We all know how production is shrinking and shriveling in high-cost-of-living-and-shooting California. We all THINK we know how bad it is getting in so many ways for formerly well-paid and regularly employed crews to make a living in the “Golden State.” Wanna bet you...
As news of a WGA member strike against guild leadership heats up, LW Ghost is here to explain the ins and outs of how these unions actually work. As the season of contracts and negotiations approaches, there is a lot of press—informed and otherwise—and general...
Tis the season to be jingling and all that fa-la-la-la-lah-ing is in there somewhere, too. We all treasure these times of family, feasting, ending one year and renewing the promise of the next new one, and no matter our particular faith, creed, or traditions, it is a good bet that more family photos are taken, more recipes exchanged, more laughter heard and more loving embraces enjoyed now that at any other time of the year.
There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the horrible murder of Charlie Kirk and the aftermath regarding Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, the FCC, the affiliates, and who’s got authority over what. As what is laughingly called an “Industry Veteran,” your humble spirit is gonna ‘splain it to you so you can sort out the shillyness from Shinola as you read coverage, memes, and general eruptions of self-righteous fury from most who don’t know better but some who surely should.
One of the things that’s quite remarkable (to some—not to me) about the thousands and thousands who are spouting vile and evil things about the murder of Charlie Kirk is this: A whole lot of them are either K-12 teachers or hospital RN’s. Yes, there are regular retail folks from print shops to malt shops, pols from local govt. to federal agencies and just about all demographics of occupation, location, and persuasion included, but the big shock to so many is just how many are people who teach our kids or secure our health.
In the light of the horrible murder of Charlie Kirk we’re all getting through our feelings about, it is perhaps instructive to note a “bigger picture” issue it brings to the forefront that applies not just to political stories but to EVERY story, event, commentary, or utterance from politicos, office holders, and punditry.
The Bubble People.
I get that they have their views and they are different than mine. I get that expressing their views is part of their job description, whether media or elected official (though maybe the actors and their ilk should just plain shut up and sing/dance/perform). But wow what a bubble they live in that they couldn’t wait a day, a few days, even a week or more to just plain know that shutting up is the best policy at a time of trauma.
SO…as you’ve no doubt heard by now, the new Six Flags (post-merger with Cedar Fair) has had management shuffles and financial losses and is in the process of combining, re-organizing, and, inevitably, closing some of their parks where the two brands basically “over-serve” a given region of the country. All that was to be expected.
But what’s come out that I find fascinating is something that wasn’t popularly noted in news coverage, at least what I saw, but IS being mentioned as almost an afterthought now when it should be the leading fact in many of these closure stories.
The folks at Imagineering now have a story they’re telling, and we all know they loudly proclaim that it’s all about the story, right? This one’s a real doozy. They claim draining the Rivers (now swamps) Of America and removing as much Americana as they can from Frontierland at the Magic Kingdom is part of “reimagining” and helping guests discover and create “their own folklore.” (And the unstated subtext, as with all such pronouncements from Disney management in the past 10 years or so is—“…and if YOU disagree, you’re an ikky, yukky doodoohead, so there!”)
According to an August 14th article by The Hollywood Reporter’s Katie Killkenny, candidates running for Board elections at the WGAW (Writers Guild of America West) are talking up the potential to unionize/organize writers for podcasts, “verticals,” and, perhaps, video games. They believe adding those folks to the ranks will make up for the fact that overall the number of working writers in Hollywood is down markedly since the last and long-suffered-over WGA contract agreement was reached. They see expansion into online media as a natural way to pick up the membership slack.
The other day, I was watching a wonderful interview with Bob Gurr. For those of you who don’t know him, he’s one of the Disney Legends whose chief role in the making of the parks was transport and ride vehicles—he invented the PeopleMover, the OmniMover/DoomBuggies, and a host of other Disney Imagineering innovations.
We all have seen the rise of the large format releases led by IMAX and other companies take over the lion’s share of boxoffice for megahit movies and super-effects blockbusters in the past few years. There are always more big screens a-building and more films desiring release in these crowd-pleasing big-ticket-price venues which, of course, trump the appeal of large screen home videos on which many moviegoers had watched, and especially re-watched such films.
There’s a whole lot of talk these days about something called “Superhero Movie Fatigue” and whether it, the sheer overabundance of spandex-clad folks on our screens, is responsible for falling boxoffice numbers and NOT the lack of quality storytelling in those films themselves.
My verdict? Could be. But meanwhile there IS most DEFINITELY a kind of fatigue linked to these productions that we’re all suffering from and it’s squarely the responsibility of the very “creative” minds leading this genre’s recent cinematic incarnations.
Superhero Movie RUMOR Fatigue.