Gaming by Degrees

A few years ago, it seemed like dozens of colleges and universities went hunting for enrollment by offerring film making degrees. Even some of the most improbable schools wanted a piece of the countless young (and not so young) people who dreamed of making big bucks making movies.

Now it's video game development. According to this recent Los Angeles Times story, more than 200 colleges and universities are offerring courses in the burgeoning field of game development.

He's Got Game

The presidential campaign of Barack Obama has courted the young male vote by taking out adds in online video games. The ads show up as online billboards in 18 online games offerred through Microsoft's Xbox 360 Online service. By targeting through IP addresses, the ads appear to users only in the so-called battleground states, where the vote is close.

This medianote was based on a recent Reuters article.

She's a Winker!

Sarah Palin, part politician and part rock star, has somehow gained national attention for her habit of winking at campaign events and during the vice-presidential debate. Some are charmed by this, others are repelled. This recent Los Angeles Times story discusses the significnce of winking and other types of nonverbal communications by Palin and others.

Wi-Fi, Why Not?

The next generation of Wi-Fi can turn an entire city into a hotspot, and this opens up some interesting media possibilities. Baltimore, Maryland is the test site for a technology called WiMax, which claims a range of about 30 miles. Among other things, this makes in-car Internet radios--with infinite channels--a possibility in the not-too-distant future. We listened to this National Public Radio story.

Taking the Film Out of Films

The whirring and clacking of the classic 35mm movie projector may fade to black over the next few years as movie studios and theater chains agree on how to upgrade to digital projection systems. The historic changeover could have happened sooner, but the barrier was more economic than technological: studios would reap most of the savings while theaters would bear most of the costs. According to this Reuters article, the distributors and exhibitors are now beginning to agree on how to pay for the latest sequel in the movie-going saga.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #56

Hot Trailers

The movie trailers we see in most movie theaters or in TV ads are "Green Band," somewhat sanitized for family audiences and the FCC. But especially for R-rated movies, more explicit "Red Band" trailers are becoming popular, especially on the Internet, where movie fans can send the trailer to friends. This sort of viral spread of information--where Internet users quickly spread something to their friends--first became apparent some years ago with email hoaxes and other outlandish stories (kidney thefts, or whatever) stormed the Internet.

Anyhow, the movie trailer discussion is based on a recent article in the Los Angeles Times.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #55

You Like Me 'Cause My Pants Are from Old Navy

We're used to product placements in movies, but the new trend in television is product integration. The difference is that in product integration the advertised product is entered into the script. If we're doing a television show about a teenage boy getting ready for a big date, for example, his cool and stylish friend could be shown escorting him to an Old Navy store for the right date-worthy clothes.

This medianote was based on a National Public Radio story.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #54