“'We built a model on parity,’ says Sing Sing director Greg Kwedar. ‘Everyone on our movie, the core cast and crew — from the star of the film, all the way through — we all worked for the same rate. And we all collectively own the movie.’” - KCRW
"Staff cuts at New York Public Radio, which operates news/talk WNYC-AM/FM, classical WQXR, WNYC Studios, New Jersey Public Radio, and the Gothamist online news publication, will affect 8% of the public media group’s workforce … (due to) a $10 million budget deficit." NYPR laid off 12% of its staff last September. - Inside Radio
Podcasting, TikTok algorithms, and the GOP’s ability to motivate angry young men - they all play a part. But “while the ideas of Gamergate may live on in the far right and the GOP, the aggressive, harassing fandom behaviors are not limited to a political party.” - Wired
That is, they fear both for their jobs and for the profession of animation itself. As one striker says, “How many artists do you think the company wants to hire five years down the line? Zero.” - The Ankler
Diego Mariscal has worked on more than 80 feature films and TV shows. Yet with the advent of AI and the likelihood of virtual film shoots replacing real behind-the-scenes people, he’s worried that his decades of on-set experience won’t transfer anywhere else. And he's concerned about colleagues, especially younger ones. - TheWrap
“The 77-year-old festival was plunged into crisis two years ago when the Centre for the Moving Image, operator of both the festival and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse cinema chain, went into administration.” - The Guardian (UK)
"(The newspaper) hired three people this spring to launch a new weekly podcast, but the news organization scrapped that plan in July and is now scrambling to find new jobs for the employees." CEO Linda Henry told Globe staffers that however good audio reporting is, it doesn't attract paying subscribers. - CommonWealth Beacon (Boston)
"Paramount Television Studios will cease operations at the end of the week, president Nicole Clemens and Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks told staff Tuesday morning. Clemens will exit the company, and all current series and projects in development at Paramount TV Studios … will move under the CBS Studios umbrella." - The Hollywood Reporter
Today’s layoffs were the beginning of “a move aimed at eliminating nearly 2,000 jobs by year’s end as the company prepares for a new ownership regime.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
There are people - mostly “men who think far too much about the Roman Empire” - freaking out about Denzel Washington’s accent in the Gladiator II trailer. “The films are historical fictions, which should render all critiques about accents moot. But let’s indulge the ignorance for a moment. What did Romans sound like?” - Hyperallergic
“Phoenix was set to star opposite the Top Gun: Maverick actor Danny Ramirez in a 30s-set love story with ‘explicit sexual content.’” Director Haynes and producer Christine Vachon say the film was Phoenix’s idea from the beginning. - The Guardian (UK)
Cartoonnetwork.com used to offer clips and even some full episodes of its shows such as We Bare Bears and Steven Universe. As of August 8, though, all the site now has is a pop-up message and redirect telling visitors to sign up for Max, the conglomerate's paid streaming service. - Variety
"Patreon says podcasters make up the second-largest group of creators on its platform and collectively earned more than $350 million from fans in 2023. (The company) says creators have benefited as they’ve moved beyond just audio to video, live shows, books, and merchandise lines, broadening their appeal." - Inside Radio
"Death slots" were times when audiences were presumed to be low, and therefore where network programmers would park shows presumed to be doomed anyway, so the series — most notoriously, the original Star Trek — would get cancelled for low ratings. Yet it turned out some shows thrived in "death slots." - Tedium
“It’s like a ‘Seinfeld’ convention with a baseball game in the background,” says the man who organized Seinfeld Night for the first time, a decade ago. - The New York Times
