Tag Archives: hollywood

September 30, 2025 · 12:09

Former Tinseltown

Well, they just picketed for a better situation, then there is a fire and now President Trump walks in and makes a ‘proclamation’.

Now, we all have those rolling eyes moment, but I reckon this is the first time it will cost Los Angeles (read: Hollywood) will they have to pay an additional few billions and they weren’t going great to begin with (to no fault of their own).

You see, if we take a ‘few’ examples. We see:

Jurassic World: Rebirth$867,114,68260.8%
F1: The Movie$626,214,58669.7%
Smurfs$89,700,00074.3%
Inside Out 2$1,698,863,81661.6%
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire$572,050,01665.7%

Now these aren’t the big hitters, but the impact is easily seen. The total global revenue is seen and how much INTERNATIONALLY was brought it, so as such I reckon it is easy to hit those numbers with a tariff as well, the president said it was 100%? OK, that is what we will do, hit a tariff over (30%) it and I reckon that Hollywood will be screaming like a little bitch (or like a scream queen) for all that lost revenue. 

When will this president learn that gracing everything with a tariff does not get him anything, only handing the option for European Markets and Asian Markets to do exactly the same? 

And it is not the the world has alternatives, WE can get our movies from Canada, UK, Europe, and in streaming there is more then Disney Plus and Netflix. We can get movies from Shahid, ADTV (Abu Dhabi TV), Viki and others too and several offer free options. As such this was a really bad move as the people all over the planet need cheaper options and you just gave a dozen channels to branch out to Europe and the Commonwealth. So as interest in the ‘Americanized’ channels recede their advertisement money will decrease as well. So how was this a clever move?

And as I see it, Canada is happy to branch out, but so are the movie makers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, that is the one move they hoped would come and soon there will be an influx of Arabic content in Europe and the Commonwealth. 

So in short, there will be a decrease in revenue to America due to tariffs, Advertisement money will go down and interest in American materials will also decrease. And as I see it, the others will also claim “Thank you for your attention to this matter” mister President.

A lovely day it is, I reckon I might get a few minutes of Schitt’s Creek, Dubai Bling or Qalb Al Adala into my daily watch scheme. Oh and these 5 examples might cost Hollywood a simple 735,798,409.28 (if we charge Hollywood 30% over our ‘brought’ income, so what do you think the other 360 annual movies will give to us? This tariff joke works both ways.

I reckon this might be the sillies move the American administration has brought to its own shores. Hollywood was already fighting an uphill battle, but this might be the traffic threshold set just before the top of the hill that will stop whatever they had going for them.

I reckon there will be a few rounds of Champagne for everyone in the Vancouver Film Studios tonight.

Have a great day and for the desperate American Actors/Actresses, please take note at (https://adtv.ae/en/about-us)., they might be looking for you, there is now too much competition in Hollywood. Oh and all this wasn’t a great intelligent academic work. Anyone with an abacus could have numbered this whilst having a coffee. 

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March 20, 2025 · 17:50

A letter from Hugh

Yup, it happened to me, Hugh Grant send me a letter (a modern message in Email).

You know, the man who was made famous through the movie “Four startups and a Bankruptcy”. And behold, this morning there was a letter in my mailbox, stating:

Dear Lawrence,

For over ten years in opposition the Labour Party promised to implement the Leveson reforms.  These reforms would raise standards in the media and protect the public from intrusions into grief, blatant falsehoods, and other abuses. 

Sir Keir Starmer, meanwhile, talked a big game about ending corruption in politics and putting the public first.
Yet since his election as Prime Minister, Sir Keir has done nothing to keep his party’s promises and end the scandal of press abuse.

In his failure to act, he is protecting the status quo and putting newspaper owners ahead of the public.

We need to remind him: his Government is accountable to the British public, not newspaper owners.  And his Party’s promises – to ordinary people affected by press abuse, and the wider public – must be kept.

And here is the link to write to your MP (at https://www.hackedoff.org/campaign-actions/britains-press-power-without-responsibility-demand-real-press-accountability-now?utm_source=brevo&utm_campaign=Hugh follow-up&utm_medium=email&utm_id=38)

You will get to enter your UK Postcode and as I as a test enter a post code of Birmingham (as a test)  The system replies with 

Dear Shabana Mahmood,

Despite reaching over 70% of the public every month national newspapers are unregulated – allowing them to spread lies, disinformation, and to commit intrusions with impunity.

Every issue facing the country – from human trafficking to climate change to domestic violence – is affected by the ability of newspapers and their websites to cover them inaccurately and unethically.

The Government’s inaction on press regulation is holding Britain back from meeting these challenges – as well as leaving newspapers able to cause extraordinary damage to individuals’ lives through harassment and intrusion into grief.

You merely have to add your Name, Address and Email address details and the letter is ready. Easy, peasy, Chicken easy.

It will be a rough reminder for the Labour Party and his fellow minions to do something about the outstanding promise to set the Leveson papers in action. The media has become too much of a clear and present danger to the people, and many people in the UK have had enough. So this is a rather large remembrance page with the automation for the people to add their details and do something about it.

