“Some TV outlets have determined they can give viewers more of what they want without risking a fortune to do it. Who needs to invest in a scripted spinoff when all viewers really want is to hear chatter about their favorite program on an aftershow?”
Category: media
In Defense Of Movie Violence
Robbie Collin: “Film is the only art form that can attack us on that stomach-twisting level, and perhaps that is why we often hear that the medium has a violence problem. Don’t buy it for a second. For ‘problem with’, read ‘knack for’: the reason there is so much violence on film is that film is perfectly suited to addressing it.”
The New Stars Of YouTube Gather Together (In The Flesh)
“Anthony Quintal … wanted to run away from the grown-ups. The fans kept slowing him down. [The 14-year-old], a rising YouTube star, had traveled to VidCon, a conference that allowed him to meet viewers of his online diary entries face to face. There was only one problem: He had a father, a manager and a communications handler trailing him.”
Why Is It So Hard For Black Actresses To Make Progress In Hollywood?
“It’s not just that black actresses are auditioning and not getting cast in larger roles–it seems that they are frequently absent from the casting process entirely.”
Digital Conversion Threatens America’s Drive-In Theaters
Only 368 drive-ins remain, down from 4,000 in the 1950s, their heyday. Of the remaining drive-ins, around 40% – or 139 theatres – have converted, according to the United Drive-in Theatre Owners Association. “It is a pivotal year in the drive-in’s future.”
Quantifying The Gulf Between Movie Critics And The Public
Catherine Rampell, an economics columnist who doubles as a critic, crunches data from Rotten Tomatoes.
China Settles With Hollywood Studios Over Film Distribution Fees
“Hollywood studios will soon begin receiving overdue payments for the distribution of their films in China … About $200 million in payments had been withheld by the China Film Group, which oversees the importation of foreign films into China, while the group disputed its responsibility for the payment of a new value-added tax on theater tickets.”
Stop Kvetching About ‘Canned Laughter’ On Sitcoms – It Doesn’t Exist (Does It?)
“I wonder if the ‘canned laughter’ canard is used, knowingly, as bitchy shorthand – surely no one really believes it is artificial? It’s been half a century since actual machinery was regularly used.” And by the way: “Studio audiences aren’t forced to laugh with cattle prods. They give it up willingly.”
In Senegal, They’re Rapping The TV News
“The nightly news is beginning to rhyme in Senegal, a hip-hop-crazy country where half of the population isn’t yet 18. [Makhtar] Fall and his co-anchor Cheikh Sene, both aging rap stars, have found second careers dropping the week’s developments into verse.”
Footage From Jerry Lewis’s Suppressed Holocaust Movie Leaks Onto YouTube
“A seven-minute report from a 1972 Danish television show about the making of The Day the Clown Cried” – which Lewis admits he withheld from release out of embarrassment – “surfaced recently, and based on that, the movie looks hammy and self-important at the same time.”