tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72879983258983691872024-03-27T11:43:29.667-07:00Randy Finch's Film BlogRandy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.comBlogger2328125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-22862250021058048442024-01-20T04:25:00.000-08:002024-01-20T04:38:53.745-08:00Ideas for the Ultimate Screenwriting Assistant SuperPrompt<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://1drv.ms/w/s!Aj_0vPKJhVxrgxbPzqLFs1hQwfSe">https://1drv.ms/w/s!Aj_0vPKJhVxrgxbPzqLFs1hQwfSe</a></span></p>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-48065167674359555932019-08-27T23:16:00.002-07:002019-08-27T23:21:04.717-07:00Sexy Chinese Content: Slipping One Past the Censors 苹果陈 @loora8888<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="700" src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed/6729429696980749569" width="400"></iframe><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">I have been spending a lot of time in Asia. To support myself? I do several things - a number of them under the banner of “teaching”. One organizing principle of my “teaching</span><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">”? Trying to figure out how stories are being told and shared using new motion picture tech. How does that manifest in my life? I try to find (paying?) opportunities to share what I’ve learned in Asia watching things online - like the Hong Kong protests or web content in China. </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">So? </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">I saw <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@loora8888?language=en&sec_uid=MS4wLjABAAAAeUH9PBzeISdZTlokEx0F1CXMHyPlUlIoLCupCBf0qWv0My2csu2BmqTJmsWQsZFZ&timestamp=1566627978&utm_source=copy_link&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=android&share_app_name=musically&share_iid=6728615641735153414&fbclid=IwAR06eewWNdA88dloN89RmpWx0QtNI3nH6Xo-w-omIx0kGFRszNtzKOLdeLU">loora8888</a>. </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">I’ll admit, the apparent street photography coupled with fearless beauty and a sexual connection to the camera is where my fascination started. But from that first connection flowed other questions. </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">Who are they? What’s with their physical intimacy? Are they gay? </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">Not likely. </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">In China right now gay stories are banned - and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/20/chinese-writer-tianyi-sentenced-to-decade-in-prison-for-gay-erotic-novel">an author of gay-erotica was recently sentenced to 10 years in jail</a>. </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">So? </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">It seems they are sisters. </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">Ok. That part makes sense. Even though, in my life, I’ve only known a few sisters whose connection was truly that exhilarating. I get who they are. And it gets them past the Chinese censors. In other words? Their intense connection, coupled with their intoxicating playful sexual confidence on camera, now made sense to me as a China-watcher and supporter of civil rights for gay people. </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">But then my producer-self asked - who or what is paying for all this? </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">The answer? </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">They are marketing the clothes they design. </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">Truly? Next level stuff. And? For me? This is yet another example of how some major obstacles (Chinese censorship) and the new tools are inspiring amazing work that contributes to the ongoing democratization of motion picture production.</span></span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-61894790603360091412018-12-26T16:36:00.000-08:002018-12-26T16:37:33.059-08:00Are Media Sites Delivering Their News All Wrong?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVk2e34lVW2aCapXCMSXwWm-xxTrXH3eYepsNXJxvJmECLUcugVjAADDPgI79AOFtO8XwjSF2vpOmLcoBSAOKMGOlnGzBgzU9pjsPdokEnv9UU943IMv__xzvt-YqsgV8Da1sXL81obebf/s1600/Complex+Wbpage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="1012" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVk2e34lVW2aCapXCMSXwWm-xxTrXH3eYepsNXJxvJmECLUcugVjAADDPgI79AOFtO8XwjSF2vpOmLcoBSAOKMGOlnGzBgzU9pjsPdokEnv9UU943IMv__xzvt-YqsgV8Da1sXL81obebf/s640/Complex+Wbpage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In February of 2017, the Director for Ad Engineering for The Washington Post’s Research, Experimentation and Development group, Aram Zucker-Scharff, <a href="https://aramzs.github.io/tools/humans/ux/2017/02/08/audience-behavior-jcarn.html">posted to his personal blog</a> about <span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;">a better model for delivering the news.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Aram's specific gripe? A lack of evidence to support the design choices news organizations were making online: </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;">"</span><span style="color: #111111;">Few, if any, media companies are backing up their design with user experience science.</span><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;">"</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Aram argued that not enough attention was being paid to actual user experience. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">By copying what the big guys were doing (e.g., innovating with screens cluttered with ad videos and too many choices), media sites were becoming less, not more, readable.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; text-align: justify;">The first value every site design should solve for is readability. The people who come to news sites are there to read. Yet bad design patterns that challenge readability don’t just abound, they </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #111111; text-align: justify;">multiply</strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; text-align: justify;">.</span><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;">"</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Aram's article struck a chord with me, because I've been urging the educators training tomorrow's filmmakers (and XR experience designers), to instill a deeper understanding of how human anatomy and human perception work.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here's what Aram wrote about that:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;">"</span><span style="color: #111111;">Understanding how our readers eyeballs work in the general sense means building designs informed not by trends or other news orgs, but by science. Much of that science is publicly available, waiting for us to use.</span><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;">"</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Finally? </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Aram came out in favor of inviting the users to participate in the design process. </span></span><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because the tools for delivering connected experiences are increasingly two-way, opening up (in previously unrealistic ways) to user interaction is not only possible, it can actually help to build a sense of community and ownership.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"</span></span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">With better tools and connections into the community we can start driving better choices to impact how we build the news. The news media can start looking at atomic, delayed, or personalized news with the confidence that we can build whole new workflows for reportage that create better engagement with our audience.