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Webmaster — 2009-11-09T20:46:36Z

Sunday Night John Safran on Triple J (buffy mention)

Webmaster — 2009-11-02T20:50:05Z

JOHN SAFRAN and FATHER BOB MAGUIRE are back with their own take on religion, politics and all things ethnic. This week with a Halloween themed show they venture into the afterlife and talk ghosts with, Karina Machado, Author of Spirit Sisters. They cast a spell of Witchcraft with Theatre Director, Michael Gow. They ask why Vampires still thrill and go into the coffin with ACMI Curator, Dr Saige Walton. And they find out why Purim is sometimes nicknamed the Jewish Halloween from Musical Composer, Nela Trifkovic, for Religious Song of the Week.

Click on the link :

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/triplej/safran/safran_2009_11_01.mp3

Accessability : essay on sharing creative content (whedonverse mentions)

Webmaster — 2009-10-19T19:29:32Z

The 20th Century Has Gone

The 20th Century has gone, and now we live in the 21st Century, a digital century, but sometimes when we look around it feels like the same old world it always was. Cars, burning oil. Posters and adverts, neon and signage. Books made of paper. Some things change so slowly that the incremental differences go more or less unnoticed until we focus directly on them.

For content creators, artists, creatives, we often do more of what we used to do. It often works, why change it too much ? But one change is determining whether the art is likely to spread and be recognised : is what we're making today internet-native ?

To be internet-native is to be ideal for sharing and spreading, to be accessible and distributable. Even if we're talking about a physical object, fans will spread photographs and text about it when given the chance. But the more adverts and clamours for attention that we have - songs, posters, banner adverts, advergames, digital billboards, screens - the less chance a signal has of being spotted in the noise.

Great creations won't be automatically recognised because they're great : they have to be noticed, too.

Attention is our scarcest resource. Time ticks on, but there are still and will forever be 24 hours in a day. Attention is everything. We pick out signals from the noise by listening to trusted sources : friends, and favourite authors, bloggers, tweeters, journalists, broadcasters, remixers. Curators, all of them. They spread the word, we investigate, to revel in the shared experience.

Sometimes the curators spread the works, too : two thirds of teenagers admit (and how many don't admit ?) to sharing music, digitally, without paying for it. Of course they do : music is all about identity, and teenagehood is about creating and playing with identity. Copyright maximalists like Feargal Sharkey want them to stop this sharing, to go back to buying music and hoarding it, to learn to “respect copyright”.

It won't work. We can't tell the majority of a population that they're criminals now for doing something humans intrinsically want to do, like sharing songs. Internet-native music currently looks like a free song, probably containing a code for discounts on merchandise and live event tickets. Kids are never going back to buying music when it's already free and shareable. Why should they ?

Progress : television is next, and books, newspapers. One by one, the analogue business models of the past will be picked apart and digitised. Modernised. Many will fail, new ones will emerge, some will evolve. Internet-native television is television delivered globally at broadcast, on-demand. Probably containing product placement, or built-in sponsorship. Delivered to a collected audience, about whom the broadcaster knows really quite a lot. Maybe with short and nicely-targeted advertising delivered alongside. It's worth a try.

“Piracy” – as done by teenagers, all my friends, pretty much everyone I know, is simply demand where appropriate supply does not exist. Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies – in other words, anti-copying, anti-fair use - are also anti-accessibility. They attempt to block and restrict, and they fail every time. Every single time. To be accessible, work needs to be available, always and to everyone. No delineations, no restrictions : it's too messy. Too expensive. Too dull.

Restricting access restricts a person's ability, as a creator, to be discovered. We must embrace accessibility, and think open and global. Think spreadable and shareable. Perhaps free, perhaps not : see what works. Try it : if you have a digitised creation, try selling digital copies. Try giving it away for free, alongside a tip jar. See what happens. Examine internet-native content producers like Joss Whedon – who has made far more money personally from his internet-native Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog than he has for his Fox-broadcast Dollhouse – and Felicia Day, Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Justin.tv, Ze Frank. The entire community of Etsy craftants and Spreadshirt-ers.