It gave me pause to think of hat the UK media is facing. It is already facing irrelevancy and a loss of readers on a global scale. No matter what our faith is, papers like New Arab, Arab News, Khaleej Times and several other newspapers are making string insides into the world population. And that is not all that is happening. In support we see that Dubai Media (the first recipient of my film script “How to assassinate a Politician”) is making rather larger visibility moves. Mostly in Bangladesh , Egypt and Indonesia, but it is a start). In this Al Saudiya (part of the SBA) is doing the same, but I am unaware how large their foot print is becoming. Mostly due to my lack of Arabic I cannot see the complete setting of the Saudi Broadcasting Authority. A Saudi TV group meant for 33 million is reaching out to a population of over half a billion (the Dubai Media group (UAE) as well). They are diminishing the channels that were until recently the targets of Reuters, AP News and the BBC. The people are through with these false prophets and are now giving these two a chance. After the track of the late eighties and 90’s that CNN had, they are given a green light by the people in many ways a similar setting.

Western people have had enough of the lies and innuendo that Western media gives us. As such the term sports-washing, meaning “Sportswashing is the use of sport to redirect public attention away from unethical conduct. The intended effect is to improve the reputation of the offending entity, by using the immense popularity of sport to ‘wash’ away poor publicity.” A term as I see it invented by the western media and nearly always used to describe Saudi involvement. But as I see it, the Western media should be using the same term (although not always involving sports) to strengthen their innuendo for digital dollars. They do, but to hide the actions of involved people like Sony (TPP policy 2016) and a few others. It was the first clear setting where I saw media ‘protecting’ big tech. I wrote (rather clumsily) about that in ‘Lessening the consumer?’ On April 27th 2016 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2016/04/27/lessening-the-consumer/) after that I saw the actions by Microsoft and others and the media was holding the hands over the heads of Big Tech (speculatively to score advertisement money) and that was how I started to keep my eyes of the media until now and see how the media today has less value than the average porn magazine, they might reflect on ‘Sex Sells’ but the value of their contribution has lost its value and then some. As media largely goes into the same direction, not giving us news, but referring to out as entertainment and as I see it, the ABC News Channel is the only news channel giving Australia actual news, the rest is flaccid entertainment. This is the same all over the western world hiding behind the term “A news and current affairs show”, where the emphasis is set to ‘current affairs show’ and the ‘insiders’ referring to that being the same. The world is waking up to the setting of being lulled asleep by the media and the Leveson papers was the first stage to getting the people awake. That was the first step for the media to wake up and that so far The Leveson Inquiry was a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the British press following the News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed in July 2011. A series of public hearings were held throughout 2011 and 2012. The result were 4 documents giving us over 2000 pages of wake up medicine for the media regulations. So far it hasn’t happened, for reference the Lord Of the Rings is a novel a mere 1077 pages, so there is that too, one is fiction , the other is a rude awakening of what the media is up to. The News of the world owned by Rupert Murdoch shut down in 2011 when the News of the World, owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the phones of celebrities, royalty, and public citizens. Murdoch faced police and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British government and FBI investigations in the US. He got out when he was no longer able to hide the actions of some. But not all is lost, the Arabian versions of the news are now shown all over the world mainly the three I mentioned in the beginning. And now we see the growth of Saudi and UAE media and they now have solid systems that can reach the whole western world too. Now we might not get all the shows the 1st gives us, but that is merely one step away from coming. The fires in California have settles the people in optionally leaving California and the UAE and Saudi stations could give them a new beginning, many to Canada, but with the promise of decent incomes Saudi Arabia and the UAE could collect on the cream of American Script writers. I saw this option opening up and (even though magnificently unsuccessful)  , I decided to attempt to sell my first script in the UAE (Dubai media). There is an inkling of faith that it was merely my lack of skills, and it was my first script, but I have three more on route. As such other (a lot more successful than me) could open the road to more scripts and that is what Hollywood fears, the drain of knowledge. They thought they were on top of the world with their setting, yet as Covid hit, followed by the strikes and the California fires, the Hollywood setting is to some degree now an empty shell and that leaves Canada, the UK, Saudi Arabia and the UAE open to wildly grown in all directions. The Guardian gives us “The entertainment industry is estimated to create $43bn in wages every year for the Californian economy and recent events have not only forced a pause in the short term but also raised concerns over long-term recovery.” These incomes have been impacted from 2020 onwards. We were given “Many blockbusters originally scheduled to be released by mid-March 2020 were postponed or canceled around the world, with film productions also being halted.” Then we got the strikes in 2023 which stopped it all again and the fires on January 7th 2025, the impact has roasted the core of Hollywood with burning down what was left. Consider the setting that the people in Hollywood were given $43 billion annually and that their incomes have been impeded with a near 80% lacking of a total of over $200 billion. The quality of life is setting the massive options for the other nations and as the Hollywood moguls are happy to pay the others as little as possible, they and up having no recourse for themselves. 

And now we get yet again the Leveson inquiry hitting the UK shores. The mess is now near complete and the media will have to surrender market shares to the Arabian nations and see where they end up being, because the events in Saudi Arabia (2030) and the UAE will likely have all the Arabian journalists and very little other ones, especially with vloggers all over the place and YouTube (and TikTok) having the new fields all to themselves and their creators. That is what I see happening al up to late 2027 and that is long before Hollywood becomes a shadow of itself.

That is the reality of exploitation at some point the people give up and seek richer grounds, Hollywood is now becoming largely without cohesion to itself, so where do you go then? You all have a productive day.

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January 9, 2025 · 21:53

Is it semantics?

There is a question that the entire ‘annexation’ of Canada brings to light. Is it the setting of an unintelligent person to employ humor (I try to steer clear of the word stupid) or is there a larger setting? So what is the actual meaning of this?

The previous story gave you part of that, but CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-absorb-canada-response-1.7426177) gives us (optionally) more. It starts with ‘No longer a joke: Ministers say Trump’s threats to absorb Canada need to be taken seriously’ where we are confronted with “Trump said Tuesday he’d be willing to use ‘economic force’ to join countries”, we saw that and as such it would not be enough. 

But there is more, the setting of “Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Wednesday that U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s assertions that Canada should become the 51st state should be taken seriously, after he initially dismissed them as a joke. “The joke is over,” LeBlanc told reporters in French. “The president and his allies continue to repeat this — we know it’s not going anywhere — but the fact that he’s repeating it, it’s not very constructive.”” You see, this is true. But as we have surmised several times in the past, there is a need for any politician to seek the limelight (not that this is always wrong). As such we are given and shown that Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Immigration Minister Marc Miller and International Trade Minister Mary Ng all have their say. Yet, they all miss a few corners. You see we are overwhelmingly confronted with ‘influencers’ all seeking limelight and they ‘know’ that outbursts of Donald Trump give them the emotional rhetoric to flame settings. Now they all get the chance to drill into 40 million Canadians, all eager to grow their ‘momentum’ that is the lose for to a lot of this. And it is a lot like the setting in the Patriot (that movie with Mel Gibson). Why swap 1 political party 5800 kilometers away when you could have 58 political players 100 kilometers away? That would make no sense and Canadians need to be aware of this. What is the optional stage oil that people like Donald Trump and Kevon O’Leary (a Canadian no less) will opt for the direct marketing of 40 million Canadians to get the upper hand. Whatever O’Leary claims, he will be in it for the money. He wants to ‘secure’ his 400 million and preferably add some (hundreds of) millions to it and as I see it, anyway will do. The man is the direct opposite of Ryan Reynolds. He is in it for his money in his own way, but a lot more intelligent. Any party he engaged with enriched him and he enriched them by a lot. And there is a social/national pride in his achievements. That is the proper way enterprising and capitalism needs to work. I wonder why no one sees that. 

The larger issue is not that, it is the setting what the Commonwealth needs to do. At some point it is forced to bulk up their borders and that is the strapping setting. The UK, Australia and New Zealand will be forced to take a stance. Optionally not New Zealand, their Sopwith Camels don’t have the range to fly to the US. And I don’t think that they have an operational Army either, good enough for humanitarian jobs and rescue operations, but actual war on another shore? I doubt that.

So the Commonwealth could start crying foul and invite China to become the aid party of choice. China will love that, now it gets army and navy posts right at the front door of America. And now we get a new Cuban missile crises, but one at the front door of Los Angeles, Hollywood (the burning one), Chicago, New York and Washington DC. Yes, a real good sense of humor, mr. President elect. And let the influencers get the blame, it was his posts (allegedly) that is setting the flames sprawling and unlike the ones in California, these flames will have a national impact. Americans asked for this, they elected the man. So what comes out is on their own heads. As a commonwealthian I share the feelings of Justin Trudeau who said on January 7th (source: CBC) ‘Trudeau says ‘not a snowball’s chance in hell’ Canada joins U.S.’ And as that setting evolves I wonder if I should swap my optional future in Toronto with a more secure lifestyle in Abu Dhabi. The idea of having an apartment next to a mall (Yas Mall) and 4 tourist attraction becomes highly appealing especially if the Harry Potter universe is added in 2025 to the Warner Brothers Abu Dhabi park. Perhaps IBM needs IBM Statistics support staff in Abu Dhabi. With a (delusional) sign on bonus of $15 million I’ll be game to witch Australia for the United Arab Emirates. Still willing to move to Toronto (for the same amount mr Ellison), so what are my options? Unless something is done with the President elect, I merely see the UAE as an option. Consider that, that people are willing to leave Canada and the beauty it holds for a different kind of beauty (UAE, Abu Dhabi). And in the end it will merely delay the bankruptcy by 5 years, which gets Trump out of deep water and after that America will drag Canada into the same mess it created for itself, well done Wall Street.

All that for a sense of delusional humor? I will let you decide, yet consider that America opened to door to grow China in near exponential size, because they could end up with options in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. As Elon Musk has shifted his interest into ousting Keir Starmer from the post of PM of the United Kingdom (which is not the worst idea), however whatever he wants to replace him with will be a person HE can control and that is not on with me.

The last country will open doors all over Europe. How is the expensionarlism of Trump hitting you now? On the upside, these four nations will see a larger investment from China in their regions. Not the best option, but taking in account what America had in mind a optional preferable one.

Have an optional great day.

