Category: media

Virtual conventions are long. People are watching at home, in their rooms, instead of in giant ballrooms packed with other excited fans. Trying to bring some of that convention energy to people digitally is immensely difficult, but what FanDome proved is that figuring out pacing and giving audiences something to actually look at in place of Zoom call screens they’re already exhausted by goes a long way. – The Verge

Some of the people who make visual effects for Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters believe they have found a way to help: By embracing open source, they want to open up doors for traditionally underrepresented communities. – Protocol

Some of the most influential modern comedy in any medium was created for radio: “Who’s on First?“, Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life, The Jack Benny Program, BBC’s The Goon Show and I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again, The Firesign Theatre. And it has always been a fertile format for experimentation (because it’s cheap). Sam Corbin explores why audio sketch comedy lands like nothing else — and wonders why, in the podcast boom, we aren’t getting more of it. – Vulture

With cinemas in many of the big U.S. metros still closed and many potential customers still unconvinced that multiplexes are safe from the coronavirus (despite the efforts of the National Association of Theatre Owners), Hollywood sees the box-office results for the new Russell Crowe road-rage thriller, the first major U.S. release since March, as good news. Says the CEO of the movie’s distributor, “We’re breathing a sigh of enormous relief.” – Los Angeles Times

From the experience in the theatre to when and where movies will be shown, to… – HuffPost

Hepburn wasn’t well-known in the U.S. before William Wyler cast her against Gregory Peck in the bittersweet rom-com. But “her star rose so quickly after this movie. That is crazy. This movie comes out in the summer of ’53 and by September of that year, she’s on the cover of Time as this new discovery, she wins the Academy Award for this early in ’54. And three days after she picked up that Oscar, she picked up a Tony for a different role on Broadway. … So, you know, in a very short period of time, she really is launched into this kind of princesse stratosphere of stardom.” – Slate

It wasn’t easy to film Love in the Time of Corona. But it was doable, with a lot of care – and a lot of house-cleaning for the actors whose homes hosted the shoots. Some of the details: “Filming over two-plus weeks in July, Johnson worked with a crew of seven who were tested before spending three days at each location. The showrunner monitored scenes from a van parked outside the actors’ homes, and gave direction via walkie-talkie.” – Vulture

Reassuring: “The theaters are pushing hard the argument that moviegoing is safe more broadly, or at least as safe as going to a restaurant, flying on an airplane or worshiping in a church.” – Los Angeles Times

His team sprang into action and got censor-free footage that seems impossible. “The hardest footage to shoot was inside the I.C.U., Ai said, but he could not divulge how it was filmed. He said much of it was done with hand-held video cameras about the size of a smartphone that are able to stabilize images. It helped, he said, that many people were wearing masks: That made them feel less nervous about getting in trouble for speaking on camera.” – The New York Times