AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

With ‘Screening Room,’ YouTube dips its toe in the cinema world
At the Henry Fonda Theater on Hollywood Boulevard last night, YouTube introduced its new “Screening Room,” an area of the site devoted exclusively to selected independent films. The Screening Room will feature four short films every two weeks, as well as the occasional full-length feature. [...]

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Variety
Juried award comes with $50,000 prize
The Independent Film Project is offering a $50,000 film finishing grant for the winner among the 11 narrative films picked for the Independent Filmmaker Lab, which runs in Gotham June 10-13.
Juried award will be presented at the independent filmmaker awards ceremony during IFP’s Independent Film Week next September. The filmmakers [...]

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The Hollywood Reporter
Studios are restoring an increasing number of films
It’s a magical experience to view pristine film classics, and these days it seems studios are restoring an increasing number of their most valuable assets for commercial as well as historical reasons.
Among the reasons for this upswing:
>The advent of Blu-ray Disc and larger home displays are [...]

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The Los Angeles Times
A two-day conference examines the film capital’s contribution between the wars.
Even as the country went through the prosperity of the Roaring ’20s followed by the economic woes of the 1930s and on into the outbreak of World War II, Hollywood too went through its own upheavals and transitions during those years — [...]

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NewTeeVee
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull whips its way into theaters this weekend, and much like his archaeologist hero, Spielberg is still a big believer in the importance of relics. Jones has his crystal skulls, Spielberg clings to his beloved film stock. While recent comments from the director shows he’s not eager [...]

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Advertising Age
At Microsoft Advance ‘08: Strong Content Also Needs Interactivity, Community
According to Michael Eisner, story-driven online content is the next big app. “YouTube is to the internet what a nickelodeon is to the movies. It’s the preliminary installment of what is to come,” he said So what is to come? “Great, creative storytelling.”
He continued: “YouTube [...]

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The New York Times
What do video artists make of YouTube? Every minute, 10 hours of video are uploaded to the video-sharing site, which now shows hundreds of millions of videos each day. The place is a mess. Maybe artists should avoid it altogether.
The curator and Internet-art booster Rachel Greene has come up with another suggestion: [...]

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NewTeeVee
Larry Strong and Kevin Arbouet, who directed the first few Obama Girl shorts for Barely Political, are shifting gears this summer — the two have tipped NewTeeVee that they’ll be producing a feature film tentatively starring DJ Qualls (Road Trip, Hustle and Flow) and Jerry Stiller (King of Queens, Ben Stiller).
Strong and Arbouet were already [...]

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The New York Times
Calling all would-be Judd Apatows, Martin Scorseses and Coen brothers. Your cinematic ambitions may be supported by an unlikely patron, based not in Hollywood but more than a thousand miles to the north in Redmond, Wash.
That geographic clue gives away the sponsor: the Microsoft Corporation, which is underwriting an online movie-making contest [...]

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The Los Angeles Times
Audiences around the globe join for short films, speeches and one big drum circle.
There was a message in the drumbeats. The final moments of the first international Pangea Day event on Saturday were big on symbolism, as seven drummers of varied cultures were linked via satellite from Stage 15 at Sony Studios [...]

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