Vinyl presser meets growing demand

Vinyl LP sales were up 14% this past year, and also the format has proven a 41% increase in 2011.The renascent vinyl LP is cresting right now, and true believer Chad Kassem is very easily surfing increasing tide.Vinyl, a business-mandated whitened elephant within the compact disk era, has become bouncing back as Compact disc sales plummet. LP sales were up 14% this year, and also the format increased an astounding 41% throughout the very first six several weeks of 2011, based on Nielsen SoundScan data.While last year's sales of two.8 million LPs weren't immense, rapid growth has taxed meager existing manufacturing facilities. With major U.S. pressing plants shuttered because the 1990's, less than 20 American companies presently press LPs.Captured Kassem filled the void by opening their own plant, Quality Record Pressings, in Salina, Kan."I have been swimming from the grain because the day the Compact disc is made,Inch the malapropism-prone Kassem states. "I reliable my ears, guy. It's all regulated with different passion for vinyl that began like a hobby."The Louisiana-born Kassem started selling and buying and selling LPs from his two-bed room Salina apartment in 1986. Within the last two-and-a-half decades, he's built a little vinyl-based empire of their own.He founded Acoustic Sounds, a catalog shopping and Web store of audiophile LPs and high-finish audio equipment a vinyl reissue label, Analogue Production a subsidiary label, Analogue Production Originals, which marketplaces Kassem's own blues tracks an LP learning facility (since offered) and Blue Paradise Galleries, a recording facility and gratifaction space constructed from the floor up within an old chapel.Pressing didn't have in the mix. "Lots of our clients stated, 'C'mon, dude, start your personal press, guy,'" Kassem states. "I understood it had been a great deal to bite off. But each time someone pointed out it, I'd have that much closer."Push found shove when growing vinyl sales along with a surge in LP production through the major labels forced Kassem's labels towards the rear from the queue at Record Technology Corporation. (RTI), the Camarillo, Calif.-based pressing plant that handled the majority of his business."When Warner Bros. and all sorts of these large dogs began calling, i was started towards the curb, kinda," Kassem states. "This is not on purpose, however they were serving individuals men -- these were carrying out a lot bigger amounts than us. Out of the blue it's taking me and everyone else 6 to 8 days to obtain our records. That got me thinking."Kassem started purchasing up presses 2 yrs ago. "I did not have immediate plans," he states. "There is a contact on offer relating to this guy in England selling some (presses). And So I approached him and that i bought Them. I sitting on Them for any year I purchased (Hollywood-based audiophile vinyl label) Classic Records, and that i bought their presses. Now I have got each one of these presses."In spring, Quality Record Pressings finally opened up its 21,000-square-feet plant, a part of a 3-building, 70,000-square-feet facility which houses offices and record warehouses. QRP's first job was Analogue Production's 180-gram vinyl reissue of Cat Stevens' 1971 album "Tea for that Tillerman" QRP-pressed Analogue albums by Muddy Waters, Freddy King and Ben Webster follows this season.Other labels came calling: Kassem notes, "We are already pressing Jimi Hendrix's 'In the West' for The new sony along with a Randy Travis album for Warner Bros. and 100 Blue Note albums for EMI Japan."He needs to possess 10 presses operating at full blast eight to 10 hrs each day by year's finish, making 1,000-2,000 LPs each day.Nevertheless, he states the endeavor wasn't spurred by economic chance but instead with a simple belief within the format he's always admired."It is not like I had been doing that because I am searching to create lots of money in pressing other peoples' records, because this revival of vinyl. That isn't how I am searching in internet marketing. I would like probably the most badass records in the world for my very own label." Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Saudade (Saudaji)

