IT WAS IN DECEMBER 1960 that Back Stage was launched. While it primarily reported on the New York theater scene, it also covered film and video production. That part of the paper grew and grew over the years until it became a separate publication in ’90 called Back Stage/ SHOOT, and then SHOOT in ’94. SHOOT has always been a work in progress—we grow and change as the commercial production and postproduction business continues to evolve.
I don’t need to tell any of you that this is a time of real transition for the commercial production and postproduction business. During the last few years, our pages have been filled with news about these changes. We take our role as the industry’s weekly news source very seriously, and will continue to work hard to bring you the news and information you need.
Advertising most certainly will be different in the decade ahead as new media converges—or, perhaps more accurately, collides—with old. But as my seven-year-old daughter recently said to me during a conversation about computers and television: "Mommy, there will always be commercials. Otherwise, how will everyone know what there is to buy?" My three year old chimed in, "Duh." Now, two does not a sample make, but there you have it from two future consumers. Whatever form advertising takes, SHOOT will be there to lay out the artistic and business options. If it impacts your business, SHOOT will cover it.
Early this year, knowing that our 39th birthday was upon us, we began to take stock and plan what we wanted to accomplish as we entered our 40th year. Since our primary goal has always been to serve the needs of creative and production executives at advertising agencies, we decided to informally poll a cross-section of readers to make sure we were achieving our objective. We were gratified to hear that readers feel SHOOT is right on target and is also doing a great job in pointing out areas outside the world of commercials that influence their business. SHOOT will continue to report the latest news, trends and strategies, and showcase the best work, and the talented people and techniques behind it. We will add more roundtables, new specials, financial information and continued technology reports to the mix.
We then turned our attention toward the design of SHOOT and the development of its Web site. Starting with our next issue, on January 7th, we will have a new look. We’ve kept what we think is best about the newspaper, but have updated our logo, graphics and layout. And on January 6th, SHOOTonline.com will launch with a combination of highlights from the next day’s issue and new Web-only content. Now you can get a peek at some of the lead stories SHOOT is covering the day before the issue is out. This will especially appeal to those of you who used to love to pick up your copy at the local newsstand. Instead, just log onto SHOOT online.com.
The Web-only content will consist of news and spotlights not covered in SHOOT, plus new columns written by staff reporters. Look for Sandra Garcia’s "What Does It Mean" column and Justine Elias’ spot/feature crossover column. There’s also an area called "The Village Square," where industry insiders and outsiders will express opinions and share experiences. We look forward to your feedback and help in fine-tuning our new Web site. Our main goal is to increase our interaction with you!
I’ve talked to a lot of people about turning 39. (I’ve crossed that bridge myself.) We had a consensus: Turning 39 is great, because on one hand, you’re experienced, confident in your abilities, and mature (well, sometimes). On the other hand, you’re still young (or are we fooling ourselves?), love to learn and try new things, and can finally appreciate older and younger people’s opinions. While SHOOT is not a person, it helps in planning our future to draw on our past. SHOOT is experienced at covering your business, has wonderful long-term relationships with companies and values everyone’s opinion from the ad agency president, CCO, head of broadcast production, producer, first-time director, or won-a-hundred awards director, to the facility owner, editor, music producer, et al. We are going to plan a great industry celebration and special issue marking the rich past and challenging future of commercial production and postproduction when we turn 40 next year.
Whenever I write this column, I like to acknowledge the extremely talented and hardworking staff here at SHOOT. I’d like to thank them for their dedication and enthusiasm. It continues to be such a pleasure to work with them.
This is our last issue of the year. All of us at SHOOT would like to wish all of you and your families a happy and healthy New Year—one filled with creative inspiration, great clients, new jobs and more profit.
It’s great turning 39 on the brink of a new century, while covering an industry with such exciting challenges and opportunities ahead.
Tim Burton Discusses His Dread Of AI As An Exhibition of His Work Opens In London
The imagination of Tim Burton has produced ghosts and ghouls, Martians, monsters and misfits โ all on display at an exhibition that is opening in London just in time for Halloween.
But you know what really scares him? Artificial intelligence.
Burton said Wednesday that seeing a website that had used AI to blend his drawings with Disney characters "really disturbed me."
"It wasn't an intellectual thought โ it was just an internal, visceral feeling," Burton told reporters during a preview of "The World of Tim Burton" exhibition at London's Design Museum. "I looked at those things and I thought, 'Some of these are pretty good.' โฆ (But) it gave me a weird sort of scary feeling inside."
Burton said he thinks AI is unstoppable, because "once you can do it, people will do it." But he scoffed when asked if he'd use the technology in this work.
"To take over the world?" he laughed.
The exhibition reveals Burton to be an analogue artist, who started off as a child in the 1960s experimenting with paints and colored pencils in his suburban Californian home.
"I wasn't, early on, a very verbal person," Burton said. "Drawing was a way of expressing myself."
Decades later, after films including "Edward Scissorhands," "Batman," "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Beetlejuice," his ideas still begin with drawing. The exhibition includes 600 items from movie studio collections and Burton's personal archive, and traces those ideas as they advance from sketches through collaboration with set, production and costume designers on the way to the big screen.
London is the exhibition's final stop on a decade-long tour of 14 cities in 11 countries. It has been reconfigured and expanded with 90 new objects for its run in... Read More