The Official "Behind The Scenes" TV/Movie Thread

[Rotfish]

And if you think I'm a monster cause I don't care about the sad, impoverished "assistant key grip number two" that has to go and get a real job now, well I can live with that.

You definitely don't fully grasp the situation. This isn't just about the overpaid top 10% nor the lower-level folks you deem replaceable. What about the vast majority of people in between? Editors, set designers, animators, compositors, foley artists, stunt performers, etc? The film industry is massive and the ripples of these strikes go far beyond the extremes you hear most often about.

You're willfully ignoring the magnitude of what's happening all because you have a personal vendetta against the agenda of what is in reality a small fraction of the industry. "Screw millions of people because 100 of them are woke."

 

[Otomofan]

What part of "**** 'em" did you not understand?

I don't care.

Editors, set designers, animators, compositors, foley artists, stunt performers? Yeah. Them too.

The world needs engineers, constructions workers, plumbers, emergency room technicians. I don't care about the plight of the poor, sad guy that makes fart noises into a microphone for a living.

I've got my own problems.

 

[Kebron]

What part of "**** 'em" did you not understand?

I don't care.

Editors, set designers, animators, compositors, foley artists, stunt performers? Yeah. Them too.

The world needs engineers, constructions workers, plumbers, emergency room technicians. I don't care about the plight of the poor, sad guy that makes fart noises into a microphone for a living.

I've got my own problems.

So I guess you weren't done after all?

You don't care but you cared enough to read and post in a topic discussing a Hollywood strike? If you don't care why did you spend the time to do that?

If it wasn't for all those people you say you don't care about and the world doesn't need, you wouldn't have anything to collect, nor would you have content that you must of enjoyed to inspire you to collect the figures.

If you have your own problems I'd suggest stop spending time reading topics you don't care about and then posting about them, and perhaps take that time to deal with your problems.

 

[Otomofan]

I was talking to Rotfish, not you.

 

[Dave_W]

Don't forget, we need the people who make our dollies.

 

[Kebron]

I was talking to Rotfish, not you.

Apologies, I didn't know you were replying to him.

 

[batfan08]

What part of "**** 'em" did you not understand?

I don't care.

Editors, set designers, animators, compositors, foley artists, stunt performers? Yeah. Them too.

The world needs engineers, constructions workers, plumbers, emergency room technicians. I don't care about the plight of the poor, sad guy that makes fart noises into a microphone for a living.

I've got my own problems.

If all the editors, set designers, animators, compositors, foley artists, and stunt performers became engineers, construction workers, plumbers, and emergency technicians, the engineers, construction workers, plumbers, and emergency technicians wouldn’t have a pot to piss in. The only reason you boomers even get to hold the “learn a trade and get a real job” **** over our heads is because a generation of you (or maybe it was your kids; I can’t keep it all straight, anymore) insisted that a college education was the key to success. Now look where it got us: Baristas with PHDs.

For such a pragmatist, though, you’d think you’d understand basic supply and demand. The only reason trades are sought after right now is because the people who know them are in short supply. The second that changes, that inflates the labor pool and drives down wages. The reality is: you might not think so, but you need Doug Jalinski, Third Unit Director, as bad as he needs Larry Reynolds, plumber, to come out and snake the toilet of his LA County Ranch.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

From an industry standpoint, there is quite of bit of critical context being left out of the general MSM. There are just some deeper issues here that Hollywood is not prepared to talk about out loud. This is an incredibly complex situation. What is unintentionally hilarious, of course, is most of the very visible brand name performers speaking out are likely secretly hoping this all turns into an Oscar bait film down the road, and that they'll be a key part of it.

Well, this is a good moment for the general viewing audience to catch up on things they've wanted to see before and didn't make time earlier or to just go do something else entirely. That's my hope here. That some shows and films that were a bit overlooked because of general saturation might get a second wind beneath their sails a bit. Look to the positive, there's a silver lining to any situation if you look long enough.

 

[JacktheRipper]

Interesting to see how the panels at SDCC turn out.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

 

[MeatHookGekko]

How Much Do the Media CEOs Fighting the Strikes Make?

.....Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney (DIS) Company, came under fire over the weekend for comments he made about the writers and actors on strike and the labor unions representing them. “There’s a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic,” Iger said during an interview with CNBC on July 13. He was at a conference in Sun Valley, the so-called billionaire’s summer camp, at the time....The average pay for top Hollywood executives climbed 53 percent to $28 million from 2018 to 2021, while the pay for writers remained relatively stagnant, according to the Los Angeles Times. In many cases, executive pay increased again from 2021 to 2022. An executive’s total compensation breaks down into salary, bonuses and stock awards—the first two in cash.....

Bob Iger, The Walt Disney Company - Disney’s board of directors reappointed Iger as chief executive for two years in November 2022, after he retired from the company in 2021. When Disney first announced the news, Iger had the ability to make $27 million annually as chief executive, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). His annual salary was marked as $1 million with a bonus of $1 million and stock options of $25 million. Earlier this month, the board extended his contract through 2026, and with it, the board increased his bonus opportunity to $5 million, according to another SEC document. Iger can make $31 million annually under the new terms, depending on his performance and the company’s stock price.

David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery - In 2022, the Warner Bros. Discovery (WB) chief executive earned $39.3 million—made up of $3.06 million in salary, $13.5 million in stock and other awards, a performance bonus of $21.8 million and other small awards, according to a company document filed with the SEC. While Zaslav received one of the higher payouts in Hollywood last year, it was a significant decline from his 2021 earnings of $247 million, most of which came from a stock option grant awarded to him as a result of the WarnerMedia and Discovery merger. The two companies joined in April 2022, which is when Zaslav, who previously served as CEO of Discovery, became the chief executive of the much larger company.

Ted Sarandos, Netflix - Ted Sarandos, the co-chief executive alongside Greg Peters, made $50.3 million last year, up 31.7 percent from the previous year. An increase in stock options drove the surge. Sarandos’s compensation is broken down to a salary of $20 million, stock options worth $28.5 million and other compensation valued at $1.79 million. In January, Sarandos took on a bigger role at Netflix (NFLX) with the departure of founder Reed Hastings, who had previously served alongside Sarandos as co-CEO. Sarandos is expected to make $40 million in 2023.

Greg Peters, Netflix - Greg Peters, the former chief product and operating officer, stepped up as co-CEO in January. With it came an increase in earnings. Last year, Peters made $28.1 million, $16 million of which was salary. With his promotion, he will make $34.7 million in 2023, including $17.3 million in stock options and a target $14.3 million performance bonus.

Brian Roberts, Comcast - Comcast (CMCSA) oversees NBCUniversal, which operates Universal Studios. Brian Roberts, who has worked as chief executive of Comcast since 2002, made $32.1 million last year, according to a company filing. The previous year, he earned $34 million. Roberts wasn’t the highest-paid executive at Comcast in 2022, which differs from previous years. Michael Cavanagh, chief financial officer, earned $40.5 million last year. He recently took on an expanded role at the company, adding the title of president in October. In addition to his CFO duties, he is managing teams and businesses across Comcast alongside Roberts, according to a company statement. Cavanagh took on additional responsibilities with the departure of Jeff Shell, NBCUniversal CEO, in April. He is serving as interim chief executive of the division until the company names a new head.

Bob Bakish, Paramount Global - Paramount (PARA) CEO Bob Bakish made $32 million in 2022, up 35.7 percent from the previous year but lower than his 2020 compensation. He earned five times that of the next-highest-paid executive on Paramount’s roster, according to a company filing with the SEC. The board cited his leadership “during a time of tremendous challenges and opportunities” as reason for the pay bump. Of Bakish’s $32 million, he made $3.1 million in salary, $16 million in stock options and $12.9 million in a bonus.

Tim Cook, Apple - Apple (AAPL) produces films and television shows for Apple TV+, its streaming service. Tim Cook, CEO, made $99.4 million last year, which is more than three times that of the next-highest-paid executive, company records show. While his payout is in line with what he made in 2021, it is a 573 percent increase from what Cook made in 2020. The boost resulted from Cook receiving $83 million in stock options. Of his earnings, $3 million is as salary.

Andy Jassy, Amazon - Amazon (AMZN) also has a studio that produces original content for Prime Video. The CEO made $1.3 million last year, a significant decline from years prior. In 2021, he earned $213 million, mostly in stock awards. In 2020, he made $35.8 million. Jassy wasn’t the highest-paid executive at Amazon in 2022. Douglas Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, made $43.2 million, and Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon Web Services, made $41.1 million. Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman, earned $1.68 million.

How Much Do the Media CEOs Fighting the Strikes Make?

 

[MeatHookGekko]

IATSE President Matt Loeb Calls On Studios To Extend Health Benefits To Crews Who Might Lose Them During SAG-AFTRA & WGA Strikes

....IATSE President Matt Loeb is calling on the studios to provide health care benefits to below-the line workers who might lose them if they fall short of qualifying during the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild strikes, as the companies did during the Covid pandemic....The SAG-AFTRA strike started today, and the WGA strike is in its 74th day – long enough for many crewmembers to face the prospect of losing their health coverage in the days to come.....

....“Make no mistake,” Loeb said in a statement today, “if the studios truly cared about the economic fallout of their pre-emptive work slowdown against below-the-line crewmembers, they could continue to pay crewmembers and fully fund their healthcare at any moment, as they did in 2020 during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, grassroots groups of writers, actors, and directors like The Union Solidarity Coalition are stepping up to fund mutual aid that directly benefits our members, and I recognize them for organizing this much-needed support.”.....Similarly, the WGA has told its members that “there is no Health Fund requirement that the Health Plan extend health insurance coverage during a strike, and Trustees are 50% management and 50% Guild.....”

IATSE President Matt Loeb Calls On Studios To Extend Health Benefits To Crews Who Might Lose Them During SAG-AFTRA & WGA Strikes

 

[choombaz]

https://deadline.com/2023/07/actors...-three-cents-residuals-cheque-1235445849/amp/

 

[Dave_W]

I wish my bonus was x25 my salary, tax free.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

AS ACTORS STRIKE FOR AI PROTECTIONS, NETFLIX LISTS $900,000 AI JOB

.....AS HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVES insist it is “just not realistic” to pay actors — 87 percent of whom earn less than $26,000— more, they are spending lavishly on AI programs. While entertainment firms like Disney have declined to go into specifics about the nature of their investments in artificial intelligence, job postings and financial disclosures reviewed by The Intercept reveal new details about the extent of these companies’ embrace of the technology. In one case, Netflix is offering as much as $900,000 for a single AI product manager. .....“So $900k/yr per soldier in their godless AI army when that amount of earnings could qualify thirty-five actors and their families for SAG-AFTRA health insurance is just ghoulish,” actor Rob Delaney, who had a lead role in the “Black Mirror” episode, told The Intercept. “Having been poor and rich in this business, I can assure you there’s enough money to go around; it’s just about priorities.....”

.......“They propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness, and to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief negotiator for the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, said. Entertainment writers, too, must contend with their work being replaced by AI programs like ChatGPT that are capable of generating text in response to queries. Writers represented by the Writers Guild of America have been on strike since May 7 demanding, among other things, labor safeguards against AI. John August, a screenwriter for films like “Big Fish” and “Charlie’s Angels,” explained that the WGA wants to make sure that “ChatGPT and its cousins can’t be credited with writing a screenplay....”

