The Official "Behind The Scenes" TV/Movie Thread ( Black Sails / Ray Stevenson )

[MeatHookGekko]

 

[MeatHookGekko]

 

[MeatHookGekko]

******

Disparu monetizes what amounts to "outrage porn" on all his platforms. That being said, he's bringing up some fair points. When everyone possible was trying to start their own original programming ( to key into the upstart success like AMC did with Breaking Bad and Mad Men and a lot of the early Netflix original series like House Of Cards) , there was a massive demand for more writers. Bad economy and a large string of big budget failures has created some push/pull now in questioning if these new generations of writers, show runners and producers can actually create enough content to support all these channels and networks and different streaming services.

I can see practical arguments on both sides of this coin. That being said, something sports pundit Bill Simmons said once about big sports strikes - That no one wants to see billionaires argue with millionaires. That working class people don't want to hear it. Now, to be fair, a lot of people who are impacted here are not brand name stars and don't make big money. But the voices that will get the most public notice and traction in the MSM will be these big name A listers like Matt Damon. And then it creates that narrative again - Billionaires splitting hairs and fighting over coins with millionaire celebrity activists.

With so much content out there now, and with some general discontentment on what's been churned out in the past 4-5 years or so, including some pretty huge bombs, will the general public even bother to care?

 

[MeatHookGekko]

How A.I. took center stage in the Hollywood writers’ strike

.....After failing to reach a contract resolution with the studio association, more than 11,000 film and television writers remain on strike. Of the many topics under consideration in this year’s Writers Guild of America contract discussions, one nascent technology has fueled dissent among the negotiators: artificial intelligence.....“I hope I’m wrong, but I do think that the use of AI is going to take over the entertainment industry,” said Justine Bateman, a member of the writers, directors and actors guilds. “And I think it’s going to be really bad.”....The implementation of generative AI could mean sweeping changes for the entertainment industry. Advocates for AI technology see it as a tool that will uplift content creators and break down the barriers to entry.....“It’s going to be very soon until we can literally just type in a prompt and see something as a consumer,” said AI filmmaker Caleb Ward. “And you don’t have to have any sort of skills as a visual effects artist or as someone in the entertainment industry.”

.....Since the last writers’ strike in 2007, widespread consumer adoption of video streaming has exemplified how novel technologies can upheave the entertainment industry. Now, however, the leaders in the streaming space are dealing with the ballooning costs of high-output, high-quality content.....“Today, the only one we know of that is cashflow positive is Netflix....Every other company out there is losing money—Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, losing billions and billions and billions of dollars a year.”....As streaming companies scramble to save their bottom lines, content is being removed from platforms, cutting off creators from being compensated....“Every time a content deal is done with a streaming platform or distribution, it has a direct impact on those who created the content — distributors, producers, writers, actors — because they’re getting royalties based on that....”

How A.I. took center stage in the Hollywood writers' strike



Why are streaming services removing some of their own movies and shows?

.....Streaming was supposed to be forever. That was the promise of a digital library of movies and TV shows....Even when Warner Bros. Discovery pulled content as part of planned tax write-offs tied to its merger, consumers seemed to accept the move as the cost of doing business.....However, as Disney is set to yank dozens of shows and films from Disney+ and Hulu, including “Willow,” “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” and “The Mysterious Benedict Society,” subscribers are suddenly faced with a new reality..... And Wall Street has turned up the heat on media companies, now focusing on if and when streaming will be profitable versus if those providers are putting up big subscriber numbers. The change came last year after Netflix reported its first subscriber loss in a decade.....

....“What is hitting their income statements is the amortization of content that’s already been made and released.....Warner Bros. Discovery was the first one to figure this out, so we have to give credit where it’s due. They said they need to get their earnings up, so they started taking shows off the app. Disney is now doing that and we should expect Paramount to follow suit. And one day Netflix may even do the same thing.”....It’s been difficult for consumers to understand why content made specifically for streaming platforms has been removed....“The part that really confuses consumers is because they don’t understand how content is licensed....They do get confused when one day content is on a service and then disappears or the content is still in the service, but it’s only X number of seasons.....”

.....“Much like syndication of Hollywood’s yesteryear, streaming services must pay for the right to host a title,”..... noted that if a title is not owned by the streamer, then a licensing fee must be paid to the studio that owns that content. For example, Hulu licenses “The Handmaid’s Tale” from MGM Television......Even titles that are owned in-house must be licensed. That’s why NBCUniversal (the parent company of CNBC and NBC News) had to pay itself $500 million to stream Universal TV’s “The Office” on Peacock and Warner Bros. Discovery paid $425 million for the streaming rights to the WBTV-produced “Friends.”......By removing the content specifically made for streaming rather than licensed shows and movies, Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney can immediately cut expenses. Warner Bros. Discovery saved “tens of millions of dollars” after eliminating content....

https://www.nbcnews.com/media/streaming-services-remove-tons-movies-shows

 

[MeatHookGekko]

"Receiving positive feedback from Wall Street since the WGA went on strike May 2, Warner Bros Discovery, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Paramount and others have become determined to “break the WGA,” as one studio exec blatantly put it. To do so, the studios and the AMPTP believe that by October most writers will be running out of money after five months on the picket lines and no work. “The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive told Deadline. Acknowledging the cold-as-ice approach, several other sources reiterated the statement. One insider called it “a cruel but necessary evil.”

https://deadline.com/2023/07/writers-strike-hollywood-studios-deal-fight-wga-actors

 

[ironwez20]

Sweet bacon grease

 

[Otomofan]

I know it's an unpopular opinion here, but come on...when have I ever held back from sharing my unpopular opinions?

I say **** 'em all.

I have no sympathy for the mediocre writers that continue to churn out garbage and schlock. If you're so bad at your job that a computer algorithm can do it, and do it better, then clearly writing is not what you were meant to do. 99% of these people just want to be part of the system and get all the rewards and luxury and perks that come with it. It's not about art, it's not about telling great stories...it's all about being in a position of power and privilege and prestige. They churn out utter trash for Netflix and Disney and Hulu and dumbass cop procedurals and inane sitcoms for the dying legacy TV networks. That's not art. That's garbage. We've have plenty of it from the last 75 years. We don't need any more.

If a writer has something truly brilliant and innovative to say....write a novel. Self-publish a comic book with a fantastic artist. Write the screenplay but don't sell it for peanuts to a studio that will gut it like a fish.

These people aren't "writers"...they're typists. And most of them are just activists that only care about pushing propaganda, and not entertaining anyone.

Same goes for the actors. Boo hoo. I feel so bad for you. Would anyone want to be a movie star if they only made $30,000 a year and there were no hoards of groupies to sleep with or paparazzi taking their pics? Of course not. They just want the fame, the money, and the status. People want to be actors for the same reason they want to be politicians: cause they think they're better than everyone else.

We all have to work for a living. We work hard. Why shouldn't they have to? Why should playing make-believe for a few hours a day, a few weeks out of the year be worth millions? It shouldn't. It never should have gotten to the point it's at now.

It's time to just tear it all down and start over from scratch. Let talent and ideas and creativity be the new standard of excellence. Let the entertainment industry be a true meritocracy where the projects that are worthy of acclaim rise to the top and the mindless garbage is ignored and forgotten. Let all the millionaires and billionaires live in the real world like the rest of us do, without all the protection and comfort they demand but don't deserve. Let an entire generation of NEW talent give it a shot, whether that be writing or acting or directing.

Yeah. **** "old" Hollywood. Let it burn. I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

 

[choombaz]

I’ve been playing around with ChatGBT atm and while I was initially impressed, that very quickly wore off when I started finding how predictable and generic everything was. I asked it to give me the plot of a David Lynch film and it was a greatest hits package that he would never pander. Ie. Not capable of genuine creativity and innovation.

