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Is NBC killing television?

by Alex on December 10, 2008

in Featured Posts,Technology & Art,TV Analysis

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Yesterday’s Leno-primetime announcement shakeup led to various online articles on the subject.
Such as an article by the co-writer of Leno’s autobiography (yes, I know that doesn’t make much sense) on “how Leno won again.“
EW is also explaining the 101 on why NBC is doing the move.

Still, the move is clearly a gut-punch to fellow TV writers as Shawna points out.
Temp X has also a post up explaining how NBC is actually run by aliens.
Don’t be fooled by their moronic attitude!

Meanwhile, ABC is also considering merging TV divisions.

This leads me to this shocking question:
Is NBC killing television?

Or rather: Are Dumb and Dumber slowly destroying original content?

The merge-move and Leno in primetime makes perfect sense business-wise.
After all, it cuts cost, and the show will most likely do better than what is currently on at 10PM.
But is it a good entertainment-move?
Me think not.
Is NBC really going to destroy the 10PM slot because of their failed shows from this fall?
Sure, “E.R.” will be gone soon, and so will be “L&O:SVU”. “Enemy” is out and the rest of the shows are sadly pointless.

But stop blaming all your problems on crappy shows.
And stop replacing said crappy shows by even worse shows!

Making new with old is good for some stuff, but faking new with old is far from creating “new” content.

Be original for frak’s sake!

If everyone would pull a Zucker, and every network would simply remove dramas from the 10PM slot, original primetime content would be swallowed by clones of clones of clones of shit.

How did CBS become number one?
By making “The Golden Girls 2: Touched by a David Letterman”?

No, by banking on some island-reality-show and a revolutionary procedural.
I’m not saying find the next great cash cow or cool reality hit.
This craze is gone.

Don’t hang on to the past, look towards the future.
For instance, find original stuff that can successfully make the bridge between TV and the Internet.
Don’t just dump money on “Nude Dance Competition with Your Pets XI”.

To be honest, The Leno Show will probably do well, but don’t think that means we want more talk-shows in primetime instead of solid drama.

Think with your brains, not with your wallet.

I have faith that CBS will pull out “CSI: My Ass”.
I’m hoping though that FOX/ABC will wake the fuck up and seize this great opportunity to be the underdog; bringing alternative, groundbreaking content to this 10PM slot.

Don’t ruin this for us, guys.
Please.

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The smell of change in the morning

by Alex on December 3, 2008

in Entertainment Talk,News,Technology & Art,TV Analysis

Some more fresh news hot off the printer.

Let’s begin with a quick follow-up to my awesome prediction from the other day on how 3-D will rule us all in a decade or so.

What’s the one industry that can make or break a format? Or, in our case, a new era of entertainment pleasure?
Was your first thought ‘porn’?
If yes, then you’d be right.
If we would have been talking about the 90s.
Porn embraced first HD DVD and look where that format went.
Bottom line is: Porn endorsement is now kinda useless, especially when everyone is basically downloading his (her?) porn.
There’s also no 3-D Porn in the works as far as I know.
But I have high hopes (or is that low expectations?) that one is coming our way soon.
No pun intended.
Seriously.

Don’t worry, I’m going somewhere with all of this.

So, back to the question.
What’s the industry that will lead Joe Six Pack to watch 3-D stuff?
It’s not per se an entertainment industry, but it definitely has its own (big, huge) weight.
I am of course talking about sports.
And to be more precise, the NFL.
Tomorrow night will be broadcast live in 3-D to theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston a game between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders.

I may go out on a huge limb here again, but I’m pretty sure that in 2 decades, if not less, watching 3-D sports at home will become a common thing.

Also, LG announced that they would try to market at least one 3-D TV in 2009.
And we’re already in December 2008 folks.

Meanwhile, CBS just announced its mid-season schedule while ABC the premiere date of some of its new shows.

Let’s begin with CBS.
First things first, Flashpoint season 2 will premiere Jan. 9.
Did I forget to mention that the missing 4 episodes from season 1 are added to the whopping total of 18 season 2 episodes ordered?
That’s a full season of 22 episodes for you.
The 13-hour Harper’s Island (I sense a backdoor series somewhere) will be broadcast from April 9 to July 2.

Not much more news regarding dramas since there hasn’t been much canceling lately on CBS’ side.

Remember how NBC only announced their January skeds?
Well it seems that ABC is announcing the premiere of its new shows — for around March-April.
Mondays (March 9) will see the arrival of the long-awaited Castle (by most Nathan Fillion fans).
The reboot of Rob Thomas’ Cupid will premiere meanwhile starting March 24 on Tuesdays.
The Unusuals will take place on Wednesdays (beginning April 8).

Why so late?
Well, you might have guessed this, but ABC wants to finish showing its fall shows before beginning its mid-season’s.

Notice a trend in all of this?
Mid-season shows are beginning more and more frequently to premiere late in the season (as late as April-May for some).
Are we converging to year-long original drama programming or what?

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Why TV is where you must be

by Alex on November 24, 2008

in Featured Posts,Technology & Art,TV Analysis,Writing

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Showrunners and TV writers have never been more talked about than this past year.
The writers’ strike showed the world how vital writers are to the entertainment industry, especially TV.

In TV, writers have control.
In a world were creator-owned content will soon become the norm, having control over one’s creation from beginning to end is important.

Showrunners have become an intricate part of the entertainment industry, multi-tasking in every direction.
Writers have now become prominent A-list figures.

