Coppola Fears Doomsday

This week, Bloomsburg published an article about an interview with Francis Ford Coppola, legendary director of such movies as “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now.” The article featured a Coppola who was very pessimistic about the future of cinema.

Coppola described the tremendous amount of change that has occurred in all aspects of the film industry. He mentioned everything from the centralization of big film companies to the customer’s lack of desire to attend films in lieu of other leisurely activities. Interestingly enough, Coppola went 10 years without directing a film just so he could readjust to the changes taking place in the industry.

Coppola, center, directs The Godfather in 1971. (image from vanityfair.com)

There’s no doubt that Coppola pretty much hit the nail on the head here. It is becoming more and more common for studios for essentially survive on a just a few big franchise series like Harry Potter, Spiderman, James Bond, Indiana Jones. It’s also common to see the same few plot formulas repeat themselves over and over again like just about every Will Ferrell movie. Films are becoming less and less original and it’s nearly impossible for an independent filmmaker to manage to get enough funding to make a good movie without the backing of a major studio.

On top of all that, ticket and concession prices are skyrocketing and more and more people are bypassing the time and financial commitment of going to the movies by downloading them illegally on the Internet (I mean c’mon, make me an offer I can’t refuse. Right?).

Coppola may be a little bit harsh in saying that “cinema as we know it is falling apart” but I would agree it certainly is a long way off from the golden days of classics like Dances with Wolves, Annie Hall, E.T., and…

The Godfather.

A Heart Will Go On

My friends and I were tossing around the idea of going on a cruise during winter break. In getting all excited about the crazy things they have managed to get onto cruise ships these days (water slides, golf courses, theatre shows) we somehow started talking about Titanic. A slightly morbid ship of choice to bring into the conversation of a vacation cruise but it got us talking about what a great movie that was and how it has become such a cultural classic.

I had heard some rumors that James Cameron was in the process of converting Titanic to 3D and re-releasing it, similar to the way Disney is converting/re-releaseing Toy Story and Toy Story 2. I did some research as to what was going on with this process and if it was still happening.

Turns out, the re-release looks like it’s still on the table. A few months ago at the Comic Con convention, James Cameron and Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson discussed the prospect of re-releasing major films again in the newly popular format. Both directors seem interested and agreed the films would get a whole new breath of life from such a conversion.

James Cameron, at Comic Con, discusses releasing Titanic in 3D

Converting Titanic could take as much as a year and half to complete, not to mention the cost and the expense of a new marketing campaign. For now, it looks like it’s still in the works but directors are all still waiting to see how the new 3D fad will develop first. Ideally, more theatres would want get 3D capabilities before studios made such a big undertaking.

It’s just a matter of when all the stars will align before fans will get to see all three-plus hours of Titanic in three glorious dimensions.

A (social) Media Frenzy

From the perspective of a journalism student, it seems like all I hear about anymore is social media. I’ve worked on two different PR campaigns just this month revolving around businesses making an impression in the world of social media. I’ve been assigned readings about the ways people use social media and I’ve participated in discussions about how it’s changing the world. In the case of Paranormal Activity, social media is providing an ingenious way of generating buzz for a new film.

Poster for Paranormal Activity

Paramount Pictures is using Facebook and Twitter to advertise this new horror film to the public, building an underground roar of excitement about the film while it’s starting out slowly in limited release. The social media sites, as well as the film’s official website are asking people to vote (err well, demand) that the film be shown in their city. Currently 291 people are requesting the film for Athens.

There’s also a large counter in the middle of the site that is ticking away the demand for the film to reach a nationwide release. The site claims that once demand reaches 1,000,000 votes, the film will be released nationwide, touting this as the “first-ever film release decided by you.” Right now, it is reading 918,584… 918,618…..918,647. It’s a bit like watching an eBay auction end, knowing that people all over the nation are affecting the outcome as I type this post. 919,052.

The film was produced by an unknown videogame designer from Israel named Oren Peli. He shot the film in an astonishing 7 days back in 2006 with a budget of only $11,000. Since then the film has been floating around in film festivals until it was recently discovered by the one and only, Steven Spielberg and things started rolling. (920,207 now).

