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Apple Finally Signs A Big Deal With a Hollywood Movie Studio (washingtonpost.com)

"And the winner of the 2021 Academy Award for best picture is .â.â. Apple?" jokes the Washington Post, noting that Apple has just signed a new multi-year movie deal with film production company A24, "and while that seems like a comparatively minor announcement, it could change the game in some significant ways." It's sneakily consequential. A24, if you're not familiar, is the boutique New York outfit that has been responsible for a slew of hipster-approved, Academy Award-recognized films including "Lady Bird," "Moonlight" and "Room." Since its founding six years ago by a trio that includes the former partner of late Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, it has located commercial success and downtown cool. Its movies are handmade hipster-fests that also often manage to please audiences: In addition to its big three, they include "Hereditary," "Eighth Grade," "A Ghost Story" and "Ex Machina". Welcome to the party, Tim Cook....

For Apple, cachet is everything. And it needs that now. A company that has prided itself on cool has reason to be worried about sustaining that on the entertainment side, with Netflix swiping its video lunch and Spotify some of its music swagger.

That with major competitors like Amazon already producing its own films, Apple, "had to do something..." They add the Apple's announcement "contained about as many details as the iPhone 7 has headphone jacks."

But "Even without those specifics, the significance was clear. Apple is installing itself as a producer of some of the most-acclaimed films around, all without needing to take a single meeting or read one script off the slush pile first...."

62 comments

  1. Expensive But Shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Thats what their movies will be

    1. Re: Expensive But Shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I dont see apple being creative enough to produce movies. It will be boring since it cannot offend, push boundaries or stir emotions.

    2. Re: Expensive But Shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gotta love the /. community for modding down a true and obvious comment.

  2. Finally? by rally2xs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I mean, with damned near every computer in every movie I've seen over the last 10 - 15 years having an apple logo on it, you mean that "just happened" and wasn't the result of some big product placement contract?

    1. Re: Finally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most of the computer movies go straight to DVD. Very fast and economic model for companies that can produce content quickly and have distribution in target markets

    2. Re:Finally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's little on /. that's more embarrassing than people who lick apple's balls like you're doing here.
      Except poperatzo posts.

    3. Re:Finally? by Solandri · · Score: 5, Informative

      Macs are used heavily in the video and audio production industries. Apple started off catering to artists*, so they work to make sure OS X fully supports color profiles (the Macbook Pro screens are even color-calibrated at the factory). Unlike Windows which still has a color profile bug dating back to Vista (a UAC elevation popup which dims your desktop will dump the current color profile). And OS X is based on Unix so doesn't suffer as many audio dropouts as Windows used to, making it the preferred platform for sound sampling. So Macs tend to be overrepresented in what these people produce - movies, videos, DJing. When a scene calls for a laptop, these people will usually just grab whatever is most easily available, which is usually a Macbook.

      Apple also offers its products for free for use in movies. They take em back after, but it helps if your production's prop budget is limited.

      If you walk into any other business, 99% of their computers run Windows. That said, OS X has managed to claw above 10% market share in recent years.

      * This is also why Macs got high-PPI "retina" screens first. Page layout artists also predominantly use Macs. Subpixel rendering, which basically triples the horizontal resolution without requiring new hardware, was introduced with Windows XP (ClearType). So Windows didn't need high-PPI to produce high-quality fonts. But subpixel rendering requires you to align the fonts to the subpixel grid. That's unacceptable for page layout work, where having the font appear where it'll actually appear when printed is more important than how sharp it looks on the screen. Consequently, OS X didn't use subpixel rendering (If you plugged a 1024x768 or 1280x800 monitor into a Windows PC, then a Mac, the Windows PC was noticeably sharper). OS X fonts are blurrier, but they're placed more accurately for page layout artists. The only recourse Apple had was to sharpen fonts was to switch to high-PPI displays.

    4. Re:Finally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In season 5 of Dexter, notice how that motivational speaker/serial rapist guy has like every major apple accessory that existed at the time all in one place. Now tell me that wasn't paid for by Apple.

      Though on second thought, that guy did remind me of Steve Jobs. Maybe psychopaths are attracted to macs, and the show was illustrating that point? I honestly don't know what other type of person would be more dedicated to a single brand, especially one so loved by people who condescend others that don't care for it.

    5. Re:Finally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple also offers its products for free for use in movies.

      Actually they charge extra - even to use a machine you own.

      It's why you sometimes see spoofs - with a banana or a pear logo basicaly giving Apple the finger.