</span><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"</span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-67886995931423379742018-12-12T04:50:00.001-08:002018-12-12T05:07:37.106-08:00German Federal Courts: Where IP Optimism Goes to Die<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQraSSFDfQT62nDWTvRz5Fc1WQkK8-LFhKD1js33wuDM_qj5T1N45z8T0UIR_gAgstLRGP-AQnjo2vQ6Zjd3F3BTcaUNaV_1tz07RTrf_qvCIea5lGEXVGEPqEzGyo_LOu1Aeuvn_YBavc/s1600/German+Judge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="776" data-original-width="1370" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQraSSFDfQT62nDWTvRz5Fc1WQkK8-LFhKD1js33wuDM_qj5T1N45z8T0UIR_gAgstLRGP-AQnjo2vQ6Zjd3F3BTcaUNaV_1tz07RTrf_qvCIea5lGEXVGEPqEzGyo_LOu1Aeuvn_YBavc/s640/German+Judge.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Remember what I said about <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7386127/german-supreme-court-sampling-kraftwerk-hip-hop-dance">Germany's highest Court recognizing an untrammeled right to sample a small portion of an existing musical recording</a>? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because that's how hip-hop works.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Remember how excited I was when Germany's Constitutional Court - back in 2016 - wrote so eloquently (and logically) about how a 2 second long drum sequence from Kraftwerk’s 1977 "Metall auf Metall" (Metal on Metal) could be looped under Sabrina Setlur’s 1997 "Nur Mir" (Only Me) without requiring endless years of litigation - or paying hundreds of thousands of Euro's to lawyers and record companies?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Was I wrong to hope, back then, that the evolving American legal decisions - written by enlightened Judges, who favor a transformative fair use for economically inconsequential excerpts - had found a sympathetic ear in Germany's highest Court?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well. Yes. And no.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While the highest Court in Germany clearly got how sampling could work in the 21st century, they also referred the matter back down to Germany’s Federal Court (mired in the 19th century?) to be reassessed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And it's in those dreary German Federal Courts where optimism (for example, about copyright law evolving to suit the times) apparently goes to die. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It isn't over yet. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But, the latest news is grim.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the now never-ending case involving that 41-year-old 2-second rhythm sample from Kraftwerk, Advocate General Szpunar writing for the <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=208881&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=1577315">German Federal Court</a> ruled on December 12th, 2018 that:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"The aim of sampling is not to enter into dialogue with, be used for comparative purposes, or pay tribute to the works used. Sampling is the act of taking extracts from other phonograms, which are used as raw materials, to be included in new works to form integral and unrecognisable parts. Moreover, those extracts are often modified and mixed in such a way that all original integrity is lost. It is not therefore a form of interaction but rather a form of appropriation... I do not believe that it is customary in hip hop or rap culture to indicate the sources of the samples that make up the works belonging to those genres of music. In any event, it is not apparent from the order for reference that the appellants tried to indicate the source of the extract used in the song Nur mir or the names of the respondents... I therefore propose that [an exception similar to US notions of fair use provided for in Germany's Article 5(3)(d) of Directive 2001/29]... does not apply where an extract of a phonogram has been incorporated into another phonogram without any intention of interacting with the first phonogram and in such a way that it forms an indistinguishable part of the second phonogram."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In short?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You still can't sample in Germany without getting permission.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Even after the highest Court in Germany wrote in 2016 that Sabrina Setlur’s sampling of Kraftwerk's then 20 year old song had a “negligible” impact on Kraftwerk and therefore “artistic freedom overrides the interest of the owner of the copyright.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Address your outraged complaints to Advocate General Szpunar in the German Federal Court. (That's his picture above. And no. I didn't get permission to use the picture from <a href="https://commsrisk.com/top-eu-lawyer-thinks-cloud-based-video-recording-is-legal/">CommRisk</a>. Sue me.)</span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-40982053999834655702018-12-11T22:23:00.003-08:002018-12-12T02:20:03.334-08:00Knowing What is Unimportant<div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7274G_qcgan_WEFfeT_WRQXielW2p0dkvgfTOVxgSaaIl5m1p-4Iu0q1szCie6JowomHLTzLdN4TxOuI3blutBsEJ5Vi3tAbttmPESrjlNcunbCLj_VfxjNZ5q8QCfwqqPSnwCkt6QHj4/s1600/Wave+of+data.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7274G_qcgan_WEFfeT_WRQXielW2p0dkvgfTOVxgSaaIl5m1p-4Iu0q1szCie6JowomHLTzLdN4TxOuI3blutBsEJ5Vi3tAbttmPESrjlNcunbCLj_VfxjNZ5q8QCfwqqPSnwCkt6QHj4/s640/Wave+of+data.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">知之為知之,不知為不知,是知也。</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">"What you know, you know, what you don't know, you don't know. This is true wisdom."</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">- Confucius or 孔夫子 (551 B.C. – 479 B.C.)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On East 125 St. in Harlem there was a run-down storefront that I never visited. But? Whenever I rode the M-60 bus on my way to LaGuardia Airport, or returning home from a trip, I made sure to look out at the sign over the storefront offering "The Knowledge That You Know, But You Don't Know That You Know".</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Logic told me that anyone selling that kind of true wisdom would have a better location. (The same process still has me suspicious of those neon signs offering psychic advice on the seedier sides of town.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nevertheless, I remain intrigued by that Harlem "Knowledge" sign. And worried. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Am I spending too much time pursuing what I don't know (apparently vast)? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or? Put another - more foundational - way? Am I focused on the right things? What do I already know that is truly valuable? And what do I need to learn? And how should I learn? Can my personal learning and my teaching of others emphasize more internal and less external?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why am I writing this today?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">A provocative new (Sept. 2018) <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525512179/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i1">book</a> by historian </span><span style="color: #333333;">Yuval Noah Harari rekindled some of these lingering thoughts. E.g., How do I discern the useless knowledge that I already know from the useful knowledge that I already know? And? Is there knowledge that I might soon know? If only I knew how to access it?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In <i>21 Lessons for the 21st Century, </i>Hararai writes that today's educators are wasting valuable time: Lecturing about substantive knowledge that is growing out-of-date faster than it can be learned.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">One of Harari's key arguments is in favor of reshaping education's current emphasis on quickly outdated substantive knowledge with the ‘four Cs’ - critical thinking, communication, collaboration, </span>and<span style="color: #333333;"> creativity.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">OK. This may not be easy. But the sentiment rings true to me.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First, let's consider the downside: Would the world fall apart (or improve?) if teachers shifted their emphasis as Harari suggests to teaching how to "tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and above all, to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Second, let's consider the benefit of a radically different approach on the lives of today's teachers. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the paradoxes my fellow educators are dealing with right now? We are paid to transmit knowledge but we know that new technology is making old ideas and old truths irrelevant at an amazing clip. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thoughtful teachers realize this. And as the most-dedicated (those who haven't simply given up) struggle to keep up with the tide of new information, I see many good young teachers burning out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's understandable. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The ocean of available information (driven by mobile device connectivity, AI, social media, etc.) is threatening to inundate many old academic disciplines. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The answer?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Perhaps students need to be exposed to a multidisciplinary approach - co-taught by teachers from different departments - in modules where critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity are encouraged. And teachers aren't required to share a corpus of facts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After all, when simply sitting quietly to acquire knowledge yields rapidly diminishing returns, what do teachers and students really need to know? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Maybe the answer is NOT to teach substantive knowledge at all. But instead? A new approach to learning.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A (close to home) example? Students enrolled in communications and cultural industries programs, if they are lucky enough to have a teacher who understands the current technology and business (rare), will almost certainly find their teacher exhausted. And the "information" the teacher can impart? That's already out-of-date at the end of a student's first year of employment. (Ha. A full year of employment? Straight out of college or grad school? In a cultural industry job? As the "gig" economy changes old ideas about work and compensation at an astounding rate?)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Another (final, I promise) example? It isn't just global warming that's causing the oceans to rise. The tides of new tech and data are washing away entire professions. I know. </span><span style="color: #333333;">As someone who holds a law degree, I suspect there will still be people calling themselves a lawyer in 2030. But will many (most?) of them still be doing what a 2018 lawyer does? I doubt it.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Perhaps, I'm wrong. And the Old School teachers will ultimately prevail. As </span><span style="color: #333333;">William Blake (1757-1827) wrote in <i>The Marriage of Heaven and Hell</i> (1793):</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But me? I think educators at the very least need to have a vigorous dialogue about this. After all, William Blake also wrote:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">"</span><span style="color: #333333;">Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, </span><span style="color: #333333;">Reason and Energy, Love and Hate are necessary to Human existence.</span><span style="color: #333333;">"</span></span></span></div>
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Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-19668529207627314862018-12-09T06:37:00.000-08:002018-12-12T02:29:56.707-08:00Does Copyright Law Protect Pornography? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn68Hg1hn_7i6mAaX-jjo-bToxUo-M3o-i6_jmXI1sBgkwstKIb1osQT1dvqFrx_GtWkiFArjshMSEP6t_dQaiBHT1zKCV2WhOROs-YX8G3PF_mg4T-45jv98XgAQQJmsjTbxcDNzQOdwc/s1600/Porncopyright.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="586" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn68Hg1hn_7i6mAaX-jjo-bToxUo-M3o-i6_jmXI1sBgkwstKIb1osQT1dvqFrx_GtWkiFArjshMSEP6t_dQaiBHT1zKCV2WhOROs-YX8G3PF_mg4T-45jv98XgAQQJmsjTbxcDNzQOdwc/s640/Porncopyright.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let's start at the conclusion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yes. In the US, copyright law protects even pornography.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's settled law.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Smut is no different under copyright law than the finest literature or the best music. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So? Even the smuttiest smut can't be copied without the author's permission.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But - in his anger that a pornographer was trying to use his court to collect names of alleged downloaders to extort them - a 73 year old judge may have recently gone too far - suggesting that porn's protection under copyright law wasn't settled law.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In (justly) swatting down the copyright trolls, it sure looks as if the Judge may have (unintentionally) undermined copyright law. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why does it matter? If the porn-producer-copyright-trolls lost?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's the unintended consequences that have me worried. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm worried that one overzealous (and kinda creepy) Judge set a precedent that others with censorious intentions might soon try to use? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(Why do I say the Judge comes across as kinda creepy? First he seems to claim extensive knowledge of pornography - calling Strike 3's content not "run-of-the-mill porn". But then? He shifts to a weird moral high ground - calling their stuff "aberrantly salacious". Creepy.) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Back to my main point? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I thinks it's a mistake to build weapons to attack the trolls, if those same weapons can easily be turned around and used to attack artists who print or film or paint provocative or salacious stuff.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here are the key facts: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In his <a href="https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2018cv1425-5">November 2018 ruling</a>, Judge Royce C. Lamberth, of the DC Circuit, took it upon himself to quash a federal copyright infringement lawsuit - even before the plaintiff had identified who they wanted to sue.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The case had started because a pornography producer, Strike 3 LLC, wanted to subpoena an internet company (an "ISP") to get the names and addresses of customers who they alleged had downloaded one or more of Strike 3's films illegally.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But Judge Lamberth wasn't inclined to humor the pornographers. And he made his reasons for dismissing their motion to require discovery - to identify the alleged illegal downloaders - very clear:</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Armed with hundreds of cut-and-pasted complaints and boilerplate discovery motions, </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Strike 3 floods this courthouse (and others around the country) with lawsuits smacking of</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">extortion It treats this Court not as a citadel of justice, but as an ATM. Its feigned desire for </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">legal process masks what it really seeks: for the Court to oversee a high-tech shakedown This </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Court declines."</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">My guess?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Judge Lamberth had heard about other porn producers (like the sleazy former lawyers behind the <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180817/15503740451/prenda-scam-boss-paul-hansmeier-pleads-guilty.shtml">Prenda</a> Group) whose business model was to seek discovery from ISPs for the names of thousands of individuals, only to threaten these thousands of internet users with exposure as porn fans and expensive copyright lawsuits unless they quickly settled.