#i also think sag-aftra could do better

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Some further info on this:

A lot of non-speaking background actors aren't even union. And you even see them on screen clearly.

I know this because I'm married to one of them. Sean was in an episode of Grimm. He poured some wine, and then you see him in a pan describing something to a responding officer.

He made minimum wage in Oregon for the first 8 hours, then time-and-a-half for the rest.

You know how you get a union paycheck? You somehow manage to get a line or a reaction shot. If you're not in the union before, THAT gets you in. It's definitely a Catch-22. To get the role that gets you a union card, you have to show up without a union card and get the chance at the role.

So, to even get INTO the union is a fucking hoop jump. But then to stay in, you have to scrape together dues when you're trying to just do whatever you do when you're not standing in the background. And if you lose your union status, congrats. You're back to square one.

This is not to say that SAG-AFTRA doesn't want to take care of its union workers, but I think there's a conversation to be had about how fucking hard it is to get into and STAY in the union in the first fucking place.

When Sean went to work at a grocery store because I'd lost my job shortly before, he'd been informed all he had to do to be in the union was show up to a meeting, sign his name, and let them take a few bucks out of his paycheck.

We scraped by for 18 months because of that. Most notably, we scraped by WITH HEALTH INSURANCE because of that.

I think there are ways SAG-AFTRA could improve for both non-union and union actors, but my first recommendation is to look at how the WGA brings on members because it seems like literally no one in the creator system can write without being WGA, so SOMETHING there is being handled better than with SAG.

It could literally be as easy as saying someone has to be background in X number of productions over Y number of years. It wouldn't catch everyone trying to make a living, but it'd widen the fucking net.

"writers deserve attention more than actors" literally only 2% of actors can pay the bills with acting. For every megastar on screen there are a dozen other people in the shot who are SAG. Acting gets so glamorized but there are SO MANY people in SAG who NEED residuals to live on. Background Party Girl #4 needs her check too!!!! There are people who play recurring characters on syndicated shows who cant afford health insurance!!! Ke Huy Quan gave an oscar winning performance and LOST HIS HEALTH INSURANCE the next year.

[wildwren]

hey y'all, since it's spotify wrapped season, can i beg a moment of your time? no, im not about to get on a soapbox about spotify. spotify sucks but that's not what i want to talk about.

did you know that most recording artists in the united states don't have the legal right to organize a union? some musicians are unionized as part of SAG-AFTRA or the American Federation of Musicians (for instrumental musicians), but lyricists and composers are classified as "independent contractors." This decision was handed down by the national labor relations board in 1984 and has not been overturned.

this means that musicians cannot organize or negotiate for better deals from, for instance, spotify, without the threat of being sued due to antitrust laws. musicians who are not represented by a major label or who are not part of a large musical organization such as an orchestra have very little bargaining power. source

fixing this situation will take a lot of work -- there's not a single easy solution. but in an era where we're seeing union growth and historic labor wins, i think now is the time to dream big. musicians need to organize ourselves on the ground to create collective power. we also need wider political interest and momentum around the necessity of musicians' rights.

this isn't time for you to say "yea im never gonna pay full price for music, sorry" or "musicians just have to accept that the market's saturated and devalued." this is time for us to try to envision a music industry where artists can be compensated for their creative labor and music can still remain accessible and easy to discover. changing the labor situation in the united states is just one piece of changing a global music industry, but it could have a big impact on the future.

if you're in the united states, there are two active efforts that you can ask your representatives to support -- one congressional bill introduced by Deborah Ross, and a resolution introduced by Rashida Tlaib.

H.R. 5576 - Protect Working Musicians Act of 2023 - sponsored by Artist Rights Alliance

H.Con.Res. 102 - Resolution for a new Streaming Royalty - sponsored by United Musicians and Allied Workers

i know there is so much to organize around right now. but if you're in the united states and have predominantly used spotify this year, or posted about spotify wrapped, please take a moment to send a message to your representatives about these bills. all you need to do is fill in your info, the letters are already written for you.

and please share this widely. thank you!!

[sgiandubh]

Labor of love

I was very interested to see what S told Mark Gillespie on the last episode of the latter's WhiskyCast podcast, @bat-cat-reader immediately shared with us.

It was a most instructive 35 minutes. I listened to all of it, because I wanted to also hear Gillespie's tasting notes forThe Sassenach. And I regret nothing: once you get past the traditional (and a bit obnoxious) 'why The Sassenach?' question, you're in for some interesting news.

You can listen to it here, by the way:

Before anything, who is Mark Gillespie?

One of the most respected professionals in the very small world of alcohol specialized podcasters, with a 37 years work experience in media and broadcasting, spanning household names such as CNN, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Gallup and MSNBC. But also, and this I found very interesting, given the current context, the owner of CaskMedia, a firm specialized not only in media production, but also marketing and PR.

The podcast was recorded at The Metropolitan Club's library, moments before the Keepers of the Quaich dinner, where S was a keynote speaker. So not 'just there for the Haggis Ceremony ' - a 'guest of honor' is never invited just for the show, people should have known better, eh?

S's 7 minutes interview starts at the 09:32 mark. Comments in brackets are mine.

Gillespie surely doesn't like to beat around the bush and after the customary niceties, asks a million-dollar question:

MG: 'I have to ask: did you have the troubles (problems?) in Germany straightened up?'

SH: ' Ha, ha, ha [not an organic giggle, but hey - gotta do what you gotta do, eh?]. Well, I am not entirely sure I should talk about it [speaks very quickly and through his teeth - visibly annoyed/nervous; not entirely sure I got it all correctly, so feel free to amend in comments], ah... ummm... not as yet... not as yet...ummm...we did fall into an issue with the name Sassenach, which was similar to a big brand in the US... ah!... in Germany, sorry... of a beer brand... I...I personally don't see the similarity [neither do I, S...neither do I], but I am sure once people taste our whisky, they'll know what it is, whatever the name is on it.'

Yes, this interview was probably rehearsed. Yes, Gillespie might have sent the questions to S/his people in advance for reviewing. No, he could not speak about a legally complicated situation before the final settlement with that Schoppingen beer brewer (penalties are probably still to be fixed and paid, but I will check that, so don't take my word for Gospel truth, yet). I will write separately about this whole thing, because I still think that was a very questionable decision of the EUIPO. Not because it royally pisses me off (so fucking unfair!), but because I really fail to see the proper legal reasoning and basis for it. His answer was perfect, under the circumstances. Absolutely perfect.

Anyways, FWIW, it would seem some sort of solution has already been found ('whatever the name is on it') and that most probably would be to rebrand it. And sell it on the German/EU market under a new name.

Lallybroch (https://trademarks.justia.com/981/67/lallybroch-98167525.html), perhaps? Time will tell, but that could explain this recent trademark application I didn't have time to properly look into, yet:

Further ahead (and fast forward through the cask version release, these things bore me to death), we land on another (as yet) unexploded ordnance:

MG: 'I have to mention your show MIK that you do with Graham McTavish, you visited a bunch of distilleries during that one... any visit in particular stands out?'

Now I am not very sure if that question was the best possible one, since that SAG-AFTRA strike is still an ongoing situation. And his answer was quite clever, changing the focus on their visit to Laphroaig's distillery on Islay and waxing lyrical about the casks, the peat, the landscape, etc. But other than a perfunctory and logical 'we', I heard absolutely nothing about McTavish, and it could have been so damn easy to further change the subject and mention his bourbon, with a few kind words. Therefore, I think things are pretty obviously not exactly on the sunny side, between the two. And I guess we all know why.

To end this long post on a cheerful note, I almost forgot to mention something very important. Answering a listener's question about Sassenach not being available in Rhode Island/part of New Jersey, S said something very interesting: 'obviously you can get it online, (...) we've just signed a deal with Southern Glazer's, so we're rolling it out. It is a limited batch, so you know, every year we do do a release and it is very limited, so it does tend to sell out pretty quick. But yes, it is available (...), but obviously you're not gonna see it in every bar, restaurant or retailer, because we just don't have enough of it. But online you can get it and great delivery service, it's very quick.'

I am taking two things home from this last answer: demand exceeds supply, which is both a blessing (solid yield, room for expansion) and a curse (lackadaisical market presence). On short to mid term, distribution will concentrate on the online market, with the help of Southern Glazer's superb infrastructure.

Remember the older guy he had lunch with in MIA, in May? You should, if you didn't focus on Mordor's inept babble about shirts, ballerinas and the like. That guy was instrumental into arranging the deal with Southern Glazer's. Just the biggest wine and spirits distributor on the US market, mind you.

Don't believe me? Check this out:

That company was founded in Florida. Its HQ is still in MIA. He didn't go there because he was looking for ballerinas at his birthday dinner. He went there because when these people are available to meet you, well: you leave everything aside and you damn GO.

Now who the hell is writing fanfiction, eh? You really should be ashamed, madam.

I rest my case.

[cowgurrrl]

JUST WATCHED THE SAG-AFTRA FOUNDATION VIDEO WITH PEDRO PASCAL ANDDDD.....gotta mention her but the idea of actress!reader having a similar segment for herself, getting similar questions while rockstar!joel is there to support her?? YES PLEASE, it'd be so cute !!! and actress!reader would have some amazing answers and little stories to share about her career me thinks

I love this idea!!

