DearEvette
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1 hour ago, Kel Varnsen said:
The whole story behind that raises some questions for me about that though. I think you could do that without AI so it makes me think that they are using AI as a scary buzzword.
Also I get that they don't want any kind of contract precedent kind of thing set, but background actors aren't usually covered by the same collective agreement that regular actors are, are they?
I think the more alarming part isn't AI but the 'in perpetuity thing.' It is one thing to be given rights within a specific body of work to manipulate an actor's likeness and voice. Copyright has its own set of very specific laws that some of that is likely governed under wrt to that specific piece of work.
But 'owning' the likeness and voice of an actor to put them in anything ever that you want where they can't object is a dystopian. What is to stop them from putting them in something incredibly explicit or have them endorsing a product or candidate that is personally repugnant to the actor?
At any rate, as I mentioned above contract language is very specific. For instance, to a layman special effects can mean anything 'artificial' but technology wise, VFX and CGI are two different things. And if you stipulate one thing in writing you need to be aware of what it is you are stipulating. And AI is still an emergent technology with capabilities we may not yet be aware of. One of the reasons some early broadcast or cable shows are not available for streaming or even available in DVD format because of the contracts for music rights were written before the advent of DVDs and streaming so the language doesn't cover those media. And now in order to do that they have to either remove the music or renegotiate. And decide which one is more expensive to so.
And one of the reasons WGA is striking again is because of what streaming has evolved into and in ways they could not predict back when they struck in 2007 which is now to their detriment.
It also just sounds like based on what both WGA and SAG are saying is that the AMPTP are just not willing to even negotiate at all. According to several sources apparently, certain studio heads have what amounts to a siege mentality where they were actually willing to sit, do nothing and hope the lack of pay/loss of income would result in the writers losing their homes etc. so they'd come crawling back. All that seems to have done is mage them angrier and more resolute.
re: Background actors. I do not believe that day players and extras need to be in SAG to work as extras, but quite a few might be. And I think if your plan is to be a working actor then you will need to eventually be in SAG.
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So did you all see what the AMPTP were proposing for AI? According to SAG, the AMPTP came to the table and their proposal for AI was for it to be codified that background actors could come in for one day's work (be paid for one day) and have their likenesses scanned. That likeness would then be owned by the company and could be used by the company in any project, any capacity, in perpetuity without any additional consent or compensation.
They would further be able to feed all collected acting images into generative AI so it could learn and they could use these generated AI actors in whatever they want.
Sounds creepy as hell.
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8 minutes ago, mariah23 said:
It’s official: The Nanny calls for a strike.
Also the cast of Oppenheimer left the London premiere in solidarity.
Yeah, I have been listening to the press conference. Fran's presser speech was very good. She sounded mad and hurt and righteous at the same time. I was ready to go walk the lines and I am not even in the industry! LOL.
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I think it depends on how contracts are written and what rights have been granted and whether or not unknown future technologies are covered and even so far as 'Likeness' and what that means. Contract language is very specific and technology can outpace what is known vs. what is meant.
Reminds me of the big sea change that happened when ebooks came around. A lot of old publishing contracts where had rights that were based on "print books" or to publishing houses to “print, publish and sell in book form.” At the time this was to distinguish between print and audio where audiobooks often had a different publisher and different rights and a different revenue stream for the authors. But nobody had thought of ebooks. So when ebooks took off, there were cases where authors were attempting to contract for ebook rights with different companies and were getting sued by their publishers or publishers selling ebooks and not having to compensate authors because of the 'print book' wording.
I think since in this case it is WGA and SGA-AFTRA -- both are unions. So as a union they are trying to formalize language plus base compensation and a set of legal rules for everyone and not have it so bigger names with lots of money can negotiate better terms for themselves while the lesser or newer actors and writers can be taken advantage of.
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1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:He likes her surfing pictures, and slides into her DMs which leads to a relationship. Then he wants to her to stop doing the things that make her money and got him to notice her in the first place. There are too many people praising him for establishing his "boundaries."
Yeah, this tells me people don't know what personal boundaries are. You don't fence in your neighbor's yard, you fence in your own. It is something you place on yourself and acts as a line you won't cross. 'I will not have this type of relationship or I won't be around this type of person" is a personal boundary. "You can no longer do this thing, so stop it." Is coercive control.
Between him and Keke Palmer's boyfriend, we got a 1-2 punch of men deciding to show their asses on twitter and attempt to shame and control the women in their lives for what they choose to wear. Wild.
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My husband and I went out to eat with his sister and her husband. We went to an actual sit down restaurant with a waiter and everything. We realized with some shock how much we had gotten out of the habit of eating out. Pre-Covid we'd go out a couple times a months. But post we only go so far as getting take out.