Part of me agrees that Hollywood needs to be nuked from orbit and very very quietly I do hope that like we have seen over the past hundred years there will be a new cycle - an Easy Rider type film (I actually don’t really like that film) that resets everything into a new Seventies style era of genuinely innovating filmmaking.

Plus, there are tons of great stuff out there, you just have to look. Amazing series like Hijack, amazing films like Petite Maman, amazing documentaries like Take Care Of Maya.

 

[Sidewinder]

I know it's an unpopular opinion here, but come on...when have I ever held back from sharing my unpopular opinions?

I say **** 'em all.

I have no sympathy for the mediocre writers that continue to churn out garbage and schlock. If you're so bad at your job that a computer algorithm can do it, and do it better, then clearly writing is not what you were meant to do. 99% of these people just want to be part of the system and get all the rewards and luxury and perks that come with it. It's not about art, it's not about telling great stories...it's all about being in a position of power and privilege and prestige. They churn out utter trash for Netflix and Disney and Hulu and dumbass cop procedurals and inane sitcoms for the dying legacy TV networks. That's not art. That's garbage. We've have plenty of it from the last 75 years. We don't need any more.

If a writer has something truly brilliant and innovative to say....write a novel. Self-publish a comic book with a fantastic artist. Write the screenplay but don't sell it for peanuts to a studio that will gut it like a fish.

These people aren't "writers"...they're typists. And most of them are just activists that only care about pushing propaganda, and not entertaining anyone.

Same goes for the actors. Boo hoo. I feel so bad for you. Would anyone want to be a movie star if they only made $30,000 a year and there were no hoards of groupies to sleep with or paparazzi taking their pics? Of course not. They just want the fame, the money, and the status. People want to be actors for the same reason they want to be politicians: cause they think they're better than everyone else.

We all have to work for a living. We work hard. Why shouldn't they have to? Why should playing make-believe for a few hours a day, a few weeks out of the year be worth millions? It shouldn't. It never should have gotten to the point it's at now.

It's time to just tear it all down and start over from scratch. Let talent and ideas and creativity be the new standard of excellence. Let the entertainment industry be a true meritocracy where the projects that are worthy of acclaim rise to the top and the mindless garbage is ignored and forgotten. Let all the millionaires and billionaires live in the real world like the rest of us do, without all the protection and comfort they demand but don't deserve. Let an entire generation of NEW talent give it a shot, whether that be writing or acting or directing.

Yeah. **** "old" Hollywood. Let it burn. I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

There's new talent all the time, doesn't mean you're going to like anything they have to write.

Imo audiences are extremely rude and negative towards everything these days. These actors and writers put up with a lot of online abuse.

I see the real issue being in the past shows that had 100 episodes were then able to go into syndication and performers and writers would have received decent residuals for that. Now most shows are on streaming services, they only make 10 episodes a season and how are residuals paid if they are made by the streamer and remain on there permanently?

I think in the past working actors were able to make a decent living, but now residuals are much lower and even though there seems to be a lot more being produced, the episode counts are much lower. Perhaps even fewer actors are needed due to the fewer episodes being made.

These people aren't the ones making millions. They are more likely living on 70K max per year and still need to pay their agent and manager their 10% cut from that. The studios are making huge profits for their executives and shareholders, it isn't too much to ask to spread the profits around to the creatives.

Studios have had a terrible reputation with how they have treated their performers in the past. Then you think of producers like Weinstein and you see how the industry is incredibly toxic.

 

[Otomofan]

These people aren't the ones making millions. They are more likely living on 70K max per year and still need to pay their agent and manager their 10% cut from that.

If that's the best argument you have for me to pity them, well...it failed miserably.

70K a year to play dress up and make believe?

 

[Sidewinder]

If that's the best argument you have for me to pity them, well...it failed miserably.

70K a year to play dress up and make believe?

