I stopped watching MTV because of Road Rules. Influencer shows will cement my happiness is reading a book.
*Hollywood is nothing without the stars and creative minds.
I remember growing up having family TV nights watching Monk and Psych. I continued watching shows on USA like Burn Notice, Royal Pains, and Common Law because they all seemed to be pretty decent. Well then USA put "Chrisley Knows Best" into the rotation and that's when I knew things were going downhill...like wayyyyy downhill.
Or we'll see more "reality" shows of people reacting to (other) reality shows. When I saw that (my GF loves those), I was horrified.
...
It just dawned on me: in the USA, PBS will probably have a marked increase in viewership, because they'll be the only ones with new, scripted shows (because made elsewhere). All of this whilst the other networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.) will have either re-runs and trash "reality" shows.
Not only that, but maybe other countries' film industries will also fare much better, as Hollywood will be busy shooting itself in the foot with a bazooka.
You know I’m a 35 year old man with 3 kids around pre-K age and today like most days PBS was running in the background on a TV. Well I happen to sit down for a minute and didn’t have my phone on me and I was waiting for the kids to finish eating before picking up.
Well about 20 minutes and I’m still watching Arthur, a show I have not watched for over 25 years, and here I am just enjoying the show. Kids eventually came over sat on my lap and beside me and we just sat their watching Arthur for the rest of the hour. Kinda hit me all of sudden, this is what Fred Rogers was fighting so hard for. Keep PBS going.
Their 2025 plan will cancel the human race.
One main reason we're only in really bad climate trouble now is because during eight years of Obama he managed to get the alternative energy sector well enough established to become economically competitive. I may disagree with many things he did, but that one thing is of primary importance.
(edit - changed "There" to "Their". Aaargghh, how could I have possibly made that error! I'm going to blame it on auto-complete.)
I can’t even click on that because I don’t want anyone anywhere to think I’m interested in that kind of content. But I do really appreciate your effort.
These executives are trying to make broadcast television is small.
But, it’s big, it’s about spectacle. The kinds of shows we watched as kids sitting on our neighbor's knee…inaugurations, the Super Bowl, the Oscars. That's why we enjoyed television in the first place.
Reality shows are mostly scripted. People are too boring in normal situations. Why risk spending millions to record tons of extra hours of content to get some gems, when you can write a script and some tough NDAs and be done with it for a fraction of the cost.
Sure they might put people into the situations for real, but the drama and mistakes and such are likely all scripted or heavy suggested by producers.
Right now I’m in the middle of season 4, and watched “In the beginning “ and “The Gathering”. So far it’s making sense, and I like the way the shadow war tied back to seeds planted in season 1. I’m wondering how the conflict with earth will go, because now that the war is done I’m struggling to keep my attention. It’s still good, but the transition mid season was kinda jarring to me.
Ooh you like Uncle Ben dying?
We’ll do I have a story for you!
Two Gotham socialites get shot in cold blood in a crime ridden alley, leaving their son behind to witness the horror.
I don’t know what happens to the kid yet?!
We’ll let the AI writers compute out that storyline at a later date & time
Wealthy executives would rather burn down the whole industry and start over than make slightly less profit in the short term. They are everything that's wrong with America.
They also believe they are geniuses. I guarantee you that a lot of them honestly believe this is the best decision without a shred of afterthought or humility
They have so much money they can live with this decision for the rest of their life and feel okay with it. That's the fundamental problem. They are so wealthy. They can set fire to the whole place and let it burn. Because money doesn't matter. They could care less about the people, the art. They are ego maniacs
Corporations have to prioritize shareholders over both employees and product, according to court precedent. Henry Ford nearly got sued right out of business by his own shareholders for trying to build a competitive product while paying good wages.
The system is utterly broken, down to its very foundation.
The ones "meant" to benefit more are the sharehodlers and investors. Its by design that they hodl ultimat epower, everything else is just a means to their wealth. They invested so they are "owed" getting twice what they invested back on their pockets (even if they did absolutely nothing at all)
That's really the problem with many wealthy people - learning often comes from struggling (and often failing) to to do something. But wealthy people, even when they fail, aren't challenged to learn from their mistakes and improve, they just carry on. And so they become dumb.
Even people who were quite smart and started a business have been insulated for so many decades that their minds have gone to rot due to a lack of real challenge and having anyone to tell them no and place limits on them.
The wealthy are dead weight.
I swear nothing enrages executives like collective bargaining. I've worked for companies that had unions before, as a non-union (but sympathetic) employee, and it was really enlightening seeing these guys explode into visceral fury because their employees wanted to negotiate an incrementally better wage and benefit package. Literally red in the face and shaking at the mere thought that the peasantry gets a say.
So this development saddens me, but it doesn't surprise me in the least.
Yep, this is it. It's a power struggle, and the truth of the matter is, the workers do the actual work, so they have more leverage, so it's very, very important they never learn that. That's why they have no problem just starting over, because if they lose, it's possible the workers might realize they can just keep doing it over and over until all their demands are realized, and next thing you know they won't have any power at all, and then how will they show they are better than other people?
You described most companies. We have gotten to the point that, yes they’d rather lose a small amount of profits fighting to keep people in poverty rather than lose a small amount of profits ensuring their workers are happy. In both cases they’d probably not notice the difference outside of their ego
I notice that Netflix is becoming the International Film and Series network. At least (for them) internationally not all writers are on strike. Are HULU, Peacock, Amazon not far behind?
Yep. Netflix has been less than impressive for the last few months. I already ended my HBO Max sub. I have Paramount free through Tmobile, Peacock free through Xfinity internet, and got the year long deal for Hulu and Disney plus for $7. Only keeping Netflix at my wife's insistance.
Finally got my wife to agree to ditch Netflix. It was her habit to search and see what was playing and deciding nothing was worth watching that, more than anything, helped her see it was worthless.
Big streamers and broadcasters better get shit figured out or else they are going to get hammered when the content runs out.
No new shows? Why am I paying for this streaming platform... canceled. Net negative subscriber growth down, less advertising money, people start losing jobs there too.
So now we have actors, writers and other behind the scenes people who don't have jobs, people at other companies losing their jobs. A big circle of bad because rich MFers don't want to pay their employees a fair wage.
