When it comes to teaching film theory, traditional professors do the job quite nicely.
But as far as preparing students for the practical aspects of a career in showbiz, film
schools have found it helps to appeal to the industry directly.
Read all the reports here:
www.variety.com/features/impact/education
The pirates themselves are too hard to catch individually, and suing customers is
not a good look for film studios.
THE High Court has decided that an internet service provider (ISP) is not liable for
any copyright piracy by its customers.
Even though the Hollywood movie studios and television networks had notified the
ISP of the bad conduct of several customers, that was not sufficient to make the ISP
liable. The decision is not a surprise. Australia Post is not liable for copyright
infringement if it delivers a pirated DVD. The court has confirmed that the same
rules apply to ISPs.
Copyright owners prefer to bring legal actions against intermediates, rather than end
users. It is not a good look to sue customers, even if they are engaged in infringing
activities. Also, it is harder work to find and sue each person who downloads a
pirated movie. Bringing legal proceedings against ISPs, which are the gatekeepers to
the internet, seemed like a more efficient approach to stopping infringement. But the
High Court has taken away that weapon for copyright owners in this instance.
Continue reading Virtual buccaneers escape to plunder another day
The shock & awe(some) parody on reality television and terrorism has successfully
shot a missile directly into the heart of the movie capital. The small Melbourne
movie, 10TERRORISTS!, that launched at the Greater Union as part of the
Melbourne International Comedy Festival on the 29th of March is getting its West
Coast Premiere in Los Feliz in late April. As an official selection of the 11th Los
Angeles Comedy Festival (the largest comedy festival in the United States), it has two
screening and is one of only six feature films chosen.
“Making the decision to go with the Comedy Festivals seems a good fit”. says
producer, Andrea Buck. “Although the film is screening as part of the Buffalo Niagara
Film Festival on the 18th April. There is also one final screening here in Melbourne
on the 20th April at The Greater Union at 9.00pm”
In this high-octane comedy, a Los Angeles producer steals from popular Reality TV
formats, hiring three ex-military judges to seek out the ultimate “amateur master-
terrorist. “We are parodying the producers and the very city of Los Angeles – with
footage having being shot there” says producer/ director Dee McLachlan. “But I’m
sure Hollywood can laugh at itself”.
This film is a big departure from their previous feature, THE JAMMED, the
acclaimed 2007 sex trafficking thriller, that burst onto the Australian film scene in
2007. Mclachlan used some of the cast (Veronica Sywak, Masa Yamaguchi) and crew
from THE JAMMED (Cinematographer Peter Falk, Costume designer Jill Johanson,
Sound recordist Rob Hornbuckle) to shoot principal photography in only 8 days. “We
could only do this because we had a great crew and very talented actors” says
McLachlan.
10terrorists media release – Friday 20 April 2012
The video website reports $420 million in revenue last year, but it is spending even
more to develop new shows, including series from Adrian Grenier and Michael
Wendschuh.
At a presentation to ad buyers Thursday, Hulu touted its growth, saying its more
than 2 million paid subscribers have made its $8-per-month video subscription
service the fastest growing in U.S. history. The company also reported $420 million
in revenue last year and expressed a commitment to original programming with new
series including The Awesomes, fromSaturday Night Live star Seth Meyers.
Hulu was the first of many online giants scheduled to roll out their content and meet
with advertisers in TV industry style upfront presentations during the next two
weeks. In a room that included Meyers,Smash star Megan Hilty, Morgan Spurlock
and Adrian Grenier, the company touted that Americans watched 2.5 billion videos
on Hulu in February — about 1,000 videos a second. Hulu also said it held 20 percent
of the online video market and 40 percent of the premium video market.
Once again, the Cannes film festival has unveiled a gorgeous list. The only
disappointments, for some, will be the fact that Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master
and Terrence Malick’s new project were not included, reportedly because they were
not ready in time – although the idea of Malick actually having a new film completed
just one year after the last head-spinning epic is fantastically improbable: as if he had
moved up to a Roger Corman level of productivity. Some observers will be
disappointed that Stoker, by the South Korean director Park Chan-wook has not been
selected, likewise Wong Kar-wai’s The Grand Master – although the festival could
sneak in a late entry here and there.