....Realeyes develops technology to measure attention and reactions by users to video content. While the posting doesn’t mention work with streaming companies, a video on Realeyes’s website prominently features the logos for Netflix and Hulu. The posting is specially catered to attract striking workers, stressing that the gig is for “research” purposes and therefore “does not qualify as struck work”: “Please note that this project does not intend to replace actors, but rather requires their expertise,” Realeyes says, emphasizing multiple times that training AI to create “expressive avatars” skirts strike restrictions......Experts question whether the boundary between research and commercial work is really so clear. “It’s almost a guarantee that the use of this ‘research,’ when it gets commercialized, will be to build digital actors that replace humans,” said Ben Zhao, professor of computer science at the University of Chicago. “The ‘research’ side of this is largely a red herring.” He added, “Industry research goes into commercial products......”

As Actors Strike for AI Protections, Netflix Lists $900,000 AI Job

 

[abake]

Capitalism brought us a long way, but everything comes to an end.
I really believe we're right in the middle of those huge revolutions/collapses that befall great empires. Decades from now people will look back on these years and say "oh, but it was so plain to see that it was all going to hell..."

 

[MeatHookGekko]

The Huge, Fast-Growing Audience That Hollywood is Just Ignoring

....People over 50 represent a third of the U.S. population and they're desperate for stories and characters geared to their interests....Grabbing a giant audience was once as simple as producing a major theatrical release or a live television broadcast that would aggregate tens of millions of people. Those days are long gone. True, the Super Bowl still holds the attention of over 100 million viewers and, according to the BBC, 5.1 billion or roughly 63.2% of the world’s population watched the state funeral of Elizabeth II. But these are rare moments. It’s been 40 years since the farewell episode of M*A*S*H, which hit 125 million viewers in the U.S. and had a 60.2 Nielsen rating. Today, a rating of 7 is considered a huge success, if ratings even matter anymore. And then there is the existential question of what is content anyway? How do you calculate the value of a TikTok video compared to a sitcom episode?

......Today’s wildly complicated media landscape is just as challenging for companies to monetize as it is for consumers to navigate. Consider that, according to the Deloitte Digital Media Trends Study, U.S. users have an average of four streaming service subscriptions. But experts point to a high rate of churn as customers often subscribe to a service to catch a hot new series only to then cancel after they’ve finished it. The viewer is in control like never before. And equally as fickle, regardless of their age.....Meanwhile, in a post-COVID world, movie theaters still have a long way to go to get back to pre-pandemic attendance levels. According to the 2021 THEME Report from the Motion Picture Association, the U.S./Canada box office market only recovered to $4.5 billion vs. $11.4 billion in 2019.The number of screens in the U.S. remained stable at just over 40,000, but the question remains: Will the moviegoer come back in a meaningful way?

..... What is this market that is hiding in plain sight? The rapidly growing number of global consumers over the age of 50....However, the data is undeniable. Today’s 50-plus consumer is reshaping everything in our culture, as they live longer and demand new ways to entertain them. They already comprise 36 percent of the U.S. population and some 10,000 people a day are turning 50. In 2030, the first Millennials turn 50 and by then one in five Americans will be 65 or older. There will be more people over 50 than under 18. The same plays out in developed nations from China to the U.K.....In the U.S., the over-50-year-olds spend a total of $8.3 trillion a year right now and by 2030 will be spending $13 trillion a year. They hold more than 70% of the $92 trillion in private wealth in the U.S. ..... the average hours per week that the Boomers spend on consuming traditional television media is decreasing, while over-the-top video and streaming has had significant growth. The Wall Street Journal reported that people over 50 accounted for 39% of streaming watch time as of May 2022, up from 35% a year earlier.....

