Monthly Archives: May 2009

Summer Hours (dir. Olivier Assayas) Summer Hours tackles surprisingly rich themes for its superficially stereotypical setting and concerns. (Grade: A-) The marketing for Summer Hours traffics in well-worn French clichés: a summer house in the south, plenty of wine, and well-aged French people with useless jobs in the arts, academy and design. There are museums. [...]

UPDATE: 30 Rock continued the “Dealbreaker” storyline in this week’s episode, “Kidney Live!,” and carried it to its hilarious extremes! ORIGINAL: 30 Rock has to be the most innovative and complex comedy on network TV these days. And not only for Tina Fey’s quirky, hilarious dialogue. Tonight the show unveiled a storyline involving a catchphrase [...]

DISTRIBUTION AND EXHIBITION: Where the Shows Go                               Web serials are also experimenting with distribution and exhibition online. The main debate centers on how to showcase the show, how people find it. This typically involves using either a video hosting site [...]

UPDATE!: I’ve updated the following post in a clearer format with better information on how the market works. Please see this post: “What is a Web Series?”   ORIGINAL: I wrote this primer on made-for-online TV serials for a seminar here at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania to orient myself [...]

Angry Men Helm This Year’s Breakout Hits By Aymar Jean Christian Summer movies are upon us, and with a full five months of blockbusters, we’re beginning to see what a hit is in this economy. Let’s take note of the breakouts so far: Knowing, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Taken,Fast and Furious, and now Wolverine. Notice a trend? All have [...]

UPDATE: I’ve since been writing on black web series, black distribution of online video, and specific shows. For all new posts, see my web series page. Vlogging While Black A few black vloggers are beginning to make a splash on the scene. But it doesn’t mean it’s easy. “YouTube is very, very white,” explained Tonya, [...]

UPDATE: Published article is out. I shouldn’t really be blogging right now because I have a lot of work to do! Just to wanted to direct you all to TheRoot.com, where, sometime this weekend or at least by Monday, an article I wrote on YouTube’s black vloggers will appear! The quotes from the performers are [...]