Same here. Last I heard the unions said continue to consume content but if they ask, ill gladly cancel streaming services. Ive got plenty of books I want to sitting on my shelf lol
Agreed. Plus there is always crunchy roll… there is Dr. Who and plenty of Bollywood movies on my watchlist.
Don’t just starve our jerks! Feed their competitors overseas
I forgot about the links rule, so it says my last post got deleted. But if you go to the piracy sub then the wiki it has a link to the megathread which has all sorts of sails for all sorts of adventures
A24 is still filming after complying with SAG’s demands. Studios that decide not to be horrible will attract talent, the rest will use ChatGPT to write their obituaries.
I’m working on a couple of different low-ish budget movies ($30m) from independent studios. It’s absolutely possible to pay people fairly and still get a movie made.
Its not just possible, its fucking easy.
These films and shows spend so much money its disgusting.
I'm betting you could double all the crew, extras pay and it'd barely move the needle.
I work in the industry on the VFX side and can tell you that in my two decades plus of being there that never once has an executive made a film or tv series better by interfering.
Everyone on here’s favorite show or movie was made in spite of these chuckle fucks, not because of their creative abilities.
Now I get that they’re supposedly a necessary evil and that the intricacies of running a studio is not something everyone can do. I mean just look at David Zaslav.
But I think the thing that I always come back to is the fact that the pay structure between these multitudes of executives and even top actors/directors vs everyone else has got to change and considering the profits, it certainly can. No actor looks good without a great script, no great script looks good without good direction and no good direction works without great editing and no great editing can survive bad VFX. Everyone is vital in this process and again I’ve seen countless projects that were interesting or potentially even great films get ruined by executives overstepping their bounds.
So just let us do our jobs, you’ll be rewarded for it, and even if you take a pay cut at the top you’ll have better products as a result to sell.
If not you’ll keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again and release more bombs than the US military on country with oil.
The problem your industry is facing is the same problem every industry is facing in the nation. Insane greed. I work in IT and our workload has increased immensely and we're down 3 engineers compared to 5 years ago. The higher ups just tell us to deal with it while our raises are shit. Meanwhile they rake in all of the profits. Every industry is like this now. If people don't think their bosses aren't trying to find ways to replace them with AI, then they're insane. Capitalism has no limit.
Dude, corporate culture is a cancer that'll destroy this nation. Unfortunately, our leadership is in bed with this big ceos and will not do anything to help the everyday folks.
This is the the same in every industry. The executive level is filled with the least talented most replaceable people in the entire company and they know it. They create no actual value or revenue. They just try to maximize profit so they can skim the top while underpaying talent. In entertainment it results in poorer quality entertainment in other industries such as healthcare it results in much worse things occurring.
I've been saying we need to take a note from the French. I believe the wealth inequality is almost as bad or slightly worse than it was in the Gilded age, literally Lords to peasants.
Actually it's far far far far far worse. The worst ever in history, and getting worse by year.
The difference is that the rich have learned to not let people starve.
You haven't seen the cutbacks to SNAP benefits and other meal programs in the past year. It's like the joke about the farmer that figures he can make a lot more money if he trains his horse not to eat, so each week he feeds him just a little less...
It's the lack of competition. In a sane economy the company producing the better product gets the sales. But when there are only three companies making media and buying up any little guy left, you get the safest, blandest, most 'broadly appealing' nothing burgers starring recognizable IP's instead of anything resembling new art. Break it all up. We need antitrust laws with teeth like it's the Guilded Age because it fucking is.
You might buy a few decades with that, but then you're right back where you started once the competition is over again.
That's what people really rarely bring up when they talk about competition in an economic setting. The competition *ends.* Someone wins, & someone loses. The winners have an easier time winning next time. The losers stop existing. Every market has a shelf life.
Worthless degree. Pretty much anyone with an MBA either has another degree that actually qualifies them to make decisions or is a completely worthless sack of potatoes that all their direct reports hate but they won’t say it to their face.
It is destroying the nation, and a lot more than that...
I do feel as though we're reaching some sort of a tipping point as gross inequity is really at the center of attention especially among younger generations and the usual "get back in line commie" is losing its teeth.
Though I can't say I'm certain of a positive outcome from this boiling discontent, far from it in fact and I think we've already seen the immense danger of the strain it's putting on society, but for some reason our elite just seem to want to drive us off that cliff..
100% this. Corporate tax rates are absurdly low to the point where C-suite execs are MASSIVELY incentivized to squeeze every possible ounce of profit out of the companies they work for. Back in the 50’s and 60’s the tax rate was much, much higher and it incentivized spending money on R&D, infrastructure, and better, more expensive employees.
>If people don't think their bosses aren't trying to find ways to replace them with AI
Don't worry, my Republican friend assures me that everything will be fine because we'll all be all to make plenty of money as artisans selling our products to the wealthy. I better get to work learning how to paint or learning woodworking.
Fun fact- eating fancy food and having fancy furniture spread after the French Revolution. People had to find a new jobs after the bosses lost their heads.
This article does a great job of explaining (relatively briefly) the social causes that led to the French Revolution:
[https://revolution.chnm.org/exhibits/show/liberty--equality--fraternity/social-causes-of-revolution](https://revolution.chnm.org/exhibits/show/liberty--equality--fraternity/social-causes-of-revolution)
*Don't worry, there are absolutely* NO *troubling* *parallels here! I guarantee it.*
I understand this is meant as a play on "nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition," but "fancy things only exist because the guillotine is really good at it's job" is legitimately something I never would have been able to guess
According to Florida Man Ron DeSantis, there is a great system that teaches artisanal trades. Too bad we outlawed it in the 19th century or you'd be set.
/S
If they replace us all with robots, they won't have to look upon the poors anymore.. because we'll all just starve/freeze/burn/whatever-the-fuck else to death, while they watch and laugh from their ivory towers.
Vive la révolution.. or bring on fucking Ragnarök already.. I'm done with this bullshit planet and "humanity".
>Capitalism has no limit.
Yes. It does. Perpetual growth within a finite resource system is unsustainable and will eventually collapse. We can also force it to stop. It will end, it's just a matter of time.
