Producer Blog

Writing for Animation

Next year, "The Simpsons" will have been on the air twenty years. This makes it the longest running prime time sitcom in history, and quite obviously the longest running animated sitcom. The Flintstones were long ago left in the dust and 'rubble'. The fact that The Simpsons IS a cartoon either makes their twenty year running even more astonishing, or more sensical. Could you imagine if Malcom in the {...Continue...}

Music in Movies

Ever since the advent of the 'talkie', sound in movies has been just as integral as the visuals. When music is employed in a movie, it is used in a variety of ways. You'll see it used in the background to reassure you of what you're seeing. For instance, If a character is in a saloon or honky-tonk like atmosphere, you'll hear a jukebox playing an old country song. Image: makostars This way, if {...Continue...}

Advertising Redux

Advertisers have a tough gig. Most people consider them to be the scourge of the entertainment industry, ranking somewhere in between porn directors and the bottom of a snake's belly. But I'll bet that if we walked a day in these poor souls' imported Italian loafers, we'd see that they have it quite rough. For one thing, everybody hates commercials. Oh sure, we love funny and entertaining commercials, {...Continue...}

Sound FX

When the average moviegoer thinks of all the hard work that goes into making a film, most of them will think of the director, and how brilliant his vision is. They'll laud the fact that he was able to get the picture in his mind to come out onscreen. Some intelligent people will credit the cinematographer for the clever use of lighting and shadows to take us into their world. A real sharp cookie will {...Continue...}

History of Digital Cinematography

Starting in the late 1980s, Sony began to make a marketing push to "electronic cinematography", using analogue HDTV cameras. This was not particularly successful at the time. In 1998, with the production of HDCAM recorders and 1920 × 1080 pixel digital video cameras with CCD technology. The whole thing was then re-branded as "digital cinematography", that finally began to gain traction in the market. Fast {...Continue...}

Identifying Hollywood's Audiences

This collection of 11 new essays is the second of three planned volumes to be published by the British Film Institute based on research first presented at the 1998 Commonwealth Fund Conference. (I should acknowledge here that I participated in this conference and have an essay in the first collection, American Movie Audiences: From the Turn of the Century to the Early Sound Era). The anthology is divided {...Continue...}

Movie Wars, a Book Review

Movie Wars is the book Jonathan Rosenbaum, currently the film critic for the Chicago Reader, was born to write. It consolidates a lifetime of fervent, edgy cinephilia that began with a young fascination born of easy access to family-owned movie theatres in Florence, Alabama, and has ripened into a mature passion. It is the angry book of a disappointed lover, an expose that does not restrict itself {...Continue...}