“I wanted to create something that people would walk away from thinking I’ve never seen anything like that before. A small indie like this can’t compete with Hollywood for spectacle and star power, but we can try to make much more interesting films at least. Make something that when people walk away from it they don’t just forget about it. I want to say it was Kubrick but some director I remember reading years ago said I don’t care if they love it or hate it, I want them to remember it.“
Looks like he’s done that with his latest feature; see the trailer below.
My take: this is great advice! Lacking millions of dollars, we must have something else to beat Hollywood at its own game. That something is: story, attitude and ingenuity.
Confirming that online broadcasting is covered under the Act. Currently, online undertakings that deliver audio and audio-visual content over the Internet are exempt from licensing and most other regulatory requirements. The Bill clarifies that online undertakings are within the scope of the broadcasting regulatory system. The Bill provides the CRTC with new powers to regulate online audio and audio-visual services, allowing the CRTC to create conditions of service and other regulatory requirements under which these online broadcasters would operate in Canada. It also updates the CRTC’s regulatory powers as they relate to traditional broadcasters. The Bill ensures that the Act would not apply to users of social media services, or social media services themselves for content posted by their users. The Bill ensures that online broadcasters will only be regulated when doing so would contribute in a material manner to the objectives of the Act. It will be up to the CRTC to determine which services will be regulated.
Updating the Broadcasting and Regulatory Policies for Canada. The Bill updates key elements of the broadcasting policy for Canada so that the broadcasting system is more inclusive of all Canadians. The Bill recognizes that the Canadian broadcasting system should, through its programming and the employment opportunities arising out of its operations, serve the needs and interests of all Canadians—including Francophones and Anglophones, Indigenous Peoples, Canadians from racialized communities and Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, abilities and disabilities, sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and ages. The Bill underscores that programming that reflects Indigenous cultures in Canada should be provided within the Canadian broadcasting system, regardless of resource availability. It also says there must be a space for Indigenous media undertakings in the Canadian broadcasting system. Additional amendments would also serve to promote greater accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Creating a more flexible approach to regulation and sustainable funding for Canadian stories. The Bill facilitates a flexible approach to regulation, which will allow the CRTC to tailor the conditions of service and other regulatory requirements imposed on broadcasters by considering the Act’s policy and regulatory objectives, the variety of broadcasters in the system (and the differences between them), and determining what is fair and equitable depending on the circumstances. The Bill provides the CRTC with express powers to require broadcasting undertakings, including online undertakings, to make financial contributions to Canadian content and creators.
Modernizing the CRTC’s enforcement powers. The Bill provides the CRTC with new enforcement powers through an administrative monetary penalty scheme (AMPs), which aligns the CRTC’s enforcement powers with how it regulates telecommunications and spam. The objective of the AMPs scheme would be to promote compliance, not to punish.
Updating oversight and information-sharing provisions. The Bill ensures that the CRTC has the tools it needs as a modern regulator, so that it may gather information from stakeholders and liaise with other departments and agencies. It also ensures that commercially sensitive information that is collected by the CRTC in the course of its proceedings is properly protected.
The expected outcomes are:
More opportunities for Canadian producers, directors, writers, actors, and musicians to create high quality audio and audiovisual content and to make that content available to Canadian audiences.
An equitable and flexible regulatory framework where comparable broadcasting services are subject to similar regulatory requirements, taking into account their distinct business models and other relevant circumstances.
Canadian music and stories being more available through a variety of services.
A more diverse and inclusive broadcasting system that is reflective of Canadian society and that serves Canadians from all walks of life.
Mobile Syrup notes: “If the CRTC requires online broadcasters, such as Netflix and Spotify, to contribute to Canadian content at a similar rate to traditional broadcasters, then their contributions to Canadian music and stories could amount to up to $830 million by 2023.”
Not everyone is happy though.
The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting are: “concerned by the fact that multiple sections of the Broadcasting Act have been repealed or amended to remove protections for Canadian culture. For example, the bill moves from mandating ‘maximum or predominant use’ of Canadian creative resources to using Canadian resources ‘to the extent that it is appropriate.’ It also removes language that the broadcasting system should be owned and controlled by Canadians, opening the door to foreign companies to buy up what’s left of Canada’s traditional broadcasting system.”
“In the short term, this bill creates considerable uncertainty that could lead to reduced investment in Canadian film and television production and less consumer choice as potential new streaming entrants avoid the Canadian market until there is greater clarity on the cost of doing business. Canada is set to become a highly regulated market for Internet streaming services and the uncertainty regarding those costs are sure to have an impact. The regulatory process will take years to unfold with a call for public comment, a lengthy hearing, the initial decision, applications to review and vary the decision, judicial reviews, and potential judicial appeals. If any of the appeals are successful, the CRTC would be required to re-examine its decision and the process starts anew. This lengthy process could have a major impact on investment decisions. For example, if you’re a large Internet streaming company that is already investing $100 million per year in film and television production in Canada, you might delay some of that spending until there is greater clarity on what ‘counts’ for the purposes of meeting your new regulatory requirements. New entrants may also delay entering into the Canadian market given the prospect of significant new spending requirements and regulatory intervention into confidential business information. Canada was once a highly attractive market for new services, but this bill may cause new entrants to rethink their plans.“
My take: change is almost always difficult. However, given that the Liberals helm a minority government, the chance of this legislation actually becoming law is very slim. More likely it will die on the Order Paper when the next election is called — I’m guessing in June 2021.
