Category: media

“Each of those potential owners — if Disney indeed accepts any of the offers — brings strikingly different prospects to what was once Hollywood’s best-known independent film company.”

“From Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros to Walt Disney Co, Hollywood’s stalwarts are employing Youtube and Twitter, consolidating advertising staff, using fans to spread the message through viral marketing — any way to get the word out in an era of stretched budgets.”

“For the first time, the Internet is the winner by a narrow margin: 49 percent said they would drop television, and 48 percent said they’d give up their Internet connection, according to a survey released Thursday by Arbitron Inc. and Edison Media Research. The survey included 1,753 Americans aged 12 and older.”

“A few years ago,” she says, “the Los Angeles Times ran a cartoon featuring a man in overalls at a dreary desk with a long-dead plant. The caption read: ‘Housed deep within the bowels of the Motion Picture Assn. of America is a man named Wallace McEntyre, and he, and he alone, understands what may or may not be appropriate for children under 13.'”

“Heritage Minister James Moore announced last week that the fund for creating Canadian content for TV and new media had been boosted to $350 million. But funding for English-language programming at CBC is to fall by $8.9 million in the 2010 broadcast year,” while “[f]unding for Radio-Canada programming is down $3.7 million.”

The Borgia Popes (which is no whitewash of history) is “just one of the projects under way by Loyola Productions, a nonprofit production company in Culver City, Calif., owned by members of the Society of Jesus.” Says the company’s founder, “I don’t even introduce myself as a Jesuit priest. It tends to really frighten people.” Well, only those who know what a Jesuit is.

“The tactic–General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal calls it ‘behavior placement’–is designed to sway viewers to adopt actions they see modeled in their favorite shows. And it helps sell ads to marketers who want to associate their brands with a feel-good, socially aware show.”

“If there was ever a new technology that made movie stars feel even less indispensable and more outmoded than they already are, it would be 3-D. By definition, 3-D extravaganzas are genre films dominated by splashy computer-generated visual effects — in other words, exactly the kinds of movies that don’t need a movie star in the first place.”

In a break with past practice, “writers and producers themselves are cutting the deals often before the movie is cast or the script is fully shaped…. Now, having Campbell’s Soup or Chrysler associated with your project can be nearly as important to your pitch as signing Tom Cruise.”

It’s simple, really…