    6. Re:Finally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [...] Consequently, OS X didn't use subpixel rendering (If you plugged a 1024x768 or 1280x800 monitor into a Windows PC, then a Mac, the Windows PC was noticeably sharper). OS X fonts are blurrier, but they're placed more accurately for page layout artists. [...]

      Mac user since early 2000s here. You are very, very, very wrong about that. OS X has had subpixel rendering on fonts for at least 15 years now.

    7. Re: Finally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LoL. Macs are for people that dont know enough to know better. Hence artists and hipsters are their target market.

      Anyone who believes that Macs are the best for video or audio editing, are just regurgitating apples marketing garbage

    8. Re:Finally? by 605dave · · Score: 1

      OK I will tell you that wasn't paid for by Apple. Fun fact, paid product placement in a TV show is considered an ad and not allowed by the FCC. Paid placement in movies is quite common (looking at you Michael Bay). I don't know for sure that Apple doesn't pay for movie placement, but I remember a few years back reading about how they didn't have to because people used their products in films anyway.

      --
      Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle. - Plato
    9. Re:Finally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Were.

      Past tense.

      Colorsync is a mangled mess of outdated APIs that no longer work properly. If you're on a Mac and you're not using a built-in monitor (read: Retina display), you're basically fucked on anything past 10.8. It doesn't help that random parts of the OS love to fuck around with your blacks and crush shadows as well, or that it's nearly impossible to get a good ICC profile from a calibrator tool because some part of Colorsync doesn't like the profile you just generated, causing random bits of the OS to flake out at really weird times.

      Core MIDI has been broken for years as well. Core Audio has serious issues with any "low power" Apple device, that is to say- anything mobile. The constant throttling of the host CPU will do some really strange things to your audio applications, causing anything from buffer overflows to timing issues with any incoming data or samples.

      OS X did have sub-pixel font rendering, and it was a pretty decent implementation too. They got rid of that recently in 10.14 though and replaced it with a super shitty greyscale implementation instead, which barely works on non-Retina monitors and often results in blurry ass text (because everyone's got a Retina, right?).

      Meanwhile, the OS X sandboxing tech is getting more intrusive than ever, and things like SIP are making it difficult to install and use older programs that expect things to go into /System or /usr. CUDA no longer works on 10.14 (neither do most NVIDIA GPUs), and the T2 security chip makes it impossible to both repair a broken Mac or recover data off the system in the event the logic board commits suicide.

      I don't know of anyone in the audio or video industries who is still sticking with Mac. I have witnessed multi-million dollar companies literally dump all their Apple gear overnight and find a better solution. The creatives are flocking away from OS X in a mass exodus, and given the direction Apple insists on heading towards locked down walled gardens, I doubt that's going to stop any time soon.

      The only reason you keep seeing stuff pop up in shows is because Apple is paying for it, plain and simple. They want you to see your favorite TV character using a Mac so you think you can be just like them if you too own the same system. This is just another way they actively engage in psychological manipulation of the masses- over seas they're working very hard to ensure that their image is associated with "richness", so people run out and buy their products even though they're totally poor. There is literally nothing else to it, because OS X has rotted from the inside out as far as most professionals are concerned.

    10. Re:Finally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well written and very informative!

  3. Acclaimed is not equal to good for movies by bobstreo · · Score: 1

    Just because the critics love a movie, doesn't mean anyone want's to see it.

    For the most part Academy Award winning films are something I avoid.

    If I want hard-hitting depressing reality, I'll go hang out at the bus terminal.

    1. Re:Acclaimed is not equal to good for movies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Award winning films aren't so terrible, but they do get all the buzz. By the time you pass the oscar season and the summer blockbuster season, all the artsy people want to find the hidden gems that wait to be released. It's not like they charge you a different price unless you go to classic movie at some ludicrous hour of the day. New releases every week have to fill the theatres somehow.

  4. Cant wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    for bland, boring apple productions. Just like their other products.

    1. Re:Cant wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But the font on the credits will be very stylish.

    2. Re: Cant wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go to your prison

    3. Re:Cant wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A monotone actor (T. Cruise) gets first bill on every new movie.

    4. Re:Cant wait by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

      But you won't be able to read them, because it'll mangle the punctuation & accented characters.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    5. Re: Cant wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Helvetica is not stylish, it is retarded, for retards to spot a mile away.

  5. "Finally" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Firs two thoughts:

    a) That "finally" in the title...is that supposed to infer somebody was *waiting* for this? I can't imagine who.

    b) Product placement's about to get even worse.

  6. Darn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Darn,

    I was hoping they would get out of the computer business; not go into something else. The Apple of today makes expensive garbage. Now they are going to make silver screen garbage too?

