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Entertainment Cyberscope
by Jerry Flattum, CyberAstronomer

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Entertainment Capitals

Up until the 21st century the U.S. has dominated the global entertainment market. But America's entertainment hegemony is shifting due to a global network economy, foreign economic growth and an increased importation of World-generated entertainment and high technology.

In Melbourne, Australia is the Crown Entertainment Complex. The complex totals 5.3 million square feet, has one of the world's largest casinos, a 500-room hotel, 25 restaurants, 40 bars, 3 nightclubs, and a 2,000-seat theater. In Malaysia is Genting, called the "City of Entertainment." Genting attracts 10 million visitors yearly, and is modeled after Las Vegas with gambling, convention centers, golf courses, restaurants and sports facilities (Wolf 2000).

Europe and other points-global have long been a Mecca of entertainment, from Parisian fashion shows to window-shopping for sex in Amsterdam. Euro-techno is a popular genre on the global music scene. Karaoke is a Japanese innovation. At the turn of the 21st century, Europe dominates in the wireless industries with wireless technology being the driving force behind globalization. What will really turn the world upside down in unforeseen ways is when Africa, India, the Arab Nations, and most importantly, China, hop on the entertainment and hi-tech bandwagon.

Nashville

Metropolitan Government of Nashville

Music Row - Nashville's Music Industry Publication

Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce

Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau

Nashville Scene

Nashville Net

Opry.com

New York

My NYC.gov Portal

NY.com

NYC.com

New York Convent and Visitor's Bureau

New York Times

Las Vegas

Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority

Las Vegas Hotels and Casinos

Lasvegas.com

LVLOCALMUSICSCENE.com

Vegas.com

London

Corporation of London

LondonTown.com

Thetube.com

Times Online

Los Angeles (See Film)

City of Los Angeles

Los Angeles County

Los Angeles.com

Los Angeles Times

UCLA

Holland

Holland - Netherlands Board of Tourism

Holland - VisitEurope.com

Holland Convention and Visitors Bureau

Montreal

Montreal.com

Montreal - Canada.com

Montreal's Official Tourist Info Site

Toronto

Globe and Mail

The Star

Toronto - Official Website

Toronto City Guide and Information

Toronto Convention and Visitors Association

Toronto.com

University of Toronto

Paris

Disneyland Paris

Office de Tourisme et des Congres de Paris

The Paris Pages

Paris Tourism

Rio de Janeiro

Ipanema

Live in Rio

Rio de Janeiro - Turismo, Cultura e Lazer

Vestibule of the City Hall

Sydney

Sydney Morning Herald

Sydney Indymedia

Sydney Opera House

Sydney's Official Tourist Site

Tokyo

Planet Tokyo

Tokyo Journey

Tokyo Meltdown

TokyoPop.com

Welcome to Tokyo

United States Embassy

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Entertainment Conglomerates

Internet addresses for these sites might not always be consistent since all these corporations own a vast suite of sites.

The world economy is easily described by the metaphor of one big fish swallowing up a smaller fish. I suppose this applies to nations as well. In entertainment, the smallest fish of all is, of course, the artist. But it's not just an image of big and little. It's more like a big bang theory. Radio stations, TV stations, newspapers, magazines, book publishers, record labels, movie companies, Internet companies--are only a few of the diverse kinds of enterprises falling under the umbrella of a megaconglomerate.

Through the 1990's, Napster, mp3.com, and other companies gave the appearance in their rise to fame that new companies could survive and even thrive independently from a parent company. Vivendi/Universal just bought MP3.com in Spring of 2001 and Bertelsmann followed a deal with Napster. So much for independence.

It's hard to say if mega-merger-mania is the force behind convergence or if it's the other way around. The lines between communications (phone, cable, satellite) broadcasting (TV, radio), entertainment (movies, CDs), publishing (books, magazines) and hi-tech (computers, online, software) are disappearing at an ever accelerated rate.


AOL/TimeWarner (AOL, Time, Warner Bros., Netscape, CNN, Turner, HBO, New Line Cinema, Warners Music and TimeWarner Cable Network)

AT&T

BMG Entertainment (Bertelsmann)

Bertelsmann - Bertelsmann--as with other conglomerates--either owns or is in some form of partnership with dozens of media and entertainment companies across the globe. This include Bantam/Doubleday, Random House, Barnes & Noble, CDNow, AOL Europe, Lycos Europe, and many more. Label holdings include Arista, BMG, Windham Hill and RCA.