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November 2, 2024 · 07:04

Strangled by greed

I saw an article in the BBC last week, I took notice as it collided with something else I saw, but I could no longer find it. The article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6er83ene6o) gives us ‘Hollywood’s big boom has gone bust’ It is here where we see “The actor and aerial cinematographer turned his hobby of flying drones into a profitable business in 2012 just as the streaming wars were taking off. For a decade, he was flying high above film sets, creating sleek aerial shots for movies and TV shows on Netflix, Amazon and Disney. Now he’s on the verge of becoming homeless – again. He was evicted from the Huntington Beach home he shared with his wife and two young children and now is being booted from the Las Vegas apartment they moved to because they could no longer afford to live in Southern California.” As I see it, it is a much simpler equation, even as we are given “the good times ground to a halt in May 2023, when Hollywood’s writers went on strike. The strikes lasted multiple months and marked the first time since the 1960s that both writers and actors joined forces – effectively shutting down Hollywood production.” You see, some people are blaming the strike, but the strike wasn’t the reason it is a interaction drive between cinematic analysts and greed driven studio bosses. Even as we see “with layoffs at many studios – most recently at Paramount. It had a second round of layoffs this week, as the storied movie company moves to cut 15% of its workforce ahead of a merger with the production company Skydance.” And none of it is the actual reason. Hollywood has decided to rely on mediocrity and the attached collection of yes nodders towards some numbers of utterly unreliability (as I personally see it). Lets take a step back to 1966, a new youngling in Hollywood came with an idea a science fiction tainted wild western called Star Trek. Lucille Ball from Desilu Productions was one of the driving forces on pushing the success of Star Trek. In the mean time the series is the longest and most successful series in history pushing 11 spin offs and 13 movies. At the end, the cancellation of Star Trek was proclaimed In 2011 “the ranked number four on the TV Guide Network special, 25 Biggest TV Blunders” and still Hollywood will not learn. Now we see other issues in 2005 a series named Threshold was created, it lasted for one season.

The TV series was really good (my personal view) and the actors including Carla Gugino, the youthful young sprout who played the ex of Dwayne Johnson in San Andreas, Brent Spiner who played the mad scientist in Independence Day, Charles S. Dutton known for many roles, Rudy being one of them, Peter Dinklage who shined in Death at a Funeral and the game of thrones. The TV series was drenched in achieved talent, however as the TV series didn’t get the desired ratings, the series were dropped. Star Trek wasn’t enough of a lesson for Hollywood. And this wasn’t the only lesson. Defying Gravity (2009), Firefly (2002), Doll House (2009) all series dropped for the mere reason that it wasn’t bringing in the cash from day zero. As I see it Hollywood hasn’t gone bust. The audience has stopped putting their faith in Hollywood productions. An entity that doesn’t seem to comprehend Science Fiction and Fantasy is the maker of imaginary worlds? 

We see a whole range of attached reasons, but the number one reason isn’t shown. The fact that advertisements aren’t of interest to people and that is the one thing that drives players like Netflix. TV stations are fed that advertisement is the drive of all entertainment business and to some extent this is partially true. The fact that the people after 50 years still look forward to some form of Star Trek is because it is a more surreal form of escapism and that image isn’t clear to Hollywood. I see it as a reason why Canada and Australia are growing players in this field. In Hollywood every dollar needs to be spend at least twice to become valid and all that time writers are massively underpaid. I see it as the number one reason why we will soon see an overshadowing of Hollywood by Dubai Media and the MBC group. And that is before Hollywood figures out that the people demand continuation of the story. The number one issue around Threshold, Defying Gravity, Firefly and Doll House. The are regarded as not ‘profitable’ but they are represented by millions of watchers who wonder what comes next and too many of these disappointments of cancelations are getting to them and now they look at places where there is continuation. 

My initial view is that someone needs to take a hard look at how ratings are measured, because I think that is the core of the issue. I refuse to believe that some cancelations are valid. Consider the series Lucifer, it was booted at season 3, taken over by Netflix who did 3 seasons more. Now we see “In 2021, Lucifer was the most-streamed original series in the U.S., with 18.34 billion minutes viewed”, so how is that not a success and it makes us wonder what drove the cancelation by Fox? The stream data contradicts the Fox statement that is was a “ratings-based decision”. I think that this is happening too much and as such I have doubts that there is a issue with how ratings are ‘found’ and those in that area together with some analysts are setting the stage for whatever they think that matters, but that is merely my view on the matter.

I see it that greed driven decisions by some are strangling others from fulfilling their view. Avatar (2009) made $2,923,706,026 and I get that, but is it better than Oppenheimer (2023) $975,594,978? As I see it Wall Street wannabe’s are tainting the field of artistic achievements and I get that revenue is part of the equation, but Hollywood was the place of dreams, it has now become a nightmare for many players. Why is that? 

Enjoy the weekend.