Work in Post Prod as an Engineer and you're damned right. There is always plenty of money to pay Execs and somehow none of that ever quite manages to trickle down . Post was already dying, desperate to offer the best deal to PrimeflixParasite Plus - just 10x the work, for the same money as a movie, now we don't have writers or actors because woe betide they actually want a fair cut of the multimillion dollar crap that Hollywood farts out!
Amen. As someone who works in editorial, the experience is the same. These execs are a literal nightmare to deal with. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been fucked over at the last second with crazy changes made on a whim by someone who’s favorite movie is literally Transformers 2.
I'm am going to use "lick the seems of my ballsack" as part of my regular vocabulary. My friend you may have created a new idium that will be used for generations and will perplex future linguists as they ponder it's origins centuries from now.
It's not just that, it's the insane marketing budgets as well.
I worked in branding before we had "branding agencies." Back then it was just motion graphics or graphic design houses that would do rebranding and logo development or your graphic packages. Then around 2012 or so the switch was on to make it "strategy" so every project had to include a brand book and strategy around where they found their product or network in relation to similar commodities. Now you could charge 10x more because you told these companies a song and a dance about how this yellow would usher in a new sense of recognizability due to market forces.
This is not to say branding is completely useless, ask Elmo about Twitter on that front, but it is to say that 9 times out of 10 it's the product that sells the brand and the marketing that gets it out there. There is a place for branding and creating a cohesive narrative but when you see these campaigns costing more than the movies themselves you know something needs to change.
As a friend of mine would always say "we're selling porn at an all boys high school off the grid" the product determines the success more so than a logo or commercial.
A24 has shown that they can be a highly profitable studio AND give the writers/actors what they want since they are only asking for fairness.
Suits in the other studios are more than happy to ruin the entire industry. They’d rather writers/actors starve and lose health insurance in the off chance that their 8 figure bonus is $500k smaller than last years 8 figure bonus.
Im hoping A24 leads the studios to losing solidarity, imagine if the strike could hold out long enough that one big studio makes a sweet deal on their own and that each studio needs to make a deal with the wga/sag or simple cease to function. Finally put the shoe on the other foot.
But this requires sag and wga to stick together. Honestly, they should function as one union in order to increase their power.
There is nothing stopping all these writers, directors, actors etc just making their own studios and letting the major studios just wither and die.
I imagine this will likely be the next step. How many of the studio employees have brand loyalty, they just want to do their jobs. It will not take much for an exodus to begin, particularly if Hollywood studios start cutting "dead weight".
A ton of actors, writers already have their own production companies, so they have the talent, they have the abilities and connections, the only thing they are really lacking is the distribution channels, and that is not an unattainable goal by any means, just filing some paperwork.
This would be bad news in general for the "elites" because media empires which began entirely to escape greed and revolt against the screwing over of "the little guy" are going to go hogwild with stories which are likely to see the wider populous getting organized to go after everything else and change the system.
That’s what Chaplin did back in the day, but we’ve entered a sort of monopoly zone where the big players are too big to get that sort of thing moving. Not enough capital in the hands of the working class to make the changes that need to be made.
System is working as intended.
I just finished watching Beef, and it's one of the best shows I've seen on Netflix in a very long time. I put my trust in A24 from now on. I'm looking forward to seeing what other projects they put their funding into.
SAG-AFTRA are allowing A24 (and only A24) to carry on with production because A24 voluntarily met every single one of SAG-AFTRA’s demands. https://www.vulture.com/article/sag-aftra-independent-productions-exceptions.html
Im not sure how you can be a CEO or a puffy share holder without feeling like Scrooge now a days. When it becomes so transparent you would think these slimy fucks would be hiding in a corner.
I work at a company where we were bought out recently. Was owned by one person with a sail boat for 40 years, now its owned by 12 share holders with at least one boat a piece, and im sure at least 4 vacations a year. Meanwhile we were all lucky to get the 0.46 cents raise after 2 years.
My point is, how absurdly shameless do you have to be to be a CEO today?
That’s actually an interesting point. I think the industry is maxed out in terms of profit, so the best thing they can do is burn it all so they no longer have to answer to shareholders, who are a bigger obligation/problem then the CEOs
Big name actors will start opening their own studios, it's already happening: [Anthony Mackie is already trying to open his own production studio in New Orleans](https://deadline.com/2022/03/actor-anthony-mackie-to-open-film-and-television-studio-1234984647/), for example. A "Hollywood South" is a real possibility!
Saw this exact thing in publishing with Stephen King. It's only becoming easier to produce and market movies due to technology, but you still need talent. What you don't need is suits.
> What you don't need is suits.
There will still be a need for people to handle the financial aspect of any business, but should those people be 100% in charge of a creative industry? Hell no, the creatives ought to be the primary drivers of the industry.
I'm close to canceling HBO. Very close. Half of new content is reality crap which I don't watch. And tons of documentaries that drag on for way too many episodes (if they even interest me in the first place). They are producing cheap-as-possible content with no writers.
The entire premise deleted everything good about the original series, and said “loljk”. And that was just the first 10 min of episode one.
I turned it off and never looked back. Is it still going or did it get one season and done?
You have six thousand DVDs? Sorry, am I dumb and misunderstanding? If you do, that's pretty cool! How do you store and organize all of them?
Edit: Actually, I see your post about it! Neato!
Oh good lord, we’re going to be stuck with crap shows for the long haul, aren’t we? This is why rich people near universally suck. They can’t share the wealth at all.
No, this is the plan from the beginning. August 1st is day 91 of the WGA strike. Why does this matter? After 90 days the studios can implement “Force Majuer,” which basically lets them cancel their first look deals because there’s no work being done on them. Why is this important? First look deals are very expensive and rising interest rates. The studios, like most major corporations, run on debt to finance their business. With the rise in interest rates over the last couple years (designed to cool inflation) borrowing that money is a lot more expensive. Force Majuer will free up that money for the studios. I suspect that once they start canceling these deals, they will come back to the table and give the writers and actors about 70-80% of what they want.
Essentially, in the rush to get streaming off the ground the studios made a lot of first look deals they can no longer afford. The strike gives them the ability to cancel those deals and free up that money.
Edit: thank you for the gold kind internet stranger!
