On Art vs Commerce

The Eternal Struggle

“Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers… choose rotting away at the end of it all… choose your future.”

(From the deliriously wonderful opening scene of Trainspotting)

I recently came across an interesting post that got me thinking about the eternal struggle between art and commerce in Hollywood. To my mind, much of what we do below-the-line falls under the heading of commerce — trading our time, sweat, and hard-earned knowledge for money — but even in such a do-it-quick-and-dirty business as the film industry, a certain level of craft is required to do every job right. Like the countless individual brush strokes that make up a beautiful painting, all that heavy-lifting and shared expertise can help raise the occasional blessed project to a level approaching art. For a Hollywood movie to enter such lofty territory remains the rarest of exceptions, but the level of craftsmanship routinely displayed on set often blurs the line between mere competence and that higher calling.

While rigging a sit-com a few years ago – day-playing up in a man-lift helping the show crew hang, power, and adjust the two hundred and fifty-plus lamps it takes to light an average multi-camera show – I watched as one of the set painters turned an ordinary piece of sanded plywood into what looked like a thick slab of yellow marble. It took him about twenty minutes, and when he was done, the results were absolutely perfect. I doubt Michelangelo could have done it any quicker or better – and the grizzled old painter (an ex-con with a cigarette dangling from his lips the entire time) performed this minor miracle using a couple of paint rollers.

It was amazing.

As luck would have it, that “marble” counter top – a small part of the kitchen set nobody in the viewing audience would ever notice or fully appreciate – was probably the best thing about the entire show. No matter how skilled, one person is never enough. A solid lineup of talent, artistry, and support from the powers-that-be in the executive suites are needed to make a truly good show.

The epiphanies keep coming as the years pile on here in Hollywood, occasional moments of clarity allowing me to see the Industry for what it has always been: a business. It’s not a normal business, though, since producing screened entertainment isn’t the same thing as manufacturing widgets. Unfortunately for the mega-corporations that now control our film studios and broadcast networks, television and movies aren’t toilet paper, weed-killers, erection enhancers, or frozen dinners — which means they can’t be manufactured and sold quite the same way. Any halfway competent corporate drone can use his MBA to oversee the marketing of a new product, but a more sophisticated approach is required to craft and sell a dream. That delicate task requires a measure of art, but the cruel irony is that most of those who come to Hollywood hoping to make a living by creating art are doomed to disappointment.

Every now and then a fresh name will blaze out of nowhere to light up the Hollywood firmament – a young writer or director blessed with the talent, super-charged ambition, an eagerness to work hard, and the ethereal combination of timing and luck it takes to succeed. If he or she can follow up that initial success with a string of box office hits, they can earn the chance to break out of the commercial straitjacket and go for the artistic gold.

But these Chosen Ones truly are the exceptions that prove the rule.

As lapdogs of their corporate overlords, most studio and network executives hate having to depend upon artists to get the job done. A true artist answers to a Higher Power, and typically fails to show proper respect for their employer’s groveling obeisance to the bottom line. Rather than kneeling down before the top-down, my-way-or-the-highway management typical of the modern corporate power structure, an artist follows the dictates of personal vision – and when pissed off, is likely to forget who’s the real boss, and offer some tart and very explicit advice as to exactly where the corporate drones can shove their intrusively lame committee-and-focus-group spawned “ideas.” Although artists and management may come from the same genetic well of carbon-based bipeds, that’s where the similarities end. Like oil and water, they do not mix well in the real world, but when the right combination of talent comes together under proper circumstances, amazing things can happen: films such as “Chinatown” and “Blade Runner.”*

Unfortunately, this kind of magic rarely happens in the current era of comic book blockbusters, movies based on old TV shows, and paint-by-the-numbers Rom-Coms starring the hottest young male and female flavors of the month. This trend towards recycling and regurgitating – or is it “re-imagining?” — pop culture reveals a profound lack of initiative and vision on the part of studio executives. It’s no surprise, given the extreme aversion the corporate hive-mind holds for taking any serious risks — but art rarely emerges from that fear-based, cover-your-ass studio mentality.

A few organizations beyond Hollywood actually do “get it.” Just look at the Ipod and Iphone – there are many mp3 players and cell phones on the market, but Apple’s products consistently capture the public imagination with elegant designs that blend artistry and engineering. In the best products – be they tangible goods or screened entertainment — the line between art and commerce vanishes.

