Hollywood is Dead
Hollywood is Dead
5 // The Thrills and Challenges of Live Theater and The Impact of AI in Film Production
Ever wondered about the thrilling world of live theater? Buckle up, because we're taking you on a wild ride through our current production, Cascade Christmas, and the unexpected challenges that accompany the staging of such a grand spectacle. And oh, do we have an opinion or two on Netflix's film "The Killer"! Spoiler alert: It left us wanting.
Lift the curtain with us on the nitty-gritty reality of being a background actor. From waiting in hot tents for hours, to the hustle for a SAG voucher, we're sharing our personal trials and tribulations from the set of Las Vegas. Plus, we're dishing the details on the new contract rights for performers in the film industry - hello, 7% increase in minimum compensation and wage hikes for background actors, stand-ins, and photo doubles!
But the real star of our discussion is the impact of artificial intelligence in film and TV production. Get ready for a spirited debate on the use of digital replicas, CGI, and the controversial role of AI in creating synthetic performers. And, in the spirit of keeping it real, we’ll also be sharing our struggles with perfectionism in content creation. Remember, all that glitters is not gold in the world of Hollywood and theater, and we're here to shine a light on it all.
What's up? Y'all Got another little impromptu. I don't know what I'm going to talk to you guys about. Episode this is the Hollywood is Dead podcast. I really tried to make sure that I land on that with the little To hit that Hollywood is Dead podcast right there. It's the little things for me, it's really the little things. You know what's going down, man. This episode's coming way late in the week for me.
Speaker 1:You know, it's just one of those things that this week has been really kind of jam packed as we are entering tech week on our Christmas play, the Cascade Christmas at the Cascade Theater in Reading, california, and I'm very, very, very excited about what we're doing. And if you're like, wow, tyler, you sound like you're really pushing that, no, I always get like this kind of before we open up shows. Live Theater is one of those things where it's there's so much going on, especially in a show this size musicals, I would say kind of specifically because you have dance numbers, you got songs, you have so many different moving parts that you can kind of get lost in the Just the unknown of you know. Are we going to be able to pull this off? There's a lot of parallels with a production of this size and a feature film. You know, both features that I produced with my business partner Michael Ryan at Archetype Pictures have felt like that. There's so many moving parts and it seems like there's just an insurmountable amount of work to do before that first day of shooting or the opening night that it can seem really overwhelming. And but there's a beautiful thing that happens.
Speaker 1:I personally have a really charged drive to do the play justice number one, to honor the writing and to perform my little heart out and provide a service of entertainment for people that are coming from a long week, that are entering into what's going to be a long holiday season, and I just really want to provide them with an escape for a few hours. And it's just, I don't want to look like a jerk up there. I don't want to look like I don't know what I'm doing. I don't want to look like I'm not trying and I have all these little insecurities that happen when you're dealing with live theater. And yeah, I don't feel as crazy as I did when I was first starting out. You know, when you're first starting live theater, it's just this like what am I doing? I'm a grown ass man up on this stage in front of strangers and playing, I'm just playing. Every performer is so vulnerable in that moment that if you really think about it it can be distracting. So I do my best to ground myself.
Speaker 1:I have a little mantra that I say to myself before I go on stage it's I'm here now, I'm where my two feet are, and anything beyond that has not happened. All of my preparation beforehand has occurred and I know my shit and I'm going to go out there and I'm going to do my absolute best, and it always seems to work out. Even when stuff goes wrong, it just always seems to work out. And that's kind of what I love about live theater is just this, this, this thing that I just trust. I just trust the process of all of this stuff, and typically you're surrounded by other people who also don't want to look like they don't know what they're doing. That also put in a lot of work and they're all very, very, very, very capable and you know. So it's like just for me. I just focus on what are my immediate responsibilities, and that is to control what is happening right here, where my feet are right now, and that goes for. You know, I use that during productions, when I'm acting in front of camera and, yeah, it's just, it's worked for me really well. So if you needed anything like that, that's that's kind of what I do.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we are now thick into tech week. We have one week we open one week from today. So I'll check back in with you guys next week and see if I'm still this calm. But we have so many rehearsals left and you know we have so many rehearsals left. We've got all of our numbers dialed in. I've still got I've still got some cleanup work that I got to do on my songs and and my dances. But all in all, the show's gonna be really cool. So if you're in Reading, california, and you are available next week one week from today after Thanksgiving, you'll be nice and fat and full of Mary Minton Mead. No, nobody drinks me, but I would encourage you to come out and support the.