CBS

CNN.com

CNN.com/Entertainment

Columbia Journalism Review (Who Owns What)

Disney Online - Disney Insider

Disney Online - Where the Magic Comes to You

Disney's Digital Showcase

EMI Group (Includes Capitol Records, Chrysalis, Abbey Road Studio, Virgin and dozens more)

Fox

MusicNet (AOL, RealNetworks and other partners)

NBC (Owned by General Electric)

News Corporation (dozens of newspapers, Fox Entertainment)

Sony

Top Media Conglomerates (1998 data from Broadcasting & Cable)

Turner Broadcasting

Viacom (Paramount, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, VH1, Comedy Central, Showtime, Blockbuster Video, Simon & Schuster, CBS and, of course, dozens more across the spectrums of publishing, broadcast and cable, film and TV production, theaters and film distribution and more.

Vivendi/Universal (Canal+Group, Universal Studios, Universal Music Group, MCA, Seagram). UMG's record labels include Barclay, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope Geffen A&M, Island Def Jam Music Group, Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub.com, MCA Nashville, MCA Records, Mercury Records, Motor Music, Motown Records, Philips, Polydor, Universal Records and Verve Music Group. Publishing ventures include "full range of content in the games, education, health, information and general literature fields." Vivendi has many other operations.

Warner Brothers Online

Warner Brothers Originals (AOL/Time Warner)

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Entertainment News

Entertainment News is everywhere on the Internet and throughout the EC. Reliability is always a question so "reader beware." The Entertainment News portal also includes the online versions of major entertainment publications.

NOTE: Almost all the sites in this portal contain pop-ups. My sincerest apologies for those who should know better.

[Inside]

ABC News.com - Entertainment

Addicted To Noise

AP - Associated Press - Entertainment and LifeStyle

BMG - Entertainment News

Billboard

Bloomberg

BoxOffice Online

Broadcasting & Cable

Calendar Live (LA Times)

Cambridge University - Entertainment Economics

CMJ

CNET

CNN

Dotmusic

Downbeat

E! Online

Film Music Magazine

Filmland News

Fox News

Hollywood Reporter

Independent Online

Industry Click - Entertainment Technology (Includes Electronic Musician, MIX, and other publications)

Mi2n - Music Industry News Network

Music Newswire (SonicNet)

Millimeter

MSNBC

MSNBC - Video News

MTV - News

MusicBIZ

Music Dish

MusicJournalist.com

Musicstation (Global Music Information Network)

NYRock.com

R&R (The Radio and Record Industries Information Leader)

Red Herring

Rolling Stone

Show Biz Data (Entertainment Search Engine)

Songlink International - Newslink

SonicNet

(The) Standard

Variety

Webnoize (Digital Entertainment Intelligence)

Wired

World Entertainment News Network

Zap2It!

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Entertainment Online

Entertainment Online features entertainment that was created for the Internet. Not all of these sites have music, or the music might be buried with the sub-pages. Sound effects are used frequently.

The purpose of this is to point the way towards new forms of entertainment, entertainment created for and born from the Internet as a new media. At the turn of the millennium, the technologies allowing new forms of entertainment include VRML, Shockwave and Flash animation, interfaces and games, animated gif files, Java-based applications, Java Applets, sonified websites (sound effects added to navigation buttons, page turns, etc.) and streaming audio and video.

Terrestrial TV and radio shows, music videos, CDs and mp3's streamed online do not count since they were created in the analog domain and are not new forms of entertainment. But the technologies underlying the conversion, compression and distribution enabling the streaming of film and audio are new.

The underlying technologies allowing for the streaming of traditional entertainment combined with the technologies that allow for the design of online entertainment will converge at an ever expanding rate generating new forms of audio and visual experiences.

Virtual reality and artificial intelligence are still very much in their infancy but iGlasses are already available for sale and chorus lines of singing/dancing robots are, well, in rehearsal already.

Sound and video cards are becoming increasingly sophisticated and the game world is already known for driving the chip world to new heights--or should I say--to smaller sizes packed with more processing power. The convergence of digital TV with greater computer monitors will yield entirely new viewing experiences and holographic projections just might eliminate the need for hardware screens altogether.

Music is already streamed at CD quality level and the downloading of DVD films are being held at the bandwidth gate with the race ready to start as soon as broadband connections become commonplace. MP3 was originally designed for video but was found to be an excellent compression format for audio as well. MP4 is in development as well as other file and compression formats but wireless technologies must open the bandwidth floodgates so wide there may be no need for smaller file size.

SEE Games for more online entertainment and uses for music. The History portal includes online museums as well and the Film portal is especially heavy in the use of new online entertainment technologies.

Webcams are not included...yet. Webcams are becoming prevalent on the Internet but are not yet considered new entertainment forms--at least not in the sense of using music and/or underscoring and packaged as a sellable item. But Webcams lead the way in the online streaming of many different kinds of live audio/video streaming. Live concerts and live club performances are becoming regularly featured items.

Special Mention: Macromedia
Macromedia Flash and Macromedia Shockwave are becoming the dominant forms of online entertainment. Shockwave is listed in both Games and Entertainment Online because it offers more entertainment than just games (many of these sites do the same, for that matter). Flash applications are found everywhere and it is becoming a rare site that does not include Flash or at least some form of Java implementation.

Blaxxun Interactive (See Cybertown)

CinemaPop

Clubcam.com

Cybertown (designed in association with Blaxxun Interactive and other partners)

Digital Club Network

Distant Corners

Disney's Digital Showcase

DotComix

Intertainer

INTV (Interactive Television)

Killfrog.com

Mamamedia

Microsoft Agent Theater

PulpPhantom

Solar System Simulator

Sydney Opera House

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Entertainment Technology

"Entertainment Technology" explores behind-the-scenes in areas like lighting, sound, stage construction and logistics. Audiences are seldom aware of the grief a guitar tech endures on a KISS or N'Sync or Madonna tour. In film, "grips" move dollies, camera techs load film, and pyrotech experts blow things up. Construction crews, truck drivers, painters, riggers, backlot, security and private plane pilots are equally less known.

Academy of Entertainment and Technology

BackstageJobs.com

Enlightenment

Entertainment Design

Entertainment Technology Associates

Entertainment Technology

ESTA

EtNow.com

Guitar Techs (Articles)

Guitar Tech (Discussions)

I.A.T.S.E.

InTheCredits

Life as a Stagehand

Lighting Dimensions

Playbill - Jobs

Wide Angle Closeup


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Film

From the days of the first phonograph and movie projector to MTV to streaming video online, music and film has always been...the perfect symbiosis. And long gone are the days where a piano player would play live during the showing of a film because filmmakers hadn't quite yet figured out how to sync a recorded track in terms of frames per second.

The first motion picture with sound was The Jazz Singer, circa 1927. However, from Edison's phonograph to the Lumiere Brothers cinematograph, historians will argue origination points.

Some of the world's greatest songs were and still are written by film composers. And few songwriters--regardless of genre--do not watch with anticipation to see who wins the "Best Song" category during the Academy Awards. In 1997 Celine Dion was catapulted into superstar status with James Horner's "My Heart Will Go On," from the film Titanic. In 2000, Best Song went to Phil Collins "You'll Be in My Heart" from the animated film, Tarzan (score written by Mark Mancina). In 2002, after 18 nominations, Randy Newman wins with "If I Didn't Have You" from the film, Monsters, Inc.

The online Short Film genre has yet to prove itself a viable revenue generator. Still in its infancy, short films are a seedbed for untold things to come. Digital video cameras are increasingly becoming common Christmas gifts and with affordable editing software and a Pentium IV computer, the new millennium's filmmakers are but a click away. Well, with film budget's reaching 130 million (Pearl Harbor), maybe it's not THAT easy.

Consumer access to audio/video streaming online has not kept pace with advancing technologies. Regular telephone modems are far too slow to handle the file size of full length DVD's, VRML tours and explosive Flash animations. This will change and the change will be dramatic.

We can't seem to figure out if we want to watch TV on our computers, download film rentals and then view on our TVs, send DVDs via wireless to our PDA's and laptops...it's very confusing. But once the hi-tech hurricane settles down, the film world will have a new landscape. Music has already plowed through the new channels of delivery and showed compression in the form of mp3 was one solution for online audio (ironically, the mp3 compression format was originally design for film/video by the Motion Picture Experts Group).