This is increasingly the exception in our own film industry. The only good news here is that the corporate steamroller often sows the seeds of its own demise. People eventually get sick of being spoon-fed the same pre-packaged assembly-line pabulum and turn to something raw, fresh, and different – in the case of Hollywood, the occasional small, quirky film made far from the mainstream: a “Spellbound,” Little Miss Sunshine,” or “Juno” that takes the viewing public (and the corporations) by surprise. Stealing their lunch money is the only thing that really gets the attention of those ponderous corporate Goliaths, at which point they are forced to confront the terrifying notion of bringing some of those honest-to-God artists back into the building.

Television has fared better, thanks to the cable networks (the TV equivalent of indie films) which have been running rings around the hopelessly sclerotic and befuddled networks for the past ten years. I’ve got my own problems with these cable outfits, but can’t deny the quality, dynamism, and breathtaking originality of shows like “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Shield,” “Dexter,” and the current champs “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.”** These shows were not conceived and written by committee and filtered through focus-groups, nor given the green light by some bloodless corporate mandarin in his penthouse office. Without people who really cared and were willing to follow their gut instincts all the way, such shows would never have come to life — and to me, such people are artists.

In this eternal struggle, commerce wins most of the time — it’s hard to beat the crushing power of money, and those hell-bent on making as much as possible in the shortest span of time. Still, most decent movies and television shows contain some level of artistry: a gorgeous dolly move or steady-cam shot, an atmospheric set beautifully designed, painted, dressed, propped, and lit, or wardrobe-hair-and-makeup so perfect for the actors and tone of the show that you can’t imagine them being any other way. If you look for it, the proof is right there on screen.

Flowers grow from shit the world over. Despite the increasingly crass nature and dumbassification of our own modern culture, the miracle of art — and its cousin, artistry — lives on.

Even in Hollywood.

* To be fair, both of these classics were made before Hollywood was swallowed whole by the current crop of mega-corporations.

** There’s no denying that cable raised the bar to new heights for quality dramas on television, but I have a few issues with the cable world.

Michael Taylor joins ACTORSandCREW as a featured writer with his column Hollywood Juicer. Glean sage insight in to the work-a-day life of Hollywood from a crew member’s perspective. From his bio: “Armed with a degree in Aesthetic Studies, boundless ignorance, and a vision of Hollywood heavily influenced by the movie “Shampoo” (and seriously, what guy didn’t want to be Warren Beatty back then?), I proceeded to march on Hollywood in the spirit of a young man seeking adventure, a living — and if Lady Luck deigned to smile upon me — perhaps a modest fortune. Adventure, I found. A living, I made — but although Lady Luck has thus far kept me safe on the road-raging freeways and bullet-riddled streets of Los Angeles, that elusive fortune remains but a shiny mirage dancing on the distant heat waves. There’s no reason to think this will change as I play out the string on a thirty+ year career in set lighting, trying to hang on until the bitter end.

Hollywood Labor: Film Jobs and The Tyranny of Time

One key to understanding Hollywood labor is a tool that was invented thousands of years ago: the calendar. That much became clear in the last round of major negotiations, which lasted from 2007 to 2009, and featured a writers strike and a SAG stalemate. I covered those events as they occurred, and they’re also the topic of my forthcoming book, “Hollywood on Strike!,” which is due out next month.

So with the SAG-AFTRA negotiations upon us, let’s look at what the 2010-2011 bargaining cycle has in store.

SAG and AFTRA

The SAG and AFTRA negotiations with the AMPTP (studio alliance) begin on Monday the 27th, less than a week away. They’ll focus on the SAG Codified basic Agreement (which covers film and television), SAG Television Agreement (a supplement which adds more detail regarding television), and AFTRA’s Exhibit A (which covers primetime scripted television). Exhibit A is largely, though not entirely, composed of cross-references to provisions in the SAG agreements.
These negotiations are under the framework of the Phase I agreement, which has governed SAG-AFTRA joint negotiations with the studios for the last 29 years, with the notable exception of the last negotiating cycle.

On November 7, basic cable negotiations may occur. See http://digitalmedialaw.blogspot.com/2010/09/basic-cable-clarification-details.html for details.

