Impact of economy

[Robin R Probyn]

Absolutely.. and they are rewarded accordingly... if they don't like what they are rewarded they have the freedom to move to greener pastures.. or open their own business.. and make their pasture greener... if they dare!

 

 

But your words are not the real world... guys are getting huge salaries and pay off,s for running companies into the ground... watch the news.. where is the risk in that.. easy job.. risk takers are small companies.. the big ones,that effect our lives are run by crooks..

 

I rest my case your honour

[David Rakoczy]

Then let them fail.. and someone else will swoop in and run it right. That is what would happen to any other business.

 

Interesting how Obama is going to do exactly what all the Dems have been screaming about.. give hand outs and special treatment to huge corporations.... but now... not a peep.

Edited November 18, 2008 by David Rakoczy

[Michele Peterson]

This industry is feast or famine and goes up and down for one reason or another. I've noticed a little slow down and more haggling over prices of everything, but there are still shows out there going strong.

[Robin R Probyn]

Then let them fail.. and someone else will swoop in and run it right. That is what would happen to any other business.

 

Interesting how Obama is going to do exactly what all the Dems have been screaming about.. give hand outs and special treatment to huge corporations.... but now... not a peep.

 

 

Just wondered .. do you live very close to Disney Land... :) (joke)

Edited November 18, 2008 by Robin R Probyn

[David Rakoczy]

Some of you are crying like a bunch of sissies. Take control of your life. Set a goal and make it happen the best you can. You will be amazed at how your efforts can reap rewards far beyond what you expected. Quit whining. Be thankful for the opportunities you have. If you fail (for the most part) it is your fault. Pick yourself up and keep going. Take some responsibility for where you are... no one else will. People who lived in MUCH harder times and did much more would slap your whiny butt to the ground... and rightfully so!

[John Sprung]

cont'd.. my brother opened a Blues Club in LA. He struggled for years and years.. .

So what's it called? Where is it? There are a lot of LA people here, mebbe some of them would like to leave heavy tips? .... ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[David Rakoczy]

Hi John,

 

The Club is Cozy's Bar & Grille. It has been voted So. Cal's Best Blues Club time after time. It is located in Sherman Oaks on Ventura Blvd at Hazeltine.

 

CozysBlues.com

 

I have offered several times on this forum a Cinematography.com Night there.. No Cover Charge... if anyone wants to go and catch a great show just let me know and I'll put you and your guests on the guest list. November 21st is going to be a killer show!

Edited November 18, 2008 by David Rakoczy

[Guest]

Richard,

 

Quoting from our Constitution will cause a stir?....oh.. so sorry.... for shame for shame.

 

btw.. I see cameras... not guns.

 

You mean YOUR constitution, not mine.

 

Yes I see cameras not guns, so why does the quote beside it refer to "arms"?

 

R,

 

BTW, is the Second Amendment actually part of the US Constitution or is part of the Bill Or Rights? Is the Bill Of Rights and the Constitution the same thing? Dunno? Just asking.

[Benson Marks]

"You mean YOUR constitution, not mine."

 

Of course not. David and I live down here in the USA, the thing at the bottom of your post says you live or work in Ontario, Canada. In other words, yeah, it isn't your constitution.

 

"Yes I see cameras not guns, so why does the quote beside it refer to "arms"?"

 

For your information, that quote you're referring to IS the second amendment. David's just using it as a comparison of what he likes to do.

[Guest]

For your information, that quote you're referring to IS the second amendment. David's just using it as a comparison of what he likes to do.

 

Yes...I know it's the second amendment in my previous post to yours I wrote:

 

"BTW, is the Second Amendment actually part of the US Constitution or is part of the Bill Or Rights? Is the Bill Of Rights and the Constitution the same thing? Dunno? Just asking."

 

I'm quite well versed in the US constitution, I ask Americans all the time, "What year was your constitution signed?" So far 100% have all answered 1776. Wrong.

 

Quick Americans....do you know the year without a Google search? ;)

 

R,

[Benson Marks]

"BTW, is the Second Amendment actually part of the US Constitution or is part of the Bill Or rights? Is the Bill Of Rights and the Constitution the same thing? Dunno? Just asking."

 

The Second Amendment is part of the US Constitution and the US Constitution is part of the Bill Of Rights.

[Benson Marks]

I'm quite well versed in the US constitution, I ask Americans all the time, "What year was your constitution signed?" So far 100% have all answered 1776. Wrong.

