The latest episode of the excellent Scriptnotes podcast mentioned that if IATSE chooses to strike, nothing would get made because they cover so much of the workforce necessary that there would be...
"If we have to go on strike, it would be devastating."
The latest episode of the excellent Scriptnotes podcast mentioned that if IATSE chooses to strike, nothing would get made because they cover so much of the workforce necessary that there would be no way to replace those workers en-masse.
From the carrot/stick perspective they have a very, very big stick.
I think it’s absurd that they are expected to work some of the most grueling hours in entertainment and walk away with maybe 18$ an hour while the “talent” makes millions in passive income. How...
I think it’s absurd that they are expected to work some of the most grueling hours in entertainment and walk away with maybe 18$ an hour while the “talent” makes millions in passive income. How long did they think people would be ok with this!? Either way it’s been too long and they need to be paid much much more than this.
It's been that way since the beginning of filmmaking. People seem to think that working in the movie business means that you make tons of money, but that's not true. Almost all of the money spent...
It's been that way since the beginning of filmmaking. People seem to think that working in the movie business means that you make tons of money, but that's not true. Almost all of the money spent on personnel goes to the above the line positions.
On a typical medium-sized production, there are dozens of people on set doing behind the scenes jobs. On a big movie like a Marvel film, there will be hundreds. Those people typically make little money, especially when viewed in the context of living in a major city like Atlanta or LA. They have the possibility of moving up the ladder to a higher paying job dangled in front of them for years, but very few people actually manage it.
This always irritated me when the movie industry amped up the "but you're hurting the crews" rhetoric in their anti-piracy measures. No, the crews were already paid, as little as you possibly...
On a typical medium-sized production, there are dozens of people on set doing behind the scenes jobs. On a big movie like a Marvel film, there will be hundreds. Those people typically make little money, especially when viewed in the context of living in a major city like Atlanta or LA. They have the possibility of moving up the ladder to a higher paying job dangled in front of them for years, but very few people actually manage it.
This always irritated me when the movie industry amped up the "but you're hurting the crews" rhetoric in their anti-piracy measures.
No, the crews were already paid, as little as you possibly could. At worst, they're hurting your bottom line. You might need to pay your top talent a few less million on the next film to cover any piracy losses.
Are these people mostly just so interested in the movie industry that they’re willing to be paid poorly and overworked to be in it? Or are they the same people that are competing for similarly...
Are these people mostly just so interested in the movie industry that they’re willing to be paid poorly and overworked to be in it? Or are they the same people that are competing for similarly waged jobs elsewhere?
Many of them just want to work in film or aspire to be directors and it's very much a "start at the bottom and work your way up" industry. There's a lot of personal politics and having put in the...
Many of them just want to work in film or aspire to be directors and it's very much a "start at the bottom and work your way up" industry. There's a lot of personal politics and having put in the time to "earn" a promotion to a higher paying position.
My uncle is a sound tech. He doesn't care for movies, but he always knew sound was the career he wanted. For him, they pay isn't great but it's liveable in LA with sacrifices. There are a decent...
My uncle is a sound tech. He doesn't care for movies, but he always knew sound was the career he wanted. For him, they pay isn't great but it's liveable in LA with sacrifices. There are a decent number of people who get it better than your average set people, but still not great.
Quite honestly, with all of the production moving to Atlanta, I'm shocked that movie studios haven't tried playing Georgia and California against one another to see who can give them the best...
Quite honestly, with all of the production moving to Atlanta, I'm shocked that movie studios haven't tried playing Georgia and California against one another to see who can give them the best deals when it comes to legislation like this.
Let's see if a 75% Democratic legislature in both CA houses is willing to reject such a proposal? Historically that has been a poor bet but I'm willing to assume that's not the only option.
Let's see if a 75% Democratic legislature in both CA houses is willing to reject such a proposal? Historically that has been a poor bet but I'm willing to assume that's not the only option.