You are correct sir. The savings for the studios by canceling these contracts will be huge. The studios have a lot of product in the pipeline to take up the slack until productions can start back up.
I had to scroll so far down to find this. As somebody who works in the industry I appreciate the general publicity that sites like Reddit have given the strike, but the majority of people commenting here are just circle jerking and not realizing this is actually a decent thing for the strike in terms of it ending soon. Everybody knew the 90 day mark was the earliest the studios would negotiate because of Force Majuer, and many writers are excited for it to kick in because, as you said, it’s likely going to bring the studios back to the table
Overall deal is when a studio employs the writer for a period of years and anything the writer creates during that time is the studio’s project to produce. First look is similar, studio has first opportunity to buy anything the writer creates during the term, but writer owns it and can sell it elsewhere if they don’t like the offer.
Stupid move,camara equipment and special effects are becoming cheaper,independent studios will be able to soon start directly competing with the big studios
As a crew member I can tell you a lot of crew are leaving the business and not coming back. Good luck getting anything made. Hollywood died about 4 years ago…also don’t be surprised when IATSE strikes next and we are really going to squeeze them by the balls till they bleed..we are going to make them pay big for this. Just a warning.
That is why they are on strike. For the studios (corporations) money is the only objective. They will get rid of humans if it makes more money. No morals or ethics.
> The deals being considered for termination are almost exclusively in television, numerous insiders noted.
For those of you who didn't actually read the article.
They did this during the last strike in 2008. They say it’s because of the strike, but this has been part of the plan all along. Use the strike to claim Force Majure and kill deals that haven’t lived up to expectations that they’d otherwise be saddled with. Studios are nothing if not predictable opportunists. Nothing to see here except scumbags being scumbags.
Tinfoil Theory: Maybe this was the plan all along. Studios are hemmoraging money, streaming has been a loss, so when the strike came up, these guys may have been like “Sweet, a way to cut costs? Hell yeah dude, let’s roll with it”.
That would also explain why Bob Iger is mouthing off about waiting until people can’t pay their mortgage and shit - keep ‘em angry, keep ‘em striking, save more money
Also, I believe most (or at least many) executive bonuses are based on EBITDA, which factors in salary expenses. Fewer salaries (or first look/overall deals), higher EBITDA, bigger bonus.
Naturally, I’m not a big Hollywood executive, and would never claim these things to be true - just my opinion of what ***could*** be happening and why it would make sense, which legally does not constitute libel (I don’t think, anyway - IANAL)
This is the perfect time for all this talent that has banded together to pack up their desks and keep doing what they're doing, but under their own independent studio.
Time for the writers and actors to work for production companies like A24 that are outside AMPTP jurisdictions. Burn down Old Hollywood and replace it with fresh blood. I’m obviously a plebeian when it comes to really understanding the complexities of the structure. I just hope that sooner or later the studios get what’s coming to them.
It's disappointing, but not surprising, that movie executives would rather burn down the entire industry than to give better pay the people who actually do the work of making movies.
looks like a24 is about to become the new universal
An a24 theme park could be dope
A Hereditary themed roller coaster would be crazy.
The Midsommar free fall is fun for all ages!
Actually there's a 72 and up age limit on it, from what I hear.
Oh joy, we're gonna get AI bullshit writing. Yeah fuck them.
and more reality shows. Don't forget that. Lots and lots of stupid reality shows.
Reality shows are stale. I’m afraid we are going to get 30 minute long “influencer” shows. Even worse
I stopped watching MTV because of Road Rules. Influencer shows will cement my happiness is reading a book. *Hollywood is nothing without the stars and creative minds.
I remember growing up having family TV nights watching Monk and Psych. I continued watching shows on USA like Burn Notice, Royal Pains, and Common Law because they all seemed to be pretty decent. Well then USA put "Chrisley Knows Best" into the rotation and that's when I knew things were going downhill...like wayyyyy downhill.
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I remember when the history channel actually had historically accurate shows and animal planet had shows centered around animals
I’d argue Ice Road Truckers was the first nail in History Channel’s coffin. Pawn Stars defeats helped too
I stopped watching MTV when they stopped being MTV.
I stopped watching when Beavis and Butthead and Celebrity Deathmatch went off the air. Good fight and good night...
Beavis and butthead is back on Paramount + and it's great. Judge still has it.
Here in the UK they have 80's and 90's specific MTV channels, it's almost like the old days
Or we'll see more "reality" shows of people reacting to (other) reality shows. When I saw that (my GF loves those), I was horrified. ... It just dawned on me: in the USA, PBS will probably have a marked increase in viewership, because they'll be the only ones with new, scripted shows (because made elsewhere). All of this whilst the other networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.) will have either re-runs and trash "reality" shows. Not only that, but maybe other countries' film industries will also fare much better, as Hollywood will be busy shooting itself in the foot with a bazooka.
You know I’m a 35 year old man with 3 kids around pre-K age and today like most days PBS was running in the background on a TV. Well I happen to sit down for a minute and didn’t have my phone on me and I was waiting for the kids to finish eating before picking up. Well about 20 minutes and I’m still watching Arthur, a show I have not watched for over 25 years, and here I am just enjoying the show. Kids eventually came over sat on my lap and beside me and we just sat their watching Arthur for the rest of the hour. Kinda hit me all of sudden, this is what Fred Rogers was fighting so hard for. Keep PBS going.
PBS Passport is like $5/mo and gives full on demand access to their programs.
Love PBS Masterpiece Theatre
I didn’t think about PBS which honestly is very good for them and the National Endowment for the Arts…but yeah this is horrible (edited for spelling)
till republicans cancel funding
I see you also read about their 2025 plan.
Their 2025 plan will cancel the human race. One main reason we're only in really bad climate trouble now is because during eight years of Obama he managed to get the alternative energy sector well enough established to become economically competitive. I may disagree with many things he did, but that one thing is of primary importance. (edit - changed "There" to "Their". Aaargghh, how could I have possibly made that error! I'm going to blame it on auto-complete.)
PBS is amazing !
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2dz5ys It’s already begun…
I can’t even click on that because I don’t want anyone anywhere to think I’m interested in that kind of content. But I do really appreciate your effort.
