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How, And Why, Barry Jenkins Went Through With Ten Episodes Of ‘The Underground Railroad’

"There was only one time when he seriously thought about quitting. The project … had just been announced, in the fall of 2016. Within hours of the news — BARRY JENKINS TO ADAPT HOT NOVEL 'UNDERGROUND RAILROAD' — the tweets had arrived. "THIS is what he's doing after 'Moonlight'? I HATE slave movies. Do we really need more images...

Short Opera Videos Are One Pandemic Innovation We Should Keep

Over the past months we've gotten "a range of short films that showcase top talents in American opera, highlight contemporary composers and recruit other artists (including costume designers and cinematographers) as well as tens of thousands of new viewers … overdue embrace of the dormant chemistry between cinema and opera, so rarely consummated." - The Washington Post

Hollywood Is Hiring Rage Coaches To Teach Awful Execs Some Self-Control

"How to be a better boss is a question that has come under new scrutiny in Hollywood thanks to some high-profile examples of spectacularly bad ones. … In the trickiest coaching situations, a studio or agency's human resources department hires a coach to work with a reluctant leader. … For those inclined to roll their eyes at the prospect,...

‘Sesame Street’ Was A Radical Experiment

"It's easy to forget now, given the show's 52-year ubiquity, that the original program was a shot in the dark – the first show aimed explicitly at childhood education, a combustible attempt to meld learning fundamentals with jingly bits and skits kids enjoyed to watch. … became the longest-running, and arguably most recognizable children's program in the country,...

Technology In The Arts After COVID

Rachel Moore: "Performing arts organizations experienced a steep learning curve that dictated a digital competency most probably never aspired to. Whether this new learning is the catalyst for widespread embrace of a technological revolution remains unclear: Was digital production simply a bridge to mitigate a difficult year? Anchoring the digital strategy of many organizations lies an unexamined assumption that...

New AI System Makes Dubbing Of Films In Foreign Languages Less Awful

"The process begins with recording an actor speaking the dialog in the required language, as one would in a dubbing process, explains co-founder and filmmaker Scott Mann. The new audio and picture would then be delivered to Flawless, which would effectively use its AI-driven system to create a lip-synced picture." - The Hollywood Reporter

UK’s Cinema Chains Are Reopening, Despite Shortage Of New Films To Show

"The UK's biggest cinema chain, which is sweetening its £9.99 monthly all-you-watch subscription scheme to get punters back indoors as summer nears, will welcome back film fans to most of the 112 sites it operates across the UK . … Cineworld and Vue, the second and third biggest UK operators, are also set to reopen their cinemas, as...

Verizon Sells The Internet Junkyard (AOL, Yahoo…)

The telecom giant is selling Yahoo, AOL and the remainder of its Verizon Media brands to the private equity firm Apollo Global Management in a $5 billion deal announced Monday. - The Hollywood Reporter

NewsNation Is Supposed To Be An ‘Unbiased’ Alternative To Fox, MSNBC, And CNN. Almost No One Is Watching It.

Execs at Nexstar, the country's largest owner of local TV stations, had research saying that consumers wanted a source of nonpartisan news. So the corporation turned its cable outlet, WGN America, into NewsNation, offering five hours of news programming every evening to 75 million homes. Nielsen says NewsNation averages 27,000 prime-time viewers a night. (That's nationwide.) Several top editorial...

Layoffs Hit US’s Largest Public Radio Station

New York Public Radio, which includes news-talk outlets WNYC AM and FM and classical station WQXR as well as a podcast production unit and the local news website Gothamist, had been running a deficit even before the pandemic, which resulted in a decline of 27% in sponsorship revenue. Fourteen jobs, about 4% of the total, are being eliminated, including...

And The Oscar Goes To South Dakota

South Dakota's tourist attractions featured heavily in parts of Best Picture winner Nomadland, and now the (iconic to some) Wall Drug and Reptile Gardens are seeing an uptick in tourism. - Rapid City Journal

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association Vowed To Change

From there? Things have been falling apart. NBC's contingency plans if the group that runs the Golden Globes doesn't get it together by their self-imposed deadline of May 6. "Among the more drastic options that could be considered: putting the Globes on hiatus, keeping the show but jettisoning the HFPA, or scrapping the awards altogether." - Los Angeles Times

Returning Moviegoers Are Ready For More

After being stuck at home, without movie cinemas, for well over a year, it's time to break out the big bucks for all of the extras. "The expanding appetite for an enhanced theatrical experience has given the film and exhibition business a shot of confidence and a weapon against streamers amid devastation caused by the pandemic. Yet it also...

A Humble Alley Boasts Hollywood History

Can tourists gain more appreciation of the real Hollywood - could the city do more (a lot more) to help them leave invigorated, and not disappointed? Check out the alley: "So many visitors to Hollywood would love to know about this unnamed space — where, in the early, exhilarating, madcap days of moviemaking, three of the greatest Hollywood stars...

Move Over, Thomas Edison And The Lumiere Brothers

Britain may no longer have an empire, but at least it could have this: the title of the "true" father of cinema. "Film director and historian Peter Domankiewicz believes Friese-Greene will soon be reinstated as one of the great figures in the development of the moving image: the one who got there before Thomas Edison, the Lumière brothers and...

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