John August

John

Getting less for your 10%

Film Industry

Gavin Palone looks at why why so many more writers (and directors and actors) in Hollywood are paying the [extra money for a manager](http://www.vulture.com/2012/07/polone-why-everyone-pays-more-for-a-manager.html):

> The reason for this change can be found in the news reports written about talent agencies these days, most of which involve a cycle of mergers between agencies and the subsequent firings of suddenly superfluous agents.

The big agencies have gotten bigger — but also smaller, because every time they merge, they lay off a lot of agents. Now cut loose, these agents often become managers, performing many of the same functions for many of the same clients.

That helps the bottom line of the agencies (they still get their 10%), but it means screenwriters are paying out another big chunk of their income.

> As the owner of a restaurant, I would love to save money by firing the dishwasher and dumping all of the equipment necessary to keep plates and utensils clean; then the unemployed dishwashers could stand outside the restaurant and rent clean plates to customers for a separate fee. I could then still charge the same prices and increase my net profit, while the dishwashers would probably make more than the minimum wage they are getting now. Unfortunately, there is too much competition and customers would just go elsewhere for meals where the plates are provided for free.

> The talent agents are lucky in that they have rolled up so many of the agencies into two giants [CAA, WME] and two medium-size companies [UTA, ICM] that there isn’t real competition and they can get away with their machinations with little or no blowback.

It would be interesting to see the agent/client ratio of the agencies, and how it’s changed over time.

In the 15 years I’ve been working, technology has made some aspects of an agent’s job much faster and easier. Emails let you avoid phone tag. PDFs don’t need messengers. Information about jobs can be centralized.

But maintaining relationships with clients simply takes time. The more clients a single agent is trying to service, the less likely each individual client is going to feel satisfied. Thus, managers.

For the record, I’ve never had a manager, nor felt I’ve needed one. But I came into the industry at a different time. Last year, Justin Marks laid out his reasons why [most screenwriters should have managers](http://johnaugust.com/2011/get-a-manager), and I can’t argue with his logic, other than (pointlessly) wishing that things were more like they used to be.

Writing big movies for little screens

Television

Stephen Harrigan reflects on his career writing [TV movies of the week](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/07/made_for_tv_movies_my_career_writing_the_o_j_simpson_story_take_me_home_the_john_denver_story_and_more_.single.html):

> As a writer of what I call colon movies (such as *Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder*, or *Take Me Home: The John Denver Story*), the ’90s were my golden decade. I was an A-list writer of B-list productions.

MOWs have largely gone away, but as a profession it is very much like feature writing — only with tighter deadlines and smaller budgets.

The format does come with its own bag of tropes and clichés:

> After I had been in the business for awhile, I started to grow aware of the word “turns,” and the more aware of it I grew the more determined I became to outmaneuver it. It’s the default word for the end of almost every scene: “He turns”; “She turns”; “She hesitates for a moment at the door, then turns back to face him”; “He looks away, and when he turns back to her she notices there are tears in his eyes.“ It became my personal challenge to write an entire script without anybody turning, like that guy in the 1930s who once wrote a whole novel without ever using the letter “E.” But after a while I gave up. It was too hard, maybe even impossible. People in my scripts just naturally needed to turn to each other to button up a scene, to give it a proper note of finality. Trying to write a screenplay without using “turns” was like trying to write a pop song without using “baby.”

I love Harrigan’s observation that subtlety is too much like vagueness, and in a script nothing vague can survive:

> You had to search and search until you found a story’s irreducible thread: a man on the run from a killer, a young girl growing into a woman, a victim seeking revenge. If the movie was about one thing, it could be about many things. But if you started out determined to make it about many things, it would be about nothing.

It’s a [long read](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/07/made_for_tv_movies_my_career_writing_the_o_j_simpson_story_take_me_home_the_john_denver_story_and_more_.single.html), but thoroughly worthwhile.

Phil Coulson and the failure of IMDb

Less IMDb, Rant

If you click over to my [IMDb profile](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0041864/), you’ll see two new projects: “Phil Coulson: Agent of Shield” and “Coulson’s Day Off.” I’m listed under the writer section, having contributed characters.

Only I didn’t. At all.

I’d never heard of these shorts until I saw them on my profile page. Yes, I worked on the original Iron Man, but I’m not a credited writer and didn’t have any input whatsoever on the character played by Clark Gregg in the franchise.

