PewDiePie used a racial slur on livestream. Is he a liability for YouTube?
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by Jeremy Rogers If you’ve enjoyed films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), Donnie Darko (2001), The Fighter (2010), or The Fifth Element (1997), then you finally have the opportunity to voice your thanks to one of the key people responsible. Sound editor and director Victoria Sampson will be visiting Ball State this Wednesday to conduct a screening of her new short film, Shelby’s Vacation. After the screening she will be holding a meet-and-greet session afterwards for interested students. Sampson has been working as an ADR editor, dialogue editor, and foley artist in Hollywood for over 41 years. After spending years working on a wide variety of films, she started directing her own short films in 1990. Shelby’s Vacation will mark this Hollywood veteran’s fifth director credit. Not content with directing a few films and working in the sound department of over 200 films, Vickie Sampson has also worked as an editor, writer, camera operator, and producer. According to writer and producer Nancy Beverly, Shelby’s Vacation centers around Shelby as she recovers from her latest heartbreak, unable to move on with her life. She retreats to a cozy mountain resort where the manager Carol, and her discover how to live life without being captives of their respective pasts. The screening and meet-and-greet session will be Wednesday at 7 pm in the Arts and Journalism building, room 175. Sources: IMDb (Vickie Sampson), IMDb (Shelby’s Vacation) Image: Stage 32
Warning: This review contains spoilers for the most recent episode and past seasons of Game of Thrones.
by Ryan Fine Rumors of a newly released posthumous Michael Jackson album have been circulating wildly over the last couple of days. When a 15-second animated video appeared on the official Michael Jackson Twitter account, the world began preparing itself for something called Scream. https://twitter.com/michaeljackson/status/904856848649658369 Several posters were found in Germany that said “Album Out September 29”, which further suggested that we might soon be hearing some unreleased music from the King of Pop. https://www.instagram.com/p/BYqRdpxjZAl/?taken-by=otw1980 Now, the Michael Jackson estate has come forward with the full announcement. As it turns out, an album called Scream will in fact be released on September 29, but it will contain no new material from the King of Pop himself. The compilation features songs pulled from classic albums like Thriller, and Bad, and also includes music from Xscape, which remains the only posthumous Michael Jackson album to contain previously unreleased music. The album is named for the Michael Jackson/Janet Jackson duet of the same name, which appears as the eighth track on the album. The only unheard music on the compilation is a mash-up of the songs “Blood On the Dance Floor” and “Dangerous”, made by electronic duo The White Panda. The physical release of Scream will come in the form of CDs and glow-in-the-dark vinyl on October 27 via Epic/Legacy recordings. The track list is as follows: This Place Hotel Thriller Blood on the Dance Floor Somebody's Watching Me Dirty Diana Torture Leave Me Alone Scream Dangerous Unbreakable Xscape Threatened Ghosts Bonus Track: Blood On the Dance Floor x Dangerous (The White Panda Mash-Up) Sources: Paste, StereoGum, Rolling Stone Images: Twitter, Instagram, Fanpop
by Jeremy Rogers Warning: This review contains spoilers for the most recent episode and past seasons of Game of Thrones. Remember the scene just before the end of Episode Three with the storming of Casterly Rock? Show-runners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss (hereafter named D & D) may not, but the North remembers. “The Dragon and the Wolf” begins showing the Unsullied being led by Greyworm standing in front of a stone fortress looking as if they were never ambushed by Euron Greyjoy just off the coast of Casterly Rock. Since they are confronting what viewers can only assume is a fortress on the wall encircling King’s Landing with Jaime Lannister and Bronn of the Blackwater standing on the ramparts, D & D are leaving Euron’s fate ambiguous. After some banal dialogue between Jaime and Bronn, the Dothraki charge through the organized ranks of the Unsullied, as if their horses could topple stone walls, and just as it seems a monumental battle is about to take place, the scene shifts away to focus on Jon, Tyrion, and the rest of Dany's war council arriving at the docks of King’s Landing, never to reference these opening moments or Greyworm again. After some similarly forgettable dialogue between Tyrion and Jon, the Hound goes below deck on their ship to rap on the silent crate holding the wight. It immediately erupts into a symphony of angry protest inside its wooden prison. Shortly thereafter, the group is escorted to the ruins of the Dragon Pit where Cersei and the rest of the main cast of the show who aren’t in the North meet them. Oddly enough this group includes Euron Greyjoy, acting like his last appearance in the show was when he captured Yara. Cersei wonders aloud why Dany did not travel with the rest of her cohort, seemingly forgetting that she has a few dragons. Then as Tyrion is about to start the negotiations, Euron starts mouthing off to Theon. Cersei then channels the thoughts of most viewers and tells Euron to stop talking. Eventually the wight is brought in front of the queen of King’s Landing. Oddly enough it doesn’t react when the box is opened. Instead, the wight pauses for dramatic effect to trick anxious viewers. However, Cersei is not convinced and declines the offer of a truce since Jon cannot promise to her that he will not aid Dany after the dead are dealt with. Tyrion then goes alone to treat with his sister. Despite an empty threat about having The Mountain cut Tyrion in half, Cersei and Tyrion have what may be the best dialogue of the episode, talking about their emotional insecurities. Eventually Tyrion discovers that his sister is pregnant, and the scene transitions back to the Dragon Pit with Cersei offering her own truce independent of their earlier