The November 7 date seems to assume that SAG, AFTRA and the AMPTP will reach agreement prior to then. This is expected, but is not a given. The SAG and AFTRA contracts don’t expire until June 30 next year, but the studios insisted on early negotiations in order to reduce the likelihood of brinksmanship, stalemate or strike. This was particularly important to them in light of the nearly year-long SAG stalemate during the last negotiating cycle.

However, timely completion of the contracts seems likely this time because of a seemingly unrelated issue: merger of SAG and AFTRA. The actors—SAG’s leadership in particular—want to spend 2011 working towards merger of the two unions.
That ties the negotiating schedule into the SAG election schedule. SAG president Ken Howard will be up for reelection in the 2011 summer-fall election cycle. In order to best position himself for reelection, it’s important that he and his Unite for Strength faction to show progress on merger prior to the time campaigning begins, which is typically in June or July.

That imperative, in turn, means completing the AMPTP negotiations in November, so that there’s sufficient time to work on merger. The “urge to merge” also has some implications on negotiating issues themselves, as I’ll discuss in a future article.
Of course, one side’s imperative is the other side’s leverage. The AMPTP knows that it’s important for the actors to get their deal done by November, and will be able to hold the unions up against the wall of that deadline if need be. The AMPTP now doubt opposes merger—why would management want to deal with a more unified bargaining representative—and that means they will seek to extract concessions if they’re going to agree to deal points that make merger easier.

DGA

Moving on: In mid-November, the DGA will begin formal negotiation of their film and television agreements, which also expire June 30. Those agreements include basic cable, so there isn’t a separate agreement for that medium as there is for SAG and AFTRA.

The creative rights aspects of the DGA agreements will be negotiated at the same time, but directly with the studio CEOs. This may be the only place in Hollywood labor where negotiation is explicitly reserved to the CEOs, rather than the AMPTP—whose entire purpose is, after all, to negotiate labor agreements.

This extraordinary arrangement reflects both the power of the DGA and the key importance to the guild of maintaining the creative control enjoyed by directors. Or film and TV movie directors, at least. Television series directors march to the tune set by the writer-producer, i.e., the showrunner.

Although the DGA’s formal negotiation don’t start until mid-November, the guild has said they will start informal negotiations prior to then. They may well have done so already. This timing here allows the AMPTP to use the DGA as a shield against SAG-AFTRA contract proposals that the studios consider excessive.

For instance, if the DGA and AMPTP informally agree in September or October that wage increases will be a particular percentage, then if SAG and AFTRA insist on a higher percentage, the AMPTP can demur, confident in the knowledge that they can do a deal with the DGA that will set the pattern on the issue.

Likewise, if the DGA decides that certain new media issues are not important, SAG and AFTRA will have an uphill fight to extract concessions from the AMPTP on those particular issues. Indeed, the DGA has already said publicly that new media will not be a focus of their discussions. So, SAG and AFTRA are already in a difficult place on those issues.

The DGA’s policy of informal pre-negotiations also means that few formal sessions are necessary to reach a deal. Last negotiating cycle, for example, the DGA and AMPTP held just five days of formal bargaining. That’s why this year’s mid-November start date probably means a deal will be reached before Thanksgiving, which falls on November 25th. That allows for roughly 7 weekdays and one weekend of formal sessions.

WGA

And what of the Writers Guild? Those negotiations have not yet been scheduled. They won’t start until mid-January at the earliest, since little business can get done in this industry between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.
That timeframe is a problem, because the WGA usually takes far more than 5 days to reach agreement with the AMPTP. Moreover, their agreement expires two months earlier than the actors’ and directors’, on May 1. That’s a 3-1/2 month window to conduct negotiations.

Such a short window may encourage studios to begin stockpiling feature film scripts later this year, if they haven’t already. That’s because it typically takes two or more months to write and revise such scripts. The studios don’t want to be left with nothing to shoot during the summer, for fear of not having a steady supply of product. Also, early summer is particularly important time for shooting movies that use network television actors, since that’s when they’re on hiatus and thus available for film work.

Television stockpiling, in contrast, probably wouldn’t start until sometime in the spring, as May 1 first approaches.
Writers are aware that this year they’re the caboose and thus are left with little leverage. This may encourage their guild to bargain down to the wire in an attempt to exercise what little power they do have. Thus, the WGA negotiations may turn into a game of chicken, since such brinksmanship is unlikely to translate into a strike authorization, let alone an actual strike, so soon after the devastating 2007-2008 strike.

