Category: media

“Steven Spielberg on Wednesday predicted an “implosion” in the film industry is inevitable, whereby a half dozen or so $250 million movies flop at the box office and alter the industry forever.”

“I put my hand up and admit I do expect more from minority producers. Is it fair? No, not really. Yet it is a symptom of a bigger problem.”

“A quarter of UK adults have taken more of an interest in singing, dancing and other areas of the performing arts because of reality TV shows, new research has revealed.”

“The government promised to relaunch ERT within weeks, saying it was taken off air so suddenly only due to fears that workers would damage state equipment. … Many Greeks have little love for ERT journalists and the state broadcaster is often cited as an example of inefficiency, overspending and jobs given in return for political favors. … About 2,000 of its 2,600 employees are non-journalists.”

“A Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday that Fox Searchlight Pictures violated federal and New York state minimum wage laws by not paying production interns who, Judge William H. Pauley III said, were effectively regular employees on the set of Black Swan.”

Emily Nussbaum: “The audience was two-thirds female, young women, for the most part – the same demographic that drives fan fiction, romance novels, and vampire stories. ‘Oh, you enjoy this, do you?’ an angry john says, in the SVU pilot. ‘Is this how you get your rocks off?’ He’s talking to some detectives, but he might as well have been addressing viewers, for whom the show’s pulp appeal was simultaneously addictive and faintly shameful.”

“They want audience participation. They want call-ins. Given that, they don’t have any use for experts.”

“Since Philadelphia there have been, by my count, 257 Academy Award-nominated portrayals of heterosexual characters, and 23 of gay, bisexual or transsexual characters. Of the heterosexual characters, 16.5% (59) die. Of the LGBT characters, 56.5% (13) die. Of the 10 LGBT characters who live, only four get happy endings. That’s four characters in 19 years.”

“A St. Petersburg LGBT film festival has been branded a ‘foreign agent’ and fined 500,000 rubles ($15,500) under a recently adopted law which is largely seen as a tool to crack down on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).”

“The game aims to put players into that oversized starry blue hat of Mickey Mouse’s, letting them conduct a virtual orchestra with their hands in front of the Xbox camera, changing the feel of the music to fit their whims.”