December 07, 2007
It's like she's clairvoyant or something...
Thursday:
In conclusion, I wouldn't be at all surprised if, as soon as Friday, the AMPTP walks out of the talks with a news release in hand that it's all the WGA's fault. (Nikki Finke
Friday:
Your determination to continue to pursue these initiatives prevents us from making anymovement in any other area. Therefore, unless you advise us immediately that these proposals
are withdrawn, we see no purpose in continuing these talks. Variety
The big sticking point? The Writer's guild wants the right to sympathy strike when the directors and actors face this same set of issues in a couple months. 2008 is looking to be the year Hollywood died. Perhaps the actors, writers, and directors will migrate north to Silicon Valley and YouTube will get some original content. Who knows? As long as the money people are unwilling to pay the creative people, what's the incentive?
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November 25, 2007
Speechless
The problem with this ad (and it's a good one!) is a fairly common failing with advertising-- it is utterly dependent on the viewer knowing the context. If you don't know that A) there's a writer's strike, and B) these are actors, then you won't know what the hell is going on.
Nonetheless, knowing all that, this set of ads make a rather powerful point...
Posted by Andrew at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2007
Addendum to the previous:
We need a better word than "television"-- it's obsolete. We also need a better phrase than "episodic, non-interactive entertainment". If I need to explain why we need a better phrase, you should stop reading this blog...
Posted by Andrew at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)
Why I care about the writer's strike
I spend roughly one hour each week watching television. And, quite frankly, I’d be sort of relieved if the strike forced Heroes off the air—I sort of hate myself for liking that show. But that’s not the whole story.
When I’m not watching television, I can usually be found watching something I’ve downloaded, or a DVD. “Television” shows that I’ve downloaded or am watching on DVD*. I put television in quotes there because “television” is merely one device for displaying episodic non-interactive content. That’s what this strike is about.
The villains are quite cartoonishly evil—more so than most on television. The networks are using the changing way that Americans are watching television to do 2 things: 1) make more money than ever and 2) deny money to the creative talent. The devious bit: TV on DVD is compelling precisely because the writers have gotten so good in the last decade. Most pre-Buffy TV can be watched in pretty much any order. But post Buffy? Anything worth watching has characters that evolve and storylines that take an entire season to play out. Ross and Rachel? Wasn’t the network executives who made us tune in. It was the writers.
The producers have decreed that their power gives them the sole right to monetize the new medium. The writers disagree. And so they strike. As long as the writer’s are on the picket lines, they’re the most entertaining thing on TV YouTube. I can’t wait for the DVD.
This is the face of corporatism. A change in technology allows enough instability for those with power to claim even more control. The millionaires are literally trying to take money from the middle class and stick it in their own banks. The issue is so clear cut, so easy to see, the networks are being so thuggish... So I care. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some DVDs to watch.
*As I type this, I am watching a DVD of formerly televised content. Scrubs, season 2, if you want to know. I’m watching it on my Computer. The networks got their full cut. The writers got half their full cut.
Posted by Andrew at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2007
Don't write until it's right!
Posted by Andrew at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2007
The Crux of the matter.
Some of your favorite TV shows are most likely going to be going into reruns. Early. Seasons will be canceled, entertainment options dwindle, etc. Why?
Well, people with power (the TV studios) have decided that the people without power (TV writers) ought not to get a share of the money that they (the TV writers) are creating. It really is as simple as that.
It is actually worse than that. The studios have decided that since they have power, they will simply define the writer's revenue stream out of existence. DVD sales simply won't "count" towards "residual" sales in exactly the same manner as VHS sales. Also: since the internet doesn't "broadcast", writers (it seems) don't have the right to money from "rebroadcast".
Just so we're clear: when you buy a season of TV on VHS, writers are compensated. When you buy it on DVD or iTunes, they are not. Fortunately, the writers have the power to break the collective bargaining ability shown by the networks. They have formed a union for their collective defense.
As the writer's guild says " Our position is simple and fair: when our work generates revenue for the Companies, we deserve to be paid." Indeed.
Posted by Andrew at 09:48 PM | Comments (2)
September 17, 2007
The Imp Song
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January 22, 2007
Best Muscial Ever
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November 28, 2006
Happy feet= bad movie.
Sorry Amanda, you’re just wrong on this one. I saw happy feet and was more than a bit annoyed at how bad it was...
Look, I’m a friend of the environment. We really ought to grow our fish in vats in South Dakota so that the ecosystem has a chance to repair itself. I’m in favor of that. Turning carbon into a global commodity with steadily decreasing availability? Sure. Let’s do that f*cker. The problem with Happy Feet wasn’t message, it was presentation...
The movie started out as a shining example of evolution: penguins show their prowess at gathering scares resources in order to find a mate. Where the resources are the most-scarce, they sing. One little penguin couldn’t sing and so he was not going to be able to pass along his mutant “dancing” DNA. Until one penguin decided that she rather preferred dancing to singing, and so all looked good...
