Newsbiz is a short film that will more than likely be appreciated more by people who have been involved in the media at some point of their life. The film follows a news director torn between siding with the sales side of news or the actual desire to put on the air the most riveting stories available.
What seems evident from the very beginning of the film is that NewsBiz is created with what has to be the intention of turning it into a 60 or 90 minute feature film. Pieces of the short do not seem to elaborate enough as to why decisions are in fact made and why they were so difficult to be made in the first place. Many people, in fact, most people have little to no idea as to how much the American dollar plays into what is and isn't aired on the nightly news.
Another item that I felt was sorely lacking was how intense the pressure is on any reporter in such small to mid-level markets to produce that one story that will get them the heck out of such a small market. You see this in every city outside of the big ones. It is why you only see a reporter for one to two years before they move on to a bigger market. It's not only a competition to break their own news leads, but also getting the nod to run with other big stories in the local area, which may have been discovered through a phone call or through the assignment editor or even the news director. It is by all means a feeding frenzy amongst reporters in mid market television.
With a little more time and a little more financial backing, Newsbiz could in fact be quite an entertaining feature film. For now, we will have to be satisfied with the 15 minutes we are given.
3 out of 5
