Podcasts

I decided to do my blog on the 3 podcasts. The first podcast is Episode 29 from Entertainmentlawupdate.com. The lawyers in the podcasts are Gordon Firemark, Tamara Bennet, and Erin Jacobson. In this podcast they talk about various issues within entertainment industry. The very first issue that they discuss about is the 360 deals. They first discuss the artists that have had problems with the 360 deals. The lawyers have many years of experience each doing different things within the entertainment industry. Erin Jacobson (who is a guest on the podcast) knows the 360 deals probably like the back of her hand.

The second podcast (Episode 30) I am also doing from entertainmentlawupdate.com. This podcast is even more informative and helpful to my business because they talk about Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com. Young and independent filmmakers use both Kickstarter and Indiegogo to help fund and make their films. The lawyers talk about a law that has been recently changed to allow people who were attempting to gain money for a project be able to go to anyone rather than having only families or friends help out. This is beneficial to many filmmakers and business starters such as myself because we can have everyone help. There is however one downside to this (sort of). If you happen to raise over half a million dollars then you must have an audited financial statement. Since I am horrible at math that can be a bad thing but thankfully you have people (accountants) that you can hire to help with financial statements.

The third and final podcast (Episode 26) is also done by entertainmentlawupdate.com. In this podcast they talk about the SOPA act. SOPA stands for “Stop Online Privacy Act. The act is to stop copyright infringement. I only know about the act mainly from what I have read online. However the lawyers have given me insight into from the law side of it and how it might affect the Internet. Overall all of the podcasts have been very informative and enlightening because I had a chance to see what lawyers think rather than what I think.


http://www.entertainmentlawupdate.com/

http://themusicindustrylawyer.com/

Online piracy

For Hollywood it has become a battle to fight against online piracy. When Napster began it changed not only the music industry but also the film industry. Everyone everywhere could now download one of their favorite musicians songs or even their albums. While it took the music industry a while to fight Napster and online piracy they won in the end. Now with Hollywood it has become a little bit more difficult due to online piracy overseas. A few years ago when I was in the United States Navy we went to a country called Montenegro.  While I was there I came across a shopping area that had souvenirs you could buy. I saw many pirated DVD’s one of them including Spider-Man 3 which had not even come out in the states yet. I was shocked to see it out and yet tempted to buy it even though I would see it soon. Piracy overseas is harder to control due to varying laws of different countries. However earlier this year the government shut down and seized Mega Upload’s assets. With the shutdown of this “file sharing” site it has become a win for Hollywood and the government in the fight for online piracy. However that is only a few of the sites out there. The NFL managed to shutdown some sites prior to the Superbowl because of all the money they would lose. Worrying about a sporting event such as that is a good thing but there are other sites that make a profit from TV shows. If I wanted to watch a certain show but I did not have cable then all I would have to do is wait a few hours, look online for said show and then voila there is the show free for me to watch. Fighting online piracy will not be easy but I believe that with more strict laws for overseas countries it can be fought and won.

http://gizmodo.com/megaupload/

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/steveorjoey/news/?a=41001

http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-on-bittorrent-110207/

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa51834.000/hfa51834_0.htm

Marvel versus DC

DC Comics and Marvel Comics are two of the biggest comic book companies out there. DC has been around for 75 plus years and Marvel has been around for about 50 plus years. Financially both companies have had their ups and downs over the years. But within the past 10 years Marvel has seen gains in profit, fans and movie production while DC has not seen the same. I have always been a fan of the way Marvel manages everything. Most of the time they get the best directors to direct theirs movies. They get the best writers and artists to come up with big events in the comic books. Over the past 10 years Marvel has had 22 movies come out in theaters while DC has only had 7 movies come out. While I could go over the list of successes and failures for Marvel’s movies I will not because the list is long. I will however go over DC’s movies. DC’s most successful movies are Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and Watchmen. The movies that were failures were Superman Returns, Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, Catwoman. Yes Marvel may have had failures with some of their movies but most have been a success. DC doesn’t know how to make many of their comic book characters successful because they do not know how to manage their characters. That is why about 9 months ago DC rebooted all (if not most) of their comic books characters. Some fans were on edge when they first heard about this and they had a right to be. With DC’s failures this was a desperate move on their part. However it was a success. DC had sales number that they have not seen in years. Most of the characters were given modern origins. With their recent success DC has still not attempted to make more movies with the exception of The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel (both of which come out later this year and next year for the latter). DC needs to stop making animated movies and concentrate their energies to making actual films because that is what has made Marvel a success in the box office. Yes Marvel has made a few animated movies but they don’t concentrate their forces into making just animated movies they spread out their forces. This is the why Marvel is succeeding where DC is failing.

