CHICAS PRODUCTIONS: Hollywood

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It was once so rich that Concorde used to fly from Caracas to Paris. But in the last three years its economy has collapsed. Hunger has gripped the nation for years. Now, it’s killing people and animals that are dying of starvation. The Venezuelan government knows, but won’t admit it!!! Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty. People queue for hours to buy food. Much of the time they go without. People are also dying from a lack of medicines. Inflation is at 82,766% and there are warnings it could exceed one million per cent by the end of this year. Venezuelans are trying to get out. The UN says 2.3 million people have fled the country - 7% of the population.

Showing posts with label Hollywood. Show all posts

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Hollywood Backs Antipiracy Curriculum for Elementary Schools...

When it comes to learning about the evils of Internet piracy, Hollywood studios and the major music labels want kids to start young.

A nonprofit group called the Center for Copyright Information has commissioned a school curriculum to teach elementary-age children about the value of copyrights.

The Los Angeles Times reports the nonprofit is backed by the MPAA, the RIAA and others.
The curriculum, still in draft stage, includes lesson plans, videos and activities for teachers and parents to help educate students about the "importance of being creative and protecting creativity."

Some critics say the curriculum would promote a biased agenda. Others contend it would use up valuable classroom time when public schools are already struggling to teach the basics.

Thank you Variety

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Signs of things to com? Paramount to Lay Off 110 Employees

Paramount Pictures has announced it will be eliminating 110 positions on its lot and internationally, slicing 5% of its workforce of 2,200.

Paramount CFO Frederick Huntsberry said in a memo to employees that the cuts represented an organizational realignment in select areas and the departments that will be most affected by these cuts will be primarily in the finance, human resources, information technology, international home media distribution, legal and marketing departments.

Paramount is having a bounce back year after having hardly any major successes in 2012. "Star Trek Into Darkness," "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" and "World War Z" have all grossed more than $350 million worldwide.

"As our industry continues to adapt to an increasingly competitive environment, we are always ensuring that Paramount is conducting its business as efficiently and productively as possible," Huntsberry said.

"Change is always difficult and we never take these steps lightly," he added. "We are confident that these changes will allow us to manage our business with greater speed and flexibility and fully capitalize on opportunities in the global entertainment market."

The layoffs are not a major surprise in light of recent statements by Philipp Dauman, CEO of studio parent Viacom, stressing the need to keep expenses down.

On Sept. 24, Dauman told investors at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference that Paramount would focus on "low risk," even on high-budget franchises such as Transformers and Mission: Impossible. He also said that the risk on the sequel to "World War Z" would be alleviated by bringing in co-financing.

"We have a history even in tough times of maintaining or growing margins," he also said.

Dauman said means keeping "a tight lid on expenses, including in programming."

In May, Dauman sounded similar themes at the Nomura U.S. Media & Telecom Summit, saying that Paramount would "focus on profitability" by integrating with other Viacom businesses.

"For the most part we're going to greenlight films with consumer products potential," he said, citing plans to reboot the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" franchise.

It's the second time in two years that Paramount has sliced more than 100 slots from studio staff. In October, 2011, Paramount cut about 120 staff positions as part of a consolidation effort in the face of declining DVD revenue as it merged its DVD, television and digital divisions and moved headquarters of its international operation to Los Angeles from London.

Thank you Variety

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Hollywood market research evolves to reflect tech-savvy moviegoers...

In an age when the text and the tweet can destroy a movie an hour after it opens, Hollywood market research firms are scrambling to rethink the way they help movie studios promote their films.

That has created new challenges for companies such as Capstone Global Marketing and Research Inc. in Sherman Oaks, which must adapt their testing methods to the changing habits of the tech-savvy moviegoer.

"None of us knows the answers," said veteran marketing strategist and researcher Catherine Paura, Capstone's co-founder. "And when you think about the rapidity of technical change between 1990 and now, who knows what is going to happen in the next 30 years?"

Paura, 62, and her late business partner, Joe Farrell, founded Hollywood powerhouse National Research Group 35 years ago. Paura and Farrell, who died in 2011, sold the firm in 1987 but ran it until 2003.

Such market research companies typically used phone calls, door-to-door surveys and post-screening evaluation cards to help movie studios determine how to tweak their movies and promotional materials to ensure the best possible box-office results.

But in the decade since Paura left NRG, Facebook, Twitter and the iPhone have rapidly changed the way consumers communicate, making word-of-mouth a key factor in determining weekend box-office sales and diminishing the value of traditional research techniques.

"It's a moving target," agreed former Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook, who knows Paura's work well. He calls the business of movie research "compelling and crazy."

Paura and her sister, Angela, launched Capstone a year ago to provide worldwide market analysis to such clients as Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, DreamWorks Studios and Relativity Media.

Capstone's surveys are partly designed to examine alternate entertainment choices, including video games and online streaming, Paura said. Questions no longer ask simply whether a person will see a movie, she said, but what actor makes them less likely to buy a ticket or how the previews make them feel.

Among Capstone's initiatives is a market research study called "Moviegoers in Theaters."

Last fall, Capstone sent researchers into eight cinemas across the country to talk directly to filmgoers, something that's almost never done. Pollsters asked more than 10,000 audience members a few demographic questions, then asked them to complete an in-depth online survey.

More than 1,200 people responded — a larger sample size than most market researchers typically use.

