“Why don’t all public broadcasters coordinate on a national pledge drive? … Though it may sound promising, a systemwide pledge drive for public media would get bogged down in logistics and clash with the system’s localized business model.” April Simpson explains how/why.
Category: media
Why MoviePass Is A Terrible Idea
Every cent you don’t fork over for each free or super-cheap service you use is balanced by the advertising revenue the service hopes to make off of you. That’s not just true of the app-centric, surveillance-saturated economy of 2018 — it’s basically how the entertainment biz has worked for over a century. If you’re not entirely supported by sales or subscriptions, you’re working with advertisers. MoviePass is no different, but they are a fascinating case study in how, as modern data-driven advertising risks extinction via overdue regulation, the most cynical impulses of “old school” advertising threaten to turn everyone off just as much.
U.S. Justice Dept. Approves Disney Purchase Of 21st Century Fox (With One String Attached)
“Disney has moved one step closer to purchasing a big chunk of 21st Century Fox. On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced it had approved the proposed deal, valued at a total $71.3 billion … with one caveat: Disney, the owner of ESPN, must sell off 22 regional sports networks that were originally a part of the purchase, to avoid undue dominance in sports broadcasting.”
Is The Latest Crop Of Gay Movies Erasing Gay Culture?
Tom Joudrey thinks so: “Gone unnoticed amidst this flurry of jubilation [for the likes of Call Me By Your Name and Love, Simon] has been, against my post-Brokeback hopes a dozen years ago, … a sort of amnesia that makes queerness blithely complicit in its own extinction. I realize this argument might be hard to follow, particularly amidst our post-Obergefell triumphalism, so it’s worth looking more closely into how queer films fell into a bad romance with straight validation.”
An Oral History Of Saturday Night Live’s ‘Black Jeopardy’
Writers Bryan Tucker and Michael Che (who created the sketch) and Kenan Thompson (who plays the Alex Trebek equivalent) talk about the genesis of the idea, the challenge of creating characters for various guest hosts, and the sketches they wanted to do but didn’t (yet). (includes video clips)
How Social Media Platforms Have Turned Into Battlebots Of The Culture Wars
Though the brigading of review sites and doxxing behavior isn’t exactly new, the speed and coordination is; one consequence of a never-ending information war is that everyone is already well versed in their specific roles. And across the internet, it appears that technology platforms, both big and small, must grapple with the reality that they are now powerful instruments in an increasingly toxic political and cultural battle.
Sale Price Of Weinstein Company Goes Down By $23 Million
The purpose of the $23 million reduction is to get the process moving again, as it has dragged on since a judge approved the transaction on May 8. Apparently, parties have made claims regarding intellectual property against TWC, so rather than delay the transaction further TWC agreed to simply drop the price as a way to protect Lantern.
More Animation Jobs Than Ever, But Voice Talent Is Tough
“On camera, the crew is far away from you. But in voice-over, the executive is staring right at you from the other side of the glass, giving you feedback at a rapid-fire pace. And if you don’t do it correctly the first time, you’re replaced.”
Hollywood Calls On Kids To Solve Its Pipeline Diversity Issues
The Youth Cinema Project was founded years before April Reign started the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, but it could help solve the problem. “What sets Youth Cinema Project apart from other pipeline programs is that, starting at a young age, the kids are doing all the work, as opposed to the adults. The participating school districts have conducted studies that show real results of teaching hands-on filmmaking.”
Some Of Early Cinema’s Greatest Films Ended Up – By Design – In An Iowa Shed
Retired history teacher Michael Zahs saves everything – and in this case, “everything” is priceless for understanding early cinema. The Brinton Collection is “a mammoth set of films, lantern slides, posters and projection equipment from the first years of cinema, and even earlier. There are two exciting things about these artefacts. One is that during the more than three decades after Zahs took delivery of the collection and stored it on his property, he has been showing its treasures to local people and keeping the tradition of the travelling showman alive. The second is the discovery that the collection contains very rare material – films by the French cinema pioneer, George Méliès that were once thought to be lost.”