But the battle of smaller filesize versus bigger pipes is but a barroom brawl. Once wireless is as commonplace as current telephone and cable Internet connections, then data streams will flow as free as the air (is this overly optimistic or what?).

Rest assured, this convergence big bang of wireless, digital audio/video and portability will yield many new forms of entertainment. Movie theaters will be replaced by customizable holographic projections available through laptops. Our next filmstars could be digital avatars. All we need now are portable microwaves...for popcorn, of course!

Artistically, some songs are movies and some movies are songs. In either case, they tell a story. Of course, not all songs tell stories, but when they do, they can be as riveting as a full-length feature film. If not a story, then often times poignant character sketches, like "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," Springsteen's "Nebraska," Sade's "Smooth Operator," and of course, "Tommy" by the Who.

Hundreds of songs have been written about Jesus and other religous characters. Criminals, wimps, bullies, ghosts, coal miners, truck drivers, cartoon characters--all have starred in many a ballad. Almost all movies focus on a single character or pair of characters. Even sweeping epics like Braveheart and classics like Gone with the Wind or Lawrence of Arabia follow the motivations and conflicts of a single character or love duo.

Films can also be searched by genre (historic, adventure, sci-fi, comedy, romantic, etc.), by actor/actress, or function like f/x, soundtracks, box office, rentals and much more. Film sites are often times more than just online advertisements, offering background info on the making of the film, actor/actress bio's, stills, trailers and news articles. They are also works of art.

SEE: Technology - Production Music for movie sounds and soundtrack sources.

Academy of Motions Picture Arts and Sciences-Special Collections

Alfred Hitchcock

All Movie Guide

AMC Theaters

AMCTV

Anatomy of a Monster (PBS looks at the business of movies)

Animation World Magazine (Songs in Animated Features)

Apple Quicktime Movie Trailers

Artisan Entertainment

Atom Films

Avant-Garde Films

Baseline.Hollywood.com

BMW Films

Buena Vista Online Entertainment

Castnet

Cinema Sites

Cinemarquee

Cinematographer

Dark Horizons

Digital Hollywood

Digital Post Production

Directors Network

Docuweb (Documentary Films)

Ebert and Roeper (formally Siskell and Ebert)

Editors Net

Epics

European Center for Film Culture

Film Biz

FilmIndustry.com

Filmmaking.net

Hollywood 2.0 (Wired feature article)

Hollydex

Hollywood.com

Hollywood Creative Directory

Hollywood Network

Hollywood Studio Tour

iF Magazine

iFilm

imdb (Internet Movie Database)

In Hollywood

Indiewire

Industry Central

The Jazz Singer

Killer Movies

Kubrick (film guide for Stanley Kubrick)

LA Actors Online - Studio Lot Maps

The Link

Los Angeles Motion Pictures

Lucas Entertainment

Martin Scorsese Films

Max Film Pros

Media Central

Megahit Movies

MGM

Media Resources Center - University of California, Berkley

Miramax Cafe

Moviefone

MovieFreak

MovieLine

Moviepitch

Movie Centre

Music, Money, Success and the Movies (ASCAP article)

Mr. Showbiz

PBS (The Monster that ate Hollywood - PBS looks at the business of movies)

Parmount

Producers Source - Los Angeles

New Line Cinema

Res (The future of filmmaking)

Rotten Tomatoes

SciFi.com

SciFlicks.com

ShowBizJobs.com

Sony Pictures

Surfview Entertainment

Sydney Film Festival

Theater Services Guide

TheMovieGuys

Turner Classics

UCLA Film and Music Archive (University of California, Los Angeles)

United Artists Theaters

Universal Studios

Warner Brothers

World Film Festival

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Film Music and Composers

Many of the Film Composers listed here are giants and legends in the music and film industries (there are listings for indie composers). The sheer output of these music behemoths is utterly astounding. It's enough to write 70-100 songs yet alone 70-100 film scores (that translates into 70-100 hours of music)! For as talented and prolific as many of these composers are they often go unrecognized by the public at large. Many of these composers have written numerous hit songs and some of these songs are the most popular songs of all time (SEE Film Portal).

Film composers and pop/song writers seem to live in two entirely different worlds. But this is illusion as pop songs are seamlessly integrated within film scores and many scores are written entirely in the pop/rock vein. Music video directors are now gradually making their way into full length feature production. Some of the links between film composers and their pop/rock colleagues are well known, like Michael Kamen with Metallica or James Horner and Celine Dion.

The composers are alphabetized by first names. Not all sites are official sites.


Alan Silvestri

Bernard Herrmann Society

Bernard Herrmann

Cinematrax

Cinematrax Guide to Film and TV Music Terms

The Elfman Zone - Danny Elfman

Elmer Bernstein

Encore: The Ultimate Mark Snow Site

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Ennio Morricone

Equipment Emporium - Sountrack: A Basic Intro

Film Music Directory

Film Music Magazine

Film Music Society

Film Music World

Film Score Monthly

Filmtracks

Francis Lai

Google Directory - Film Composers

Hans Zimmer

Hollywood.com - Movie Tunes

Hollywood composers

Inde Film Composers

Intrada

James Horner

James Newton Howard (Keyboard Magazine)

James Newton Howard (IMC)

Jerry Goldsmith

John Williams (Unofficial site)

John Williams Web Pages

Media Ventures (Hans Zimmer)

Max Steiner

Michel Legrand

MovieMovie.com

Movie Sounds Page

Movie Sountrack Page

Music for your Film

Music Report

Musiccine

Scorebaby

SoundtrackNet

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Film Production

Castle Rock

Dimension

Dreamworks

Fine Line

Fox

Independent Feature Project

Lions Gate

Lucas Arts

MGM

Miramax

New Line Cinema

Paramount

Pixar

United International Pictures

Universal

Universal Studios Showcase

USA (October Films)

Warner

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Film Trade

The Film Trade portal reveals the regulatory power and scope of the film world. This is a small list of the major associations, organizations, guilds and unions currently engaged in promotion, contract negotiation, employment, archiving, award ceremonies and all other phases of industry management.

The Film Trade and the Music Trade are soulmates. In some respects they might even be Perfect Twins. When the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America get together to set technology standards and devise encryption securities for global distribution, the two industries become allies on the frontlines in the battle against piracy.

But the relationship between music and film is not always a Hollywood love affair or a tender love song. Royalty splits, usage fees and artistic decisions are not always fair. And the marriage of art and business has never been easy.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars)

AFTRA

aivf (The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers)

American Cinema Editors (A.C.E.)

American Film Institute

American Screenwriters Association

Association of Independent Commercial Producers

Castnet - Industry Links

Cinematographer

Directors Guild of America

Entertainment Industry Development Corp - LA Office

Film Music Society

Guild of Canadian Film Composers

Motion Picture Association of America

Motion Picture Editors Guild

Producers Guild of America

Screen Actors Guild (SAG)

SMPTE - Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

Society of Composers and Lyricists

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Jerry Flattum
is a songwriter (BMI), screenwriter, freelance writer, book writer and singer/keyboardist/arranger. Jerry has written Bridge On Fire: A Holistic Journey in Song Creation. Bridge On Fire is a comprehensive manual on songwriting from the technical, social, cultural and entertainment industry perspectives. The book will be published by Publish America in 2005 and available through major and other retail outlets. In 2002, Jerry wrote a full-length feature comedy, 7/11 Pair-O-Dice Road for Lear Entertainment (Las Vegas). Several screenplays are in-progress: The Acrobat; Watertown, South Dakota; Lars; Out of Context; Amazon Moon and others. He has written the story, music and lyrics for Time Travelers in the Celestial Age, a screen/stage musical loosely based on H.G. Well’s, The Time Machine. As a freelance writer, he has covered live shows for e-Vegas.net, the Las Vegas film scene for Callback, and written several articles for Musesmuse.com, Script Magazine and others. Jerry has worked as a singer/keyboardist in several bands throughout New York, the Twin Cities, and on the road. Prior business experience includes CBS, Harry Fox Agency, Samuel French Play Publishers and other indie ventures. He has a self-designed BS in Songwriting (graduating Phi Kappa Phi) and a Masters in Liberal Studies (U of MN). Jerry is a member of the Songwriters Guild of America, the Nashville Songwriters Association, and the International Songwriters Association. He is soon to become a member of the National Writers Union and plans are to join the Authors Guild and the Writers Guild of America. He is also launching JerryFlattum.com in October 2004, featuring original songs and other works. This site will interface with SongCatalog.com, an online service designed to connect songwriters with song buyers.
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