Mate, you're on a forum that is all about collecting figures and statues from film and TV. If you think what they do is so pathetic, why are you even here?

Besides 70K is not that much money once you're taxed and pay agent and manager fees.

 

[Otomofan]

I'm here cause I collect things from QUALITY films and TV shows and comic books and video games, not the horse dung they churn out now.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

The strike begins to lead to the question on how to join SAG in the first place. The above videos give some light background. There's some nuance and context that the people in these videos don't get into, that IMHO are worth discussing, but this is a good starting spot for those who are currently unfamiliar.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

How Background Actors Become SAG Eligible

The SAG card has long been regarded as a badge of honor carried by professional actors, including everyone from famous stars to background actors. Also known as “extras” on the set, background actors long for the coveted SAG card, which proclaims membership in the Screen Actors Guild, now merged with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFRTA). A SAG card can be earned by acquiring SAG vouchers or waivers working as a nonunion background actor.

What is a SAG Card? The SAG card, as it is commonly known, is issued to qualified actors by SAG-AFTRA, which is a union organization for professional actors. Background actors take pride in possessing a SAG card. Having a SAG card can be advantageous when casting agents prefer to hire extras with prior experience on a movie set. The rules for joining SAG-AFTRA are a bit complicated because of the SAG voucher and SAG waiver requirements.

Earning SAG Voucher - Each day you work on a production, you receive a pay stub that shows the hours you worked. A SAG voucher is an original pay stub verifying that you worked in a SAG-AFTRA production. Save any SAG voucher received, because you can join SAG-AFTRA after earning three SAG vouchers working as a background actor for three days. However, the background actor role you played must be covered under a union contract, or your paystub is just a receipt for tax purposes, not an actual SAG voucher.

Qualifying for SAG waiver - The SAG waiver is issued to a nonunion actor allowed to play a SAG role in a unionized production when no available SAG member fits the part. With luck this could happen to you. For instance, you may receive a SAG waiver if nobody with a SAG card can be found to play the part of a tall, skinny ranch hand with an authentic Australian accent, which you fit perfectly. If that happens, you will earn a SAG waiver known in the industry as a Taft Hartley waiver, and you can say that you were Taft Hartley-d for the part. The name comes from the Congressional Taft-Hartley act regulating labor-management rights. Receiving a SAG waiver as a principal actor with lines will put you on the fast track for obtaining your SAG card with just one SAG waiver. Otherwise, you will need three SAG waivers.

Pros/Cons of SAG Card - Belonging to SAG-AFTRA confers many benefits, such as the right to be paid more than nonunion actors and to receive extra pay or “bumps” for certain attributes like having a goatee or bringing your own racket for a tennis court scene. In a city where many SAG-AFTRA productions are made, you may be able to make a living as a background actor with a SAG card, especially if you have many other skills such as being able to surf, juggle or dance. However, once you have a SAG card, you are not allowed to work nonunion acting jobs. Lower paid nonunion extra work is often more plentiful than unionized jobs, especially in cities where few SAG-AFTRA productions are made. Joining SAG-AFTRA also involves paying a high initiation fee and sliding scale annual dues.

https://work.chron.com/background-actors-become-sag-eligible

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Jason Reitman talks with Chris Klein about ‘Election’

.....That’s how Klein described being cast in this film, and he ended up being plucked from obscurity as a result. At the time, he was living in Omaha and going to high school. People would never take him seriously when he said his dream was to be a professional actor. You have to wonder what those same people must think of him today......During pre-production for “Election,” Klein said Payne was scouting out high schools and other locations in Omaha when his high school principal, who was essentially acting as his agent at that point, brought Klein to the director’s attention. While Paul Metzler was a football star, Klein had become the star of the plays and musicals at his school. One day, his teacher was instructed to tell Klein to get some papers which he forgot to bring with him. As he was walking down the hallway, Payne passed by him as he headed in the opposite direction. The next day, Payne called Klein up and asked him to audition and do a cold reading for him. Klein said he actually didn’t know what he was reading for and had he known it was for “Election,” he’s sure he would have blown the entire thing.....