Anyway we went to a favorite Italian place. We had Carpaccio for the table -- the beef slivers were sliced so thin they were practically transparent and melt in your mouth silky good. It was drizzled with this dijon mustard sauce.
I had Lobster ravioli in a creamy wine sauce with toasted bread crumbs. My ravioli was pretty, it was tricolor striped (Italian flag). My husband had this super flavorful, gorgeous Cioppino. And we had tiramisu for desert. Lovely evening, fantastic meal.
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3 hours ago, merylinkid said:
But Ms. Spears is not innocent here either.
Ha! I see what you did there.
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16 hours ago, Trini said:
Another list; this one doesn't get too deep into the reasons why, but all have things that are WAY more offensive or problematic to today's sensibilities: 'Movies That Couldn’t Be Made Today'
I think that the basic premise of some of them absolutely could not be made today, such as Soul Man where the entire premise of fucked up. I mean even back in 1986 we were side-eyeing this movie.
But quite a few on the list, the movies themselves are not an issue they just have some problematic scenes or elements that could be excised completely and still keep the plot and theme of the film intact. I mean, yeah if we kept them exactly as is they wouldn't be greenlit, but the way the article is written they seem to suggest that the whole movie is problematic.
I am think of Sixteen Candles which at is at its' core simply a girl whose 16th birthday has been hijacked by a lot of different chaotic elements. That could still 100% work just get rid of the problematic parts.
Driving Miss Daisy could definitely still be made. I think it it less the subject matter/plot and more whether they think investing in more movies like that. It is 100% Oscar bait so maybe.
Also, Austin Powers -- huh? Their reasoning for including that is flawed. It is a parody of the James Bond movies. It does what parodies are supposed to do which is exaggerate and sends up the identifiable elements of the entity it is parodying. Of course there will be inappropriate womanizing. That is what James Bond does. Of course it could still get made today.
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On 6/20/2023 at 9:42 PM, BlueSkies said:
Perhaps this isnt the best question to ask on a thread called vent your spleen about work but How Many People Actually Like Their Jobs?
Oh, I love my job. I have worked in Higher Ed for almost my entire professional life both in the corporate sector (for a major education software vendor) and in the education sector for different colleges and universities.
My current job I've been in the longest and worked my way up to an assistant directorship, have a lot of autonomy and seniority, and have earned (based on what my boss tells me) the respect of a lot of my colleagues.
Speaking of... my boss texted me today to tell me that one of my least favorite people ( a particularly snotty professor that I had a rather public falling out with about 10 years ago because I knew something better than he did and he didn't like it so he decided to show his ass) was put on administrative leave, access to his university email and other systems have been removed. I am dying to know the hell happened. The amount of fucked up you have to do for a tenured professor and dept. chair to get this level rebuke is major!
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4 hours ago, MissAlmond said:
Now why did Sleepy Hollow creator, Philip Iscove take to Twitter streets declaring "Shipping nonsense! and how two people can just be friends blah, blah, blah" about fans shipping some couple on Hulu's The Bear? A show the man has nothing to do with! Guess Iscove thought nobody remembered his name. They did. Tweet deleted but the memory lives again
Yeah the shipping discourse between Carmy and Sydney on The Bear is interesting. I don't know if any of The Bear creatives have weighed in (they'd be smart NOT to) but the whole thing has a 'been there, done that quality with some people saying 'There is no chemistry' and 'Why can't people just be friends' and 'They are giving sibling energy' in response to people shipping the couple.
Now, to be fair I am not shipping Syd and Carmy per se I can see an argument for them being this great friend-partnership only, but the shippers are not pulling stuff out of their asses. I don't know if it is the writing, the directing, the acting choices or just the actor chemistry, but Syd and Carmy have scenes that objectively read as UST.
Which brings me to the race portion of all this because usually these kickbacks to 'can't people just be friends" and 'they are giving sibling" vibes tend to be loudest when one pair of the shipping couple is a black female.
Which brings us to Iscove and yeah, he needs to just sit there and eat his food. He has no credibility here. Given how they fumbled the bag with their own couple, I would only trust them to tell me how NOT to have nice things.
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1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:
I love how Nora writes boys and men. Boys, because they are SO relatable and sound like, well, 10-year old boys sound and act like! And since she's the youngest of five, and had four older brothers, and two sons--she likes men; understands them, and writes them well.
This is one thing I have noticed and have loved about her books over the years. She does write boys very well. You can tell she's been around young boys a lot (...aaand that sounded way more creepy than I meant... LOL). But she absolutely gets the 'voice' and mannerisms right.
I remembered thinking this when I did a re-read of Black Hills last year. So much of it is from Cooper's pov and we meet him when he is young going to stay with his grandparents in South Dakota for the summer and feeling like it is a punishment because he is a born and bred New Yorker. I found him delightful and he is reminiscent of a lot of her male leads if we meet them when they are younger. She has a fine hand with creating likeable affable heroes.