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September 30, 2024 · 11:48

Co inky dink

Yup, my previous article on comic films preceded a BBC article. Or perhaps better stated I saw the article after I wrote my article. As coincidences, go a nice one. The BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6er83ene6o) gives us ‘Hollywood’s big boom has gone bust’, I have some issues here. The first is seen with “the good times ground to a halt in May 2023, when Hollywood’s writers went on strike” I resent the implied status that this was up to the writers going on strike. And as we are given both “The actor and aerial cinematographer turned his hobby of flying drones into a profitable business in 2012 just as the streaming wars were taking off. For a decade, he was flying high above film sets, creating sleek aerial shots for movies and TV shows on Netflix, Amazon and Disney” and “But rather than roaring back, in the one year since the strikes ended, production has fizzled.” This story isn’t giving us the goods. You see there are a few elements. One is saturation of business. First there was Netflix, and not we have in addition Disney plus, Hulu, Paramount, YouTube TV, Sling, Fubo and Amazon prime. Several more to follow but these are the better ones. What was one is now eight and it doesn’t end there, there are all kinds of digital boxes who keep tabs on it all. The problem is that income levels are still the same as they were in December 2019, pretty much in synch with the first Covid setting. In 5 years most incomes are either the same or ridiculously close to that and in the meantime the cost of living has gone through the roof. Housing has been raised in many places by as much as 50%, that is hundreds of dollars a week. Food has risen by about 5% per year. There is the larger set that most people can at best afford 1 digital channel (if at all), as such all eight channels competed for the same customer at the same time. As such it isn’t merely that production fizzled, or that projects were cancelled. There is a dwindling population that cannot even afford one channel. And to relate that to the present, Disney projected it would spend between $8 billion-$9 billion on content for its premiere streaming service. Now see that investment all whilst less people could afford that TV channel. This isn’t merely America, this is a global problem. Hollywood has relied on the old Roman principle “Give the people bread and games” and now the people cannot afford the games and more and more of them are falling short for buying bread and this is happening all over the world. So whilst we get “Projects have been cancelled and production was cut across the city as jobs have dried up, with layoffs at many studios – most recently at Paramount. It had a second round of layoffs this week, as the storied movie company moves to cut 15% of its workforce ahead of a merger with the production company Skydance.” We see that there is a lull in the setting of projects and the attainment that people are in the mindset of “things will go better soon” but that is not the case. America and Europe wasted at least two years on their ego all whilst the ‘customers’ who had the cash have vacated to China. I saw this happen two years ago, which is why I created a script that could entertain the Muslim population. And I was right that SBA (Saudi Broadcasting Authority) and Dubai media are growing like crazy, all whilst the American players are merging and buying each other out. I saw the same happen in the IT in the early 90’s with a Dutch company called Infotheek. On the edge of bankruptcy, they bought the smaller players and take that revenue as your own. It didn’t work then, I doubt it will work now. And in that light America has a second problem. Many players will divert to Canada as it could be an option. Many actors and actresses are Canadian, so that works for some. Vancouver is a new powerhouse in this and the more the capture the smaller the American pie becomes. As such the article is right, Hollywood big boom has gone bust, as could be the case for Hollywood fairly soon. And there lies the problem, an over bubbled industry, A premise of channels that ned to invest billions, all whilst there is doubt that the revenue in 2026 could have diminished by 20% (at least), as such who gets the money? Then in the past 300% on investment was achievable, soon it will merely be between break even and perhaps 50%, so how many investors will leap the fence to optionally Arabic channels? I made it clear in 2020 that you cannot bite the hand that feeds you, but did the American defense industry listen? Nope and now the Chinese defense industry reports a growth of 25% year-on-year. That is money that is not going to America and now the streaming channels are optionally seeing a similar move towards Arabic nations and India. So how long until the boom turns into a gap that implodes implodes? 

All things that have been out in the open, but the BBC overlooked it. It is a good story and it gives some of the goods, but it overlooked the attached factors and these are a lot more disastrous. Well, that’s it for now. It is almost lunch time for me, have a great morning wherever you are.

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July 28, 2024 · 11:24

As the idea erupted

This happens, we do one thing and suddenly an idea erupts. In this case I was thinking of the second script that I am generating in Final Draft.

It was a setting that made me think for a moment. And this setting came from the days of the Commodore Amiga. I even was working an reset emulated version of the game in Macromedia Flash, just 1-2 weeks before I suddenly was made redundant. I suddenly had to relocate from Stockholm to Gorinchem when I got screwed over by my previous boss. But the thought got to me and I thought “Wouldn’t this make a great small budget movie?” An ‘almost’ one person movie with its own narration. Most of the movie in a sort of CGI and an interaction with computers and a sort of deserted place. It might not be the Hollywood stage of stories and not really for the big screen, but an idea that a streaming company might like or consider. In a stage where they have to pump billion into material, a low budget might have a much better chance. They can test an actor or actress as well as the director and director of filming in a cheaper setting. As such 3-5 people straight out of film school. I reckon that Pedro Pascal, Tom Hanks, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Steven Spielberg would be too expensive. But there are over 50,000 actors many of them do not have a place in Bel Air, not to mention of the amount of Directors in the field. New players have a hard time getting through. So, here the speculated number race through my head and now there is a viable setting. The stage of using low budget films to create a talent pool of newbies. You know people like Pedro Pascal had a lucky break. Considering he was the man behind Napoleon Dynamite (vote for Pedro), I know I can be quirky (read: funny) at times. Still the premise remains, luck isn’t always available so what then? I believe that low budget movies are part of that key and places like Dubai Media are likely to break through their own confinements and start breaking through into the West European streaming markets. There is an upside to that. When the current borders by Netflix and Disney plus start pushing their own limitations others could be there taking up the slack. You see one source is stating ‘The US will need 22,700 film directors over the next 10 years’, I cannot vouch for the accuracy there. Yet this implies that ever upper level University will need to fight off job offers with a stick for 100% of their art students. I nice setting, but not realistic. Adding a talent pool becomes essential and not merely for these people, they will all need scripts. There are plenty of them around, but how good are they?

