“Movie chains cut newspaper timetables - Columbia Daily Tribune” plus 4 more

Movie chains cut newspaper timetables - Columbia Daily Tribune
When lights come up, he restores movie palaces - San Francisco Gate
Iraq War Movie Tipped For Oscar Success - Ananova
Movie about Kenmore to premiere at reunion - Akron Beacon Journal
GILLIAN ANDERSON SET FOR X-FILES RETURN - Contactmusic.com

Movie chains cut newspaper timetables - Columbia Daily Tribune

Posted: 23 Aug 2009 06:31 AM PDT

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Filmgoers who have long turned to the local newspaper to find theaters and show times for movies might have to start looking elsewhere as theater chains rethink the value of paper and ink in a digital age.

The top two U.S. chains, Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc., have begun in recent months to reduce or eliminate the small-type listings showing the start times for movies at individual theaters. Theaters typically must pay newspapers to print that information.

Looking to cut costs, the theater chains are instead directing consumers to their Internet sites or third-party sites, like Fandango, Moviefone or Flixster, which offer those listings for free and make money from the fees they charge for selling advance tickets to movies. Many of those sites also feature film reviews and movie trailers.

The effort might be gaining some traction, as U.S. Internet traffic to AMC's Web site rose 21 percent in July compared with a year ago, according to comScore Inc., and visits to Regal's Web site were up 18 percent.

The Newspaper Association of America doesn't track revenue that newspapers generate from print movie listings but believes the amount is relatively small. But every dollar counts as newspapers are forced to cut staff, reduce the frequency of print editions or even close completely amid the recession.

And readers have come to expect such listings. Seeing them curtailed or disappear could give them yet another reason to abandon their subscriptions.

"For a reader, some things that are ads are actually considered news," said Mort Goldstrom, the NAA's vice president of advertising. "Ads for concerts and things at clubs, for restaurants and movies — that's a reason people read."

He said the pullback in listings will hurt theaters by reducing their visibility among potential customers, sending those dollars to competitors that still buy listings or to other sources of entertainment like plays or clubs.

Readers formulating weekend plans "may look at something broader than Moviefone," he said. "That's the piece that newspaper Web sites have and niche" entertainment "publications have."

Kansas City-based AMC helped shine a spotlight on the trend last month when it pulled its listings from The Washington Post, prompting the newspaper's ombudsman, Andrew Alexander, to deflect readers' ire in his blog.

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When lights come up, he restores movie palaces - San Francisco Gate

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 01:58 AM PDT

Miraculously, both buildings are intact, having survived urban development, shifts in taste and enormous changes in the movie-exhibition business. David Boysel, an artist and curator, oversees most of the restoration work at the two theaters - painting Art Deco cornices, restoring murals, and re-gilding the quasi-Egyptian maidens that flank the Paramount's sumptuous, 50-foot-high grand lobby.

Boysel, 50, lives near Alamo Square with his partner of nine years, Mario Donoso.

I'm here at the Paramount approximately five days a month. However, this is August, and I'm here quite a bit right now. This is when we have practically no shows and I can do bigger, messier restoration projects.

My official title here - "resident artist" - is misleading. It makes it sound as if I paint scenery or something, when I really don't do any art work. Most of the time it's painting floors or painting baseboards, taking care of stuff like that. I've been under every seat in the auditorium to paint the floor. It isn't always pretty.

My job ranges from custodian to curator, from restorer to historian. Our fiscal year is June to June, so in May, I submit the budget for the upcoming year. Restoration projects, things that need to be fixed.

For instance, I've surveyed the whole building for upholstery fabrics. What is getting shabby, what needs to be recovered. Restoration is a process, not an event.

I don't mind the normal wear and tear of use, because that's what the building is for. It's to be enjoyed. It's the vandalism that bothers me. I'm very disturbed when people cut things or do things intentionally malicious. Luckily, it doesn't happen very often.

The Paramount isn't a museum. In a way, we kind of treat it museum-like, because we're so careful with it historically. But it's meant to be used, and there's nothing more wonderful than for me to come and see it full of people.

The Paramount operated as a movie house through September 1970 and had fallen into disrepair. In 1972 the Oakland Symphony purchased the building for $1 million and the next year did a major restoration - bringing the 3,000-seat Art Deco masterpiece back to glory.

One of the things that make the Paramount great is its unity of design. They never redecorated here on a grand scale, which saved it. The place never generated a lot of income so they didn't have enough money to monkey with it.

The Paramount is my favorite place, but the Castro I love also. The Castro is a hodgepodge: There is everything you can imagine, from California Mission to Chinese to Art Deco to Italian Renaissance.

Remember that the Castro was Timothy Pflueger's first theatre commission when he was very young. I think when he got to the Paramount (nine years later) he was hitting his stride: this was really the top of his game, his creativity in full bloom.

I do a variety of things. You can't just say "I'm a theater restorer" and make a living at it very easily. I'd be unemployed 90 percent of the time. There are two decorators I work for also, doing Venetian plaster and silver leaf ceilings and the like, sometimes very modern-looking.

