Joseph Foley admits on Creative Bloq that “I can’t get enough of these incredible Ghanaian film posters.”
Posters advertise movies. Thirty years ago in Ghana, the mobile cinema scene (entrepreneurs with vans, generators, TVs, VCRs and collections of VHS videotapes) needed posters to advertise their screenings. Hence the Ghanaian Film Poster.
Deadly Prey Gallery in Chicago sells prints of these posters. You can also commission the artists.
My take: these posters are fantastic!
Tyler Aquilina reports in Variety on The Most Pirated Film Titles of 2022.
“Exclusive data provided to Variety Intelligence Platform by piracy-focused research firm Muso measured 2022 activity across a wide range of piracy sites, including illegal streaming, torrent, web download and stream-ripping platforms. The results reveal that superhero films held a dominant share of illegal viewing in 2022, with Marvel and DC releases collectively accounting for 70% of piracy demand (that is, illicit streams, downloads and the like) for the top 10 most pirated film titles of the year.”
Here are the top ten 2022 most pirated movies:
“Spikes in a film’s piracy tend to coincide with its release on digital platforms, which enables the availability of high-quality pirated streams or downloads, as opposed to bootleg ‘cam-rip’ versions illicitly recorded in a theater.”
My take: there are two takeaways for me here: 1) once a film streams, it will be pirated immediately (not sure about VOD though,) and therefore 2) theatrical distribution is still a viable way to generate revenue and word-of-mouth for a film.
Roxanne Egan-Elliott reports in the Times Colonist that Victoria’s Pic-A-Flic Video is closing after 40 years:
“Pic-A-Flic Video, one of the last places in Greater Victoria to rent a movie or TV series, plans to close its doors in September after four decades. Opened in 1983, Pic-A-Flic has more than 25,000 titles, from silent movies to new releases, most of which are not available on streaming services or anywhere else, owner Kent Bendall said.”
What to do with all those DVDs?
A change.org petition says: “We cannot allow this collection to be scattered to the winds without having a serious conversation about how it could be permanently housed by UVic and the Greater Victoria Public Library.”
My take: I have a modest proposal! How about the RBCM buy the collection AND hire Kent Bendall to continue operating a video store from Old Town or some other suitable space?
Craig Smith, blogging on Freesound, relates the fascinating story of how he discovered and digitally preserved over 1,000 vintage sound recordings, including the infamous Wilhelm Scream.
Each original sound was on a roll of 35mm magnetic acetate film; these were transferred to audio tape in 1990. Craig explains what happened next:
“I got the SSE tapes from the USC Archive in 2016. It was immediately clear that these tapes had a big problem. They were recorded onto used Ampex tape from the 1980s. Tape manufacturers changed their formulations in the early ’80s, and it turned out these new tapes were very unstable. They started to display what became known as Sticky Shed Syndrome. (Google it.) When this happens, the glue that binds the magnetic oxide to the plastic base becomes sticky, and separates. This makes the tapes virtually unplayable. Fortunately, there’s a temporary fix. Tapes can be baked for several hours at a low temperature in an oven. So that’s what I did. Each tape was baked at 150ºF for four hours, then cooled for four hours. This made the tapes stable enough to transfer using my Nagra 4.2 full track recorder.”
Here’s the direct link to the web page with Man Eaten by Alligator, Screams: https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/675810/
By the way, here are the movies listed in the compilation above:
0:15, 1:03 – The Venture Bros. (2004, 2008)
0:21 Aeon Flux (2005)
0:27 Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
0:33 Team America: World Police (2004)
0:39 Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977)
0:46 Spaceballs (1987)
0:54 Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
1:09 Hellboy (2004)
1:18 Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
1:26 The Animatrix (2003)
1:33 Sin City (2005)
1:39 Batman Returns (1992)
1:46 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
1:52 Howard the Duck (1986)
1:59 Family Guy episode “North by North Quahog” (2005)
2:06 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
2:14 Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)
2:22 King Kong (2005)
2:29 Toy Story (1995)
2:37 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
2:43 Wallace and Gromit in Curse of the WereRabbit (2005)
2:51 Angel episode “The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco” (2003)
2:57, 3:16 Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003)
3:04 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
3:11 Angel episode “A New World” (2001)
3:23 Drawn Together (2004)
And, finally, here’s the original in context, in Distant Drums (1951):
My take: the original meme! I’ve used it too, in a pitch video of all things!
Amos Barshad, writing for WIRED, reports Ben Affleck Has a Plan for a Fairer Streaming World. (Spoilers in trailer below.)
The article is fascinating because it briefly explores Capitalism, Socialism, and fair pay in an economic environment where streaming has vastly reduced the likelihood of residuals.
Of course, Affleck‘s new streaming project, Air, concludes with Michael Jordan becoming the richest athlete ever, due to profit participation. Spoiler: Jordan gets 5% of every pair of Air Jordans sold anywhere in the world. To date, this has amounted to over $1.3 billion.
He quotes Affleck:
“Air, in many ways, is critiquing that aspect of capitalism which historically has been exploitative or patently unfair because it’s rooted in a notion that says, well, if you invest the capital, you get the reward. That needs to change. That’s what I’m trying to accomplish, and that’s what the WGA is trying to accomplish in a much bigger way. If we are going to practice capitalism, which has led to real iniquities, at the very least we ought to recognize the human beings who actually do the work and create a better world. They should be rewarded at least as well as the investors.”