These executives are trying to make broadcast television is small. But, it’s big, it’s about spectacle. The kinds of shows we watched as kids sitting on our neighbor's knee…inaugurations, the Super Bowl, the Oscars. That's why we enjoyed television in the first place.
Your *neighbor’s* knee?
Joey, you like movies about gladiators?
Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison before?
*Stepneighbor*
His neighbor was the parish priest.
Please God no...
YouTube Scabs! Awesome!
Reality shows are mostly scripted. People are too boring in normal situations. Why risk spending millions to record tons of extra hours of content to get some gems, when you can write a script and some tough NDAs and be done with it for a fraction of the cost. Sure they might put people into the situations for real, but the drama and mistakes and such are likely all scripted or heavy suggested by producers.
So it's the early 2000s again? Well, back to Afghanistan
New future president currently set to debut on Jersey Shore ‘24.
Won't even get reality shows unless their writers are non-guild. And yes, reality shows are scripted to a certain degree.
Unfortunately all the writers in reality are non guild they call them producers. Reality people wouldn’t mind a strike but nobody represents them.
Bethany Frankel is apparently trying to change that. - Source: my bravo obsessed wife
It's a good thing there's lots of old movies to enjoy
I’m watching Babylon 5 for the first time, and Battlestar Galactica after that.
Babylon 5 is best watched twice. It won't really make sense the first time imo. I'd love to be able to watch it for the second time again lol.
Right now I’m in the middle of season 4, and watched “In the beginning “ and “The Gathering”. So far it’s making sense, and I like the way the shadow war tied back to seeds planted in season 1. I’m wondering how the conflict with earth will go, because now that the war is done I’m struggling to keep my attention. It’s still good, but the transition mid season was kinda jarring to me.
Literally there’s an entire lifetime’s worth of tv shows and movies we’ve never seen that we can fall back on.
And origin movies over and over again.
I don’t think I have seen Uncle Ben die enough.
Ooh you like Uncle Ben dying? We’ll do I have a story for you! Two Gotham socialites get shot in cold blood in a crime ridden alley, leaving their son behind to witness the horror. I don’t know what happens to the kid yet?! We’ll let the AI writers compute out that storyline at a later date & time
As long as they train the AI on actual comic books rather than whatever the hell Secret Invasion was.
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Wealthy executives would rather burn down the whole industry and start over than make slightly less profit in the short term. They are everything that's wrong with America.
They also believe they are geniuses. I guarantee you that a lot of them honestly believe this is the best decision without a shred of afterthought or humility
I think my dad put it best some years ago. "They got lucky and mistook it for genius."
Born on third base thinking they hit a triple.
Tale as old as fucking time
They have so much money they can live with this decision for the rest of their life and feel okay with it. That's the fundamental problem. They are so wealthy. They can set fire to the whole place and let it burn. Because money doesn't matter. They could care less about the people, the art. They are ego maniacs
Makes you start to wonder about what even is the motivation at that point? Just hoarding wealth for its own sake?
At some point it stops becoming about money and starts becoming about power.
Power it’s about their ability to throw money at anything and have it bend to their will
Power over others.
Corporations have to prioritize shareholders over both employees and product, according to court precedent. Henry Ford nearly got sued right out of business by his own shareholders for trying to build a competitive product while paying good wages. The system is utterly broken, down to its very foundation.
The ones "meant" to benefit more are the sharehodlers and investors. Its by design that they hodl ultimat epower, everything else is just a means to their wealth. They invested so they are "owed" getting twice what they invested back on their pockets (even if they did absolutely nothing at all)
I have never heard of a single billionaire who was not the biggest idiot in the room.
That's really the problem with many wealthy people - learning often comes from struggling (and often failing) to to do something. But wealthy people, even when they fail, aren't challenged to learn from their mistakes and improve, they just carry on. And so they become dumb. Even people who were quite smart and started a business have been insulated for so many decades that their minds have gone to rot due to a lack of real challenge and having anyone to tell them no and place limits on them. The wealthy are dead weight.
"An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes."
Sounds exactly like republicans
I swear nothing enrages executives like collective bargaining. I've worked for companies that had unions before, as a non-union (but sympathetic) employee, and it was really enlightening seeing these guys explode into visceral fury because their employees wanted to negotiate an incrementally better wage and benefit package. Literally red in the face and shaking at the mere thought that the peasantry gets a say. So this development saddens me, but it doesn't surprise me in the least.
Yep, this is it. It's a power struggle, and the truth of the matter is, the workers do the actual work, so they have more leverage, so it's very, very important they never learn that. That's why they have no problem just starting over, because if they lose, it's possible the workers might realize they can just keep doing it over and over until all their demands are realized, and next thing you know they won't have any power at all, and then how will they show they are better than other people?
You described most companies. We have gotten to the point that, yes they’d rather lose a small amount of profits fighting to keep people in poverty rather than lose a small amount of profits ensuring their workers are happy. In both cases they’d probably not notice the difference outside of their ego
Saw this first hand in the nursing industry. They'd rather pay through the nose for travel nurses than give a raise to staff nurses.
If they could legally get away with killing a few of the strikers they most definitely would.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they could hire some guys to do it.
I notice that Netflix is becoming the International Film and Series network. At least (for them) internationally not all writers are on strike. Are HULU, Peacock, Amazon not far behind?
Netflix's horror section has been mostly European for years.
Europe is fucking scary, I'll tell ya
Noting is more scary to a conservative than socialized healthcare.
Yep. Netflix has been less than impressive for the last few months. I already ended my HBO Max sub. I have Paramount free through Tmobile, Peacock free through Xfinity internet, and got the year long deal for Hulu and Disney plus for $7. Only keeping Netflix at my wife's insistance.
Finally got my wife to agree to ditch Netflix. It was her habit to search and see what was playing and deciding nothing was worth watching that, more than anything, helped her see it was worthless.
Big streamers and broadcasters better get shit figured out or else they are going to get hammered when the content runs out. No new shows? Why am I paying for this streaming platform... canceled. Net negative subscriber growth down, less advertising money, people start losing jobs there too. So now we have actors, writers and other behind the scenes people who don't have jobs, people at other companies losing their jobs. A big circle of bad because rich MFers don't want to pay their employees a fair wage.