Television is where everything happens.

Nothing is more symbolic of that than the other face of TV: actors.
How many big names have made the jump to TV?
How many no-names became A-listers by doing TV?
Is Jon Hamm on his way to become the next Clooney?

Sure, there isn’t that much money to be made on TV (unless your name is J.J. Abrams or Dick Wolf); especially now that everything is converging into the Internet.
But chances are you’re in this not for the money but for the passion.
You want to make groundbreaking stories.
You want to impact people.
You want to write your vision.

TV has never been as much on the forefront of our society as it is now.
Although total medium convergence is inevitable, for now original Internet content is either taken from TV or at least inspired by TV. And Strike.TV is no different.
The Internet is on its way to produce major content and, yes, 5–10 years from now most people will work in some form on the Internet. But for now, it just doesn’t have the professional clout that TV has.
The content is not yet creator-financed and creator-owned in TV, but it is a medium that uses all the new technology and expands on it: interactive convergence.
Write for the future, not for the past.
But don’t be like Tim Kring who described faithful Heroes TV viewers as “saps” and “dipshits”.
Embrace technology. Humbly.

TV is also the leading writer-based industry.
Don’t take my word for it.
Ask the guy who wrote Story.
Robert McKee himself declared the other day in Paris that Hollywood films are “the death rattle of a dying industry.“
The film industry is probably not going to die tommorow of course, but still.

Academy Award-winner Alan Ball went to TV after American Beauty because of all the projects that were rejected by movie studios.
He then made Six Feet Under.

Creativeness is nurtured in TV.
New channels are growing every second, producing more and more shows, taking chances on something that only yesterday was thought to be crazy by many networks.
Opportunities are created every second in TV.

Who would have thought 2 years ago that a small basic-cable movie channel was going to make not only one but two innovational shows, let alone one that wins Best Drama?

Television is continuing its momentum thanks to exceptional writing talents.

And this is why Television is where you must be.

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Mark my words

by Alex on November 19, 2008

in Entertainment Talk,Featured Posts,Technology & Art,Writing

Sound was introduced in 1927.
Color was introduced in 1938.
3-D will be introduced in 2009.

I know what you’re about to say.
Sure, 3-D has been around for some time now, but it’s still only a gimmick.
Current “3-D movies” are not movies made in 3-D, there are movies made for/with 3-D.
If you’ve ever been to Disneyland’s Honey, I Shrunk The Audience, or, hell, even any 3-D IMAX movie, you know what I’m talking about.
Also, sound in movies already existed prior to The Jazz Singer, same goes for color with the Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.
So when the technique was first used/invented doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Avatar isn’t “gimmicking” its way into 3-D.
It is thought, made, shot, edited, and shown in 3-D.

“What has that gotta do with us?” you may ask dear wannabe screenwriter.
Well it probably for now won’t change anything script-wise, but just think about it.
IMAX didn’t change the way people write scripts, when 8mm became 16mm and then transformed into 35mm and 70mm (28K next?), that didn’t change the way people write scripts.
Before sound there were no dialogues in scripts.
Before color there wasn’t any real vivid description in scripts.

I am talking about real, profound, no-way-back changes here.

True 3-D movies have to be thought and created in 3-D.
Again, you can’t just “gimmick-up” standard movies.
Disney is going to do that with all the Toy Stories (and now Beauty and the Beast), but you and I both know those are not true 3-D movies.
If they were, something huge would have been missing from the first time we laid eyes on them.

A real 3-D movie must be thought out from the beginning in 3-D, and that means from the script.

3rd Rock from the Sun, Medium, and now Chuck, proved that 3-D could be successfully shown on TV.

Now think about where we will be 20–30 years from now in the entertainment industry.
No-glasses 3-D TVs are being made as you’re reading this.

It’s just a matter of time.
3-D will catch on as did sound and color before it.
Even on TV.

Obama made American history, Avatar will make entertainment and cinematic history.

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OMFG

by Alex on November 13, 2008

in Entertainment Talk,News,Technology & Art

Let’s start with 2 strange pick-ups from the last couple of days.

HBO has ordered a series adaptation (as in real series, not mini) of George R.R. Martin’s 7-book “A Song of Fire & Ice”, titled “Game of Thrones”.
Each season would represent a book, so it could go on for about 7 seasons, if it is picked up that is.
Did I forget to mention that “Game of Thrones” is in fact a fantasy series?
As in, magic and dragons.
On HBO.
In primetime.

Ridley Scott on the other hand is going to direct a movie adaptation of…wait for it…Monopoly.
The script is going to be penned by Corpse Bride/Monster House’s Pamela Pettler and should be reminiscent of Blade Runner with its futuristic feel.

Meanwhile, Fox just ditched MadTV and NBC has canceled My Worst Enemy and Lipstick Jungle.
But no real surprise there.

Did you guys also hear?
The war in Iraq has ended, says the New York Times.

Oh but wait…
It’s a hoax.

And just because I’m a sucker for technology, and “the future is now”:
RED just announced today its massive new line of product and accessories, including the awesome $55,000 EPIC 617 Mysterium Monstro camera.
Just how awesome is it?
28k awesome.
That means it shoots at 25FPS images with a res of 28 000 x 9 334.
With the ability to also shoot 3-D.
Yeah, you read that correctly.

Sure, it’s only going to arrive in like 2 years, but who cares.
It’s revolutionary.

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