The age makeup of those surveyed skewed older than it would have 20 or 30 years ago, Paura said. Industry surveys increasingly focus on the oldest quadrant of moviegoers.

Baby boomers are still going to the movies, shifting what for decades has been a youth-dominated business. When NRG started, the company didn't sample moviegoers older than 49. Now, research includes up to those in their mid-60s.

"You can have a big hit and not find one teenager in the audience," Paura said. "That didn't used to be the case." Old and young audiences now go to the movies with roughly the same frequency. Baby boomers, she said, never got out of the habit of going to the movies.

Studios are working harder to create movies that appeal to everyone. For the films that don't, they believe it's best to aim campaigns at specific age groups.

DreamWorks Chief Executive Stacey Snider has begun looking at data that create hypothetical profiles for a targeted audience member, including education, income levels and where someone shops.

"A movie today has to matter to somebody," said Snider, who has worked with Paura for nearly 20 years.

Thank you Los Angeles Times

Hollywood executives predict technology-fueled changes..

Grainge has devoted his career to the business, having worked with and signed a multitude of songwriters and artists, including U2, Elton John, ABBA, Eurythmics, Metallica and Amy Winehouse. These days he's been focusing on building digital distribution models and technology partnerships around the world (and serves as a United Kingdom trade ambassador).

Some of that Grainge gravitas was on display at this week's Innovation Forum, a two-day event in Los Angeles that attracted prominent players from media, technology and venture capital -- and a surprise remote appearance by British Prime Minister David Cameron from 10 Downing Street (who put in a plug for British film and TV production).

One session featuring some of the biggest names in Hollywood -- Grainge, Sony Corp. of America Chief Executive Michael Lynton, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment co-CEO Ari Emanuel, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and FX Network President John Landgraf -- produced some surprising insights about the intersection of technology and entertainment.

Katzenberg predicted that a decade from now, Hollywood films will be ubiquitously available a short time after their theatrical debuts. The price people pay to watch a movie might well be dictated by screen size -- in his words, "based on the square inch," almost like commercial real estate.

Moviegoers who want a high-quality theatrical experience -- one that could include drinks and a meal, and the best possible projection -- could well pay $35 to $45, Katzenberg said. Those who prefer to watch on a smartphone might pay less than $1.

GRAMMYS 2013: Top nominees | Snubs & surprises | Nominations concert | Full coverage

"Pricing has been screwed up through our industry for a long time," Emanuel said. "We'll get to the right pricing."

The idea of price based on screen, while on its face radical, is not that big a departure from Hollywood's current release strategy, known as "windowing." These days, the price a consumer pays is based on the amount of time that has passed since a movie screened in theaters (the longer the wait, the cheaper a film becomes).

Lynton said technology is driving an even more fundamental transformation in Hollywood. People are getting away from the idea of ownership, he said, and increasingly paying for access to content. (Think Netflix, whose U.S. users pay an $8 monthly subscription fee and gain immediate, unlimited online access to its catalog of movies and TV shows instead of buying DVDs.)

"That's going to change everything we do, in terms of film and content," Lynton said. "People are breaking that emotional hold of 'I have to own it if I'm consuming it.' Once that shifts, a lot goes with it."

FX's Landgraf -- who has helped shepherd the cable network's edgy scripted dramas like "Sons of Anarchy" and dark comedies like "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "Louie" -- predicted a revolution in TV advertising.

"I'd say pricing is broken in advertising," Landgraf said. "Not only do you have to watch 20 minutes of advertising, it's incredibly irrelevant to you."

In the future, Landgraf said, technology will enable advertisers to more precisely target TV audiences through "addressable advertising."

"We're going to be able to reduce the amount of advertising you watch by 50%," Landgraf said. But "everything you are watching is going to be relevant to you. If you don't have a dog, you don't see an ad for dog food."

Thank you Los Angeles Times

L.A. feature film shoots plunge in third quarter...

After two consecutive quarters of growth, feature film shoots on the streets of Los Angeles plunged in the third quarter.

On-location filming fell 21% in the three-month period ending Sept. 30, generating only 1,640 production days compared with the same period a year ago, according to a report from FilmL.A. Inc., the nonprofit group that handles film permits for the city. (One production day represents a crew's permission to film a single location in a 24-hour period.)

The slide in feature activity marks a stark turnaround from the first and second quarters, when film production rose 16% and 9%, respectively. The data apply to film shoots on streets and noncertified sound stages, as opposed to shooting on studio lots.

PHOTOS: Hollywood back lot moments

Film industry officials attributed the decrease to the ongoing rivalry from other states and foreign countries luring business away from Hollywood and the fact that fewer feature projects qualified for California's film and television tax credit program this year.

So far in 2012, only 22 feature projects have been approved for the state film tax credit, which is allocated in June. The state, which awards $100 million a year via a lottery, approved 40 projects in 2011. State lawmakers recently approved legislation to extend funding for California's film tax credit through mid-2017.

"We applaud the recent two-year extension of California's film incentive program, and support expanding the program to stop the production outflow and attract a more diverse slate of high-value productions,'' FilmL.A. President Paul Audley said in a statement.

PHOTOS: Hollywood back lot moments

State film tax credits were awarded to several locally produced TV shows, including "Body of Proof" and "Rizzoli and Isles."