offers. Back at Dragonstone Jon and Dany briefly discuss if they should travel together. After deciding that they should do so as a show of unity, Theon catches up with Jon who gives him a pep talk. With pep in his step Theon tries to convince the other Ironborn to help him rescue Yara and gets into a ham-fisted fistfight where his lack of male anatomy allows him win in the end. Cue Jaime talking to Cersei about preparations to march north where Cersei reveals that she was lying the whole time and never intended to fight with Jon or Dany. She has instead instructed Euron to ferry the Golden Company, a mercenary army from Essos to Westeros so she can be ready for the Dragon Queen after she is done with her fighting in the North. Oddly this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, causing Jaime to denounce Cersei and leave her service to fight for humanity. This move on Jaime’s part inspires Cersei to again threaten to have the Mountain kill one of her kin, but like before, this threat fails to bear fruit. The season ends with a scene from the North. Sansa is talking with Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish about how she dislikes Jon’s decision to throw in with the Dragon Queen and how Arya wouldn’t like it if she took control of the North from Jon as a result. Littlefinger goads her on to distrust her sister in a way that wouldn’t seem out of place for a Disney villain. The tension culminates as Sansa, alone enjoying some fresh air, tells an armed northman to escort her sister to the great hall. Bran and Baelish are present as Arya struts into the room with her knife. Petyr looks delighted as Sansa starts listing off crimes, but his smirk quickly disappears when Sansa names him as the one on trial. Apparently Westeros’ master tactician who orchestrated the War of the Five Kings did not see any of this coming. As he helplessly tries to squirm his way out of being punished, Arya slits his throat at the behest of the Lady of Winterfell. While slightly more dignified than when the supposed “best swordsman in the Seven Kingdoms”, Ser Barriston Selmy was unceremoniously offed in season five, Littlefinger’s death never felt satisfying. As Sansa and Arya share a sentimental moment, Sansa says one of the highlighted lines from the Season Seven trailer, “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.” Then Sam and Bran have a discussion revealing that Jon is actually Aegon Targaryen, lawful son of Rhaegar and Lyanna Targaryen. Ravens sweep north toward the wall as the Night King and his army descend on The Wall. Wight-Viserion, bearing the Night King on his back, makes quick work of The Wall. The blue flames make quick work of the 700ft. tall ice wall, making a clear, unobstructed path into the southern lands of Westeros. With the army of the dead finally transitioning from a looming threat to an active threat, the last episode of season seven fades to black. This entire episode is predicated on viewers not remembering what has happened in previous seasons, episodes, and scenes to sell almost all its high-impact moments. The show has never been so obviously a product of television and not one of a grand narrative. The wight waited to react instead of instantly snapping into action as it had been shown to do earlier; the audience was made to believe that Sansa thought Arya wanted to be Lady of Winterfell, even though her entire character in the first season centered around her not wanting anything to do with ladyship; the audience is expected to believe that Littlefinger wouldn’t expect betrayal. While there were some interesting and even at times well-written moments that echoed the quality of seasons long gone, the finale failed to end in a satisfying way. It has nothing to do with story lines wrapping up or with the show transitioning from low fantasy to high fantasy and everything to do with how D & D choose to handle their characters and their world. All images from Giant Bomb and IMDb
by Daley Wilhelm At Gamescon, Blizzard announced a new Overwatch map that gave players a closer look at two fan favorite characters, Junkrat and Roadhog. Junkertown is a post-apocalyptic, ramshackle junk yard of a town presided over by a nameless queen who narrated the reveal trailer, saying: Listen up you wretched scum. I see your struggles. Trying to survive in the wasteland. It's time to face the facts. The end of the world's come and gone. Your past lives are a dream. It's time you woke up. They thought they could take our land and give it to the machines? They were wrong. We won the war. And now we reap the spoils. We built a new world from the ashes. So step into the Scrapyard. No rules. No mercy. Only the strong survive. This is your queen. Welcome to the apocalypse. Welcome to Junkertown. The trailer does not reveal her face - only her throne and apparent domain over the Mad Max aesthetic well illustrated by red sand, rusted metal, and other sharp-looking scarps. Sharp-eyed players appear to have found her face within the map on the Public Test Region itself, however, in the form of a poster. With the clear labeling of “The Queen” beneath her in spray paint, her war-paint splattered face smirks, looking every inch a post-apocalyptic warrior with her mohawk, spiked pauldrons, and some kind of weapon slung casually over her shoulder. https://twitter.com/OhSadFace/status/902702526830608384 https://twitter.com/_nikanono/status/902771117454217217 https://twitter.com/baldhanzo/status/899690313484181504 While there has yet to be any confirmation of her becoming a new character, this very much mimics the way Doomfist was first teased through in-map posters before his reveal. Lead writer Michael Chu has also pointed fans toward the poster, and Twitter has indeed become full of avid fans of The Queen of Junkertown. Source: Gamescom, Twitter, YouTube Images: Twitter, Dotesports
“Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!” Some may read that and think of the catchy theme song for the popular 90s educational television show Bill Nye the Science Guy. However instead of song lyrics, that is actually the famous scientist demanding Disney pay his bill for playing the role of the Science Guy so many years ago.