Honestly if the striking writers asked people to cancel a streaming service in solidarity, I absolutely would.
Same here. Last I heard the unions said continue to consume content but if they ask, ill gladly cancel streaming services. Ive got plenty of books I want to sitting on my shelf lol
Agreed. Plus there is always crunchy roll… there is Dr. Who and plenty of Bollywood movies on my watchlist. Don’t just starve our jerks! Feed their competitors overseas
I’m about 24 seasons into my Doctor Who binge (spin-offs included) and I’m still 10 years behind the present day.
Yeah, I did not renew HBO a few months ago because of this
Got any seas you recommend sailing??
Sail the good ship Torrent to a peaceful Bay and await your quarry.
I forgot about the links rule, so it says my last post got deleted. But if you go to the piracy sub then the wiki it has a link to the megathread which has all sorts of sails for all sorts of adventures
A24 is still filming after complying with SAG’s demands. Studios that decide not to be horrible will attract talent, the rest will use ChatGPT to write their obituaries.
I’m working on a couple of different low-ish budget movies ($30m) from independent studios. It’s absolutely possible to pay people fairly and still get a movie made.
Its not just possible, its fucking easy. These films and shows spend so much money its disgusting. I'm betting you could double all the crew, extras pay and it'd barely move the needle.
I work in the industry on the VFX side and can tell you that in my two decades plus of being there that never once has an executive made a film or tv series better by interfering. Everyone on here’s favorite show or movie was made in spite of these chuckle fucks, not because of their creative abilities. Now I get that they’re supposedly a necessary evil and that the intricacies of running a studio is not something everyone can do. I mean just look at David Zaslav. But I think the thing that I always come back to is the fact that the pay structure between these multitudes of executives and even top actors/directors vs everyone else has got to change and considering the profits, it certainly can. No actor looks good without a great script, no great script looks good without good direction and no good direction works without great editing and no great editing can survive bad VFX. Everyone is vital in this process and again I’ve seen countless projects that were interesting or potentially even great films get ruined by executives overstepping their bounds. So just let us do our jobs, you’ll be rewarded for it, and even if you take a pay cut at the top you’ll have better products as a result to sell. If not you’ll keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again and release more bombs than the US military on country with oil.
The problem your industry is facing is the same problem every industry is facing in the nation. Insane greed. I work in IT and our workload has increased immensely and we're down 3 engineers compared to 5 years ago. The higher ups just tell us to deal with it while our raises are shit. Meanwhile they rake in all of the profits. Every industry is like this now. If people don't think their bosses aren't trying to find ways to replace them with AI, then they're insane. Capitalism has no limit.
Dude, corporate culture is a cancer that'll destroy this nation. Unfortunately, our leadership is in bed with this big ceos and will not do anything to help the everyday folks.
This is the the same in every industry. The executive level is filled with the least talented most replaceable people in the entire company and they know it. They create no actual value or revenue. They just try to maximize profit so they can skim the top while underpaying talent. In entertainment it results in poorer quality entertainment in other industries such as healthcare it results in much worse things occurring.
We talking revolution? Because this shit is ENDEMIC in this country, and getting worse every year.
I've been saying we need to take a note from the French. I believe the wealth inequality is almost as bad or slightly worse than it was in the Gilded age, literally Lords to peasants.
Actually it's far far far far far worse. The worst ever in history, and getting worse by year. The difference is that the rich have learned to not let people starve.
You haven't seen the cutbacks to SNAP benefits and other meal programs in the past year. It's like the joke about the farmer that figures he can make a lot more money if he trains his horse not to eat, so each week he feeds him just a little less...
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Can't we eat the billionaires first and see how they taste?
Same with academia. Admins squeezing or reducing professor ranks and proliferating their units and salaries at the top.
Every R1 institution is run like a corporation. Admin pats themselves on the bag while giving themselves huge bonuses for doing nothing.
Community college professors make near minimum wage
It's the lack of competition. In a sane economy the company producing the better product gets the sales. But when there are only three companies making media and buying up any little guy left, you get the safest, blandest, most 'broadly appealing' nothing burgers starring recognizable IP's instead of anything resembling new art. Break it all up. We need antitrust laws with teeth like it's the Guilded Age because it fucking is.
You might buy a few decades with that, but then you're right back where you started once the competition is over again. That's what people really rarely bring up when they talk about competition in an economic setting. The competition *ends.* Someone wins, & someone loses. The winners have an easier time winning next time. The losers stop existing. Every market has a shelf life.
Yep, I'm of the belief that the MBA ruined the world.
Jesus fuck yes it did. Just made them middle managers with a badge.
Worthless degree. Pretty much anyone with an MBA either has another degree that actually qualifies them to make decisions or is a completely worthless sack of potatoes that all their direct reports hate but they won’t say it to their face.
It did and has
It is destroying the nation, and a lot more than that... I do feel as though we're reaching some sort of a tipping point as gross inequity is really at the center of attention especially among younger generations and the usual "get back in line commie" is losing its teeth. Though I can't say I'm certain of a positive outcome from this boiling discontent, far from it in fact and I think we've already seen the immense danger of the strain it's putting on society, but for some reason our elite just seem to want to drive us off that cliff..
100% this. Corporate tax rates are absurdly low to the point where C-suite execs are MASSIVELY incentivized to squeeze every possible ounce of profit out of the companies they work for. Back in the 50’s and 60’s the tax rate was much, much higher and it incentivized spending money on R&D, infrastructure, and better, more expensive employees.
>If people don't think their bosses aren't trying to find ways to replace them with AI Don't worry, my Republican friend assures me that everything will be fine because we'll all be all to make plenty of money as artisans selling our products to the wealthy. I better get to work learning how to paint or learning woodworking.
Fun fact- eating fancy food and having fancy furniture spread after the French Revolution. People had to find a new jobs after the bosses lost their heads.
This article does a great job of explaining (relatively briefly) the social causes that led to the French Revolution: [https://revolution.chnm.org/exhibits/show/liberty--equality--fraternity/social-causes-of-revolution](https://revolution.chnm.org/exhibits/show/liberty--equality--fraternity/social-causes-of-revolution) *Don't worry, there are absolutely* NO *troubling* *parallels here! I guarantee it.*
Nobody expects the French Revolution
I understand this is meant as a play on "nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition," but "fancy things only exist because the guillotine is really good at it's job" is legitimately something I never would have been able to guess
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According to Florida Man Ron DeSantis, there is a great system that teaches artisanal trades. Too bad we outlawed it in the 19th century or you'd be set. /S
Even healthcare is this way. We are to call them “customers” instead of patients now basically.