Designed by Artichect Pierre Chican in Paris, the ŌMA “concept of movie theater creates a cinematographic experience at the same time intimate, spectacular and immersive, where every seat in the house is the best seat in the house.” His credentials:
“Specialized in the realization of cultural arenas and more particularly of cinemas for more than 20 years now, Pierre Chican designed two of the most successful cinema theaters in Europe : UGC Les Halles (3.1 million tickets sold in 2019) & UGC Bercy (1.9 million tickets sold in 2019) in Paris and many others projects in France (Pathé La Valette with the first IMAX laser cinema in France) and abroad.”
Star Wars fans have pointed out this design looks very similar to the Galactic Senate Chamber.
My take: I’ve often wondered if going to the movies is destined to become an exclusive activity, like opera is today. This cinema concept is exclusively a collection of opera boxes. I notice each pod in this concept seats 15 people. If it’s just me and my wife I wonder how it will feel to join a pod with a bunch of folks there already. But of course, it will be by reservation only. If you go with your own posse of film viewers, will you still resist the temptation to not stay silent?
Producers are Filmmakers and an essential part of the filmmaking process.
You will work on each project for far longer than you think.
To the industry, the director is king. (Sorry producers.)
It is very unlikely that you will move up in the industry as fast as the directors you work with.
There is no ladder to climb.
You have to create your own opportunities.
She concludes by asking for a system that rewards indie producers for discovering and nurturing the next crop of filmmakers.
My take: thank you, Gabrielle, for a great, heart-felt post, and sharing your experience in producing so far. As to a system that rewards indie producers for discovering and nurturing emerging filmmakers, perhaps you could become their managers or agents? This would guarantee that as they advanced, you could too. Or, maybe we need an Alliance of Independent Producers that would lobby buyers on behalf of its members to make sure experienced and successful producers get better terms.
“Another major movie was taken off of the theatrical release calendar as theater chains like Regal and Cineworld shut down again in the US and UK last week. On Thursday, Disney announced that its upcoming Pixar movie, ‘Soul,’ would debut on its streaming service Disney Plus on December 25 and, unlike ‘Mulan,’ would be available to subscribers at no additional cost. This isn’t the first movie intended for theaters that Disney has released straight to Disney Plus during the pandemic, others being ‘Artemis Fowl’ and ‘The One and Only Ivan.’ But ‘Soul’ is different because Disney seemed to be committing to a theatrical release until Regal and Cineworld closed again.”
This is a departure from their ‘Mulan’ strategy that required Disney Plus subscribers to pony up an extra $29.99.
“There was some important and potentially game-changing language buried in the press release: ‘Under the new structure, the Company’s three content groups will be responsible and accountable for producing and delivering content for theatrical, linear and streaming, with the primary focus being the Company’s streaming services.’ Yes, Disney has officially announced that streaming content is going to be their primary focus going forward.“
Drew wonders: “If 2021 has the Mouse house focusing on streaming, it could spell certain doom for the big movie theater chains. And maybe that will present an opportunity for Disney to swoop in and buy one of these chains. If that happens, who even knows what the future of movie exhibition will look like.”
One person who is dismayed by that possibility is film director Patty Jenkins. Lisa Richwine of Reuters UK reports that “Jenkins is among dozens of top Hollywood directors appealing to the U.S. government to provide a financial lifeline to cinemas. Without it, she warned, the century-old tradition of going to the movies could disappear from American culture.”
She quotes Jenkins lamenting about the closure of movie theatres:
“If we shut this down, this will not be a reversible process. We could lose movie theater-going forever. It could be the kind of thing that happened to the music industry where you could crumble the entire industry by making it something that can’t be profitable. I don’t think any of us want to live in a world where the only option is to take your kids to watch a movie in your own living room, and not have a place to go for a date.”
“Warner Bros and most of Hollywood’s other major studios just announced that pretty much every big blockbuster movie left with a 2020 release date has now been delayed. The only notable exception to this massive movement of movie release dates is Wonder Woman 1984. There’s been no official announcement about any change in that movie’s release, even though the studio in charge of it, Warner Bros., announced they’re delaying everything else they had on the schedule. You haven’t heard anything about Wonder Woman 1984 being delayed for one very good reason: Warner Bros. is planning to stream it. There have been rumors for months now that WB has specifically pondered releasing Wonder Woman 1984 direct to streaming platforms and now according to my source it’s going to happen. This is a source I’ve known for a long time and while they haven’t given me a scoop recently, they’ve been straight up with me in the past. Still, I only have one source on this so as always any time any news item only has one source, take it with a grain of salt. My source tells me that Warner Bros. is sticking with Wonder Woman 1984’s current December 25, 2020 release date because they feel they no longer have any choice but to start releasing their movies on streaming.”