These elements put the larger streamers on the spot and those ready to grow could enter new fields. This puts Dubai Media in a nice place and lets not forget iQiyi and Tencent Media either. America might hate all that is Chinese, but I reckon that Europe is more open to this stage. As the mindset goes that in the first century Decimus Junius Juvenalis stated “Give them bread and games and they will never revolt” It was around the age of Emperor Trajan. What strikes me was that no-one considered owning the bakers. It might be merely a coin per bread, however the Colosseum had 50-80 thousand spectators and that makes for a nice penny. And there were more places over the empire of Rome where these places had crowds. Being the admiral of baker makes perfect sense to me. Even today ‘give them bread and games’ applies but in this setting nowadays growing the streaming services makes a lot more sense. And there to centrality of content becomes a new focal point. Everyone is looking towards Hollywood, but there is a problem there. California is losing their focus, they are saturated, so new borders are required. The Middle East and Asia make sense and when Europe finds out that the American prices are getting too high the aforementioned three players as well as other other streamers will see their markets erupt. Not to mention countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh that over these two countries have a little over half a billion citizens, we see a disrupted market. All looking at California and Hollywood to hand them materials, but the ongoing mass emigration of residents and businesses from California to other U.S. states (Texas) or countries is about to leave California is a near desperate state and the desperate need to pay a lot more. That opens the doors for the Middle East and Asia to make their mark. It is almost the proverbial butterfingered aide putting all egg in one basket. 

All that came to me in a near instant (in less than on hour) whilst was contemplating a low budget movie. I have no idea yet how to do that (I have three other projects in my brains) but it is something to keep in mind. Considering that this setting will take time to implode (before 2026) I still have time and until the end of the year I need to focus on the next two projects but Residuam Vitam comes first. 

Enjoy this Sunday 

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December 30, 2023 · 12:01

Almost circular

Yup, we get that expression again, we are almost done with another trip around the sun. I am not sure where it comes from. I think I heard it first on Facebook, but that is no indication of origin. So at the end of the year a few things hit me. I want to give them all up here, but in this case I have handed them over to Tencent Holdings Ltd. first. Lets see if they are more awake then Google and Amazon. You see, there is a hiatus appearing and that is not a good thing (not a bad thing either), it merely is and I recognise that. Yet the hiatus was discovered by little me when I was getting to know a program called Final Draft (v12). I am putting in one of my Scripts for Al Saudiya and I got well over 30% done in less then a total time of 24 hours. As I was progressing through the parts (ACT4 in particular) things started to appear before me. Thoughts that I had not had whilst writing the story by itself. Now, this makes sense. Final Draft is a specific solution for a specific audience. Yet what appeared to me more clearly (part of it was already visible, which was why I selected that tool to learn) Is that there is an offset to ‘immediately’ register it with SAG-AFTRA. It set a new station. You see, not only can (what some call) do a Reese Whiterspoon on all this. There is a growing need for a cloud solution and set up a global protection umbrella for scripts. Consider that until a few years ago Hollywood had to deal with 35,000 scripts a year. 350 are made into movies. It is a simple cram of the crop equation. Now consider this same setting but with additional streaming, TV, Nollywood, Bollywood, Scandinavia and so on. We now get closer to more than 100,000 scripts. So how to prevent ‘cross-pollination’? The only real option is to have a cloud solution that registers all what you write into the cloud. It could register as evidence that your IP was invaded upon. But to do that your IP needs to be registered. I think Final Draft, Inc. is already thinking and moving into that direction. Now that Final Draft is pushing towards ‘Writing for Youtube? We’ve got you covered!’ The stage moves even further. You see YouTube is ‘stating’ that there are 38,000,000 active Vloggers. If only 10% is upping their game with Final draft, Final Draft will suddenly need a much larger support system and an optional global one. That was what I was banking on (initially) but I didn’t see the YouTube part, which is of course a nice escalation in my favour. 

In that setting Final Draft needs a support system that can take care of that much more users. They would need two parts. The first is a support system like only NICE CX One can deliver and they need to consider globalisation. If only to set an optional 24:7 setting. That gives them USA, optionally UAE (Abu Dhabi, as Dubai might be too expensive). Somewhere in India and on the east side of China. They now have an overlap in 4 stages, meaning if one has technical difficulties the left and right side of that team can carry the load for a few hours each. China makes more sense then Japan, because the Chinese entertainment industry will get a massive influx in 1-2 years. UAE has more options than Saudi Arabia, but the Arabian entertainment is also due a larger growth. Saudi Arabia is already setting its mind on sports, meaning that streaming is closely followed, hence my Al Saudiya move. 

