joshholtsclaw.com – An incredible blog post from Josh Holtsclaw, an Art Director at Pixar. I love coming across these. This post in particular documents a lot of the process, design thinking and iteration that goes into the art direction for the film Incredibles 2
Disney
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The Graphic Art of Incredibles 2 — Josh Holtsclaw
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New ‘Alien: Romulus’ teases the classic Alien facehugger
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I’ll let the poster artwork do all the talking here. I could not be more excited for this movie.
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The Original Star Wars Logo
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The original Star Wars logo from 1976, which was suddenly dropped before the official theatrical release.
Here’s what 20th Century Fox went with instead in 1977:
And here’s the Star Wars worm-like logo we know and love today:
h/t 1000logos.net
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Donald Glover and Billy Dee Williams will reprise role of Lando Calrissian in new Disney+ Star Wars Story
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That’s right! You heard right! You are not day-dreaming.
This has been a life-long dream come true for me. Lando is one of my favorite characters, and was given such little screen time in the original trilogy, and the Solo film. Well, I’m so happy to announce that Disney+ is bringing Lando his own Star Wars Story! Given the incredible success of The Mandalorian, and the technological marvel of The Volume, I’m surprised Disney isn’t announcing more Star Wars stories, given just how quickly they can spin up productions now.
But, following down the rabbit-hole To YouTube (as you do), the @KRTransmissions YouTube channel confirms the details here in an exclusive scoop! It’s a must watch.
I’m fucking ecstatic, can hardly believe it! Complex mag thinks Disney might take a stab at making the Star Wars story a series of episodic flashbacks to past and preset, young and and old, etc (LOST, anyone?). Could be cool.
I’m still just super excited we’ll get to see more of Donald Glover portraying a young Lando. Give it up for Billy Dee Williams coming back to reprise Lando is no small feat either. He’s been on quite the hiatus, and seeing him in The Rise of Skywalker was a real treat.
Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) in STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER. -
Will Netflix survive the streaming wars?
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The short answer: it’s unclear.
What is clear, is that the streaming wars are becoming increasingly expensive. Everyone is vying for the customer’s prime-time attention. Just to watch the latest new original series X on streaming service Y is a mind-bending calculation. Just between those two variables alone, and conservative estimates on new original content: roughly 10 services with original content, 5 new series per year at 10 episodes each, comes to about 250 episodes to stream. That’s roughly 250 hours worth of content to stream pear year. America’s greatest export is after all, entertainment.
That’s a lot to keep up with, and that doesn’t even include cable studio production releases that come from favorites such as FX or SYFY.
Professor Scott Galloway makes a great point that SVODs that have an economic flywheel (e.g. companies that attract customers via Prime or iPhone sales, and enjoy the benefits of staying within those ecosystems such as Prime Video or Apple TV+ respectively) are immune to economic downturns. A couple of obvious giants that fit that mould are Amazon and Apple:
Chart: No Mercy / No Malice, Professor Scott Galloway Following that rubric, Disney+ doesn’t enjoy the flywheel designations and Netflix is experiencing an especially painful truth — producing original content is very expensive:
I’m not even sure Netflix gets out alive. Netflix is now the US economy, vulnerable to a spike in interest rates as it takes on increasing amounts of debt to fund staggering investments in original content. The original gangster can’t rely on gross margin dollars from Mandalorian action figures, handsets, or paper towels (no flywheel). The key question is can Netflix’s first-mover advantage/skill be replicated in other markets.
If Netflix isn’t careful, when the next recession or economic downturn hits, (reminder: the American deficit is nearing $1 Trillion) it’s entirely possible that Netflix won’t survive.
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“Raspbaby Yoda” Raspberry Pie
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I hope you’ve been following The Mandalorian on Disney+. Wether you have (or have not) seen the show yet, matters not. All you need to know is, Baby Yoda, (or as he is officially known, The Child) is pretty much the cutest thing ever to grace the Star Wars universe.
What happens when you combine stellar baking artistry and a love for the cutest alien sidekick ever? You get a Raspbaby Yoda. Get it?
You can follow this incredible pie artist here on Instagram (via u/ThePieous on Reddit).
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HBO Max Finds Its Lobster
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Kinsey Grant for Morning Brew:
HBO Max, the streaming service AT&T’s WarnerMedia revealed yesterday, is paying a reported $425 million for the exclusive rights for Friends when the show’s deal with Netflix expires in 2020. At least Monica can finally afford that apartment on her own.
AT&T, though, can’t afford to watch other heavyweights like Disney and NBC invest in their own direct-to-consumer streaming services without planting its own flag. So it’s launching HBO Max next spring with 10,000 hours of content—both originals and classics.
This is so interesting. Like, really really interesting. The deal kicks off with Friends which will catalyze thousands (if not a few hundred thousands) of subscribers alone. The real crown jewel will be the original programming such as Pretty Little Liars (including other works in the HBO pipeline I’m sure), and featured content from other networks. The Verge reports:
The service will feature content from “Warner Bros., New Line, DC Entertainment, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, The CW, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, Looney Tunes, and more.”
Rooster Teeth? That’s new. I would have expected that from YouTube TV but HBO Max? Fascinating. It’s a pretty generous package to kick-off with. The direct-to-consumer streaming services well hasn’t dried up yet, but the options available aren’t the panacea we had hoped for. I suppose this is the future we wanted, and at least they’re competitive options. None of these services lock us in via expensive rented-hardware like cable-box providers. If anything, the programming is the lock-in. I think Netflix has learned that the hard way:
I wonder how many subscribers Netflix will lose post-Friends? Or better-yet, how will this affect their growth strategy?
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Snapchat Loses 3M Daily Active Users in 3 Months
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According to the Snap’s second quarter earnings report, the number of daily active users have dropped from 191 million in the first quarter of the year, to 188 million. That’s a drop of 2 percent, or 3 million users, since the last quarter, and marks the first time that user count has dropped in the company’s corporate history.
Yikes. Looks like my prediction for a Snapchat sale happening in 2019 is fast approaching after all.
So, what to do? Simple, sell. Only Snap is a terrible investment and a nightmare for investors, as the firm is controlled, via two-class stock, by a 28-year-old who is already a billionaire, so he is a terrible fiduciary for shareholders, as he will not sell to the highest bidder. There are only two relevant criteria for who will acquire Snap:
Galloway goes on saying “It can’t be Facebook,” and that much is for certain — and who would Evan Spiegel even work for after an acquisition? Galloway has his sights on Disney or Amazon, and honestly I don’t see Iger making a play for Snap. But it could happen. Disney could use a pick-me-up for their teenage audience.
Amazon is the more likely bet, simply because they have the capital and the current CFO is an Amazonian Alum. They could (and would) monetize the absolute shit out of the Snapchat app. It would, undoubtedly become the QVC of the appverse.
A sort of fitting end to a superficial ephemeral “social-network.”