Good Old Days

Pairing: rockstar!joel miller x actress!reader

Summary: this ask!!

Warnings: unedited because I simply cannot be asked, the kids are so grown up in this :(, fun little reflections, I think that’s it!

It feels weird to be at a point in your career to be able to do a Career Retrospective with SAG-AFTRA, but it also feels well-earned. You’ve been in the business long enough to have seen a thing or two and you’re excited for the opportunity to get to talk about it. Plus, Joel took the day off from working at the label and is sitting in the audience of other card-carrying SAG actors. The woman interviewing you introduces you to the crowd and you walk out to modest applause and an especially loud whistle from Joel. You blow him a kiss before settling across from your interviewer, Kate, who immediately gets into it.

“Thank you so much for joining us today. Should we start with the question everyone probably asks you? When did you get your SAG card?” She asks and you laugh a little at the memory.

“I got my SAG card literally the second I got my first gig in LA. It was mandatory for the project and the project was Sweet Water-”

“That was your first gig when you got to LA?”

“Yeah. My apartment wasn’t even unpacked when I got sent home with the script and they were like, ‘make sure you mark in your script’ and all that stuff and I didn’t have a dining room table. I was literally marking stuff while sitting on the floor.”

“That’s must’ve been a big leap.”

“It was huge. This was a tiny pilot that was coming onto this huge scene of TV medical dramas and it wasn’t supposed to be set in this big city, it was a rural hospital, and we didn’t know if it was gonna get picked up. So, yeah, it was pretty scary for a second. My family was terrified but they told me they felt a little better once I was a part of the union.” You shrug, not knowing how much you actually believe that, but their support got you to where you are for a reason.

“That’s surprising to know, especially now that it’s a huge success.”

“We didn’t know for a long time if it was gonna flop or not,” you admit. “I remember Carolina and I would always get stuck doing night shoots and we’d just be exhausted and covered in the fake blood or whatever and we would look at each other like, ‘what the fuck are we doing?’ But I loved that character and I loved that show.”

“How did you get into acting before all that?” She asks and you stretch your memory back as far as you can.

“I think I was always interested in it. I worked at a movie theatre for a while just so I could go see movies for free and when we read plays in class, I would always get really excited. I did theatre throughout high school and college but it didn’t really start to feel like a real career until I started working. Like I would act in little short films and get paid like $100 for a week of work and I thought that was what acting was. So, I just kept taking on projects and kept working and then eventually got noticed but I think even if I didn’t get picked up, I would still be acting in some capacity.

“And you went to NYU?” She asks and you nod. “What drew you to NYU?”

“I mean, isn’t it every young actors dream to go to New York? I just thought that’s where people were actors and artists and I wanted to be a part of it. I moved to the city and knew absolutely no one and it was a real starving artist kinda vibe for a while. Like I was a waitress at two different restaurants and one of them was in Midtown and the other was in the Upper East side so I was constantly jumping boroughs and spending money on subway tickets. But it was a really great experience and I met a lot of incredibly talented people.”

“Including Carolina Garcia-Long.”

“Oh, especially Carolina Garcia-Long!” You exclaim, excited to talk about one of your favorite people. “She’s such an amazing person and I’m so lucky I got to start my career with her. I just love her and Ryan so much.”

“Had you guys acted together before Sweet Water?”

“Yeah, so Carolina and I had been scene partners during class assignments and we were often at the same auditions for things. Ryan and I didn’t act together professionally until… I wanna say our first project together was Self Made Men? That was right when he was starting to pick up steam in his career and it was my first movie right off of Sweet Water and I played this super minor character named Sunday. I was really only on the call sheet for a few days but we had so much fun that he kept inviting me back, if not to work, then to learn and that totally changed things for me,” you furrow your brows as you think. “I might have to text him after this and ask because I’m almost positive we did something together before Self Made Men. But way before that, in New York, our paths just kept crossing and crossing and then Carolina and I finally moved in together in this tiny little apartment in Hell’s Kitchen with two other girls. I actually took Joel by there on our first trip to New York together and he was so shocked at how shitty the building was. Sorry, can I swear? If not, I think I’ve already broken that rule.” You cover your mouth and look around for someone to make a cutting motion at their throat to get you to stop but everyone just laughs.

“You can say whatever you want.” Kate says and you let out a relieved sigh.

“Okay, good,” you say. “But yeah, I remember him asking all these questions like, ‘wait, how many people live there?’ And I was like, ‘well four of us but sometimes their boyfriends or whatever would stay over so sometimes up to eight people.’ He was such a dad about it, just panicking about fire safety and whatever else. It was so stupidly endearing.”

“And he’s here today, right?” She asks and you look out into the crowd until you find his smiling face and point him out to her.

“He’s over there in that corner, trying to act like he doesn’t know we’re talking about him.” He blushes at your words and shakes his head but you just smile.

“Something I didn’t know about your husband is that he’s actually a card-carrying member of SAG-AFTRA.”

“He is!” You say, excitedly. “For like the first ten years of our marriage, he would come to set and just randomly get placed as an extra or a random character. I think he even said two lines once as like a barista or something but we did an episode of Things We Don’t Talk About together where they actually cast him as police officer and that entire production was a must-join so, yeah, he got his little SAG-AFTRA card and became a union man.”

“Did you ever think you’d get to do TV with your husband?” She asks and you laugh.

“I never even thought I’d be on TV, let alone my husband.”

“I guess that’s true because you did a lot of Shakespeare before coming to film and TV, what drew you to that?”

“I honestly don’t know. I think I just needed a job around the time I actually started doing Shakespeare so it was more of a necessity than anything. I didn’t really care about it in school and it was always confusing but once I got into shows and learning more about it, I was totally hooked. I did Shakespeare in the Park several times and did some off off off Broadway Shakespeare work, too, and I just love it. And we’ve raised our kids on it.”

“Have you really?”

“Oh, yeah. Our son and daughter-in-law actually just had their first little girl and she’s named after a Shakespearean character.” You say, beaming from just talking about Juno.

“Do we get to know the name?” She asks and you shake your head.

“I’m afraid that’s not my secret to tell, but she is very, very cute.”

“Well, congratulations to both of you.”

“Thank you,” you say. The rest of the interview goes well and you even get to tease the new project you’re working on with Violet. It feels good to recap such a fun and still running career, a feat not everyone gets to celebrate. It also helps that Joel is waiting in the wings with a big hug and kiss the second you’re off stage.

[lol-jackles]

These are difficult times for actors, today more than ever, as you have always said: deadline*com/2024/02/hollywood-contraction-actors-jobs-tv-castings-1235829094 - What will happen in the next few years is difficult to say, but it certainly seems that the golden era of cinema and TV is over. Jared was lucky, but also clever, to accept Walker and make the entire production of his show run smoothly. It seems to me that he is one of the few actors who can still do very well, at least for now.

Link. I would say peak tv was over 3 years ago even as the industry was still churning out 500 to 600 shows per year.  It just wasn't sustainable and the Strike last year was a gift to the studios to cancel projects and deals without buying out the talents' contracts.  From within the Industry, the writing on the wall must have been even more glaring (at least to those paying attention) and maybe partly why Jared accepted a deal from CBS studios and why Jensen attempted a SPN prequel.  It could also explain why Jensen and Stephan Armell were soft-scabbing during the Strike, and for Stephan it worked out and now he has regular job with the Suits spin-off.

The Strike exposed what I've been saying for years, streaming salaries suck and there are no residuals. So Jared still having a network job is very good for him, and if Walker is syndicated, even better! 

"production of his show run smoothly". 

And this strengthen the quality of his show because the set crew know each other and work well since they work together several months out the year together.  One advantage of network shows is having longer seasons that allowed the actors, writers and the production crew to click and become a well-oiled time. It's harder to do that with 8-10 episode seasons and then the seasons are filmed years apart.

"It seems to me that he is one of the few actors who can still do very well, at least for now."

Even during peak TV, less than 1000 actors have regular jobs in any given year. SAG-AFTRA has about 160,000 union and with 500-600 scripted television, only 2% of union members have regular gigs. Jared is among the 2%-ers and I still think that 2% was super high.

[brian-in-finance]

Video 📹

Outlander Executive Producer Maril Davis Breaks Down Season 7 Mid-Season Finale & Teases a Big Controversial Moment Next Year

Seven years in, audiences can’t get enough of the love, pain, war, heartbreak, drama, trauma, time-travel that Outlander delivers. The mid-season finale of Outlander surprisingly left Jamie and Claire smiling and arriving in Scotland! Jamie and Claire, happy? What? Is this Outlander? Yes, it is. And in its seventh season, it’s stronger than ever. Executive Producer Maril Davis exclusively sat down with SheKnows to break down that exciting mid-season finale, talk about the second half of season 7 which will air sometime in 2024, and even gave a few hints about season 8, the final season of this epic show, which went from the thousands of pages of Diana Gabaldon’s book series to television screens across the world. Davis also reveals her favorite moments in season 7 for both Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe. She discusses her favorite Jamie and Claire scenes, explains why one of their signature love scenes from the book couldn’t make it in this season, but teases that there’s plenty of intimacy next year, but also “tragedy.” In Austin at the ATX Festival in June, Davis and Balfe revealed Balfe would be directing a full episode for the first time in season 8. And when will that be exactly? Davis lets us in on that tidbit, along with a few other bits about Jamie and Claire’s love scenes, and why she’s excited for next year. And finally, she hints that there is a controversial scene that fans will see in the second half of season 7, involving Claire and not Jamie. Uh oh. Brace yourselves. Watch the video for the full chat.

