Category: media

Some performers get their fans involved – whether by taking requests or doing Q&As, virtual charity festivals or tutorials like Duran Duran star John Taylor with his bass masterclasses and Oti Mabuse with her dance lessons. Listening parties have also been a big hit. Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess has carved out a sideline as host of #timstwitterlisteningparty. Fans and musicians listen together in real time, tweeting their thoughts and memories. – BBC

“Digital juggernaut Pornhub has offered itself as a streaming partner to Germany’s Oldenburg Film Festival, a 26-year-old indie movie event known for edgy programming and quirky celebrity tributes. The offer … comes nearly a week after the festival announced it will forge ahead as planned for a September run [with] a combination of physical and virtual screenings. The move is yet another recent sign of Pornhub’s seriousness about participating in mainstream cinema.” – Variety

“If ‘Tenet’ doesn’t come out or doesn’t succeed, every other company goes home,” said a marketing executive from a rival studio who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media. “It’s no movies until Christmas.” – Washington Post

Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always was never tipped to be a blockbuster. Her heavily realistic, light on the swelling music movie of two young women in search of at least temporary safety and medical care wasn’t meant to be a feel-good movie, either. But “Oscar buzz is now steadily building (buzz that was given a major boost thanks to the Academy’s decision to relax its anti-streaming rules for films whose cinema releases have been scuppered by the pandemic).” – The Guardian (UK)

One illegal downloader: “Just streaming is not enough, I mean, people want to watch those fresh, hot films that are just not on streaming.” – BBC

Carefully, with medical staff on set and stringent guidelines, and in one case, by essentially taking over a small town in Australia. “For Foster, who said that the extra precautions added at least 20 percent to the initial $10 million budget of his indie film, the most crucial decision he made was to house his entire cast and crew together, including the guardians for more than 25 child actors. He even quarantined an actor’s dog.” – The New York Times

A funny, sweet message from a theatre in Oregon caught on with the Instagram crowd, and it’s not the only one. Its creator, who says his small movie theatre provides a true home for cinephiles during non-quarantine times: “The fact that it did catch on made me happy because it essentially showed there’s a place for more hopeful messages; that dark humor isn’t the only way we can express ourselves.” – The New York Times

If the internet has come to rely not entirely, but very near universally, on visual culture and then Facebook buys that visual culture, what does it mean? – The Verge

Now — when yearly upfront presentations would normally take place — networks are instead deciding whether to move forward with or completely scrap prospective shows, despite having barely any other finished product to consider. Some networks are requesting more scripts and approving straight-to-series orders, while others are delaying summer releases so they can be used as fresh content in the fall. – Huffington Post