Category: media

The director, calmly: “It’s certainly been strange. … This synergy between what we’re working on and what’s been happening in the world, with the quarantine line getting closer.” – The New York Times

Why Leicester Square for the statues commemorating various decades of film (including Mary Poppins, Gene Kelly, and Paddington Bear)? “Leicester Square was first home to a cinema in 1930, with the first premiere taking place there in 1937. It has subsequently cemented its place in British cinema history and regularly plays host to some of the most high-profile events in the country’s film calendar.” – BBC

Mohammed Rasoulof won the Berlin Film Festival’s highest honor for his film There Is No Evil, which is about the death penalty in Iran – and for which he was imprisoned and banned for life from making films. “Accepting the award on his behalf, producer Farzad Pak thanked ‘the amazing cast and crew who, put their lives in danger to be on this film.'” The Guardian (UK)

Many of these videos fall into what Carlson calls “infotainment,” where the goal isn’t to teach, but to pass on information, even if it doesn’t lead to understanding. “They’re not saying, ‘Here’s how you would do the problem yourself,’” Stephen agrees. “They’re just handing you a bunch of microwaved facts.” – Fast Company

“The shifts across the network era, magnified in the early 1980s, help us to see how variable the category of soap opera, and perhaps the ordering concept of genre itself, may be.” What’s more, that boom changed the acting profession. – Literary Hub

When the director’s latest film, An Officer and a Spy (about the Dreyfus Affair), was nominated for 12 César awards, many people in France and beyond were outraged and threatened a boycott, and the entire board of the César Academy later resigned. While Polanski hasn’t pulled his movie from consideration (the awards ceremony is tomorrow night), he says bitterly that “we know how this evening will unfold already” and he will not attend. – Yahoo! (AFP)

From virtual backgrounds to hide the dirty dished in your sink to AI-powered smoothing of video over iffy connections, video-conferencing services are trying to make the experience more vivid and reliable. – Wired

Knives Out and The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has said that Apple won’t let the bad guys in movies use iPhones. “Apple… they let you use iPhones in movies but — and this is very pivotal if you’re ever watching a mystery movie — bad guys cannot have iPhones on camera.” – The Verge

“Structural problems, such as Hollywood’s persistent lack of women in positions of power and key creative roles, will take years to adequately address. Still, on top of the specific changes to industry practices, advocates say there’s a strong sense that the underlying standards of behavior toward women in the industry have changed in significant ways.” Here are five ways in which progress has been real. – Los Angeles Times