Paranormal Activity actually looks to a pretty good film considering its unorthodox, yet imaginative way of getting itself heard. It reminds me of the way the unknown film District 9 made a huge impact on audiences this summer due to a viral marketing campaign. I’m loving the way the Internet and social media are giving lesser-known independent films such as Paranormal Activity a chance at competing against the big budget draws of today’s time.

920,263!

21st Century Media

The internet has changed nearly every aspect of our lives, and the film industry is no different.  Movies in the 21^st century are moving more to a web based medium, as we have seen with big market ventures such as Netflix, Blockbuster Online, and even streaming services such as YouTube and Google Video.  Netflix now offers streaming services for millions of movies in their archive – so anyone can stream them onto their television or computer with the click of a button.  As internet connections improve to allow the transfer of larger files at faster speeds, high definition video streaming and downloading is becoming more and more a reality.

Some people theorize that soon disc based media will be a thing of the past altogether – with downloading movies being the biggest way to watch your favorite flicks.  Most Blu-Ray players sold recently come with an internet connection built into the unit, and a hard disk drive on which to store downloaded movies, trailers, games, and other content.  It could almost make the user forget why they even have the disc drive in the blu-ray player – the internet connectivity offers enough for the user to watch HD movies on demand – and more.  Blu-ray movies themselves are actually struggling in the marketplace. Some people are refusing to switch to a high definition medium, while other prefer downloading their media.

It’s an interesting time, and we’ll see soon enough which media form takes control of the movie industry.

Not in Kansas Anymore

A very special birthday was celebrated this year. It’s been 70 years since The Wizard of Oz made its theatrical premier on August 25, 1939 and it has remained a classic through all the technological advances that have affected the silver screen since that time. The coming of television, cable, VCR’s, and DVD’s have only further promoted the widespread popularity of this film. Last week, on September 23, Oz embraced another technological first. It was re-released in theatres nationwide for a one-day extravaganza event, for the first time in high def!

The Wizard of Oz will forever be my favorite movie and I almost find it hard to know where to cut myself off in talking about it (stolen ruby slippers, behind the scenes stories, special effects, and the infamous but non-existent suicide rumor). Maybe those things will get their own blog topic someday but for now, I’ll stick to talk of birthday celebrations.

Last Wednesday, in celebration of the re-release, there was a party held at the famous Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York City attended by five original munchkins and Judy Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft. Also in the plans, was for the Empire State Building to be lit green that night in Oz honor. Coincidentally, that lighting worked out to the benefit of anti-Iran protestors who were asking the city to light the building green in protest of Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was visiting the city for the United Nations conference. When the lights finally turned on, they were red, instead to celebrate Dorothy’s ruby slippers. Sadly, I wasn’t able to make it to the theatre to see the movie in HD but Oz-political connection that were stirred up makes Oz fans like me very interested to hear about.

Happy Birthday Oz!

The Empire State Building lit up red for Oz

Disney Renaissance

Disney is about to make one giant (frog) leap of faith at reviving the formula that created such classics as Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, and The Lion King. The Princess and the Frog will be Disney’s first 2D animation movie since Home on the Range came out in 2004. Since then, the hand-drawn animation studio, which made Disney into a powerhouse company, has been shut down allowing the computer animated films of Disney-Pixar to be very successful at taking their place.

The Princess and the Frog tells the story of Tiana, a young girl who lives in the French Quarter of New Orleans. A young prince, who has been turned into a frog by a voodoo magician, mistakes Tiana for a princess and asks her to kiss him to break the spell. However, the kiss turns Tiana into a frog herself, leaving them both to try and break the spell together.

Tiana looks to be the first African-American in line of Disney Princesses, but that opens a whole new discussion having nothing to do with animation.

-Check out this trailer, which showcases the return of this animation form.-

This film will be released this December as is directed by John Musker and Ron Clements who headed The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Hercules. Well-known composer Randy Newman will writing the songs and the musical score and talents such as Oprah Winfrey, Terrance Howard, and John Goodman will provide the character voices.

