Books in the Movies but Still No Answers

Books are the topic for this week's Monday movie meme and The Bumbles says it's not about movies made from books, so there goes my bid for “Eat, Pray, Love” but let's move on. Instead, this week topic is focused on blogging about movies that feature books, librarians or related subjects....you get the drift, right? So, I immediately thought about that scene in “Men of Honor” where Cuba Gooding Jr. gets a med student who works in a library to help him with his exams for the Navy. Then I thought... “hmmm, that's just one isolated scene, so this movie is not going to work” and then I recalled a comedy that is oh, so fitting for this week's “bookish” movie theme.....

A few week's ago, I published a post on here about actress Lauren Graham and her Julia Robert's complex and well, she starred in “The Answer Man” with Jeff Daniels (who, at first glance, I had confused with the guy from “7th Heaven” until I realized that Steven Collins is not listed as being in this movie....hey, what do I know? I only watched “The Answer Man” once some time ago)

The Answer Man is about a reclusive best-selling author who falls in love with his chiropractor but finds his reputation and love life in jeopardy as he must accept the reality of not having all the answers to the world's most pressing issues.

What are Your favorite (or not-so-favorite) “Bookish” movies?

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Why is Netflix Punishing Customers who want DVDs?

Netflix, a subscription based DVD rental service that has been popular for many years (and probably one of the the reasons why Blockbuster retail stores are having such a hard time making money these days) has recently made changes that appear to alienate the company's most loyal customers.

In an attempt to influence customers who rent DVDs from them to move away from physical discs and embrace the company's instant video streaming service to watch movies, Netflix has not only removed the option for customers to add DVDs to their queue using streaming devices but the company has also changed their rental plans to favor a "Watch Instantly" service more than their DVD rental service.

Customer who still want to rent DVDs from Netflix will have to pay nearly twice as much as they did before the company decided to make a move over to streaming movies. Netflix isn't even the least bit concerned about their customer's interests. Instead, they want their customers to either get on this instant streaming bandwagon, or end up paying a higher price (Under Netflix's current movie rental plan, 1 DVDs out at a time costs $9.99 per month and 2 DVDs are priced at $14.99 and then it goes up from there while the instant streaming plan only costs $7.99 per month) to rent DVDs.

The company's actions show that Netflix does not care about their customers needs. They appear to only be concerned with riding the tide and making business decisions that are in the company's best interests. Netflix can still operate as a modern company and still be popular in their market without trying to abandon DVDs altogether, so why don't they even take that into consideration?

Trying to force customers to adapt to an instant streaming service may help Netflix make the transformation that they desire but will definitely cause many of their current customers to either stop renting movies altogether or move to one of many Netflix competitors including Blockbuster, iTunes, Amazon and Redbox.

Current Netflix customers have expressed their reaction to the new changes by simply professing "If they cancel DVDs in the mail, I'm canceling my service..." and hey, if a lot of customers feel this way, then Netflix may not be getting a lot of business within the next two years.....or at least they won't be getting them from the average person who is not a tech geek or get their entertainment exclusively through new gadgets and streaming devices.

After FCC just approved the Comcast merger with NBC Universal, now movie fans have to put up with this?!! Netflix used to be a fun and convenient way to be able to rent movies that people may have missed in theaters but now, just like Comcast, it seems that Netflix is only concerned with being in a position to make as much money as they can, even if it means ignoring the needs and interests of their customers.

Why should Netflix expect customers to use their instant streaming service exclusively and abandon DVDs when a large portion of their movie titles aren't even available to stream instantly?

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A New Year with New Movie Developments

I finally figured out (or was rather, reminded) another reason why the script is so important when making a movie.....resources.

Yes, I know it's been a few months since my last post. I'll touch on that in a few but first, let's discuss good ol' filmmaking.

After trying to find the motivation and time to write the script for a short movie that I plan on making within the upcoming weeks, I finally got up in the middle of the night and completed a rough outline for it. What started as an idea to create my own personal 48 hour film challenge to help move myself into action and become more productive has resulted in an exciting story that will hopefully be done by the end of January.

While the script may not be hard to complete in enough time to actually start production once I start typing it up, I realized a bit of a challenge during the outlining process. No matter how simple I tried to make the story be (and I mean, it's really simple...you could probably count the entire cast of characters on one hand), I'm still lacking the resources necessary to complete the main scenes in this movie. These resources include tangible items such as a manly styled vehicle, diamond ring and most importantly.......a location! I wanted a free one but it looks like I may have to rent one by just paying someone to leave their home for a few hours.

If anyone has any suggestions on where I can get these items, preferably for free, by all means, leave a comment with these suggestions.

Also, I'm seeking three male actors and two female actors. I'll likely find them through a network of colleagues so maybe the casting thing can be resolved quicker than the props and location. Well, here's to an upcoming week of shooting on the fly!

Now that we've covered the short movie project, let's discuss my posting frequency (or lack thereof), the status of this blog as far as updates go and what's in store for 2011.

Real life has gotten in the way of my film and art aspirations and that includes this blog. Trying to work and pay bills has left me with not much energy to post anything. I requested some guest contributors during the fall of 2010 but there weren't tons of people lined up to keep the Madlab Post active on a weekly basis. With the new year of 2011 here, I'm taking a more proactive approach to getting some guest contributors to balance out my infrequent posting habits as well as posting many of the dozen or more drafts that I've had sitting around and just never finished.

As mentioned previously around the time of my Blog Action Day posts, if any of you have something that you want to know regarding independent films, or even mainstream films for that matter, just leave a comment of what that is and that'll surely get the posts coming on here.

Speaking of movies.....I so want to check out "Blue Valentine"!

I've been waiting since December 31st and then like January 4th and then it appeared that "Blue Valentine" wasn't going to be released in many theaters and then a really cool film festival buddy gave me the goods on it's release today in the Tri-State area, so it's pretty messed up that it took an extra few weeks to be released but it's finally out in more theaters so it's all good!

Technorati Tags: happy, new, year,, filmmaking, in, 2011,, filmmaking,, blue, valentine,, scriptwriting,, short, movies,, short, film,, short, film, script,, scripts,, independent, film, scripts