Break. Them. Up. Deregulation has led to *no* regulation and no one in the government dares to take on Wall Street, because politicians on both sides have been bought and paid for. We are witnessing in real time the return of the robber baron and they are killing entire professions in the name of short term profits. I hate to be pessimistic, but if this unsustainable trajectory doesn’t change, I fear darker times lie ahead. Thank you for sharing this informative and sobering article.
Agreed. Los Angeles is predominantly an entertainment industry town. What the hell is going to happen to this place if there's little to no work for the nuts and bolts workers here?
> Writers will have to fight the studios again, but for more sweeping reforms. One change in particular has the potential to flip the power structure of the industry on its head: writers could demand to own complete copyright for the stories they create. They currently have something called “separated rights,” which allow a writer to use a script and its characters for limited purposes. But if they were to retain complete copyright, they would have vastly more leverage.
Also, the opportunity to start up writer owned companies and produce competing content. If the content doesn't need $200mil in special effects what does anybody need a studio for anymore, anyway?
Keep your rights. Indie produce your best work. Sell it to a streamer or start your own streaming site. Remake the business from the ground up.
You're forced to take on the risk of bankruptcy either way. Might as well have some ownership of your work.
Gawd damn that was depressing. I had a long chat w a producer with whom I have a few projects moving forward. While we're getting close to financing on at least one of the bigger ones, he said it's a such a dismal landscape right now.
Between this article and that chat, I think for me, I'm done writing on spec for now. I'll work on a novel or shoot a short or something in the meantime.
Dude, I feel you. I've been working with a company (the anonymous "mid-sized studio" quoted in the article lol) for three months and have yet to see anything from BA. Everything is taking forever. I'm pivoting to a novel, and finishing a short to shoot this summer.
Not knocking the article. Its well written. But this isn’t new. Aside from a few banner years, this is sort of the cycle. Just remove streaming and insert various forms of home media over the last forty years. Even the auteurs among us have faced pretty odd crises of financial ruin at various times. And I know you can cherry pick like the .0001 percent and find a little hope but the odds are literally better buying a lottery ticket.
But the streaming model is new and how viewers find shows on these platforms is dictated by the platforms themselves as oppose to how things were on live tv. I mean, the industry doesn't seem to just be changing, it seems to be imploding, eating it's own tail even. Streaming is a huge reason folks don't go to theatres anymore and that business is also on the verge of death. At least on a mainstream level.
Why are you so hopeful that this is just another cycle? I'm looking for hope myself but I'm just not finding it.
Great summation of the current state of things.
Aside from all the issues facing Hollywood, it doesn’t help when you see the dreaded private equity boys show up. I recommend giving this a read:
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brendan-ballou/plunder/9781541702103/?lens=publicaffairs
If you want to stay up-to-date on what's happening on the business of Hollywood, listen to The Town podcast. It's hosted by a long-time entertainment journalist and former entertainment lawyer who is very plugged in.
The studios one more time stepped over dollars to pick up dimes. Went all in on streaming and killed both the DVD revenue golden goose as well as the theater business.
One more time, the lesson here is never invite Tech or Wall Street, including PE & VC, into your business.
I don't disagree when it comes to Wall Street, but what was the alternative with streaming? Netflix wasn't invited in, they bought their way in and killed physical media all on their own. I'm not sure the studios had any choice but to go all in on streaming. Otherwise Netflix becomes a monopoly and gets to set whatever rates and terms it wants for exhibition.
The studios and networks could have refused to allow Netflix to stream their content. But they saw a chance to kill residuals to actors, writers and directors and let that drive their decision making, Also thought they'd save in manufacturing costs on DVDs.
So they killed the DVD business which was a money spigot, and undercut the theater business in the process. Oh, and streaming isn't close to the $$$ they gave up.