I don’t know about anyone else but I’m excited to see how what comes of this film. Disney has a big task on their hands if they think they can revive this now seemingly dead art form of animation. If anyone can do it, Disney can. It’s sad to think that this might be the end of a glorious era and that I might be among the last generations to know the excitement felt when watching a new Disney animated film.

My, how the times have changed.

Certainly a cliché saying isn’t it? But, there is no denying it’s true. Just today I participated in a class discussion with Ben Welsh of the LA Times. Nevermind the fact that we had a guest speaker talking via webcam from his office in LA, what I’m getting at here is something that he mentioned about the current state of movie-going: the idea that box office listings being published in newspapers is becoming obsolete in today’s time.

Showtimes still making an appearance in yesterday's Post

I have to chuckle to myself when I open up the local newspaper (yes, I still read them) and see those movie listings there on the back of the Local section. Does anyone really look at those anymore? I remember being 12 years old and pulling open our copy of The Canton Repository to check the times so I could go see a movie with my friends. That was back in 2000 when you either had to check the newspaper, drive by the theatre, or call the automated ticket line to find out the times. Nowadays, it’s faster for me to browse the Internet on my cell phone than it is to listen to that looooooong monotone recording. And I certainly don’t ever look in the newspaper for that information anymore. I imagine the only people who still do are the small percent who haven’t jumped on the computer-owning bandwagon yet.

I did some research regarding this phenomenon and it appears that those listings are not necessarily the decision of the newspaper. In many cases, it appears that the listings are there because the theatre itself pays to have it there, which I guess isn’t a surprise. The trend is shifting though as more and more theatre companies and newspapers realize that this information is obsolete. Just this past July, there was a big uproar when the AMC theatre chain stopped publishing the showtimes in The Washington Post. Uproar or not though, this is happening.

In a time when movie-goers can not only check showtimes but also purchase tickets AND preorder popcorn and concession items online at places like Fandango before even driving to the theatre, it certainly seems behind the times to still be printing those black-bordered showtime grids everyday in the local paper. I imagine it’s only a matter of time before they are gone for good. Get it while it’s hot folks! The times are changing and you might never see them again!

Summer Movies 2009

I’ve worked at a movie theatre for the past four years and every summer, I see people pouring in on the weekends spending $8.75 a pop to see the latest releases (this is up from $7.50 when I started working there back in 2005). People were coming to the movies to see big blockbuster films like The Dark Knight, Spiderman, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, Cars, and Shrek just to name a few. Some of those films are even among the highest grossing films of all time.  I’ve spent the last four summers being very busy with work shifts to accommodate all of those crowds of people.

But something was very different this summer. Compared to previous summers, the movies that came out in 2009 were all fairly unpopular, some were just down-right bad, only about three of them did really well at the box office, and I pretty much never got to work. Now of course I’ll welcome an opportunity to have a day off, but there is a little thing called money which I generally like to have in the summer. One perk of working at a movie theatre is of course that I get to avoid that awful $8.75 ticket price and see all the movies I want for free. But for the first time ever, there were only a few that I even wanted to see. So what the heck happened?

Despite the huge innovation of 3D, which really became prominent in the film industry recently, the whole film experience just seemed weak this summer. This is most likely attributed to a cause that occurred an entire two years before now; the 2007 writer’s strike. All of the films that should have been being written at that time, are the ones that would’ve come out this summer. Now that they finally came out, they had a feeling of hasty production and incompleteness.  Last fall, the executives at Warner Brothers held back the release of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince (much to fan’s disappointment) and released it this summer when they knew there would be very competition. Smart move on their part I’d say, it was one of the only successful films to come out.

So, it was a bad summer in the film industry.  Despite the economy, people are still going to the movies as a source of entertainment and escape. They just don’t want to spend their $8.75 on a two-hour piece of crap. Hopefully Hollywood has itself back on track now for the fall and especially for this coming winter when all of the prospective Oscar-winning films will be released. I don’t see them getting a stimulus check if they can’t sell their product.