In this morning’s roundup of movie news ‘n’ notes from around the web, Hollywood slumps, marketing changes, and Werner Herzog sounds off.
As his 3D documentary “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” prepares for its Toronto unveiling and “My Son, My Son, What Have You Done” goes to DVD, legendary director Werner Herzog takes a day to answer questions posed to him on Twitter. He does the answering through a series of YouTube videos, in which he talks about the thin line between documentaries and narrative features; gives wedding advice; says that it was exhilarating to be “shot at seriously, but without success” while making a movie in Central America; swears he doesn’t know who Chuck Norris is; and talks about how he wanted to kill Klaus Kinski from behind with a shovel. (Herzog and Kinski, below.) And he says he doesn’t have a cellphone, but his attorney does. TheWrap’s Jeff Sneider also asked a question, which can be found here. (YouTube)
The initials DVR and VOD may mean that traditional methods of movie marketing will soon be DOA, reports Georg Szalai. The problem is that television ads for movies – which can make up 70 percent of a film’s ad budget – are time-sensitive, and if TV shows are being watched after their initial airdates via DVR or Hulu or VOD, the ads’ effectiveness can be lost. There aren’t a lot of facts and figures here, just a batch of insiders guessing that the (roughly) ten percent of ad budgets now devoted to online advertising is about to get a lot bigger. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Patrick Goldstein examines Hollywood’s version of the recession: fewer movies, fewer buyers, less money, more cautious management, and on and on. “[I]t's just agonizingly difficult to get a movie up and running right now," says an anonymous “top agent.” Things are so miserable, he suggests, that it might just be “an especially good time to invest in the movie business” – assuming, of course, that people who are interested actually have some money to invest. (The Big Picture)
Tim Brayton starts with a fact I didn’t know – that outside the United States, “Nanny McPhee Returns” was released under different, less anonymous titles: in the UK, for instance, it was “Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang.” That leads him into a celebration of outstanding movie titles, which range from “Hud” to “Don’t Torture a Duckling” (“why would I torture a duckling, anyway?” he asks, reasonably) to the 2006 flick whose rabid advance cult was due almost entirely to its title: “Snakes on a Plane.” (Antagony & Ecstasy)
The Playlist continues its series highlighting up-and-comers, singling out a handful of cinematographers “on their way to the A-list.” The chosen ones are Edward Grau of “A Single Man” (“a stunning look, both nostalgic and fresh”); Greig Fraser of “Bright Star” (“a very delicate shooting style”); Robbie Ryan of “Fish Tank” (“an eerie, otherworldly glow”); Adriano Goldman of “Sin Nombre” (“incredibly crisp”); and Michael McDonough of “Winter’s Bone” (all bruised skylines, dark corners and smoky mystery”) (ThePlaylist)
