Category: media

Visiting the biggest film studios outside Hollywood in Chicago last month, the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said the money had been set aside to provide 25% in cash rebates for expenditure by foreign producers in Greece. With the largest unemployment rate in Europe, officials now see the ever-expanding entertainment sector as a valuable source of jobs. Under the weight of its economic crisis, the country has suffered an unprecedented brain drain of its brightest and best.

“If the signage in a movie has top billing over Frances McDormand … you can bet a whole lot of thought went into its conception and execution. … And everything about the [eponymous signboards] – from the design and classic construction, to the custom structures that display them – is authentic. For the complete billboard blow-by-blow, we spoke with Three Billboards‘ production designer Inbal Weinberg, the brains behind Mildred’s advertising war.”

The point, for the school for 16-19-year-olds that will teach film production alongside the British national curriculum? Increasing diversity in film. “We want to ensure we get an absolutely diverse set of students from diverse backgrounds into the industry. We don’t have a quick fix, but we want to help them realise the opportunities in the hope their voices will multiply.”

“Beth’s performance at work starts to suffer. She hasn’t been on a date in months. … It’s true that meth and cancer aren’t ‘feel good,’ but maybe all of her problems would change if she’d just watch Breaking Bad. She would like prestige television and hoppy beer and tweet things like ‘Everyone should have health care!’; she’d actually march in a Women’s March instead of just liking people’s photos from it; and at work meetings she’d sit at the head of the table instead of hiding behind the garbage bin. She’d be a real woman!”

Dustin Hoffman, who was accused of sexually harassing a 17-year-old production assistant on the TV set of Death of a Salesman, was even a presenter.

The drop-off is dramatic, sudden, and likely soon going to be even steeper: “In 2016, Chinese investment in the U.S. entertainment industry hit $4.78 billion.This year, investments have shrunk to $489 million as of Sept. 30, according to the research firm Rhodium Group. Beijing has tightened control on money leaving the country, fearing that the outflow of capital could weaken its economy.”

Her Wonder Woman was so successful last summer that the studio has changed its entire marketing plan to focus around her character. But: “Following multiple sexual misconduct and harassment allegations against producer Brett Ratner, Gadot has reportedly said that she will not return to the franchise if Ratner will continue to profit off of it. Ratner’s RatPac-Dune Entertainment had a co-financing deal with Warner Bros., one the studio elected not to renew after 2018 in light of the allegations.”

The platform is larger than Twitter and Snapchat combined, and propagandists find the visual appeal of memes wonderfully (and sickeningly) useful. “‘For sowing division and finding wedge issues, Instagram is an ideal visual meme broadcast factory,’ said Jonathan Albright, research director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, who examined the data.”

Pamela Adlon created Better Things with the help of Louis CK, and now she’s being asked when she knew about his harassment of many other women. “But this is where we are: A talented woman has created a terrific show about women that women (and men) love. And now there’s a giant cloud over it, as a result of a man’s giant failings. It’s not the worst thing about this awful story; it’s not even close. But I hate that the women we need in Hollywood – in the world – can become collateral damage, even if I love the reckoning that has led to it.”

“Either everything’s dirty or everything’s clean. Caravaggio was a murderer but his paintings are sublime. David Bowie slept with underage girls. Ezra Pound and TS Eliot were both antisemites. Does admiring their poems make us condoners of hate-speech? Or do we cut this Gordian knot and view the work in isolation?”