I went to see Bolt, the new Walt Disney film, this weekend (along with my target audience). I watched it in 3D with the help of a pair of Elvis Costello-like spectacles given out at the door.

Bolt is one of the new wave of 3D films now pouring out of Hollywood in an effort to give the technology another chance. The 3D films of the 1950s initially caused great enthusiasm and talk of a revolution but the excitement faded.

I should think the technology has a better chance this time. Instead of those funny red and green cardboard specs that used to give people headaches, the new digital 3D technology is subtler.

The glasses are Polaroid-like filters that look like light sunglasses (although when you hold them up to the light in reverse, both lenses turn green). Although the film itself looks blurred without glasses on, it is less so than before.

The big question is whether 3D adds much. As ever, it is initially a thrill to see objects in perspective and various things poking out of the screen towards one. But that thrill may wear off as 3D becomes routine for children’s films.

Although the Bolt 3D was fun, I was more intrigued by its use in two trailers - one for the film of the spooky children’s book Coraline and another for the forthcoming Pixar film, Up.

Coraline is very stylised, which allows the 3D effects to be used in inventive and playful ways, while the scenes in Up looking down from a house held aloft in the sky by thousands of balloons were admirably vertiginous.

Clearly, if it does work, 3D could provide Hollywood with protection against its audience staying at home to watch high-definition Blu-Ray discs on large flat-screen televisions (which are getting cheap).

My two-member jury was favourably impressed and is looking forward to Coraline, but we shall see.

I was reminded the other day that it currently costs £13 to enter Kew Gardens as a visitor. Since I grew up in Kew, I happen to be an expert on the history of the entrance fee to Kew Gardens and it is mind-bogglingly high compared with the past.

Forgive the middle-aged reminiscence but, when I was a child, it cost three pence (yes, a thrupenny bit)  to get into Kew Gardens. Upon decimalisation in February 1971, they put the price down to one new penny, or 2.4 old pence.

This was the high point in terms of Kew Gardens’ cheapness. As public subsidies were cut and the gardens were forced to become financially self-sufficient, the entrance price steadily rose over the years to its current level.

Applying the Bank of England’s calculator of retail price inflation, the pound in 1971 was worth about £10 in today’s money, which makes the 1971 entrance fee the equivalent of 10p.

Thus, according to my calculations, it is currently 130 times more expensive to get into Kew than it was when I was a child.

I do not mean to suggest that the current entrance fee is too high. Kew Gardens would clearly not be as well kept-up and have such a high global reputation if it still cost 10p to get in. The other day, for example, I found Kew-branded seeds on sale in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (a bargain $8 to enter).

Still, fings ain’t what they used t’be. I wonder if anyone can think of a product or service that has escalated in price to quite such a degree?

My FT column this week is on the London premiere of Sex and the City and what it, and the show, says about the future of film and television. You can read it here and comment below.

Further to the Eliot Spitzer scandal, I recommend to readers the comment left on my earlier post by Ava Xi’an. It starts as follows:

As a highly-paid escort in New York City, I have to say that I’m completely unsurprised by the events that have unfolded the past few days. I am curious, though, as to how it will affect my industry in the coming few months (the Empire Club was one of the top 5 “VIP” agencies in the tri-state area).

I’m sure a lot of women in this particular sex industry will be keeping very quiet on this issue, so I’d like to take it upon myself to offer at least a few words in our defense.

Miss Xi’an goes on to make some interesting points about the role and legality of escort services and prostitution. You can read her comments here.

Reading the federal complaint against the prostitution ring in which Eliot Spitzer, the New York state governor, apparently became caught up is an insight into how even this sort of business is just that - a business.

The Emperors Club VIP was clearly at the top end of prostitution enterprises. It operated across borders - in Paris and London as well as in US cities - and it was very expensive. Clients had to pay between $1,000 and $5,500 per hour for its services.

Like other service businesses, it had a loyalty club for the most elite clients who paid even more than $5,500 per hour, known as the Icon Club. It allowed some clients to “buy out” their favourite prostitutes, permitting the men direct access to the women without going through the Emperors Club.

The 47-page complaint shows the Emperors Club also faced many operating challenges. The federal wiretaps of conversations show the organisers facing problems such as having too few prostitutes for the demand from clients in one city and having to hassle clients to pay bills.

Continue reading "Making a global business of the oldest profession"

Of what does the above picture remind you?

No prizes for this one: it looks like a Scrabble board. It is, however, actually a screen print of Scrabulous, the online game popularised on Facebook and created by two brothers in Calcutta. Clearly this is no coincidence but Hasbro and Mattel, the owners of the game, make nothing from Scrabulous because it is not licensed from Scrabble.

As ever in cases of online piracy, which this plainly is, those who favour it claim that they are really doing the brand good because they are providing viral marketing to a younger audience that would not pay for the original.

This argument is one of those cited by Chris Anderson in his forthcoming book (previewed in Wired magazine) which proselytises in favour of companies giving away products - or at least relying on advertising rather than subscriptions.

Personally, I find the argument specious. It may well be that companies should find ways to spread their brands online, and there is a role for free online versions, but the idea that others are justified in co-opting their brands if they do not act rapidly is self-serving and lame.

It was noticeable, watching the Oscars, that there were a lot of foreigners ascending the stage of the Kodak Theatre to accept Academy Awards.

The show started with Alexandra Byrne, the British costume designer, being given a statuette for her work on the costumes for Elizabeth: The Golden Age and culminated in all four of the main actor and actress awards going to Europeans.

The high profile of foreign talent was as striking as the shift towards independent studios and away from big Hollywood studios in the 1990s, led by Miramax.

It strikes me as admirable that Hollywood has demonstrated once again its openness to foreign actors and off-screen talent at a time when there are fears in other US industries about foreign competition and the outsourcing of jobs.

Hollywood has become perhaps the most open industry in its employment patterns apart from Silicon Valley, which draws software engineers from around the world, and Wall Street, where many different nationalities work in investment banks.

Continue reading "The benefits of giving Oscars to Europeans"

I posted yesterday on Barack Obama’s use of the internet for campaigning and fund-raising. It would be remiss not also to mention John McCain’s website, which includes a fun blog from the campaign trail by his daughter Meghan and two of her friends.

Given that 71-year-old Mr McCain is getting stick from the talk show hosts at the moment for looking like a doddering old man, it is rather astute to get his daughter in on the act.

Especially notable is Ms McCain’s taste in music, which she has shared by posting a series of iTunes playlists. I must say that they are jolly good.