Davis sat down with us on the 9-year anniversary of when Outlander first aired on Starz. “It is kind of hard to believe it’s been 9 years, it feels like yesterday we just (kind of started),” she admits. There was no better day to break down the mid-season finale and talk about the future of Outlander, but also the end, than the anniversary of the long-running hit show.

Starz / Robert Wilson

First up, Davis broke down the memorable Claire Fraser sword scene and pretty much confirmed Balfe is actually a bonnie wee swordsman. “She wields that pretty well, huh? I’m like, ‘Have you done this before?’” Davis recalls, “somehow that sword disappeared, I wonder where it is now?” She shed a little light on what it was like shooting the legendary sword scene, revealing that in the book it’s “quite a long scene!” “Certainly, there were discussions early on, could we cut that scene down a little bit, but we all decided, you know what, it was so iconic, and it’s such a powerful Jamie-Claire scene. You know I love that dynamic between them, that she basically wants to kill him, because he was almost killed. That is the Jamie and Claire.” Simply put, “That is quintessential Jamie and Claire, quintessential Sam and Caitríona. And I think they always have fun doing those scenes too. You know the back and forth… I love it.”

Starz / Robert Wilson

Season 7 compiles parts of books 6, 7, and 8, so it’s a lot to take on. Does Davis feel sad as a book reader about any story they couldn’t fit in. “Honestly, there’s a Marsali-Fergus storyline that we didn’t use, because Lauren (Lyle) had her other other show (Karen Pirie), and César (Domboy) was busy, and we just kind of decided in previous seasons we weren’t using them as much as we could. Also, there’s a Denzell storyline with a character named Dottie that we didn’t fit in, that I wish we would have, but it was such a big season, and there was so much material to fit in… As a whole, I loved this season.”

Starz / Robert Wilson

Although Davis loved the first half of season 7, she says she’s most excited for the audience to see the second half, “because it gets even crazier.” With the SAG-AFTRA strike happening, none of the actors have been able to chat about the show and all their amazing work this season, so we asked Davis what her favorite scenes for Heughan and Balfe were. She confesses she loved when Heughan was sitting in the dark waiting to confront (ahem, murder) Richard Brown (who deserved it). In the mid-season finale, “Turning Points,” Davis says, “I loved when he sees William across the enemy lines and he almost shoots him… And that kind of look of realization on Jamie/Sam’s face, I think it’s so powerful. It’s such a great season for him. He’s done an amazing job.” Davis can’t help but list all the scenes she loved Heughan in thus far, but teases he’s got great things coming in part 2 of season 7.

Starz / Robert Wilson

As for Balfe, like Heughan, Davis can’t just name one scene she loved. So, she names many. “I really do love the scene with Claire and Jamie, third or fourth episode, I mean I love her stuff with Tom Christie, both on the ship but also at the tavern was so amazing. But also, I love their (Jamie and Claire’s) love scene after that. Oh god, she’s had so many great ones too! I do love the sword scene, too. I love how she rips into Jamie… and is kind of so angry, because she was so scared. Caitríona always does that so well.”

Starz / Robert Wilson

As for Jamie and Claire love scenes, Davis chats about one of the love scenes that didn’t make it in the show. For those wondering if it was a question of timing or if it was difficult to translate that book scene to the screen, Davis says, “It was a combo. We just didn’t have, kind of, the set up that was described in the book is not the one that we had found. Wasn’t anywhere to really do that. Story-wise, it just didn’t fit this time. It’s always hard – listen, we’re not going to ignore the fact that we know obviously fans would want that scene, and we would want to do it too, it’s just hard to fit it in.” Davis continues to explain how the story might work well in the book, but then having to compress scenes in the show, “Sometimes in the book, it works out better those times in the book during war, like when Jamie’s like, ‘I have to have you,’ and Claire’s like, ‘I have to have you,” and you’re in the middle of some battle sequence… quite honestly, the transition on the screen is not as easy. In terms of the writing of something like that, and for the actors also, their justification of it too as well.” Fair point, it would be a little strange for Jamie and Claire stop the war to have sex. Or would it be the most brilliant way of stopping a war. You decide. Make love not war as they say. Is that where that saying came from? From Jamie and Claire ending wars with sex in the past?

But fear not, Davis assures everyone that there are “a few iconic scenes coming up in the second half, that if you’re a book fan that you’ll know and love, there’s some tragedy, but there’s also some lights at the end of the tunnel, and perhaps iconic scenes that are coming for Jamie and Claire, that I think book fans are waiting for. They know what they are. Wink, wink.” And Davis actually winks. So, she means it. She continues, “So, they’re coming. And also, some things I think fans aren’t looking forward to but still were essential to the book to do. And we did them!” Book readers will know what Davis is hinting about. And if we can play detective… Balfe also hinted at something coming down the pike with Claire and two men. The first already happened with Tom Christie. And separately, David Berry hinted that things get complicated for Jamie, Claire and Lord John. So, we asked Davis how they might have handled it, and she confesses, “I think it’s hopefully satisfying for the people who love that, and for the people who don’t love that!” Her answer only leads us to more questions! “Lots of wink winks going on,” she evilly laughs.

With the actors’ and WGA strikes happening, preparations for Outlander season 8 understandably have had to pause, but Davis let us in on what had been planned already. Balfe and Davis had announced at the beginning of the season that Balfe would have her directorial debut. Davis says they know which episode she’s doing, “We do know, she’s going to be first up, she’s not doing the first episode, but she’s going to be first up. Because the only we can pull off her directing is if she preps the first block, and that’s not to say she’s doing on in the first block, because sometimes we mix blocks around, but it’s the only way she can prep.” Davis goes on to explain for Balfe, who’s in the show so much, as director she’ll need about 5 weeks to prep. Doing it first will give Balfe plenty of time to prep.

As for scripts being broken down, and if everyone had read book 9, Davis says that season 8 will primarily be book 9 with some other stuff throw in. “Season 7 combines a dash of 6 and 7 and 8.” So how far did they get before the strike? She says, “We were in the room, so certainly some of the season is broken, we don’t have the end yet though.” Terrific, maybe that means Outlander will never end. Wink, wink?

Since the Droughtlander has begun and is going to be another long one, what can Davis leave us with? At the beginning of the season, she gave us one of her signature “heard on set” lines. She says she will look for one later to tease the next block of season 7! But leaves us with this, “I honestly think the second half is crazier than the first… William, Jamie, Claire, John – John Bell! Young Ian, everyone is going to have a real rollercoaster in the second half, and face kind of their worse fears. And… some come out of it okay, and some do not.” What?! She laughs, “Take from that what you want.” What we’ll take from that is months of stress. Thank you, Maril Davis. Wink, wink, wink. All the winks to you.

As for the exclusive Maril #HeardonSet line, you’ll just have to wait until she comes across it on her phone. As Claire Fraser would say, we’ve got time. Okay, fine, she’d probably say it more British, “We’ve got bloody time.” It’s true, there’s plenty of time to re-watch the first 8 episodes of season 7. And to be honest, you can probably re-watch all of Outlander, read all of Diana Gabaldon’s books, and all of our recaps. Before you know it, the drought will be over, and hopefully the strikes will be too (with writers and artists being fairly compensated for their amazing work), and all of a sudden, you’ll turn on your TV, and there Jamie and Claire will be having all the fun in Scotland with no stress or bad things happening at all. Wink, wink.

She Knows

Remember… Caitríona’s prep for directing a Season 8 episode will begin five weeks before the season’s filming starts. As an actor, she’s required on set during filming, so regardless of which episode she directs, she’ll do her prep before any episode is filmed.

[callipraxia]

The Interview: A Running 'Live' Commentary

Well, you asked, kinda, @the-orion-scribe...

Disclaimer: One of my…things is that where there is a transcript, I'm gonna read the transcript first and then may or may not tackle the audio version later. As such, I'm inevitably going to get some of the subtler bits indicated by gesture and tone of voice wrong. I hope it won't be anything that significantly changes the meaning, but we shall see. I'm doing this live, (redact) it! And partially on my work breaks at that, so apologies if anything gets repetitive or disjointed as a result of different bits being read several hours apart. Full transcript is available here from, I believe, @fordtato, who seems like awesome cool folks.

That all said, let's begin.

[On the SAG-AFTRA strikes]

Alex's grandmother was an actress? Interesting. Also, generally approve of the sentiments stated there, very good, no actual notes.

[On the pilot and the 'Next On' reel]

When I was a much, much younger Callipraxia, I also had an interest in TV work - we had this class at my middle school call Careers, and we had to do a research project on, well, a career every year, and one year I did mine on being a soap opera writer (early nineties soap operas were my first literary influences, and I suspect it still shows). I therefore find this glimpse into the industry fascinating, even though I don't have much to say about it beyond giggling at the image of executives having such reptilian, limited-intelligence brains that they could be tricked into thinking something already exists and therefore just approving it so they don't have to think about why they're being asked to approve something that already exists because it would make their heads hurt.

"I was working...on a cartoon called 'Flapjack.'"

I'm 99% sure I've never seen a single frame of this show, but also 99% sure I've heard of it somehow. Not sure why. No idea what 'Fish Hooks' is, though.