Speaker 1:The theater Just been a lot of work that goes into this thing and it'd be great to fill up this auditorium. There's about 900 seats, which is crazy to me. That's so many people and it will sell out. So come and check it out. So excited, I have no idea what I'm going to talk to you guys about beyond that. So let's kind of figure it out together.
Speaker 1:This week or last week we watched a couple films. I watched the killer on Netflix and it it just bugs me. I didn't like it. I didn't like it. I did not like it. I thought it was boring, I thought it was slow, I thought it was one note. I thought that you know it's about a sniper Every time. Yeah, good job. I think if you are a sniper, I think it would really speak to you guys. You know, but I've never wanted to be a sniper. I don't necessarily care to listen to the inner dialogue of a sniper and I don't particularly enjoy sitting in a room quietly as the sniper's waiting for his next kill. I don't know, and I don't know how to make it better. I'm not saying that I could do anything better to that, but I just didn't enjoy it. But yeah, you know, just kind of didn't really super, I just didn't speak to me. That's all. That's the only movie I really watched this week.
Speaker 1:Big news, though, in the actor world, and I guess in the industry world as a whole, is the fact that the actor strike came to an end, or so it seems. I know there's been some concerns about the contract being ratified, primarily because they're not really. They're kind of piecemealing. They're kind of rolling out the info on kind of slow, I guess. You know they're kind of like slow rolling and I think people are a little bit annoyed about that because how are you supposed to vote on something and ratify it if you don't know what's in it and that's kind of not totally cool.
Speaker 1:But here's some some main points with the new contract. Let's see here the minimum compensation increases performers will earn 7% wage increase, effective immediately. In that initial pay hike will be followed by a 4% increase in July of next year and a three and a half increase three and a half percent increase of July in 2025. So you're getting like like 14 and a half percent pay increase. That's kind of cool. Background actors stand ins photo doubles will immediately earn an 11% wage increase. That's sweet. And then you actually they'll get 4% in 24 and three and a half percent in 25. So that's a 17, 18 and a half percent increase. That's pretty good Over the next few years. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1:You can make a decent living as a as a background actor. It's a great way to break into the industry. As an actor and not crew, you know a lot of people, you know their PAs, you know, and on small little indie stuff with no pay, to break into the film side I'm sorry, the production side, and I mean that's that's hard, that's really hard and I think that's a few of those and it's it's cool because in the moment you're just, you're kind of, you know, hopefully you're young and you know you don't have very, you don't have huge bills or anything like that, and you can afford to take a shift off of your serving job or service industry job and go and work on a set and kind of get some some set experience, which is totally cool. And I would. I would encourage actors and performers to to do that. Get on the production side as well.
Speaker 1:You know it's a little bit of a sacrifice to do that, but it's invaluable in the lessons that will teach you. It also teaches you that when you're acting you're not a big shot. You're, you're there to do a certain, a certain job. That is, you know, typically unless you're Tom Cruise not super physically demanding and you're going to be sitting around a lot and the crew is working their tails off. Crew work is hard and if, if you've never done that before, I would encourage you to go and do and work whatever remedial job on a set that you can find and you will quickly gain an appreciation for those around you that are putting together this world.
Speaker 1:And you know, I don't necessarily think that they're the unsung heroes, but they do not get the credit that they deserve, which I guess is the definition of an unsung hero, but still they. You just need to treat everyone, needs to treat everyone with respect on set. That's how you get brought back, that's how you, you know, that's how you can climb the ranks. A little bit is being being, being a, being a team player. You know it's, it's really, it's really difficult. So, but this is cool, that the compensations going up.
Speaker 1:You know, I think when I was doing extras work, background work oh yeah, I guess they don't call them extras anymore, they're background actors, which is fine. I've, I was never offended when people called me extras, you know, but I think when I was doing it it was like 120 bucks a day or something. So I'm not sure what it is today. I forget, I forget. We had a lot of background actors and doubles and stuff, but mainly the doubles were stunt. They were stuntsies, so that's a totally different pay scale. And because they're actually doing stunts, so then that's their, their. Those guys are getting paid really well. But yeah, I think it was like $120 when I was doing it, but that was back in like 2004, 2005. So that was that was a long time ago.
