5 Daily Tech Stories That Filmmakers (and Film Fans) Must Read: New Hollywood Online Film Festival, ‘Gravity’ Visual Effects and More
1. NUHO: Spike Lee will help to inaugurate the first annual New Hollywood Online Film Festival (NUHO) with a keynote address. The new digital initiative will allow film fans around the world to watch features, docs and shorts in a web-based film festival platform, according to our colleagues at Shadow and Act. Find out more about the festival here.
2. Gravity: While Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity” is undoubtedly one of this year’s best pictures, it also marks a technical achievement never before seen in film. Rising Sun Pictures (RSP), the visual effects company that produced some effects for the film, decided to breakdown one of the movie’s more spectacular sequences in a two minute video. Check it out here.
3. iTunes Spirit Awards: iTunes has launched its Spirit Award feature, highlighting films nominated for Best Feature, Best First Feature, John Cassavetes Award, Best Female Lead, and Best Male Lead. Check it out at iTunes.com/SpiritAwards. Also, check out iTunes’ Oscar store, which highlights Academy Award nominated films.
4. Netflix vs. Blockbuster: Think Netflix put Blockbuster out of business? Think again. This infographic shows that the brick and mortar business had serious troubles even before Netflix gained momentum.
5. Netflix vs. HBO: Speaking of competition, HBO confirmed that they have fewer subscribers than Netflix (29 million to Netflix’s 33.4 million), but the pay cable network still comes out ahead financially. HBO generated $4.89 billion in revenue last year to Netflix’s $4.37 billion, and profit was much higher: $1.79 billion in operating income versus Netflix’s $228.3 million in 2013, CNET reports.
