EXTRA CRITICUM

Ted Hope's List of 27 Available Platforms for Direct Distribution

Indie Filmmakers... start salivating. Here's another fabulous post from Ted Hope on the ever-shifting ground of distribution. New opportunities in the digital realm seem to be popping up every week. Check out Hope's post for what's current as of August, 2011.

Two Masters Discuss "Master Class"

A terrific interview with playwright Terrance McNally and actress Tyne Daly (musical Gypsy; television Cagney & Lacey, Judging Amy) recently aired on the Charlie Rose show.  The 30-minute program is well worth seeing for anyone passionate about theatre or opera or really any of the arts.  The occasion of the interview is the current extended revival of McNally’s play The Master Class at Manhattan Theatre Club, starring Daly as the diva Maria Callas.

Backin'-up Song has a lot to offer to aspiring songwriters who are willing to listen closely

Have you all stumbled upon this YouTube sensation? The interview footage from a newscast on a local convenience store robbery was transformed using Auto-Tune into a pop song. Now, we can argue forever about Auto-tune and the value of turning ordinary spoken word into song but, frankly, I'm bored by that whole angle.

What's amazing about this video is the mining of so much from so little. I mean, if you were to watch the raw footage of the interview with Diana, the featured survivor of the robbery, I'm sure it would hardly warrant even a second thought. There's not much there there.

“I’ll Show You the Life of the Mind!”

One of the things that gives me fits while editing A Life’s Work is the establishing shot. (And this documentary will require a lot of them.) An establishing shot does what its name suggests: it tells the viewer, “You are here.” Let it be known far and wide: I hate establishing shots in film and television. In sitcoms they are unimaginative—

EXT: BOSTON STREET - DAY

Busy street, most prominent is a sign for a bar called Cheers.

Cut to—

INT: BAR*

Why does this woman make so many people so angry?

Indie Musicians take note: a new antidote to playing to a depressingly sparse room

Most small venues that cater to indie bands and singer-songwriters have a pretty informal financial arrangement with artists they host. Either there's a minimum guarantee or a door split or what have you. But the key is: no one has risked a ton of cash on the selling out of any particular gig. The result? All too often really talented musicians play in a bar to 4 or 5 friends and the bar staff.

Now there may be an solution on the horizaon in the form of something called: Ticketometer, which on the Kickstarter model, allows a musician to set a minimum # of tickets sold to trigger the actual performance. Here's some more detail from a recent post on springwise.com

Dear ESPN Spammers. I'm afraid you may have made a wrong turn somewhere. This is Extra Criticum, not Extra Innings.

Over the past few days a number of oddly cryptic comments have appeared on various posts throughout the site, all authored by one Linda2077. Spam comments on blogs are generally easy to spot as they usually contain an overt pitch for a product or website. But Linda2077 was a bit more subtle. Perhaps she has a fancy title to match her spamming acumen. Something like: Senior Director of Pseudo Grassroots Enthusiasm? All her comments were vaguely specific and yet each contained the name of at least one major player of the NFL. On a post about early Obama administration efforts to motivate artists to address social issues, Linda added something cryptic about Greek gods or something and then, threw in some player's name. Forgive me if I've already wiped the specifics from my hard drive.

In any case, her oeuvre has now been sent to the appropriate authorities for further investigation. With a little luck, Linda will land in a place more hospitable to what she's selling. After all, we've all got something to sell. There's no crime in that. It's just helpful to pick the proper street corner before you head out on your day.

Big thanks to EC author John Yearley for spotting this cyber-Willy Loman.

PlayPenn Part III

“So the previous scene takes place at night. But then Marie-Helene comes over to the house, which would seem to indicate that it’s not night.”

This is Lucie Tiberghien, my director, speaking to me. I am perplexed.

“Well,” I say a trifle defensively. “What makes you think the previous scene was at night?”

Lucie leafs back through the script. “The last line of that scene is, ‘Good night, Aidan.’”

Ouch.

A Brave ACT at the Box Office

Roland wrote a short post a couple of weeks ago about an innovative ticket sales strategy at ACT Theatre in Seattle, prompting me to dig deeper.

I write regularly about marketing and revenue challenges facing the theatre business in America.  (I'm a former producer who spent more time than was healthy worrying about ticket sales.)  In the last decade massive demographic forces and the explosion of media options have plunged the live stage business into turmoil. I should add that theatre is hardly the only sector suffering ulcers.  How many newspapers were on your porch this morning, how many magazines came in your mailbox last week, how has your television viewing changed in ten years?  Come on, how many ways do you “consume” movies today?  Chaos rules the media world.

Guest Post: Randy Burgess

The Bourne Dilemma: How to Survive Local Theater Without Going to Hell

It was air conditioning on a 100-degree day that made my partner and myself seek out the nearest mall and watch the only matinee that seemed at all bearable: two hours of kids-and-aliens kitsch, Super 8. When it was over we made faces at each other, grumbled at the inanity we had witnessed, and at last reluctantly re-entered the heat.

Cartoon: Summer Blockbusters, Part 2

Play Penn Part II

A few years ago I was at a Christopher Shinn play at Playwrights Horizons. When I heard there was going to be a talkback after the performance, I decided to stay. It wasn’t that I wanted to hear the comments so much as I wanted to see how Shinn would respond to them.

The tone was conversational and polite. The artistic director would field comments and questions, then Shinn would respond. After about 10 minutes there was a lull. The artistic director said, “Okay, if there isn’t anything more…

An older man to my right thrust his hand aggressively into the air. The artistic director paused, then called on him.

Crazy, Stupid Product Placements

First of all, let me be clear about one thing. Crazy, Stupid Love is entertaining and funny. The acting is uniformly quite good, as is the direction and, with the exception of the awkwardly shoehorned product placements, the writing ain't half bad. But, really, this product placement thing is like a disease. And it's destroying entertainment as we know it. Here is an incomplete list drawn only from memory, of just some of the products incorporated awkwardly into the storyline. An asterisk (*) beside the product name indicates that it actually made it into the mouth of an actor in the form of dialogue.