My partner and I just finished cleaning and restoring the Sciocchetti frescoes in the old St. Joseph's Hospital chapel (on Buena Vista Hill), now part of Park Hill Condominiums. I have worked for the Schoenstein pipe organ company several times, decorating and gilding display pipes in churches across the country.

My job combines my interests in history, architecture and art.

Do you or someone you know have a work story to share? E-mail Edward Guthmann at datebookletters@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Iraq War Movie Tipped For Oscar Success - Ananova

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 02:55 AM PDT

A powerful new movie about the Iraq war is being tipped for Oscar glory - despite its tricky subject matter and lack of big name stars.

The Hurt Locker - which features only tiny cameos from Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce - has won rave reviews from critics, and is now an early contender for a prize for next year's Academy Awards.

The film follows a US bomb-disposal squad working to diffuse hidden roadside bombs.

It is directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and written by journalist Mark Boal, who spent time embedded with troops in Baghdad.

"It was an eye opening experience to see just how many bombs they would have to disarm on a given day" Boal told Sky News.

"It was really incredible, and hopefully some of that got transferred over into the movie."

With its shaky handheld camera, and little concession to any regular Hollywood plot, The Hurt Locker has been met with almost universal acclaim.

It was shot on location in Jordan, and rather than over-egg the ongoing, obvious political debate, it busies itself concentrating on the soldiers, who simply want to do the job, and do it well.

Bigelow, who previously directed Point Break, Strange Days, and K-19: The Widowmaker, says: "These are men who arguably have the most dangerous job in the world.

"They walk towards what we would all run away from, I think that's pretty interesting

"It's so inherently dramatic and I think our combined interest was to keep it reportorial, not to embellish it in any way. Just watching what they do on any given day was incredibly tense."

Films based on the War on Terror have mostly proved a tricky sell for audiences, who are already bombarded with images on their TV screens and newspapers.

But The Hurt Locker has performed respectably, if not spectacularly in the US, where it's on course to make $15m (9m) during its cinematic run.

Its writer thinks it's a film everyone can relate to.

"It's more or less ordinary people in a very challenging situation" says Boal.

"They're doing extraordinary things and I think that's part of what makes the movie universal.

"In the sense that it really is in some ways a story of heroism and the cost of heroism, and survival and the ways people try to survive difficult situations."

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Movie about Kenmore to premiere at reunion - Akron Beacon Journal

Posted: 23 Aug 2009 10:52 PM PDT

History never sleeps.

Here are some interesting updates from the world of This Place, This Time:

Kenmore on film

Lights! Camera! Cardinals! A documentary about Kenmore will premiere next month at a multiclass reunion for Kenmore High School.

The Class of 1945 has invited ''the classes of the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and beyond'' to a reunion from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 12 at Kenmore Community Center, 880 Kenmore Blvd.

Kenneth Dague, 78, produced the 24-minute movie, which dates back to Kenmore's founding in 1908. The city merged with Akron in 1928.

The film will be shown at 11:30 a.m. The Kenmore Historical Society will have a display of memorabilia.

A buffet luncheon catered by the Waterloo Restaurant will follow the film. Cost is $16 per person. For lunch reservations, call reunion secretary Sam Salem at 330-864-3745.

All Kenmore alumni are welcome, Salem said.

Brown Street revisited

Pat Marks of Akron raised a good question about our Aug. 10 story on Lucinda ''Aunty'' Brown (1822-1917), who operated a residence hall for Buchtel College students for nearly 40 years:

Is that how Brown Street got its name?

That is a fair assumption because the street ends at the University of Akron, Buchtel's successor, near where Brown's home stood at 268 Carroll St.

However, Aunty Brown didn't arrive in town until 1878, and the street already had its name in the 1874 local atlas.

Our guess was that the street was named for abolitionist John Brown, who died in 1859.

That wasn't right either.

According to Beacon Journal files, the street honors early settler Charles W. Brown (1796-1888), who lived on a 113-acre farm near present-day East Market Street and Buchtel Avenue.

The college was built on his former property.

Who was Margaret?

Beacon Journal reader Ed Hutchinson, who attended Margaret Park Elementary in the 1950s, wondered about the school's name following our recent stories on the old swimming beach at Summit Lake.

''Margaret Park? Must have been a lady's name, but what did she do?'' he asked.

Margaret Park was named for Margaret Chapman Barnhart (1874-1913), who spearheaded a campaign to establish playgrounds in Akron.

She also was active in the YWCA, Summit County Children's Home and Summit County Juvenile Court.

Some former pupils might remember seeing her portrait, which used to hang at Margaret Park Elementary.

Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.

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GILLIAN ANDERSON SET FOR X-FILES RETURN - Contactmusic.com

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 02:48 AM PDT

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Gillian Anderson has quashed speculation she will never play Agent Dana Scully again, revealing she is set to reprise the role for a third 'X-Files' movie. Gillian Anderson has confirmed she will appear in a third 'X-Files' movie. The actress - who ...