And they can also support Nollywood. As such, as demand grows Final Draft is about to grow to new heights. And their cloud move makes sense. It is a logical next step to allow their customers chose to select the cloud or keep it local. So as we are about to make another trip around the sun, we need to see that Final Draft was ahead of a lot of people and the one niche that Microsoft ignored for close to 20 years is about to be lost to them. No worries, Google was asleep at the helm as well. Another setting they never saw coming and where was Amazon? I cannot tell, because none of this was on their ship, but if they align with Final Draft on that cloud solution, optionally with NICE, the game changes a little more and both streams will be lost on Microsoft. I predicted a lot of this, not this one, but that implies that Microsoft in the end losses a lot more than before and that is also the new setting. Millions now needing a non-Microsoft solution, how weird this year ends. Not to put to fine a point on this but I am loving this.

Enjoy this day before the end of the year.

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August 17, 2023 · 17:15

Strike Two

This started earlier. It started weeks ago and I was aware, I took notice. Yet, that was about it. I mean no disrespect. I do not live in the US, I am not California and as such I am merely partially aware. I see what most outside of the US see. We see the strike, but yesterday I saw an opinion piece in the LA Times and that woke me up a little more and would you believe it, this morning I got more awake. There was an advertisement on YouTube, it was the Pilot of Lioness and it was one hell of an ad. It was 50 minutes, it was the pilot. Yup Paramount Plus took their balls and hung them up the wall. OK, this is a first that I watch a 50 minute advertisement. Yet, it was not about the ad, not about Lioness but it gave me focus, so lets begin.

The LA Times Story (at https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-08-15/netflix-antitrust-anticompetitive-labor) gives us ‘Hollywood strikes prove Netflix and other streamers have grown too powerful. Time to break them up’ here we are given “Many have called the stalemate an existential crisis because it concerns new issues such as residuals from streaming services and rules for the use of artificial intelligence. These go beyond the usual labor issues such as wages and benefits and cut to the heart of an industry in which streamers such as Netflix can dominate all aspects of the business.” It is one side that I had not seen before. ‘Entertainment’ has become an end-to-end business over ALL verticals. I had not considered that merely because I am not part of this industry, I never was. Yet here we are given “Antitrust laws need to be invoked — as they were in the 1940s in U.S. vs. Paramount — to break up streaming services that both produce content and distribute it. This vertical integration has deeply changed the longstanding entertainment industry ecosystem, which allowed employees to survive and studios to prosper.” Which gets us to “In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled against the studios, requiring them to divest themselves of their movie theatres if they wanted to continue in the production business. Shortly thereafter, theatrical films began to be aired on television with no additional compensation for creative talent. This led to the strike by both the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild in 1960, the last time the two struck simultaneously.”

With finally “If Netflix and its streaming peers like Apple+, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and Max can maintain their vertical control, it will be next to impossible to settle the Hollywood strikes in ways that could preserve the ability of creators and technicians to earn a decent living and protect creative diversity. The old vertical studio system was broken up by the Justice Department. It may be time to do the same with these 21st century behemoths.” And that was the wake up call I needed. The Paramount ‘advertisement’ was apt and consider that Lioness is new stellar series. Kidman, Saldana and several others are making a bundle. They earned it, their work is first rate, as is the director and the director of photography. They all did a stellar job, but it would not have been possible without the writer, without the writer there would be no script, nothing for the director to work from. So how much is he making? 

We see the accusations that the top person, which in the case of Disney is Bob Iger, in 2022 he made well over $14,000,000. This amounts to well over a million a month. Now lets take a look at the image below.

So a series that streamed over 3,000,000,000 minutes, making it one of the most profitable and most successful series even, the writers were collectively paid $3,000. Please explain to me in what universe 3 billion streamed minutes gives us a combined pay check of $3,000? You see those three billion minutes amount to 138,121.5 years. Does it make sense now? The writers are beyond underpaid. They are the legal slaves of America and they deserve their right coin. But American history is seeded with injustice and exploitation and to be honest until the LA Times piece I did not see it, so who else was unaware? We are given snapshots, yet until you see the entire vertical of exploitation it makes little sense and now with that streaming vertical exposed you can see just how unfair it is and one series, the series suits, showed us just how much the writers are fed up with being ignored what should be rightfully theirs.

Enjoy the day.