Speaker 1:I got to do an episode of Las Vegas. I got to see James Kahn like right up close and they put me. So Las Vegas I forget where it was filmed. Is that a studio? And so is actually one of my very first studio experiences where I got to go to the soundstage and in the soundstage this was like in July, so it was super hot. I think it was in like Toluca Lake or something like that, and they had built a casino inside of the soundstage and it was a full working casino, had slots, it had craps tables, it had roulette tables, it looked and felt and smelled like a like a casino in Vegas and it was July where all of all the background actors that are like casino workers were all wearing black, you know casino looking clothes and I was a dealer at a craps table and the waiting area was a tent is a white like event tent in the parking lot of this studio and it was on asphalt. It was probably, like I don't know, 95 degrees out, but in the tent it was probably 110. They had fans and stuff, but it was so hot, it was so miserable, but then so, then, yeah, so you're waiting out in this tent and you know the shoot day is probably 10 to 12 hours, something like that, and we're all just waiting out there reading books.
Speaker 1:This is before, like smart phones were you know what they are today, and so I think I don't even know I must have just been talking to someone the whole time and and which is? You know, those are the days right where you actually had to sit and talk to people when you're waiting for something to happen. But it was just kind of. It was just kind of awkward. You know, I was also. I was also young, I was insecure about myself and didn't really know, you know, what was going on.
Speaker 1:This is like one of my very first on set experiences, and so you know the ad was super intimidating and the cute girls that were in, you know, think about Vegas, they have girls that are dressed in like mini skirts and stuff, and the girls were, all you know, cozying up to the ad and he was handing out sag vouchers to them and I was like just dreaming of getting a sag voucher and because at that time the sag voucher was just the, the holy grail, and I it still is, but it's a yeah, it's so funny to think about. I haven't thought about that in a long time. But so we're all waiting out in this sauna, right, and we go into the studio space, the casino set, and James Khan. I guess, from what I've heard, at least on that set, was that James Khan was sweating a lot in real life, like he, just he's like me and he needed the, the, the stage, to be really cool in order for him to not be sweating a lot. And so we walk in there and it's got to be, you know, like 68 degrees in there, 50 degrees swing, and we walk in and it just felt so good and I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. And then they're getting ready to roll cameras and James Khan comes on set and it was just like an acting God is standing right there in front of me. That was so cool.
Speaker 1:Josh Dumel was there, there was a few other actors, actresses, and yeah, I had a brief exchange with one of the lead actresses. She was really sweet, I can't remember her name, she had red hair and that was kind of cool and so it was just a neat experience but really got me kind of salivating for that. I wanted more of that. I only did a few more background acting stuff, but nothing that big and but it just got me wanting to do more acting and see if I could ever get to that point. Haven't got to that point yet, but we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 1:I'm only 39. I just turned 39 this year. We're gonna do it. We're going for the stars. So one of these days I'll be on that set again, a set in a studio. That'd be so cool. Except the camera's gonna be pointed at me. We can all dream and I encourage you to dream, but yeah, that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it was super cool in that soundstage, the. I think we filmed for maybe 30 minutes that day where we are actually on set, and then the rest of the 12 hours we just sat in that tent outside. It was freaking hot, that's all I remember. So for like 120 bucks for the day, so, yeah, but get on set, pick up, go online and see if you can get some background work, because the pay went up significantly. You know it's almost a 20% increase, so that's pretty cool. It's gotta be around 200 bucks today. Then let's see here. So there's back to the SAG contract.
Speaker 1:Some of the key elements that were updated Streaming boats, streaming bonuses. The new contract calls for actors to earn a success payment along with the usual residual payments If they work on streaming projects that attract a significant number of viewers. So that's interesting because that means that the streamers are gonna have to be streamers are gonna have to be transparent about the number of viewers, and I'm not sure if they are already or not, but I think historically they've been pretty guarded about that information. The success metric is determined by the following formula the total number of domestic streaming hours over the first 90 exhibition days is divided by the total runtime of the movie or television series episodes to determine domestic views. Oh, okay, so this is the formula the total number of domestic streaming hours over the first 90 exhibition days is divided by the total runtime of the movie or television series episodes to determine domestic views. The success metric is calculated by dividing the domestic views by the total number of domestic subscribers, if the result is at least.2 of bonuses paid. Huh, interesting. So they're not really giving up the number of viewers. This is kind of just an estimate. Except they will be streaming. They will be giving over the streaming hours Interesting 75% of any bonus money will go to the performer, with the remainder going into a new streaming payment distribution fund to compensate performers who work on streaming shows.