A Kozuko Co. production. (Worldwide sales: Kozuko, Tokyo, japan.) Created by Kotaro Date, Satomi Tomita. Executive producer, Takayuki Sasamoto. Directed by Katsuya Tomita. Script, Toranosuke Aizawa, Tomita.With: Tsuyoshi Takano, Hitoshi Ito, Takeshi Amano, Dengaryu, Deejai Paweena, Ai Ozaki, Chie Kudo, Dennis Oliveira p Hamatsu, Ieda p Almeida Hamatsu, Yusuke Noguchi, Shinji Murata, Tomohito Nakajima. (Japanese, Portuguese, Thai, British, Tagalog dialogue)To explain "Saudade" being an episode of "The Wire" adopted to Japan and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (with an off day) may be roughly accurate, but regrettably it makes sense nowhere close to fun and intriguing because it sounds. In an unnecessarily lengthy 163 minutes, pic requires a potentially fascinating subject -- rocky relations between native Japanese and foreign immigrants, particularly Brazilians and Thais, in working-class Nippon -- and muffles its impact with random storytelling, self-indulgently lengthy moments and little feeling of structure. This really is fest fare having a vengeance. Action originates within the economically depressed town of Kofu, beginning in a building site where employees Seiji (Tsuyoshi Takano) and Hosaka (Hitoshi Ito) bond on the mutual curiosity about Thailand, particularly its women Seiji is married to some Thai lady, Keiko (Chie Kudo). Meanwhile, their fellow laborer Takeru (Takeshi Amano), who raps in the free time, resents the neighborhood Brazilian employees and challenges rival rapper Dennis (Dennis Oliveira p Hamatsu) and the crew to some verbal joust in a local club. Pic really will get rather interesting in the late stages, however the difficult midsection squanders auds' interest. Title means "homesickness" in Portuguese.Camera (color), Yoshiko Takano editors, Tomita, Takano music, Stillichimiya production designer, Hiroshi Imamura. Examined at Locarno Film Festival (competing), August. 11, 2011. Running time: 162 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Showtime Greenlights Three New Pilots

Showtime's entertainment chief David Nevins continues to put his stamp on the premium cable network's lineup, giving the go-ahead to three new pilots. The first of the trio is Masters of Sex, an adaptation of Thomas Maier's book of the same name. The one-hour drama, from Sony Pictures TV, centers on the lives and unusual relationship between influential sexual education researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Masters, which in its title alone offers a premium-cable skew, is being written by Michelle Ashford (The Pacific, John Adams). Ashford is also set to executive produce with Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly (Justified, A Gifted Man). The second order went to Andrew Gurland's first-person, half-hour docu-comedy Gurland on Gurland. Gurland (The Last Exorcism, Now and Again) is set to write, direct and star in the project, which draws from his own life and focuses on the challenges associated with entering the next phase of his career. It hails from corporate sibling CBS TV Studios, with Gurland and Glenn Gordon Caron (Medium) attached to executive produce. Finally, a one-hour dark family drama titled Ray Donovan, from Ann Biderman (Southland, Public Enemies). The Showtime-produced project, which has comedic undertones, focuses on a L.A.-based fixer for the rich and famous who in his personal life is broken. Mark Gordon (Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds) has signed on to executive produce. Email: Lacey.Rose@thr.com Twitter: @LaceyVRose Related Topics Showtime Networks Showtime

The Games Tweet Could Lead to Charges Against the Rapper

It was the tweet heard 'round the world. Or, at least heard very loudly by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's office.our editor recommendsNate Dogg Honored by Rapper the Game in Tribute SongLawsuit seeks to stop release of The Game album The rapper The Game is feeling the heat from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department -- and it's all because of a tweet. A tweet that was sent out from his account to his more than 580,000 followers caused a jam to a Compton sheriff's office emergency phone line. The phone lines were jammed for about two hours on Friday after a tweet from The Game's account said that if anyone wanted an internship, they should call that number. The Sheriff's Department told the Los Angeles Times that the problems began after 5 p.m. on Friday. "This was beyond irresponsible," sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker told the Times. "The deputies' ability to answer the phones and dispatch personnel to help these people in danger was significantly impeded." The Los Angeles County Sheriff's department are considering misdemeanor charges against the rapper because the prank calls caused the office to delay response to real emergency calls including a missing person, a spousal assault, two robberies and a stolen car, according to reports. Game, whose real name is Jayceon Taylor and who uses the name Charles Louboutin on Twitter, responded after the Sheriff's office asked him to remove the phone number from his tweet, claiming it was an accident. "Yall can track a tweet down but cant solve murders ! Dat was an accident but maybe now yall can actually do yall job !!!!" he wrote. The Game rose to fame as a member of the group G-Unit and received two Grammy nomination for his solo album The Documentary. Related Topics Twitter