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July 16, 2023 · 10:58

Single-mindedness towards greed

That is how I see it in this case. To see this we need to take a look at the CBC article (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/box-office-slump-2023-1.6906554) called ‘Blockbusters are failing spectacularly, but how that changes Hollywood is anyone’s guess’. First of all, are they failing? To the requiring mind of these movie releases they seemingly are. Yet I am not of that mindset. Lets see if I can get you on board. A second article is from the BBC and seen (at https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230713-how-the-cost-of-living-crisis-is-fuelling-job-quits) where we are getting told about the cost of living. They call it ‘How the cost-of-living crisis is fuelling job quits’, especially in families with children, the revenue of worker number two is no longer covering the cost of the children. They tell us “Rising prices and interest rates are pushing some workers to move around the labour market, rather than dig in their heels at their current employers.” This is not merely a British thing, it is a global thing and when you add Australia with age discrimination we have a very different picture. We see a growing global community that can no longer AFFORD to go to the cinema. I used to go to the cinema at least once a month. Now I am happy if I can afford to go once a quarter, that is a drop of 60% and I am not alone, millions are in the same boat. To get any kind of tinsel town satisfaction we are driven to Netflix. $15 a month versus $15 per visit is simple math (if you have a proper internet connection), yet the CBC has merely one mention of Netflix and it is in the wrong direction. The article has nothing on ‘cost of living’ a clear first in any household. A week ago CBC gave its readers ‘Families face ‘hidden homelessness’ as Hamilton shelter system is consistently overwhelmed’ and no one was able to connect the dots? In ‘generalising’ statistics we tend to agree and accept that for any household collapsing, at least 50 more are on the verge to go that direction. It isn’t a foolproof stage, but with the lack of data that is a clear path to walk on and now we see that this implies that in Hamilton alone a thousand households are on the verge of collapsing. So how many of those would consider going to the cinema? It amounts to $25-$40 per person, and that is just for starters. There are travel cost to consider as well. So when you add it all up, Canada alone has close to 250,000 households that actually can no longer afford to go to the cinema. Add a few million from the US and a similar amount from the EU and it explains why people aren’t going to the silver screen, they lack funds. This doesn’t make the movie a flop. I would have loved to have seen Shazam 2 (or the new Indiana Jones, or Oppenheimer, or Mission Impossible) I just couldn’t afford the ticket. It is life on a budget and I reckon that Jackson Weaver has some rewriting to do, perhaps add a chapter (or two). The funny part is that I saw this path clearly within the first 2 minutes. Me, for now is saving up so that I can see Dune Chapter 2 on launch date (which is November 2nd). This is the reality that millions face, we aren’t happy, we aren’t thrilled. This is our lives and the people in the entertainment better take notice (like the CEO’s making 135 million plus annually). You are either getting smarter on how you do things or lose more and more money and downgrading payments of actors is definitely the wrong road to travel on.

And why is this single-mindedness? Simple, you see Google and Amazon should be running circles around me. Yet for now I am growing my IP count where they should have been ahead of me and they are not. The simple setting is that they (and Hollywood) should have the goods, but I wrote several stories (could be scripts) in directions they never contemplated. So, why not? Are they the next creative failings after Ubisoft? You tell me, I should never have been ahead or even close to equal to them, but it seems that I am. I will tell you that I am not driven by greed, I believe that this is the setting that is drowning them. When did this happen? My personal feeling is that Avatar and the Marvel movies opened a door they never saw and now they are all rushing to get to that revenue. It is a greed driven drive, which is why they will never equal people like James Gunn (even when he is wearing glasses), the creative minds like Ridley Scott, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese are titans because it is about the creation, not the revenue (it is a nice side effect for them). Art is never bankable, but it is collectable when completed. A simple premise that most never seem to get and they all rely on one other element. People who can afford to go to the cinema and for now that equation is massively out of balance.

It might not be their fault, but it is still on their plates today. Not hard was it?

Try to enjoy the last day of your weekend.

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May 7, 2023 · 12:11

Changing the narrative

That happens at times. Narratives are slightly altered, but in this case? The media to a much larger degree are changing the narrative of the strikes at the Writers Guild of America. Is it because of advertisement needs? Is it because the streaming corporations now have a hold on them? You tell me. In this I have two examples. The first is ABC and even though the headline is deceptive, they do give all the facts. 

Yet others are seemingly not doing that. They are all about the AI side, yet the two largest issues which are the unbelievable amount of underpaid writers as well as the streaming revenue where writers get next to nothing are massive issues. ABC does mention them but plenty of them do not. I saw at least a few of them copying other texts almost to the letter and no mention of streaming issues. Why is that? It is all nice that the WGA is on strike and picketing, but the media should at least take one small effort to hand the real issues and all of them to the public. The media has lost enough credibility as it is and as such we need to wake up (and fast). 

As I heard it new media (streaming) was not addressed satisfactory the last time around, because it was really new. So to read that some writers creating winning series need a government handout to get by is clearly insane. And it will cost Hollywood a lot more then they realise. What happens when the Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, United Kingdom) take over? What happens when the Dubai stage of G5 starts catering to global streaming? What happens when China with Tencent Technologies adjusts to this stream whilst paying a proper income? America might shun it all and stats that these series are not welcome, yet I believe that parts of Asia, Europe and the Middle East are ready for change and Hollywood better tarts realising really fast that the latter three players are close to 60% of their income stream. When that falls away it will be one of several multi billion income streams falling away. First Defence, then IT now streaming and as I see it both the UAE and China are chomping at the bit to take a slice of that income stage. 

So whilst the media is pondering how to cater to advertisers, they better realise that when that falls away they have nothing left. One of my IP will already hurt advertisement money to a decent amount, the streaming industry will hurt a lot more when the shift to any of the other three players come through. All stages that were out in the open for all to admire, that was until the media changed the narrative as I see it. I have no idea how long this strike will last, but at the end when writers vacate to a place where they end up having a decent income, plenty of series will collapse, perhaps not completely, but several will lose the little talent they had at their disposal. Yet for these providers there is still one option, a reality show based on republican politicians with real republican politicians. They will take any limelight that will have them and it could be hosted by Tucker Carlson, apparently he is looking for a job. So how is that future of streaming? Yes, there is an upcoming issue with AI, but that will take time. The fact that paid writers still require government handouts whilst these series make billions is disgusting and it will not take long until some will show the people this and plead that we cancel out streaming subscriptions. What happens when the people on mass agree?

Enjoy Sunday and consider the price of what you are watching on your streaming channel.

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