Accessibility gives us competitive, business advantage. It is inclusive of the blind and partially-sighted, who make up 70% of us humans over our life spans. It is inclusive of other cultures and tastes, and gives the creator access to a potential audience of Everyone. It's inclusive of learning and the sharing of knowledge. The accessible content will leapfrog the locked-down content. It's cheaper, too, and doesn't that make business sense ?

To push past bigger, older, more established businesses, the solution is to be agile and modern, to be internet-native and innovative. The older, slower dinosaur-works will sink, weighed down by their expensive defenses, regulations and costly and pointless protection mechanisms. We must not let these dying behemoths take away someone's internet access – and connection to the world - for some accusatory, unprovable “piracy” claim, ever. We must not let the internet's neutrality be bought and sold by corporations. This is our free and global internet, in our 21st Century, and thinking of accessibility, it's our greatest asset yet.

In a Social Networking World, What's the Future of TV ? (whedonverse mentions)

Webmaster — 2009-09-25T14:44:58Z

As the news media focused on Jay Leno's relocation into a regular five night a week prime time spot, the veteran Tonight Show host expressed growing confusion about the state of his medium. He told The Los Angeles Times, "I don't know what TV is anymore."

Well, if Leno doesn't know what TV is, who does ?

He's not the only one scratching their heads these days. Joss Whedon, the veteran television producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the current Dollhouse, expressed confusion over the Emmy he won for Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, a program which was never aired on television (broadcast or cable) : "If we were on TV, maybe we would've won an Oscar...We don't understand."

Whedon had produced Dr. Horrible as a personal project during the television writers strike, circulated it for free via the web for the first week, and then began selling it on iTunes (and now through DVD, not to mention screenings and singalongs at movie theaters). This top flight television creator taking his latest brainchild directly to his fans without passing it through the hands of a network. Felicia Day, Dr. Horrible's leading lady, has developed her own cult following around the series, The Guild, which has been primarily funded through PayPal contributions from her fans and is now being distributed through the Xbox 360.

Meanwhile, Susan Boyle made headlines through her appearance last week on America's Got Talent, having amassed an American following primarily on the basis of content pirated from the series's British counterpart and circulated via YouTube. More than 26 million viewers watched the finale of American Idol last season, constituting a significant broadcast hit. By comparison, over that same time period, the Boyle video was watched more than 103 million times across 20 different websites within the first nine days of its circulation. Her success depends less on the decision of some network executive to give her airtime than on the decisions of hundreds of millions of people to pass her video along to their friends.

Some call this a "post-network" era and are suggesting that it constitutes a change as dramatic as the shift from broadcasting to cable. Yet, actually, television may be in the hands of a different kind of network — Facebook or Twitter rather than ABC or Fox.

Is this television ? It depends on how you define your terms. My students at University of Southern California are watching more television content now than ever before but relatively few of them own television sets. They are watching television series through boxed DVD sets and off sites like Hulu (for free) or iTunes (at a price), or through illegal downloads. They are watching television on computer screens and through their ipods. And those who own television sets may be watching it through their game systems rather than subscribing to cable. So, television without TVs ?

Is television the stuff we watch on our TVs ? My local cable company allows me to watch grainy YouTube videos on my big screen television and allows me to download movies directly from Netflix or Amazon to watch on demand. And of course, I can play Wii games through my television set. But is any of that television ?

Is it television if it doesn't get distributed by the networks ? Whedon and Day are demonstrating that television may be a genre or format of entertainment — which looks and feels "like television" even if it is never broadcast. Here, television may refer to a form of storytelling which comes in short chunks which are organized as part of longer series which unfold across seasons. We may not know what television is but we recognize it — in this case, with an Emmy — when we see it.

Susan Boyle's success suggests that decisions about what kinds of television are being watched may rely increasingly on consumers who are able to scan the planet for interesting content and spread it through their social networks. Witness the growing number of Americans who are watching Japanese Anime, East Asian dramas, or Latin American Telenovelas, series that may be marketed commercially only after they have established a solid fan following through illegal circulation. Call it spreadable media. In a world shaped by social networks, if it doesn't spread, it's dead.