"Then, when we did the Cipher Hunt, I was running out of rewards and treasures to give the audience because I'd already bled Gravity Falls dry of every drop of content that was inside it..."

See, this is what I find fascinating about Proper Creators, and this one in particular. Their creations can seem so much fuller to us than they do to them. This baffles me, because even when I don't do things on purpose, I generally do realize that I did them sometime, you know? (Edit: ha, Hirsch actually talks a bit about this at the end)

"I remember asking him, 'Hey, Mike, you read the bible, right? What do you think about this Jesús character? Do you think it's working? Do you think people will get it?'"

Even though I clearly read the words 'series bible' right above this, my first thought was that Alex was asking Mike if he'd read The Bible - y'know, the religious one. And I was so confused. And then I stopped being confused and I facepalmed in real life.

"Instead of embracing that this is part of lore that fans love...in his mind, he, as a serious videogame programmer, made a mistake, and is ashamed of the mistake, and doesn't want to acknowledge it, doesn't want to encourage other people to corrupt their own game, and so he said 'there's no such thing as MissingNo.'"

This is another "I just don't get Proper Creators" moment. I'd have embraced it so thoroughly I'd have written a sequel just about it and only revealed that it was actually serendipitous (not 'a mistake' - word choice, people!) years later!

Sometimes no answer is better than a boring answer.

This is why I love that thing Robert Jordan used to say - "read and find out!" and the fandom shortened it to "RAFO," and now that's a one-word response to questions you don't want to answer, at least if everyone in the room is familiar with The Wheel of Time books and fandom history...so many times I've wanted to just reply "RAFO!" in a review, but then realized the odds were excellent that the other person would have no clue what I was talking about.

"I know that we did cut like 12 pages from the journal, just due to length."

I've been told that I can make people feel cussed out without ever uttering a single swearword, when I'm annoyed enough with them. I would like to try to do that to whoever it was who decided on this length restriction. Give me lore! All the lore! More! More lore!

[On the walls of genre cards and character beat cards and how this led to rejected episode ideas]

I'm gonna try this writing method out, it sounds interesting. Thanks, Alex! And also thanks to everyone involved who's mentioned any of these rejected ideas over the years, as this allows us to play with them instead! (one day, y'all will know the tale of Wendy as a weather witch. I've got a whole arc planned for her with that one).

"When [Rob Renzetti] and I are together, we're very much like Grunkle Stan and Ford, and he is Ford and I am Stan."

I wish so much that someone had asked if there were ever any RL fistfights during the production of the book. It's barely even funny and would have wasted time, but I wish they had anyway.

"I still recall when Ford had a long beard and was a hippie."

...No.

"We were thinking it'd be kind of more like a zen kind of guy"

I mean, technically I suppose he still is. Apparently quite big on meditation back in the day, and the Journal strongly implies he's a firm believer in divination now. He could have been a sort of hippie lite, had he gone for drugs other than brain demons and/or Truck Stop Coffee I Initially Assumed Was A Euphemism For Significantly Stronger Stimulants.

"I remember talking about, maybe, J.K. Simmons and then thinking, 'Gosh, you know, he's got a very familiar voice, is he gonna feel too overexposed.'"

Ford was actually the first character I ever heard Simmons voice, because I have acquired what passes for my pop culture literacy mostly completely backward. My mother was watching reruns of whatever that cop drama he was on was (was it The Closer?) one day, though, and I did a double take at the TV because why is Ford here on one of Mama’s shows? Did he get arrested again or something? Why are they acting like he's one of the...ohhhh.

Which yes, means I found my way to Portal 2 via Gravity Falls instead of the other way around. That isn't so surprising, though, because video games are another of my...things. I absolutely love a lot of the stories and will happily read about them and watch cutscenes and video essays about them and player-keeps-quiet playthroughs all day, but I've never actually played video games because I have poor hand-eye coordination and rather low frustration tolerance when it comes to entertainment. The puzzles would drive me mad. I adore complex things, but I hate having to figure them out before I can move on with the story if I don't want to stop. Let me figure stuff out at my own pace, dangit -

Er, that got off-topic, sorry. The point was, I've watched a ton of clips of Portal 2 now, and it's kind of fascinating to me that it possibly wasn't a conscious influence, because Cave Johnson is...not really that dissimilar to a thing that Ford could have become, in a lot of ways. Or what he and/or Fiddleford might have actually become in the "Better World," for all we know. He's probably closer to what Fiddleford did become in canon, though, at least for a while/in my possibly somewhat weird interpretation of Fiddleford.

"So we're putting this character together, we're putting blocks together, we're moving blocks and putting them up, and it's only at the last second that a Ford is revealed that we're like 'I guess we did it?'"

This is how I construct plots basically, more than characters, but - oh, gosh, I wanna do a lore dump so bad but this isn't the time or place. Never mind, I'll ramble about character development another time.

Also, I am amused by the visual of, like, Stan or someone performing a dramatic flourish and being like "Behold: A Ford!"

"What to you comes across as 'oh, Rob understands Ford's ridiculous recklessness' to me comes across as 'Rob IS Ford and Ford does rationalize.' That's what he does. One of Ford's greatest powers is rationalizing. So you're seeing Rob as Ford rationalizing Ford's bad decisions. In that moment, I think what's being revealed is less Ford's recklessness, and more Ford's ability to justify anything."

Why not both? But yeah, fair, I've observed this about the character myself. He censors himself when he doubts. It's a defensive mechanism I think - it keeps him alive and functional to a degree, because, well...we've seen what happens when Ford admits he was wrong, twice. In the Journal, he nearly lost his mind, and in the finale, he basically went from thinking of himself as He Who Shall Save The World to He Who Is About To, However Reluctantly, Become Death, The Destroyer of Worlds in an alarmingly short period of time. Extreme black and white thinking with him a lot of the time. Not a psychologist, just a nerd, but the longer I think about the character, the more probable a personality disorder seems. Which is one reason I worry about him and Stan both after the series ends. They're both going to be confused as all get-out when it dawns on them that "...wait, we're not suddenly better after all? We're both still really, really screwed up?"

"When you do a clone story, the point of a clone story, in my mind, is a character seeing themselves in a different light, right?"

Depends on which side you're looking at it from, really ;)

"They're all wonderful, wonderful dumbasses, all of them."

Accurate.

"They know that I am a detail-oriented bastard."

...Less accurate, in a way. I've spun whole worlds out of details that the writers have admitted were unintentional or screwups, not to mention the later discourse on Alex as the "emotional" story one while Rob was the "make it a story" guy, or the specific detail that was actually under discussion here. As for that one....

"When you're editing, when you're writing, and then you reread your writing and you edit it, and then you reread your writing and you edit it, there's a very subconscious process of streamlining, literally making paragraphs look nice - it's entirely possible that me or Rob made that change out of one in a million changes specifically because we knew that psychologically Ford is not traveling this path alone, he's traveling it with his muse who he has a very complex and fucked-up relationship with, and even in Ford's private thoughts, he would not say 'I'm alone,' he would say, 'Oh, I have a very important relationship in my life with Bill, but I don't have a friend, that is a difference!'"

...except he canonically referred to Bill as his friend, too, so, uh...yeah, there's that.*

Interesting to hear someone else's perspective on rewriting and editing; I'm pretty sure that there's very little sub-conscious going on with me when I'm editing. If anything, I'm double and triple checking to excise anything that even hints of subconsciousness out of the manuscript, and I am very, very conscious of times when I go out of my way to make paragraphs physically neat and pretty, because I always feel really stupid about doing it. So I suppose I'm glad to hear other people do that, too.

I also found it interesting to see the description of the relationship with Bill as "very complex and fucked-up." Ford, at least, wrote and spoke as though he was under the impression that his relationship with Bill was very straightforward pre-betrayal, but here's the Guy, on the record saying it was in fact "very complex." This doesn't confirm that Ford was on some level aware of this, but it does make me feel more confident about my theory that Ford invited Fiddleford up not so much because he really needed the technical expertise as because his subconscious was throwing up enough red flags to cover every square inch of land in the U.S.S.R. and he just couldn't admit it to himself consciously because admitting that he is not in control of a situation tends to render him non-functional.

*Full disclosure since nobody's read this far anyway, but hi if you have, have a full disclosure: I would not say I ship it, because in context - Fiddleford married, Ford on the brink of sanity, Ford as Fiddleford's employer, Fiddleford mind-wiping both himself and Ford behind Ford's back after a certain point, and that's all before we consider that on occasion, it's entirely possible Fiddleford was interacting with someone who mostly looked like Ford but, uh, wasn't - it would be incredibly dark and messed up and suitable for nothing but a full-blown adult psychological horror story, but I do consider "Ford was in love with Fiddleford, regardless of whether it was reciprocated or not" as a perfectly valid reading of the Journal. I also consider it perfectly valid to read it as Ford just being prone to really intense attachments, regardless of what kind they are - he either adores you or he hates you, whether you're his brother, his muse, his friend, his romantic or sexual interest, or what-have-you, which is kind of what I was saying earlier about the potential for personality disorders there. Ford writes in a style more like he's from the mid-nineteenth century than from the mid-twentieth, or at least like he's trying to imitate that style, so that could make things sound gay that aren't gay, but by the same token, much of Ford's rhetorical style seems to exist to allow him to not-quite-lie to himself while using his superpower of Justify Anything, so ultimately that means nothing, too. I went through the Journal line by line once and determined that you could make roughly equally strong cases for Ford being some form of straight, some form of gay, some form of bi, and some form of ace, and that it also wouldn't be unreasonable to come away with the view that he's not into humans so much but might very well be into one or more types of alien. I don't know and so will potentially read any variant of these things, as long as it's a decent story.

