The Global Film Village

Academy makes it official 85th Awards set for February 24, 2013 to remain at Hollywood & Highland Center

// March 14th, 2012 // Comments Off // Industry Event

Official AMPAS photo from 84th Oscars(R)

by Marla Lewin

This could be the very last edition at the venue as the Academy is free to move the event after next year. Previous reports have disclosed that the Nokia Center in Downtown Los Angeles is interested in hosting the event as part of its push to define Downtown LA as the Live Event Center. The Los Angeles Film Festival presented by Film Independent has already moved to the neighboring Regal Cinema complex. The Independent Spirit Awards also presented by Film Independent tried out the area two years ago utilizing a tent on top of a parking garage only to return to Santa Monica beach for the last two years.

The Hollywood and Highland Center was previously known as the Kodak Theatre until that fabled company filed for bankruptcy protection this year. The facility has 3,332 person capacity and is also used for taping of AMerican Idol and other live concert events.

The Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live has more than double that capacity with 7,000 seats and since its opening in 2007 is the premiere music auditorium in the city including hosting the Finals of American Idol.

Both the Shrine Auditorium and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion were the previous traditional homes of the Oscars until the construction of  Hollywood & Highland Center in 2001 are located in Downtown. The first Oscar ceremonies were held at the Kodak Theatre in March 2012.

Today there is definitely a push to make Downtown cool. Major Sports and Concerts routinely use the area on almost a daily basis and the the city and private enterprise is committing enormous capital to finally give Los Angeles a City Center. The old saying Los Angels is a cluster of suburbs searching for a city is quickly fading.

KATHRYN BIGELOW and MARK BOAL to create “The Hunt for Osama bin Laden” for COLUMBIA PICTURES

// May 25th, 2011 // Comments Off // Industry Event

By Marla Lewin

The answer to what is the next film from The Hurt Locker team was revealed today. Columbia Pictures has acquired US distribution rights to the untitled forthcoming motion picture from Oscar®-winners Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal. The film is based on the black ops mission to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. The team will bring the same level of intensity to the story of  this mission as in their previous film. Bigelow and Boal have been developing the project since 2008 and plan to incorporate recent events.

 

Boal and Bigelow will produce the project, along with Annapurna Picture’s Megan Ellison, and executive producer, Greg Shapiro producer of The Hurt Locker. Production is slated to start in the late summer of 2011.  The film will be released in the United States in the 4th quarter of 2012.

Amy Pascal of Columbia Pictures said, “With the death of Osama bin Laden, this film could not be more relevant.  Kathryn and Mark have an outstanding perspective on the team that was hunting the most wanted man in the world.  Mark is second to none as an investigative journalist, and Kathryn will bring the same kind of compelling authenticity and urgency that distinguished The Hurt Locker and made that film so memorable and special.”

Movie Distributors Ambush Exhibition at CinemaCon

// April 21st, 2011 // Comments Off // Industry Event

Celine Dion's theatre at Caesars Palace Colosseum

by Marc Halperin

The first edition of CinemaCon is now in the history books and will probably be most remembered for the way in which Four Distribution companies blindsided the exhibition industry. The early days of the conference went by as a pretty non-controversial event. Senator Chris Dodd in his first appearance as head of the MPAA stated that he was their to help focus attention on the industry’s common problems. He targeted Piracy as the biggest threat facing everyone. He said this put the jobs of 2.5 million americans at risk. Dodd said “We need to make the case to our audiences that piracy effects people across the country, not just stars, producers and directors, but the people working at the theatres and behind the cameras”. He said this was not the time to get sidetracked by issues like release windows and reminded us repeatedly that he had only been in the job for 9 days. Senator Dodd must be silently asking himself what he stepped into. He has quickly learned that the film business is not much different than the Washington D.C. political world he knew for so many years. (more…)

Senator Chris Dodd attends his first CinemaCon

// April 21st, 2011 // Comments Off // Industry Event

photo by Marc Halperin

by Marla Lewin

Senator Dodd came to Las Vegas on Tuesday to attend his first convention as the new Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. I caught up with him at a small press conference where he pointed out repeatedly that he was very new at this only being in the job for 9 days. He certainly made up in enthusiasm for his limited experience. The Senator talked about his love for watching movies in theatres even though he hadn’t had much time for that in recent years. He talked about the greatest threat facing the industry being piracy. He praised the industry as being a vital creator of jobs and a terrific export for the nation. He made the point that stealing movies wasn’t just taking money away from studios, producers, directors and actors, but also the people working in local cinemas and allied industries. Dodd stated that over 2.5 million americans make their living working in the movie business. Stealing movies is attacking them directly, it is not a victimless crime.

Dodd said that he was not there to take on the other big issues facing the industry including changes in the availability windows for ancillary markets. He talked about the great partnership that existed between the producing-distributing companies and exhibitors that had created the Classification and Rating system that parents depended upon. He said there had been some complaints about it over the years but it seemed to work for most parties involved. He praised the efforts that had been made in modernizing presentation that were now benefiting everyone including millions of movie-goers. He said there would be time to discuss these other concerns in the future but for now we were all here to see what movies the studios were offering for the the next few months.

Unfortunately the Senator seemed to be unaware of what was about to take place two days later when word leaked out that four of his studios had banded together to offer P-VOD(Premiere-Video on Demand) just 60 days after initial theatrical release. This led to a firestorm of anger within the convention. Exhibitors felt that they had been ambushed by their “partners in distribution”. It seemed that the distributors had misjudged the exhibitors response based on how the shrinking windows had been accepted by Disney’s decision to go to 90 days with “Alice” last year.

On a personal note I was excited to visit with the Senator who I had known years ago when I was a college student in Mexico City.

George Lucas, James Cameron, Jeffrey Katzenberg Talk Digital at CinemaCon 2011

// April 21st, 2011 // Comments Off // Industry Event

by Marc Halperin

The Digital filmmakers panel at CinemaCon 2011 was held on Wednesday, March 30 at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas and was moderated by Michael Lewis. The following are some of the key points that were made by the panelists. These are the current masters of this new art form and were all enthusiastic about the future.

What does digital provide you?

George Lucas

The problem of an artist from the beginning of time has been technology, in graphics arts the move from fresco painting in a building with a giant crew trying to get done before the plaster dries you have all of these specialized people to organize. Then with the development of oil paint you were able to move out side which freed you to change things and Paint over them.

In 1975 we started using digital tech and found that it was faster, cheaper, and better than what we had before. Artists always bang up against the tech barrier. Overcoming those obstacles improves the process it makes your resources go further.

After the original Star Wars premiered it became apparent that the movie projectors and the overall presentation needed to improve so we created our THX and TAP programs to deal with these technology and quality problems. Over the years we have seen dramatic improvements in the theatre experience.

James Cameron

Digital has allowed for the creation of worlds that could not be. If we can imagine it we can create it.

Titanic played so long our prints started falling apart, after 16 weeks. Theatres came off doing business because the prints didn’t hold up, with digital, the print is always new. We are in a brave new world today. We thought 3D would ride on the back of digital instead it was the other way around.

We are working with the realtime virtual production suite to make the production easier. The next two Avatar films will be at a higher film rate. We are looking at 48-60 frames to improve the image.

We are under assault by piracy and windows by being showman we will fight back. I will show my test on higher frame rates tomorrow morning. If you author a project at a higher frame rate it takes the glass out of the window. Higher light levels are important, it is a big issue but solutions are coming for 3D. (more…)