.....Many characters over 50, both male and female, are presented as old and tired, trying to be too hip, being infantilized, or frail and withdrawn. More than one broadcast and cable executive that I talked to about the barriers in introducing more programming that appeals to an older viewer had the same opinion. Says a top executive at one of the major cable companies: “Advertisers continue to be youth-obsessive and [stuck on] what is an old standard of not being interested in any viewer over 54. They claim that they get them as the gravy to a media buy, but they are missing a massive audience that has changed a lot.”....Many people agree that in order for Hollywood to reflect the new authenticity with stories and characters over 50, there needs to be an overhaul of long-standing attitudes. “The muscle memory is that youth drives culture and shouldn’t we challenge that?”

There's a Huge, Fast-Growing Audience That Hollywood is Ignoring

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Will share a few thoughts. IMHO, Michelle Hurd does a poor job representing an effective message to the general public. In a previous video above with Breaking Points, where Hurd and Susan Sarandon talk about "donating money" to the cause is simply beyond the pale. No one is going to believe that Sarandon needs money donated to her. Hurd just wrapped up 28 episodes and 3 seasons of Picard. I recognize that they are inferring needing help for the many nameless faceless non-brand name performers in the industry, but the perception won't lean that way. It just lends more into the standard viewpoint of many regular working class people that Hollywood actors are just outright narcissists and out of touch with reality. ( I can attest from extensive personal experience that the many are totally in this zone)

If you observe Hurd in interviews, if it goes long enough, she keeps bringing the conversation back to herself. What she lost, her opportunities, what was taken from her, what she didn't get. That's not going to get the general public on your side. Everyone understands there is an implicit "class system" in the entire industry, but when you are in a major labor war, it's not a great idea to remind people of it all the time when you drive activism.

This is my viewpoint, no one needs to share it, while Hurd is bringing up some fair points, she does it in the way that offers and elicits absolutely zero empathy. Which leads into another issue





This area of discussion is a little more controversial, but relevant here. This is a short clip of Joe Rogan and Matthew McConaughey. Now MM is A list, so he can't be cancelled, but most actors couldn't say these things in public without massive retaliation within the industry at some point. I'm not really here to focus on what MM says about religion, but more of his point that Hollywood has created a lot of "product" of late that has alienated major cross sections of it's potential audience and often what will be perceived, in his words, as a "condescending" tone. If you are in a labor fight, and you want the public on your side, what happens to the half of the general American viewing audience already feel marginalized and insulted by you?

Can we just have an honest accounting of this here? So avoiding the obvious political angle, which is evident at this point in splitting the general audience, and we don't have to go much further there, but what about parents in general? Also men in general? There is a lot of stuff that many men see as misandrist in modern Hollywood. So why should they support this strike? Also many parents, of all kinds of backgrounds, are NOT happy with some of the "product" coming out ( I can't even call them films anymore) that lean into issues that they don't want their kids to be exposed to at this point or feel it should be left to parents inside their own homes. And then there are a few specific things that MM discusses.

So, I'm less invested in the specifics of each cross section, as much as you can't keep telling people that if they don't like your "product", that they shouldn't watch and go shove off, engage that as a form of "shock marketing", then desperately ask them to come back once you are on strike. Again, that just further pushes a very negative perception and image of major Hollywood players as full blown sociopaths that are neck deep in their self absorption and only desire to gaslight the general public.

But here's the thing. That person scraping by at 20K a year, let's hear from them. Why not put a human working class face on some real issues in the industry? But for Sarandon and Hurd, those are just cannon fodder as a means to an end. Why lose their virtue signaling opportunities otherwise?

Two things can be true at the same time. On one hand, the major power brokers are too punitive on a large share of working class people in the industry. Even the mob didn't break people's hands ( i.e. how can every day people pay you if they can't work because you maimed them?) On the other hand, there are elements of the "labor" side that didn't do very much to help their own cause. Going to war with your fans is egregiously stupid business. It makes no sense and all these chicken are coming home to roost now.

But we see this in our small hobby too. Great artists are often deficient businesspeople. Not all, but sometimes it looks like a bit too many.

There are many genuinely hard working, decent and good people in the industry. Many often unheralded. But I don't think they are being well represented here in this fight.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

 

[MeatHookGekko]