Cinemax Reorganizes Drama Department, Earns Film Executive Michael Ellenberg As SVP

EXCLUSIVE: Feature executive Michael Ellenberg has became a member of Cinemax as SVP, Cinemax Entertainment. He'll run the pay cable network's drama department, confirming to Cinemax Entertainment leader Sue Naegle and dealing carefully with Gina Balian, additionally a recently minted SVP, Cinemax Entertainment. Balian, that has been at Cinemax for ten years, is just one of several drama professionals who've lately been marketed, together with Francesca Orsi and David Levine, each of them upped to Vice president. The reorganization of HBO's drama department was precipitated through the recent departure of Vice president Jocelyn Diaz. But rather than taking a direct alternative, Cinemax brass elected to usher in somebody senior to guide the drama department. For using a film versus. network executive, I hear your decision turned from HBO's positioning to be between TV and film and the requirement to have somebody aboard you never know well the gamers within the feature world as a lot of filmmakers do series for Cinemax nowadays, including Boardwalk Empire's Martin Scorsese, Luck's Michael Mann and Bet on Thrones' David Benioff. Furthermore, HBO's development model is nearer to features rather than the standard broadcast cycle. Ellenberg spent the final 4 years at Ridley and Tony Scott's Scott Free Prods as SVP. He just finished manufacture of the Ridley Scott-directed Prometheus. He also done the company's films Robin Hood and Cyrus, in addition to such projects in development because the Passage with director Matt Reeves, Child 44 compiled by Richard Cost, Shadow Divers with director Robert Schwentke, Red-colored Riding and Forever War. Before Scott Free, Ellenberg spent 3 years at Scott Rudin Prods in La as Vice president. Coincidentally, Rudin is really a major series player at Cinemax when they have an offer and many projects within the works, including Aaron Sorkin's drama pilot More Because This Story Evolves. Drama is getting a revival at Cinemax, with each of the network's new series, Boardwalk Empire and Bet on Thrones, landing best drama Emmy nominations.

'Desperate Housewives:' Nicollette Sheridan Won't Return for Final Season

Nicollette Sheridan won't be returning for the eighth and final season of Desperate Housewives.our editor recommends'Desperate Housewives': Season 8 Will Be Its Last'Desperate Housewives': Cast Members, Viewers React to News of Final Season When asked on the Today show Monday about Marc Cherry saying at TCA over the weekend she'd be back for the finale, Sheridan told Kathie Lee Gifford and Billy Bush (filling in for Hoda Kotb), "That's news to me." PHOTOS: The Quotable TCA: TV Press Tour Eavesdropper Bush pressed her. "If asked, would you come back?" "I had an amazing time playing that character. I loved her dearly, but they killed her! She's dead," Sheridan said. THR's Complete TCA Summer Press Tour Coverage Bush said she could come back in a flashback, or it could have been a dream that she died. PHOTOS: TCA Highlights "Is this turning into a daytime soap opera?" Sheridan deadpanned. "In other words, she's saying no!" said Gifford. Sheridan's character Edie Britt was brutally killed off the ABC hit after five seasons amid rumors of feuding with Cherry, against whom she filed a $20 million wrongful termination lawsuit. Related Topics Desperate Housewives Marc Cherry Nicollette Sheridan TCA Summer Press Tour 2011

Das unbesiegbare Schwert der Shaolin

Among director Chu Yuan's crowning accomplishments, The Sentimental Swordsman epitomizes the lone, virtuous, heroic swordsman having a twist. The Oedipus complexed swordsman Li Hsin-huan, wonderfully described through the highly popular Ti Lung, is really a hero with weak points he drinks and thinks in love and emotion therefore losing his girlfriend via fooled recognition. It's payback time. Chu produces romantic mobile phone industry's lavishly implanted with flamboyant atmospheric configurations as apparent with this film finding the 1978 Golden Equine Best Cinematography Award