Let's get right to the point

[John Sprung]

Over a century ago, there was vaudeville. Thousands of small time acts played thousands of small time theaters, and the best rose to the top and played the Palace.

 

Then came film. All of a sudden, Charlie Chaplin could play all of those thousands of theaters at once. The big time got bigger, the small time starved.

 

Over half a century ago, Television came along, and changed .... well .... basically nothing as far as big/small time was concerned. You had two, later three major networks. The limited slots in their prime time schedules were filled by big time TV shows.

 

Now we have hundreds of cable channels, the internet, all of post in a computer, digital cameras at a whole range of price/performance points.... Could it be that the century plus of big time dominance is coming to an end? It could be that more people will each make less money that way, the question is how many can make a living, and how many will need day gigs.

 

The new problem that creates is finding the good stuff. The haystack grows faster than the needle count.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[George Ebersole]

Now I remember my reply.

 

David Mullen; I saw that cycle too, but again (like with most of my posts) it was years back. Los Angeles and New York, being more film entertainment oriented, you guys probably kept working features and commercials.

 

Up here in San Francisco the opportunities weren't as prevalent, though there were always hints that SF (and the Bay Area en large) was going to be the next big media powerhouse. It's never panned out, so, if you're expertise is features, then San Francisco probably isn't the place to be.

 

Me, I worked pretty much every job that was tossed my way, unless it conflicted with my schedule or was way out in the boondocks (i.e. I didn't work jobs where I needed to commute over 100 miles when I needed to be back in town the next day). As a consequence I worked tons of multimedia gigs, tons of industrials, a few commercials, indy flicks, and only rarely a few local TV shows, and even rarer national dramatic TV.

 

When things got really bad I started to work weddings.

 

Reading the experiences of the locals who post here, it appears that's changed somewhat. But again, this is all from a San Francisco Bay Area perspective, and one that's over ten years old. But, not to repeat myself too much, the features that were shot up here and backed by LA studios had, at the time, a tendency to bring their own crews with them. A couple very well known local gaffers I worked with, Alan and Arthur, were rarely hired on any LA productions. Likewise with a lot of local talent. But again, maybe that's changed.

 

I hope that doesn't come across as being negative, because it's not meant to be. If I ran a major studio up here, say out of San Jose or Oakland, and wanted to shoot down in LA, I might be inclined to bring my own crew.

 

But, getting back to the point, I think the studios are realising that they've shifted the market so much to a certain age bracket, that they've realized that they can't recapture the older audiences that used to frequent movie houses. The point being that fewer indys are going to get made, hence fewer crew jobs.

 

But, you never know what may happen in the future.

[Annie Wengenroth]

Well, if the whole economy is bad, it will obviously trickle into the arts and entertainment world as well. Which 1) is sad, and 2) makes me glad I live right near a liquor store. ;)

 

In all seriousness, I think the onslaught of online/YouTube poop will bring lower-budget work closer to the surface and more prevalent on mandy.com and so on...which could actually end up being good in the long run. I mean, hear me out... I remember when NO ONE could afford Pro Tools except studios. It made it hard for up and coming bands to cut a good demo. Now, ANYONE can buy a decent studio setup. And goddamn right they're gonna put themselves out there. This means sifting through all the crappy bands to get to a good one, since now, any hack with an M-box can record something and call themselves a "recording artist". On the other hand, nobody even has to PAY for music anymore anyway, so why not just make it a free-for-all? The best survivors of the Napster era, were the ones who said, "Yeah, go ahead and download these songs- maybe then you'll come see us live!", not the whiny little bitches like Metallica who sued everyone. And in the meantime, the flood of content and the easy accessibility of that content, has put some really unique bands on the map which wouldn't have otherwise had a chance. Especially when it comes to local music scenes, the ability to throw your music onto the Internet after tracking it in your living room for under a grand, is a godsend. Who the hell needs those major labels anyway?!

 

If this happens in the film world, well, why not just let it be- why worry about how it's "ruining" the film industry? It sounds weird for me to say this considering I'm a member of 600, but I take the union for what it is, and take small indie jobs for what they are too- WORK IS WORK. The old school Hollywood system is dead anyway...we might as well continue to shoot, pay people when we can, and leave it at that. If you think it's hard to make a living in the movie business, then either sell your car and pare down your living expenses and see how much more money you have leftover, or go take a desk job. There is no shame in either of these things.

 

I don't know, man...my dad is a freelancer and has been for over 10 years...and if there's anything I've learned from him, it's what many people have said already in this thread: bring back the Renaissance. If you're not DPing enough, start selling photos. If you're not selling enough photos, go work in the liquor store so you can pay your union dues or something. And then learn how to do something new and make money off of that, too. The most beautiful thing about this industry is that there are so many ways to work in it and be a part of it. It's easy to be intimidated or afraid for the future, but aren't we all so lucky just to be able to do what we do, whether or not someone's paying us for it or buying our lunch? To most people who merely WATCH films, it's a total mystery.

 

Things will constantly be changing and in 5 years we'll probably have something new to be scratching our heads about. That's the beauty of the business. For all that I've ranted about how much it sucks to live off peanut butter sandwiches and everything they didn't tell me while I was still in school, for the months that I abandoned my career as an AC in order to switch gears just to survive and have more than $20 to my name, I care too much about what I do to get bent out of shape about the little bullsh*t craigslist jobs, no matter how many of them there are. When I come back to New York, it will be with new eyes: isn't it nice that I have skills which allow me the potential to work for one week out of a month, and make enough money to pay rent? And yes, it often alternates with barely having enough money for peanut butter...but when it's all said and done, I really don't think I'd have it any other way. ;)

 

As for the middle class being squeezed from either side, maybe this is a good time to reclassify... who needs 2 cars and a mortgage anyway? Does ANYBODY really come into this business to make money? I doubt it. And if they do, they're barking up the wrong tree! Does it bother me that "camera assistants" who have only worked as battery/tape/walkie monkeys on reality shows, are getting walked into 600 when I had to throw down $325 to take a test? Yeah, but what's the point in getting bent out of shape? When I was a young punk in Boston, we laughed at the kids whose moms drove them to Hot Topic so that they could buy spiked bracelets, and made our own spiked bracelets instead. We were REAL punks and all the kids wearing their pajamas to school were just poseurs. Who the hell cares? We were all in the same scene and in the end, everyone there had their place and it was a $5 cover no matter what. I laughed when I heard the Dropkick Murphys in the opening scene of "The Departed" because I remember seeing them 11 years ago when nobody knew who they were. And to an extent, I laugh at the "DP's" with their trust-fund camcorders and Ebay light kits. But you know what...let THEM into the pool too, and then watch them either sink or swim.