PGA's Producer's Mark

The Producer's Guild of America has announced that Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia Pictures and Screen Gems, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Universal Pictures have signed in to fulfill the Producer's Mark certification. What this does, is that is gives producers certified credit for their work.

This article caught my eye because i noticed that three big film companies had signed on something and I was curious to know what it was about. after reading it, I noticed it was important because the p.g.a. is giving  producers credit for the hard work they did. 

As a student I could relate to someone who doesn't get credit for something they worked so hard on, and imagining that someone else could take the credit for it is even worse. As a filmmaker it benefits them because the film industry is a very competitive industry and there are a lot of people who would try to take the credit to ideas or work made by other people.

A  question I have is why is this barely being done considering there are people out to steal credit from others.    

Marvel Studios Gets Closer to Disneyland

http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/marvel-studios-heading-to-walt-disney-company-backyard-the-avengers-thor-captain-america/

After three years that Disney had announced that they were buying Marvel Studios, they are finally moving over to be closer to Disney. Next year, Marvel will be moving from Manhattan Beach to Glendale just to be closer to Disney because "Proximity can only help when it comes to collaboration," which is what a studio insider said about Marvel's move to be closer to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. Due to more favorable tax incentives, Marvel was shooting sequels out of the state, stopping the need for MBS Media Sound Stages. This was a reason for the move, but not the only reason.    

What caught my eye was Disney and Marvel in the same title. I had not known that Disney had owned Marvel. Is a bit shocking to know that I'm barely finding out three years later. I looked into this further, and found that Disney had a problem when it came to attracting a teenage male audience. Now owning Marvel, they don't have that problem anymore.
 
As a student and a filmmaker, this impacts me because sometimes one has to make sacrifices. I'm sure it might have taken Marvel some time to decide whether or not to sell, but they were going into the hands of a prosperous company, so they knew they wouldn't be making a mistake by selling to Disney. This article also shows me that while you can work from a distance, being closer, allows you to work more efficiently.

This article makes me wonder why it took them three years to decide to move closer to Disney. Did they not want to move, and tried to work from a distance but realized it was easier if they were nearby?    

Digital Domain Takes a Breather

http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/digital-domain-says-studios-freaking-out-gets-ok-on-september-21-auction/

Digital Domain is a troubled special effects company that is fighting bankruptcy. The company will be allowed immediate access to $12 million from a debtor-in-possession order. Brenden Shannon, the judge that approved that order also approved a fast-tracked auction. Unless their financial status clears up, six Hollywood studios that are thinking of pulling projects from the company. if this were to happen, Digital Domain would be loosing 80% of their revenues.

This caught my eye because the title of the article said that studios are freaking out and i wanted to know what they were freaking out about. After reading the article, this impacted me as a student because it made me realize that many jobs are liked together. If one of them is having troubles, it will affect the others. For example, if a grocery store buys their merchandise from a farmer, and the farmers crops are not as prosperous as they used to, the farm will be closed down and eventually the grocery store will be too since they have no other place to buy their merchandise.

Over 100 Hollywood films' special effects and computer-generated characters were made by Digital Domain. They had made the special effects of Titanic, which is an Academy Award winning film. Despite their glory, they are still fighting through the economy and this would impact me as a filmmaker because no matter how successful one can be at something, it doesn't necessarily mean they will prosper forever. Because of this, as a filmmaker, one would have to make smart choices about what companies to work with.

I'd like to know if Digital Domain will be able to overcome bankruptcy, and if they don't, what will they do after loosing 80% of their business makers? Would the 6 companies actually pull their projects if Digital Domain's financial status does not get better?   

Box Office Decrease

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-summer-box-office-20120904,0,3835496.story

Even though there were hit movies, such as "The Avengers," "The Amazing Spider-Man," "The Dark Night Rises," and "Ted", during the summer, this summer's box office was not match to last summer's. In the time period from May to the labor day weekend, box office deceased 3% to 4.3 billion from last year, and according to Hollywood.com, attendance was 4% to 533million; the lowest number in almost 20 years.  Some reasons people thought the cause of the decrease was the Olympics telecast. Another reason is the massacre during a "Dark Night" screening, leaving 12 people dead, 58 wounded, and the rest of the population scared of going to a theater. The executive vice president of distribution for Warner Bros., Jeff Goldstein, explains that is is not right to blame things for the decrease in box office and that there were disappointments that they simply did not deliver to.

This article caught my attention because in the title it states that they are comparing numbers from this year and last year. This is significant because by comparing both years, one could find what people what to see and what they don't. It makes room for improvement.