The Artist

The Artist

*I apologize to anyone reading this late as I had to get my account unlocked.*


Last month a  small movie called "The Artist" won five Oscar's including an Oscar for best picture. The film was done in the style of the old silent movies meaning that it was shot in black and white and there was no sound with the exception of music and sound effects. Over a year ago I was discussing with some classmates that movies can still be shot in black and white and be done like silent movies. They had told me that no one will make or even like the idea of making a silent movie. While I obviously did not influence the creation of The Artist I am glad that someone had the same or similar idea to make a silent movie. The reason silent movies eventually stopped being made was because the addition of sound and black and white films stopped with the addition color. The addition of sound and color to film added additional layers of depth to filmmaking. I strongly believe that many filmmakers have forgotten that films are moving pictures. You don't need computer generated effects, explosions, some big actor or actress to star in a movie, sound or even color to make a movie work. While these things can definitely help movies they don't need to be used to make a great film. If you were to mute your tv and turn off the color you would still be able to see what is going on your tv or show. Film is a visual art that can still made like the old silent movies that is why The Artist worked so well. While some films would be harder to make like a silent film, they can still be done if done correctly. For example there was an old Twilight Zone episode that had very little sound and it worked very well because the visuals told the story. I hope to see more movies like The Artist in the future but only if filmmakers learn to use it to create a great story and to not use it as a money train.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734648/

http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/84/nominees.html

Sequel: The Sequel

With the success of Paranormal Activity Hollywood has decided to make sequels from it. Due to the movie being made with a budget of $15,000 and making at total of $107,918,810 during its time in the movie theater it has become a box office hit. Unfortunately the Hollywood execs are more concerned with making money than actual stories. For example the Saw franchise was originally intended to end with the third movie due to the main antagonist death. However the Hollywood execs and all their brilliance decided to make more sequels and drag out a story that had already finished. As much as I like the first 3 Saw movies they should have stopped at three and not have gone to seven. While I have never seen Saw 7 (and never intend to) I heard that the movie was left open ended. If this is in fact true then somebody deserves to get slapped for leaving it open ended. There are only so many times stories, movies, books, TV shows, etc. can be told and should be told. Financially it makes sense to milk a franchise for what it is worth but personally I think the Hollywood execs should stop looking to milk movies and start creating new and original movies. Unfortunately milking franchises has been the goal for the past few years.  Movies like Rocky, Rambo, Terminator, Shrek, The Mummy, and Indiana Jones all have one thing in common, they have sequels that should have never been made. I want to say that the Hollywood execs have learned their lesson that movies shouldn’t have a sequel unless it was always intended to have one, however this is not true. It seems like everyday I hear about another sequel that will be coming out soon. While I don’t like sequels I do plan on seeing Paranormal Activity 4 this coming October because I am excited to see where they take the story to.

http://boxofficemojo.com/search/?q=paranormal%20activity

http://www.imdb.com/list/wNzb7qtbmpA/

Movie based on video games? Video games based on movies? What the deuce?

There are a ton of movies that try to have a video game come out the same time the movie is released. One genre in particular comes to mind. Superhero films. While superhero movies such as Spider-Man, Superman, Fantastic Four, Green Lantern can make big bucks in the box office opening weekend the same cannot be said about their video game counterparts. The reason for this is because most exceptionally good video games tend to take over a year to develop to have it be playable on consoles. There is another reason why movies based on video games tend to be a disappointment to the fans. The reason is because most superhero movies tend to 2 hours long and have only one villain in it while video games are much longer than a 2 hour movie. It is harder for the video game developers to create the characters from the movie when the movie itself has barley begun pre-production. There are exceptions to the bad video games. Games such as Spider-Man, Goldeneye 007, Ghostbusters: The video game are great and well loved because not only are they faithful adaptions of the movies they are based on, they have gameplay that is easy to understand and easy to adapt to.

While some video games based on movies can turn out bad, there are movie based on video games that can be equally as bad. Movies such as Ecks vs. Sever, Max Payne, Street Fighter are not faithful adaptions of the games they are based on. One of the reasons for this is translation. Video games are difficult to translate because there is so much content within a game that cannot be put into a two hour movie. There are however exceptions to this. Movies like Chronicles of Riddick, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine were not that great. Their video game counterparts however where very well liked due to the factor that they take you beyond where the movie stops.

All in all I believe that movies and video games should respect each other and work closely so that they may form a great piece of entertainment.

http://www.metacritic.com/feature/best-and-worst-movies-based-on-videogames

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/717406/the-best-video-games-based-on-movies/

http://www.watchvideogames.com/top-10-best-movie-based-video-games/

American Remakes

Earlier today I read an article online stating that the "Akira" has been put on hold. The reason why this movie has been put on hold is because Warner Bros. wants to spend less money that what was originally intended for the movie because their are no big actors attached to the movie. I can understand where they are coming from. They are afraid that they will lose money since no one will know who the stars of the movie are. I think they should be less worried about not having big named stars and concentrate on leaving the budget the way it was intended to be. "Akira" should not be a movie that has very little special effects, it should have Michael Bay size effects. One reason I bring up "Akira" is because the major film studios here in the United States like to remake a lot of foreign films. Personally I do not like it due to the fact that we are taking someones original film and messing with it.

Speaking of "Akira" (which is a Japanese animated movie) there are a few American remakes of foreign films that come to mind such as "Ju-on: The Grudge" and "Let The Right One In". While the latter remake was not a box office hit the former remake was. I believe the reason for this is because "The Grudge" changes many elements that made original movie great. With "Let Me In" the remake was almost an exact duplicate of the original with the exception of different actors. Even with the success of "Let Me In" I do not think Hollywood should resort to remake any foreign film because it is lazy to just take someone else's work of art and try to copy it and pass it off as if it was their own work. It can be successful or a complete failure but I know personally I would not like anyone to remake anything I have done.


http://www.slashfilm.com/akira-pause-warner-bros-budget/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/grudge/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/let_me_in/