Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2008 May 29

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May 29

Computers

(moved to Computing reference desk) — QuantumEleven 08:31, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

How to start a blog

How do you start a blog of your own?? Without having your own domain, and no cash to spend at all?? Aanusha Ghosh (talk) 08:35, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Use a free blog hosting service like Wordpress or Blogger. I prefer Wordpress. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:51, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Movie release dates

These days it seems that movies are released at pretty the same time worldwide, and I think this is forced by the increased risk of piracy if the movie is available in one national market but not in another, with the risk being far higher now due to internet distribution. However, in the past, it was very common for movies to be released in one national market (usually the US) quite a while before other markets.

My question is, why did there used to be this gap in release dates? I can't see any direct sales benefit in segmenting the market in this way, because it is already naturally segmented (few people would fly from the UK to the US to see a movie). I wonder if it was simply a prestige issue with an expectation that if the movie was made in the US, that it should be shown there first, whether there was a logistical issue with a delay in shipping the released reels to other countries, or whether there was some other reason. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Scorpion Question Man (talk) 22:38, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Basically in a lot of cases it was because the cost of making copies of the movie was fairly expensive so they didn't want to make more copies of a movie than was absolutely necessary .So they would make for example 100O copies of the movie ,let it play out in the US for whatever time they wanted and then ship most of those prints of the movie over to Europe etc .

The prestige issue for the most part still occurs but sometimes distributors in Europe will show it first when there is a problem with distrubtion in the US .A recent example of that is All the Boys love Mandy Lane .Garda40 (talk) 23:09, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

There's also the added issue of translation for markets which have a different language than the one in which a film is originally released. Translation takes time, especially if you want a good translation, so this can add lead time onto when a film can be shown outside its original market. ···日本穣^{? · Talk to Nihonjoe} 02:21, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Along with translation is editing. It is common for movies to be edited differently for different audiences. For example, a 3-hour movie in China normal. In the U.S., it is ridiculously long. Also, content may be edited. As much violence as possible is packed into movies for U.S. audiences, but many other countries have limits on the amount of the violence that may be shown. So, the crashing, explosions, gunfights, and whatnot are edited down. -- kainaw™ 13:06, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

And along with translation and editing is distribution rights (which I think is far more influential for release date delays than the former two). Each country has their own movie licensing companies or branches that need to achieve the rights to distribute and exhibit the movies. Even when a film company has an official branch in a certain country, it takes time for that branch to acquire the rights to exhibit the movie regionally due to local laws and company paperwork. Plus the local companies need to do the local logistics (advertising, shipping etc.) themselves before theaters get the chance to show a film. I guess the Internet age has made this process faster and less cumbersome to a certain extent (but down here in South America, for example, we still have to wait several months before being able to see a movie already in theaters in the US and elsewhere). Kreachure (talk) 15:32, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Another issue is that the first run is a test to see if wider distribution is warranted. If the movie tanks in the first market, they may not try to distribute it elsewhere. StuRat (talk) 13:29, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Requests

A, is there a section for requests? ie, I'd like a page for Ronald Jenkees. If there's not a section for requests, I request that there be one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.168.243.70 (talk) 22:49, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

There is, it's at Wikipedia:Requested articles. Dismas|^(talk) 01:43, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

WEIGHT LIFTING

Could someone tell me why three (3) Judges are used in weight lifting ? Also The winner of the heaviest weight category is considered by many to be the strongest person in the competition because he/she has lifted the heaviest weight, but others disagree. Why do you think they have this opinion ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kiddyanpykey (talk • contribs) 22:53, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

They have that opinion because that person is the strongest. They have lifted the heaviest weight. If it were a ratio based on body weight vs weight lifted then you would have your way. Dismas|^(talk) 01:45, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

There are lots of ways to measure strength, just as there are many ways to measure anything else. Is the guys who finishes first in the 100m the fastest person or the guy who finishes first in the 200m? It's not talked about much outside of track circles, but the champion 200m guy actually runs at a faster rate. For strength, there are really two contenders: the dead lift and the clean and jerk (but see also The Snatch. The dead lift is simply lifting something off the surface; in World's Strongest Man competitions, they like using bins of coins. The winners of that event are usually billed as having "lifted the most mass from the face of the earth", but not many people really think of them as being the strongest person because a dead lift of four inches just doesn't have the same visual appeal as a guy hoisting something over his head, as in a C&J. Matt Deres (talk) 20:08, 2 June 2008 (UTC)