 

Quick Americans....do you know the year without a Google search? ;)

 

R,

 

Most Americans have short memories and have too much on their schedules to know what year the Constitution was signed. The average American Joe usually wakes up, takes a shower, has his breakfast, kisses his wife goodbye on his way to work, works all morning, takes a lunch break, works all afternoon, goes home, has dinner with his family, watches the news, gets ready for tomorrow and goes to bed, and the process goes all over again.

 

An awful lot of Americans are just too busy to read the Constitution, let alone know what year it was signed. Indeed, it's a sad story but that's the way most Americans are. It's not like they'll know what year the Constitution was signed immediately when they're asked about it, so they're more likely to say 1776, which is the year America declared its independence.

 

I am probably one of the few people who have such a good memory, but even then, I have a hard time remembering that the constitution was signed in 1787. That's because we have a bad education system over here. One reason is because the kids don't need to learn from it, They just have to remember it for the next few days for that big test and then they can forget about it completely. Another reason is because it's a chore to pay attention without falling asleep.

 

A sad situation indeed. :(

Edited November 18, 2008 by Benson Marks

[Saul Rodgar]

Some of you are crying like a bunch of sissies. Take control of your life. Set a goal and make it happen the best you can. You will be amazed at how your efforts can reap rewards far beyond what you expected. Quit whining. Be thankful for the opportunities you have. If you fail (for the most part) it is your fault. Pick yourself up and keep going. Take some responsibility for where you are... no one else will. People who lived in MUCH harder times and did much more would slap your whiny butt to the ground... and rightfully so!

 

HA! That is exactly what hyper-capitalists Bush, Paulson and Bernake said to the CEO's of the companies they bailed out last month for a mere $700 billion, right?

 

This bravado is displayed everyday across America! Just ask the heavily government-subsidized farm industry lobbyists, they know a thing or two about whinnying when anyone dares think about cutting their taxpayer handouts signed by macho conservative congressmen.

 

Hey, it is all good. If it weren't for the recent electoral results, one would think Schizophrenic Republican politicos still think they can preach the opposite of what they practice and get away with it!

[James Steven Beverly]

Some of you are crying like a bunch of sissies. Take control of your life. Set a goal and make it happen the best you can. You will be amazed at how your efforts can reap rewards far beyond what you expected. Quit whining. Be thankful for the opportunities you have. If you fail (for the most part) it is your fault. Pick yourself up and keep going. Take some responsibility for where you are... no one else will. People who lived in MUCH harder times and did much more would slap your whiny butt to the ground... and rightfully so!

 

Ya know that statement reminds me of the story of Canada Bill Jones. Canada Bill was a Mississippi gambler in the middle of the 1800s. Bill would bet on anything. He came into this town where there was no gambling allowed but manage to locate a back room game and found himself betting at a faro table run by a bunch of crooks. A friend of Ol' Canada Bill saw him there loosing badly and down to his last few dollars. He walked over to Bill and in an attempt to save him from financial ruin and told Bill flat out the game was rigged and there was no way in HELL he could possibly win. So Canada Bill turns to his friend, looks him straight in the eye and without so much as a blink, said " I know, but it's the only game in town." That's this government in a nutshell. The last 8 years have been nothing more than a crooked game of Three Card Monte where the rich use and exploit the middle class and poor in a game of greed, corruption and out flat out lies that only the cheaters win at, ALL of it condoned by our own government. And y sit there saying pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Well the rich have taken your boots and your bootstraps and your saddle, your horse, your spurs, your ranch and your hat and it's high time you went and got 'em back.

 

Quit whining? Well, maybe your right. Let's not whine, let's fight the POWER before we end up destitute and ground under the wheels of the cooperate machines that now own our government like our great grandfathers were during the GREAT depression!! We're much better educated, have much greater access to the facts and are much more prepared to fight tyranny than the miserable wretches that suffered through that horrible time. They did survive for the most part, though I'll bet they did ONE HELL of a lot of whining about their situation and justifiably so!!

 

The second amendment to the Constitution of the United States was explained by Thomas Jefferson in his writings and quotes. The right to bare arms was intended to help us, WE THE PEOPLE, protect ourselves from our own government, THAT'S why we hold it so sacred. Let's not let it get to the point where we poor and downtrodden are forced by circumstance to take up arms to defend ourselves and our freedoms from our own government by necessity. You can NOT just take from people and use them up and toss them aside without expecting some kind of a reaction. Most people don't really care if they are rich, they just want a decent life, but now that's being threated because there are others who care about nothing other than making money and will do what ever it takes to get and keep it. Those people don't really have time to care about treating other people fairly or decently, they're too busy caring about themselves and grabbing as much as they can with both hands so in order to protect democracy from the greedy who would buy it out from under us in order to make our government just another cooperate asset, we need to keep these selfish, self centered people on a very short leash in the name of national interest and security. That's not socialism of communism, it's patriotism.