.....“Election” marked the first time Klein had ever been on a film set, and he remarked how he never realized they played music during a scene. Also, when he read the screenplay, he told Payne he didn’t know it was supposed to be funny. Payne responded by saying this was exactly what he wanted. He told Klein his character Paul Metzler was nervous and never comfortable in front of people, and this characterization worked out perfectly for this movie....Another thing which really altered his perception of moviemaking was when the actress originally cast Paul’s sister, Thora Birch, got replaced. As Klein saw it, she was basically fired, and he became very fearful he would be next to go. Payne may have been watching a young actor growing right before his eyes, but Klein described the whole process as him taking it all so seriously so he wouldn’t get fired....

Jason Reitman talks with Chris Klein about ‘Election’

 

[Kebron]

I'm here cause I collect things from QUALITY films and TV shows and comic books and video games, not the horse dung they churn out now.

But yet you are on this topic spouting your opinion about something you don't fully grasp, and not caring at all about the people who made the "QUALITY" films and TV shows you want to collect. The strike effects the ones you supposedly care about too.

 

[Otomofan]

The people that made the movies I "care about" are all either retired or dead.

Maybe you don't "fully grasp" this but I honestly wouldn't give a **** if Hollywood never makes another movie or TV show. It makes zero difference to my life whatsoever.

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.

It's a big bad world out there, and it's only gonna get worse. Eventually, everyone in "the industry" is gonna feel how bad it is, just like the "little people" like us already have.

 

[Kebron]

Unless you only care about movies from the 70s and earlier, I doubt the only creators you care about are either dead or retired.

If you don't care about Hollywood why are you hear in this thread about Hollywood?

I don't think you are a monster, well except for the trollish kind. That you think key grips are affected by this strike, shows you indeed do not fully grasp what is being discussed here.

I do wonder though what do you consider a "real" job. I also find it interesting you only want to collect figures from movies and TV shows you care about, but yet demean those very people because they don't have "real" jobs. So the people who created content that inspired you to start a collection, don't have "real" jobs? If that is indeed what you think then why do you even collect if those people's jobs are so unworthy to have in your opinion? Why are you even here on these forums?

You do realize that not everyone in the "industry" are millionaires right? That many don't even make a livable wage and need to have second jobs or side gigs. They are the "little" people like the rest of us.

 

[Otomofan]

So for the second time you insinuate that I don't "fully grasp" the magnitude of the situation.

Clearly you have no actual desire to converse with me or see my point of view. You only seem interested in lecturing me or "educating" me cause you clearly think I'm some kind of ignoramus just waiting for an enlightened individual like yourself to cure me of my wrong-think.

Well...we're done here. I stated my feeling and opinions quite clearly, and I stand by what I wrote. It's all there for you to read again if you didn't "fully grasp" it. If my ideas are offensive to you, I guess I'll just have to try to find some way I can live with that. I think I'll manage.

 

[Kebron]

So for the second time you insinuate that I don't "fully grasp" the magnitude of the situation.

Clearly you have no actual desire to converse with me or see my point of view. You only seem interested in lecturing me or "educating" me cause you clearly think I'm some kind of ignoramus just waiting for an enlightened individual like yourself to cure me of my wrong-think.

Well...we're done here. I stated my feeling and opinions quite clearly, and I stand by what I wrote. It's all there for you to read again if you didn't "fully grasp" it. If my ideas are offensive to you, I guess I'll just have to try to find some way I can live with that. I think I'll manage.

You maybe done, but I'm not and you don't speak for me.

You haven't said anything to make me think that you do understand what they are doing. You basically regurgitated all the same crap others who don't get what's going on have said across social media.

You've also as per your normal routine back away from discussion when confronted with questions on what you are saying.

Now I am done. Have a good day sir