by Jeremy Rogers “Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!” Some may read that and think of the catchy theme song for the popular 90s educational television show Bill Nye the Science Guy. However instead of song lyrics, that is actually the famous scientist demanding Disney pay his bill for playing the role of the Science Guy so many years ago. Nye’s lawsuit filed for “[Disney]’s failure to account for and pay [Bill Nye] his owed share of revenue participation from the sale, distribution and other exploitation of [Bill Nye the Science Guy].” So according to Nye, after Disney’s subsidiary Buena Vista demanded that Nye repay roughly 85% of a $585,123 royalty check due to an “accounting error” on their part when they sent him the check. Nye instantly became suspicious, so he decided to try to sit down with Disney and Buena Vista to negotiate how he was being paid. In the face of this inquiry, the companies were uneager to cooperate with Nye, even though it was their legal duty to do so. Buena Vista stopped paying Nye royalties the next year in 2008. Once it became clear that Disney seemed to be hiding something, Nye arranged for an auditor to go over Disney and Buena Vista’s financial records. This investigation was stymied for years and received few substantial documents from Disney. The documents that were recovered seemed to confirm Nye’s suspicions: Disney seemed to have been underreporting earnings and ignoring Nye’s 16.5% cut from the show’s profits. Nye claims to have lost out on $9.4 million while Disney, Buena Vista, ABC Television (also owned by The Mouse), and other affiliated defendants were able to take over $28 billion to the bank. The Walt Disney Company has yet to comment on these allegations. Source: NY Times, CNN Image: WUWT
by Jeremy Rogers Warning: This review contains spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of Rick and Morty. “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy” starts with a short montage of Jerry’s life in his decrepit apartment, living the exact kind of life someone of Jerry’s emotional fortitude would after getting a divorce. The sad piano music is interrupted by Rick, who busts into Jerry’s bedroom as he is crying himself to sleep. As in the preview, Rick drags an emotionally and literally naked Jerry off to go on an adventure. Rick proceeds to take Jerry on an adventure so Jerry can “get a win” and not be so emotionally wrecked, as he reveals that Morty put him up to this so his dad wouldn’t commit suicide. Before Rick can take a dozen steps inside their apparent destination, Rick is impaled through the chest with a spear mid-sentence. Rick, bleeding from his stab wound and mouth, starts to fade out of consciousness as Jerry starts impotently yelling for help while doing nothing in a great display of character. It is then that the gimmick of this location is made clear: Rick’s chest heals up and he is brought back to life instantly thanks to the “immortality field” that surrounds the resort they came to. Meanwhile Beth gives a lackluster response to Summer, who is aboundingly upset that a guy rejected her to hang out with Trisha Lang and “her massive stripper titties”. This causes Summer to go into Rick’s garage to find a machine under a tarp. Upon uncovering it Summer drops a hint about what she may use the device for in saying “Boob-ya!” Beth has never been extremely perceptive or responsive to the emotional needs of others, so this scene shows how dysfunctional the entire Smith family can be. After washing his hands, Jerry gets taken to a back room where the assistant manager of the restaurant, voiced by the amazingly menacing Clancy Brown who is famous for his role on Spongebob as Mr. Krabs, requests help from Jerry in killing Rick because his home world was taken by force thanks to Rick’s influence. After Jerry expresses a similar sentiment about Rick usurping his family, Jerry is given the task of taking Rick on the Whirly Dirly, a roller coaster that dips outside the immortality field so Rick can be killed. The resentment from Jerry shows that he still blames places the blame for his divorce on Rick instead of taking responsibility for his mistakes. All the while Summer uses the machine to enlarge her breasts. This goes wrong as Summer puts more than her chest in front of the energy beam, resulting in a huge, disproportioned giant expanding to fill the whole interior of the garage. Beth and Morty open the garage door and turn off the beam, but Beth refuses to call Rick for help as she tries to prove that she can solve this problem by herself. This turns Summer into a giant, albeit a proportional giant, whose skin is now on the inside, revealing muscle membranes on every bodily surface. One step forward, two steps back. Summer runs away as Morty chews out Beth for being selfish and stupid in being a bad mother and for not trying to get Rick to help. Jerry then tries to help Rick avoid assassination, but the roller coaster ends up crashing and destroying the immortality field in a fight scene with multiple decapitations, explosions and headshots. Jerry and Rick have a heart to heart as Jerry’s treachery is revealed. Rick and Jerry then board a space ship where Rick is injected with an anti-aggression synaptic dampener for security purposes. Rick and Jerry are found by their assassin who then destroy their ship’s temporal shield right before a wormhole is entered which has the effect of merging the minds of all three for millennia, after which Rick who is emotionally unaffected by this bond beyond time kills the assassin. Rick justifies this saying, “Cosmic apotheosis wears off faster than salvia,” and takes a thoroughly fed-up Jerry home. After finding Summer at the campsite where she was going to meet her boyfriend before he dumped her, Beth turns herself into an inside-out giant and consoles Summer. The two have an emotional breakthrough and hug while Morty finds the boy who started this all and stoically turns him into a deformed monster for messing with his sister’s emotions and body image. This may have been the best episode yet for showing character growth. The subtlety in the writing is much better here than the outrightness of “Pickle Rick”. Whether it is Jerry finally standing up for himself after being constantly emasculated and feminized or Beth literally having to bring her insides out in order to reconcile her emotionally devastated daughter, there is a lot of smart story telling going on here that isn’t always apparent at first glance. As Beth and Summer literally lay everything bare to solve their problems Morty grows ever more emotionally detached and angry as time goes on. All images from Rickipedia
by Jeremy Rogers Blizzard made no fancy show of starting their Gamescom conference; they just dove right into the fray with an announcement about their hit collectable card game, Hearthstone. A Blizzard representative announced that the next challenge in Hearthstone would be the final mission for the Knights of the Frozen Throne. Now players will be able to pit their decks against the Lich King for the Frozen Throne itself. This enemy will be the first enemy in the game to modify its strategy based on the player’s class that they bring to the fight. Fireside Gatherings everywhere will soon get access to the Lich King raid after its exclusive first run at Gamescom. After the announcements about Hearthstone, a new cinematic short was revealed that shows off how the folks at Blizzard could stay in business should that whole video game fad stop making them money. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPguoeYTvMI[/embed] If the characters shown make you yearn for more, fear not. Blizzard announced that they will be producing more content in the form of shorts, comics, and the like that explore the diverse cast of characters that populate the tavern. The next game to get the Gamescom treatment was Heroes of the Storm. The game director, Alan Dabiri, came out and primiered a new hero’s video. The lich lord Kel’Thuzad will be the next playable hero to join the playable ranks of Blizzard’s popular MOBA. After showing off the character’s abilities in game, attendees were shown an event quest called Obey the Call, where players can earn portraits and other in-game rewards. To finish off this segment, Dabiri announced that Blizzard would be releasing a five-part documentary of all the behind the scenes work that went into putting a new character into the game next week. The title of the documentary is Raising Kel’Thuzad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv35ukl8c-w World of Warcraft was up next. A trailer for the upcoming 7.3 patch of the relatively venerable MMO was shown. The patch will be called Shadows of Argus. The patch is described by WoW game director Ion Hazzikostas as being a story heavy update packed with loads of new content. The patch will be expanding on Legion features and adding new features in the patch. Players exploring Argus will get to explore the home world of the Legion which is also the home world of the Draenei. Fans of the lore of the WoW will have plenty to dig into with this newest load of content. Players will be able to stride across Argus’ surface starting August 29th in the United States. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysRqfZPvijE Blizzard’s latest mega-hit was next to take the stage with Chacko Sonny, the production director of Overwatch, announcing all the new content coming down the pipeline. Junkertown, the new escort map for the game that canonically serves as the home of JunkRat and RoadHog was explored in more depth. After a short talk the project director of Blizzard Animation, Ben Dai, came to the stage to introduce the next animated short for one of the heroes of Overwatch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tjcm_kI0n0 The short ended with snow falling from the ceiling onto the Gamescom attendees below. This follows conferences from Microsoft, EA, Blizzard, Nvidia, and Nintendo earlier this week. Source: YouTube Image: buffed
by Jeremy Rogers Nintendo started out their livestream with an announcement about Splatoon 2. Hisashi Nogami, one of the lead producers for Splatoon 2 gave a prerecorded presentation about new maps and weapons coming to the game in the near future. This time instead of dabbing with dualies, Nogami made an “S” hand sign every time he said the title of his game. Shown first was a new map for competitive and turf war modes called the Manta Maria. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIzUjcVt8to[/embed] The massive sailboat Manta Maria map will be added to the game for free on August 26th. The second announcement was of the new special attack being added to the game: the Bubble Blower. The bubble blower and the gun that has the special, the Forge Splattershot Pro, will be available a week after the new map is introduced on September 2nd. Both Manta Maria and the Bubble Blower were teased during a Splatoon 2 Direct earlier this summer. The third and final reveal was for a new map for the Salmon Run mode titled, the Lost Outpost. This new map features an abandoned building which means walls that obstruct players’ views of their teammates making signaling even more important. This new map goes live today, Wednesday August 23rd. Nintendo’s day one stream ended with a few rounds of Turf War being played on Manta Maria with all eight players using the Forge Splattershot Pro. Source: YouTube Image: Youtube
by Jeremy Rogers Lining up outside of a red brick building in Cologne, Germany were gamers, journalists, and enthusiasts alike, wanting to see what tech company Nvidia had in store for their off-site event that paralleled the conferences at Gamescom this past week. First was an in-depth look at Destiny 2 and how it would play on PC. According to David Dague, developer Bungie’s community manager, the game is set to have an uncapped framerate with resolutions up to 4k when played on higher end PCs. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hge7nGXH6Rk&t=1s[/embed] Next for the conference was a showcase for Nvidia Ansel, a feature of Nvidia graphics cards ranging from the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti to the GeForce GTX 780M that allows players to take 360 degree screenshots inside of Ansel-supported games. New games were announced to be adding Ansel support such as Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 and Middle Earth: Shadow of War. A new feature for Ansel was demonstrated next showing off the new Style Transfer mode. To use this feature, the user must upload an image file that has a desired style and color palate. Then Ansel can combine that user selected image with an image captured with Ansel using some deep learning algorithms that combine the images together instantaneously in real time. Another feature showed off was ShadowPlay, an Nvidia program that records gameplay in the background as the game runs, so the player can share their experiences online or to take screenshots. The feature itself wasn’t the announcement but rather a new game that supports this feature: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Now players can near instantly share their coolest kills, most daring escapes, and best laid traps for the world to see with ease like never before. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGohZqJxSlY[/embed] The last announcement was that Final Fantasy XV will be getting a PC port that utilizes some of the tools included in Nvidia’s GameWorks. GameWorks are a set of software tools that help all developers, from AAA studios to lonely indie devs, create and manage their game systems. That’s all of its newest tech for PC gamers Nvidia had to show off at Gamescom 2017. This follows conferences from Microsoft, EA, and Blizzard earlier this week. Source: Nvidia Image: YouTube, FullHDPictures
by Jeremy Rogers and Nolan Leahy When it comes to the various streaming services, there’s Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, Amazon Prime Video, Sling TV, and other future competitors to consider as well. HBO Now and Sling TV have yet to reach the one million subscriber statistic just yet. Amazon Prime Video has 45 million subscribers, but most of the people who have Amazon Prime don’t even have it to watch the videos according to The Wrap writer Tony Maglio. Hulu’s subscriber count is at roughly 9 million, while the monster that spits out the hottest streams is Netflix with a grand total of over 70 million subscribers. Netflix is the powerhouse of the young Internet streaming industry that’s encouraging people to cut the cable cord and swap to an on-demand television service that isn’t filled with infomercials, shopping networks, and innumerable commercials. In its beginnings, Netflix has had a strong start with content, because the competition was limited. Various companies signed on with Netflix to permit streaming of television shows that would normally show on NBC, CBS, Comedy Central, TBS, Disney Channels, and even Cartoon Network. Hulu offers the same type of service but with advertisements subsidizing its standard monthly subscription. The benefit of Hulu is that any current cable TV show like South Park or America’s Got Talent will immediately have new episodes uploaded and ready to watch with their service. Despite this benefit, Hulu doesn’t have as much ground breaking original material as Netflix has been able to offer within the most recent years. With the increase in profits, Netflix has introduced exclusive Netflix content such as the popular shows like House of Cards or the most recent hit Stranger Things. They have even moved into the anime market with the original and highly praised The Seven Deadly Sins. Recently Netflix lost a vast amount of content that’s disappointed the subscriber base. The company lost Bob’s Burgers, Futurama, and House within the last several months, and that’s not even the worst of it. https://twitter.com/ImBrianJoyce/status/871830971326267392 In more recent news, Disney movies will be leaving Netflix. How big of an impact will this have on Netflix? Surprisingly little. Netflix seems to have been anticipating business moves like this for about a half decade. Netflix seems to have seen a need to generate original programming. In a move straight out of HBO’s 1980s playbook when it was faced with rivals like Showtime and The Movie Channel, Netflix decided to create its own content in the form of House of Cards for which writing started in early 2011. HBO made a similar move in 1983 with the premier the channel’s first original content, The Terry Fox Story. Netflix has been slowly building its library of original content since 2013. Currently Netflix Originals (films, documentaries, and television-style series produced and aired exclusively on Netflix) make up about 15% of its library. These shows cost gobs of money to produce, and with years of building a consumer base off of streaming other producers’ content, Netflix now spends roughly $6 billion on its library with about $1.8 billion going towards Netflix Originals. This is a good business move on Netflix’s part, as having a solid base of content for consumers to access gives stability to the platform known for its constantly shifting library. https://twitter.com/netflix/status/894549044927660032 As Netflix moves forward, it seems to be relying heavier on its own original content instead of plugging high profile deals with other studios. This is made evident by the company’s first acquisition. The announcement of this acquisition was overshadowed in much of entertainment media by the big Disney announcement that happened the day after this deal was finalized and made public. Much like Warner Bros. in 1968 and Disney in 2009, Netflix has bought a comic company, namely Scottish comic book company Millarworld. For the uninitiated, Millarworld wrote the comics that were the basis for 2008’s Wanted, 2010’s Kick-Ass, 2013’s Kick-Ass 2, and 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service as well as its 2017 sequel. This means that any of the comics made by Mark Millar and his cohort are fair game as far as Netflix adaptions go. If these adaptations take off the way Netflix originals like Stranger Things or Black Mirror have, then Netflix will be expertly poised to possibly acquire even more intellectual property and to attract ever more prestigious content creators. Disneyflix? Disney seems to be making an interesting move by taking their content and moving it to their own streaming platform. By consolidating their various intellectual properties into one centralized location, they are future-proofing their television production and simultaneously fixing a financial problem. In the last year, Disney’s cable networks have received a 14% drop in monthly minutes watched. That means that people are watching 14% less of Disney’s advertisements. This in turn makes Disney a less desirable place to sell ads, meaning Disney earns less money. If Disney can deliver a better way to get its content into people’s homes so they can see the ads Disney gets paid to show, then Disney gets more money. Seeing as Netflix’s minutes watched climbed 669% in the same time period, it seems like a safe bet that Disney will be able to increase its viewership through making a more convenient media-consuming experience. It’s one thing to make a platform that is easy to access and another thing entirely to keep people using that platform. Disney is known for its impressive library of classic animated films, but is that library enough to make people pay for another streaming service? Disney believes that way to retain customers is by producing new, compelling content. In a statement, the CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger, said, “We’ve already begun the development process at the Disney Channel and at the studio to create original TV series and original movies for this service… We’ve commissioned them to produce more films, with the incremental films being produced very, very specifically and very exclusively for this service. So this will represent a larger investment in Disney-branded intellectual property, both TV and movies.” Disney has been a bit tight lipped about details of its future plans in regard to television production, so some key questions remain. Will the production of traditional shows for the Disney Channel or for Disney XD drop in quality as the more premium shows are awarded online exclusivity to boost subscription numbers? Will Disney drop entire channels like Disney Junior, Disney Cinemagic, or even Disney XD to add more content to its online service? How will this affect the company’s mobile app Disney Movies Anywhere? Hopefully satisfactory answers to all of these questions will come as Disney solidifies its plans in the coming weeks and months. “We’ve already begun the development process at the Disney Channel and at the studio to create original TV series and original movies for this service… We’ve commissioned them to produce more films, with the incremental films being produced very, very specifically and very exclusively for this service. So this will represent a larger investment in Disney-branded intellectual property, both TV and movies.” - Bob Iger Despite the potential benefits for Disney in leaving Netflix, there is definitely a potential down side to its abandonment. With the Netflix partnership, Netflix provided a good variety of content that filled in the watching needs for older audiences. Depending on how much viewership Disney will receive, the margins of profit could vary. Though Disney has a large and vast collection of shows to provide including that of Marvel and ESPN, it doesn’t seem like there is enough content to satisfy every adult which is a problem that they haven’t necessarily faced before. According to Monitor Correspondent, Stephanie Hanes, the number of single adults continues to climb in the United States, and the fertility rate is now the lowest in US history. This means that as for right now, there is less potential for larger younger audiences in the future and more potential for private independent viewership. Cable tended to bundle in Disney, and the kids drag parents into the theaters. Despite these victories in viewership, streaming is arguably more based on the independent rather than the average family. Disney is mainly known for making content for kids. They have good shows like the recently finished cartoon Gravity Falls, and absolutely atrocious live action shows like Lab Rats and Austin & Ally. Disney’s animated shows can be great, with some adult humor mixed in to keep the shows interesting for parents watching with their kids. Despite this factor, couples without children or single adults are going to be a tougher sell. The only rated R film that Disney could offer on the service that comes to mind is Deadpool, but there have been numerous comments from movie goers stating that the superhero film trend is getting tiresome. Steven Spielberg even stated that he believes that the superhero media will “go the way of the western” with how they are getting so mass-produced to the point where they will fatigue the market with oversaturation. There are only two solutions two this issue: Disney can offer more rated R or Mature content while risking its image as a child-friendly source of entertainment, or Disney could drastically improve the writing of the live action and animated shows that are designed for kids. It definitely feels like a guarantee that most 35 year olds won’t be buying into a Disney subscription to watch a rehashing of an old show from the 90s à la Girl Meets World or Raven’s Home, and betting on that factor alone is risky in the streaming business. The Future of Film Things may be looking up for Netflix, but what about the whole streaming industry? As stated earlier, Disney is making new shows and movies with this streaming service in mind, so is this the start of a paradigm shift in how mainstream entertainment content will be produced and distributed? At first glance this looks like it may be the beginning of the end. Maybe more corporate content creators like Comcast, 21st Century Fox, and Time Warner will abandon Netflix and similar streaming services to make their own subscription based streaming services. This would present a large problem for one of Netflix’s most competitive rivals: Hulu. Hulu is a joint venture owned solely by all the aforementioned media companies and Disney. The interesting question in this discussion seems to be the future of Hulu and where cable television may be going. If Disney is starting up its own streaming service for sports in 2018 and for its own original content in 2019, what will happen to the streaming service that the Mouse owns a 30% stake in? Many people have been musing about the possibility of an “adpocolypse” being imminent since many assume that Disney and other media companies will adopt a streaming service akin to Netflix and HBO Go’s ad free models. This is said to be the beginning of the end for traditional advertising, but there seems to already be a tried and safe way of making advertisements for a digital platform. What seems more likely is for these companies to emulate the success of Hulu by making ads a regular fixture of their paid services. This move seems like it may be an early death knell of the online television market populated by the likes of Sling TV, Playstation Vue, and DirecTV. If major networks are looking to become their won distributors, then it looks like many of these platforms may either die off, go indie, or become acquired and integrated into one of the networks’ own digital platforms. However the future unfolds, it seems that most of us will be able to watch it from our computers, smart TVs, phones, and video game consoles.
by Jeremy Rogers Electronic Arts started their Gamescom 2017 conference of “pushing boundaries” and “advancing the state of art in games” off with a FIFA 18 montage. All of the footage shown aside from some insert shots of some text seemed to be rendered in the Frostbite 3 graphics engine. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ETKAYRzvjs[/embed] Next was a demonstration of a new game mode for the highly anticipated Star Wars Battlefront 2, Star Fighter Assault. Fans have been voicing their desire to have space combat since the remake of the early 2000s shooter series was announced. Fans were disappointed at the game mode’s absence in the 2015 reboot, but they can rest assured that the mode will return in the 2017 sequel. Just like the main game, there will be different classes of star ships to pilot in the inevitable dogfights to come. Another similarity to the main game that players and fans know well are hero characters. Some examples shown in the trailer and gameplay were Darth Maul, Yoda, Poe Dameron, Han Solo and Chewbacca, and Boba Fett as playable hero characters with their own special ships to play during the new mode. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqIJ_WdR_DQ[/embed] Next in the presentation was a new live action trailer for the Need for Speed Payback. BMW put their new 2018 BMW M5 sport sedan front and center as it sped through streets full of practically homicidal police officers. This marks the first time BMW has globally revealed a car through a video game. To wrap up the Need for Speed Payback segment, a pre-rendered cutscene showing off the might of the highly aggressive police force was shown. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf2qDAEZc2w[/embed] Next was a video showing all the progress made so far in the ongoing development of The Sims 4. Simmers since The Sims 2 have enjoyed having pets as a part of their simulated families. Players of the newest game have had to live without pets since the game came out in 2014. Dogs and cats are being added to the game in a new expansion pack on November 10. They also brought on Jiffpom, a dog with over 80 thousand Twitter followers, to help commemorate the announcement. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpNb28IQTsM[/embed] Next was the section of the show devoted to EA Originals, where EA showed off one of their indie titles that they are helping to support. Fe announced that it would be coming to all major consoles and PC. The creative director of Zoinks Studios came to the stage to talk about some of the inspirations for the game. After talking about a childhood of unbounded exploration of a forest and how that inspired him to make Fe, Andreas Beijer started to sound a lot like Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri talking about his inspiration for his most memorable games. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYX3CjSgE4c[/embed] The conference was capped off with several announcements for Battlefield 1. The first announcement was a new competitive mode that seems to be going after the streaming crowd; this new mode that will be “as fun to watch as it is to play” will center around 5v5 matches called Incursions. It is going to be the game’s first online mode designed from the ground up to be a competitive experience. Another announcement was a new edition of Battlefield 1 that comes with the season pass called Battlefield 1 Revolution. The whole conference ended with one final, fun reveal: a demonstration of one of the maps in the new expansion pack releasing next month In the Name of the Tzar. Source: Gamescom Image: VGN
Felix ‘Pewdiepie’ Kjellberg has posted a video to his channel essentially saying that he would stop making jokes about being a Nazi in his videos. Felix was famously cut loose from a contract that the top YouTuber had made with Disney after several pro-Nazi jokes came to light.
by Jeremy Rogers Felix ‘Pewdiepie’ Kjellberg has posted a video to his channel essentially saying that he would stop making jokes about being a Nazi in his videos. Felix was famously cut loose from a contract that the top YouTuber had made with Disney after several pro-Nazi jokes came to light. Apparently, the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend sparked the decision to change his comedic bits. However, Felix still saw fit to post a few jokes about Charlottesville to his twitter before making this announcement. One day after his latest joke, Pewdiepie explained the reason for this change: “A bunch of white supremacists got together and started doing what white supremacists do. And this sort of gave me a little bit of perspective, cause technically I got grouped in with these people somehow.” On August 12, news of activist Heather Heyer’s murder took the national and international media by storm after footage showed a member of the Unite the Right rally using his car as a weapon. The ensuing incident killed Heather and left 19 others injured. Now that Felix has seen how much damage Nazis can do in the 21st century, Felix has decided that Nazi jokes are just not funny anymore. Source: YouTube Image: YouTube, Twitter
AMC’s show The Walking Dead has been the number one show in cable television for the last half decade. It has been the singularly most successful show that AMC has ever had a hand in producing. However not every employee at the studio is happy with the current state of the show. Creator of The Walking Dead comic that the hit show is based off of, Robert Kirkman, has joined former showrunner Glen Mazzara and executive producers Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert in suing AMC for cheating them out of their share of the show’s profits. AMC has released a statement denouncing the suit:
by Jeremy Rogers AMC’s show The Walking Dead has been the number one show in cable television for the last half decade. It has been the singularly most successful show that AMC has ever had a hand in producing. However not every employee at the studio is happy with the current state of the show. Creator of The Walking Dead comic that the hit show is based off of, Robert Kirkman, has joined former showrunner Glen Mazzara and executive producers Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert in suing AMC for cheating them out of their share of the show’s profits. AMC has released a statement denouncing the suit: "These kinds of lawsuits are fairly common in entertainment and they all have one thing in common — they follow success. Virtually every studio that has had a successful show has been the target of litigation like this, and The Walking Dead has been the No. 1 show on television for five years in a row, so this is no surprise. We have enormous respect and appreciation for these plaintiffs, and we will continue to work with them as partners, even as we vigorously defend against this baseless and predictably opportunistic lawsuit." The legal complaint stems from the decision made by AMC to film the show using AMC Studios and to distribute the show using AMC Network. The contracts for those involved in the lawsuit are with AMC Network, and their earnings are directly tied to the profits of AMC Network. The part of their contracts that the producers are all citing AMC as being in violation of involves insuring that AMC Studios and AMC Network make financial transactions that are comparable in dollar amount to similar deals with third-party studios. Each had negotiated with AMC to earn a certain percentage of the show’s earnings from AMC Network. Now the actors claim that AMC Enterprises, the parent company of both the network and the studio, artificially manipulated prices and finances between the two entities to keep most of the show’s profits in AMC Studios while under-reporting the profits of AMC Networks, meaning they would have to pay out less to the producers. This lawsuit comes as the co-creator and original showrunner, Frank Darabont, has his lawsuit against AMC taken to the next phase of litigation scheduled for next week. Darabont was fired soon after the second season of the show premiered, and he claims that the studio did so in order to deny him his proper wages. He also has similar claims in his lawsuit about AMC shifting costs to keep AMC Network’s profits artificially slim in order to not pay him his due for creating one of the most watched shows on television. In total, Darabont is seeking $280 million from AMC. Should Darabont be successful in is lawsuit and Robert Kirkman et al. sue for similar amounts, AMC could be looking at a $1 billion payout. Despite the lawsuit and the potential for a large amount of money being taken out of AMC’s accounting books, The Walking Dead’s production will not be majorly impacted. Source: The Hollywood Reporter Image: Screenrant
by Jeremy Rogers Brian Krzanich, the chief executive officer of Intel Corporation, has tendered his resignation from the American Manufacturing Council late Monday. In a public blog post on his company’s website Krzanich wrote, “I resigned because I want to make progress, while many in Washington seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them. We should honor – not attack – those who have stood up for equality and other cherished American values. I hope this will change, and I remain willing to serve when it does.” This is an allusion to President Trump’s response to the events in Charlottesville, Virginia this past weekend when the president denounced “in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides ― on many sides.” His statement drew criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for its apparent moral equivocation of both sides fighting in Charlottesville. Brian Krzanich is the third CEO to resign from the American Manufacturing Council in response to the Trump administration’s weak stance against what the Intel CEO described as “white supremacists and their ilk,” joining Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank and Ken Frazier, CEO of the pharmaceutical company Merck. According to the International Trade Administration website’s page on the American Manufacturing Council, “The Council is charged with ensuring… that the United States remains the preeminent destination for investment in manufacturing throughout the world.” Though Intel has stepped away from the Council, Krzanich wrote that by resigning he hoped he could help make America “… what it still can and should be.” Other members of the council have likewise spoken out against the violence in Charlottesville, though not all have issued statements concerning the reduction of councilmembers or their continued participation in official council business. Sources: Intel, Business Insider, USA Today, ITA Image: Long Room