In another life, I continued my amateur theater tech passion into a career. I have the utmost sympathy for the crews and the conditions they're going through. Here's hoping the studios make some...
In another life, I continued my amateur theater tech passion into a career. I have the utmost sympathy for the crews and the conditions they're going through. Here's hoping the studios make some actual real concessions during negotiation.
Oh boy. So this gets at what I was talking about with unions using their power to bully people in the thread on McDonalds in Denmark. I have a friend who is a writer/director/producer in...
I have a friend who is a writer/director/producer in Hollywood. She's not famous or anything, just an independent filmmaker. She put her life savings into making a feature film. She pounded the pavement and did a lot of hard work to get investors to invest in her film. It has a few moderately well known actors in it, but no Brad Pitts or Angelina Jolies or anything. It's not some Marvel movie with a budget in the billions.
She insisted on using union workers because she believes in workers rights. She shows up for filming one day and the union rep tells they owe an addition 6 figures to work. She's confused and shows some documentation that everything's been paid up per their contract. He tells her, essentially, that's too bad. If you want all these people to do your filming, you need to pay us this additional money. She threatens to sue, but they tell her go ahead, because if she does, nobody in town will ever work with her again because they'll make sure everyone knows her name. She was eventually able to get some additional money from some investors, but she can't ever tell anyone what happened or she'll be out of a job.
I don't know whether it was this same union in the article, but it gets back to what I was saying about unions here in the US being fairly corrupt. I'd love to see the system work better, but when they're actively shaking down the people who are trying to help them, it makes it pretty hard.
(Full Disclosure: I invested a small amount of money (a few thousand dollars) in this project. I was not involved with these particular negotiations, and didn't hear about them until a few years after the incident happened.)
If you read the other post that I mention, it was about how unions in the US purport to be helping workers, but in fact use their power to bully individuals and organizations in ways unrelated to...
If you read the other post that I mention, it was about how unions in the US purport to be helping workers, but in fact use their power to bully individuals and organizations in ways unrelated to helping workers. I was lamenting the fact that I want to support better conditions for workers, but have yet to find an organization in the US working towards that that isn't also corrupt.
Yes, I've read both, and the fact that the last two threads that talked positively about unions both had a semi-relevant anti-union anecdote from you feels a little weird.
Yes, I've read both, and the fact that the last two threads that talked positively about unions both had a semi-relevant anti-union anecdote from you feels a little weird.
Yeah, I figured some would see it that way. I'd like to see these types of organizations take hold, but they are holding themselves back by being corrupt. I wanted to call it out in the hopes it...
Yeah, I figured some would see it that way. I'd like to see these types of organizations take hold, but they are holding themselves back by being corrupt. I wanted to call it out in the hopes it could be remedied, but it's clear that the audience here is not receptive to that reality, so I will not speak of it again here. In fact, this whole website seems to be becoming intolerant of any thought that isn't extremely far left (which, frankly, I've considered myself for most of my life), so I'll probably just reduce my use.
The latest episode of the excellent Scriptnotes podcast mentioned that if IATSE chooses to strike, nothing would get made because they cover so much of the workforce necessary that there would be no way to replace those workers en-masse.
From the carrot/stick perspective they have a very, very big stick.
I think it’s absurd that they are expected to work some of the most grueling hours in entertainment and walk away with maybe 18$ an hour while the “talent” makes millions in passive income. How long did they think people would be ok with this!? Either way it’s been too long and they need to be paid much much more than this.
It's been that way since the beginning of filmmaking. People seem to think that working in the movie business means that you make tons of money, but that's not true. Almost all of the money spent on personnel goes to the above the line positions.
On a typical medium-sized production, there are dozens of people on set doing behind the scenes jobs. On a big movie like a Marvel film, there will be hundreds. Those people typically make little money, especially when viewed in the context of living in a major city like Atlanta or LA. They have the possibility of moving up the ladder to a higher paying job dangled in front of them for years, but very few people actually manage it.