The networks are trying to rethink their programming practices in the context of this unstable and ever expanding media landscape. The move of Leno to primetime is one more marker of a shift away from dramatic series and sitcoms and towards lower-cost reality-based programs as the economic core of American broadcasting. The networks announced surprisingly few new series this year, choosing to stagger the release of series year round, rather than roll them all out in one big September splash.

Increasingly, these television programs come bundled with a range of other media "extensions" as part of what people in the industry are calling "transmedia" or "crossplatform" or "360 Degree" strategies. New series, such as Glee, Melrose Place or The Vampire Diaries, have been building up their fan followings all summer, rolling out advanced content via the web. In the case of Melrose Place, fans could do a walkthrough of the famous apartment complex by visiting a fake realtor site, while fans of vampires could watch videos dramatizing the events leading up to where the new CW teen drama begins.

More established series, such as Lost, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, and Ghost Whisperer, have tested and refined this transmedia strategy : Heroes has now produced nearly 150 web comics, Lost has staged Alternate Reality Games, basically informational scavanger hunts or puzzle quests through the fictional world of the series ; Battlestar Galactica's producers encouraged fans to rewatch recent episodes by offering podcasts with director's commentary ; and Ghost Whisperer made secondary characters from the aired episodes the focal point for web series, "The Other Side".

Industry gurus believe such sites attract new consumers and allow existing fans to dig in deeper, opening up more "touchpoints" with the media franchises and their affiliated brands. Transmedia content is part of a shift away from talking about "appointment-based television" where we race home to watch our favorite show when it is aired and towards "engagement-based" television, where our passionate interest leads us to seek out the programs we want when we want. Transmedia content is designed to intensify our engagement and generate fan loyalties rather than offering the "least offensive option" available in a particular time slot.

Is this transmedia material marketing or content ? Increasingly they are being used to introduce new characters or provide backstory and foreshadowing ; they are part of the creative development of the series, often taking shape in the writer's rooms rather than outsourced to hired guns. Indeed, the nature of transmedia content was a key issue in the Writer's Strike several years ago since writers get compensated differently if they are doing promotional work or contributing series content.

When transmedia is done well, the result is a richer, more "complex" entertainment experience, one which may continue even after the series is taken off the air. Javier Grillo-Marxuach, the showrunner for The Middleman, a little seen ABC Family series, used a graphic novel to provide closure to some of the many plot points dangling after the program's cancellation. Coming full circle, Wheedon has declared the comic book series he penned after Buffy's demise "Season 8," suggesting that fans consider it as much part of the television series as any of the aired episodes.

For the moment, there's a strong imperative to "protect the mother ship," as industry insiders put it, by treating the extensions into other media as non-essential and keeping primary focus on the television series. But, in Japan, we are seeing series which unfold simultaneously across comics, games, film, and television, without having a dominant medium. This may well be the future not only of television but entertainment more generally. As the content expands across media, when does it stop being television and become something else ?

As we enter the traditional fall television season, we should pause and ask "Do you know what television is anymore ?" Jay Leno doesn't know how to answer that question and neither do I.

Oh no ! Kanye interrupts your favorite sci-fi show ! (whedonverse mentions)

Webmaster — 2009-09-20T19:36:47Z

Click on the link :

http://scifiwire.com/2009/09/oh-no-kanye-interrupts-yo.php

Street smarts (buffy mention)

Webmaster — 2009-09-15T20:02:22Z

On May 25, 1979, 6-year-old Etan Patz left his New York City home to walk two blocks to his school bus stop. He was never seen again.

That something could happen to your kid, something that you could have prevented if only you'd been more vigilant — is the worst thing a parent can imagine. That's why parents spend so much time imagining just that

On Oct. 9, 1985, 9-year-old Sarah Pryor disappeared while out walking in her small Massachusetts town. It's the same town I'd inhabited when I was 9, where I walked alone to school every morning and played alone in the back streets and woods every afternoon. Pryor's skull was found 12 years later.

On Aug. 24, 2009, I let my 9-year old daughter, Lucy, walk one block of our Manhattan neighborhood by herself to get the paper from the corner store. She's done it several times since. I get about 30 new gray hairs every time. Now, all she wants in the world is to do the 10-minute journey to her school, complete with a crossing of Broadway, solo.