Nonetheless, those shows accounted for a tiny share of overall TV location filming in the third quarter. The television category had a weak quarter, slipping 1.4% to 4,245 production days, led by a 20.5% drop in reality TV and a 18.5% decline in TV dramas. Broadcast networks increasingly have been eyeing New York and other states for their new dramas.
On the other hand, sitcoms and and TV webisodes continue to show rapid growth in Los Angeles. Sitcom production jumped 48% in the quarter while TV webisodes surged by 149%, FilmL.A. said.

"The television landscape is changing in Los Angeles, and economically, the sector has taken a turn for the worse,'' Audley said. "Many of the new TV projects we're coordinating permits for have low spending and employment impacts. More needs to be done, policy-wise, to help return sought-after TV drama projects to Los Angeles."

Commercial activity in the L.A. area decreased 5.3% to 1,635 days in the quarter afer posting big gains in the first half of the year.

Thank you Los Angeles Times

MPAA's Chris Dodd extends olive branch to Silicon Valley...

Chris Dodd, Hollywood's chief lobbyist, extended an olive branch to Silicon Valley.

Eager to put to rest a bruising battle with Google and other tech companies over ill-fated anti-piracy bills this year, Dodd stressed common ground between California's two signature industries in a speech Tuesday at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco.

"What I don't want to do is relive the SOPA debate -- and I hope you don't either,'' Dodd said, alluding to the Stop Online Piracy Act that sparked an unprecedented online protest led by Google, Wikipedia and other tech giants. They saw the bill as threat to the Internet.

"Issues surrounding piracy and how we protect the hard work of many thousands of American creators and makers in movies and television are important though, and worth talking about together without heated rhetoric and raised voices. And I accept my share of responsibility for some of that in the past."

Dodd even praised Google for recent steps to curb online piracy and touted common interests shared with Hollywood.

He cited the joint initiative known as UltraViolet, an effort by dozens of content and tech companies to allow customers to purchase and acquire content in one form and then have the ability to watch it on any of their devices.

"We share a belief in innovation,'' Dodd said. "We call them audiences, you call them users, but giving them the best possible experience is a shared goal. In the end, we all report to the same people."

Thank you Los Angeles Times

DGA report shows few strides for female and minority TV directors..

Female and minority directors have made few strides in getting jobs on leading television shows, according to a new survey by the Directors Guild of America.

The survey found that out of 190 scripted television series and 3,100 episodes from the 2011-2012 network television season, Caucasian males directed 73% of all episodes (compared with 72% from the prior year). Caucasian females directed 11% of all episodes (unchanged), minority males directed 13% (down from 14%) of all episodes and minority females directed 4% of all episodes (up from 3%).

"Our industry has to do better,'' said Paris Barclay, the DGA's first vice president and co-chair of the diversity task force of the DGA national board. He is also an executive producer of "Sons of Anarchy."

"In this day and age, it's quite disappointing that so many shows failed to hire even a single woman or minority director during the course of an entire season -- even shows whose cast and crew is notably diverse, Barclay noted. "And, 'We just don't know anybody' doesn't cut it anymore -- the pool of talented and experienced women and minority directors grows every year, and too many of these qualified, capable directors are still overlooked."

The DGA compiled the statistics for its report based on information provided by the production companies as part of its collective bargaining agreement. The DGA said it had made several changes to its methodology and data collection to improve accuracy. The changes included capturing more DGA-covered episodes and more accurately describing the diversity status of directors whose ethnicity or gender had previously been identified as "unknown."

Among the DGA's "Worst of" lists for TV shows - those hiring no women or minority directors or those that hired them for less than 15% of episodes -- were "Dallas," "Leverage," "CSI:Crime Scene Investigation" and "The Office."

DGA's "Best of" list -- shows that hired women or minority directors for at least 30% of episodes -- included "The Game," "Nurse Jackie" and "The Walking Dead."

Thank you Los Angeles Times

THR's Power Business Managers 2012...

THR's third annual lists highlights the top 25 moneymen and women who handle the finances of Hollywood stars.

"No."
It's not a word often heard by A-list talent. But last year, New York-based business manager Evan Bell says he "begged and pleaded" when client Steven Soderbergh came to him and wanted to pour his savings into the development of a movie. The plan, explained Bell, would violate the cardinal rule of Hollywood: Never spend your own money. But Soderbergh didn't listen. He split the $6.5 million production budget with star-producer Channing Tatum, and the movie, Magic Mike, went on to gross more than $150 million globally this summer. "I looked foolish once again," jokes Bell.

Such is the tricky relationship Hollywood's top money managers have with clients whose careers are built on taking creative and, at times, financial risks. Often the voice of reason or devil's advocate on a star's team of representatives, the top business managers say it's better to appear too cautious than to explain an investment strategy that didn't turn out well.

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Some in Hollywood might fancy themselves the next Ashton Kutcher, who made a killing when he invested in Skype, or Justin Timberlake, who has done well in the tech space. But there are horror stories, too. U2's Bono, who co-founded Elevation Partners, plowed $460 million into mobile device maker Palm before it hit trouble and $300 million into Forbes despite the tough advertising market. And even though he is in the black thanks to an early investment in Facebook, now that the company's stock is sinking, one financial website dubbed the singer "the worst investor in America."

Bono has competition on that front. Bell says he has a client who had made four terrible investments before signing with him. "`Why go into that fourth?'" Bell recalls asking somewhat incredulously. "He answered, `Statistically, I thought I had this one.' He was serious."