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">OK.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm fervently against copyright trolls. They abuse the legal system to extort money from folks who might (or might not?) have downloaded porn. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But in his effort to get Strike 3 out of his batter's box, the Judge may have thrown a bit too hard and fast inside. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's one thing to remind the copyright trolls that they need to respect his position and the courts. So? The Judge would be well within his rights to find that the plaintiffs could not use discovery simply to get names of people to shake them down - with no intention of actually following through in the courts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But, the Judge hurled dangerous "chin music" (in baseball, "chin music" means a pitch that is thrown dangerously close to the batter's face) when he wrote in a footnote (on p. 7) that “it is unsettled in many Circuits - including this one - whether pornography is in fact entitled to protection against copyright infringement.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In fact? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Judge is wrong.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The copyright protection afforded to pornography is settled law. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Everywhere in the US.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For a recent example, here's the relevant language in a decision from a <a href="https://www.leagle.com/decision/infco20120802160">2012 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling</a>:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“[Plainitff] specializes in the production and distribution of videos of black men engaged in homosexual acts. Although some people would disapprove of such a service there is no suggestion that it is illegal; and anyway the prevailing view is that even illegality is not a bar to copyrightability.” </span></i>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-38140060985688836222018-09-27T00:38:00.005-07:002018-12-11T22:38:46.578-08:00Bloom's Taxonomy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUuBok4ZagLOi8rq-9_x97kmn-QjJffjBASrXEsqzWDA3AeyrWj_0a1IYxNY2Iam2mco4A0-wafLl-T2xsZWfKJ1kcZ76cmPLcMp566iwC5IuPVASmaLi5wA0OdJ8T9jlRQiEXmExsuT72/s1600/Bloom%2527s+Verbs+Learning+Outcomes.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUuBok4ZagLOi8rq-9_x97kmn-QjJffjBASrXEsqzWDA3AeyrWj_0a1IYxNY2Iam2mco4A0-wafLl-T2xsZWfKJ1kcZ76cmPLcMp566iwC5IuPVASmaLi5wA0OdJ8T9jlRQiEXmExsuT72/s1600/Bloom%2527s+Verbs+Learning+Outcomes.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2mD_uiBZjyKyYBoawu1isW68S0gwuVfLy9OdSpX85eyJZ915LsNuJZ2OKUgIlwTwcGq_cvZ-tK5oPs-MKP2H71I_VAF0QFS_KiAoHS_xGBvuO54py0a7_DuBqalRDjfeQRvd2egWg3Apx/s1600/Bloom%2527s+Verbs+Learning+Outcomes2.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2mD_uiBZjyKyYBoawu1isW68S0gwuVfLy9OdSpX85eyJZ915LsNuJZ2OKUgIlwTwcGq_cvZ-tK5oPs-MKP2H71I_VAF0QFS_KiAoHS_xGBvuO54py0a7_DuBqalRDjfeQRvd2egWg3Apx/s1600/Bloom%2527s+Verbs+Learning+Outcomes2.jpg" /></a>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-70133607407629296652018-09-26T21:06:00.002-07:002018-09-26T21:08:11.924-07:00Role of a Teacher<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="giphy-embed" frameborder="0" height="420" src="https://giphy.com/embed/DRYfAojqo3RpS" width="852"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"I refuse to accept that my role as a teacher is to take the knowledge in my head and put it in someone else’s. That would make for a pretty limited world :). Why then do we teach? Are we passing on social mores? I want my students to know more than me at the end of my course. I want them to make connections I would never make. I want them to be prepared to change. I think having a set curriculum of things people are supposed to know encourages passivity. I don’t want that. We should not be preparing people for factories. I teach to try and organize people’s learning journeys… to create a context for them to learn in." - </span><span style="font-size: large;">Dave Cormier 2011</span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-10668375947328621492018-09-12T22:18:00.001-07:002018-09-13T00:03:12.142-07:00Tips For Monitoring Your Progress Quiz-to-Quiz<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghWAJR1rbef8YXT1m0hz7Kp0VrYJ3yhMIo0HSTvkAInPizFxWPMpZO-kz1o2i4bm4lIuzIIOu7rhyphenhyphenRRM2JNj3BFH31mja61X-N3ThOAGuXFFubxjx_WjdOxmnNcVR_ZEtzgED0_X-aKSLN/s1600/Screenshot+2018-09-13+13.16.10+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="976" data-original-width="964" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghWAJR1rbef8YXT1m0hz7Kp0VrYJ3yhMIo0HSTvkAInPizFxWPMpZO-kz1o2i4bm4lIuzIIOu7rhyphenhyphenRRM2JNj3BFH31mja61X-N3ThOAGuXFFubxjx_WjdOxmnNcVR_ZEtzgED0_X-aKSLN/s640/Screenshot+2018-09-13+13.16.10+copy.jpg" width="632" /></a></div><br />
Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-41551085776877643022018-07-11T01:08:00.002-07:002018-07-11T01:08:31.577-07:00New Yellow's Lonely Man AR Demo<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="451" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Faweekaproject%2Fvideos%2F1855408691403309%2F&show_text=1&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-64077473415855778252018-07-08T01:54:00.002-07:002018-07-08T01:58:19.993-07:00Working With Sponsors to Fund Your Film: Even If Product Placement is Impossible (e.g., you're making a period piece about Finland in WW2)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/236611403" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br />
<a href="https://vimeo.com/236611403">ARILYN x THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER MOVIE x VALIO</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/arilyn">ARILYN</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So grateful to Brian Newman for his <a href="https://us5.campaign-archive.com/?u=43175ffadd10a314510384941&id=62084f0f78&e=77a3ebe13e/?u=43175ffadd10a314510384941&id=62084f0f78&awesome=no&e=77a3ebe13e#Finland">post about the innovative partnerships that helped to fund and market the Finnish film, Unknown Soldier.</a></span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Because it was a historical film, none [of the corporate sponsors] were able to do product placement, but <a href="http://www.tuntematonsotilas2017.fi/en/#team">[director/producer Aku] Louhimies</a> and the team built a platform where each brand could activate around the film leading up to its release. So Land Rover didn’t have its vehicles in the film, but Louhimies made short form content showing the cast and crew using their vehicles in the production. The National Lottery, Veikkaus, sent emails to its best customers to help cast the roles of 3000 extras – and ended up with 14,000 video submissions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Each brand got very creative with how it supported the film. According to <a href="https://www.adweek.com/creativity/how-finlands-epic-equivalent-of-saving-private-ryan-flipped-the-branded-content-script/">AdWeek</a>... “Other activations, all supported on social media, included national TV campaigns from different companies including food brand Jalostaja, and beverage brand Meira. A special edition of the Finnish magazine Tuntematon, by media brand Alma Media, was released in August 2017 and songs were recorded, including one from a top band that reached No. 1 in the country.” Local milk producer Valio also produced an AR piece that could be viewed on millions of milk cartons distributed throughout Finland (see the <a href="https://vimeo.com/236611403">video from </a><a href="https://vimeo.com/236611403">Vimeo</a> [above])."