"You know the thing about working with a big company, it's like working with a friend who swaps their head with a different head every couple of years."

Huh, Alex has met Olm, has he?

[Hana] "By the way, I know there's a lot of fake blood on this page, that's for one of my YouTube videos, ignore that."

Why is this the moment I laughed out loud?

"That's the trouble of a puzzle box, is it's like, there's two flavors of it, there's a question with a satisfying answer, and then there's a question that is sort of an open-ended invitation to a kind of, uh, you know, group improvisational session. We've created a prompt for fans to 'yes and' their own story out of it, and the sense that there might be something in there creates a sense of excitement along with it."

Pretty sure this is sums up my general thoughts on the Interview/is the part of it I regard as Important so far. Also, I wish I could write something like that. If I leave a loose end hanging, it's very blatantly a loose end. I can improvise a 10,000-word essay about Ford's anger issues on the fly, doing that out of someone else's work is incredibly easy and natural for me, but I can't do the same in my own work. It's a frustrating thing.

"The Mystery Shack is a bucket full of misshapen, lost, odd oddities, and these character are a bucket of full of misshapen lost odd oddities, and like the idea of them all having a place where they fit in, and - and loving each other as a family, was very important to me."

...Ok, this is another Important bit, but for completely different reasons. Basically sums up why I'm here, really.

"That means that Dipper and Mabel's parents may have had children at a concerningly young age, and is this show's intent to say that it's okay for those relationships to exist?"

Here's a thing that I think is just...me not quite getting how a lot of people work, I guess? To me, there's a world of difference between "that could be what happened" and "and that means I approve of it." The Pineses are a really screwed up family. They should have called that pawn shop Dysfunction Junction, that’s how messed up they are. Apparently it was Filbrick who knocked someone up at a drive-in movie once (one of my 4.5 Shermies is actually a much older half-brother who only gets to know Stan at all after they meet at Filbrick's funeral, though I never decided if his mom was the shotgun wedding or if that was with Caryn. Either way, though, he was vaguely aware that "yeah, Dad and his second wife had those twins" but he'd had very limited contact with them and bought that he'd mixed up which one was supposed to be weird and have six fingers without too much trouble), and Mabel's level of proto-sexual aggressiveness is...occasionally disconcerting, to me at least. One or more generations of teenage parenthood seems perfectly in character for them to me, without it meaning anyone approves or disapproves of that. It's fairly realistic, however depressing, that a much younger son in a family as dysfunctional as theirs might well have started acting out, resulting in Indiscretions - my second fic was based on the premise that the "you gotta raise a kid, your life falls apart..." was Stan talking about Shermie's lot in life rather than his own, as I hadn't yet heard the remark about it being a Filbrick quote (the whole events of that story were constructed with the idea of keeping Stan's line about how he lied to everyone, including "my family" and "your parents", literally true, so every event was created to explain how Stan got away with it for a little longer without anyone noticing, basically). Mabel also seems impractical enough, even post-character development, to get waaaaaay too into a high school relationship with unfortunate results. That's not approval of such relationships, that's just...reality? Goodness, people don't think I morally approve of everything (or even very much at all) in my stories, do they? That's an unsettling thought.

"I think we say 'damn.' I think we say 'hell' maybe, um, yeah."

Ford specifically says "I'll be damned" in the Journal (though, in context, it seems less like swearing than like he possibly means it some form of literally; there's several hints in the Journal that suggest Ford believes in...Something, though he's almost certainly not a member of any organized religion and almost definitely not a member of any organized religion we'd recognize). Stan, for his part, says "hell" in "Lost Legends," referring to a part of the carnival that he thinks would be a good hiding place.

Since Disney allowed people to refer to going to literal, capital-H Hell in at least two properties long preceding Gravity Falls, though (specifically, David Xanatos infamously says "pay a man enough and he'll walk barefoot into Hell" in the pilot of the animated show Gargoyles, and Claude Frollo sings a whole song where he repeatedly yells the words "Hell" and "Hellfire" without a care in the world in The Hunchback of Notre Dame), I am still more shocked that they let Ford say the word "suicide" on the show proper, on Disney channel. And...okay, Frollo is significantly less child-friendly than Bill, even given the torture scene. Frollo does things that are just as violent as that scene, plus Frollo is quite blatantly driven by a perverse sexual obsession with a woman, so that he attempts to coerce her into sex with everything but the word 'sex' on screen before setting her on fire. There's distinctly perverse undertones in Bill's every interaction with Ford in the Weirdmageddon Trilogy, but Bill's been an energy being without physical form since before the birth of the Milky Way, which takes the edge off...a bit, anyway. Bill in the Journal flings down and dances upon the line between "this is a metaphor" and "...okay, so, the way this is being written about is so on the nose that I'm not sure this counts as a metaphor for any practical purposes anymore," but Bill having "extract information" as a motive in the most blatantly unsettling scenes of the show proper means he's still less overt about it on screen than Frollo.

...What was I talking about, again? Oh, right. Disney Channel: A lot less squeaky-clean in general than it wants you to think, Parents! They've been letting animated people say "Hell" occasionally since I was four!

"We talked about 'is there a way for this government agent who knows about Trembley to be connected to the government agents who picked up this disturbance?' We weren't really able to find a way to make them connect in a satisfying way, so, I wish we had done more with it."

Welp, there's another one for the "Projects to Eventually Do" List. Y'know, I'd never even thought of associating Powers and Co with the guy in "National Treasure"? It's one of those episodes I kinda mostly forget about tbh, the S1 filler episodes - I remember facts from it because they're useful when constructing my "Nathaniel Northwest was a warlock who made deals with Bill and here's how that could play out" theories, but I never think about the plot. Kind of like how I forget that Dipper's infatuation with Wendy is why the Paper Twins exist, even though they're now major characters in a lot of what I've written and are even bigger players in the vast majority of what I plan to write in future....I can tell you way, way too much about "Double Dipper," but I'm always slightly surprised that "oh, the Wendy obsession is why all this other stuff even happened!"

[On a very long section of text about McGucket and the memory gun]

OMG OMG OMG I WAS RIGHT! I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE ALCOHOLISM METAPHOR, IT'S CANON, I FEEL SO SMART RIGHT NOW, WHEEE!

Ahem...sorry about that. Got a bit carried away there. So, Alex also compared McGucket's relationship with the memory gun to alcoholism. And to taking anxiety pills, but...well, there is a reason you don't mix those, I suppose. I want to dig into this so much more, and I'm probably gonna end up printing this section and tacking it to the wall next to my writing table, but right now I have gotta do my mother's taxes, she refused to admit they hadn't been done yet until a few hours ago, arrgh, I don't have time - yeah, that bit's probably gonna get its own analysis post eventually.

"It's like he has to always have a mission in front of him, because if he doesn't have a mission in front of him, he's thinking 'how have I treated the people in my life?'"

Hey, I think I said that...like...three times in this insanely long post, and I know I've said it before. My character interpretations are being validated. It makes me faintly grumpy that I'm as pleased by this as I am. I have a...complicated relationship with validation, let's leave it at that.

"The same way you know a black hole is there by the light warped around it, it's like, you know the damage someone's family has done to them by all of their weird tics and behaviors. So who is the character who would result in Stan being this hurt and needy and mad and also longing?"

I'd argue that it was the whole family dynamic, really - Stan clearly had a ton of daddy issues on the boil even before he got disowned, and while Caryn seems to have been more openly affectionate toward him, I can't imagine it did his psychology any good to grow up with a mother he calls a "pathological liar" without missing a beat. There'd always be that uncertainty (much like there later is with Stan himself) about what was real and what was a lie, what was a performance, because Caryn, like Stan, was an entertainer - it's the thing they were good at. Meanwhile, Filbrick is a fifties and sixties father of the most rigid sort, someone who is clearly uncomfortable expressing any positive emotion of any kind, or really anything except anger. He's either indifferent or he's shouting, and he apparently calls his sons by the same name to the point that they can say "he means you" when he's bellowing for "Stan Pines," because Stan's unimportance in life has been so thoroughly underlined for him by his parents, long before Ford personally was in any position to inflict much childhood trauma, that he struggles to have any form of identity separate from "Ford's twin" by a very young age, and never really grows past this until maybe the final moments of the show - I really wish we'd had a moment of Stan claiming his own name properly, but at least it made the news. Until that point, he'd literally failed at everything he ever did as Stanley, as himself, because he had no direction without Ford - even the Mystery Shack, as built around his specific talents as it is, was created because the mission in front of him had Ford as a focus point. That's a crucial thing, too, about his bond with Dipper and Mabel, and Soos, and even kinda Wendy - he's built a life for himself outside of just being Ford's brother. It's implied none of them even knew he was a twin, that the Other had ever existed. He still defines himself in relation to other people to a large extent, but that's still less restrictive than defining himself (and being defined by others) solely in terms of one other person. Fairer to Ford, too. But I digress.

