Five things for Friday

[bironic]

1. synn is coming to visit for a week in December! \o/ \o/ \o/

2. Is this not the quintessential MIT gym class? Chemistry of the Body.

3. I'm excited for [casting spoiler] on SGA tonight. (I posted about it back here, to spare those who don't want to know and if you don't recall.)

4. In exchange for a few hours of light manual labor—i.e. finding nametags and putting out some folding chairs—I was able to get in to a session at Futures of Entertainment today without paying the unnecessarily high conference fee. (Was fed falafel and tofu and Greek salad, too.) The same deal holds for tomorrow, when there are Watchmen and franchising panels, even though I'm not sure yet if that's the best use of my time.

I heard pieces of panels as they were broadcast on TV to the overflow room where we were sitting, but the one I went in to the theater to see was "Making Audiences Matter." Interesting perspectives from the panelists. I'm too tired and short of time to do a thoughtful write-up, but here are some notes I took:

- Producers are still in a mindset that related content on all platforms (YouTube, Facebook, campus ads, etc.) should support and push up the TV ratings. "It's like saying the highway system was built so you could get to your train faster," said Slavin; they aren't taking advantage of the new media/method in and of itself.

- Not all people who download their shows for free are driven by the fact that it's free.

- De Kosnik's remark to Moses, showrunner of Ghost Whisperer, who's savvy enough to embrace an array of complementary programming: "You operate your TV show the way fans operate fandoms."

- De Kosnik thinks the inevitable "fair use" fanfic court case will be coming up in the next few years. And after that, when/if it's decided in fanfic's favor, the next step will be creating a licensing system wherein fans can produce and sell whatever they want after a certain copyright period, say 10 years. So you could have fan-written paperbacks instead of authorized paperbacks.

- Moses and team conduct weekly "buzz" analysis sessions where they gather and discuss what people said about the latest episode online.

- Everything is still dictated by advertisers, and advertisers haven't twigged to the enormous potential of new media yet.

At lunch I introduced myself to Henry Jenkins, who announced this week that he's leaving MIT at the end of the academic year for the University of Southern California. The future is uncertain for his CMS program; they've frozen graduate admissions, from what I hear. It was great to meet him finally and chat about fan production, although our conversation wasn't much of a conversation, since I didn't have anything in particular prepared to discuss and he always had a person or six waiting to grab his ear. He was very friendly, but kind of bland—though I wouldn't count that for much, considering the circumstances. He wore suspenders. (Not nearly as sexy as Thirteen's.)

Oh, roga, Nguyen said his favorite show right now is How I Met Your Mother. He brought it up for no particular reason except to declare that and to add that producers can't always give audiences what they want, because, for instance, people always ask who the mother is, and that would ruin the show. I have no idea if this is true, having never watched it, but you might know.

5. I'm sure I'll remember what #5 was in a minute.

Comments

[purridot.livejournal.com]

Happy Friday!

I know I am in the minority, but I will be sad if fanfic is made for-profit. Much as I love the fanfic that some writers produce, if I were the author of an original concept, it would make me very angry that my intellectual property could be taken out of my hands just because I came up with a great idea that everyone loved. It just seems greedy to profit off someone like that -- and expect to get the same remuneration as the creator.

*trips while climbing off soapbox*

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

This is why so many book authors are against fanfic in the first place.

I doubt this would happen anyway given the current copyright laws. It would require reducing length of copyright from its current (and stupid, IMHO) life + 70. I don't think creators would like that too much.

[bell]

he's leaving MIT at the end of the academic year for the University of Southern California

!!!!! Did he say why?

[bell]

Ah, found the post on this blog. It's straaange that just because one prof is leaving the whole program has to go on freeze. It does reflect how much he's had to run the program on his own.

[roga.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a really interesting panel! And hits close to home, for... all of us, it seems. It's cool that you finally met Jenkins! Hee, suspenders. Maybe next time you'll be able to have a longer conversation with him; it's always hard to catch people after lectures.

Go Nguyen! I like him already :-) It's true that they never say who the mother is - there've been a few small misdirections so far, but I don't think anyone really bought them. I don't think people are really asking who the mother is, really - on the one hand, we want to know because we're curious, but on the other, it's pretty obvious that we'll only know that when the show is nearing its end/over, and we don't really want it to end. I love the stories of Ted's friends and Ted's search - meeting the mother would bring that to an end.

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

- De Kosnik's remark to Moses, showrunner of Ghost Whisperer, who's savvy enough to embrace an array of complementary programming: "You operate your TV show the way fans operate fandoms."

What did he mean by that? I'm unfamiliar with Ghost Whisperer.

- De Kosnik thinks the inevitable "fair use" fanfic court case will be coming up in the next few years. And after that, when/if it's decided in fanfic's favor, the next step will be [...]

Er, haven't we already had these cases periodically (e.g. "The Wind Done Gone")? Why would the next one be different?

I'm more interested (as always ;P) in seeing where law regarding mash-ups (and vids and so forth) is headed. I can't help thinking that VCR's were a molehill compared to the advent of YouTube.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

De Kosnik thinks the inevitable "fair use" fanfic court case will be coming up in the next few years. And after that, when/if it's decided in fanfic's favor, the next step will be creating a licensing system wherein fans can produce and sell whatever they want after a certain copyright period, say 10 years. So you could have fan-written paperbacks instead of authorized paperbacks.

Huh. I agree that that court case is coming. But, I don't think De Kosnik's understanding of "fair use" is what he thinks it is. What he proposes would require a total rewrite of existing copyright law. I don't think the creators would like losing their current "life + 70" status for their works, even though I think that's exactly what's needed. More likely it would mean lifting the threat of potential legal challenges towards fanfic. Which would be fine with me.