Business managers say entertainment clients present special challenges. Projecting a steady revenue stream is never wise, given the fickle nature of the business. So in choosing between high-risk, great-upside plays and low-risk, steady-reward moves, they'll typically opt for a more conservative approach. "You don't lose a client because you're only making a 1 percent return," says business manager Scott Feinstein. "on the other hand, if you start losing, you'll hear about it."

Feinstein, who reps Taylor Lautner, Mila Kunis and Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul, says a good money manager doesn't mind getting screamed at by clients. Requests to invest in restaurants are common, he says. But beware Burt Reynolds, Feinstein tells his clients, noting that the actor once went bankrupt after investing $15 million in the PoFolks restaurant chain. Similarly, Eva Longoria's Vegas steakhouse Beso was shuttered this year. Feinstein struggles to win arguments over these types of investments because entertainers are optimists by psychological disposition — "maybe because they are used to having doors closed in their face every day," he says.

In assembling a star's portfolio, Feinstein likes to allocate no more than 50 percent in stocks and bonds, supplemented by the least sexy mutual funds imaginable. In addition, some stars might be surprised they are the proud owners of apartment buildings in such obscure locales as the San Fernando Valley. For some of his wealthier clients, Feinstein has also invested in private equity firms like the Blackstone Group.

Alan Goldman at Goldman & Knell says he divides up money between assets that will pay out dividends on a regular basis and wealth managers who can invest with an eye toward the long term. Those long-term assets include things like retail shopping centers, warehouses and business parks. But Goldman says he doesn't recommend his actors and directors hold individual rental units because "being someone's landlord is not some- thing that many people are comfortable doing."

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Bell, whose clients include Bill O'Reilly and Amanda Seyfried, sets up limited partnerships, investing in properties like apartment buildings in Manhattan's East Village. Other business managers don't like to pool investments, but they have ways of sharing the upside. "We do not recommend a real estate deal that we do not ourselves invest in," says Michael Karlin. "A partner here will participate pro rata to the investor."

Some celebrity investments are more splashy. Leonardo DiCaprio put $4 million into Mobli, a photo-sharing startup. Lady Gaga sank millions into a social network for celebs like herself. Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas has taken equity in a low-calorie vodka company. Perhaps the latest poster child for celebrity investor is Justin Bieber, who holds significant shares in a dozen companies including Spotify. But not even the celebrity association of Biebermania could help drive oPMG — a software company that disables text-messaging while driving — into anything more than just a penny stock.
Top money managers typically charge clients 5 percent of their earnings — similar to the fees entertainment lawyers charge — but they don't take extra commissions if investments deliver big returns. When sitting down with a star client, they first ask detailed financial questions, figure out the person's possible career trajectory, and arrive at what the investment risk tolerance should be. The truth is, despite the glamour, Hollywood as a class tends to be some of the most conservative investors on the planet — thanks in part to business managers. "Today it's about protecting the principal," says Karlin. "These clients take risks in their day-to-day profession. That's where the risk is. Investments shouldn't be risky."

That's not to say that celebrities don't get some "play money" to chase dreams of becoming Hollywood's next great venture capitalist. "Let's call it the Las Vegas account," Goldman says he tells clients. "Take all your stock tips and you can play."
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The 25 moneymen and women on THR's third annual list handle the finances, and sometimes financial misfortunes, of Hollywood stars who need help with everything from taxes to stocks to investments to chrome-plated electric cars.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Why Hollywood Loves Puerto Rico...

Versatile locations, attractive rebates and experience crews have everyone from the "Fast Five" producers to HBO and Showtime headed to the Caribbean hotspot -- it's more than just the rum.

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What do HBO's hit offbeat comedy Eastbound & Down, the Vin Diesel action extravaganza Fast Five and the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced thriller Runner, Runner have in common? Puerto Rico, one of Hollywood's new favorite shooting destinations. With about 70 percent of foreign shoots there employing the region as a convincing stand-in for other locations, the commonwealth has thrived lately thanks to a host of factors. Here are five reasons why Hollywood is increasingly heading to the "Island of Enchantment" for offshore shoots.

1. MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK

Puerto Rico boasts one of the most robust film incentive programs in all of Latin America and the Caribbean. In a nutshell, the region offers a 20 percent tax credit on payments made to above-the-line nonresidents, including producers, directors, writers and talent. Sweetening the deal is a 40 percent rebate on payments made to Puerto Rican residents for below-the-line services.
Since 2011, some 30 foreign productions in TV and film and advertising have reaped the benefits of the tax breaks, including Johnny Depp's The Rum Diary, which spent $20 million on location in Puerto Rico and received an $8 million credit in return (a good thing considering its tepid $13 million domestic box office).

2. NO FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATE

As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico is in the unique position of being able to offer many conveniences of the mainland.

STORY: Who in Hollywood Owns a Private Island

Case in point: Puerto Rico uses the U.S. dollar as its currency, and its banking system operates under the same stateside protections. What's more, Puerto Rico abides by the same labor laws, and U.S. citizens need no passport to get there.

Says executive producer James Holt, who shot 2009's The Men Who Stare at Goats in Puerto Rico, "People don't necessarily register that this is a U.S. territory. It doesn't present the same headaches as filming in a foreign country."

3. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

As Puerto Rico's tax credits draw more productions, it's becoming more common for the region to double for other locations. Settings in and around the capital of San Juan were depicted as Rio de Janeiro in the action flick Fast Five. And for the current filming of the gambling drama Runner, Runner, starring Ben Affleck, Puerto Rico substitutes for Costa Rica.
VIDEO: 'The Rum Diary' Trailer: Johnny Depp Drinks His Way Through Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico consists of a main island surrounded by a cluster of smaller ones. As one might expect, Puerto Rico appeals to tourists thanks to a number of stunning locations, but what it offers filmmakers is diversity: from lush mountains and white-sand beaches to colonial-era architecture and modern, urban settings.

Puerto Rico also benefits from its proximity to the U.S. With Miami just 2½ hours away by plane (a $450 flight), producers get to reap the benefits of rebates while saving money on travel.

4. EXPERIENCED, ENGLISH- SPEAKING CREWS

Puerto Rico has hosted about 90 foreign shoots since 1999, and local crews have become skilled at servicing a range of productions, including such effects-laden tentpoles as Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, action vehicles like the James Bond film GoldenEye and TV series such as the Showtime dramedy The Big C.
"We traveled in with our department heads and most of our camera crew but then staffed the remainder of crew locally," says Laura Benson, production manager on The Big C. "They were extremely helpful and hardworking."
Another benefit: English is an official language in Puerto Rico.
The only drawback, Benson notes, was that the location has become so popular that two other productions were filming at the same time as The Big C, making it a challenge to round up a crew.

5. A SAFE SHOOTING ENVIRONMENT
What Puerto Rico lacks in soundstages and full-service facilities, it makes up for in safety. Rival location Mexico offers the whole enchilada when it comes to industry infrastructure, but its ongoing drug war has spooked some producers.

The higher-ups at HBO were taking no chances on season two of Eastbound & Down. When the comedy's setting moved from North Carolina to a fictional Mexican town, producers opted to shoot in Puerto Rico because of security concerns about filming south of the border.
Puerto Rico also offers peace of mind in the form of free hurricane insurance coverage. According to Puerto Rico film commissioner Mariella Perez, the government will pay a premium for hurricane insurance when producers want to shoot during hurricane season. Since the studios usually have umbrella coverage, the insurance is geared toward independent productions. Says Perez: "They're the ones that really need an extra push."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

More info: www.hollywoodreporter.com

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Hollywood Studios Reach Deal With China's Taobao on Anti-Piracy Efforts...

The Chinese e-commerce giant pledges more aggressive action to curtail counterfeits.

The Motion Picture Association has announced that it has reached a memorandum of understanding with Chinese's largest e-commerce company Taobao to deal with counterfeit and copyright infringing works on the site.

Last year, Taobao appeared on the United States Trade Representative's notorious markets list. Taobao is operated as a unit of the Alibaba Group, which engaged China's Ministry of Commerce to protest the appearance.

Since then, the Chinese company has been negotiating with the MPA, the international counterpart to the MPAA, whose members include Fox, Sony, Disney, and Warner Bros.

STORY: MPAA's Dodd Praises GOP Platform for Protecting Copyrights [4]

The parties have now signed off on a pact.

According to the MPA, Taobao will work with Hollywood studios to identify and remove listings of counterfeits and work with law enforcement to pursue serial offenders. The agreement further calls for shops on Taobao.com to hold a valid "publication license."

Mike Ellis, president and managing director, MPA Asia Pacific, calls the memorandum of understanding a "very significant step in promoting the legitimate sale and distribution of audio-visual content on the Internet. We are very confident of seeing positive and immediate results arising from this initiative.

Taobao holds as much as 70 percent of China's e-commerce marketshare, according to Reuters.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

More info: www.hollywoodreporter.com
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Interns, Internships and 20th Century Fox...

Kids off the Bus Fire Back: Internship Lawsuit Goes Class Action

September 4, 2012 | By Mark London Williams

“The summer is past, the harvest is here, and we are not saved,” remarked the prophet Jeremiah about the fall season, and this autumn, another thing that might not be salvageable is the Hollywood tradition of dangling putative glitz and glamor to newcomers to get them to work as unpaid interns as a first step in “dues-paying” their way up the chain of showbiz command.

But two plaintiffs who worked on the film Black Swan, have sued 20th Century Fox, saying, in effect the internship programs have been used simply for unpaid labor – at the “gofer” level of fetching and errand-running – rather than working as an unpaid apprentice, learning rudimentary aspects of a specific skill, which is generally how the position is advertised.

As Joe Satran described it in the Huffngton Post, however, a “small skirmish” was won recently by the plaintiffs – interns Eric Glatt and Alexander Footman – when “Judge William H. Pauley III allowed them to file a motion to amend their suit to expand the plaintiff class to include everyone who has worked as an unpaid intern at Fox Entertainment Group for the past several years.”

The deadline to file the motion is Sept. 5, and the Judge said he would rule on it at a hearing Oct. 9. According to the article, “Pauley encouraged Fox’s legal team not to contest the motion.”

Even though the trial itself – if there is one – isn’t slated for 2013, there’s already fallout from suit. Union Roundup caught up with Gabrielle Wirth, a partner at the international law firm Dorsey & Whitney, who specializes in employee and labor law, especially as it is practiced here in California.

She notes that the problem – having “lost track of an internship being…an internship,” – is endemic in a lot of creative industries, not only showbiz, but fashion and showbiz as well. You couldn’t really send someone for coffee or dry cleaning if it was an internship in building cars, or creating methane-eating bacteria in a lab. But it happens a lot in industries perceived to have “sex appeal.”