 

That's the problem with the last 8 years, they've tried to confuse us into thinking party rhetoric is the only form of patriotism there is when in reality the rhetoric is nothing more than a smoke screen to corrupt our freedoms in order to make the rich more so and subjugate our people into servants of the cooperate owned state. Well let me tell ya somethin' there's nothing patriotic about wrapping yourself in the flag just so you can take a dump on it without anyone seeing, then blaming someone else when we notice the smell. B)

Edited November 18, 2008 by James Steven Beverly

[James Steven Beverly]

.

 

Apparently, there is also no fitness requirements for becoming an X-wing fighter pilot either. If he hadn't been so fat, he mighta been able to move his arms a little quicker and not gotten shot down :rolleyes:

[Paul Bruening]

What I'm getting is:

 

Industrial is down and nearly dead.

 

TV is level.

 

Advertising is ???

 

No budget is ???

 

Low budget-to DVD is hurting bad from pirating.

 

Hellywood is slowing but still throwing gazillions around.

 

Europe is scrounging and watching Hellywood's stuff.

 

Asia is ???

 

Does this line-up with other folk's observations? Anything more to add?

 

My assumption was that the producers would reduce their expenditures to meet previous demand levels rather than just walk away. I'm a little amazed that they would rather avoid risk altogether than just reduce the odds on their bets.

[David Rakoczy]

Advertising is down. Though there are some who understand you have to work harder to gain clients now.. more than ever... and they advertise, But if money isn't coming in it can't go out. Advertising is unfortunately the first thing businesses usually cut. It is a bleak picture out there no doubt.

 

I pray for a correction in the market!

[Annie Wengenroth]

The economy is making everything suck. I'm sitting around in my pajamas about to call people and I know it will go something like this:

 

Me: "Hey, (insert name) how's it going? So what have you been working on lately?"

 

Dude[tte] I'm Calling For Work: "Oh you know, the usual. Commercial here and there. It's slow. Today I am sitting around in my pajamas at 1:00."

 

Me: "Really? Me too! An Arri shirt with skull and crossbone pajama pants?"

 

Dude[ette]: Why, yes. How did you know?

 

Me: I guess because I'm just that good. So what else is new? I just finished painting my apartment. It's yellow. It was an excruciating process. I think today I will go to the bank and buy bread at Whole Foods. Then maybe I'll run 6 miles and feel blessed that at least I don't work at a desk in a cubicle for some sort of crippled mega-corporation while the threat of unemployment hangs over my head like a black cloud.

 

Dude[ette]: .....

 

And so on.

 

Some of my better-off friends are working on jobs that started earlier in the fall, I've been working here and there on whatever I can get, and everything else seems to be kinda limping along. The middle has dropped out of the low-budget world and I'm starting to hear about $100/day jobs again. Which is ridiculous and horrible because this is how the math goes:

 

Rate=$100/day

 

Day=16 hours

 

Hourly rate=$100/16=$6.25

 

Metrocard for day=$4

 

Coffee on the way because craft service coffee is awful=$3

 

Food on the way home because craft service is awful=$10

 

Roll of 1" black camera tape because they didn't buy expendables=$15

 

Gross total payment for one day of work=$68

 

What you save by staying home, eating your own food, and not using your tape=$32

 

This is almost half of what you make on the job after what I call the Basic Human Needs clause.

 

If the gross total for the job is equal to or less than the amount I could save by eating my own food, making my own coffee, not using my own tape, and not getting on the subway, I don't do the job.

 

These numbers are real and have not been exaggerated. Okay so you can get cheaper coffee and a sandwich if you want to, but in New York, this is not always possible.

 

 

So yeah, I think I'll hang out and read the Constitution. :P

 

That being said, I AM INDEED available for work. ;-)

[John Sprung]

...., but in New York, this is not always possible.

 

 

So yeah, I think I'll hang out and read the Constitution. :P

So, Annie, are you back in NYC now? Last I remember, you were down south working for a film school.

 

You could read the constitution, but it won't last you very long. Less than a day, I'd guess. ;-) I'm working on two books now, side by side, trying to keep them in sync: Churchill's "Memoirs of the Second World War" and Speer's "Inside the Third Reich". Unfortunately, Speer isn't as well organized and chronological as Churchill. Churchill's all facts and figures, Speer is more stream of consciousness.

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[John Sprung]

The Club is Cozy's Bar & Grille.

Thanks, David. I've e-mailed the web link home, and I'll see if my wife wants to go sometime.