I’m fairly certain the director simply attached my name — along with Joss Whedon, Fergus & Otsby, Marcum & Holloway — to attract attention to his Marvel fan film. And now that I’m blogging about it, he probably will get some attention.

He’ll also probably get a scary letter from Marvel legal.

Maybe I should feel bad about that — but I really don’t. Fuck him. He’s drafting off my name (and Whedon’s much bigger name) by misrepresenting my involvement in his short film.

If he wanted me to see his movie, he could have sent me a link. Lord knows I’m [accessible](http://twitter.com/johnaugust). I often plug stuff I like. But he didn’t give me that chance. So, as I said, fuck ‘im.

Now, it’s possible that the director himself didn’t link my name to this. ((Click through his other credits and you’ll see the same pattern.)) IMDb credits can be edited by just about anyone, so someone else could have done it.

Which is why I’m saving the bulk of my opprobrium for IMDb.

C’mon, IMDb. Why do you have to suck so much?
—–

My team can make a [browser plug-in](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/less-imdb) that makes your layout less terrible, but we can’t fix your data. That’s on you. You have to do better.

Here’s a simple way you can start: I’m a registered user, so why doesn’t your system kick out an email to confirm a change like this? I know I didn’t work on this. It should never have showed up on the page.

I have a movie coming out, and I’m starting to do publicity. All is takes is one lazy journalist looking at IMDb to assume I’ve been reduced to doing crappy superhero knock-offs.

True, one idiotic fan film isn’t going to hurt my reputation much, but what happens when I’m listed for acting in a porn film, or producing a inflammatory religious documentary? To me, that’s a lot worse than [revealing an actress’s age](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/07/huong-hoang-actress-suing-imdb-amazon_n_1191236.html).

Because there’s no real competition, we’ve come to rely on IMDb. That’s a mistake, but there is not yet a viable replacement. ((On The Talk Show, we speculated that Apple might come out with their own Siri-integrated solution for film credits.))

For now, I could use some reader help — and if you have a few minutes, it’s a useful exercise for seeing how the current IMDb system can be gamed so easily.

1. If you have an IMDb login, head over to [my page](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0041864/) and click the Edit Page button. (Less IMDb has to be turned off to access it.)
2. In the Filmography > Writing Credits section, choose Correct/Delete.
3. Click Continue.
4. On the next screen, choose Delete for the two Phil Coulson credits.
5. Click “Check these updates.”
6. You’ll get an error message asking you to state why these credits should be deleted. I leave this to your creativity.
7. Click “Recheck these updates.”
8. Click “Submit these updates.”

And you’re done! Maybe! There’s nothing to indicate whether a change is really in the works. Some updates show up quickly, but the auto-generated email lists 7-10 days as normal.

Which says a lot about how seriously IMDb is taking its mission.

**Update:**

Eight hours after posting this — and three days after first filing the credit notice — IMDb has excised the two Phil Coulson shorts from my profile. Thanks to everyone who submitted on my behalf.

I suspect some higher-up at IMDb paid attention, because the other writers who had been listed (including Whedon) are also now unlinked. But the same director is still drafting on credits for other filmmakers. IMDb has corrected one mistake, but not their system.

Standing up for ticket-takers

Film Industry

Employees are suing AMC Theaters, arguing that they should be [allowed to sit down](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/amc-theaters-ticket-takers-sue-345605?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thr%2Ffilm+%28The+Hollywood+Reporter+-+Movies%29):

> McInerney is representing Andrew Allen and all other AMC employees similarly situated, claiming they are being forced to endure long hours on their feet when taking money and checking tickets. The proposed class action alleges a violation of California Labor Code Section 1198 and Wage Order 7-2001, Section 14, which says that “all working employees shall be provided with suitable seats when the nature of the work reasonably permits the use of seats.”

Two things. First, my full love and support to theater employees, who perform all the customer service aspects of the motion picture business for low wages and little appreciation. Sure, some theater employees are terrible, but to the good ones: You’re doing the Lord’s work. Thank you.

Second, sitting is [pretty terrible for you](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17sitting-t.html?_r=3&src=me&ref=homepage), too. (And yes, I’m typing this at a standing desk.)

My hunch is that most Americans would be healthier working at a theater, with all its standing and activity, than at a conventional job behind a desk.