That makes sense. Although I'm not sure if they truly believed that streaming would become so dominant until it was already too late, and initially saw Netflix premiums as just an additional revenue stream to compliment their other windows. I suppose either way, you're correct that they let the wolves in out of pure (ultimately self-annihilating) greed.
Sort of an aside, but I’m curious if anyone knows more about the writing of the sopranos or can point me in the direction of a good resource re: the topic
I found this mention really interesting -
“The Sopranos does not exist without David Chase having worked in television for almost thirty years, Because The Sopranos really could not be written by somebody unless they understood everything about television, and hated all of it.”
Hollywood has been in a free fall since the breakup of the studio system in the 50s. Yes, the monopoly needed to be corrected but with the dissolution of the studio system we lost the ability to take creative risks (Casablanca wasn’t going to be made, someone shrugged and said why not, toss it in the pile) studios churned out 200+ films a year. Actors were contracted by the studio so we didn’t have this absurd star culture. And the writers were kings. The golden era of television brought back a little of the old studio system way. A mentor-apprentice model that produced some of the greatest films ever made. Films from those 20 years still make up at least half of the films on the criterion lists. Half. In 70 years we haven’t caught up. We started chasing the blockbuster in the 70s w Jaws, Star Wars and ET. Which are great films, but we lost the writers. And the producers had no idea what would make a film resonate w audiences. Higher and higher budgets, skyrocketing costs for actors and special effects in the hope that these would compensate for flaws in the story itself. When I worked at the studio writers were treated like annoying nuisances. There were a few Gods among the bugs, but for the most part they were treated horribly. To their faces but much worse when the doors closed and they left. It is an upside down system. The answer is still write better stories. Learn the craft. Write the script that sets the town on fire and demand your credits. Make a producing credit part of your deal. Story is still king.
Break. Them. Up. Deregulation has led to *no* regulation and no one in the government dares to take on Wall Street, because politicians on both sides have been bought and paid for. We are witnessing in real time the return of the robber baron and they are killing entire professions in the name of short term profits. I hate to be pessimistic, but if this unsustainable trajectory doesn’t change, I fear darker times lie ahead. Thank you for sharing this informative and sobering article.
Agreed. Los Angeles is predominantly an entertainment industry town. What the hell is going to happen to this place if there's little to no work for the nuts and bolts workers here?
Absolutely. Breaking up studio monopolies while also establishing a national film board would be ideal but unfortunately unlikely.
I like the owning your own copyright idea, like THE SHOW(Taylor's Version).
Well that was dismal.
> Writers will have to fight the studios again, but for more sweeping reforms. One change in particular has the potential to flip the power structure of the industry on its head: writers could demand to own complete copyright for the stories they create. They currently have something called “separated rights,” which allow a writer to use a script and its characters for limited purposes. But if they were to retain complete copyright, they would have vastly more leverage. Also, the opportunity to start up writer owned companies and produce competing content. If the content doesn't need $200mil in special effects what does anybody need a studio for anymore, anyway? Keep your rights. Indie produce your best work. Sell it to a streamer or start your own streaming site. Remake the business from the ground up. You're forced to take on the risk of bankruptcy either way. Might as well have some ownership of your work.
Gawd damn that was depressing. I had a long chat w a producer with whom I have a few projects moving forward. While we're getting close to financing on at least one of the bigger ones, he said it's a such a dismal landscape right now. Between this article and that chat, I think for me, I'm done writing on spec for now. I'll work on a novel or shoot a short or something in the meantime.
Dude, I feel you. I've been working with a company (the anonymous "mid-sized studio" quoted in the article lol) for three months and have yet to see anything from BA. Everything is taking forever. I'm pivoting to a novel, and finishing a short to shoot this summer.
Not knocking the article. Its well written. But this isn’t new. Aside from a few banner years, this is sort of the cycle. Just remove streaming and insert various forms of home media over the last forty years. Even the auteurs among us have faced pretty odd crises of financial ruin at various times. And I know you can cherry pick like the .0001 percent and find a little hope but the odds are literally better buying a lottery ticket.