The relative absence of women in the list of directors is, however, pretty dismal: the
competition is an all-male affair, and there are just two women film-makers in Un
Certain Regard: Sylvie Verheyde, with Confession of a Child of the Century, and
Catherine Corsini, with Three Worlds.
Continue reading Cannes film festival 2012 lineup: the competition’s still a man’s world
A selection of heavyweight titles from top-drawer auteurs has been unveiled for this
year’s Cannes film festival, with previous winners of the Palme d’Or, Jacques
Audiard, Michael Haneke and Ken Loach, all back in contention.
A competition lineup strong on European arthouse is leavened by the anticipated
presence on the Croisette of teenybop pinups Zac Efron and Robert Pattinson.
Pattinson, the British star of Twilight, tops the bill inDavid Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis,
tipped as one of the key titles to screen, while Efron takes the lead in Paperboy, the
new film from Lee Daniels, whose social drama Precious was a sleeper hit two years
ago.
Daniels is one of the few US directors on this year’s slate; he joins Wes Anderson,
whose 60s-set summer camp romance Moonrise Kingdom opens the festival on 16
May, and Jeff Nichols, whose Mud builds on the success of last year’s Take Shelter.
Brad Pitt stars in Killing Them Softly, a crime drama directed by New Zealander
Andrew Dominik, and another America-set title is On the Road, Walter Salles’s long-
awaited adaptation of the Jack Kerouac novel.
Continue reading Cannes film festival list dominated by European arthouse auteurs
Two Australian directors with American films will feature in a competition line-up
full of leading art-house names at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
Andrew Dominik, who emerged in this country with Chopper before shooting The
Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford in the US, has been
selected with the American mobster story Killing Them Softly, which stars Brad
Pitt , Ray Liotta and Ben Mendelsohn.
The drama, set in New Orleans, follows a professional enforcer (Pitt) who
investigates a heist during a mob-protected poker game. The impressive cast also
includes Sam Rockwell, Richard Jenkins, Sam Shepard and Australian Bella
Heathcote.
John Hillcoat, who left Australia after The Proposition to makeThe Road, will also
feature in the prestigous competition with Lawless, a Prohibition-era drama that
stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce.
Fellow Australian actors Mia Wasikowska and Jason Clarke also feature in the story
of two bootlegging brothers who take their moonshine operation into the big leagues.
Their films will premiere alongside new work from such well-known art-
house directors as David Cronenberg (Cosmopolis), Ken Loach (The Angels’ Share),
Michael Haneke (Love), Abbas Kairostami (Like Someone In Love), Walter Salles
(On The Road), Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone) and Lee Daniels (The Paperboy).
French veteran Alain Resnais who is approaching 90, will also be part of the
competition with You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet.
Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom will open the 65th festival, which runs on the
French Riviera from May 16 to 27.
Festival president Gilles Jacob and artistic director Thierry Fremaux announced the
official selection at a press conference in Paris.
An Australian short film, director Michael Spiccia’s Yardbird, about a young girl who
takes on the local bullies who torment her father, has already been announced as
the country’s first selection in competition.
The festival will also pay homage to the late French director Claude Miller, who died
earlier this month, with a special screening of his last film, Therese Desqueyroux, on
closing night.
Screening out of competition will be another film from a filmmaking veteran,
Bernardo Bertolucci’s Me And You.
The Un Certain Regard section of the festival includes films from David Cronenberg’s
son Brandon (Antiviral) and former Sydney Film Festival competition winner Xavier
Dolan (Laurence Anyways).
The Cannes selection committee saw 1779 films from 26 countries this year.
Selections for Critics Week are still to be announced.
Garry Maddox – SMH – April 19, 2012
The theory that growing DVR usage is to blame for the mysterious ratings malaise
gripping primetime got some new credence from a Nomura Equity Research analysis
issued Thursday.
A comparison of audience figures in the 18-49 demo drawn from live and C3 viewing
over the first quarter of 2012 versus the same period the previous year revealed a
dramatic difference. The 22% plunge registered by the Big Four in live shrinks to just
8% when the first three days of DVR usage is factored into the rating. And even that
level of decline is likely overstated largely because of the sizable dropoff this season
in TV’s most watched series, Fox’s “American Idol.”