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[David Rakoczy]

John,

 

That Churchill book is quite an insight! It bogs down a bit with all the references etc.. esp. in the middle but the beginning and the ending are amazing. It really gets in his head.

 

Man, another great read (since we have time as we are not blocking and lighting) is Prince of Frogtown.

 

Message me or call me (even better) and I'll be happy to set you and your guests up at the door. It was just voted again... since my post.. best Blues Club in LA. This came out this morning:

 

 

Best LA Blues

 

I won't pitch the Club again... I am just offering to accommodate any Cinematographer.com members who would like to go. Just one of the many benefits to all members of such an acclaimed Society :)

Edited November 18, 2008 by David Rakoczy

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Constitution, btw, was 1789, I think, down the street from where I live... And that's without wikipedia!

 

Right now things have slowed in the low/no region. I have a full month booked in Jan on shoots, which is a god-send, but the budgets for them have dipped considerably.

Industrial is dead, and the few feelers I've gotten about them have balked at how much it costs to rent proper gear/people. They'll either not make the spot or hire cheaply it seems.

Advertising in film is down, though I hear from a friend of mine in NY that it's way up for online (because it's cheaper). For-Web video might pick up in the new year for integration into flash and the like. I'm hopeful this will happen because the XDCam I bought works very well for this type of work.

I honestly think, though, that it'll pick up a bit in '09. Right now everything and everyone is going crazy and quite a few, I'm sure, are adopting a wait and see policy as things settle down and the bad forces/players on the economy begin to get ferreted out.

 

As for capitalism etc, I'm all for it, though I have to agree to the moral obligation of those with much to assist those with little. Perhaps it's because I am pretty broke most of the time that I feel this way; though even when I do have money I particularly take joy in helping out others with it (which is why of course I have so little money!) . The broader socioeconomic problems of this country stem from times when the system goes askew. When it does, there is a corrective measure where the government steps in, as I think they should, to work towards a correction. Too much correction, of course, is also not good, and it ebbs back over time. I think, anymore, we live in a reactive as opposed to proactive society. Right now, our liberalism and socialistic tendencies are a reaction to the failings, perceived or otherwise, of capitalism, which will reassert itself as we find the failings in socialism. We all seek balance, yet it doesn't really exist because anything/everything human made is inherently flawed. To ever create something truly perfect we would be gods, and personally I don't think we are/can be/should be gods-- though god-like in our "goodness," whatever "goodness," is always a fine aspiration.

Ok, rant over, I'm off to face the cold wind and continue reading my Sontag book, and Goethe.

 

 

p.s. I think there is a reason we say 'shoot a picture,' as they can be as powerful as firearms, if not more so. hence the comparison on David's banner and why I happily let him host it off of my webspace. Whether or not we should personally own a fire-arm should be left, i feel, a personal choice (though I'm all for certain caveats to that such as requiring firearms to be sold with a trigger lock for storage to keep kids from shooting their face off {though i havn't heard a media story like that in awhile}) Ok, now I"m really going!

[Guest]

Constitution, btw, was 1789, I think, down the street from where I live... And that's without wikipedia!

 

As for capitalism etc, I'm all for it, though I have to agree to the moral obligation of those with much to assist those with little.

 

1787, close.

 

The one thing that intrigues me about people that put money into the stock market is the reason why they do it?

 

Basically they want some thing for nothing. I put a thousand dollars in, and then through no hard work of my own at all, I expect $1500.00 back out at the end of the year!

 

If the stocks go up the investors tell gov't, "hey hands off my money, it's mine!!"

 

When the stocks go down investors tell the gov't, "hey that's my retirement money, use public money to bail me out!!"

 

Bizarre!

 

R,

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Damn; well '89 was important as a yr at least -- first election/french revolution.

 

I think it's not bizarre, rather "normal," almost. It's not so much so greed, but rather that in any society where there is "ownership," there also comes protectionism; I don't want others to get what I have, and I will do what I can to keep it. Hence, when times are good, hey, hands off it's mine, times bad, hey... I could use a hand. Greed is a word the describe it, if we could strip the word of all it's bad meanings, but that's impossible. Basically it's just the feeling that one has worked hard for what they have gotten on their own and don't want others taking it, and perhaps, I would say, the methodology of protecting it is an extension of working hard to have earned it.

[Stephen Williams]

The one thing that intrigues me about people that put money into the stock market is the reason why they do it?

R,

 

Hi,

 

To make a return over time greater than bank deposits & bonds and to beat inflation. The longer you invest the lower the risk & higher the return. The secret is to buy when prices are low & sell when prices are high, human nature being what it is people will buy because the price has gone up & sell when the price falls. People like rising prices, however for a long term investor falling prices are very attractive .

 

Stephen