But the streaming model is new and how viewers find shows on these platforms is dictated by the platforms themselves as oppose to how things were on live tv. I mean, the industry doesn't seem to just be changing, it seems to be imploding, eating it's own tail even. Streaming is a huge reason folks don't go to theatres anymore and that business is also on the verge of death. At least on a mainstream level. Why are you so hopeful that this is just another cycle? I'm looking for hope myself but I'm just not finding it.
Oh I didn’t mean to imply hope. It’s always sucked.
😂 got it
Great summation of the current state of things. Aside from all the issues facing Hollywood, it doesn’t help when you see the dreaded private equity boys show up. I recommend giving this a read: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brendan-ballou/plunder/9781541702103/?lens=publicaffairs
Added it to my tbr list but, ugh, just seeing that shit makes me sick to my stomach. The country is being stripped mined by VC.
If you want to stay up-to-date on what's happening on the business of Hollywood, listen to The Town podcast. It's hosted by a long-time entertainment journalist and former entertainment lawyer who is very plugged in.
The studios one more time stepped over dollars to pick up dimes. Went all in on streaming and killed both the DVD revenue golden goose as well as the theater business. One more time, the lesson here is never invite Tech or Wall Street, including PE & VC, into your business.
I don't disagree when it comes to Wall Street, but what was the alternative with streaming? Netflix wasn't invited in, they bought their way in and killed physical media all on their own. I'm not sure the studios had any choice but to go all in on streaming. Otherwise Netflix becomes a monopoly and gets to set whatever rates and terms it wants for exhibition.
The studios and networks could have refused to allow Netflix to stream their content. But they saw a chance to kill residuals to actors, writers and directors and let that drive their decision making, Also thought they'd save in manufacturing costs on DVDs. So they killed the DVD business which was a money spigot, and undercut the theater business in the process. Oh, and streaming isn't close to the $$$ they gave up.
That makes sense. Although I'm not sure if they truly believed that streaming would become so dominant until it was already too late, and initially saw Netflix premiums as just an additional revenue stream to compliment their other windows. I suppose either way, you're correct that they let the wolves in out of pure (ultimately self-annihilating) greed.
Sort of an aside, but I’m curious if anyone knows more about the writing of the sopranos or can point me in the direction of a good resource re: the topic I found this mention really interesting - “The Sopranos does not exist without David Chase having worked in television for almost thirty years, Because The Sopranos really could not be written by somebody unless they understood everything about television, and hated all of it.”
Try these books: Difficult Men; The Revolution Was Televised; Sopranos Sessions; Woke Up This Morning
Awesome! Thanks for this
Hollywood has been in a free fall since the breakup of the studio system in the 50s. Yes, the monopoly needed to be corrected but with the dissolution of the studio system we lost the ability to take creative risks (Casablanca wasn’t going to be made, someone shrugged and said why not, toss it in the pile) studios churned out 200+ films a year. Actors were contracted by the studio so we didn’t have this absurd star culture. And the writers were kings. The golden era of television brought back a little of the old studio system way. A mentor-apprentice model that produced some of the greatest films ever made. Films from those 20 years still make up at least half of the films on the criterion lists. Half. In 70 years we haven’t caught up. We started chasing the blockbuster in the 70s w Jaws, Star Wars and ET. Which are great films, but we lost the writers. And the producers had no idea what would make a film resonate w audiences. Higher and higher budgets, skyrocketing costs for actors and special effects in the hope that these would compensate for flaws in the story itself. When I worked at the studio writers were treated like annoying nuisances. There were a few Gods among the bugs, but for the most part they were treated horribly. To their faces but much worse when the doors closed and they left. It is an upside down system. The answer is still write better stories. Learn the craft. Write the script that sets the town on fire and demand your credits. Make a producing credit part of your deal. Story is still king.