</span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-4852404615711463672018-06-29T20:45:00.003-07:002018-06-30T23:52:22.254-07:00David Huang’s BattleSkyVR Demonstrates Flying Through Urban Landscapes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='480' height='399' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyGV3keXEGowfvXdjeUvyAV3RDv6_GlpGr4XRkdF-iH7xf_xrY5ocXevy60GH54DpFSb8ZVMqB3yuQOWfr4vQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A couple of years ago, my pal David Huang, who was designing and building homes and offices (he was a successful architect) began looking for a new challenge. What if he could build worlds? Inside VR? Problem? David didn’t know how to code for VR. And he found the usual tools for moving around inside game worlds limiting. So David taught himself Unity and figured out how to fly. Pretty much on his own. (His brother, who works on the other side of the Pacific in Silicon Valley, helped after work.) Yesterday, David put Taipei’s mayor into VR, where he flew like a dragon. The VR world? A representation of Taipei. Note: David’s game, <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/625830/BattleSky_VR/">BattleskyVR, is available on Steam</a>. It allows for aerial battles (he already offers 3 distinct flying characters - with more in development?). And yesterday David demonstrated that his app can allow even novices to fly over and through an unlimited range of landscapes - real or imagined. So cool!</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='480' height='399' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwQgshF4BG06KBhp5Yxeo910-_t2fkdqQmfFk0_jLor2DZqZlYFeVgFw90jVK6_g6-4eDrGozGQNEj4tbe5bw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Click this <a href="https://www.facebook.com/605533111/posts/10156558436938112/">link</a> to see more of the demo with Taipei’s Mayor Ko flying over Taipei as a dragon!</span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-21489671595209736102018-06-24T23:42:00.001-07:002018-06-24T23:42:31.647-07:00How Safe is VR? How to Prepare for the New Threats and Opportunities<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qwUiMTDSelBcKY_vpurgcCwzsODCghuv/preview" width="640"></iframe></span></span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-59397233999533579572018-05-16T19:33:00.002-07:002018-05-16T19:33:29.676-07:00AR Materials for New Media Classes with New Yellow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZMk0T1yaook5ULWNigwZJf8TeaU8fihCN4o28zRukH5iE4m6C_MyOeNBUaeSrwauK11_i3_b0hmbjae_KSkvuRn_tbW86uPLnPWknJY0HD55BfNiRh03wgBNvDGyB9WGq-Y3_WMOTUIGu/s1600/AR+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="740" data-original-width="1070" height="441" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZMk0T1yaook5ULWNigwZJf8TeaU8fihCN4o28zRukH5iE4m6C_MyOeNBUaeSrwauK11_i3_b0hmbjae_KSkvuRn_tbW86uPLnPWknJY0HD55BfNiRh03wgBNvDGyB9WGq-Y3_WMOTUIGu/s640/AR+.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here is a <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/nsmywrzye04h9zx/A%20Note%20Before%20the%20AR%20Class.pdf?dl=0">link to the assignment</a> for our AR workshops.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And here is a <a href="https://store.unity.com/">link to download Unity</a>. Choose the personal Version (free). Note: Your computer should be running Windows 7 SP1+, 8, 10, 64-bit versions only; Mac OS X 10.9+.</span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-86403010488352126272018-02-07T12:24:00.000-08:002018-02-07T12:39:40.437-08:00Props<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/143619334?badge=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you're curious about what happens behind the scenes, this video - about the importance of props in motion pictures from <a href="https://vimeo.com/rishikaneria">Rishi Kaneria</a> - is well worth your time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As is this <a href="https://www.creativefuture.org/prop-master-conversation-elisa-malona/">Feb. 7, 2018 Creative Future interview with Elisa Malona (follow this link)</a>, head of props for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To make theatrical films, television and theater - or to simply appreciate them as the product of disciplined artists - it's useful to understand how the illusions are created. One of the most ancient practices involves creating (or renting or buying) and preparing the objects that the performers will hold in their hands.</span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-17560021971823063382018-01-25T17:07:00.002-08:002018-01-30T20:56:26.707-08:00Film Education: Bridging the Gap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2wwvO24Hd0DRdag0qt4OlYZk0NnIN8_woprJYQugom-rXdhh3JVpBR-47925_ahOHWtD0t33oUvCrx3yueccolLr3T7GbI5m6sd1qJ0k9vwc7cwaUHNJqPxC4pKp15gJbec4-6D07LpCE/s1600/Innovation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1148" data-original-width="1122" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2wwvO24Hd0DRdag0qt4OlYZk0NnIN8_woprJYQugom-rXdhh3JVpBR-47925_ahOHWtD0t33oUvCrx3yueccolLr3T7GbI5m6sd1qJ0k9vwc7cwaUHNJqPxC4pKp15gJbec4-6D07LpCE/s640/Innovation.jpg" width="624" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The most important part of motion picture making is rarely addressed in film schools. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">That may be because it is constantly changing - and arguably doesn’t even exist. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In my experience, the most critical part of motion picture making is the gap - the distance between the filmmaker’s work and how the user receives the film.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is there a film school spending sufficient (any?) time on bridging that gap between the film and the viewer. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’m not talking about marketing. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Although marketing is a part of it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’m talking about the gap that every motion picture must bridge in the endlessly repeating process of touching each unique viewer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Using language from other disciplines, the gap I am describing might also be called an interface. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">[In computer programming, there are human interfaces, <a href="http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4pnio2XqZnJOwk6ij_n-oQ">where the software interacts with humans</a>, and there are APIs (Application Program Interfaces), where software interacts with other pieces of software.]</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">How much thought is given to the gaps where films interact with the audience?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In film schools, directors, cinematographers and editors hear lectures on <a href="http://www.randyfinch.com/2014/02/such-analyze-many-grammar-amaze.html">film grammar</a> - which touch on how humans in general seem to have reacted to certain conventions that were established 100 years ago. And producers take classes on film marketing, where students learn about the platforms and messaging that have historically been used by film studios to get customers to buy a product.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But, as the technology changes and films are created, discovered, circulated and experienced on new devices in new ways, shouldn’t all film students be spending more time thinking about how to bridge the gap between their work and the user?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Especially now that the old super highways for making and delivering motion pictures are collapsing and new roads - including millions of winding social media pathways - are appearing?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yes. Most of today’s paths to viewers are difficult and dangerous. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Relying on old conventions and the routes of the last century is easier. And relying on (now incorrect) legacy ideas is all many film teachers know. So much (most?) of the University teaching about motion pictures consists of talking about the old ways - as if the still had a chance of bridging the gap - with a few teachers stitching in info about the few commercially-viable remaining pieces. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It’s expedient for the teachers. But is that approach optimal for the students?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The wrong tools beckon because they are easier. And traditional.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But should decisions about what to teach and how to teach be based on what worked for the last century?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am not suggesting that we break all the toys. But conservatism that ignores how motion pictures have changed - and will continue to change - seems destined to fail the students. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And don’t Universities have a duty to advance the practice of the art?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’ll readily admit there is no one true method. No silver bullet. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But simply teaching the old tools and techniques - without addressing the changing context - is folly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As user experience pioneer Alan Cooper has observed: "The assumption that the merits of a given method are its merits at all times, in all places, and for all practitioners, is simply not true."</span></span></div>