    1. Re: Darn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As long as they have quotable movies that speak to you they may get subscribers

    2. Re: Darn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you're saying they won't have any subscribers? Making something quotable implies they have any substance. They are an aesthetics company. They can make pretty, not substance.

  7. Wtf slashdot by technosaurus · · Score: 1

    All links try to go to the following site with a bunch of personal info encoded: america.geignskkdkege.top/...

  8. hipster movies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hahaha

    1. Re:hipster movies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what I thought as well. I did see Ex Machina, but how is this hispterism showing in that movie? Is there an accepted cultural definition of hipsterist movement somewhere that I could read and then learn to recognize the cultural artifacts in everyday life, in art, or in the life of the Apple users whom I have never knowingly met? Look at me, I'm getting annoyed by hipsters without even knowing what a hipster is.

  9. If they're located in New York... by Nova+Express · · Score: 2

    ...then, ipso facto, they're not a "Hollywood studio," are they?

    --
    Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

    1. Re: If they're located in New York... by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 0

      Apple's cultural stench is so strong they had to go to the other side of the continent to find a film studio that would have anything to do with them.

      Here comes a thick stuffy layer of corporate smug. So much for the creatives...

    2. Re:If they're located in New York... by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      Apple is installing itself as a producer of some of the most-acclaimed films around, all without needing to take a single meeting or read one script off the slush pile first....

      Then they're not a Producer.

      It's sneakily consequential. A24, if you're not familiar, is the boutique New York outfit that has been responsible for a slew of hipster-approved, Academy Award-recognized films including...

      This is just PR drivel. And no, it's not consequential.

      Call me when Apple secures another 6 months of streaming exclusivity for "Game of Thrones".

      Now, that will be consequential.

    3. Re:If they're located in New York... by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

      Then they're not a Producer.

      In The Industry, a producer oversees the production of a film, often including finding projects. An Executive Producer is only involved in top level management and usually provides at least part of the funding. That's why you sometimes see films with several Executive Producers listed; everybody who chipped in to get the project filmed expects screen credit. I predict that Apple plans to be an Executive Producer, funding projects that they like, or fit into their current agenda, but not getting involved with day-to-day operations. Of course, they'll also expect a hefty share of the profits.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
  10. They will be ... by PPH · · Score: 2

    ... the best since Bialystock and Bloom.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:They will be ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Springtime for Hitler...ohh now it's been Godwin'ed.

  11. Creative freedom? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I hope A24 maintains creative control. I recall reading that Apple wanted "family-friendly" television shows on their new streaming service.

    1. Re: Creative freedom? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought you sorts always spelled it freed umbrella. Or is this somehow different?

    2. Re: Creative freedom? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Free-dumb.

      (autocorrect is really fun king annoying)

      ((FUNDING, goddammit))

      gnaaaaa! F U C K I N G

  12. How is Amazon a competitor? How is this new? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Amazon is only a competitor in terms of video because Apple has decided to enter the video space. They otherwise were not much of a competitor at all (except via Alexa).

    But really calling this any kind of new or turning point seems nuts, with both Netflix and Amazon producing high quality movies now with major starts regularly.

    Apple does not need "cachet" to succeed in video, they need CONTENT PEOPLE WANT TO WATCH. That is it. It is the secret to Netflix's success, and the reason why Amazon has had a harder time enticing video customers.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  13. For their first movie, they picked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    An epic of stunning proportions, a breathtaking blockbusting romantic film about a woman's fight to save everything she loves against the background of a world gone mad a scorpion Adventure and the white-hot dawn of a new continent Thrills Adventure elephants in a world gone mad

    1. Re:For their first movie, they picked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a California company. The protagonist must be at least a black transexual at a minimum to get those diversity boxes checked off.

  14. Apple only distribution? I won't see it. by DogDude · · Score: 1

    If they distribute their movies via Apple gadgets only, I won't have any way of seeing them. I certainly wouldn't buy some Apple gadgets and give them my identity just to watch a movie, no matter how good it is. Same with Amazon. No matter what they put out, I'm not watching. Their loss.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  15. Apple needs to be cool by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    it's a major part of why folks pay so much for their hardware. You can't just buy product placement. That doesn't work unless you're selling a commodity (e.g. like how the cigarette makers put smokes in movies but generally didn't focus on a specific brands).

    Not sure if this'll work for them. It's hard to manufacture cool and when it fails it fails spectacularly. But that's what they're doing if anyone's wondering.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Apple needs to be cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [...] It's hard to manufacture cool and when it fails it fails spectacularly. But that's what they're doing if anyone's wondering.

      No. They're cooperating in fishing expeditions for imaginary stalkers.