My own recent reading has been rather eclectic -
I recently finished The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold. I love, love, love the first two books in the Chalion series and have read them many times, this is the third one and I never liked it as much, but decided to re-read it. Still not as great as the first two but I think I like it better with some distance.
Read Burn it Down by Mo Ryan, the book about in some ways how broken the Hollywood system is that excuses 'genius' and makes way for a lot of the toxic behind -the-scenes environments that are often whispered about on tv and movie sets and it really doesn't have to be that way. Some things were shocking, some validating. I do like that it wasn't just a gossipy tell all but her background in having access to people in the industry she offers examples of good practices and suggestions that it doesn't have to be that way.
Magic Tides and Magic Claims by Ilona Andrews - these are two long novellas that are officially the first two books in the Kate Daniels: The Wilmington years series. The original Kate Daniels series ended. We knew there would be other series shoot-offs. But not one featuring Kate and Curran. But these have been a nice surprise. And what I love about them is how true to the characters the author is staying.
Curran and Kate, bless their hearts, have relocated to Wilmington and are trying to live a normal quiet life. Bwah! The moral of this story is that you can leave a place and attempt to try to live a quiet life and leave some baggage behind, but you are always gonna be you. One thing I am loving about the second book is that the authors are doing what they (and the character of Kate) resisted even until the end in her original series. She refused to embrace her full power. But it seems like they are taking those gloves off in this series and I am enjoying it!
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My son made Big Mac Tacos. He got the sauce right. Surprisingly tasty.
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On 6/14/2023 at 8:05 PM, Spartan Girl said:
It’s been almost ten years, and I still think Rosamund Pike should’ve won Vest Actress for Gone Girl instead of Julienne Moore for Still Alice.
Ooh, that's nothing. it has been twenty years and I am still pressed over the fact that Denzel Washington's portrayal Malcolm X lost to Al Pacino's over the top scenery chew of Scent of a Woman. Yeah it was a long over due make up Oscar (which I hate because it is supposed to be about the performance, but I digress...). If he had to win his make up Oscar it is a shame it went to that performance which, imo, was just a bag of tics.
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Aww Jessica Batten and her husband had their baby. A Boy named Dax. Congrats to them.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CtmY0ldJuw9/
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22 minutes ago, Laura Holt said:
Sadly, it comes down to romance writers not getting much respect. Write a book full of doom and gloom and grisly death and you get awards, write positive, life affirming books, and you get a lot of people who love the books but will never admit to reading them.
I would understand (somewhat) if she had remained firmly niche or midlist and never really made it out of mass market. But she really is a big name in romance and had moved to suspense hardcover. So she had crossed over somewhat. Bloggers and twitter are all over her death and her family has announced that she actually has some books that are complete and will be published posthumously. Still, no excuse for at least the New York papers not to have something considering she was a published by the big NY houses.
20 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:And publishing needs the Julie Garwoods and other romance authors in order to be able to publish the Cormac McCarthys. Their business model is built upon using the profits made from authors writing in popular genres to finance the litfic authors.
Yup. Publishing's dirty little secret for years. Romance was a billion dollar a year mule carrying them on their backs.
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I think you are thinking of Casey Affleck, Ben's younger brother.
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2 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:
I reread The Bride last night and it is so good. Up next is The Secret. I really do need to reread my first Garwood For the Roses here soon. I haven't read that since high school.
I re-read The Bride earlier this year and it absolutely stands the test of time. So good. My favorite line "She started three wars in the first week." And in the ending with all those 'enemies' coming to her defense was fantastic.
I decided to re-read 'The Secret' and I am cracking up from the first chapter.
And yes, I am so perplexed why there isn't a write up of her in a major paper. Only the obits. So weird.
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Another author has passed away. Julie Garwood, one of the titans of romance has passed.
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has a really nice write up of her. She is a favorite of mine. Her book 'The Bride' is a seminal book in romance and introduced humor and quirky heroines.
RIP Ms. Garwood.
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The scene from Kill Bill Vol. 1 where The Bride tells O-Ren they have unfinished business. Everything about this scene is fire. Fave parts:
- The close focus on Uma's lips in profile as she is yelling her challenge at O-Ren
- O-Ren's face when she realizes who it is
- The shocking, abrupt violence of The Bride cutting off Sophie's arm
- The hysterical, over the top flourishes of the Crazy 88's as they fling open the doors
- And finally the Ennio Morricone 'Death Rides A Horse (From Man to Man)' music is just the *chef's kiss*
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Do a re-read of select books in Steve Miller and Sharon Lee's Liaden Universe which I haven't read in years so they are like new.
