finnegan’s film blog

I know it’s been quite a while since I posted anything here — I haven’t been to the theater much lately either — but I felt this was worth posting.

As some of you know, I wrote a screenplay with my filmmaking partner, and we had planned to shoot the film in the Shenandoah Valley this winter (2009), provided we were fully capitalized. Months before the crisis on Wall Street, we caught wind that an actor’s strike might kick in this winter. If the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) and studio CEOs (AMPTP) were to clash over new contracts, it would potentially ruin our film. So, we decided not to move forward with that project at this time.

This morning, I feel our decision was a wise one after reading this:

SAG leadership has begun preparations for a strike-authorization vote after two days of meetings with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers failed to break the 5-month-old deadlock on a new TV/theatrical contract […] “Make no mistake about this: If SAG members authorize a strike, then a strike is all but guaranteed because SAG has shown no willingness to compromise on its unrealistic demands,” [the AMPTP] told its members.

Netflix is taking movies-over-the-Internet to the next level.

Today Netflix announced the release of their Internet movies-on-demand box today. Similar to TiVo or Apple’s box — but at $100 for the box, and as low as $18 a month, cheaper than either — the Netflix box allows current subscribers to hook up the box to their TV (like a DVD player) and uses wireless Internet to play movies when you want them.

Sweet.

Anyone who goes to see movies in the theater on a semi-regular basis knows that ticket prices have been on the rise since… well, the advent of movie theaters, I suppose. But I’ve been frequenting the theater less and less over the past year or two, and carefully reading reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, because going to the theater has become too expensive.

And it’s about to become even more expensive.

Josh sent me this article from Advertising Age, which explains that the primary reason for rising ticket prices is inflation. “Adjusted for inflation, tickets today cost less than they did in 1977, according to the MPAA.” But because corn prices are skyrocketing, and theater chains make about half of their money from concession sales, ticket prices are poised to make their biggest leap in decades.

This year’s popcorn crop is down roughly 10%, said Larry Etter, chairman of the National Association of Concessionaires. In the past 18 months, the cost of coconut oil used for popping corn has risen 24%. And the price of the paper pulp to produce popcorn tubs has jumped 40% in the past 36 months, making the tub more expensive than the corn inside it.

[…] ticket prices may start to rise with demand. For example, going to see a blockbuster when it opens Friday night could run you a dollar more than going a week later.

Looks like I’ll have to become a little more stingy with the recommendation, “worth seeing in the theater.”

I’m left wondering if movie tickets are like gas: will people still pay the going rate, no matter how ridiculous; or is there a breaking point at which the majority of theater audiences will simply stop going?

Netflix just announced that they now offer unlimited “Watch Instantly” hours to customers online. If you’re a Netflix customer — with the exception of the $4.99 2 per month plan — you can watch as many movies as you want online. Of course, not all their selections are available online. But most of the popular and semi-popular titles are.

This is expected to give Apple and their iTunes movies a run for their money… And now you know why the writers are on strike.

The Golden Globes will still be handed out this year, but there’s a strike on, and this year’s televised show won’t be much of an awards show. At least, not in the traditional sense.

As a filmmaker, a television producer, and a screenwriter — I’m not a Writer’s Guild member yet — I’ve been following the WGA strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) with great interest. I’ve had friends ask me when their favorite shows will return. All I can do is shrug, and tell them to take up another hobby, like reading, because I don’t see the WGA strike ending anytime soon.

So, what’s it all about, and why now?

It’s about money, of course. Money from DVDs and the Internet. When the WGA last signed their three year agreement with the AMPTP, there weren’t nearly as many TV shows on DVD. Today, all of my friends watch shows online, and own at least one TV show season on DVD. With the advent of the iTunes/YouTube revolution, network and cable channels scrambled to keep up, selling ads on their websites, alongside embedded video of their programs. These advances in technology and new sources of revenue led the WGA to believe that they are no longer (or never had been) getting their fair slice of the pie. And by “slice,” I mean four cents per DVD sold.

What’s fair? The WGA says eight cents per DVD would be a good start. But DVD sales account for almost three times what Hollywood studios make at the box office, and they’re not about to let go of those four extra pennies. Also, the AMPTP balked at giving the writers 2.5 percent of the distributor’s gross profit for online media.

Unfortunately for everyone involved — including the viewing audience — the renegotiation process has devolved into a Israel-Palestine situation. And I’m not saying that because there are a lot of Jewish executives in the AMPTP. This is a no-win situation.

NPR’s Kim Masters summed it up best when she said:

“I think at this point, the networks would rather undergo extreme torture than give the Writers Guild any kind of deal,” Masters says. “In all of these things, there is always an element of emotion. I think the networks are really mad at the writers and they don’t want to give the writers a deal. Period.”

Adding to the dark cloud accumulating over Hollywood is the pending Screen Actors Guild strike. Contracts between the AMPTP and SAG, as well as the Directors Guild, expire in July. SAG is expected to demand the same sorts of residuals from DVDs and Internet revenue that the WGA is demanding. In other words, the sky is falling in Hollywood.

Right now it’s affecting television viewers. If no settlement can be reached with SAG and the WGA, it will have a drastic impact not only on next year’s season, but on the big screens as well. Nominees for the 2010 Academy Awards will be slim pickins.