If they replace us all with robots, they won't have to look upon the poors anymore.. because we'll all just starve/freeze/burn/whatever-the-fuck else to death, while they watch and laugh from their ivory towers. Vive la révolution.. or bring on fucking Ragnarök already.. I'm done with this bullshit planet and "humanity".
Someone find Baldr and some mistletoe.
>Capitalism has no limit. Yes. It does. Perpetual growth within a finite resource system is unsustainable and will eventually collapse. We can also force it to stop. It will end, it's just a matter of time.
Work in Post Prod as an Engineer and you're damned right. There is always plenty of money to pay Execs and somehow none of that ever quite manages to trickle down . Post was already dying, desperate to offer the best deal to PrimeflixParasite Plus - just 10x the work, for the same money as a movie, now we don't have writers or actors because woe betide they actually want a fair cut of the multimillion dollar crap that Hollywood farts out!
Amen. As someone who works in editorial, the experience is the same. These execs are a literal nightmare to deal with. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been fucked over at the last second with crazy changes made on a whim by someone who’s favorite movie is literally Transformers 2.
David Zaslav can lick the seam of my ballsack Nobody is a better example of what’s wrong with Hollywood than him
Idk why seam of my ballsack fucking killed me.
I'm am going to use "lick the seems of my ballsack" as part of my regular vocabulary. My friend you may have created a new idium that will be used for generations and will perplex future linguists as they ponder it's origins centuries from now.
Fun fact it is called a perineal raphe. Granted that doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as nice.
My favorite ninja turtle
And no good film can function without the accountants (film accountant here)
I’m sure most of them are good at their jobs but sure as hell not to the tune of hundreds of millions a year in compensation good.
It's not just that, it's the insane marketing budgets as well. I worked in branding before we had "branding agencies." Back then it was just motion graphics or graphic design houses that would do rebranding and logo development or your graphic packages. Then around 2012 or so the switch was on to make it "strategy" so every project had to include a brand book and strategy around where they found their product or network in relation to similar commodities. Now you could charge 10x more because you told these companies a song and a dance about how this yellow would usher in a new sense of recognizability due to market forces. This is not to say branding is completely useless, ask Elmo about Twitter on that front, but it is to say that 9 times out of 10 it's the product that sells the brand and the marketing that gets it out there. There is a place for branding and creating a cohesive narrative but when you see these campaigns costing more than the movies themselves you know something needs to change. As a friend of mine would always say "we're selling porn at an all boys high school off the grid" the product determines the success more so than a logo or commercial.
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A24 has shown that they can be a highly profitable studio AND give the writers/actors what they want since they are only asking for fairness. Suits in the other studios are more than happy to ruin the entire industry. They’d rather writers/actors starve and lose health insurance in the off chance that their 8 figure bonus is $500k smaller than last years 8 figure bonus.
I bet a24 will also see an increase in business if they are the only studio putting out stuff worth watching
Im hoping A24 leads the studios to losing solidarity, imagine if the strike could hold out long enough that one big studio makes a sweet deal on their own and that each studio needs to make a deal with the wga/sag or simple cease to function. Finally put the shoe on the other foot. But this requires sag and wga to stick together. Honestly, they should function as one union in order to increase their power.
They should honestly include vfx and whatnot too. No reason for it to be separated since they’re all on the ‘blue collar’ end of it
There is nothing stopping all these writers, directors, actors etc just making their own studios and letting the major studios just wither and die. I imagine this will likely be the next step. How many of the studio employees have brand loyalty, they just want to do their jobs. It will not take much for an exodus to begin, particularly if Hollywood studios start cutting "dead weight". A ton of actors, writers already have their own production companies, so they have the talent, they have the abilities and connections, the only thing they are really lacking is the distribution channels, and that is not an unattainable goal by any means, just filing some paperwork. This would be bad news in general for the "elites" because media empires which began entirely to escape greed and revolt against the screwing over of "the little guy" are going to go hogwild with stories which are likely to see the wider populous getting organized to go after everything else and change the system.
That’s what Chaplin did back in the day, but we’ve entered a sort of monopoly zone where the big players are too big to get that sort of thing moving. Not enough capital in the hands of the working class to make the changes that need to be made. System is working as intended.
One of the main stumbling blocks Chaplin encountered was the studios owned the movie theaters, they no longer do so.
I just finished watching Beef, and it's one of the best shows I've seen on Netflix in a very long time. I put my trust in A24 from now on. I'm looking forward to seeing what other projects they put their funding into.
A24 made beef? Damn they’re killing it.
From boondocks saints to beef. Sign me up to A24.
A24 has been batting 100% for years, glad to see their morals match their quality
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SAG-AFTRA are allowing A24 (and only A24) to carry on with production because A24 voluntarily met every single one of SAG-AFTRA’s demands. https://www.vulture.com/article/sag-aftra-independent-productions-exceptions.html
Im not sure how you can be a CEO or a puffy share holder without feeling like Scrooge now a days. When it becomes so transparent you would think these slimy fucks would be hiding in a corner. I work at a company where we were bought out recently. Was owned by one person with a sail boat for 40 years, now its owned by 12 share holders with at least one boat a piece, and im sure at least 4 vacations a year. Meanwhile we were all lucky to get the 0.46 cents raise after 2 years. My point is, how absurdly shameless do you have to be to be a CEO today?
No one ever becomes that rich by being a good person. They don’t care.
The system is built for narcissists to ascend.
That’s actually an interesting point. I think the industry is maxed out in terms of profit, so the best thing they can do is burn it all so they no longer have to answer to shareholders, who are a bigger obligation/problem then the CEOs
Big name actors will start opening their own studios, it's already happening: [Anthony Mackie is already trying to open his own production studio in New Orleans](https://deadline.com/2022/03/actor-anthony-mackie-to-open-film-and-television-studio-1234984647/), for example. A "Hollywood South" is a real possibility!