Speaker 1:Okay, I mean, it's something that's cool. I mean that could be fairly significant. It'd be interesting to see how that plays out. Yeah, yeah, exactly, I mean I think that was a big sticking point with a lot of actors is like Netflix being guarded about their viewership. And how do residuals work with Netflix? Were they even paying residuals or were they all basically just buyouts? Maybe someone who's worked on Netflix as an actor could chime in on that. Let me know.
Speaker 1:Official Hollywood is dead on Instagram. Go ahead and DM me or whatever, and I'll include your answer in my stories. Well, feature feature of people that want to interact with me. I would love that. Just drop a hey, what's up? And yeah, netflix never paid me new residuals. Let's see here. Oh, this is interesting. See what happens if you just keep on reading. This is why you can't just read headlines.
Speaker 1:So the next breakdown here is disclosure of viewership stats On high budget streaming productions. Streaming producers will be required to disclose the number of hours the content was streamed, both in the US and Canada and abroad, for each quarter. That's intended to help actors determine if they're being fairly compensated relative to a show's distribution and popularity, that's, if it's not a buyout right. So yeah, it seems like they'll be incentivized to just do buyouts with people. That's interesting If they weren't already, you know, because the buyout's gonna be more. So let's say you worked for scale on a Netflix movie and you're supposed to, through SAG, get residuals. As things are, if a territory repurchases something, you're supposed to get a portion of that, because they can't just pay you once on the SAG scale, which is less than a buyout would be, and then that contract runs out in five years and then they resell that same project that you were in and they resell it to someone else and they have to pay you a residual. But if they do a buyout then they don't have to do any of that. So they pay more upfront. But then, you know, kind of works itself out in the end and Netflix always wins. So I think this is meant to try and help the actors take a little bit of piece of the pie, because you know these distributors man tell you what? Not a huge fan, so that's interesting. So they're going to have to disclose the total number of hours of the content that was streamed in the US and Canada and abroad for each quarter. So a little bit of yeah, they're going to be a little bit of accountability there, which is cool, you know, that's great.
Speaker 1:Moving along limits on artificial intelligence. Film and TV producers must obtain consent from actors to create and use their digital replicas, as well as specify how they intend to use that digital likeness. Actors are entitled to compensation at their usual rate for the number of days they would otherwise have been paid for to do the work being performed by a digital replica. I'm kind of torn on digital replicas, but I had a great idea, and this was before this stuff was coming along. I was like to create an agency that represented the digital replicas of actors. So that way, even if you were in a small production, you could have Brad Pitt in your movie for a fraction of the cost. But it's not going to look good right now, but they have to establish these ground rules for this type of thing, because we're going to get to the uncanny valley, right Like we're going to get there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting because voices I wonder about voices. So you could have a voiceover of Brad Pitt in your movie or Morgan Freeman, and I wonder. I think that might be radio broadcasters. It might be a different union, but they're going to have to get on that. But man, I don't want to see a digital replica of anyone. I think it cheapens it and this is my big issue with studio stuff, big studios. They're not going to be incentivized to make new stuff. They're not going to be incentivized to find the next Bruce Willis or the next Tom Cruise or Daniel Day Lewis, because they're just going to do replicas and I can't fathom that succeeding. I don't think. I don't think DDL would ever allow his replica to be in a movie and I think for dead actors and dead performers that they should stay dead.
Speaker 1:It really ruins a legacy. You know, I do not want to see Marlon Brando in a new movie. I want to watch his old stuff and wish that there was a new movie with him in it Really him, and maybe not towards the end, but you know what I mean. I just I want to remember them for the great works that they did. It's just going to water down legacies in a big way, but money speaks. Money speaks loud, and these people have families. They want to make sure that everybody's set up for the future, which makes sense, and you know they're dead. What do they care? It's not. It's mainly us mourning the loss of someone, but once you're gone, you're gone. So if your family is still making money on it, I guess it is what it is. So, yeah, ai is going to be really interesting in filmmaking.
