Category: media

The Ukrainian culture and tourism ministry “has so far not explained its decision. But it appears to have taken the view that several of the scenes – among them a mock gay parade, and one in which Brüno shows off his p***s – were likely to offend conservative and religious opinion.”

“Despite all the optimism surrounding the potential for free, advertising-supported online video, some analysts see a far more lucrative market for selling video content online–one that will materialize this year in fact, despite the rocky economic picture.”

“The strange reality of the Web is that it’s harder to display a novel font than it is to embed a video. In this realm, at least, print media are still way ahead. … Compared with the typical issue of Cosmo, Slate and every other online magazine look like something out of the 1800s. Typeface designers and font fanciers have new reason for optimism though.”

“Of all the films you saw last year, it’s statistically likely that fewer than 10 percent were directed by women. … It’s worth mentioning that no woman has ever won an Oscar for directing. A grand total of three have been nominated during the award’s eight decades of history. All that said, an unusually high number of films made by women are in distribution in theaters around the country right now — which is to say, there are seven.”

“Only one day after the U.S. Olympic Committee announced plans to launch a new cable channel dedicated to coverage of Olympic sports, an international controversy has erupted, threatening to scuttle the channel and Chicago’s bid to be the host city for the 2016 Summer Games.”

“Store buyers are looking for the pop culture phenomenon to lure consumers into shops. They draft off of studios’ multimillion-dollar movie marketing campaigns to spur interest in action figures, building sets, video games and other items with a cinematic tie-in.”

“Many are struggling amid a sharp drop in local film and TV production triggered by the recession, a rise in runaway production, and the fallout from a writer’s strike and a yearlong contract dispute between studios and the Screen Actors Guild. According to the state Employment Development Department, jobs in movie and television production were down 13,800 in May compared with a year earlier.”

“To call a movie well written is far more than a question of dialogue — in fact, most filmmakers agree that dialogue is the least of it. Instead, good movie writing comes down to what defines good writing in general: a command of structure, voice and momentum, all in the service of a story that grabs spectators by their throats, then leads them along a path they simply must follow or they won’t be able to eat, sleep or lead a happy life.”

“Dave Carroll’s video for the song ‘United Breaks Guitars’ was posted on site earlier this week and has received more than 600,000 hits by Thursday evening. … The song recounts Carroll’s yearlong struggle to get compensation for what he calls ‘a vicious act of malice’ at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago last year.”

“For example, a system developed by Singapore’s research agency lets advertising screens detect the genders of passers-by: it will soon be able to tell how old they are, too. … Computer vision is sophisticated and cheap enough to make it possible to spot the logos on your drinks cup or shopping bags, and serve up ads in response – whether to reinforce your choice or promote a competitor.”