“It’s a fascinating look at how self-referential most modern film and TV is (there are a lot of fake sequels), but also how ingrained Netflix’s content strategy and interface are in our culture generally. It’s one thing to cut away to a scene from a fake movie or show during a comedy, but it’s a whole other thing to have it packaged up with stills, art, and metadata like it’s ready to stream. It doesn’t make any of the fake movies or shows feel more real, but it does make them funny all over again.”
My take: My latest project has a dozen films within a film. And one of those has a film within a film within a film. That’s the Wes Anderson episode, natch.
“These streaming services have been making something that they call ‘movies.’ They ain’t movies. They are some weird algorithmic process that has created things that last 100 minutes or so…. I used to be in the movie business where you made something really because you cared about it.”
She says her 2017 contract guaranteed an implied exclusive theatrical release although Disney decided due to the pandemic stunting box office revenue they would release the blockbuster on their streaming platform on the same day. Ironically, Disney+ only came in existence in late 2019.
This had the effect of diminishing ScarJo’s potential profit participation of perhaps $50 million, on top of her base fee of $20 million.
However, on the other hand, Wild Bunch CEO Vincent Grimond believes that if independent film companies are to survive, they need to tap into online revenues, as reported in The Hollywood Reporter.
Scott Roxborough‘s article also quotes Shudder‘s global acquisitions and co-production director Emily Gotto as saying:
“We’ve found that we can get the same awareness, the same press, and marketing attention by doing an online release, without theatrical. Especially if we are dealing with genre titles, we can put it out on our service and also go through our output partnerships to put it onto physical hard goods — DVD, Blu-Ray, in some cases even specialty VHS, while also making the film available on download to own, on Apple, on iTunes, on Amazon Prime. It’s the opportunity for the film to be seen and for the filmmaker to be seen.”
He also quotes Craig Engler, general manager of Shudder, which has over one million subscribers, as saying:
“We’re very big on doing themed programming. So we might do Werewolf Month. You might have heard of The Howling, say, so we’ll use The Howling as a way to get you to check out Ginger Snaps and other great werewolf films you might never think to search out.”
My take: The film business continues to evolve. Once upon a time it was all about bums in seats. Now it’s all about eyes on screens — and everyday it matters less and less what type of screen that is. I predict the ascent of curated streaming services because it’s easier to build niche audiences and then satisfy their specific wants than to appeal to everyone. Cinemas made sense when films were physical and had to be delivered to real buildings scattered across countries: the cost of prints and advertising could easily match production budgets necessitating popular movies that everyone would want to see. Digital delivery changes everything. Mass audiences aren’t determined by geography anymore; today it’s interests that bond folks into splintered, but sizeable, audiences.
Filmzie is another AVOD option for free movies, especially if you have a smart TV.
To review, AVOD means Advertising-based Video On Demand. Yes, films will be interrupted by ads, but the content will be free. Kinda like TV is free but peppered with commercials.
Smart TVs with Filmzie integration are: Samsung Smart TV, LG Smart TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV.
Filmzie can also be watched with a web browser and through their iOS and Android app.
Two-year-old Filmzie was founded by Matej Boda in Slovakia.
“Filmzie is a high-quality worldwide platform for streaming free movies & TV series. There are so many great films out there from extremely talented filmmakers that just don’t get seen by the general public. We are here to change that! Simply by watching movies on Filmzie, you are supporting filmmakers.”
See a list of their 1,000+ movies, including both features and shorts. See some background on them at StartupBeat.
She writes, “Movie theater operators did not mince words in asserting that Disney left money on the table by putting Marvel’s “Black Widow” on Disney Plus on the same day as its theatrical debut.”
The theatre owners are concerned about Disney+ password sharing and digital pirating. Of course, they don’t get a cut of any legitimate streaming revenue as well.
According to The Numbers, the 14-month delayed Black Widow earned $80,366,312 on its first domestic weekend and a total of $314,906,683 internationally after 16 days.
Compare those numbers with the 12-month delayed F9: The Fast Saga that earned $70,043,165 on it first domestic weekend and a total of $621,096,825 internationally after 30 days.
So even though Black Widow bested F9 on its opening weekend, it has earned only half as much in total to date.