There are, she notes, fairly “strict standards put forth by the Department of Labor” about what internships are actually supposed to be, and in response to the lawsuit, she says many studios have “already started paying minimum wage” for these positions.

Which makes it more interesting, since the suit is over unpaid internships. Once the intern becomes paid, even – especially? – at minimum wage, it’s once again fair game to… send them out for coffee and dry cleaning. But employers are also mindful of the overtime provisions that would kick in, so student interns wouldn’t be on set for 13-plus hours of gofering, under this arrangement.

Of course, this also means that once the work is recognized as essentially being paid gofer work – and not an internship – all those potential interns in that potential class-action suit could now be liable for back pay. Talk about residuals!

Wirth’s firm also helps companies structure their own internships to comply with the law. One of the changes she expects to become even more pronounced is that these programs will increasingly be under the province of schools – like UCLA, USC, and Chapman University – that have renowned film programs, and can place students in such programs.

Colleges could help define what “the student expects to get out of” the internship, as well as overseeing that the programs aren’t used strictly as a “pre-interview” process. Not that anyone would object to being offered steady work after completing such a program, but the Department of Labor is pretty clear that you can’t simply set up a program so that someone’s “probationary period,” as it were, is simply unpaid work.

And the schools, she’s pretty sure, would be glad to oversee the programs because it would be “far easier to have their grads” be the ones who have a leg up – due to the on-the-job experience – to find work, the actual paid kind, in the industry afterwards. Plus, the schools can “take the onus off the employer,” i.e., the studios, in making sure the programs are compliant.

And with the studios actually paying their P.A.’s, instead of just calling them “interns,” this may help with another aspect of breaking in. The Huffington Post piece quotes John WIlliams, founder of Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, a group which mentors underprivileged youth to help them break into the film industry. “If you’re a poor kid, or you can’t afford to work for free, and people are saying you should work for free, that’s going to favor kids who can do that, whose parents can pay their bills for years. It probably has an impact on how diverse the film industry is,” he says.

The implication, then, is that the minimum wage job on the set will still give you a leg up compared to, say, the minimum wage job at Wal-Mart or McDonald’s. Though one wonders if ultimately those whose families can afford to send them to the colleges overseeing the internship programs will still have the “legs up.”

Time will tell, and the first steps on that calendar will be the hearing on the motion to expand to “class action width” in the suit, and then – if it gets that far – the actual trial next year.

Meanwhile, if you’re asked to fetch a producer’s dry cleaning, instead of being able to log hours rigging lights or cutting costumes, like you were promised, take comfort in the fact that – at least in California – you’re getting upwards of eight bucks an hour for your efforts. Plus overtime.

And hey – there’s usually free food on set, too.

Thank you Below the line news.com

More info: http://www.btlnews.com/crafts/kids-off-the-bus-fire-back-internship-lawsuit-goes-class-action/
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Apple Products Shown in 30% of Hollywood's Top Movies, for Free...

In the so-called "tech trial of the century," Apple is showing off just how much it has captured the hearts and minds of Hollywood.

Samsung Scores European Success In Tablet Wars With Apple

Apple is in the midst of a jury trial that accuses rival Samsung of infringing its patents and trademarks on its iPhone and iPad products in creating and marketing the Galaxy devices. The trial continues this week after a San Francisco jury heard testimony from top Apple executives about the making and marketing of the consumer technology that took the world by storm. Apple now demands some $2.5 billion in damages from Samsung. Jury selection began July 30.

Apple has long insisted that it doesn't pay for product placement in movies and television, but that doesn't mean the Cupertino, Calif.-based company doesn't care. In fact, highlights from the trial evidence that Hollywood has been a huge part of the company's marketing strategy over the years.
When Apple first worked on the iPhone, it was called "Project Purple."

According to testimony by Apple mobile software head Scott Forstall, secrecy about the project was so immense that a sign on the front door where the work was being done said "Fight Club." The allusion was obvious. "The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club," testified Forstall.

Apple executives say that building the iPhone was risky, but there were great rewards promised for a successful project.

More than five years ago, when the company was working on the prototypes, Apple saw what cell phones weren't doing well at the time. "We started to look at whether you could put entertainment content on cellphones," testified Phil Schiller, Apple's global chief of marketing. "We realized at the time that some phones weren't any good as entertainment devices."

The iPhone was introduced in June 2007. Before it launched, Apple used a commercial during the Academy Awards to announce its impending arrival. But then the company decided it could "go quiet" on the advertising front, according to more testimony.

How?
For one thing, Apple realized the press would lavish attention on it. But the company also decided that Hollywood would embrace it.
"We would love to see our products used by stars in movies [and] TV shows, and we have a person who helps provide products to people that want to do that," said Schiller.

The jury saw a chart that documented all of the product-placement successes.

In fact, Apple has been getting hundreds of millions of dollars of possibly free publicity over the years.

According to a survey by Brandchannel this year, Apple-branded products have appeared in more than a third of all films topping the box office from 2001 through 2011 (and 17 of the 40 top films last year). That's more than McDonald's, Pepsi and the Sony Vaio combined for the past decade.

In Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol, for example, Apple got more than five minutes onscreen, which analysis from Front Row Analytics estimates to be worth more than $23 million. Perhaps most amazing, according to Brandchannel, is that Apple says it doesn't pay for product placement.

