03 Dec

Posted at 12:23h in Film Fundamentals
What do the last election and modern Hollywood have in common?  I mean, aside from ridiculous out-of-control budgets and delusional assumptions. The answer is data analytics. For example, Mitt Romney really thought he was going to win the election because of his polling data and his use of Orca, the database system that was supposed to do almost everything (including coffee, I suspect). However there were fatal flaws in their methodology on the polling data, and Orca blew up on election day morning.

26 Nov

Posted at 11:40h in Film Fundamentals

According to the British philosopher Ebeneezer Scrooge, this is that time of the year when we balance our books and note our deficits. So I guess the Huffington Post slide-show, Box Office Flops: 2012's Biggest Turkeys, is the first step in the process. Going where much...

19 Nov

Posted at 08:14h in Film Fundamentals

Over the past several years, I have noted the raw and increasing power of digital media. A wide variety of sites have blossomed across the internet, covering everything from animation to household tips and vast new extremes in personal narcissism. The result is a digital...

09 Nov

Posted at 15:44h in Film Fundamentals

Do you need music in your movie? I don't know. Do you need salt and butter with your popcorn?  You can eat it plain. You won't like that way but you can do it. The same is true with music in movies. At its best, the...

05 Nov

Posted at 10:28h in Film Fundamentals
Movies are irrelevant. It's official. The New York Times says so. Well, not exactly. But a recent article plays with the idea. For more than a year, countless bloggers (myself included) have been saying the same thing. The Times is a bit late to the party and seems determined to sneak in through the back door, basing part of their thinking on the Academy's decision to have Seth MacFarlane as the next Oscar host. Note to The Times: the choice of MacFarlane actually makes more sense than the David Letterman fiasco back in 1995. At least MacFarlane's movie made money (unlike the Letterman production of Cabin Boy). But it is a valid question for reasons The Times article barely mentions.

29 Oct

Posted at 14:17h in Film Fundamentals
Early this month, a quiet revolution started in movie theater management. Called Movie Pass, it is a rapidly emerging new system that links the box office straight to the digital universe. It is simultaneously ticking off theater managers across the country while developing a growing list of enthusiastic subscribers. Hollywood companies are roughly divided between opposition and support and are mostly waiting to see further developments. Some folks in the indie business thinks that it just might be the ticket to the future for low budget films. Personally, I think everybody is half-right. That also means that they are half-wrong. I think I just covered all my bases. The system was originally beta tested

23 Oct

Posted at 12:43h in Film Fundamentals
In a coincidence that is almost as magical as a certain type of underpants, Mitt Romney inadvertently rounded off the recent release of the Women's Impact Report 2012 with a reminder of why some folks in Hollywood thought it important to do the report. Sure, Romney was trying to explain his approach to diversity in political hiring, whereas the Women's Impact Report is exclusively focused on the entertainment industry. But it's all the same thing.

12 Oct

Posted at 18:27h in Film Fundamentals
It is the age-old philosophic question. What is reality (or, actually, what is the nature of reality)? According to Plato, it was mathematics. For the Romans, it was the flesh and blood material of the natural world. After the Enlightenment, it turned into a conflict between rational human intelligence and nature. But today, it is Honey Boo Boo. Oh well, at least we don't have to deal with all of that math stuff that so enthralled Plato. Reality television – and its strange evolution – has become a topic among indie filmmakers. To be honest, I first discovered this fact when I heard Christine Vachon

06 Oct

Posted at 12:46h in Film Fundamentals
Obviously my knee jerk response is to say no. But that tends to be my knee jerk response to many things. Twenty years of fatherhood does that to a guy. However, the question is being raised in many quarters. During the past year there has been a virtual parade of articles ranging from a CNBC piece on the end of movie studios to critic Andrew O'Hehir's speculations on the death of film culture, along with Keanu Reeves' view on the death of analog film-making and numerous pronouncements by the British and European press. Almost every component of the industry has received its own obituary.

29 Sep

Posted at 04:15h in Film Fundamentals
There's seems to be a mythic notion that I have money. How else can I explain the great movie “investment” offers I receive every week. So let me first set the record straight. I don't have money. Not really. Certainly not the $10,000 to $10,000,000 that various folks are hoping I will want to invest into their movies. I am even having to pass on an offer of cheap land in India (though what I would do with a couple of acres over there leaves me baffled). The internet is a vast land of opportunity. Not necessarily good opportunities, but lots and lots of offers.