"And it's like 'oh! I think he's also aloof and distant from himself.' I think he is, uh, deeply, deeply hiding from his real feelings about things, because at some point early on, he decided that he could run from hurt by achievement and by creation, and has dug that hole so deep that he has no relationships."

Accurate, at least at times.

"The shows I was watching growing up were, like, Doug and Rugrats, and there were no holy wars about whether Chucky Finster, uh, should be interpreted this way or that way. We had no idea the world that was coming into consciousness as we were making this thing."

I found this kinda interesting, because I remember those shows, too - but by the time I was old enough to be aware of very much, Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer had already created the core of modern fandom culture as we know it, so I at the same time have the concepts of "there is no Rugrats fandom" and "that did not make fandom a surprise to me, because it was falling into place right about the point where my memory starts/I became dimly aware of the world outside of [Microscopically small town I'm from]." I don't know if this is something where he maybe remembers early childhood more than I do, since I have very, very few distinct memories from before I was 10-11 - a few, but they're like isolated snapshots with limited context, except what I know happened because people have told me it happened. I know Hirsch is older than me, but also not *that* much older than me, so I wonder if it's down to those few years (like he said about how gay marriage had just been legalized as the show was wrapping, and it's disconcerting now to think how different so many things were back then) or if it's a difference in personalities or what.

Well! That was more enjoyable than I expected! Thanks for prodding me to finally read this thing, @the-orion-scribe. It's eaten much of my day and seems set to eat a fair bit of it tomorrow, too, since I had to cut myself short at a couple of interesting points, but it was fun.

[ncisladaily]

EXCLUSIVE: Max’s upcoming medical drama The Pitt is already making a lasting impression, months ahead of its debut. And it’s not only over the headline-making lawsuit from the Michael Crichton estate alleging ties to his creation ER — something The Pitt auspices and studio Warner Bros TV vigorously deny.

The intrigue has to do with the series’ unusual casting process that resembled hiring practices at a general company, where people apply for a position at a fixed salary denoted in the job listing — in this case $50,000 and $35,000 per episode. That technique is also employed by several current episodic crime anthology series including CBS’ Elsbeth, Fox’s Accused and Peacock’s Poker Face for their Guest Star of the Week, who are getting between $75K-150K. (More on the sizes of each of these fixed fees in a bit.)

Although a fixed episodic fee model is not an industry trend — at least not for now — “certain shows lend themselves to it, with The Pitt a perfect example,” one talent rep said. “Shows with big casts rotating in and out.”

The method expedites casting as it eliminates back-and-fourth salary negotiations. That saves time, which is a factor, particularly for anthology series that have a big new role each episode that needs to be filled while staying in continuous production.

It also allows for a show with a large ensemble series such as The Pitt — which has 10 series regulars — to stay within budget in the new post-Peak TV environment, in which trimming production costs has become imperative. The industry-wide cuts have resulted in many new series opting for a handful of series regulars, converting the rest of the roles into recurring ones at a lower price point.

The practice has become a major challenge for rank-and-file working actors amid the ongoing Hollywood contractions that is seeing lofty series-regular jobs dry up as TV volume declines — a process that has accelerated since the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike a year ago today.

‘The Pitt’ Paradigm

The Pitt, from ER alums John Wells, Noah Wyle and R. Scott Gemmill, was conceived under a different business framework that could usher in a wave of new, modestly budgeted, broadcast-style dramas to streaming.

Asked in September what constitutes a Max (vs. an HBO) drama, Casey Bloys, Chairman & CEO, HBO and Max Content, told Deadline, “I think a good template for a Max drama would be what John Wells is doing with The Pitt which is, for lack of a better word, network drama, ongoing, close-end storytelling done at a price that is reasonable.”

Said to be budgeted north of $4 million an episode, The Pitt first drew attention with its unusually large (for streaming) order when it was picked up straight-to-series for 15 episodes in March. That is 50%-100% bigger than a typical streaming drama order and close to the size of a broadcast season — once 22 episodes across the board and now around 18 for many network series. (Doing more episodes brings the per-episode budget of a series lower with better cost amortization.)

Then came the surprising way the casting for The Pitt was done through a fixed two-tier salary system. Besides the lead, played by series’ executive producer Noah Wyle, the remaining nine series-regular roles were put out for casting with a per-episode fee attached — $50K an episode for some and $35K an episode for the rest, I hear.

According to sources, this is not a new payment model being introduced by WBTV but rather a one-off situation under unique circumstances — a large number of series regular roles to cast on a tight schedule and a modest budget, leading to the decision to create the tiers.

The sizes of the paychecks, at $50K and $35K per episode, are in the low- to mid-range for TV salaries. But amid industry contraction and a dearth of highly sought-after series-regular jobs, with 15 episodes on-air many went for them, making for a competitive casting selection.

The entire season of The Pitt, set at a Pittsburgh hospital, is believed to take place over the course of a single day, following the action in real time in the vein of 24. To accomplish that, the actors have been asked to be present even if they don’t have lines in a scene. I hear that translated into 7 out of 8 shooting days per episode for most of the cast, which also is unique to this specific project and above industry standard.

Anthologies’ Guest Star Attractions

Fox’s Accused, from Sony Pictures Television and Fox Entertainment, is a pure anthology, with each episode featuring a new cast, so the Guest Lead carries the story in that episode. I hear that role pays $150K. If there are two equal co-leads in the episode, I hear both make the same $150K; if the second role is a smaller, it pays $100K. Over its two seasons to date, Accused has featured such established guest stars as Michael Chiklis, Margo Martindale, Felicity Huffman and Sonequa Martin-Green.

As Deadline has reported, the now-independent Fox a couple of years ago adopted a financially disciplined approach to drama series, capping their cost at $3M-$4M per episode for domestic productions.

On CBS’ Elsbeth, from CBS Studios, Special Guest Stars get $100K an episode, sources said. These are typically known actors who play a pivotal role in their episode opposite series regulars Carrie Preston, Carra Patterson and Wendell Pierce. High-profile performers who have guest starred on the show, currently in its second season, include Nathan Lane, Blair Underwood, Michael Emerson, Arian Moayed and Jane Krakowski.

I hear for the upcoming second season, Peacock’s Poker Face, from MRC Television, is paying $75K for the episodic Lead Guest Stars opposite the show’s only series regular, star Natasha Lyonne.

That is a change from Season 1, when I hear the mystery comedy-drama paid $150K for the guest-starring gig that went to such well known actors as Judith Light, who won an Emmy for her role; S. Epatha Merkerson; Adrien Brody; and Chloë Sevigny.

The fixed episodic fees only apply to the top guest stars on anthology series; compensation for the remaining one-off cast is determined on a case-by-case basis.

Casting Budgets‘ Increased “Rigidity”

Hollywood’s push for cost-cutting has resulted in a major TV production budget correction that has impacted every area, including casting.

In the post-Peak TV era, we may never again see entire casts of five or six making $1M an episode like the stars of Friends and The Big Bang Theory, a salary range also commanded by movie stars in the early days of the streaming wars.

I had heard rumblings that media companies may be looking to cap actor salaries at around $400K per episode, but there have been recent examples of A-list names getting more for new series, especially on streaming.

Industry insiders agree that the ongoing squeeze is not expected to impact the so-called “No.1 on the call sheet” as studios and platforms continue to pay market value for big stars to lead their shows. It’s the rest that are feeling the effects of budget trimming.

“There is no cap on the No. 1s but the rigidity of the other budget items makes the rest vulnerable,” one talent rep said. “The studios don’t want to overpay for supporting roles.”

When acting “quotes” — determining each performer’s going rate based on previous work — were eliminated a few years ago, it initially helped boost compensation, especially for actors from underrepresented backgrounds. But now it is starting to hurt.

With quotes irrelevant and the number of acting jobs depressed, studios can hold firm, one agent lamented, explaining that if the budget for a role is $60K and an actor is unwilling to take it because they feel undervalued, the producers will just move on to the next actor on the list.

“It’s more about the budget than about the person,” the rep said.

[fans4wga]

'After Comic-Con, Cosplayers Get Greater Clarity on SAG-AFTRA’s Strike Guidelines'

By Abbey White

..."That lack of clarity initially resulted in the spread of misinformation in a community where influencer has become a term with a range of meanings, cosplayers tell THR. “This was done in a time where basically anybody who has social media is a quote-unquote ‘influencer,'” says Feehery, who — after cosplaying for a decade — earns 100 percent of her living off of it like many do, primarily as a costume maker versus performer. “There’s a lot of pressure to ‘perform’ and monetize everything that you do.”

“I’m not saying the union leadership of SAG wasn’t aware of the potential complications for people who are influencers, but I think they were rightly focused on their contract negotiations, called for the strike, voted for the strike, and it was a scramble to put into place all these guidelines,” she adds. “The last time they were on strike, none of this ecosystem existed. The internet was three people’s computers that worked on an intranet. As an ecosystem, people influencing on the internet has only been viable for 15-ish years. It’s such a new avenue of employment.”

Sharma acknowledges that the rollout wasn’t completely smooth. “There was some confusion because all of this has happened so quickly,” he says. “We have 450-ish staff, but that’s down from the 600 we had before the pandemic. We’re still rebuilding, so we’ve all been working really hard to try to staff up, but a lot of responsibility is on very few people’s hands. So I think that we didn’t have every single answer to every single question right away.”