At trial, Schiller testified that in 2007, the company concluded that it "didn't need" to put any money into its advertising budget. That's changed somewhat. According to what the jury heard, from 2008 to 2011, Apple spent $647 million on iPhone publicity and $457 million on iPad publicity. For a company that has sold some 250 million iPhones, though, that's a rather paltry sum.

Nevertheless, Schiller says that Samsung's introduction of similar smartphones and tablets "creates a huge problem" for his marketing division.

Samsung's lawyer asked whether it's really possible that consumers "accidentally buy the Droid Charge thinking it's an iPhone."

"I believe they may be confused," responded Schiller.
Samsung will have an opportunity to bring its own witnesses and evidence soon. Confusion is one part of the fussing in court. The parties also are debating who gets credit for going first with the important design work on mobile devices. Samsung tried in vain to show off its F700 phone to the jury and got in trouble with the judge for possibly leaking excluded evidence to the media. Samsung also could attempt to show "prior art" by pointing to more Hollywood content. After all, Samsung once brought forward the argument that an iPad-like device could be seen in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Apple doesn't get credit for that one.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Old People, Old Stars: Hollywood's New Hot Demo Is Saving the Box Office

Says one studio executive, "It's a big deal to get an AARP cover" as movies from "Hope Springs" to "The Expendables 2" prove that aging stars, plus the population's fastest-growing segment, are the secret weapons at the box office.

Behind the Scenes of THR's Steve Carell Cover Shoot

Midday on Saturday, Aug. 18, the top-grossing theater in the U.S. for The Expendables 2 -- a who's who of 1980s action stars now in their 60s, led by 66-year-old Sylvester Stallone -- was the Cinemark Palace 20 in Boca Raton, Fla., ground zero for affluent retirees. About 245 miles away, Hope Springs, starring Meryl Streep, 63, and Tommy Lee Jones, 65, was the No. 1 film at the Rialto 8 in The Villages, a sprawling retirement community northwest of Orlando that is the country's fastest-growing small town (presumptive GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan stumped there the same day with his 78-year-old mother, Betty Douglas).

After years of fawning over the fanboy, Hollywood is suddenly embracing the boomer, who is turning out to be the most avid moviegoer of all as teenagers and young adults disappear behind video game consoles, computers and iPhones. "It's the next frontier. Younger people have pretty much been milked," says Bill Newcott, entertainment editor at AARP's The Magazine.

PHOTOS: 'The Expendables 2' Premiere Arrivals: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Not even the youth-obsessed studios can ignore the numbers. There are 78 million baby boomers, defined as those born between 1946 and 1964. In 2010 -- thanks in great part to advances in medicine -- 40.3 million were over age 65, making them the fastest-growing segment of the population, according to the U.S. Census. That compares with 30.7 million people between 18 and 24. It's also the segment that most likes to go to the cinema. The MPAA reports that movie attendance across all age groups dipped in 2011 -- save for those 60 and older.

"Our demo has more time, more disposable income, and when they like a movie, they reward it very well," says Newcott. "They give a movie legs, and that's the real value of our audience."
And not just the serious, art house dramas that are often associated with the elderly crowd (the indies long have adored this demo). Aging boomers can drive all kinds of movies to commercial success. The more obvious examples are 2007's The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson, 75, and Morgan Freeman, 75, and 2008's Gran Torino, directed by and starring the 82-year-old Clint Eastwood. The less obvious include Mamma Mia!, starring Streep; the action hit Taken, starring Liam Neeson, 60; True Grit, starring Jeff Bridges, 62; and the thriller Safe House, starring 57-year-old Denzel Washington. Even The Bourne Legacy is being fueled by the over-50 set, which made up 33 percent of the film's opening-weekend audience in early August, the largest of any age group by far.

"Boomers, older and younger, grew up when moviegoing was the cool form of entertainment," says one studio chief. "They have the lifetime habit and enjoyment of going to theaters, and it is still the 'date night' activity. And now they have the time to do it, either as empty nesters or, for many, retirees. They also have the money to spend. So, yes, it's a very important audience, albeit a segment."

COVER STORY: 'Hope Springs' Star Steve Carell Says Comedy Has Become 'Uber-Cynical,' 'Borderline Mean'

For the stars that the older boomers grew up with, it's welcome news: Streep, Eastwood, Neeson, Bridges, Michael Douglas and Helen Mirren are just a few of the actors who are in the midst of a late-career renaissance.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a group of British retirees who decide to move to India, is one of the most profitable films of the summer. Released in May, the Fox Searchlight movie -- whose ensemble cast includes Judi Dench, 77; Tom Wilkinson, 64; Bill Nighy, 62; and Maggie Smith, 77 -- was made for a modest $10 million but has grossed north of $46 million domestically and $131 million worldwide. Better yet, Searchlight spent a fraction of what a bigger studio spends to market a film since it rolled Marigold out slowly, banking on word-of-mouth.