Is this because F9 has been out for twice as long? No. In my opinion, the difference is explained by the fact that Black Widow has yet to be released in China.
“Beijing tends to program Hollywood blockbusters sparingly in the key moviegoing month of July to carve out space for local productions. This year, its resistance to scheduling foreign films has been exacerbated by the critical 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party’s founding on July 1. The occasion has been accompanied by an ongoing, months-long period of militant censorship across all media that will last through the end of the month and likely into fall.”
“There is a moment at the end of the film’s second act when the artist David Choe, a friend of Bourdain’s, is reading aloud an e-mail Bourdain had sent him: “Dude, this is a crazy thing to ask, but I’m curious” Choe begins reading, and then the voice fades into Bourdain’s own: “…and my life is sort of shit now. You are successful, and I am successful, and I’m wondering: Are you happy?” I asked (director) Neville how on earth he’d found an audio recording of Bourdain reading his own e-mail. Throughout the film, Neville and his team used stitched-together clips of Bourdain’s narration pulled from TV, radio, podcasts, and audiobooks. “But there were three quotes there I wanted his voice for that there were no recordings of,” Neville explained. So he got in touch with a software company, gave it about a dozen hours of recordings, and, he said, “I created an A.I. model of his voice.” In a world of computer simulations and deepfakes, a dead man’s voice speaking his own words of despair is hardly the most dystopian application of the technology. But the seamlessness of the effect is eerie. “If you watch the film, other than that line you mentioned, you probably don’t know what the other lines are that were spoken by the A.I., and you’re not going to know,” Neville said. “We can have a documentary-ethics panel about it later.””
People seem offended that the director has literally put words into Bourdain’s mouth, albeit his own words. Personally, I don’t have an issue with this but think there should have been a disclaimer off the top revealing, “Artificial Intelligence was used to generate 45 seconds of Mr. Bourdain’s voiceover in this film.”
My take: what I want to know is, how can I license the Tony Bourdain AI to narrate my movie?
“The television hit — the most abiding of entertainment traditions — appears to be dying. That isn’t to say shows don’t have fans; they do, and some of them are more passionate than ever. But according to its long-standing definition — a universally recognized show that gathers a large, verifiable audience and becomes unavoidable in all the places people talk about television and endures well beyond its run — the TV hit is vanishing.”
This at a time when there are many more shows, but less people talking about them.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Steven says Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer of Netflix, “is fond of explaining on the company’s earnings calls that the service wants to have ‘everyone’s’ favorite show but is fine with those shows all being very different.
Hollywood producerTom Nunan calls this ‘intentional narrowcasting.'”
An unauthorized Hollywood agent explains further:
“If you’re Netflix, it makes a lot more sense to have five small shows that are liked by five different family members than one show that all five family members can watch together. You’re much less likely to unsubscribe from the service in the first option. There’s always going to be something someone wants.”
“For 50 years or so, TV was created based on its ability to aggregate large audiences and deliver that audience to advertisers. But I don’t think that has to be the case. I don’t get drunk thinking about how much better the good old days were.”
Steven quotes producerMichael Shamberg, nominated for the best-picture Oscar for broad cinematic events such as “The Big Chill” and “Erin Brockovich” and executive producer of television shows such as “Reno 911!” claiming:
“As a producer it gives you an incredible amount of opportunity, because it means you don’t need to worry about a large percentage of the viewing audience.”
My take: it would seem more niche stories are getting told, but to narrower audiences. No wonder U.S. society seems to be splitting into two camps, with nothing in the middle left to agree on.
Note however that the tentpole was first released internationally on May 21, 2021, and has grossed over $335,000,000, for a worldwide box office of over $405,000,000.
I interviewed Paul Ruta, an avowed Fast and Furious fan, about the appeal of the franchise (over $6.3B and counting!) by email.
Michael Korican: “What is the appeal of the Fast and the Furious franchise?”
Paul Ruta: “Pure escapism at its finest! To me, they are the ultimate thrill rides that allow me to just shut my brain off and smile as I watch the craziness that’s happening on the screen. I love, admire and appreciate all different genres of films but when I think of the absolute basics of what I want to see in a movie — every Fast and Furious ticks all the boxes: Fast cars, Great action, Big muscles, Hot babes, Explosions, Compelling (somewhat) story and Likeable characters. And speaking of characters — I think this is really the foundation of the big appeal of these films as they’ve always been about: family. These characters started out very rooted in reality and that made them a lot more relatable in watching as the series went along and they eventually started doing more “super-hero” level feats of strength in some of the later entries. Often when people think of their “family”, whether they are blood related or not (which a lot of the characters in the films are actually not) — they feel love. And that’s exactly what these characters feel for one another in this franchise and what the filmmakers and production team involved feels for the stories being told — as it always comes across evidently on screen that everyone is always having fun in these and that they in turn want the audience to be having fun too.”
M.K: “Who’s your favourite character and why?”
P.R.: “I’d have to say Brian O’Connor who is portrayed on screen by the late Paul Walker. The first few movies (1, 2, 4 and 5) are really sort of told through mostly I find through his point of view — and I can easily empathize with a lot of the dilemmas his character is presented with and goes through, which in turn provides a lot of the original emotional investment a lot of people made in the beginning with the series. It’s one of those characters where you never felt like there was necessarily so much acting going on as Paul played and fit that role, in that world, perfectly. I think that was maybe one of the big reasons why it felt so tragic to so many when he passed years ago — because it sort of felt like we lost the character in our lives also. The movies since his passing have really noticeably missed his presence — but I don’t think there could’ve ever been a better, more respectful or more touching sendoff to a character than how they handled his exit from the franchise in the 7th film.”
M.K: “Did Vin Diesel change his last name so he could headline an automotive franchise?”
P.R.: “Hah! Perhaps after the “final” scheduled 10th and 11th films there might be a way to infuse his “stage” name into a variety of automotive products to keep the legacy of the franchise going. However, I think that legacy will still be alive and well regardless of when the series does eventually end (or not…) or if there does end up being “Diesel approved Diesel Oil” — because the films themselves will all be shared throughout the families of everyone who grew up with and loved these films for generations to come.”
M.K: “What’s up between Vin Diesel and The Rock?”
P.R.: “It’s a classic good ol’ testosterone-fueled battle of muscle-bound, bald-headed egos. Vin is an ultra-big movie star, however The Rock is an even bigger ultra-big movie star. That being said, Vin was there first in starring in the first Fast and Furious therefore making him the foundation of this series. And because of this, this is the one set that The Rock doesn’t call the shots on. Any other film franchise that these two would be in — it’d be the other way around where Vin would be The Rock’s coffee boy (relatively speaking.) However, it’s Vin’s loyalty (another recurring theme throughout) to these films (and the right timing!) that’s allowed him to be the big dog on campus and everyone involved and the audience recognizes, knows and understands that we wouldn’t have had the awesome 20 years of Fast and Furious we’ve experienced so far if it wasn’t for the spark that Vin brought to the scene in the first place. The movies can of course continue both without The Rock and Vin in them, but Vin is the glue that held this together from the start and therefore — The Rock needs to know his role when he’s in Vin’s world.”
M.K: “Will you see F9 at the cinema or online?“
P.R.: “Oh most definitely on the big cinema screen for sure!!! I’ve seen every one so far since the 1st back in 2001 20 years ago — and I was worried this might have been the first one I’d miss seeing at the theatres this year as I wasn’t sure they’d be back open yet here.”
My take: Thanks, Paul! Vox also explains the franchise.
But first, if you are unfamiliar with K-Dramas, please refer to this comparison with American Movies and Anime:
Note that the zig-zag plot above is only for the first of probably sixteen hour-long episodes!
Netflix describes Vincenzo as a TV comedy series: “During a visit to his motherland, a Korean-Italian mafia lawyer gives an unrivalled conglomerate a taste of its own medicine with a side of justice.”
Untamed Scarlet says, “The impact that Vincenzo has had on the global audience is tremendous, and because of that, these are some of the expectations that future K-Dramas will have to meet:
Game changing CGI & special effects
An international grand setting to pique interest
The main lead’s entrance needs to scream excess and should blow us away!
