Alexis Soloski: "It’s recognizable enough that Portlandia and Saturday Night Live can parody it. It suggests intimacy, a rumpled authenticity. Because if someone were faking it, they would, like, definitely cut out the filler words and upspeak. I mean, right? But the most seemingly unstudied performances are often the result of relentless rehearsal and calculation. So I wanted to...
Even as media companies pour billions into the industry, "its formats and business practices are still developing, leading producers, executives and talent to view the medium as akin to television circa 1949: lucrative and uncharted territory with plenty of room for experimentation and flag-planting. … But along with the optimism come worries that big money may stifle the D.I.Y....
Cerise Castle said in a podcast interview and on social media on Monday that her time at KCRW was “marked by microaggressions, gaslighting, and blatant racism starting when I was physically prevented from entering the building multiple times within my first month of employment.” - Los Angeles Times
"When the faithful listeners to Klubrádió, a talk radio station that has been a beacon of free speech in Hungary, tuned in last Monday, February 15, they found only silence. … As an open forum for public discourse, Klubrádió has challenged a range of government policies, including those bearing on public memory and press freedom." - The Nation
Pesca, a public radio veteran who has been hosting Slate's daily news podcast, The Gist, since 2012, was suspended indefinitely without pay this week in the wake of a debate among staffers on the company's Slack channel about whether it is ever acceptable for a white journalist to use the n-word itself in a discussion of the slur's use...
"The process helps winnow the field of competing films for upcoming awards shows, a kind of hive mind forming around the season's leading contenders. This year, that mind is looking blank." As the former editor of The Hollywood Reporter recently tweeted, "The usual consensus-building is gone, and voters are left to what they actually think." - The Washington...
Governor Andrew Cuomo said "cinemas in the city will be permitted to operate at 25% capacity, with no more than 50 people. Moreover, other safety measures such as masks, social distancing and heightened sanitizing measures will be required." - Variety
The the government may not apply the code to Facebook if the company can demonstrate it has signed enough deals with media outlets to pay them for content. The government has also agreed that Facebook and other platforms which would be subject to the code would be given a month's notice to comply." - The Guardian
The disclaimer, which runs on 18 episodes of the show (re-relased on Disney+ last week): "This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future...
Peter Quinn, VFX artist, has been making homemade special effects movies, and posting them online. "The whole quarantine and lockdown aspect, I find that useful because it means I've got all this spare time and I've got the gear, I've got the lights ... all I need is to think of a little idea I can do without leaving...
Some of the change is due to a worldwide audience. Netflix and other streaming services "have a certain sensibility that they want to see in the kind of narratives that they are promoting on their platform. That has been a great boon for women filmmakers, women writers, women behind the camera and in front of the camera." - The...
You'd think the director of Precious, The Butler, and more could get funding. But ... "'Studios will give you about $10 to make a black movie. I’m exaggerating, but you get the point,' he says." - The Guardian (UK)
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has some issues, with members describing monthly meetings as battle zones. The HFPA includes zero Black members. It's "an embattled organization still struggling to shake its reputation as a group whose awards or nominations can be influenced with expensive junkets and publicity swag." And it may be running afoul of tax law. - Los...
In 1917, Warner Bros. had eight films directed by women. In 2017, it had ... one. What the heck? Well, for one thing: "Female-focused stories that perform well at the box office are repeatedly seen as flukes rather than proof that audiences want films about women. ... Every summer they would write these stories like these films were sleeper...
True? Film has always had marketing, PR, and of course ratings: "It would be a mistake to present the old gatekeepers in romantic colours compared to new technology companies. In both cases, we are talking about powerful institutions that define, control and manage the boundaries of what is art and culture." - BBC