A middle ground is also possible, which is that the WGA works without a contract for weeks or even months. The dynamics are hard to predict: strike architect David Young is still the union‘s executive director, but the president is now the more moderate John Wells.

Summing Up

In any case, one thing is clear: if SAG and AFTRA are unable to reach a deal by November, the picture looks very different. In this scenario, the DGA will do its deal in November, and then SAG, AFTRA and the WGA will be in play in the spring. This would impede the actors unions’ progress towards merger, but would give SAG, the WGA and AFTRA the ability to threaten a joint strike. Thus, merger and strike threats are at poised against each other quite starkly as contrasting strategies in this negotiating cycle.

Later this week: A look at the issues in play for SAG and AFTRA.

Sage entertainment law insights from probably the best guy in the field, Jonathan Handel. Jonathan’s of counsel at Troy Gould in Los Angeles, and writes the insanely good Digital Media Law blog.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to Explore Scifi in a Three Night Screening in Beverly Hills:

Beverly Hills, CA – Can you travel at warp speed? Hear a scream in space? Rocket to the future? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will explore the physical realities of science fiction movies in the three-evening series “Out of This World: The Science of Space Movies” beginning on Thursday, August 5. “Out of This World” will continue on Friday, August 6, with a presentation of Fritz Lang’s 1929 silent classic “Woman in the Moon” and conclude on Saturday, August 7, with screenings of “Project Apollo” (1968) and “For All Mankind” (1989), documentaries that focus on NASA’s Apollo program.

All three evenings are being presented by the Academy’s Science and Technology Council. The following is information for each night:

“Out of This World: The Science of Space Movies”
Thursday, August 5, 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Beverly Hills
Hosted by Adam Weiner, the program will examine the physics principles behind many science fiction movies and explore how the fictional world of Hollywood can often provide an effective springboard into investigating real science. n an interactive presentation, Weiner will lead a physics-based analysis of famous scenes from such movies as “Planet of the Apes” (1968), “Superman” (1978), “Apollo 13” (1995), “Contact” (1997), “Event Horizon” (1997), “October Sky” (1999) and “Star Trek” (2009). Joining Weiner onstage will be writer Ann Druyan (“Contact”), writer Philip Eisner (“Event Horizon”) and former NASA flight director Gerry Griffin, who served as a technical advisor on “Apollo 13” and “Contact.” The program also will feature the films’ technical teams who will explain how scenes were created, as well as discussion with experts on space travel. Weiner is the author of Don’t Try This at Home! The Physics of Hollywood Movies. He currently teaches physics at The Bishop’s School, a private high school in La Jolla, California.

“Woman in the Moon” (1929)
Friday, August 6, 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater, Hollywood
Considered to be one of the most influential science fiction films of its time, this Lang classic, based on Thea von Harbou’s novel “Frau im Mond,” tells the story of a group of scientists and adventurers who take a rocket trip to the moon. The film stars Klaus Pohl, Willy Fritsch, Fritz Rasp and Gerda Maurus. The film was directed and produced by Lang and written by von Harbou. This evening also will be hosted by Weiner.

“Project Apollo” (1968) and “For All Mankind” (1989)
Saturday, August 7, 7 p.m. at The Silent Movie Theatre, Los Angeles

In collaboration with The Cinefamily, “Out of This World” continues with screenings of “Project Apollo” and “For All Mankind.”

Using fluid camera work and no narration, experimental filmmaker Ed Emshwiller’s “Project Apollo” was made for the United States Information Agency and gives a fascinating portrait of NASA’s Apollo project a full year before the actual moon landing.

“For All Mankind” is an Academy Award®-nominated documentary chronicling NASA’s Apollo missions from the 1960s and ‘70s. It features original mission footage, and interviews with the astronauts and excerpts from actual mission recordings. The documentary was directed by Al Reinert, and produced by Reinert and Betsy Broyles Breier.

Looming Teamsters Strike Could Paralyze Hollywood

Sage entertainment law insights from probably the best guy in the field, Jonathan Handel. Jonathan’s of counsel at Troy Gould in Los Angeles, and writes the insanely good Digital Media Law blog.

#Telluride #Film Fest announces 2010 Guest Director

Sandler bigger than Cruise? Grown Ups crushes ticket sales on Fandango