<h4 class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" id="31f1" name="31f1" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.22; --x-height-multiplier: 0.342; line-height: 1.22; margin: 22px 0px 0px -1.5px; text-size-adjust: auto;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In my view, motion-picture-making education would benefit from a refocus on the people and the processes (new models of creative collaboration and interactivity targeted at bridging the gap), rather than a continued focus on Old World tools and techniques. </span></span></h4>
<h4 class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" id="31f1" name="31f1" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.22; --x-height-multiplier: 0.342; line-height: 1.22; margin: 22px 0px 0px -1.5px; text-size-adjust: auto;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And, unfortunately, managers attached to an Old World “command and control” model are the wrong choice to implement the necessary changes.</span></span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Filmmaking for the 21st century is not what it was 20 or even 10 years ago.</span></span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">21st century filmmakers must embrace the challenges of bridging the gap. </span></span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The insights and perspective that will focus on how the users will interact with motion pictures are not part of traditional film education. But, increasingly, they are what really matters.</span></span></h4>
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Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-48160965041549993922018-01-13T19:46:00.002-08:002018-01-13T20:28:39.795-08:00Lest We Forget....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvGGqUxpd_THwUNMu5rqh-rBpXVy1E28_VTnbAfo5c8y4P3-yVEdbpdKTUj3Nx8aQXhBO85sVAGV2Ne174qY767Hmrn6BSMey7WbMapcaTlduiZPFSxWID0mIcyeRMglHvyUdLK4QirA8_/s1600/Trump_shithole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="1600" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvGGqUxpd_THwUNMu5rqh-rBpXVy1E28_VTnbAfo5c8y4P3-yVEdbpdKTUj3Nx8aQXhBO85sVAGV2Ne174qY767Hmrn6BSMey7WbMapcaTlduiZPFSxWID0mIcyeRMglHvyUdLK4QirA8_/s640/Trump_shithole.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This week the President of the United States, while discussing immigration from Haiti and Africa, questioned why the US would want people from <a href="https://nyti.ms/2Ezjfch">"shithole" countries</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Which got me thinking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The President (and readers of this blog?) may not realize that there are numerous motion pictures that would not exist, but for authors from “shithole” countries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Two examples from one author?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLvwIj1fonBpoDJ4cyJCG2P-FoS6WmvH_SYl5iC5U-Y25X3usaFxeXUPGMummBHtDEkkipX6pBVGIjMh4DOgrSjg2LtkM7ZReJNU348RymrXmI30bcHMpyJmdREzGwY2Vn5hz1tIx0wUG1/s1600/ThreeMusketeers_CountofMonteCristo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1161" data-original-width="1600" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLvwIj1fonBpoDJ4cyJCG2P-FoS6WmvH_SYl5iC5U-Y25X3usaFxeXUPGMummBHtDEkkipX6pBVGIjMh4DOgrSjg2LtkM7ZReJNU348RymrXmI30bcHMpyJmdREzGwY2Vn5hz1tIx0wUG1/s640/ThreeMusketeers_CountofMonteCristo.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo were both written by <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/alexandre-dumas-9280725">Alexandre Dumas</a> (pictured below), who lived in France, but whose background might, even today, help explain what it means to be Haitian. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi8qVc23epmhpZY6sxs_3Izi5jPRth4YiaMkZYporcF4pAmNjSk6XjSFHOt6rSmaqnqdSdztxbXeGSe67y4JIiY6z3JnzgU71kUj0Qu7bOmWplXjV1Wh7yozt28D5_p2zpxjW6_4U4ozA4/s1600/alexandre+dumas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1260" data-original-width="1242" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi8qVc23epmhpZY6sxs_3Izi5jPRth4YiaMkZYporcF4pAmNjSk6XjSFHOt6rSmaqnqdSdztxbXeGSe67y4JIiY6z3JnzgU71kUj0Qu7bOmWplXjV1Wh7yozt28D5_p2zpxjW6_4U4ozA4/s640/alexandre+dumas.jpg" width="630" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many people may not realize that Alexandre Dumas’ father, <a href="https://www.theroot.com/who-was-napoleons-black-devil-1790898131">Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie</a> (pictured below), was a black man and war hero, born in 1762 in the French colony of Saint-Domingue - present-day Haiti.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoqGteC5ngfpGZlCOKDZC-oEjNWidam-FA9FJxAcOhCV-TcUPyyux_JsXAOIDR4wwKsEygHvAyI-QPageqgaWIcCOuhcjWVqpH-B508InyuEpWzBiJmr79f62HfBue04pwVvsv3nRUbbz0/s1600/Thomas+Alexandre+Dumas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1195" data-original-width="1600" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoqGteC5ngfpGZlCOKDZC-oEjNWidam-FA9FJxAcOhCV-TcUPyyux_JsXAOIDR4wwKsEygHvAyI-QPageqgaWIcCOuhcjWVqpH-B508InyuEpWzBiJmr79f62HfBue04pwVvsv3nRUbbz0/s640/Thomas+Alexandre+Dumas.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie's parents were Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a French nobleman and <a href="https://www.polyvore.com/marie-cessette_dumas/set?id=219219399">Marie-Cessette Dumas</a>, who a contemporaneous letter says was purchased from a Monsieur de Mirribielle “at an exorbitant price," and then years later, sold, along with her two daughters, "to a... baron from Nantes". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Just to make my point crystal clear, the man who wrote “All for One and One for All” was the grandson of a slave - and his father (one of many from his homeland who have <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/05/26/haiti-born-cadet-weeps-west-point-graduation/84965636/">served proudly in the military</a>, but who, to my knowledge remains the highest-ranking man of African descent ever to serve in a European army) was Haitian.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Note: The poster for The Three Musketeers silent film above is from the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012752/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">1921 version</a>, that starred Douglas Fairbanks and Adolphe Menjou. If you enjoyed A Hard Day's Night (1964), you might want to see how <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072281/?ref_=nv_sr_3">director Richard Lester handled the same basic story in 1973</a>, with stars like Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, and Richard Chamberlain. The Count of Monte Cristo has also been remade many times as a motion picture. The <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025004/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_17">1934 version</a> with Robert Donat as Edmund Dantes (poster above), made a big impression on me when I was a kid. But in hindsight, it's not a fully satisfying retelling of that great story. I didn't think the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245844/">2002 Hollywood version</a>, directed by Kevin Reynolds and starring Jim Caviezel, got it right either. Perhaps versions I have yet to watch, like a futuristic retelling in anime, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437719/">Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (2004)</a>, or a reputedly more faithful <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167565/">1998 French TV mini-series version</a>, starring Gérard Depardieu and a raft of great French actors, or a (hard-to-find?) <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0148018/">BBC miniseries version from 1964</a> starring Alan Badel might offer better options. </span><br />