Then for some reason Our Hero had to—half way through the movie—engage in a Campbellian journey to discover the alien’s who are slowly killing his people himself. Eventually, he find the humans aliens, and gets put in a zoo. While in the zoo he goes slowly insane. Until he starts to tapdance. Now, the movie had clearly established that he only taps when he’s happy, and he’s clearly unhappy. But tap he does, and we dasterly humans release him back into the wild. His tapping becomes an internet sensation (no joke!), and the UN is lobbied to prevent further fishing in their area, saving penguins and their tappy-tap-tapping ways...
Moral lesson: animals are only with saving when they entertain us...
It seems as if the movie simply needed to be padded for time and so tacked on this whole other plot as a way of keeping the theatre filled. It was fun and diverting right up until it became a Kafkaesque exploration of the penguin psyche and humanity’s cruelty to nature. The juxtaposition of the two was unsettling at best...
I’d like to recommend this movie, but I can’t. Go watch March of the Penguins again, instead...
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October 07, 2006
Fall 2006 TV season
I watch some TV. And now that I’ve got myself a TiVo, I watch more of it. Also, the networks are beginning to realize that “Geek” is a valid lifestyle choice. Anyway, I’m watching more TV. Since it’s heading into October, the shows I’m watching have started their new seasons. I’m actually kind of excited about a couple of the shows.
Monday:
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: Gods what an unwieldy name! So it’s had 2 episodes and it’s by Aaron Sorkin. It’s about a Saturday Night Live type variety show, and attempts to show the creative process as it plays out over a week. So far, the show has been as unwieldy as the name, but Sorkin has built up enough trust that I’m willing to give this show a bit longer...
Heroes: This show has also had a pair of Episodes to it’s credit. It’s a superhero story set in modern times. One of the eponymous is a Japanese businessman who is obsessed with the original Star Trek. Another is a heroin-addicted comic book writer who—when he’s high—gets glimpses of the future and draws depictions of it. And then there’s your by-now-expected shadowy government conspiracy. I’m convinced that they will turn out to be good guys in this whole affair...
I’d have a lot less faith in this show were it not for the creative team. Jeff Loeb is a longtime comic book veteran with a penchant for creating wonderful and believable characters. He has, in the past, dwelled too much on the internal life of a charter—forgetting that superhero books are supposed to include a modicum of action. Nevertheless, the last 10 seconds of the second episode leave no room for doubt that there will be plenty of bang...
Tuesday:
Veronica Mars: The first season of this show was everything that Television ought to be. It was smart, featured some great characters (admittedly with a bit of rough acting), and was a terrific exploration of class issues in the United States. The second was... good, don’t get me wrong. The writing wasn’t as even as the first season. They weren’t as focused on a single story and didn’t seem to know how to bring it together. Of course, the last quarter of the second season brought it all together tremendously...
Which brings up the third season. There has been one episode so far. Veronica is off to college, her Father is doing a road trip with a known killer and—wait, huh? This can’t end well. Also, Veronica is hot on the heals of a serial rapist. This season will feature six episode arcs, rather than a more traditional 22 episode story. If the ratings don’t pick up, the show will be canceled. So, um, tune in...
Friday:
Battlestar Galactica: Ron Moore is all over my TiVo list, I’ve also got Deep Space 9 set to regularly record. The thing is: I’m not so sure about this third season. As I’m sure you know, in the first season, humanity was brought to the brink of extinction. Of the billions that had been, we were reduced to 50,000—roughly the number of people in Tower 1 when the World Trade Center got hit. The first season did an excellent job of establishing that humanity was weak and needed to run run run in order to survive...
Season 2 saw Humanity starting to settle into their new lives. Also, we began to have a clue as to where to go next. The Pegasus arrived and humanity had a second defense platform. Ron Moore had told just about all the story he could without fundamentally changing the mix. And so he did. In the last 15 minutes or so of Season 2, humanity found a world, settled down, lived a year in the life—and then were enslaved...
The third season opens four months into the occupation. 2,000 humans managed to be off-world when the Cylons hit. This season wants to explore was it is like to be occupied. There is a direct allegory there—for those who take it—of American operations in Iraq. The parallel isn’t very exact (we Americans have no intention of being in Iraq forever—the Cylons want to be on New Caprica forever), but the emotions and thoughts are close enough for Television. Me? I’m hoping someone shoots Tigh and takes leadership of the resistance from him. Especially since the Cylons who most want to destroy humanity also want Tigh in charge. I guess we’ll see...
So there we have it: my weekly diet of Television. So: what’s on your list that’s not on mine?
Posted by Andrew at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2006
Weirdest Ad of all time
Posted by Andrew at 12:08 PM
July 06, 2006
Ok, but why does he write these strong female characters?
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June 06, 2006
Gravitas-off
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April 06, 2006
True 'dat
The Joys of Rising From the Cultural Dead By Sam Anderson
TV on DVD.
