February 11, 2012 at 3:06pm
Hey, old media middlemen: No industry is safe. Kickstarter’s coming for YOU.
The headline comes from Andy Baio in the comment thread from Yancy Strickler’s news that two Kickstarter projects hit $1m within 4 hours of each other.
There are crazy days and then there are days like yesterday. Kickstarter has experienced some frantic hours but nothing like what happened in the 24-hour span between Wednesday at 6:54pm and Thursday at 6:44pm. Two million-dollar projects, a major political speech involving Kickstarter, an amazing band launching a project for a comeback 20 years in the making… the list goes on.
The list does go on. And on. And somewhere on that long list, written between the lines, is the sentiment of Baio’s comment.
The internets have already robbed the media barons of their marketing and distribution monopolies. Finance was the last wall of defence, a moat of money that was too thick and deep to bridge. No longer. Kickstarter is Daniel Plainview—and he’s drinking his milkshake.
February 7, 2012 at 4:34pm
Be an enlightened despot.
Terry Gilliam on filmmaking (aka “himself”):
Growing up is for losers.
Film school is for fools.
Auteurism is out.
Fil-teurism is in.
Put your ideas in a drawer. Take them out as needed.
All you’ve really got in life is story.
Command the audience with your lens.
Nothing can defeat a director who is one with his actors.
Surround yourself with improvisers.
Directing is not for the faint-of-heart. Or the sane.
Be an enlightened despot.
Bonus Lesson: Whatever you do, don’t work with the Weinsteins.
Via oberholtzer
February 5, 2012 at 3:14pm
Angels.
Assistant #1: They might enjoy their lives more if they could, say, soundtrack it.
God: Soundtrack it?
Assistant #1: You know—have music accompany it.
God: That's what the angels are for. Do you know how much they cost?
Assistant #1: They can't hear the angels anymore. They use iPods.
God: So put the angels on their iPods. God, I'm so fucking tired of Jobs. What a prick.
Assistant #2: iPods are incompatible with angels.
Assistant #1: And they brick any iPhone. We tried.
[Long pause]
God: Fine. Give them Sigur Ros.
Assistant #1 & Assistant #2 nod, sharing a smile between them.
February 4, 2012 at 2:13pm
Reblogged from
workabout
Katy Leen:
Over the holidays, a Montreal design studio called Dynamo decided to use their typographic skills to create unique gifts: a selection of chocolate bars inscribed with positive mantras for the new year. And they didn’t just use any kind of chocolate for their sweet sayings, they teamed with…
February 2, 2012 at 10:48pm
Spielberg, by Mark Seliger.
9:19pm
I understand that some copywriters have much greater facility.
Master ad man David Ogilvy explains his flabby copywriting skills in this letter to Mr. Ray Calt, noting:
At this point I can no longer postpone the actual copy. So I go home and sit down at my desk. I find myself entirely without ideas. I get bad-tempered. If my wife comes into the room I growl at her.
Ogivly would get along famously with Gene Fowler, who once quipped: Writing is easy. All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.
My favorite line on writing came recently, though, from screenwriter Jesse Laske:
Only 10% of the writing process is actual writing. The other 90% is a subtle mix of procrastination and self-doubt.
Excuse me while I hunt for some more bon mots to avoid my current workload.
February 1, 2012 at 5:41pm
Code wins arguments.
From the letter accompanying Facebook’s filing, Zuckerberg writes:
Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments.”
Amen.
January 27, 2012 at 9:42pm
I loved Daytrippers, so I was eager to watch Greg Mottola’s Adventureland. Beautiful film. Good structure, great cast, fab soundtrack. But what blew me away was Anne McCabe’s cut of the film. It’s rhythm is so damn perfect and there isn’t a wasted frame. What a talent. IMDB’d her to find that she also cut Maria Full of Grace and You Can Count on Me, two other films I admire.
12:15pm
Love me now or forget me later.
Warner Brothers, struggling to hold onto diminishing DVD sales, has opted to cripple Netflix users who actually want to watch their films. Venturebeat reports:
Warner Brothers is now imposing additional stipulations for its DVD movie new releases. Starting Feb. 1, the company has decided to restrict Netflix users from adding any new DVD releases to their queue until 28 days after the DVD goes on sale in retail stores.
The delays and queue restrictions are part of an overall effort by Warner Brothers to boost its ailing DVD sales. The company thinks that by lengthening the time it takes for a movie to reach other platforms, it will increase demand for the DVD, and in turn make more money.
Flawless plan. Consumers have shown a strong willingness to care about release windows and follow the lead of studio marketers.
Not allowing Netflix users to conveniently wait out the delayed availability of new DVDs fits within Warner Brothers new strategy. The company clearly wants consumers to feel the inconvenience and discomfort of not being able to watch these newly released movies immediately because it makes the option of buying the DVD much more attractive.
Replace the word “strategy” with “jackassery” and this all makes much more sense.
January 25, 2012 at 1:25pm
It doesn’t end well.
Amazon is now licensing their books to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for real-world penetration and to work around B&N’s “we won’t sell this unless you do that” stipulation.
Watching this ongoing relationship between New York and Seattle reminded me of the relationship between John Hurt (pictured, on table) and what is about to emerge from his sad, infested body.
A decade ago, publishers thought Amazon was a toy. Turns out toys grow into something not entirely playful.
January 24, 2012 at 1:23pm
THR:
Allen had McAdams in mind for the role of Gil’s demanding fiancee when writing the screenplay, selling her the part by telling her: “You don’t want to go your whole life playing these beautiful girls. You want to play some bitchy parts. It’s much more interesting for you.”
What actor in the last 20 years has needed to be “sold” to be in a Woody Allen film?
January 21, 2012 at 8:12pm
Empire.
Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher dig into Apple’s supply chain:
Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.
In China, it took 15 days.
Staggering.
3:18pm
“The single most important thing about Danah is that she’s the first anthropologist we’ve got who comes from the tribe she’s studying.”
-Clay Shirky in the Times on Danah Boyd.
1:10pm
Stop watching.
Marco Arment thinks we can beat the MPAA by not watching their member’s films:
Even if we don’t watch their movies in a theater or buy their plastic discs of hostility, we’re still supporting them. If we watch their movies on Netflix or other flat-rate streaming or rental services, the service effectively pays them on our behalf next time they negotiate the rights or buy another disc. And if we pirate their movies, we’re contributing to the statistics that help them convince Congress that these destructive laws are necessary.
So maybe, instead of waiting for the MPAA’s next law and changing our Twitter avatars for a few days in protest, it would be more productive to significantly reduce or eliminate our support of the MPAA member companies.
In principle—great idea. In practice? Well, here’s a test. Lean over to your girlfriend or husband tonight and tell them to turn off 30 Rock. Or Harry Potter. Or the million other filmed stories they watch. When they ask why, tell them it will help avoid shutting down the internet.
How’d that work for you?
That’s the effectiveness of using consumer purchasing to stop the MPAA.
The alternatives? Campaign finance reform. Play the game. Collaboration.
Or, just kill them.
January 20, 2012 at 9:16pm
Drown the drowner.
Hollywood appears to have peaked. If it were an ordinary industry (film cameras, say, or typewriters), it could look forward to a couple decades of peaceful decline. But this is not an ordinary industry. The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a good thing if competitors hastened their demise.
That’s Paul Graham’s call-to-arms on the day that SOPA was rubbed out.
When I was 14 I learned about being a life guard. I vividly recall the warning that drowners often drown the people who try to save them. They’re a mess of panic and adrenaline and will do anything to survive—even if that means killing those around them.
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