Live data from Hacker News

Why the Film Industry Hasn't Been Disrupted Yet, Part 5

endcrawl.com

11–20 of 92 posts

Re: Why the Film Industry Hasn't Been Disrupted Yet, Part 5

#11

What about bootstrapped, self-funded, youtube channels that became huge?

There was a really good article about this (wish I could find it) about how the majority of these aren't making much, if any money. From the outside it appeared that the artists are rolling in cash; from the inside, they were still working waiter/waitress jobs to make ends meet.

Re: Why the Film Industry Hasn't Been Disrupted Yet, Part 5

#12
post #10

One factor that I didn't see mentioned in this post or the author's previous post is the strength and influence of the union. I lived with an actress who had moderate enough success to do acting full time, have an agent, and be in the Screen Actors Guild. I was amazed at how much money she could pull in for just having a split-second role in a nationally broadcast ad, when it seems likely a company could finds hundre…

Related: Peter Coyote's Open Letter To Lead Actors http://deadline.com/2008/07/peter-coyotes-open-letter-to-lea...

"Since 1990 the earnings of the top leading actors have increased exponentially while the salaries of nearly all other actors have been systematically driven down. In many cases, the earnings of established character actors have been rolled back by 60-70 percent. This occurs, in large part, because the working professional (as opposed to the star) is at a disadvantage when negotiating in the new corporatized production environment. We do not possess a unique, marketable (and often media exploited) brand, and consequently lack the power to make or break the existence or profitability of a film. Consequently, respected, veteran actors with numerous credits and hard-earned “quotes” now routinely receive “take-it-or-leave it” offers, often at “scale”—a beginners wage."

Re: Why the Film Industry Hasn't Been Disrupted Yet, Part 5

#14
post #12
post #10

One factor that I didn't see mentioned in this post or the author's previous post is the strength and influence of the union. I lived with an actress who had moderate enough success to do acting full time, have an agent, and be in the Screen Actors Guild. I was amazed at how much money she could pull in for just having a split-second role in a nationally broadcast ad, when it seems likely a company could finds hundre…

Related: Peter Coyote's Open Letter To Lead Actors http://deadline.com/2008/07/peter-coyotes-open-letter-to-lea... "Since 1990 the earnings of the top leading actors have increased exponentially while the salaries of nearly all other actors have been systematically driven down. In many cases, the earnings of established character actors have been rolled back by 60-70 percent. This occurs, in large part, because the w…

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that the major studios aren't actively trying to improve their bottom line even if it means screwing over their employees and actors. Just that from the perspective of a working journalist, the influence and ubiquity of union work in film was very surprising, because I could not imagine such a situation in journalism. When my roommate had a drought of work, she looked for blogging gigs, which she did a decade ago and was compensated for as a freelancer. She was genuinely shocked when outlets who paid her in the past said she should be happy to now blog for free for the exposure.

Re: Why the Film Industry Hasn't Been Disrupted Yet, Part 5

#15
Film isn't being disrupted by new ways to make the same old film product, it is being disrupted because they time and money that used to be spent watching movies is now being spent in other ways, like watching game streams on Twitch, or YouTube personalities.

Re: Why the Film Industry Hasn't Been Disrupted Yet, Part 5

#16
post #12
post #10

One factor that I didn't see mentioned in this post or the author's previous post is the strength and influence of the union. I lived with an actress who had moderate enough success to do acting full time, have an agent, and be in the Screen Actors Guild. I was amazed at how much money she could pull in for just having a split-second role in a nationally broadcast ad, when it seems likely a company could finds hundre…

Related: Peter Coyote's Open Letter To Lead Actors http://deadline.com/2008/07/peter-coyotes-open-letter-to-lea... "Since 1990 the earnings of the top leading actors have increased exponentially while the salaries of nearly all other actors have been systematically driven down. In many cases, the earnings of established character actors have been rolled back by 60-70 percent. This occurs, in large part, because the w…

Thanks for finding that again. All three aspects seem to affect the outcome, additional technological outlets, the make or break cost of a block buster, and the outsized role that social media plays in getting mindshare.

Like the author of the original piece I don't think this situation is very stable.

Re: Why the Film Industry Hasn't Been Disrupted Yet, Part 5

#17
post #10

One factor that I didn't see mentioned in this post or the author's previous post is the strength and influence of the union. I lived with an actress who had moderate enough success to do acting full time, have an agent, and be in the Screen Actors Guild. I was amazed at how much money she could pull in for just having a split-second role in a nationally broadcast ad, when it seems likely a company could finds hundre…

> John Resig seems like a great human being but that's not the main reason for jquery's dominance

But if John Resig released something new that isn't jquery, and does a useful thing, it would immediately be a lot more popular than if Random Joe Programmer releases the same useful thing.

Celebrity does work in the programming world as well.

It's a type of distribution channel. The more eyes are on you, the more audience you can pull, the more successful your projects are going to be. If for no other reason than more people giving them a shot and seeing what's up.

Re: Why the Film Industry Hasn't Been Disrupted Yet, Part 5

#18
Always troublesome trying to balance art and commercial value in a discussion - film, music, whatever.

Want to see what disruption of a formerly 'high barrier' artistic industry looks like? Photography. I'm pretty sure the ubiquity of cameras and the assists and tricks and filters that are available now have had a significant impact on the income of professional photographers.

The last elephant in the room is that a large swath of people who attempt creative endeavors drastically over estimate their talent and under estimate the amount of work a polished product takes. Everybody has to start somewhere, sure. I've just noticed the modern mindset a little more expecting praise rather than understanding it needs to be earned sometimes and then crying about bullying when valid criticism comes rolling in (see: either Corey Feldman performance on the Today Show this year).

Re: Why the Film Industry Hasn't Been Disrupted Yet, Part 5

#19
post #10

One factor that I didn't see mentioned in this post or the author's previous post is the strength and influence of the union. I lived with an actress who had moderate enough success to do acting full time, have an agent, and be in the Screen Actors Guild. I was amazed at how much money she could pull in for just having a split-second role in a nationally broadcast ad, when it seems likely a company could finds hundre…

> I don't understand why people are so thrilled to pay money to see a new movie when there are so many great movies in the past few decades

For me, it's HD. Old movies look... old.

Re: Why the Film Industry Hasn't Been Disrupted Yet, Part 5

#20

Film isn't being disrupted by new ways to make the same old film product, it is being disrupted because they time and money that used to be spent watching movies is now being spent in other ways, like watching game streams on Twitch, or YouTube personalities.

I seriously doubt Twitch and YouTube personalities have had a significant impact on movie watching. What I could believe but don't have numbers to prove is that subscription streaming TV--much of which is in serial form--is pulling audiences away from film especially given that subscription streaming movie catalogs are pretty thin.
Post reply on HN