WW84 has been delayed three times and was scheduled to be released theatrically on December 25. Perhaps it will become a major day-and-date release, opening everywhere at once.
My take:Christmas Day has historically been the busiest day of the year for cinemas. But it looks like the Covid Grinch has other plans. My prediction for 2021 is that all film theatre chains will see a change of ownership to the largest streaming companies: Disney Plus, Amazon and Netflix. Imagine if your Amazon Prime membership got you free delivery, free Prime Video and free admission to the local Prime Movie Multiplex? Maybe now is the time to buy popcorn futures?
The screenings start this Friday with 1917 and Rocketman.
It’s not cheap — each car will cost £32.50. You can upgrade to a “deckchair, table, popcorn and separate area to the side of your vehicle in an exclusive and bigger bay for your car” for an additional £7.50 — presumably per deckchair.
There will also be “a pop-up bar with a large selection of soft drinks as well as alcoholic beverages, popcorn and snacks.”
“Travis Irvine, the movie’s writer, director and producer, said that in the week it was ranked 13th, “Killer Raccoons 2” was the only comedy on the list — making it the No. 1 comedy film in the U.S. (“with many asterisks next to that,” he said).”
“I do think that the pandemic has unleashed all options. It’s become a testing zone of every possible way of getting a film out there, and it’s going to take while before it gets set into some sort of pattern.”
This weekend we shall see which strategy wins: in one corner we have Mulan‘s paradigm-shifting Premium VOD and in the other we have Tenet‘s old school theatrical distribution. Tenet released internationally one week before its US debut, earning $53,000,000. With 60 million subscribers and a $29.99 ticket, Disney+ needs at least 2 million of its subscribers to pony up the extra cash to catch up to Tenet.
My take: If one strategy wins by a landslide, will the film industry follow en masse and forever change how movies are distributed?
“Cineplex, one of Canada’s leading entertainment and media companies, will be the first of the major film exhibitors in the world to reopen its entire circuit of theatres when its remaining theatres open Friday, August 21, 2020. From coast-to-coast, all 164 Cineplex theatres and 1,687 screens across Canada will be open as of tomorrow, including the Company’s 22 VIP Cinemas locations.”
Nevertheless Jessica Leonora Whitehead opines in The Globe and Mail that “today, thanks to the quality of TV programming and the rise of streaming services, the industry cannot assume that customers will simply come back.”
My take: I love watching movies in cinemas! But perhaps not right now.
“This pop-up event is touring the country and visiting 160 Walmart Supercenter locations. Gates open at 6:00pm and the film begins at 7:30pm. Tickets are free, but must be requested in advance.”
The films to be shown from August 5 through October 21, 2020 are:
Black Panther
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
Wonder Woman
Friday Night Lights
Spy Kids
Space Jam
Ghostbusters
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
The Wizard of Oz
My take: It appears that people are dying for a night out, as ALL of the dates are SOLD OUT! I say “sold out” but remember all the spots are free. I wonder how many of these screenings will be shut down by local authorities if they exceed the maximum number of congregants for group gatherings.
So begins a startling revelation by Disney Researchers Jacek Naruniec, Leonhard Helminger, Christopher Schroers and Romann M. Weber in a paper delivered virtually at The 31st Eurographics Symposium on Rendering in London recently.
Here’s the abstract:
“In this paper, we propose an algorithm for fully automatic neural face swapping in images and videos. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method capable of rendering photo-realistic and temporally coherent results at megapixel resolution. To this end, we introduce a progressively trained multi-way (comb network) and a light- and contrast-preserving blending method. We also show that while progressive training enables generation of high-resolution images, extending the architecture and training data beyond two people allows us to achieve higher fidelity in generated expressions. When compositing the generated expression onto the target face, we show how to adapt the blending strategy to preserve contrast and low-frequency lighting. Finally, we incorporate a refinement strategy into the face landmark stabilization algorithm to achieve temporal stability, which is crucial for working with high-resolution videos. We conduct an extensive ablation study to show the influence of our design choices on the quality of the swap and compare our work with popular state-of-the-art methods.”
Got that?
My advice: just watch the video and be prepared to be wowed.
My take: Deep fakes were concerning enough. However, this technology actually has production value. I envision a (very near) future where “substitute actors” (sub-actors?) are the ones who give the performances on set and then this Disney technology replaces their faces the those of the “stars” they represent. In fact, if I was an agent, I’d be looking for those subactors now so I could package the pair. A star who didn’t want to mingle with potentially COVID-19 carriers could send their doubles to any number of projects at the same time. All that would be left is to do a high resolution 3D scan and some ADR work. Of course — Jimmy Fallon already perfected this technique five years ago:
