Singapore”s Media Development Authority is a governmental agency created to plan and promote the growth of media in the city-island-nation. Check out their MDA Senior Management Rap:
Writers Strike Spawns More Exploitation TV
First, a simple explainer as to the issues causing the Writers Strike, from the Writers Guild of America (WGA) via Ellen Sandler:
The Writers Strike: Why We Fight
Thanks Erin. Now, a look at the world of television without writers:
Writers Strike Means Reality Boom Times
by Lynn Elber
AP Television Writer
November 27, 2007
Los Angeles (AP) — For five years, John Langley tried and failed to sell a cinema verite-style TV series tracking police officers on patrol. Then came the 1988 Hollywood writers strike.
“That’s when Fox bought `Cops,’ because a series with no narrator, no host, no script, no re-enactments sounded very good to them at the time,” recalled Langley, who just marked the show’s 700th episode.
The nearly five-month ’88 Writers Guild of America walkout that started in March didn’t unleash a flood of reality, because filming on sitcoms and dramas had largely wrapped and because alternative shows had yet to become a trend.
But the current WGA strike fell smack during production as well as the Age of Reality, putting the brakes on scripted shows and giving networks a quick fix for schedule holes. It remains to be seen how viewers – or the reality genre itself – will withstand the onslaught.
Networks have readied a slate of nearly 40 shows that are stacked up like jetliners over Christmas Eve runways awaiting the go-ahead to land. Continue reading “Writers Strike Spawns More Exploitation TV”
The Art of Billboard Liberation Co-opted to Promote Art
Paint It Pink
November 28,2007
New York Post, Page Six
Calvin Klein is destroying his own ad in the name of art. To help promote the Dec. 1 opening of the New Museum on the Bowery, Klein allowed the institution’s advertisers to drip oozing pink paint over his Houston Street billboard of Lara Stone and Jamie Burke wearing his jeans. The label, along with Julianne Moore and Maggie Gyllenhaal, will host an intimate soiree tonight at the museum, and the hot pink ooze will drip down the billboard until Monday.
Related links:
Reality TV: Exploitation Exposed
So you wanna be on TV?
Magic Molehill Productions and CBS TV are soliciting pranksters for a new reality TV show, tentatively called “Pranksters”. Here’s the casting call as seen on Backstage.com on November 8, 2007:
Casting Call: ‘Pranksters’
Magic Molehill Productions is casting Pranksters, a reality show in which comedians compete for a chance at their prank show. Lynne Spillman, casting dir., Cydney Kaplan, coord. Shoot starts Summer 2008 in L.A. Seeking–Comedian Pranksters: males and females, 18+, any ethnicity, pranks should be innovative, hilarious, and represent your comedic point of view.
Send application and three pranks (on DVD or as email attachment) by Nov. 13 to Pranksters, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #1380, L.A., CA 90028 or email to pranksterstv@gmail.com
I was contacted by one of the casting producers and asked to apply as a contestant for the show. They asked me to submit three pranks on DVD for consideration. Apparently, after an international search, they will narrow it down to eight pranksters who will be in competition with each other to perform a prank a week for eight weeks on camera. Supposedly a panel of “experts” will judge the “quality” of the prank. The prize is an unspecified amount of money and the possibility of your own show on CBS. All contestants have to be in LA for two months. Accommodations and an unspecified stipend are provided. They wanted to know if I am interested.
I asked, “Do you know who I am and what my work is about?” I immediately began thinking about how to hoax them. I contacted my friend Dino D’Annibale to see if he would be willing to play me on the show for two months. Dino agreed to do it. Continue reading “Reality TV: Exploitation Exposed”
Red Cross Guerrilla Advertising
From Sawse: What do you think of when someone mentions the Red Cross? For some the name conjures images of the recent scandal over video games using their logo. Others might think of the various good works they do. Probably very few people think of the cool guerrilla advertising campaigns they have created to raise awareness of various key issues around the world. Here’s an example:
Not Happening Here, but Happening Now: Somewhere in the world, buildings are collapsing, bombs are going off, people are dying. In short: things are very, very wrong. Especially in the US this might seem a world away but it is happening on the same planet.
To see more of the Red Cross’ guerrilla ad campaigns, visit Sawse.
via WebUrbanist