Speaker 1:I think this next item is super important because the one place that I could absolutely, absolutely justify using as digital replicas for background actors you know, metahumans are a thing and I think they're going to get better and better and better and it's already used massively, you know, but I think it's just going to get better and better when you can have a slightly bokeh background actor behind your two leads that are in front of your camera and you know they could be six feet back, you know, in a crowd, and you're going to be able to have not real people. You're just film it on a very controlled basis and you'll be able to. You'll be able to do that and that's on. You know, I would assume that's probably just on big, big projects, but even small projects, man, indie, filmmakers these tools are coming available and it's going to be pretty, pretty insane. Let's see.
Speaker 1:Let's read this next item that pertains to background actors and see if there's limits on the number of background actors. So I mean, there is so minimum number of background actors. The new labor contract requires that an increased number of background actors be hired on union terms on the West Coast to equal the minimum number in New York. Under the new agreement on TV shows in West Coast cities, 25 background actors up from 22 will be covered by the contract. For feature films, the West Coast minimum jumps from 57 to 85. Huh, so if you're on a sag ultra low, that means you can't use any, uh any, digital replicas for background actors. Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but, like, if you don't have, so on the West Coast, if you're shooting a movie, um, the minimum background actors is 85. So after 85, you could use digital is what I'm reading that as, um, which 57 was a lot, you know, I don't know that we had 57 background actors in our first one, so we didn't have any AI ones.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, interesting. Um, so I mean that secures, you know, decent amount of work for background actors. You know that's that's kind of cool. Uh, and again, I mean it's just a great way to get on set and get paid and and witness the process and appreciate it. So, um, let's see here relocation bonuses. Performers in series who have to relocate for work will be entitled to a maximum relocation benefit of up to $5,000 a month for six months, a 200% increase on the previous amount. That's cool. I mean good for them. I mean that's 1% of SAG people. Not even that's got to be 1% of 1%. Uh, you know, if you're going up to, if you're going up to Montana to film Yellowstone, um, and you're a series regular, then I guess you're going to be making five grand a month for six months. That's pretty good. 30, 30,000 bucks extra on top of your schedule F or whatever it is. Um, yeah, that's that's nice, good for good for you guys. Uh, I mean that's. It seems like it. It seems like it's really trying to get um large studios to pony up. You know, that's what it kind of feels like. I think they they've been kind of holding out a little bit or a lot of it, probably a lot of it. Um, now let's see here Um, this is from Variety. Um, sag Afterboard members explained no votes, there should be no AI in quotes.
Speaker 1:So let's see two members of the SAG Afterboard said that they voted against the new contract because it does not do enough to protect actors against artificial intelligence. The negotiating committee uh, unanimously approved the deal last Wednesday, ending the 118 day strike. The national board approved the deal on Friday with 80% 86% of the weighted vote in favor and sent it to members for ratification. Sean Sharma and Ann Marie Johnson were among at least eight dissenters on the 80 member board. Both said that AI was key to their opposition, though they also had other reservations.
Speaker 1:Quotes there should be no AI. Only human beings should be used in what we create for public consumption. Johnson said. Without staving off AI, everything we achieved is for naught. It's a waste of time. Uh, I think AI is inevitable. And you know, uh, should huge studios be using AI? Probably not because they can afford to make cinema that has real people in it, but these are gigantic corporations that have a bottom line, they have investors, they have stockholders, and all of those people want to see, on quarterly reports, an increase in revenue and an increase in profits. And how do you do that? You decrease your cost, and if you can decrease your cost on the bottom line, I mean, they're going to do it. They are a machine that really cuts the fat off before frying and they just don't want anything that's going to cause a flux in their stock prices. So they're definitely going to use AI. I think it's inevitable.
Speaker 1:I appreciate fighting and somebody has to say it. There were eight people on the 80 member board, so 10% didn't want this contract ratified because of AI and I think they have to be dissenting of it. There has to be voices that are opposed to it and kudos to them. Their colleagues probably looked at them and kind of nodded in agreement, but they were probably of the assumption that we have to take this deal and it's a three-year deal. It's not the be all end.
Speaker 1:All these strikes are probably going to be intense from here on out, really intense because there's going to be an all out attack on the below the line costs. There's already been an attack on above the line costs, so above the line is like your big actors and stuff. They include big actors and they're making more money than they've probably ever made before, but at the same time, these shows are not hinging on the name of the big actor in the show or in the movie. It might be a director that you for me, I pay attention to directors, voices that I am eager to consume it's less about the movie star, and I think that's a huge reason why studio movies are kind of going downhill, because they're not taking chances on movie stars. They're not even taking chances on IP. They find one that works and then they're just going to drain the hell out of it so interesting. So, yeah, it's a waste of time.
