Interesting reading items this week…

From CinemaTech… Google’s CEO: Old and New Media Have Different Views on Content’s Value
Google’s decided to not worry about that whole “Do no evil” motto. Significantly they seem to have adopted a cold corporatist ideal about the value of media content. Namely, it’s only valuable if lots of people go to see it. So popularity = value. I dunno, but when it comes to art & media that seems like the crassest of all possible evaluations. No room for the important works that speak truth to the human condition. Not unless it can get millions of views and Google can monetize it with AdSense. Pretty pathetic if you ask me.

John K Talks Up the Sponsored Ad Approach
He makes a very valid point. People today skip ads like the plague. The common sense solution is to make the ads entertaining and fun to watch. Right now we only have one media event where this is a stated goal and people wait in anticipation to see how they’ll be entertained next with the ads- the Super Bowl. The problem is the ads are only fresh for a little while until they are run into the ground 6 months later. An episodic entertainment concept with an advertising undercurrent seems to me it might work. Not sure the current Raketu stuff K’s been doing is the answer (it’s OK for what it is, I guess. John K’s stuff always leaves me cold and the actual execution on this feels really rough and cheap), but I think the concept holds water.

J.J. Sedelmaier waxes eloquent about the wonderful variety and texture of animation.
His fullisades against the motion and design hegemony of the current CG craze echoes some of my own thoughts exactly. His final stance is fairly optimistic. The best thing to happen to animation diversity is to be squeezed by a giant 880lb style gorilla. I’d have to agree. The crushing dullness and boredom of the current CG style of animation has pushed me to try and find something else to charge my creative batteries- to find a different variety and style that has more of that human touch to it.

O-Meon tells a crazy tale about the world of Disney’s TuneStudio’s Tinkerbell film.
I’m so far waiting to turn in my score card on my take on Lasseter’s running of Disney’s creative efforts but on this issue it seems like he’s on the right track.