<br />Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-5341837322940616192018-01-12T07:03:00.001-08:002018-01-25T18:38:00.068-08:00Love and the Producer: Big Money From Interactive Storytelling That Targets a Key Demographic in China - Young Women<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZGUGOa8TymwmS1viEXk8dnRpVkGR9B2ve0FsTrSxxXQIREYlt3Q1DxHpZhpmC7PIQCEZliCZttaeAXvlYwGJ6QeFVphT-UDPOdMa3B1i3MT21RFK_Gv7tRUde0y8WvM3H0wrMvRGE6FP/s1600/Love+and+Prioducer+-+Bai+Qi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1060" data-original-width="1564" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZGUGOa8TymwmS1viEXk8dnRpVkGR9B2ve0FsTrSxxXQIREYlt3Q1DxHpZhpmC7PIQCEZliCZttaeAXvlYwGJ6QeFVphT-UDPOdMa3B1i3MT21RFK_Gv7tRUde0y8WvM3H0wrMvRGE6FP/s640/Love+and+Prioducer+-+Bai+Qi.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The future of interactive storytelling might be emerging right now in China via a (new at the end of Dec. 2017) romantic mobile game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://evol.papegames.cn/">"Love and the Producer"</a> takes all those Western dystopian fantasies about men dating shapely androids and turns them on their head - by making the female (!) player in this relationship <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/cn/app/%E6%81%8B%E4%B8%8E%E5%88%B6%E4%BD%9C%E4%BA%BA/id1258524226?mt=8">game</a> an ambitious executive with 4 comely men to keep on a string as she tries to build her TV production company.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And the real world cash being collected - mostly apparently from young female players - of 恋与制作人 (</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Love and the Producer") is rumored to be approaching successful indie film levels - and growing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">That massive popularity, its appeal to young women, and the way "Love and the Producer" is straying into areas once reserved for films and TV series, might suggest that this Chinese sensation deserves a look from future motion picture makers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Without delving too deeply into the gameplay: "Love and the Producer" unfolds as t</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">he tale of MC - a female TV producer - who must pay attention to several story threads, with each player trying to level up as MC.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There's...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1) A business storyline, that concerns MC trying to make her media production company successful through canny hiring, etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">2) A love storyline, that requires collecting different cards from 4 dreamy guys.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">3) And a supernatural powers storyline (with the superpowers known as evol), with each of the 4 guys having a unique power.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">According to <a href="https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2018/01/02/diaosi-meets-girl-power-relationship-simulation-game-takes-china-storm">TheBeijinger.com</a>, "The game, which went live on all platforms on December 20, [2017] is expected to pocket RMB 50 million (USD 7.6 million) in revenue during its first month.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Also, it's kind of hot:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WyC8V3HPnv8Dn3PtfHp79ZrSZPh007qkv9ce9n4UqhUtpPOvNLCuJGFrBVn2r9eNUTh6icMaxfDyf7x5RYDtpGdC8zdAz7Y9rtxX_TuT0iDTBQ9VhGoGCBHv4IyK5BIctNWwVWjM_9vH/s1600/It%2527s+Melting+Me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1344" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WyC8V3HPnv8Dn3PtfHp79ZrSZPh007qkv9ce9n4UqhUtpPOvNLCuJGFrBVn2r9eNUTh6icMaxfDyf7x5RYDtpGdC8zdAz7Y9rtxX_TuT0iDTBQ9VhGoGCBHv4IyK5BIctNWwVWjM_9vH/s640/It%2527s+Melting+Me.jpg" width="570" /></a></div>
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Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-60128402935436027552017-12-04T19:50:00.003-08:002017-12-04T19:54:15.029-08:00New Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 70mm Print Screening in LA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_AznzZAlwVA/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="532" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_AznzZAlwVA?feature=player_embedded" width="640"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">According to a </span><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-american-cinematheque-lawrence-of-arabia-20171204-story.html">Dec. 4, 2017 article in the LA Times</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">, the American Cinematheque will screen a new 70 mm print of “Lawrence of Arabia” in Los Angeles. </span></span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The first run will be at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood from Dec. 15-30, 2017. After that, the film will screen at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. </span></span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-86428080333978571172017-11-16T02:49:00.002-08:002017-11-16T02:50:35.723-08:00Has China Stopped Returning Hollywood's Calls?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimLqs6u5GvMFVM-bnwTkmvaQsVqt8t7h3egAEBEn1RU_BI7i529u7tCXSKuCCzGS7ZwTjjLE-7d78yMGcOTl6QyM5dxLagNMnVgVoTXOEOD-uMr4wcbii1bkekgJxJ76kCD-Pbor7KJobI/s1600/China+Cools+On+Hollywood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="1132" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimLqs6u5GvMFVM-bnwTkmvaQsVqt8t7h3egAEBEn1RU_BI7i529u7tCXSKuCCzGS7ZwTjjLE-7d78yMGcOTl6QyM5dxLagNMnVgVoTXOEOD-uMr4wcbii1bkekgJxJ76kCD-Pbor7KJobI/s640/China+Cools+On+Hollywood.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Just as suddenly as it heated up, Chinese investment in Hollywood has cooled off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The demise of the deals that Hollywood had depended on is roiling the major studios and other show business related deals in Hollywood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For example, as reported in a <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-china-hollywood-foreign-investment-20171112-htmlstory.html">Nov. 12th, 2017 LA Times article</a>, Paramount Pictures had announced in January 2017 that Bejing's Huahua Media was going to to invest $1 billion in Paramount’s movies. That deal is now not going to happen - thanks to the "Chinese government’s clampdown on foreign investment in entertainment and other industries" outside China.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And, in October of 2017, Athens Group, the US development partner working with Beijing's troubled entertainment biz giant Dalian Wanda Group, officially called it quits on a $1.2 billion development project that would have provided new hotel rooms and condos in pricey Beverly Hills. Wanda Group had been on an "<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/robcain/2017/07/18/things-are-even-worse-than-they-look-for-chinas-wanda-group-chairman-wang-jianlin/#199e4f912dcc">overseas buying spree</a>" including major investments in Hollywood real estate while promising to pour money into production companies like Legendary - but now that Chinese firm's ability to obtain financing has been called into question.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-34954288209617589632017-10-13T17:53:00.000-07:002017-11-15T22:54:24.967-08:00What Types of Low Budget Films Break Out?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP5gONdGiLZoMTQJvgfKpFwsJMQ3rnbuWz65pUMeWkv9TNb49qAET2IDspoA8SxDd4ab-luC57MSnkuF0XspbzRHHfKuP7I7hNqm0b0audwPMhL1H67nIOOj_DacdyNu2FY1CDdgaPv9KG/s1600/What+Indies+Score+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="1600" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP5gONdGiLZoMTQJvgfKpFwsJMQ3rnbuWz65pUMeWkv9TNb49qAET2IDspoA8SxDd4ab-luC57MSnkuF0XspbzRHHfKuP7I7hNqm0b0audwPMhL1H67nIOOj_DacdyNu2FY1CDdgaPv9KG/s640/What+Indies+Score+copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you're making an indie film (budgeted at under US$ 3 million), is there a formula for success?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Stephen Follows and Bruce Nash crunched the numbers - looking for patterns behind low-budget movie success - and in late 2017 published their <a href="http://americanfilmmarket.com/update-types-low-budget-films-break-out/?linkedin">results on the AFM website</a>.</span><br />
