Wednesday, December 24, 2008

New episode up and an issue with movie soundtracks



In this episode I talked a bit about "Yes Man" and how I enjoyed the music in the movie, especially the Zooey Deschanel parts. I knew she could sing from "Elf" but I had no idea singing was going to be a part of her character in this film.

Here is an example of one of the songs from the movie:



Funny stuff. But, here is my main issue with actors singing in movies. If it rocks and is cool, why aren't the movie companies releasing these songs ahead of time? Put them on some radio stations or release them as ITunes singles. Get some real buzz going. Heck, put out an official YouTube video and watch the hits rack up.

This move would have been perfect for "Walk Hard," but it wasn't until after I saw the movie that I fell in love with the music. Who knew that John C. Reilly could sing like that? I didn't.


I first felt this way with this gem of a video from the Hugh Grant movie "Music and Lyrics," which we watched in the newsroom at least two dozen times (a lowball estimate):



Click on the video to take you to the main page and look at the number of hits on that video alone: 5,764,723! A vast majority of those hits were AFTER the movie was released. Imagine how much more money "Music and Lyrics" would have made then?

Just a thought.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

New Viewpoints On... videos!

Here are some of our recent episodes of Viewpoints On... (The first parts, following the links while watching for other parts.)





Thursday, December 11, 2008

Tim's thoughts on Leno in primetime

We ran a little long in the show today and had to cut some stuff on the fly. One bit was my main issue with Jay Leno getting a prime time 10 p.m. slot Monday-Friday on NBC.

Really?

NBC is so far is last place that this is its big idea?

How about stop making crappy shows? Yeah, "Kath and Kim" I am talking about you.

And while we are on the subject of crappy and NBC, that stupid chime thing they do to promote the different shows is BEYOND stupid. Like someone thought "Hey, that's cool, I guess I'll watch 'My Own Worst Enemy' after all!"

They made it a point to say they know Leno won't beat shows like "CSI." Well, why bother then? Since when do we do things to not be first place? "I know we'll be last place, but it'll be a funny last place!"

And either the "Law and Order" shows are moving to 9 p.m. or getting cut.

The other issue I have is that no matter what he says, it is a giant slap in the face to Conan O'Brien who is set to take over the Tonight Show in a few months. So you expect people to watch Leno, then a half hour of local news, then watch O'Brien? And boy is Jimmy Fallon screwed. He was set to take over O'Brien's old time slot.

So, bad move NBC. Be more creative.