Make the lead insanely stylish, that you set the new fashion trend across the globe! Swoon to the star!
Equality is everything. Make the whole cast insanely stylish and every moment a fashion extravaganza.
Pick a relatable theme which resonates worldwide and sensationalize the core theme through the drama!
Extraordinary fight sequences are a must.
An empowered and powerful female lead is a necessity and must share great screen time other than just during the romantic sequences!
Make the dialogues historically memorable.
Build strong emotional associations with every character of the drama.
The darker the shades of the character, the better.
Twists and turns that are shocking.
A larger than life romance.
Make the leads the envy of everyone, fashionably speaking!
Romance should be evident even through the subtle hints, like the glorious backgrounds and the appeal of the shot!
Create a lead character who will be remembered forever; in short, just make him immortal all the way!
Let the lead character pique interest. Consigliere you say?
My take: what I appreciate about Korean television drama is its genre-bending storytelling. What starts out as a romantic comedy will veer into horror territory and then turn into a revenge vehicle. A sampler: Bad Guys, Strong Girl Bong-soon, Hyena, Taxi Driver and Itaewon Class. Check out where to watch these and more on Just Watch.
“The hybrid online/in-person model, in some form, is here to stay, bringing with it significant benefits as well as formidable challenges.
Digital programming allows film festivals to be more accessible but also makes it harder to stand out in a crowded online space.
The loss of organic connections is a crucial barrier, especially for emerging creators, to access networking and sales opportunities.”
Some key quotes:
“Film festivals are curators and will stay as curators, with this identity becoming more important than ever. For example, one festival noted that “we cannot compete with platforms like Netflix and do not plan on trying to.” Instead, festivals will continue to focus on providing the viewer with a different type of experience. Such niche experiences include screenings from independent filmmakers, providing region-specific content, or amplifying films from equity-seeking groups.”
And:
“Key strategic positioning considerations include the level of in-person vs. online screening and the balance of industry programming (e.g., panels, networking) vs. film screenings that may attract a wider, non-industry audience. Different festivals will have different approaches regarding the hybrid delivery and their positioning. Film festivals will need to have a clear understanding of their audiences and develop clear communications on what is held in-person and online.”
Further:
“As film festivals are competing for people’s time online in the attention economy, differentiating themselves in the online market will be a strategic necessity when retaining a hybrid model. Examples of differentiating strategies provided by interviewees include focusing on regional-specific content or specific film genres and niches. Articulating a specific identity as an organization will be key to making that differentiation clear to existing and potential new audiences.”
My take: Once in-person gathering restrictions are lifted and cinemas reopen (and audiences feel safe enough to return,) film festivals will have three choices: remain online only, return to in-person only, or adopt a hybrid model. I think the hybrid model will maximize the benefits of both approaches: the intimacy of the theatre plus the global reach of online. Depending on the target audience, I think the hybrid model can work extremely well. Imagine a weekend in-person festival followed by a month of online screenings: the best of both! The wildcard will be “Zoom fatigue” though — have folks just had too much of their digital screens?
The two portals connect Vilnius’s Train Station with Lublin’s Central Square, about 600 km away.
Benediktas Gylys, initiator of PORTAL says:
“Humanity is facing many potentially deadly challenges; be it social polarisation, climate change or economic issues. However, if we look closely, it’s not a lack of brilliant scientists, activists, leaders, knowledge or technology causing these challenges. It’s tribalism, a lack of empathy and a narrow perception of the world, which is often limited to our national borders. That’s why we’ve decided to bring the PORTAL idea to life – it’s a bridge that unifies and an invitation to rise above prejudices and disagreements that belong to the past. It’s an invitation to rise above the us and them illusion.”
My take: back in the early Nineties (before the Internet caught the public eye) I conceived of a similar network of interconnected public spaces, called Central Square. My vision was similar to Citytv‘s Speakers’ Corner but was to be located in large public outdoor spaces and used to broadcast citizen reports, rants or demonstrations. It would have included sound, which PORTAL seems to have overlooked. I think it was to have appeared on television sets on some of the high-numbered channels. Of course, once increased bandwidth could support Internet video, web cams took off instead. See EarthCam.com for a list.