As a student, this article shows how important it is to keep records of certain things. By keeping a record of each year's box office, one can compare which movies were shone and which movies were the ones that attracted the audience more. As a consumer, this article is pretty much telling me that this summer there were a lot of hit movies, but that didn't stop the box office to have decreased from the previous year. This article impacts one as a future film maker by giving one the ability to compare numbers and types of movies that either caused box office to decrease, or increase. It also shows that there might be things apart from the actual movie that might stop one from going to watch it.

Will the film industry use this information as a basis to upcoming movies, or will they continue releasing movies and seeing how they will compare to this year's?    \       

Oscars Change Rules for Best Original Song

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/oscars-alter-rules-for-best-original-song-nominees-20120831

In the previous years, the process to choose the nominees for Best Original Song, was based on only having songs that earned an average score. Last year, because of this method, there were only two nominees for Best Original Song. Based on this, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science decided to Change the rules in which the Best Original Song is voted on. The new method will have the music branch vote for songs and the five movies with the highest votes will become nominees for the award. To every positive, there is a negative, and in this case, by having the five highest voted songs(minimum), there is the chance that a song that isn't very good will end up a nominee for the Oscars.

This article caught my eye because it is about the Oscars changing the way they vote for their nominees. It may not seem like a big deal, but knowing that the Oscars is a prestigious award, hearing that they had to make some changes just shows that they were having some problems on choosing their nominees. In a way, they are kind of lowering the standard for the nominees in order to have more than just two nominees.

As a student, this benefits me because it shows that not everything is perfect and change is acceptable. As a "consumer" or audience this benefits because more songs will be nominated so there will be more variety. As a filmmaker it would be a dream to receive an Oscar for a movie you made, no mater what the award was for. Since the rules for getting more nominees changed making there need to be a minimum of five nominees, that opens up one's chance for their Best Original Song to be one of the nominees, giving them the chance to receive an award.

Since this rule was barely applied, I wonder if this will work out for the Oscars. If it doesn't work this time, will they decide to go back to the previous method, or will they continue to try out the new method for a few years.    

Tony Scott's Unfinished Business

Tony Scott was one of the most active directors in Hollywood. With his death, he left behind four big projects he was working on. One of them being a greatly anticipated sequel to "Top Gun," which was his gateway into his Hollywood career. the other three projects he left undone were "Narco Sub," "Lucky Strike," and "The Wild Bunch." Some people he had recently been working with him described him as being "burning with excitement for creating stuff." There were no signals that his film making energy was running out or that he was suffering from depression that would cause him to suicide. It is uncertain whether or not the sequel to "Top Gun" will be continued.

The title to this article was what had caught my attention. The title, being named "Movies that Tony Scott left behind," lead me to think that the article was about someone who left their legend behind them in their movies. I didn't necessarily think the person had died. After realizing that my thought of what the article was, was wrong, it pulled me in deeper considering how easily one can misconceive titles.

This article also got me wondering how one's life can impact greatly on people, whether they are family, friends, or simply fans of what the person did. Scott had 3 projects he was working on and with his death, he wont be able to direct these films. If these movies are still made, someone else will have to be the director, and they will no longer be his films. Of course, the job will be done and the movies will be made, but they wont be directed the way he would have directed it. Fans of "Top Gun" would most likely prefer the sequel to be made by the original director. It just wouldn't be the same if another director directed it.

I wonder if the movie's Tony Scott left unfinished, will still be worked on. Although these movies wouldn't be his movies any more, would the people he was working with decide that they continue on working on these films, or will they leave them as Tony Scott left them?               

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-scott-projects-20120821,0,7108947.story

Legislative Hurdle Cleared

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-child-actors-bill-20120816,0,4064286.story

A bill was passed to protect child actors. The bill requires the people that work in the entertainment industry who have access to young performers to have background checks. Having background checks done to people in the industry such as talent managers, publicists, and photographers would prevent registered sex offenders to be working with minors. This bill also backed up former child actors that were victims of abuse.

This article is significant because it has to do with the protection of children. As a student, this article makes one feel safer as a child or teenager that are trying to get a job in the entertainment industry. In the film industry, everyone working together on a project is linked. Someone in the film industry would not want to hire someone who could potentially be a danger to any of the workers, especially if they are children. If something of that sort were to happen, the industry, having had hired the person, would get involved with the situation. An industry with a history of sex offenders is not going to appeal to the consumer very much because they would not like to support the problem in any way.

Children are not the only people who could get abused by workers, so having had passed the bill of requiring a background check for people who would be associating with child actors, shouldn't the entertainment agency just do background checks for all of their staff? This would ensure that all of the workers are reliable and it would eliminate the worry of potentially having a problem of abuse among any of the workers.