Speaker 1:Sharma, who also served as an alternate member of the negotiating committee, said he was concerned about significant loopholes in the AI language that left existential threats to some of our categories of work. Sag After released an 18 page summary, which I have not read, of the agreement on Sunday. The deal establishes consent and compensation requirements for use of AI to generate digital doubles. See, that's what I'm talking about. But it does not prohibit AI and it does relatively little to stop studios from training on actors' performances to create synthetic performers. So the AI is going to learn the body language of these actors. It's going to learn their mannerisms, you know. But I mean Jeff Goldblum is Jeff Goldblum and AI is going to learn how to do Jeff Goldblum and that's just the way it is. It sucks, but it's like when Jeff Goldblum is done acting I don't want him to be in another movie. As human beings, we can already.
Speaker 1:Okay, here's a metric CGI in movies. Now there's some that really blend really well. Kubrick 2001, he did in-camera CG stuff which is like rear projection. That's still technically CG. It's generated imagery and it's utilized in a seamless manner. Steven Spielberg, jurassic Park you know they used practicals and then they used some CG. It's blended.
Speaker 1:The killer recently uses CG in the worst way. There's moments where I'm just like what were they thinking? Like, where does that money that they spent go on the screen? You know, as an indie filmmaker, every penny that you have, you're trying to optimize to put it on the screen in front of the camera. And if you have to use CG, then do it in such a way that it's going to be blended. And this is how we're approaching the Dresden Sun. There's so much CG in the Dresden Sun, but there's also a lot of blended elements. We're not just shooting on a green screen and putting in a city in the background and to me the killer that's how certain elements of the shots looked Just looked horrible. There's a scene where he takes a pop shot at someone and hits them with this high caliber rifle and the blood CG. It was not good.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing I do not trust big studios with their CGI. Check out Lord of the Rings Beautiful. They use so many different filmmaking tricks to make this really wonderful world. They build this world and a lot of it was real, practical locations and sets that they built forced perspective to create the giant and the elves and the dwarves and stuff. And then you go to the Hobbit. And I never watched the Hobbit because I watched the trailer and I was like I'm going to be so critical of this, I am not going to be able to enjoy it Because they did not use the same filmmaking techniques. And I know for a fact I would just be sitting there and like rubbing my forehead in confusion and just like why, why, why would you ruin something like this? So you know, but what I you know, and the tools are just gonna be more and more accessible.
Speaker 1:And you know, for indie filmmakers, I think it's gonna be really important to use CG. You know it's like you got to make your films bigger. You know, depending on the genre. You know, if you're making a Terrence Malick, you know wheatfield movie, I call them wheatfield movies. You know, like when they're walking through a wheat field and their hand is down and you have the sun Front lighting silhouetting the character as their hand goes through the wheat field, I call them wheatfield movies. They all have that shot right. You know, if you're doing that, obviously CG is not gonna be as utilized. But I just don't trust. I do not trust Netflix with CG. I would never trust them.
Speaker 1:With a synthetic person, you know, an AI actor, it's gonna look horrendous, it's just not gonna. It's not gonna work. Let's see here. So Okay, so this particular contract does Basically nothing to stop studios from training actors performance To create synthetic performers. If an AI generated synthetic character has a recognizable facial feature of a real actor and that actor's name was used in the prompt to generate that character, then the producer must get that actors consent. I agree with that. God, could you imagine you just show up in some random Terrible film and he just looked like, was that five day at five days at Freddy's, like a marionette doll or oh, that would be worse. I guess there's some creative ways that you could use and they will and I'm excited about that. Like they just get creative.
Speaker 1:If it's a original idea and a voice, something to say, you know perspective and the character and it makes sense to have a synthetic actor in there, then that's cool, you know. You know, like, if there's a Talk about time travel, you know, and it'd be kind of cool actually, you know, it's like a movie where someone's traveling through time. But if you're basing it on real Physics, time travel is very difficult to Rationalize in my, in my head, and I think the only way to really do it, or deep space travel, is To have an avatar of some sort and your, your soul, your energy travels, because you know, there's no friction. There's no, seems like there's no mass to our soul, right, and If there's no mass, there's no friction, then you can travel at the speed of light and You're basically a photon. And so if you can travel the speed of light, then you could go further into space and then you could be basically like joined up with an avatar with your second body. That is way out and Can. And then you can carry on.