  16. About time! by thegarbz · · Score: 1, Insightful

    That with major competitors like Amazon already producing its own films, Apple, "had to do something..."

    No they really fucking didn't. This stupid me-tooism in tech is a cancer. I wish companies would stop adopting every shitty idea from their competitors and remember what they hell they are doing in the first place. I mean these guys are run by MBAs right? Did they fail their course?

  17. .Ã.Ã. Apple?" by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    .Ã.Ã. Apple?" jokes the Washington Post, noting that Apple uses fancy soy-boy quotes, and Slashdot hasn't worked out how to either handle them or transform them to something it can handle, EBCDIC probably.

    FTFY.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  18. And the award for worst Unicode support goes to... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Informative

    .â.â.

    How many years is it now?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  19. Re:How is Amazon a competitor? How is this new? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Apple does not need "cachet" to succeed in video

    People will buy any old shit with an Apple logo on it, so they'll probably watch any old shit too.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  20. Re:How is Amazon a competitor? How is this new? by Powercntrl · · Score: 1

    they need CONTENT PEOPLE WANT TO WATCH.

    exclusive content.

    That's what this is really about. Netflix, Amazon, CBS All Access, and now Apple - they're the new premium "cable" networks. Except now, you've got competing incompatible hardware platforms and separate bills for streaming all this shit. It might almost make you miss the days when you had a single cable bill and could watch everything you paid for from a single cable box.

    --

    ---
    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  21. Vastly better by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    I should have spelled it out but I figured it was implied this was all exclusive stuff since Apple was inking the deal...

    It might almost make you miss the days when you had a single cable bill and could watch everything you paid for from a single cable box.

    Not even close to missing that - because I can watch all of this from a single box (AppleTV can play HBO, Amazon Video, Netflix and Apple content) and I can easily break away from stations I do not need for a while. I subscribe to HBO maybe half a year for example, and then drop it for a while...

    Even with a few separate streaming bills the cost is way lower than cable, and way easier to manage what and when I subscribe. What we have going on now I feel like is a fantastic situation where you can get almost any service for a month at $10 and watch a ton of great content.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Vastly better by Powercntrl · · Score: 1

      Not even close to missing that - because I can watch all of this from a single box (AppleTV

      AppleTV can't directly buy/rent content from Vudu or Amazon. It might be the ideal solution for your use, but there still is no one-size-fits-all streaming box. And yeah, you're probably saving money but someone who wants sports channels, and Netflix & Amazon's exclusive content, and HBO, and CBS All Access, and Hulu without the commercials, etc... is probably spending more now than in the glory days of cable/DirecTV/Dish - and has more than one "box".

      --

      ---
      DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
    2. Re:Vastly better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No problem. apple zealots have been trained for years by apple to think that paying more is good.

  22. Still Vastly Better by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    AppleTV can't directly buy/rent content from Vudu or Amazon.

    So you have to go to Vudo or Amazon on a phone (which you'd have with you anyway), who cares? I had to activate CBS on Amazon once to watch a show, it took a minute.

    The important thing is that I can SEE the content via the AppleTV.

    And yeah, you're probably saving money but someone who wants sports channels,

    At this point any sport you would care to watch is also on AppleTV via apps, often with a fuller range of games you can watch than you could with cable.

    An actual baseball fan would be nuts not to prefer getting MLBTv and watching that way.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  23. Re:How is Amazon a competitor? How is this new? by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

    Gadgets with an Apple logo on them are very different from content that happens to have an Apple logo that streams by in the credits.

  24. Re:And the award for worst Unicode support goes to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .â.â.

    How many years is it now?

    I find it interesting that despite the Unicode meme being true, the latest purchase a handful of years ago is the point of no return. I don't recall headlines being this broken before, and comments that might have Unicode flaws NEVER did the glaring single quote butchering of "it's" "I'll" or "don't".

    Slashdot culture keeps blaming it on iPhones, but the mac users have had curly quotes and autoreplacements since before the first iPhone IIRC, so it can't just be that a recent iPhone suddenly messed things up for all of us posters. I can think of browser extensions for automatic text replacements on flexibility-minded desktop OSs, but we're on our own on the mobile world.

    With everyday sentences going nuts 6 or 7 times for very colloquial phrases in some comments, text-to-speech is a completely botched use case. We can sort of ignore things visually after a while, but such a sentence ends up requiring replays even if you know why it's failing. It's impossible to tell Android or Siri to override our commonly-botched "DonA(tm)t" string with our own pronunciation.

  25. Dead Steve Jobs weighs in by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    Dead Steve Jobs to Tim Cook: "Do something!"

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  26. Great by temisbliz · · Score: 1

    wow, this is so cool. I can't wait.