I know of at least three ways cast and crew can share in potential profits:
All risky. (The UK seems to have a tax scheme similar to the one Canada used to have that mitigates film investment risk.)
My take: I’ll leave the last words to Ben Affleck: “It’s been the greatest pleasure to see people capture bonuses based on their own work, that reflects their merit — and to not have people feel like anonymous drones. I’ve worked in this business for a long time. I know that anyone who’s really good has put their work before their self-interest as a matter of course. But they want to be empowered.”
Benjamin Dzialdowski lists on BuzzFeed 24 Things We Miss About Old Movies, And What We Can’t Stand About Modern Films. He writes:
“A lot has changed in cinema over the years. While, in some aspects, there have been significant steps forwards, there’s plenty people miss about old films and a fair amount of gripes they have about modern films too.”
His List of Pet Peeves:
What He Says We Miss:
However, I think these are folks’ top three pet peeves with today’s Hollywood movies:
And these are the top three things I think folks miss most about movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age:
My take: my biggest pet peeve is barely being able to hear the dialogue. And I do miss rom-coms.
The CBC reports that Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, was passed and received royal assent on Thursday, April 27, 2023: Controversial bill to regulate online streaming becomes law.
“The bill makes changes to Canada’s Broadcasting Act. The legislation requires streaming services, such as Netflix and Spotify, to pay to support Canadian media content like music and TV shows. It also requires the platforms to promote Canadian content. Specifically, the bill says ‘online undertakings shall clearly promote and recommend Canadian programming, in both official languages as well as in Indigenous languages.’ The changes give the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Canada’s broadcast regulator, broad powers over digital media companies, including the ability to impose financial penalties for violations of the act. The government says the legislation is necessary to impose the same regulations and requirements in place for traditional broadcasters on online media platforms. Right now, broadcasters are required to spend at least 30 per cent of their revenue on supporting Canadian content.”
The bill doesn’t prescribe how the CRTC should direct undertakings to do this: “But the government is expected to clarify many areas of uncertainty through a policy directive to the CRTC. A Senate amendment that the House of Commons accepted requires the CRTC to hold public consultations on how it will use its new regulatory powers.”
Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, is an outspoken skeptic of the legislation. He speculates that:
“The legislation will head to its next phase including a policy direction consultation that will seek to clean up at least some of the uncertainty in the bill (that Bill C-11 was subject to so much scrutiny yet still leaves so much unanswered is hard to explain), followed by years of CRTC hearings and appeals. Sometime in the future – best guess would be 2025 or 2026 – digital creators will have been forced to make multiple trips to Gatineau to urge a hands-off regulatory approach and the industry will find that the bill generates far less than it expected. Further, those modest benefits will be accompanied by revised Canadian content policies that will leave some doubting whether the trade-off was worth it.”
My take: I worry about the concentration of administrative power in an unelected government-appointed board. And the unintended consequences! For instance, will smaller streamers just forgo Canada if this will increase their operating expenses? Will the definition of Canadian content change so much that the domestic television industry is threatened? Will the government be able to censor Canadian UGC? Cannot predict now.
The new Relight FX in Blackmagic Design‘s DaVinci Resolve Studio is amazing!
“The new Relight FX lets you add virtual light sources into a scene to creatively adjust environmental lighting, fill dark shadows or change the mood. Light sources can be directional to cast a broad light, a point source, or a spotlight and be adjusted for surface softness and specularity control.“
My take: wow! This looks like so much fun. I can see using Relight instead of a power window to punch up illumination on the subject, drawing the eye exactly where you want it to go. This tool brings new meaning to the phrase, “We’ll fix it in Post!”
CBC British Columbia reports that Vancouver installs electricity ‘kiosks’ to draw film crews away from diesel generators.
“In an effort to lessen the film industry’s dependence on loud, diesel-burning generators, Vancouver has installed several “clean energy kiosks” to provide electricity to crews working on productions near the waterfront. The city said in a statement Thursday that it had installed three of the kiosks in the False Creek area, where it said crews use more than 200 generators for power every year. The new kiosks will instead allow film sets to plug in and draw energy from the city’s power grid. The statement said council’s goal is to eventually have a citywide network of kiosks so crews can access electricity at the popular citywide filming spots by 2030.”
This City of Vancouver initiative dates back to at least 2021. Make that 2019.
Daily Hive‘s Kenneth Chan has way more coverage.
My take: this is a great idea! By the way, those power cables are heavy! Did that job for one day only.
Dominik Dorosz posted a new video on FilmStack claiming YOU Lost the Streaming Wars.
He reviews the chronology of online streaming:
He posits that:
“The real loser of this war is us, the consumer. The over-saturation of services, the splitting of catalogues, and the constant price hikes are just a few of the problems we’ve experienced and, with Netflix’s latest password restrictions, we are now starting to see the worst of it all, as all streaming platforms are shifting their focus from market share to profit.”
His evidence is compelling and he concludes with a strategy to combat rising streaming costs:
“The best option (and it’s a problem streaming services are trying to tackle) is rotating subscriptions. Most people don’t need to have access to every service for all 12 months of the year. What you can do instead is wait until you have a decent backlog of things to watch on one platform and then subscribe to it to catch up. While catching up on this backlog, your backlogs on other services will grow and you can rotate to another afterwards.”
My take: Brilliant analysis! I love the Rotating Subscriptions strategy to lower your subscription costs.