Category: media

“The Oscars are about the movies, not podium jokes and stage spectaculars. Generating audience enthusiasm requires more radical steps. Here are a few ideas for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, all designed to engage moviegoers’ interests without sacrificing Oscar voters’ independent critical judgment.”

“Beyond the hype that culminates in the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, Hollywood is contracting, battered by the same economic forces reshaping the rest of the country.”

“Twenty years after bursting from the grungy street markets of Lagos, the $500 million Nigerian movie business churns out more than a thousand titles a year on average, and trails only Hollywood and Bollywood in terms of revenues. The films are hastily shot and then burned onto video CDs, a cheap alternative to DVDs. They are seldom seen in the developed world, but all over Africa consumers snap up the latest releases from video peddlers for a dollar or two.”

Everything from fashion tweets to speeches to pictures to results, in one big dashboard. (And no, we’re not spoiling any winners if you haven’t seen the show yet.)

“There is a percentage of photographers who hate photography. They do not appreciate photography. They do not consume photography. They don’t look at photo books or photo magazines. They hate the guy with the iPhone taking Instagram shots. They hate the guy who just bought the D4 because they don’t have one. They hate people using digital because film is what real artists use. They hate photographers who embrace social media because images should stand on their own.”

“Of all the endangered species in Hollywood, perhaps the most overlooked might be the adult drama — the kind of mid-budget, modestly scaled, smartly written movie that seemed to be so common in the 1970s.” And without the Oscars, we’d never see them again.

“I want to be entertained. I want to laugh. I want a certain number of spontaneous, surprising, human moments. And I want the whole think to be brisk, not overly indulgent of the stars, and come in more or less on time.”

Though the Oscar-nominated and much-awarded film The Help is far from perfect in its depiction of history, “the film provided a rare portrayal of domestic workers in ways that allowed them complexity, humanity and individuality, and further related very closely to the portrayal of the relationship between workers and the children they raised.”

Thought that all ended with Hurt Locker a couple of years ago? Think again.

“In San Francisco, New York, Austin and elsewhere, these gritty little storefronts hearken back to the days when arcade cabinets mostly lived in bars, pool halls and run-down amusement parks. They are a place for gamers to test their skills against like-minded enthusiasts, a digital Fight Club for those looking for something more than Skee-Ball and Dance Dance Revolution. It’s in these packed alleyways and basements that video arcades are staying alive.”