Speaker 1:I think that'd be kind of a cool idea, and it might be a synthetic person, who knows, I don't know. I'm just spitballing here, but there's got to be creative ways of doing stuff like that. Um so yeah, I mean they're just really concerned that they didn't get protection on this stuff. You know, sharma goes on. If the replica doesn't give a clear impression that it's you, none of the protections apply. Yeah, but then it's not a replica. If they didn't put Brad Pitt's name into the prompt to generate a replica of Brad Pitt, but somehow they got Brad Pitt and Brad Pitt's replica in the movie, it wouldn't. It wouldn't be him Like, it wouldn't be his replica.
Speaker 1:There's people out there that look like Brad Pitt in real life and they're in. You know, I don't, I'm Saying law of averages. It's like it's got a half. It's somebody out there looks similar to Brad Pitt, you know, and if they're an actor and they're in stuff, then yeah, there's a.
Speaker 1:There's a Small filmmaker, where I'm from, that found an actor. Who's from? Where is he from? I think his, his name is Kovacs. He's from, like Turkey or Bulgaria, somewhere somewhere in in the East, and he looks like a spitting image of Charles Bronson. And so this guy, he makes these really low budget kind of knockoff horror movies. And you know he did a knockoff of Death Wish and he had this guy in it and he doesn't say a word Because he doesn't speak English, but he looks exactly like Charles Bronson. So it's basically Charles Bronson in this film being Charles Bronson in a movie. That's basically Death Wish, and so you know that the guy's basically a replica of Charles Bronson and so. But you know what Charles Bronson doesn't get Compensated for that this actor does. Well, I don't know about that. I have some issues with that filmmaker because of Taking advantage of actors and stuff, and but that's for another day. Let's see, let's see.
Speaker 1:So Duncan Crabtree, ireland, the executive director of SAG-AFTRA, acknowledge that the real deal is not perfect and that the Union will have to keep fighting to get further protections in future contracts. The reality is, there's never been a time when we've been able to successfully just block technology from advancing. It's a very pragmatic way of thinking. Crabtree Ireland is a very pragmatic way of thinking. It's a very pragmatic way of thinking Crabtree Ireland that makes so much sense and so, strategically, our best option is to channel that technology in the best possible direction. Yeah, I mean it's going to advance. It just is these corporations are gonna steamroll this thing because it's gonna. They see dollar signs and that's really what they're after. So I mean, you know, there's a lot to there's a lot to unpack, there's a lot to unpack there, but it's good that the contract negotiations are over.
Speaker 1:Is it perfect? Seems like some people are. You know, seems like there's kind of a divided, seems like there's kind of a divided consensus on that. But I don't know I'm. You know I'm. I'm excited for the opportunity to go and audition for some stuff. I really I'm excited about the next three years. I want to try to get as many auditions and as much work as possible and I appreciate you guys being on this journey with me. Yeah, yeah, look at us. We got. We got here. We got here. We're at the end of the episode and we we covered some ground. We got some good, I think, some, some great insight onto the, the SAG stuff. You guys Heard me Kind of Stressfully ranting about my play that's coming up that we open a week from today, and I'm gonna keep you guys updated on that next week.
Speaker 1:Just very excited about, oh I'm really excited about next week as well. I have a special guest that is going to be in my studio here At at ground zero Hollywood is dead podcast studio and he's gonna be my first guest and if you can Guess who it is, I'm gonna give you a shout out on the next episode with my guest. Very excited, it's gonna be awesome. We got a lot of family and friends coming into town for Thanksgiving and I'm just so excited about all of that. There's so much to do. So I'm gonna get back to that and, yeah, I just really appreciate you guys being on this journey with me and I'm gonna give you a shout out on the next episode with my guest. And, yeah, I just really appreciate you guys being on this journey with me and and reaching out and and the support and asking when's the next episode, when's the next episode? And I promise you I'm gonna get on to a more.
Speaker 1:Right now I'm just like just get it out this week, just get it out next week, like just get something out, because you know I get hung up on the details, I get hung up on Wanting something to be perfect, and I'm far from the person that can make something perfect, and so then I just get stuck into this. You know analysis, paralysis. So instead sometimes I just got to walk in here press record and just go for it and See where it goes and, like usual, everything's gonna be okay. Alright, guys, thank you so much. Talk to you next time, bye.