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Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-37886021858857923532017-10-03T05:08:00.005-07:002017-10-03T05:09:01.984-07:00Chinese IP: The Oddness of Mainland Web-series<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://elephant-room.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Screen-Shot-2017-09-27-at-10.54.14-PM-1024x536.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://elephant-room.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Screen-Shot-2017-09-27-at-10.54.14-PM-1024x536.png" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="800" height="334" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Lately the motion picture industry press in the West has begun to explain the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/20/why-china-hollywood-deals-have-come-to-a-screeching-halt.html">"screeching halt"</a> in Hollywood's deals with China as the product of a cash crunch in China mixed with concerns about regulatory oversight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Those elements undeniably exist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But there is also the (harder to explain?) divergence in what seems to be working on screens in China and the rest of the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">From my perch in Asia, I've tried to get a grip on Chinese tastes. But, while trying to learn as much as I can about the booming online entertainment business in China, I've not made much progress in anticipating what kind of content to expect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I really want to be an expert - but the original web-series that have been scoring in China are just too alien for me to understand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maybe it's just me, but it seems that the gulf is actually widening as China's production capabilities rapidly ramp up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To me? It's as if Chinese tastes are finally being satisfied by Chinese content - and this Westerner doesn't have a clue as to what the audience wants - or how mainland cultural currents are being reflected in online popularity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To be honest, the more I learn about what works in the mainland, it seem to me that rest of the world (Hollywood, etc.) is operating in a different (barely parallel) media universe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The strangeness to me of Chinese taste and content online - accessed I'll admit by the unscientific method of peering over shoulders on public transport - which may not be the best way to get a bead on what is actually happening, but it's how I'm sampling what people are watching on their phones - is extreme.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The sensation I have - sharing a few fleeting moments of viewership with a local - is disorienting. It's like gazing through a portal into another universe. The colors. The costumes. The characters (human-animal hybrids?). To say nothing of the indecipherable plots.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Apparently I'm not alone. My alienation is apparently shared by at least some Chinese transplants. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Check out this breezy <a href="http://elephant-room.com/2017/09/26/ipshows/">post Sept. 26th, 2017 post from elephant room</a> - a blog run by Biyi (London School of Economics) and Yan (University of Oxford) - that recaps of some of what has recently caught on in the mainland.</span><br />
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<br />Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-86512874504901528822017-09-27T17:52:00.002-07:002018-01-25T18:53:23.723-08:00Interview About Producing an Award-Winning Film on a MicroBudget<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G4cMuyeD9Ow" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; white-space: pre-wrap;">Producer of the 2015 indie film Tangerine, Darren Dean, discusses all elements of making the movie; including screenwriting, financing, production and post-production. Nominated for 4 Independent Spirit Awards (Best Feature and Best Director - Sean Baker, Best Female Lead - Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, and Best Supporting Female - Mya Taylor), Tangerine was shot entirely on the iPhone 5!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; white-space: pre-wrap;">UPDATE: January 25th, 2018: Darren's latest film as a producer, The Florida Project, this week nabbed an Oscar nomination (Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Willem Dafoe) after winning the AFI Film of The Year Award. Here's a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5649144/awards">link to a more comprehensive list of awards nominations and wins for The Florida Project</a>. Congrats Darren!</span></span></div>
Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-55227536087020544252017-09-25T21:51:00.001-07:002017-09-25T21:51:38.193-07:00China Cracks Down on Social Media<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02807/Weibo_2807707b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02807/Weibo_2807707b.jpg" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="620" height="398" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In a <a href="https://www.techinasia.com/brief-china-fines-wechat-weibo-party-congress">Sept. 26th, 2017 post to Tech in Asia</a>, Eva Xiao writes about the latest fines levied against the leading social media platforms in China - yet another sign of the efforts by Chinese authorities to prevent the spread of messages that are deemed unacceptable by the state.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This year, government regulators have rolled out a number of new rules, like holding WeChat group owners responsible for content shared in their chat groups. In September, authorities arrested a man for complaining about police raids in the app.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Celebrity gossip social media accounts have also been muzzled. In June, 60 accounts were closed as China’s cyberspace authorities told tech firms to “actively propagate core socialist values.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Earlier this year, the Chinese government ordered domestic telecom carriers to enforce a ban on virtual private networks (VPNs), which help users circumvent the “Great Firewall.” In July, Apple removed VPN-related apps from the China App Store to comply with Chinese laws."</span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7287998325898369187.post-56284574305855210612017-09-23T21:37:00.003-07:002017-09-23T21:45:26.430-07:00Buster Keaton's Seven Chances (1925) - Great Comedy Chase Sequence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The 1925 film, Seven Chances, starring Buster Keaton, remains a landmark of cinematic comedy - with perhaps the greatest comedy chase scene ever in motion pictures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The plot (since reworked into other rom-coms) involves a young man (Keaton's character) who will inherit seven million dollars per his late grandfather's will, but only if he marries by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday - which is the very day the will is read. Buster's girlfriend (played by Ruth Dwyer) has been patiently waiting for Buster's proposal - but confusion about his motives (is it just for the money?) adds a complication - as do the 500 gold-digging wanna brides (extras Buster hired to chase him at the movie's climax) all of whom want to marry Buster for his money.</span>Randy Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13730612169523869199noreply@blogger.com0