The irony is the same media conglomerates that were criticizing Wall Street are doing the same thing on their own books. Sadly, young actors accept just about any terms to get on a film.
A close friend was actually a judge on one of those "find the next star" shows, for singers. He says they pulled some really shady shit over on the kids - handed them a massive contract and two days to "review it" or they'd be dropped from the show; and this was after they'd made it past the first round of culling.
The contract was also very unfavorable to the kids, basically putting them completely at the mercy of the record label, for way too many years (and probably a lot more - not my circus, and it's been awhile).
I don't remember how it all turned out, except that the specific kid my friend was mentoring through all this went on to win.
That same friend has his own troubles with his original label. After making it big, he started to change direction, and the label just stopped putting his stuff out. Really put a damper on his career, since he basically dropped of the map until he got out from under them.
> After making it big, he started to change direction, and the label just stopped putting his stuff out.
This could describe a lot of people, but makes me think of George Michael. A lot of people followed the turn, and felt like it had enormous impact, even if the label wasn't pumping it to the top of the charts. Sales are great, but not all sales have equal impact on people's lives. Michael's later work really connected deeply with the people who followed it, I hope he knew that. If by any chance he was your friend, deeply sorry for your loss.
One of my favorite movies, and favorite one of the genre by far. If anyone who loves this movie hasn't seen the commentary track on the DVD, get it immediately. The actors present on the commentary are all in character so it sort of feels like a second movie.
I've heard rumours that, in contrast, the laserdisc release had the actors' commentary au naturale -- it's almost worth trying to hunt down a player and a copy, as I've never seen a rip published.
I have a copy of all three commentaries, including the in-character, as actors, and also the commentary with Rob Reiner, producer Karen Murphy, and editors Robert Leighton and Kent Beyda.
Feel free to email me if you'd like an MP3 you can mux in. It's a shame they didn't include this with the Criterion release.
Relevant quote: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”
As someone who spent about 20 years of my life in the music business, and also happens to be an ardent Hunter S. Thompson fan who is frustrated with this clunky and inelegant quote being attributed to him, I feel compelled to correct this.
The original line, from Generation Of Swine, is as follows:
"The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason. Which is more or less true. For the most part, they are dirty little animals with huge brains and no pulse."
Granted, you did not attribute the quote to anyone in particular, and by definition it is a quote from someone, somwhere, but it seems worth correcting nonetheless.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, various songs have been recorded about how soulless and money-grubbing the music industry is. Examples include Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar", Billy Squier's "The Stroke", and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Workin' for MCA".
Recently watched District 9 and it has a lot of the same charm. Life is really messy and chaotic, full of exploits and idiots, there are a lot of colossal fxckups and nobody really cares.
> Not for nothing did David Mamet include these lines in Speed-the-Plow, his satirical dissection of the American movie business: “Two things I've learned, 25 years in the entertainment industry.… The first one is: There is no ‘net.’… And I forgot the second one.”
This is why I discount "profit sharing" and heavily discount equity when evaluating job offers.
Voice actors or visual actors in the ever-increasing hollywood-ized titles get a royalty paycheck every time a box of software is sold at retail or on Steam. They may be paid royalties for a decade or more, with a successful A title.
Meanwhile the artists who generate content are paid only while doing their work, and the programmers who bring that content to life are paid a salary only while doing their work. There is typically no lasting financial commitment after the weekly paycheck. The could be laid off the week after release, and when the $$$ rolls into the studio, the team is home sleeping, fixing bugs, or looking for a new job. Starting anew.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 62.1 ms ] threadThe difference is the developer can wakeup and immediately change jobs but the musician that is signed is basically held hostage.
The contract was also very unfavorable to the kids, basically putting them completely at the mercy of the record label, for way too many years (and probably a lot more - not my circus, and it's been awhile).
I don't remember how it all turned out, except that the specific kid my friend was mentoring through all this went on to win.
That same friend has his own troubles with his original label. After making it big, he started to change direction, and the label just stopped putting his stuff out. Really put a damper on his career, since he basically dropped of the map until he got out from under them.
This could describe a lot of people, but makes me think of George Michael. A lot of people followed the turn, and felt like it had enormous impact, even if the label wasn't pumping it to the top of the charts. Sales are great, but not all sales have equal impact on people's lives. Michael's later work really connected deeply with the people who followed it, I hope he knew that. If by any chance he was your friend, deeply sorry for your loss.
Feel free to email me if you'd like an MP3 you can mux in. It's a shame they didn't include this with the Criterion release.
The original line, from Generation Of Swine, is as follows:
"The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason. Which is more or less true. For the most part, they are dirty little animals with huge brains and no pulse."
Granted, you did not attribute the quote to anyone in particular, and by definition it is a quote from someone, somwhere, but it seems worth correcting nonetheless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
This is why I discount "profit sharing" and heavily discount equity when evaluating job offers.
Voice actors or visual actors in the ever-increasing hollywood-ized titles get a royalty paycheck every time a box of software is sold at retail or on Steam. They may be paid royalties for a decade or more, with a successful A title.
Meanwhile the artists who generate content are paid only while doing their work, and the programmers who bring that content to life are paid a salary only while doing their work. There is typically no lasting financial commitment after the weekly paycheck. The could be laid off the week after release, and when the $$$ rolls into the studio, the team is home sleeping, fixing bugs, or looking for a new job. Starting anew.
The difference? Unionization.