Monday, January 28, 2008

NBC Ends Pilots, Other Nets May Too

Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, said Tuesday the broadcaster was moving to save as much as $50 million a year by reducing its reliance on expensive pilots of new series on the NBC television channel.
Other networks are making similar calculations. A senior executive at one of NBC’s competitors said Tuesday that “we will definitely do fewer pilots than we have before.” This executive, who asked not to be identified because the network has yet to make its plans public, added that it had cut the number of scripts ordered for next season in half
(from The New York Times).

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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Handling Rejection

Bob Fraser, in mourning Heath Ledger and Brad Renfro, cautions actors to handle rejection properly:
DO NOT try to deal with the inevitable rejection you will face in your career, by using any of these 5 VERY BAD WAYS:
  1. Lying to yourself.
  2. Lying to others.
  3. Listening to other people's lies.
  4. Being lazy.
  5. Destroying your product.
If you catch yourself doing any of these things - STOP IMMEDIATELY!
(from Bob Fraser's MySpace blog).

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Monday, January 21, 2008

Showing Up

So, just showing up and attempting a career as an actor every single day is a victory
(from The Actors Voice).

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Editors

Turns out that for the last seventeen years, every single movie that managed to win the Oscar for best picture was also nominated for best editing
(from Seth's Blog).

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Thursday, January 17, 2008

DGA and AMPTP Reach Tentative Agreement

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) announced today that it has concluded a tentative agreement on the terms of a new 3-year collective bargaining agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
This was a very difficult negotiation that required real give and take on both sides, said DGA president Michael Apted. Nonetheless, we managed to produce an agreement that enshrines the two fundamental principles we regard as absolutely crucial to any employment and compensation agreement in this digital age: First, jurisdiction is essential. Without secure jurisdiction over new-media production - both derivative and original - compensation formulas are meaningless. Second, the Internet is not free. We must receive fair compensation for the use and reuse of our work on the Internet, whether it was originally created for other media platforms or expressly for online distribution
(from dga.org).

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Apple Will Rent Movies Thru iTunes

The new iTunes movie rentals service, announced Tuesday by Apple CEO Steve Jobs during his Macworld Expo keynote, is powered by deals with all the major film studios and stands to reinvent the way people rent and watch movies, analysts say
They really nailed it, Jupiter Research Vice President and Research Director Michael Gartenberg said of Apple's move into movie rentals. This is going to be extremely disruptive, doing for movies what the iTunes music store did for music
(from wired.com).

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Monday, January 14, 2008

Internet Video Booms During Strike

According to new figures from Nielsen Online some online video sites have doubled their audience since the strike began.
According to Nielsen’s figures, YouTube’s audience was up 18% in the two months after the strike started and Crackle doubled its audience from 1.2 million users to 2.4 million users
(emphasis added, from TechCrunch). The audience is finding alternative entertainment. It's unclear if TV audiences will return when the strike ends.

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Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Axium Payroll Files for Bankruptcy

Axium International Inc., the entertainment industry's third-largest payroll services and accounting firm, filed for liquidation bankruptcy and shuttered its offices in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and London
(from The Associated Press, via International Herald Tribune). If they owe you money, or you have an uncashed check from them, SAG suggests via email today:
It is unlikely that outstanding Axium checks will clear their bank at this point...If possible, we recommend keeping a copy of any checks and attempting to cash them in person at the issuing bank to avoid fees...the signatory producer will remain liable to the performer for any unpaid wages resulting from dishonored or non-issued Axium checks...For Performers actively working on projects that are being payrolled by Axium, you or your agents should immediately contact the production to ensure that alternate payroll arrangements are being made to ensure timely payment.
The SAG Axium Bankruptcy hotline is (323) 549-6450. Caveat actor.

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Monday, January 07, 2008

Temp Agencies that Cover the Entertainment Industry

updated January 8, 2008: numbers disconnected or reassigned are marked I have no experience with these companies; caveat actor (from Hollywood 101: The Film Industry by Frederick Levy, published in 2000, via Hollywood Happy Hour).

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Self Promotion

Seth Godin points out that people talking about you is far more effective than talking about yourself and goes on to ask:
how come books get blurbed and promoted by other authors, but movies don't get blurbed and promoted by other directors and actors?
(from Seth's Blog). I think he's referring to formal blurbing type stuff, not the occasional mass email touting a friend's show/film.

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Saturday, January 05, 2008

Broadway Had Record Sales in 2007

Broadway revenue totaled more than $938 million in 2007, up 3.5 percent from 2006 despite a 19-day stagehands strike in November that shut down most shows in the New York industry
(from bloomberg.com).

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Comedy Walk Jan. 10

Comedy Walk on January 10th, 2008, 8-9:30pm, in historic downtown Los Angeles in the neighborhood of Main and 5th. Performances at five simultaneous venues with 30+ comedy acts. The downtown Los Angeles Comedy Walk is the biggest, funniest comedy walk in the world! FREE!
Full press release

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Thursday, January 03, 2008

SAG's WGA Strike Info Hotline

We have also set up a toll-free Screen Actors Guild WGA strike information hotline number for questions regarding work rules and picket line locations. Through this hotline number, you can get up-to-the-minute information on work rules, picket line locations and help with other questions.

Screen Actors Guild WGA Strike Information Hotline: 1-877-724-7875
This is all I know about this; caveat actor.

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