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February 02, 2006
Take my Ipod, please
History and Senator Stevens' iPod
The first was the appearance of Senator John Sununu, the Republican Junior Senator for New Hampshire. Sununu, an MIT grad, interrupted to ask the question so far unconsidered by his colleagues: Do we need this mandate at all?
He pointed out that "we have a whole history of similar technological innovation that has shown us that the market can respond with its own protection to the needs of the artists." And he concluded with one of the most damning depictions of the ahistorical nature of the flag (clip from Congressional RealVideo) you'll hear on the Hill:
"The suggestion is that if we don't do this, it will stifle creativity. Well...we have now an unprecedented wave of creativity and product and content development...new business models, and new methodologies for distributing this content. The history of government mandates is that it always restricts innovation...why would we think that this one special time, we're going to impose a statutory government mandate on technology, and it will actually encourage innovation?"
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January 07, 2006
Save Greedo
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December 18, 2005
money money money
theferrett: King Kong's Frickin' Huge
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November 18, 2005
Another Dirge for Diggory
In honor of the 4th movie (go see it), I am reposting this song:
(to the Tune of Eleanor Rigby, with apologies to the Beatles and J.K. Rowling)
Ah, look at all the Hogwart's People
Ah, look at all the Hogwart's People
Cedric Diggory picks up his broom from the field where a game has been
Lives only to play
Looks out the window, wearing the tie that he keeps on the knob on the door
For Dumbledor
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all come from ?
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all belong ?
Arthur Weasley writing the words of a law that no one will hear
No one cares.
Look at him working. Raiding Malfoy in the night when there's nobody there
What do muggles care?
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all come from?
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all belong?
Cedric Diggory died in the field and was buried as Voldemort came
The Death Eaters came
Arthur Weasley wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
The rest'll be saved
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all come from?
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all belong?
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October 07, 2005
reconciliation isn’t considered "family friendly"
At least, if the child is gay.
local6.com - News - Families End Up With Porn DVD By Mistake
Now, this headline is a bit misleading, after having watched the trailer, I can say that it doesn’t look like porn, but rather a movie about a guy who is trying to win back his parent’s love...
The Mormon Church tells its adherents that watching a movie is the equivalent of inviting the actions portrayed into your living room. Which tells me that Mormon moms and dads don’t want their gay children to ever try and talk to them again. Which is too bad, really...
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August 09, 2005
Reviews: (Television) Firefly
I liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I liked Angel. So why did I never watch Firefly during it’s production run? Blame fox-- I didn't know it was coming until it was over. Thank the gods for the DVD format...
Yeah, I bought it on faith. And sale. I bought it on sale and on faith, and they were both amply justified. But what the hell is it about? Well, it’s a Sci-Fi show, so that means spaces battles and lasers and faster than light people doing things, right? Not at all...
Firefly is more like the Magnificent 7 than any other Sci-Fi experience. Perhaps the best way of thinking of it is as the show that Star Wars would have had it been about Han Solo-- and were Luke insane. Also replace Chewbacca with a black woman and; and now the analogy has gone too far. The basic idea is that Mal (Malcolm) Reynolds is a freighter Captain who doesn’t really care about the law. In the first episode, he picks up some passengers who turn out to be even more illegal than he is. Any more would be spoilers, so I won’t tell it here...
What I can comment on is style. Fans of Buffy's wit won’t be terribly disappointed, though Firefly tends to go in slightly different directions. Firefly humor tends to be more in the way of physical comedy, or even the sort where the characters make fun of each other. One rather amusing scene involved the captain finding himself married to a local girl-- as payment for saving the village...
Firefly is set in a universe where humanity has basically been dumped on hundreds of worlds, most of which have technology and cultures similar to that of our own "old west". Indeed, Firefly is basically a western-- save that the cavalry is mostly there to arrest our intrepid crew...
The real pity of the show is that only 14 episodes were ever made. Though a movie is on the way, it can’t possibly be as epic a full several year television run would have been. The show was only just beginning to raise questions, and never got around to answering many of them. Still, it was a fun romp; one I recommend highly to fans of offbeat adventure stories.
Rating: 3 Sovereign class starships out of 5 Omega class destroyers. The show did what it wanted to exceedingly well. Sadly, it didn’t do more than stand up and stretch its legs before it was shot to death by a silly silly network. Oh well, I suppose there is always Galactica...
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May 02, 2003
More Buffy!
If I may revisit an earlier topic, Buffy and Academics, I was sent a link to this site. Now I send you. A rather fascinating article is This one on modern Vampire mythology. I don't find it very well written, (way too many "I would argue"s. In my case, 1 is too many for this sort of writing). Anyway, there is a good article waiting to be written on "Pure evil: Bush's America and Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on how Buffy signals a change in the Zeitgeist from "evil is a curable disease" to "evil is a force of nature"...
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