Sunday, April 25, 2010

I've Lost All Semblance of My Own Mind


So over at the Hollywood Juicer, they're talking about hours worked and overtime and how many hours you need to get health insurance.

And it's pretty messed up.

Do the trade unions have any culpability in this mess themselves? Sure they do. You know that if any of the big companies tried to pull this malarky in Germany, I.G. Metall would shut the muther-freakin' country right the heck down until everyone got health coverage (which... I think... they've done). And American unions... didn't do that.

(The irony for me is that the new health care bill may likely have the effect of making it harder for unions to organize new shops -- one of the first things a union organizer would say to non-unionized workers is "How are your health benefits?" If the answer becomes "They're just fine, I get them from the State, what do we need you for?" then the union ain't getting in. But that's a whole 'nuther story.)

And as I actively digress, I... hey -- did you read that Bill Cunningham post a while back where he linked to this interview with Karen McQuestion? It's actually an informative interview. I took away from it something else though -- it's possible to be a successful writer as a self-published writer, but everything -- writing, editing, design, and the cover, have to be totally up-to-snuff. And that's a lot of work. (So get back to work.)

Where... was I?

Sometimes Joe Gage comes through with some great stuff on his blog. If you're offended by the number of men's butts you see here on my blog, you'll probably be hospitalized by going to his (he's a gay-porn director now, but he used to direct low-budget sci-fi.) Who knew that Different Strokes was this creepy?


And here's the teaser trailer for "Bounty". Not the mutiny one...

5 comments:

Kangas said...

I don't know why but that Bounty trailer looks familiar to me. :)

I'm finishing up the new teaser which is very close to that one but with some nice critic blurbs put in so you think the movie might actually be good.

Then you see it and realize it's all taken out of context! hahahahaha! Works every time.

Andrew Bellware said...

Yeah, I know. Whenever I get a good review for one of my own movies I don't believe them. ;-)

But I can't wait to see Bounty.

Kangas said...

If you can't wait to see it then your expectations are WAY too high. I mean, WAY too high!

Remember how you felt about Episode 2 right before you say it? Like, wow, that first one sucked shit but maybe the 2nd won't be too bad, right? Couldn't be as bad as the first?

That's where you should be at when you see Bounty. :)

Also, send me an email and I'll send you a private funny link. My email is my last name at kangaskahnfilms.com

Michael Taylor said...

As I've heard it -- and my understanding is incomplete at best -- the IA was originally brought in by the studios to provide a fig leaf of union representation to placate the rank-and-file while guaranteeing the moguls there would be no strikes. Given the beating we've taken in the last few contract negotiations, it's pretty clear that the same philosophy holds today. The IA leadership never has and never will give a damn about those of us who do the heavy lifting in Hollywood.

We're expendable.

Andrew Bellware said...

Exactly. To me the strange thing is that as a producer I'm generally not terribly concerned about IA terms. The only things I'd want to stipulate if I were to sign an IA contract would be that 1. as director I get to do any job category I want at any time and 2. we get to use as small a crew as I want with no minimums in the numbers of the crew.

But the crew should go ahead and make a decent living (I mean, as long as the budget is more than, er, eight thousand bucks.) And the workday should END at some point. And as the producer I want the day to end, otherwise I'M gonna be tired and incoherent the next day (and costing myself more money).

When you say "heavy lifting" -- man, that's just another reason I hate HMI's. ;-)