In North America, Marigold made more than the genre mashup Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer ($37.2 million) or the Adam Sandler-Andy Samberg comedy That's My Boy ($37 million). And Focus Features' Moonrise Kingdom -- Wes Anderson's quirky coming-of-age story that features Bill Murray, 61, and Bruce Willis, 57 -- also overperformed throughout the summer, grossing $42 million to date.
Historically, the major studios haven't entirely ignored the older moviegoer -- 1985's Cocoon, 1989's Driving Miss Daisy, 1993's Grumpy Old Men and 2000's Space Cowboys were box-office hits in their day -- but the rise of the Franchise Age demanded a steady diet of big-budget tentpoles, so many of which starred the hot young actor of the moment and relegated Hollywood's seasoned veterans to mostly supporting roles. Amy Baer, who oversaw 2003's Something's Gotta Give during her tenure as Sony's executive vp production, recalls some resistance to the film's subject matter. "I remember when the script came in," she says. "Amy Pascal always loved it, but there were certain concerns coming from marketing. They asked, 'Are people going to want to watch these people kiss and have sex?' "
A quiet revolution within the studio system began in 2009 with the success of Julie & Julia, starring Streep and Amy Adams. Instead of releasing the film in fall or winter -- primetime for adult fare -- Sony went against conventional wisdom and opened the movie in August. Julie & Julia went on to become one of the most profitable films of that summer, grossing $94.1 million in North America. More than 55 percent of the film's opening-weekend audience was over age 50.

VIDEO: Behind the Scenes of THR's Steve Carell Cover Shoot

The Expendables came a year later, co-written, directed by and starring Stallone, who roped in as many of his action contemporaries as he could, including Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Jet Li and Jason Statham, most of whom could buy tickets for their own movie at the senior rate. Action stars aren't supposed to be quite so elderly, and no studio would touch the project, forcing Millennium Films to finance the movie independently before Lionsgate agreed to pony up for distribution rights.
Expendables was a resounding hit, grossing nearly $275 million globally and prompting this summer's sequel (which adds beefy roles for Willis; Arnold Schwarzenegger, 65; Chuck Norris, 72; and Jean-Claude Van Damme, 51). In October 2010, RED -- starring Willis, Mirren, Freeman and John Malkovich, 58, as mothballed spies who come out of retirement -- provided further proof that sexagenarians can wield guns and flex their muscles along with the best of them. Yes, action films like these still have the car chases and explosions general audiences are looking for, but for the older moviegoer, they can provide vicarious wish fulfillment.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

More info: www.hollywoodreporter.com

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Why Hollywood Wins in Judge's Rejection of Facebook Privacy Settlement..

Big tech companies like Facebook and Google have been using settlements in privacy lawsuits to fund organizations that have their back in copyright battles with Hollywood.

In a ruling on Friday, a San Francisco judge rejected a $20 million settlement in a class action lawsuit over whether Facebook violated the privacy of its users by featuring them in a "Sponsored Stories" advertisement program.

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The rejection of a settlement where half of the money was to go to lawyers and half to "charity" and almost nothing to actual victims could bolster attention on a maneuver that allows big tech companies like Facebook and Google to funnel money to organizations that are hostile to Hollywood's pro-copyright agenda.
The original lawsuit itself had little to do with Hollywood. Nevertheless, it touches entertainment anyway thanks to the judge's address of cy pres, a legal doctrine born out of Norman French and old estate law that roughly means that when it's hard or impractical to award compensation in court cases, payment can be made as "near as possible," including to not-for-profit organizations with similar interests.
The plaintiffs in the "Sponsored Stories" case sued Facebook for allegedly violating their rights of publicity and California's unfair competition law by using their names and images without consent in ads that were shown to users' online friends on the social network. After two years of litigation, the dispute settled. Facebook agreed to pay $10 million to the plaintiffs' lawyers, $10 million to cy pres recipients, and $37,500 to the three class representatives who were named as plaintiffs. Facebook also agreed to make policy changes that the plaintiffs' expert economist estimated to be worth $103.2 million.
At a hearing earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg was openly skeptical about the cy pres award, wondering how lawyers arrived at that amount and how it stood to benefit Facebook's users. In a ruling rejecting the proposed settlement on Friday, the judge followed this up by saying, "Although it is not a precise science, plaintiffs must show that the cy pres payment represents a reasonable settlement of past damages claims, and that it was not merely plucked from thin air, or wholly inconsequential to them..."
Although the judge didn't rule out the possibility of a cy pres payment in the case -- and reportedly even asked at the hearing, "Why shouldn't the cy pres be $100 million?" -- more focus on who is getting cy press money could be around the bend.
In a column for Forbes in late July, legal analyst Roger Parloff pointed out that a good chunk of cy pres money awarded in privacy cases is going to organizations that "would very likely be getting at least some donations from Google or Facebook" anyway. He notes that recipients Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford collect voluntary contributions from the two big tech companies and "all reliably line up on the tech sector side in scrimmages with copyright holders."
To be fair, each of these organizations does in fact often take strong positions against tech companies on privacy issues, so in a certain regard, it's perfectly appropriate to award them money to monitor these companies going forward.
But so does the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which hasn't found it as easy to collect such money. The difference is that EPIC doesn't win friends in Silicon Valley by taking on Hollywood in legislative and policy debates. It doesn't because copyright matters are mostly outside its purview. Such a disadvantage once led EPIC to complain that one Google cy pres settlement served to divert money "to organizations that are currently paid by Google to lobby for or to consult for the company."
To avoid being shut out of a possible "sponsored stories" settlement, the EPIC along with other groups like the Center for Digital Democracy, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University, have asked to the court to adopt a procedure previously proposed in privacy cases involving Google Buzz and Netflix whereby potential cy pres recipients would disclose connections and contributions from Facebook.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter !
More: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/

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