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One of the main rules in Hollywood is not to finance your own films. And, only six out of ten movies ever make a profit. Filmmaking is, in many ways, a brutal business. When Mel Gibson first looked for financing for The Passion of the Christ, no one would underwrite his movie. Gibson’s purpose for making the…
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Most of the animation students at my college prefer anime to “traditional,” Western animation—a puzzling phenomenon given the massive distribution of the Disney franchise, as well as Loony Tunes and its many spinoffs, but evident with only a cursory glance through senior portfolios and art projects. Then again, both my boys grew up trading Yugioh…
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A Life in Theaters Special to the Journal Sentinel, Posted: May 23, 2006 Charles Braun spent his life working in Milwaukee’s theaters in an age when they were most people’s main entertainment destination. By the time he died in 1968, Braun had worked at nearly 30 Wisconsin theaters. In 1905, at age 13, Braun was selling…
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Ohhhhhhh! I hate myself. I’m so fat! In reality, I am 5’3″ tall, I weigh 118 pounds and I wear a size six petite pant. Not too many women are willing to divulge that sort of information. So where did my distorted perception of my body image come from? Through lifelong struggles of dissatisfaction with…
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Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell’s PC game hero needs hi-tech gadgetry to find secret documents hidden in an embassy. In a moment of crisis he turns to his Sony smart phone. Actually the real tension was between the video game publisher and Sony negotiating a deal to get the phone-camera used in the video game. Paul Hyman, Hollywood News wrote…
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One Man’s Vision Can Make A Difference Matthew Johnson developed a passion for urban kids in the early 90s. He believed that what prevents many minority kids from success is a lack of opportunity and encouragement. So, he developed the Strive Media Institute that allows high-risk kids the opportunity to develop marketable skills in the…
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The following is excerpts from a talk given by Spike Lee at the Imagination Conference in San Francisco, June 8, 1996, speaking of his early years as an independent filmmaker and some of the efforts to release the movie Malcolm X. Growing up in Brooklyn, we went to the matinees regularly and sat through the…
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We’ve Come A Long Way Baby… Or Have We? The view of women in film has shifted over its more than 100-year history. In 1905, the name of the actress was not printed on movie posters. Charlie Chaplin said that women were not important in his films. He had only met one or two actresses…
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Hot and Bothered By Women’s Annoying Habits If you wanted to acknowledge a single male actor for his incredible tenacity in dealing with annoying female co-stars, I think such an award would have to go to Harrison Ford – hands down. The litany of roles he’s played in which his female leads seemed hell-bent on…
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From Broadway Productions to School Auditoriums: The change from the old opera house with its sand bag counter-weight units and great coils of rope has passed away years ago to be superseded by the modern movie theatre, civic auditorium, school auditorium and great music hall. The interior of an auditorium, particularly the stage and to…