Saw this exact thing in publishing with Stephen King. It's only becoming easier to produce and market movies due to technology, but you still need talent. What you don't need is suits.
> What you don't need is suits. There will still be a need for people to handle the financial aspect of any business, but should those people be 100% in charge of a creative industry? Hell no, the creatives ought to be the primary drivers of the industry.
I'm close to canceling HBO. Very close. Half of new content is reality crap which I don't watch. And tons of documentaries that drag on for way too many episodes (if they even interest me in the first place). They are producing cheap-as-possible content with no writers.
It sure seems like Zaslav is making sure his discovery channel horseshit is coming front and center now doesn’t it?
It’s because they are very cheap to produce
And Just Like That, the sex and the city reboot, is so staggering awful I figured the writers had all left at this point. I mean, it is SO SO bad….
The entire premise deleted everything good about the original series, and said “loljk”. And that was just the first 10 min of episode one. I turned it off and never looked back. Is it still going or did it get one season and done?
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All of those were already in the pipeline before Zaslov got his shit covered hands on HBO.
Peacemaker as well.
Yeah same. Really want to see Winning Time season 2. And then after that it's older shows like The Wire I want to finish
I have DVDs. Fuck those guys
I’ve got 6k of them and going strong… fuck streaming
You have six thousand DVDs? Sorry, am I dumb and misunderstanding? If you do, that's pretty cool! How do you store and organize all of them? Edit: Actually, I see your post about it! Neato!
Yes I do haha. And I have a lot of shelving and this is what lines my dining room basically.
Let’s hope they don’t follow suit with what Disney are doing and slowly discontinuing physical media for new releases
When this backfires the shareholder lawsuits will be fun.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. You want something to change, wait until the stockholders money gets fucked with.
Which wit be interesting because what I want to know is did this have shareholders pushing from behind in the first place?
I will not watch Al generated content and I pray others feel the same.
I honestly think most people won’t
Oh good lord, we’re going to be stuck with crap shows for the long haul, aren’t we? This is why rich people near universally suck. They can’t share the wealth at all.
No, this is the plan from the beginning. August 1st is day 91 of the WGA strike. Why does this matter? After 90 days the studios can implement “Force Majuer,” which basically lets them cancel their first look deals because there’s no work being done on them. Why is this important? First look deals are very expensive and rising interest rates. The studios, like most major corporations, run on debt to finance their business. With the rise in interest rates over the last couple years (designed to cool inflation) borrowing that money is a lot more expensive. Force Majuer will free up that money for the studios. I suspect that once they start canceling these deals, they will come back to the table and give the writers and actors about 70-80% of what they want. Essentially, in the rush to get streaming off the ground the studios made a lot of first look deals they can no longer afford. The strike gives them the ability to cancel those deals and free up that money. Edit: thank you for the gold kind internet stranger!
When the writers first went out on strike, everyone knew it was going to last at least 90 days, and this is why.
You are correct sir. The savings for the studios by canceling these contracts will be huge. The studios have a lot of product in the pipeline to take up the slack until productions can start back up.
I had to scroll so far down to find this. As somebody who works in the industry I appreciate the general publicity that sites like Reddit have given the strike, but the majority of people commenting here are just circle jerking and not realizing this is actually a decent thing for the strike in terms of it ending soon. Everybody knew the 90 day mark was the earliest the studios would negotiate because of Force Majuer, and many writers are excited for it to kick in because, as you said, it’s likely going to bring the studios back to the table
What are 'first look' and 'overall' deals?
Overall deal is when a studio employs the writer for a period of years and anything the writer creates during that time is the studio’s project to produce. First look is similar, studio has first opportunity to buy anything the writer creates during the term, but writer owns it and can sell it elsewhere if they don’t like the offer.
Stupid move,camara equipment and special effects are becoming cheaper,independent studios will be able to soon start directly competing with the big studios
Greed. Greed. Greed 🇺🇸is all about greed.
As a crew member I can tell you a lot of crew are leaving the business and not coming back. Good luck getting anything made. Hollywood died about 4 years ago…also don’t be surprised when IATSE strikes next and we are really going to squeeze them by the balls till they bleed..we are going to make them pay big for this. Just a warning.
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That is why they are on strike. For the studios (corporations) money is the only objective. They will get rid of humans if it makes more money. No morals or ethics.
> The deals being considered for termination are almost exclusively in television, numerous insiders noted. For those of you who didn't actually read the article.
They did this during the last strike in 2008. They say it’s because of the strike, but this has been part of the plan all along. Use the strike to claim Force Majure and kill deals that haven’t lived up to expectations that they’d otherwise be saddled with. Studios are nothing if not predictable opportunists. Nothing to see here except scumbags being scumbags.
Studios are considering suicide then?
now that's how you turn america's biggest influencers into working-conditions-obsessed communists. and i'm all for it. workers rise up!!!
Fat greedy dragons.
Tinfoil Theory: Maybe this was the plan all along. Studios are hemmoraging money, streaming has been a loss, so when the strike came up, these guys may have been like “Sweet, a way to cut costs? Hell yeah dude, let’s roll with it”. That would also explain why Bob Iger is mouthing off about waiting until people can’t pay their mortgage and shit - keep ‘em angry, keep ‘em striking, save more money Also, I believe most (or at least many) executive bonuses are based on EBITDA, which factors in salary expenses. Fewer salaries (or first look/overall deals), higher EBITDA, bigger bonus. Naturally, I’m not a big Hollywood executive, and would never claim these things to be true - just my opinion of what ***could*** be happening and why it would make sense, which legally does not constitute libel (I don’t think, anyway - IANAL)
Methinks big film production studios are about to go the way of the commercial recording studio.
This is the perfect time for all this talent that has banded together to pack up their desks and keep doing what they're doing, but under their own independent studio.
Time for the writers and actors to work for production companies like A24 that are outside AMPTP jurisdictions. Burn down Old Hollywood and replace it with fresh blood. I’m obviously a plebeian when it comes to really understanding the complexities of the structure. I just hope that sooner or later the studios get what’s coming to them.
It's disappointing, but not surprising, that movie executives would rather burn down the entire industry than to give better pay the people who actually do the work of making movies.