I enjoyed Local Custom which as I was reading I was impressed all over again how the authors use language and linguistics as a major part of their world building.
Just finished Scout's Progress which I had remembered was about domestic violence. But had forgotten about the found family aspect and camaraderie between pilots. The DV stuff was worse than I remembered but the basic story is great and pretty triumphant. I loved the fact that the main character, Aelliana, was a brilliant (and famous) mathematician who won a spaceship in a card game and was using that as her exit strategy to get away from her abusive older brother. The DV stuff was heartbreaking because it shows that no matter how well respected and thought of and , yes, even revered amongst the pilots Aelliana was, her own self esteem had been worn away by years of abuse. Luckily the actual parts showing her awful brother were brief.
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Uh.. say what now?
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6 hours ago, Irlandesa said:
In the excerpt I read, he said he thinks he would have seen it if it happened. Is there more information in the book?
Yeah there is a multi paragraph anecdote. But basically they needed hair and make up touch ups for a baseball promo/shoot. Nicole was really salty about her wig situation. Apparently it was bad. The way the book makes it sound from Jones, the only time Nicole was in the hair/make up was when he was with her in the trailer, so he was around her the whole time in hair and makeup. And they had been cracking jokes about the hair.
Quote“That day in the trailer, Jones said, he and Beharie were chatting and goofing around. They took a photo (which is still on Jones’s phone) in which Beharie pretended to bite Jones. Part of their banter that day had roots—pardon the pun—in the hair situation.”
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“Your solution to the fact that you don’t want to spend money on a wig for me is, you send the Black lady to do some poking and prodding?’ We laughed. We went on with our day.”
Quote“After touch-ups, everyone—including the hair and makeup crew—walked over to the set. That night, Jones told me, a production assistant came up to him and repeated a rumor that Beharie had bitten the hairstylist. Having been around Beharie all day, Jones was incredulous; he told me that in his opinion, no physical altercation could have occurred without someone seeing or noticing.”
Ryan says she has never been able to find a person who actually witnessed the incident. The hairstylist is apparently writing a book/project about her own Hollywood experiences and refused to comment, only to say that even though she was only there a very brief time, working on SH was the worst project she had ever worked on.
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3 hours ago, MissAlmond said:
The one question (concern?) I have about Ryan's book is from reading excerpts, it seems she spoke with a lot of those involved with Season 3
from what I can tell Season 1 people were Orlando Jones who is the only person other that Shernold Edwards who go on record with their government names.
But a lot of what she talks about comes from three people she only refers to as Robert, Frank and Paul. Frank and Paul are definitely POC. Not sure about Robert. But they were all there from day 1.
Based on what they say, I want to think they were either in the writers' room or fairly up there in the pecking order around production. Robert is the one who speaks the angriest about what happened to Nicole. In fact he said about Tom "On any other show he would have been the one with the big problem." He quit kinda in disgust and anger over her treatment during S1.
Frank speaks about how ineffective Marc Goffman was as a leader from the beginning. Also he was not a genre guy so he never was comfortable with the show he was actually running.
Paul talks about the break up of the Kurtzmann and Orci partnership and how it was like a divorce and contributed to an air of tenseness.
One of the does explicitly state that the EPs were poisoning the writers against Nicole. The way it reads is like they were bullies and everyone else fell in line behind them.
Also the 'biting' incident took place in S1. Somehow it 'leaked' and someone reached out to Orlando. He denied that it happened. He said that he got a call from the show's PR department to never respond to the incident again. Which is interesting considering that Mo Ryan wrote a sympathetic article 2 years later after Abbie had been killed off. She received a unsolicited call from the same PR person
Quote“Kelly told me that Nicole Beharie was not just a disruptive presence on the set of Sleepy Hollow, she had bitten someone there. I was so stunned that this call had been made at all that I did not ask when this was alleged to have happened. Given the breathless way Kelly delivered the information, I assumed that if this incident happened, it was recent. Only during the reporting for this book have I found out this allegation first surfaced two years earlier. If Beharie was purportedly such a danger to others, why wait two years to write her off the show? “As someone who was there,” a well-placed source told me, “I was not aware of that alleged incident” being a factor in Beharie’s departure from the show.”
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Faux Life: Things That Happen On TV But Not In Reality
in Everything Else TV
The one I always wonder about is when the couple are so hot for each other that they are kissing and groping madly even as they are opening the front door. And as they get inside they are still kissing and groping and ripping off their clothes and they careen off the furniture so that lamps, vases, flowers -- basically anything on a surface -- goes crashing to the floor as they make their destructive way through the house, breaking and upending shit. They may or may not make it to the bedroom, if they don't they'll arm swipe all the stuff off a desk or table to get it on on the table.