She doesn't know who Jaycee Dugard is, or that sometimes little boys and girls on their way to school don't come for a very long time or ever. She doesn't know that three years ago, a woman was killed by a stray bullet outside the barbershop a few doors from her school. She doesn't know about the neighborhood pedestrian killed in an early morning hit-and-run last month.

But I'm her mom ; it's my job to worry.

So I devoured the New York Times story yesterday about the debate over when to let kids walk to school by themselves. In it, journalist Jan Hoffman examines the “abduction monsters embedded in modern parenting,” citing those monsters as contributing to the decline of the self-directed kid. "In 1969, 41 percent of children either walked or biked to school" ; she notes, "by 2001 only 13 percent still did."

The idea that something could happen to your kid, something that you could have prevented if only you'd been more vigilant, is the worst thing a parent can imagine. That's why parents spend so much time imagining just that. Throw in the ever-more-sensational news media and a spate of relentlessly grim prime-time crime shows, it's a wonder anybody ever leaves the house before college.

The truth is that stranger abduction — like stray bullets and hit-and-runs — is a horrifying but thankfully rare occurrence. Growing up, however, happens every day. As Lenore Skenazy, author of "Free-Range Kids : Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry," told the Times, "Organizing your life around the images of Etan Patz and Jaycee Dugard negates the joy you had walking to school as a kid or even the sense that you could take care of yourself."

That's right, parents — there's joy to be had in childhood, and it doesn't always come in a big box of tightly controlled edutainment.

In navigating the vicissitudes of autonomy, much depends on the kid, and what he or she is ready for. I know a 6-year-old who has free run of a vast swath of our neighborhood, and a 12-year-old who still doesn't go to the store alone. My firstborn would gladly hop on the subway and go out to lunch downtown solo if she could, but gets creeped out if I go downstairs to the mailbox to let her fend for herself in the apartment for a minute. I'm taking my cues from my daughters, tempered with my own common sense.

I talk to my girls about what they'd do if we got separated in a crowd, or if anybody — friend or stranger — touched them in a way that made them uncomfortable. I drill them on how to cross the street and why they should ignore whistles and catcalls (yes, my 9-year-old gets whistles). And I'm buoyed by the fact that we do live in an era of greater safety awareness, and programs like Safe Routes to School.

At Lucy's school, only children in fourth grade and up can be dismissed without an adult to pick them up, and then only with a signed parental consent form. I haven't signed hers yet, but I know the day is coming when I must. It won't be long before she, and soon after, her little sister, will be walking around the world without me holding their hands. It's really hard — and bittersweet as hell — to imagine.

It's why I suspect that for all the concern about kidnapped kids, there's something else going on with all those parents who won't let their offspring out of their sight : It's nice being around our children. It's nice to feel needed. I love those moments every day when we trot off to the schoolyard together, laughing and talking. Who wouldn't have a tough time relinquishing that ?

But when Lucy begs to go out alone, I think of the wisdom of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who once said, "I don't want to protect you from the world. I want to show it to you." My daughters will always be my babies, and I don't want to rush a moment of their childhoods. I am also trying, very hard, to raise them to be independent, competent, unflinching adults, who can balance keeping their wits about them with not seeing life in terms of victims and predators. Because scary as it is, I know you can't show your kid the world until you let her cross the street.

"The Nostalgia Chick : Armageddon" Web Show - Watch The Video (firefly mention)

Webmaster — 2009-09-12T16:40:28Z

Click on the link :

http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thedudette/nostalgia-chick/11386-arma01

Sci-Fi : High Budget Or Low Budget ? (serenity mention)

Webmaster — 2009-09-05T13:30:03Z

So this week District 9 is finally released in the UK, the South African sci-fi comedy-drama that's about to pass $100million at the US box office. And it hasn't just struck box-office gold : it's also a critical hit, with over 80% acclaim on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, as well as, of course, 4 stars in Empire. And the whole thing, with its near-flawless effects and entirely convincing CG (even in close-up) was pulled together for a paltry $30 million, about the price of the average Hollywood rom-com. Without stars.

This got me thinking two things. Number one:can you imagine what this guy could've done with an eight figure budget on Halo, on which he worked for the guts of two years before the plug was pulled ? And number two*, is low-budget sci-fi actually at an advantage ?

