Category: Movies

Is 3D for the Home Dead?

A group of experts at a technology conference — where the subject generated little enthusiasm — seem to think so.

3D for the home is dead, according to a majority of attendees at the Hollywood Post Alliance Tech Retreat now taking place in Palm Springs.

When the subject of 3D came up at the confab, the audience of about 400 entertainment technology veterans were asked to indicate by a show of hands if they thought 3D for the home was dead — and roughly 80% of the audience agreed with that proposition…

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/is-3d-home-dead-101226

Vertical — Book Review

Before Sideways was a hit film from director Alexander Payne in 2004, it was a novel by a relatively unknown screenwriter named Rex Pickett. The success of that comedy and subsequent enthusiasm of his publisher turned Pickett into a celebrity among wine enthusiasts – to say nothing of California Central Coast winemakers, who thrilled at the surge in tasting-room visits and sales of the protagonist’s favorite wine, Pinot Noir.

So quite unexpectedly, this down-and-out screenwriter, who didn’t get his book published until the movie was being made, fell into the lap of the bitch-goddess of fortune and fame. I well remember running into him at the Paso Robles Zin Fest the following year, when he served as guest of honor and autographed copies of his novel at Justin Winery, a scene he re-creates in his new novel, Vertical.

As you might gather, Vertical is a sequel to Sideways. It follows the further adventures of Miles and Jack, his wayward companion in debauchery, womanizing and wine-guzzling. This time the boys drive through the scenes of their earlier notoriety in the vineyards of Santa Ynez Valley to head for the International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville, Ore., a state whose Pinots can compare with any in the world including Burgundy’s…

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/book-review-vertical-96954

Blockbuster Prepping for Sale

Blockbuster’s creditors are preparing to sell the rental chain, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The company’s investors reportedly could not agree on a plan to take the company out of bankruptcy. They are willing to sell Blockbuster for $300 million.

To put that price tag in perspective, it’s quite a fall for a company that was purchased by Viacom for $8.4 billion in 1994…

https://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/report-blockbuster-prepping-sale-24665

Blu-ray Sales Increase Past DVD, Video On-Demand

Now that the holiday dust has settled, a clearer picture of Blu-ray’s future is emerging through consumer reports and research. While DVD sales are struggling to stay out of the red, Blu-ray is finding its way to the top. The numbers could indicate a more definitive transition in optical media technology…

https://blog.cd-info.com/2011/01/blu-ray-sales-increase-over-dvd/

Netflix rises as studios’ DVD money plunges

Not long ago, ambitious young executives at the six major Hollywood film studios maneuvered to get into the home entertainment divisions.

Nowadays, getting assigned to home entertainment is like being sent to the Eastern front. Better to work in theatrical distribution, international, or maybe studio facilities. Recently, I spoke with an executive from one of the big studios who, while discussing the challenges of working in the film industry, noted there was one silver lining: “At least I don’t work in home entertainment.”

The studios’ home-entertainment divisions typically oversee sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs as well as Internet distribution. But the DVD has long been synonymous with these units for the simple reason that the discs account for the vast majority of revenues. This week, Sony, Time Warner, Viacom and News Corp., reported earnings and their film divisions continue to see falling DVD sales.

For the quarter ended December 31, Paramount Pictures saw a 44 percent decline in home video revenue from the same period a year ago, according to Viacom, Paramount’s parent company (don’t people give DVDs as holiday gifts anymore?)…

https://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20030627-261.html?tag=topTechContentWrap;editorPicks

The Improving Economics of Independent Film

…For the past few years though, Sundance has been at the center of an industry in trouble. Like the rest of the economy, the independent film world got hit hard by the global crisis. Before 2008, Wall Street bankers with more money than they knew what to do with were directing extra funds into the film world in the hopes of turning a profit or at least getting to meet Scarlett Johansson.

That created a glut of independent films that were competing for limited theater space and audience attention. As a result marketing budgets started to exceed production budgets. The economics of making independent films fell apart around the same time Wall Street crashed. Independent film branches like Paramount Vantage and Warner Independent closed their doors.

But today, things are starting to look up for independent films. The glut is gone…

https://blogs.forbes.com/dorothypomerantz/2011/01/20/the-improving-economics-of-independent-film/?boxes=businesschannelsections

Q&A: Christopher Nolan on Dreams, Architecture, and Ambiguity

Christopher Nolan, director of Memento, and The Dark Knight, tends to let his twisty genre deconstructions speak for themselves. But he agreed to talk to Wired about the decade-long inception of his movie Inception (on DVD December 7). We talked to him about heists, architecture, and the difference between ambiguity and a lack of answers. Hint: One is better (looking at you, Lost)…

https://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/pl_inception_nolan/?pid=3930