cinema chains showing Indian flicks are opening up all over Britain. – The Age (Melbourne) 06/19/00