Poland On Poland

David Poland runs Movie City News, one of the best movie news aggregate sites out there. His blog, The Hot Blog, features some very well-informed, honest, and often controversial opinion. What sets the blog apart is the reader comments, which can become very passionate and at times spins a bit out of control.

Poland spoke with Cinematical's James Rocchi. You can listen to the interview here.

On The Record...Online

There's a new podcast called On the Record...Online which covers the digital revolution in journalism. Here is their rundown on the latest show:

On the Record...Online New Media Masters Panel Part 1

Special Episode: On the Record...Online host Eric Schwartzman moderates a "New Media Masters Panel" with Rob Barrett, GM, LATimes.com, Larry Gerbrandt, GM, Nielsen Analytics, Claude Brodessor, NPR's "The Business" and TMZ.com blogger Kevin Roderick, LAObserved.com. They share how the internet is changing the main stream media business, the future of print media and how industries are reacting to Google and YouTube.

SHOW NOTES:

04:16 - Larry Gerbrandt, Claude Brodessor, Kevin Roderick and Rob Barrett reveal their thoughts on new media, such as websites, blogs, podcasts and social networking platforms, and how it is changing the way they communicate.

18:30 - Roderick, Brodessor and Gerbrandt share where they get their news and which new or mainstream media outlets they consider influential.

25:24 - Brodessor on what organizations are now doing to counteract Google and YouTube from taking what some consider to be free content.

28:50 - Gerbrandt explores whether or not main stream media views Google as a friend or foe.

31:47 - Roderick reveals what the future of the print publishing business is in a world where people hunger for news at internet speed.

33:11 - Barrett on whether or not Google News is in breach of copyright violation for content siphoning.

36:26 - Gerbrandt shares his thoughts on DVR and TiVo usage.

39:45 - Brodessor talks about the "lazy factor" of DVR users vs. Madison Avenue advertising.

42:38 - Roderick talks about Steve Jobs and Apple managing to escape criticism in an industry where others such as, Bill Gates, are viewed more objectively by the media and the industry.

45:43 - End.

Direct Access

NYT has coverage of the online movie industry. A.O. Scott looks at the democratizing effect of internet movie content and the possibility of first run movies being made available online.

Manohla Dargis tells about her try at downloading movies at jaman.com. She had quite a few troubles.

I went over to jaman. There's a lot of potential in this approach but the tech side is not up to speed yet. I watched a few minutes of a Kung Fu movie -- the picture was very small and had modest resolution, but the idea of being able to download a movie is still pretty appealing.

The technical difficulties associated with downloading huge files (a 90-minute feature downloaded from jaman.com is about 1.3GB) will be lessened when the quad-core chip becomes available at consumer prices. Add the solid-state drive (SSD. Should be available before the end of the year) and downloads become far easier, with no crashes or freezes.

The last element needed to make movie downloads a mainstream choice is internet connection speed. Right now the max transfer rate is about 1.5 megs/second. (I know your cable company advertises speeds up to 6 megs but that's not a reality. Usually the transfer rate hovers around 400 kb/sec -- that's less than 1/10th the 6 meg/sec rate). At 1.5 mb/sec a movie would take about 1000 seconds to download -- that's pushing 20 minutes (under perfect conditions with no freezes and a hypothetical max transfer rate). At a more realistic transfer rate a movie would take up to 10 times 20 minutes to download -- not very palatable.

There are two possible fixes: Nationwide installation of high-speed optical cable, or, establishing high-speed satellite feeds. Unfortunately, neither of these is on the horizon, but the satellite option seems most realistic to me and 2 mb/sec transfer rate is currently in place.

For aspiring filmmakers the news couldn't be better. In a few years all you'll need to make a movie is a digital camera and a site that will accept your upload and, baddabing, you've got your first feature produced and distributed. The two major differences: You won't need to buy thousands of feet of film (or worry about the costs of processing, and editing), and you won't need a distribution deal to get your movie into theaters.

The online movie download industry may be in its infancy but I think it represents the way people will get their movies in the not-too-distant future. I mean, it wasn't that long ago we listened to music on AM radio and 8-track tapes, and watched movies only at the theater or on TV (until the advent of the VHS tape, that is). Stay tuned...

Anne Thompson Goes On The Record

Anne Thompson gives her perspective on movies and the Digital Revolution. Here is On The Record's set up:

Anne Thompson goes On the Record...Online with host Eric Schwartzman to reveal how movies secure Oscar nominations, how films win Oscar campaigns and whether or not online buzz influences which movies get nominated.

The deputy film editor of The Hollywood Reporter, Anne Thompson writes the weekly film industry column "Risky Business," which is globally syndicated by Reuters. She also contributes to Premiere, Wired, Filmmaker, New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The London Observer. From 1996 to 2002, she headed Premiere's Los Angeles bureau as West Coast Editor. Before joining Premiere, she tracked behind-the-scenes Hollywood as a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly and as West Coast Editor at Film Comment Magazine. From 1985 to 1993, she wrote the first iteration of "Risky Business" for L.A. Weekly and The Los Angeles Times Syndicate. A graduate of the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University, Thompson teaches the fall semester of Sneak Previews at UCLA Extension.

On The Record is a weekly podcast that usually covers the tech-revolution in journalism and entertainment.