But while the cosplay community might think about “influencer” more broadly, for SAG-AFTRA, the term has a very specific definition under the union’s Influencer-Produced Sponsored Content Agreement, which Sharma describes as “basically commercials agreements.”

It only covers advertiser-sponsored content that directly features that influencer; is self-produced by that influencer through the contracted producer (so the company controlled and operated by or on behalf of the named Influencer); and released, exhibited and/or digitally distributed through the influencer’s or advertiser’s own websites, social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Tumblr, Twitter and LinkedIn), and/or YouTube channels.

Content that is written, filmed or produced for the advertiser by any party other than the influencer — such as a production company, ad agency or PR agency — is not covered by the agreement. There are also a number of things that fall out of the agreement’s scope and are considered “excluded services.” That includes “streamed or recorded on-camera or voiceover content that is not self-produced and/or that falls under the jurisdiction of any other SAG-AFTRA contract,” “creative, editing, distribution and print work” as well as work, like tweets, that is with an advertiser and unrelated to the “influencing” tied to the SAG-AFTRA agreement."

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[the-other-art-blog]

I’m going to rant. I’m going to rant so much because Secret Invasion was so awful.

I really was hoping this would be a grounded, Winter-Soldier-style show. I mean, they keep getting these A-list actors to do this! They got Olivia Coleman! After she got an Oscar! I understand if five years ago, every actor in Hollywood wanted in, but now? Honestly, if I were one of them, I would get as far away as possible. This is a sinking ship. Especially because the MCU gives almost no information about the characters before hiring them. But what ends up happenning is that once they’re committed, they realize the shitty script they have to do. Isn’t one of SAG-AFTRA proposals is to let actors have information about a role/project at the time of audition? And it was rejected?

I saw an interview from the actor who plays Gravik and I was very upset because he was very apathetic. But after seeing what he had to work with, I get him. Again, he probably had no idea of the script but trust Marvel and he shouldn’t have. His evil monologue at the end! 😖 And it’s so frustrating because in the Barbie movie, he’s lovely! He could have been a very charismatic villain with a good script and director.

Olivia did a great job. But I doubt we’re going to see her again. She said she wanted to be in the MCU no matter what, but she deserved a better project.

Unfortunately, Giah has no personality. Even in the show, who cared about her? Talos loved her of course, but she turned against him for an organization who didn’t give a shit about her. She had no authority there. When she got killed, who cared? And she’s a terrtorist. She didn’t stop the explosions, which no one ever mentioned again, btw. Let’s pray, the low ratings make Marvel forget about her. Don’t tell me Emilia Clarke didn’t think this was worse that s8 of GOT? At least that one had 7 good seasons before that. This was bad from start to end.

AND, she stole those superpowers. Didn’t we have a whole Agent Carter season about Howard Stark keeping Steve’s blood and how inmoral that was? And now Nick Fury did the same to everyone!!! What the hell was his plan? Clone them? Are the avengers ever gonna learn about this? What about the Black Panther. It was on the list. But those powers are attached to Wakanda. Like, what did we have Wakanda Forever for? T’Challa and Shuri had to go through a whole ritual, they went to see their ancestors!!! The powers are not the most important part of the character. There can be ten heroes with superstrength, but it is the backstory and the personality what makes each of them special.

I get a similar feeling from the revelation that Rhodey has been a Skrull since Civil War. Because now, all those heartfell moments mean absolutely nothing. 

Does Feige honestly believe that people are going to be happy with the show just because of that final fight scene? I really think so. At this point, Marvel thinks that of they make a CGI fight with lots of superpowers, everyone will love a show/movie, even if they promised something else. Talk about being in denial.

I don’t even think Maria was fridged because no one cared. Her death meant nothing to the overall plot and to the characters.

Fury being married was an interesting idea (actually I think this is the kind of attention that Clint and Laura should have had in Hawkeye), but it’s not enough to save the show. And, I want to believe Clint knew about them. But the MCU doesn’t keep relationships anymore. And then I remember that Fury turned out to be a horrible person whose morals are all fucked up. He uses people, literally takes their blood for his own plans, abandons his wife, doesn’t keep his word, leaves his friend’s corpse behind, and now he’s not even a good spy.

Also, how are all those people not dying of radiation poisoning? I have no scientific knowledge on this, but they spent years in Chernobyl. Surely they should have cancer in the near future, at least. They showed how dangerous it still is!

And I’m not even going to get too deep into the budget, but someone is definitely doing some serious money laudering there. GOT had only $15 million per episode in the last season and the had dragons and White Walkers. How is a 212 million budget not enough to give a realistic depiction of an attack on the US president! I had no idea that their economy was so bad that the president can’t even afford a proper security team. His gabinet is somewhere? Seeing how the female secretary was treated, I’m not suprised if no one showed up!

[sanaserena]

Yay, finally I'm posting the screenshots from Episode 7! This is Part 1. Had I been less busy lately, this would have been sooner. Congrats to SAG-AFTRA for securing a new deal and to the end of the strike! This happened a week ago, but still, this is good news for OPLA!

For the other parts see: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

So, Episode 7 is one of my favourites, even though OPLA's version of Nami's arc is both honoured and perhaps also my least favourite interpretation adaption. BUT, even so, I can never stop myself from watching the whole episode through because it has so many great moments.

Immediately, I love Sanji's dynamic with the crew. I do wish he's more present, but he is also only introduced in episode 5. But for the time we see him, he gets some good moments with Luffy (love the fishing scene) and with Zoro (over a woman no less), and later with Usopp.

I can't. Buggy's head is great. That shanty he sings is even better!

I wanted to get more screenshots of Jacob as Usopp, because he's such a good choice. I hope we get to see more Usopp development properly in Season 2. He has some in Season 1, but not as much as we'd expect. Usopp has never been a big favourite Strawhat for me, but I do admire his growth throughout the series! OPLA Usopp feels a bit more relateable, but I look forward (hopefully) to Water 7.

Chioma Umeala does a wonderful job as her version of Nojiko. She's not exactly the same as Nojiko that we know in the manga, but I was sold her version.

As always, I love the dynamic between the Strawhats in this episode. One of my favourite moments (among many others for this episode) is when Zoro holds Luffy to tell Genzo why they're here looking for Nojiko. I love how Sanji uses his skills as a way to get Nojiko to share Nami's story. And I love Usopp's way of persuading Nojiko.

The banter is great. It's fun to see the adaptation's version of some of my favourite dynamics.

I love the tension and onscreen chemistry between Nami and Luffy during the scene where he confronts her the first time - and then bam! later in the same episode we have progress in the chemistry between Zoro and Luffy. OPLA has its faults, but it's undeniable how they show the progression of trust between members of the crew. If you remember, previously, Luffy didn't talk to Zoro about something important like "feelings" or his "thoughts". For 8 episodes, this feels like a natural progression.

The child actors also do great in their roles. They do their best and they should be praised for that. For sure, I could never do that. So props to them for bring young Nami and Nojiko to life!

It's interesting how OPLA brings about the link to the tangerines and windmills. Only manga and anime fans would note the significance of the windmill on Genzo's hat that we see in the flashback. In the OPLA adaptation, present day Genzo no longer has the windmill in his hat, which makes sense as OPLA chose not to adapt the key plot point where the villagers of Coco Village knew Nami was trying to buy back the village. It's also interesting that Nami's tattoo later on is implied to be because of the tangerine windmills she makes with her sister and her mother.

Emily is great as Nami. There are so many nuanced expressions that I had to capture because of what they say about Nami. I think she did the "Help Me" scene perfectly. And I loved how Luffy/Inaki gives back the perfect amount of emotion.

(Okay, my only gripe with how Nami's backstory is adapted is that it makes no sense for young Nami to visit Arlong and show him her map without him having seen her work beforehand and commenting on it. As in, no one to acknowledge that her maps are "better than the ones adults make", since as we know, adults alike are infamous for not taking children seriously. While I can understand that they wanted to have young Nami be more proactive, there is no guarantee before this point that her map wouldn't be rejected - again, because a child drew it, and there was no vocal validation that her maps were "good". If we had been given a small scene of Arlong noticing a "good map" in Bellemere's home just before he kills her, it would have made more sense. This was one of my main nitpick of Nami's arc, among a few other things! )

[ninjakittycomics]

Realizing now that I'm an odd sort.

But it's one of those "two thoughts can live in the same head" issues.

I am fucking glad 100% that WGA and SAG AFTRA are striking to be paid better. I can't wait for a good resolution to this (seriously how criminal do the people hoarding the monies have to be, to think that paying people to live is terrible?)

I grew up with "piracy bad", bcuz actors/writers/people in the crew etc don't get paid if things are pirated.

I also very strongly believe in people pirating though, because without that, we wouldn't have some of the films and books etc that we have today. (just reblogged shakespeare post that wowed me)

I love archives, and I love data, and I love that performances exist and can be seen again and again.

I hate that things could disappear, never to be seen again because of some paywall/vault/proprietary F-you.

So, pay the people...people deserve to live. People need livelihoods... and also we need archives and sharing and so much more.

Let our world have collective knowledge that's amazing, and shared arts that is it's beating heart.

[romanovthinkver]

Thank you so much for answering my ask about the sodastream and oxfam situation.