In recent weeks, many of TV’s most popular series, from “Modern Family” to “NCIS,”
have been experiencing either series or season lows. While everything from daylight
savings time to warm weather have been cited as factors, increased DVR usage has
also been mentioned as a factor.Fox was feeling the live downturn most of all with a
46% drop in live viewing compared with the first quarter of last year due to both the
decline of “Idol” and the absence of the Super Bowl, which it aired in February 2011.
With C3 accounted for, that loss drops to 33%.
Given the Super Bowl aired this year on NBC, which is also surging with the success
of the second season of “The Voice,” NBC is up 32% once C3 is calculated–but still
down 3% on live alone. ABC and CBS demonstrated less dramatic single-digit
declines in both live and C3 over the same period.
When measured on a season-to-date basis instead of a quarterly one, the increases
remain dramatic when compared with full seasons past. Fox’s C3 numbers through
March, for instance, are 35% higher than its live ratings, followed closely behind by
ABC (34%), CBS (33%) and NBC (23%). Those totals are significantly higher than the
differentials the Big Four registered in the 2007-08 season, which were all in the low
teens.
While it’s hardly surprising that broadcast’s live numbers declined in the first quarter
considering that trend has been in motion since 2008, the discrepancy between those
numbers and C3 in the first quarter are greater than ever. “Note that broadcast’s first
quarter 17% lift in C3 ratings vs. live is the highest level of lift we have ever seen,”
wrote Nomura analyst Michael Nathanson.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, the live-C3 difference was 13%, which itself was a
sizable leap from the third quarter, then 8%. When broadcast’s decline is combined
with cable, which was down 4% in the first quarter, the overall decline of TV was
10%. But C3 shrinks cable’s loss to just 1%, and TV overall by 4%. All in all, broadcast
has a one-third share of live viewing, but a 50% share of C3 viewing.
While C3 is technically a measurement of viewing of the commercials in a program
over the three days following live, as opposed to the program itself, the ad-skipping
on DVRs is actually declining. The “skip rate” for the Big Four in the 2011-12 season
is 46%, down from 51% the previous season.
By ANDREW WALLENSTEIN – VARIETY – Thu., Apr. 19, 2012
Downloaders be warned, the film industry suffered a blow in the High Court but
copyright holders still have means to attack pirates, says lawyer David Moore.
A damaging blow has been dealt to the giants of the film industry in the High Court
today after it decided to dismiss their copyright infringement appeal case against
internet service provider (ISP) iiNet in a landmark ruling.
The High Court’s five judges unanimously dismissed the appeal. In a summary the
court observed that iiNet “had no direct technical power” to prevent its customers
from illegally downloading pirated content using BitTorrent.
But copyright law experts say the case is not the end of the story as more ISPs could
be targeted in future and pressure will remain on internet providers to do something
about piracy on their networks.
Today, the court said iiNet’s power to prevent customers from pirating movies and
TV shows “was limited to an indirect power to terminate its contractual relationship
with its customers”.
Further, the High Court judges said that infringement notices sent by the film
industry to iiNet did not provide the ISP “with a reasonable basis for sending
warning notices to individual customers containing threats to suspend or terminate
those customers”‘.
Continue reading Hollywood loses final appeal in piracy case
Is Facebook making us lonely? No, the Atlantic cover story is
wrong.
Facebook Isn’t Making Us Lonely. And Americans aren’t all that lonely, either.
For all our talk of self-reliance and rugged individualism, Americans are actually far
less likely to live alone and enjoy key forms of personal autonomy than people in
other countries
Americans devour books that say we’ve never been lonelier or more disconnected.
The Lonely Crowd, The Fall of Public Man, and The Pursuit of Loneliness rank
among the best-selling sociology texts in history. In recent years, Bowling Alone and
Alone Together won significant attention and generated widespread debate. Often,
these books lament the loss of a Golden Age when Americans had better marriages,
stronger communities, safer streets, and greater happiness. They warn that we’ve
grown dangerously isolated, and after we read them we return to our friends,
families, and colleagues to discuss why we no longer spend time together.
In this month’s Atlantic cover story, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” the novelist
Stephen Marche offers an unusually extreme claim about the state of our disunion:
“[W]e suffer from unprecedented alienation,” he writes. “We have never been more
detached from one another, or lonelier. In a world consumed by ever more novel
modes of socializing, we have less and less actual society. We live in an accelerating
contradiction: The more connected we become, the lonelier we are.”