“What happened to our attention spans? Why must we talk, text and tweet in the middle of a movie? And what–if anything–can theaters do to stop this erosion of cinema civility?”
Category: media
Beyond Dot-Com: Now Your Domain Name Can Be Dot-Anything
“The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) plans to dramatically increase the number of domain endings from the current 22. Internet address names will end with almost any word and be in any language.”
When Ingmar Bergman Made Soap Commercials
“In 1951, [Sweden’s] film industry was in shambles and Bergman needed some cash, so he agreed to direct a series of nine commercials for the Swedish Unilever soap brand Bris. And lucky for us, fifty years later, some of these commercials have made their way to YouTube.”
Philip K. Dick’s Daughter To Hollywood: Make More Movies Of My Dad’s Work!
Isa Dick Hackett, the late author’s daughter and head of the Dick estate’s production arm, Electric Shepherd Productions LLC, “has been pursuing filmmakers to adapt her father’s stories, rather than waiting for filmmakers to pitch her.”
Eating Your Cinematic Spinach (And Maybe Enjoying It): A Debate
In May, Dan Kois published an article titled “Reaching for Culture That Remains Stubbornly Above My Grasp,” about watching and (not) enjoying “certain critically regarded movies.” Two weeks ago, The New York Times‘s chief film critics offered a response defending said movies. This week, the two sides talk it out.
Pakistani Army Launches Its Own TV Drama, With Soldiers As Actors
In an effort to boost its public image, the country’s military “is funding a TV action series aimed at showcasing its role in fighting Taliban militants. To keep costs down, the army employs soldiers as actors, with no extra pay for their services, and uses real military equipment.”
How To Film A Graphic Novel, Explained By Marjane Satrapi
The author of Persepolis writes: “The first thing to remember is that it’s not a graphic novel, it’s a comic. People are so afraid to say the word ‘comic’. It makes you think of a grown man with pimples, a ponytail and a big belly. Change it to ‘graphic novel’ and that disappears. No: it’s all comics. Movies are all movies.”
An Awards Show That Was Actually Enjoyable: Ben Brantley On The Tonys
“The television presentation of the … Academy Awards in February made film folk look cheap, synthetic, silly and desperately un-cool.” The Tony broadcast “by contrast seemed like a paradigm of not good taste (that never enters the equation) but of good will, sincerity and – can I be saying this? – something approaching hipness.”
OK, So The CBC Is Good For The Country. Now Can It Start Being Good For The Arts?
“The other day I complained that the arts have essentially disappeared from CBC-TV. It’s true and the CBC’s assertion that it will air awards shows – the Geminis, the Giller, the new Hilary Weston prize for books and a Christmas special of Handel’s Messiah – doesn’t compensate. The CBC’s role as broadcaster of art-made-for-television, on which it has reneged, is far more important.”
Report: Online TV Watchers Might Be Watching Less TV
“Americans who watch the most video online tend to watch less TV, according to The Nielsen Co., a finding that overturns a longstanding belief that people are watching more programming over all devices.”