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Home » Familiarity Breeds a Steady Income Stream

Familiarity Breeds a Steady Income Stream

Image: Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake in “Friends With Benefits”. Is Sony Pictures a throw-back to Hollywood’s studio era? Photo credit:David Giesbrecht/Screen Gems

The Past Week in Review: July 25, 2011

We search for the more interesting and provocative news and views of the past week…just so you don’t have to.

This week we see old Hollywood making a comeback, why iTunes makes a good good distribution model, and honestly truly one of the last postings on Final Cut Pro X.


What’s Old is New

In today’s Hollywood, familiarity breeds a steady income stream. At least that’s the slant the Time’s Michael Cieply takes for his article on Sony Pictures, which has been run by Amy Pascal, the company’s co-chairwoman, for the past 15 years.

Cieply says the company is showing that movies made with a regular and reliable mix of proven directors and actors provides a steady stream of income that steers clear of the blockbuster-or-bust attitude that many Hollywood studios aim for.


The New Math of Online?

Money is being made of the opposite end of the spectrum-the no budget end that is-via a recently released feature shot with a Canon 5D. The Polish brothers are “twin auteur filmmakers” says TheWrap’s Steve Pond, who used the low-profile of this seemingly still-camera-only DSLR to shoot in churches and other spaces around Paris without a single permit or pay off.

Pond says that Michael and Mark Polish’s “wildly successful experiment in New Hollywood Math” garnered $200,000 by press time, all brought in via the iTunes store.

Filmmaker Magazine’s Eric Kohn follows up on Pond’s story wondering if “Can Streaming Sustain Anything More Than Small Success Stories?”

Upon offering a mini-history of the discovery of the potential of Internet streaming for movies, Kohn posits that such indie delivery schemes are “less of a sea change and more of a model unto itself.” The reporter goes on to discuss Joe Swanberg’s “Autoerotic” which had a video on demand release via IFC Midnight and then opened at New York’s IFC Center. Kohn says that technology “may sustain the illusion of instant change” but the reality is that movies still trickle out the old-fashioned way.

In her article “Hollywood overlooks the web, except when it can be put on TV”, GigaOM reporter Liz Shannon Miller says that the recent Emmy nominations make it clear that while the web is seeing creative approaches by broadcast and cable television for product branding, independent web productions remain in the wilderness “when it comes to building mainstream awareness.”

However, web-to-television adaptations are thriving, says Miller, even while originally produced web series are overlooked by web awards shows.

Paul Bond of the Hollywood Reporter points to an increased income demand from Hollywood studios as the reason behind Netflix recently announced 60-percent price hike, which is already causing backlash from long-time users. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is thought to be building a war chest as acquisition costs for streaming content soar. One example: in a prior deal, Netflix paid NBC Universal $22 million for content while the new contract, although it does offer access to more shows than before, socks Netflix with fees of as much as $300 million a year.


Image credit: dj-design.com
3D’s Pain

ArsTechnica reports on a Samsung funded study that finds 3D video displays as causing extra eye fatigue.

Reporting in the Journal of Vision, researchers from the University of California-Berkeley reported that the test subjects complained of more eye strain, fatigue and even a drop in visual clarity when 3D video viewing was compared to an equivalent time viewing 2D material. You can read more here.


FCPX Can’t Stay Out of the News

Finally, since we have noted some of the bitter feelings engendered by Apple’s launch of a completely revamped Final Cut X, here’s a more positive look at the software from David Leitner. A technologist and Mac user from the very first, D. W. Leitner is a favorite writer of ours who we’ve quoted from before.

Writing in Filmmaker Magazine, Leitner downplays the “tsunami of hand wringing and head scratching” over the new software, pointing instead to writers such as Creative Cow’s Gary Adcock, who has methodically presented the radically new thinking behind the software’s rather innocuous interface.

Leitner offers up some useful insight, such as what AV Foundation is and why it is so important to replace the aging QuickTime with code like AVF that is much more deeply integrated with Apple’s latest Lion OS.

While he is forward looking in his perspective, commentators to Leitner’s article still aren’t giving the new app a pass. In any case, you can read his comments on this very new think NLE by clicking here.

About Dan Ochiva

New York City-based journalist and NYCPPNEWS founder Dan Ochiva writes and consults on film, video, and digital media technology.

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

NJ – Governor Murphy signs $14B Incentive Program Bill – the NJ Economic Recovery Act of 2020

 Film tax credits — amending existing programs to include provisions for so-called New Jersey film partners and New Jersey film-lease partners and allowing an additional $200 million of tax credits annually over 13 years.

Click this link if you want to read the full article on the Lexology site. http://bit.ly/35NtDx6

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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