I want to point out that I write/publish comics that I’d like to be made into films and am no longer in the film finance industry.
I will attempt to write this an objective 3rd party. I’m a man, so a lot of people are going to say right away that I can’t possibly be objective, but that’s not my problem. Seeing as I was in film finance for almost a decade I’d like to offer some viewpoints to news that was apparently gleaned from stolen documents (you’re all contributing to a crime, btw, you should know that) to help you realize that transparency isn’t great for everyone and what you’re doing is wrong regardless of the content. The Sony hack will affect way more people than the celeb cell phone hacks and a lot of the people outraged right now after reading the Sony hack info are the same ones that were outraged that people looked at the dirty pictures. Double standard? Perhaps.
I think the North Korean hacking of Sony is a tragedy. Hollywood has a curtain for a reason, just like politics, just like the military, just like fashion designers. Some things shouldn’t be known by Joe Public because for the most part, Joe Public (or the uneducated masses often referred to as Joe public) is/are incapable of processing complex information.
I didn’t know that the rags would start making opinions for JLaw, but apparently since they read the Sony hack reports and found out that the women on American Hustle were paid less than the men on the back end, that this will tip the scales and Hollywood will get a full blown investigation and have to turn over their books and everyone will be bankrupt and go to jail and then there will be equality. Or something like that.
Sometimes women actors get paid less than men. Sometimes women actors get paid more than men. Sometimes they take deals they shouldn’t sometimes they get offered jobs they aren’t qualified for simply because they are pretty (this goes for men and women, not many uggos in the Old Navy commercials) The business of film production revolves around 3 principle ideals: 1, put together the best package you can for the least amount of money; 2, find money; 3, find distribution. The rest, as they say, is all smoke and mirrors.
1- producers will package a film based on the script, directors, actors, locations, effects. It’s the job of the producers to get an actor to work for as little as possible. It’s up to the actor, their agent, manager and sometimes publicist (or parents) and their schedule to decide whether or not to take the gig.
2- finding money is impossible unless you’re a producer that already has money and industry connections or studio deal already in place.
3- if you have a studio deal, you’ve got it made, just stick to making movies. if not, you get a sales rep and they release you through their own channels and you get to the theaters/dvd/VOD that way.
The example that was given for this great injustice was “American Hustle”. Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner and David O’Russell were all given 9 points on the back end and Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence were given 7. I’d like to point out that this is 50 percent of the back end. That means that the production and financiers took HALF of what they normally take to be able to give points. Where was I…oh right, that’s two points difference on the back end, I have no idea what they made on the front, perhaps it was also different. My question is, so what? Different actors get paid different things all the time. If you look back at bullet point 1, five people from JLaws camp had to give that back end number a thumbs up before she made that movie. Maybe the agents for the boys were better than the agents for the girls? Maybe Jennifer didn’t give a sh*t because she had just been recorded as the highest grossing actor under 30 in the prior year coming in somewhere in the mid 30 millions due to the smash success of Hunger Games. Sometimes actors take less money to be in movies they really want to do. “Sorry Jennifer, we can’t make this film with you because we know you cost too much, all we have left for you and Amy is 14 percent”, they say fine, we’ll split it and they make the movie. How do we know what they knew ahead of time?
All I’m saying is, every male actor in that movie had more experience and for that genre “might” have been a better box office draw. Let’s also not forget to point out that the head of Sony and the financing producer of that film (the one providing the money that ultimately has final say on most decisions) were both women. The heads of sales rep companies were women, the heads of 2 of the 3 production companies involved in making the film were women. David O’ Russells agent and publicist are women. Christian Bale’s and Bradley Cooper’s publicists are women. Let’s not miss the big waving flag that Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence have the SAME AGENT, he would always want them to get the most money out of any deal because he makes 10% of that. A lot of actors even stipulate in contracts that they must be given equal back end as the leads. Since JLaw doesn’t have to be considered a lead for American Hustle (she’s great, but she wasn’t the star, per her Oscar she was in a supporting role) then of course she doesn’t have to get the same pay. Calm down.
This outrage is outrageous. Things are not that bad. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Look, this is just a blog, I’m just one dude with an opinion that I’m perfectly entitled to have because I know some things. If you disagree, I’m happy for you to have your opinion and if it’s an intelligent one I’d love to discuss it. I also love to lose arguments because it means that I have probably learned something, it would be ridiculous to think that I have nothing left to learn or can’t change.
If you’re going to yell and make trite or hackneyed statements it will fall on deaf ears. But the internet is vast, I’m sure someone will give you a podium for ratings or to ruin someone’s livelihood. After all, the consumer public aren’t just consumers, they’re the court of public opinion and with the tap of a key can ruin someone’s life or the way they support their families. Gosh, that sounds a lot like the hackers. Maybe these North Korean cyber-terrorists knew that American media was so disgusting and desperate that all they had to do was release documents to a public forum and within minutes it would spread to every news organization in the developed world. We did their work for them, it’s a damn shame.
I’m not saying that the gender gap doesn’t exist, I’m just saying you are using a terrible example as your basis.
You aren’t making things better, you’re just pushing the soup to one side of the pot, eventually it will all settle out again but we’ll be hotter and even closer to boiling over. What a slippery slope. This is terrifying.