Category: media

“Recognising games as cultural products would untie the red tape which unfairly prevents EU member state governments from supporting their national video game sectors.”

“Imagine if True Detective, which aired as eight one-hour episodes’ worth of cinema-quality entertainment, had instead been packaged as four two-hour installments of cinema-quality entertainment and released in theaters on the first Friday of every month. And imagine if, for the first three weeks after each release, the only place you could see the new installment was in a movie theater.” The answer to cinema owners’ prayers?

“Now in his 80s, the animator, director, and designer [Richard Williams] has created thousands of animated film titles and commercials and even written a book on the art of animation.” (Not to mention doing the Toons in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) “All this despite the fact that for three decades he was sacrificing other work to direct one immense film that never made it to screen, the Fantasia-esque Arabian tale called The Thief and the Cobbler.”

“The breach has caused havoc within Hollywood’s inner circles as private correspondence between powerful producers and executives have exposed internal politics and petty gripes. More importantly, the data also appeared to include spreadsheets outlining financial deals Sony had with third parties, which could hurt its standing with its partners. These details also expose how much these third parties have paid Sony for rights to certain TV shows and films.”

“[They] come not from a brand-name auteur or even some up-and-coming, Sundance-anointed visionary. Rather, they come from a place called the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab, which sounds more like somewhere an ophthalmologist might send you than a source of great filmmaking.”

“The NEH announced $17.9 million in grants this week to support scholarship and education in the arts and letters, including the two grants of $100,000 each for online gaming projects, which are part of a new funding initiative for online cultural resources called Digital Projects for the Public.”

“‘Stop immediately showing the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War!’ the hacking group said, … apparently referring to The Interview, a Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy about a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. The cyberattack on Sony Pictures has been linked to North Korea by investigators from private companies and government agencies.”

“‘We’ve got great damage by Sony Pictures,’ writes ‘God’sApstls’ in the message that was sent Nov. 21 … ‘The compensation for it, monetary compensation we want. Pay the damage, or Sony Pictures will be bombarded as a whole. You know us very well. We never wait long. You’d better behave wisely.'”

“Media watchdog Ofcom said TV-owning households dropped by 300,000 between the end of 2012 and the end of 2013, from 26.33 million to 26.02 million. Nearly one million of the homes without a TV set do have internet access.”