This always irritated me when the movie industry amped up the "but you're hurting the crews" rhetoric in their anti-piracy measures.
No, the crews were already paid, as little as you possibly could. At worst, they're hurting your bottom line. You might need to pay your top talent a few less million on the next film to cover any piracy losses.
Are these people mostly just so interested in the movie industry that they’re willing to be paid poorly and overworked to be in it? Or are they the same people that are competing for similarly waged jobs elsewhere?
Many of them just want to work in film or aspire to be directors and it's very much a "start at the bottom and work your way up" industry. There's a lot of personal politics and having put in the time to "earn" a promotion to a higher paying position.
My uncle is a sound tech. He doesn't care for movies, but he always knew sound was the career he wanted. For him, they pay isn't great but it's liveable in LA with sacrifices. There are a decent number of people who get it better than your average set people, but still not great.
Incoming anti-union legislation in 5...4...3...
Quite honestly, with all of the production moving to Atlanta, I'm shocked that movie studios haven't tried playing Georgia and California against one another to see who can give them the best deals when it comes to legislation like this.
Let's see if a 75% Democratic legislature in both CA houses is willing to reject such a proposal? Historically that has been a poor bet but I'm willing to assume that's not the only option.
In another life, I continued my amateur theater tech passion into a career. I have the utmost sympathy for the crews and the conditions they're going through. Here's hoping the studios make some actual real concessions during negotiation.
Oh boy. So this gets at what I was talking about with unions using their power to bully people in the thread on McDonalds in Denmark.
I have a friend who is a writer/director/producer in Hollywood. She's not famous or anything, just an independent filmmaker. She put her life savings into making a feature film. She pounded the pavement and did a lot of hard work to get investors to invest in her film. It has a few moderately well known actors in it, but no Brad Pitts or Angelina Jolies or anything. It's not some Marvel movie with a budget in the billions.
She insisted on using union workers because she believes in workers rights. She shows up for filming one day and the union rep tells they owe an addition 6 figures to work. She's confused and shows some documentation that everything's been paid up per their contract. He tells her, essentially, that's too bad. If you want all these people to do your filming, you need to pay us this additional money. She threatens to sue, but they tell her go ahead, because if she does, nobody in town will ever work with her again because they'll make sure everyone knows her name. She was eventually able to get some additional money from some investors, but she can't ever tell anyone what happened or she'll be out of a job.
I don't know whether it was this same union in the article, but it gets back to what I was saying about unions here in the US being fairly corrupt. I'd love to see the system work better, but when they're actively shaking down the people who are trying to help them, it makes it pretty hard.
(Full Disclosure: I invested a small amount of money (a few thousand dollars) in this project. I was not involved with these particular negotiations, and didn't hear about them until a few years after the incident happened.)
How does a union fighting for a living wage tie into your anecdote about a friend?
If you read the other post that I mention, it was about how unions in the US purport to be helping workers, but in fact use their power to bully individuals and organizations in ways unrelated to helping workers. I was lamenting the fact that I want to support better conditions for workers, but have yet to find an organization in the US working towards that that isn't also corrupt.
Yes, I've read both, and the fact that the last two threads that talked positively about unions both had a semi-relevant anti-union anecdote from you feels a little weird.
I was gonna say it sounds like typical Union buster speak. About how unions are bullies etc etc.
And then comes the gaslighting. Awesome. Thanks.
Yeah, I figured some would see it that way. I'd like to see these types of organizations take hold, but they are holding themselves back by being corrupt. I wanted to call it out in the hopes it could be remedied, but it's clear that the audience here is not receptive to that reality, so I will not speak of it again here. In fact, this whole website seems to be becoming intolerant of any thought that isn't extremely far left (which, frankly, I've considered myself for most of my life), so I'll probably just reduce my use.