I personally think it's really disappointing and I'm kind of annoyed because she was "neutral" and kind of dismissive about the company being on a settlement. I didn't know about this before becoming a fan 😭😭 and I'm very pro palestine so this is upsetting I'm ngl. I'm trying to remain hopeful that she will say something (Marcel better answer your dms)

Anyways, if you could make that master post of the work she's done for different causes I would really appreciate it.

Let's continue to spread awareness and advocated for palestine!!

i didn’t know it too, i discovered in the past weeks. i’am feeling a bit unsure on how to proceed because i fully support the cause, but her silence and her past doing isn’t something i’m willing to support along with her.

i look up a lot to her, but, lately i can’t bring myself much to even follows what she’s doing with interests or happiness to see her up and about. i know her work is a thing and her own personal beliefs are another, but, i can’t bring my self to stan someone who stay silent in front of a genocide. no matter how much i love her work. maybe i’m hypocrite –whatever, i just can’t.

as for her publicist well, i’m pretty sure he will not answer me, like the other people i texted to, and we likely know why. so yeah.

to answer your last question we can start with her own skin care brand. she is proposing to the market and educating people on the importance of having a routine of skin care, but also to respect the environment. their products are cruelty free (they test the products first hand and not on animals) and, of course, they are good for the environment. the packaging around every product is completely reusable and made with materials good for the environment.

her brand made also lots of collabs with different other brands on support of women empowerment and healthy lifestyle. they also made pride month’s contents last year.

scarlett is in the first line for woman’s rights. she has been invited to speak and partecipate on woman’s march a lot. she talked about the importance of the right of abortion, donated for helping research to find a breast cancer cure (in the past weeks she went to an event about it and donated $2M).

she has been active during her ambassador role at Oxfam. in 2007 she skipped the oscars in order to tour in india and sri lanka for the Oxfam project visiting anti violence center for women.

recently she has been active with the OpenAI situation getting politicians to write a law about it and a member of the congress has asked her publicly to come to the congress to speak in order to encourage to pass the law.

and, of course, she has been active in her world too. during the SAG - AFTRA strike she has been one of the A-list actors to find seat and find à solution on the matter, she also donated for the cause.

she probably did many more good actions and advocacy, these are the most majoring one i guess.

[lovemewednesdays]

I have a question about SAG and non-domestic actors/movie productions. If an actor is in SAG but currently doing a movie in another country, and they're the only SAG actor in the production, as well as maybe the only American actor in the production, would they stop filming or continue and be crossing a picket line? And how do non-American actors who might also be in SAG continue? Do work outside of America? Or is the SAG for all the actors who want to join in the whole world?

Sorry about asking so many questions.

Don't apologize for asking questions! I think it's great. FULL DISCLOSURE: I am not an actor. I am a writer, I'm not based in LA (yet), but I was there when the WGA strike started and was on the picket line for the WGA. Most of the information I know has been about the WGA. However, I did watch the press conference and can connect some dots for you. However, do not take anything I'm about to say as law, as it could be incorrect.

Multiple Deadline articles have come out about international productions. The UK, in particular, have very strict anti-union laws – the word "draconian" has been used to describe them. These laws affect the actions that the SAG-AFTRA members working in the UK and abroad can take to show solidarity and/or fight for better working conditions compared to the members working stateside. I don't think it would necessarily be crossing the picket line or scabbing, per se; it's just a shitty situation for those artists.

I know that House of the Dragon is still in production – they film in the UK – and the Dune prequel series will resume production in Hungary soon.

Long story short – I think it all depends on the union laws in each country.

I hope this helps! If anyone else with a deeper understanding of the SAG-AFTRA strike terms wants to chime in, please do!

EDIT: This also might shed some light on the subject:

[owen-wilson-appreciation-club]

Hello good folks. A (lengthy) update from me:

It does not take a genius to recognize that I have not been super active on this website. Almost no original posts, and mainly reblogs from my girl @wilsonbrothersupdates (love u bestie I log on just to chat with you)

I’ll be transparent. The Owen phase is dwindling. Not sure if the Loki show is gonna revive that, I will be watching for him and for him only (I am done with the MCU if I’m honest. That’s a discussion for another day but I’m here for Owen and Owen alone).

I am not deleting this blog. Like with many things, the phase may return full force, it may not. But I have so many positive memories associated with this community, this blog, and the people within it that I can’t get rid of it. But I think it’s fair for me to acknowledge that I’m distancing away from it.

I feel like I knew the end was coming, but it came without me noticing, and I’ve embraced that. Things happen. I watched my beloved Deadly Seven Owen Mutuals change their themes and their blogs to better represent their current interests. I could never do the same because this blog is solely for Owen, but it definitely reflects on my main account.

I will still forever be a fan of Owen. I’ll forever be a fan of Luke. I’ll forever cherish the crazy shit this blog brought me, from misinformation campaigns to inside jokes about the damn hole (seriously, what even was that? Makes me laugh even now)

If anything, I leave this blog up as an archive. Notoriously I am bad at tagging, but certain things on here can be found under tags like “hall of fame” and “thanks for sending!” as well as the usual thirst.

I’m not fully abandoning it. But I am acknowledging that I have pretty much closed up this chapter of my life. I’ll continue to reblog and post if something truly amazing happens, maybe the crew all comes together for inevitable Lokius (I am delusional. I still believe there is a chance.). I will also return if Hiddlewow reunites post strike. (Please give actors your support! Support SAG-AFTRA!!!)

I am not the same person I was when I started this blog over two years ago (Yes, it’s been that long). I’ve found joy in other aspects of my life, and I realize that there’s more to my own happiness than a 53 year old man with a funky nose.

This will forever be a part of me, for better or for worse, and I’m not forgetting the fun things that happened during the peak of this era. It’s tough for me to write this, to acknowledge that I haven’t been a very good leader of the Owen Wilson Appreciation Club. And while I refuse to give up that title, I will admit it’s been slow on my end.

I hope you all continue to watch Owen’s work, to support him in whatever fashion. I know I certainly will be. And while we won’t be as insane as before, there will always be that little part that keeps me here.

So yeah. If I stop posting, if I stop reblogging, know I’m okay. Know I’m happy and have found peace somewhere else. Know I love you all so much, and appreciate all the joy I’ve gotten over the years. The support has been immense, the interactions hilarious and memorable. I’ve met some incredible people on here (my discord people, you have my heart forever) I’ll leave the ask box open. I don’t expect anything to come in, but it’s there if you ever need to talk. Same with my DM’s.

I may come back full force someday. I hope to see you there. If not, take care. Thanks for everything.

All my love,

Sarah ❤️ (Forever your leader of the Owen Wilson Appreciation Club)

[the-dance-of-italy]

hey- it's the same anon who sent that long ask about the chosen lol. the boycott the chosen account does not have their asks on so i'm like.. hoping they see this

i don't personally know about contacting the cast members. i personally think we would gain much more traction on instagram because a majority of the fanbase is active there & they post there very frequently and primarily. all the posts they posted supporting israel were on instagram. i thought once the cause gets enough traction it might pressure the actors involved that i named, i hadn't thought about contacting them directly and i don't really know if that'll work, thoughts on that??

i did mention shaan sharma particularly because he's on sag-aftra board of directors and i haven't seen anyone else talk about how sag-aftra is supporting israel too. since he's involved there we could get a lot more attention directing attention to how sag aftra's pro-israel. and like, mention shaan sharma on the list of people remaining silent, and how he's in the chosen too

the thing is, it's my personal opinion that it might actually be worth switching to insta entirely? i said before in the other ask that i was just going to make my own account but i don't have the time or energy to fully run it; i also don't really know how i'd do it. the tumblr fandom for the chosen is very minimal, and stuff that happens on tumblr tends to be really contained. i don't know how many people there are on twitter though. like i strongly recommend that we shift our focus to insta, make like actual posts with the chosen's tags because the insta algorithm is pretty good with showing tagged stuff like that. remember the pride flag controversy? almost all of that was within instagram and it was enough to get that video response out of multiple cast members

also, i could make some infographics if needed/requested. i do realize anyone could theoretically because it's not too hard to design but right now im offering to make infographics for instagram or possibly twitter (i don't know how it works there haha)

i just personally think right now that it's unlikely for that entire cast & crew, every single person, to support israel wholeheartedly alongside dallas jenkins. (especially luke dimyan; he's vocal about arab and yeah, he could support israel too, but still) if there's enough conversation & backlash on the internet, it could be enough to motivate/provoke some of them to speak up. it's also optimal timing tbh because season 4's released in theatres next month, this is the first time they're making money off their episodes, and if enough people cancel tickets it might do something. although im honestly pessimistic that we'll gain enough traction in time for that or that enough people would even care. but still its worth trying i think!!

man i realized this was long and i'm sorry haha, so basically tl;dr i could help with infographics if needed. and i think we should really prioritize spreading posts on instagram.

Seeing as things are going, i too agree that containing ourselves to just tumblr and twitter is limiting us. It may be too late to prevent Season 4, but there's still time for the future seasons, and the less support they have for the last seasons the better.

I can work on the IG account myself ,im always on my phone anyway. Its still the second week and they havent given me any heavy assignments yet haha. If its not too much trouble, i would accept if you (or anyone who see's and wants to do it) could make the infographics / or any other graphics for the account. I would, but my other laptop broke down and the one im usin doesn't have Adobe installed yet 😅.