Stick with me for a minute : the demands of low-budget sci-fi demand that you exercise creativity in your approach, discipline in your storytelling and restraint in your casting. It therefore rules out three of the biggest problems in movies : a by-the-numbers attitude (The Island, perhaps), an all-over-the-place plot (we're looking at you, Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen. And Terminator Salvation come to think of it) and a diva-ish big star who changes the role to suit - or on whose behalf the studio changes the role (we're looking at you, I Am Legend).

Low budget sci-fi in the last couple of decades has brought us, off the top of my head, Right At Your Door,Cube, Pitch Black, The Terminator, Cypher, Serenity, Moon and Equilibrium (well, I liked it).

I'm not saying that big-budget is bad - you'll look a long way to find a bigger fan of Independence Day or Terminator 2 or Star Trek. But maybe there's something to be said for reining it in and forcing filmmakers (esp. Michael Bay and McG) to occasionally make a film for under $100 million. Judging by District 9, they don't need those extra millions for effects, so maybe we should demand more for less. At least once in a while...

*and possibly contradictorily...

TWOP Fall Preview : Watch, DVR, or Skip (whedonverse mentions)

Webmaster — 2009-08-29T09:34:31Z

Click on the link :

http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/30_rock/fall_preview_2009_watch_dvr_or.php

Movie stars bring sparkle to gaming (eliza dushku mention)

Webmaster — 2009-08-15T20:08:57Z

The duties of Hollywood stars these days extend well beyond simply acting and publicising their latest blockbuster movie.

Actors are now taking a more active role in bringing to life their characters in video game spin-offs.

Harry Potter is one franchise in which the wunderkind has been busy sprinkling his magic beyond books and the silver screen.

Most actors lend their voices to avatars to preserve authenticity, and possibly to fulfil the terms of their own contracts.

But five years ago, the original title Grand Theft Auto : Vice City managed to get Hollywood's Ray Liotta to voice the protagonist.

Another game with no film legacy - but which benefited from a celebrity's touch - is the latest instalment of the Call of Duty franchise.

A so-called "first-person shooter"game released last year saw Kiefer Sutherland voice the part of an army commander, while actor Gary Oldman took on another character.

This growing trend is a sign that the world of video gaming is starting to enter the mainstream.

This success is partly down to the popularity of games consoles such as Nintendo Wii which have all sorts of people waving their arms around.

Jesse Divinch, a research analyst at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (Eedar), said the gaming industry has grown up over the last couple of years.

"Now we're reaching a mass critical point where video games are just a device for males aged 18 to 35, he said, "video games are now for everybody".

But gaming for actors now means a chance to play their part at the vanguard of popular entertainment.

Rogue Warrior, a forthcoming first-person shooter, stars Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke playing the potty-mouthed Navy Seal Dick Marcinko.

But Mickey Rourke believes movies and games are still two distinct genres.

"I don't really think people yet are comparing the two, insofar as somebody's performance in a videogame as opposed to a feature film," he explained.

But film star Eliza Dushku, who plays Rubi Malone in the upcoming game Wet, believes it is de rigueur to be in with the gaming fraternity.

"Videogames have almost become acceptable and cool for grown ups - not for people who are just in their teens," she said.

She added that gaming was now accepted as a hobby.

"I know so many people - friends, actors, directors - who are older and used to maybe play in private, but who can now say it loud and proud."

There is also some kudos for actors playing a cool video game character, as gaming research analyst Michael Pachter explained.

"Actors play games and it's almost bragging rights to say to their friends 'I was voice in that game'," he said.

Another attraction for the likes of Beyonce is the fact that marketing men can offer good financial rewards thanks to individual titles selling more than ever.

The public can also identify with celebrities, and seeing them playing games acts as an influence, according to Mr Divinch.

"These are people that we follow ; we know their likes, we know their dislikes," he said, "so when we see them play these games, they do have an influence over us in the very same sense that our peers have influence over us."

But in the grand scheme of Tinseltown, the involvement of A-listers in games is still fairly small.

As Mickey Rourke put it, "The fact is when I go out and see another actor we're not going to talk about video games."