
Spinal Tap vs. Hollywood - well_i_never
http://www.gq.com/story/spinal-tap-vs-hollywood
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jackhack
The video game has a parallel.

Voice actors or visual actors in the ever-increasing hollywood-ized titles get
a royalty paycheck every time a box of software is sold at retail or on Steam.
They may be paid royalties for a decade or more, with a successful A title.

Meanwhile the artists who generate content are paid only while doing their
work, and the programmers who bring that content to life are paid a salary
only while doing their work. There is typically no lasting financial
commitment after the weekly paycheck. The could be laid off the week after
release, and when the $$$ rolls into the studio, the team is home sleeping,
fixing bugs, or looking for a new job. Starting anew.

The difference? Unionization.

~~~
slededit
That and voice actors are usually famous already and have bargaining power
individually.

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koverstreet
Relevant quote: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a
long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like
dogs. There's also a negative side.”

~~~
0xcde4c3db
Perhaps unsurprisingly, various songs have been recorded about how soulless
and money-grubbing the music industry is. Examples include Pink Floyd's "Have
a Cigar", Billy Squier's "The Stroke", and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Workin' for MCA".

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
Billy Joel - "The Entertainer", Recently Sylvan Esso - "Radio" (Exactly 3m:30s
long).

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toss1941
One of my favorite movies, and favorite one of the genre by far. If anyone who
loves this movie hasn't seen the commentary track on the DVD, get it
immediately. The actors present on the commentary are all in character so it
sort of feels like a second movie.

~~~
Jedd
I've heard rumours that, in contrast, the laserdisc release had the actors'
commentary au naturale -- it's almost worth trying to hunt down a player and a
copy, as I've never seen a rip published.

~~~
stevewillows
I have a copy of all three commentaries, including the in-character, as
actors, and also the commentary with Rob Reiner, producer Karen Murphy, and
editors Robert Leighton and Kent Beyda.

Feel free to email me if you'd like an MP3 you can mux in. It's a shame they
didn't include this with the Criterion release.

~~~
marak830
Which one would you recommend? I don't have time to hunt down and watch all 3
haha.

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stevewillows
Spinal Tap doing the commentary on Spinal Tap is by far the best.

~~~
marak830
Thanks, I'll check it out

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Karellen
See also:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting)

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Justin_K
The irony is the same media conglomerates that were criticizing Wall Street
are doing the same thing on their own books. Sadly, young actors accept just
about any terms to get on a film.

~~~
wolco
young musicians and even young developers will accept any terms to get in the
business.

The difference is the developer can wakeup and immediately change jobs but the
musician that is signed is basically held hostage.

~~~
RangerScience
A close friend was actually a judge on one of those "find the next star"
shows, for singers. He says they pulled some really shady shit over on the
kids - handed them a massive contract and two days to "review it" or they'd be
dropped from the show; and this was after they'd made it past the first round
of culling.

The contract was also very unfavorable to the kids, basically putting them
completely at the mercy of the record label, for way too many years (and
probably a lot more - not my circus, and it's been awhile).

I don't remember how it all turned out, except that the specific kid my friend
was mentoring through all this went on to win.

That same friend has his own troubles with his original label. After making it
big, he started to change direction, and the label just stopped putting his
stuff out. Really put a damper on his career, since he basically dropped of
the map until he got out from under them.

~~~
brownbat
> After making it big, he started to change direction, and the label just
> stopped putting his stuff out.

This could describe a lot of people, but makes me think of George Michael. A
lot of people followed the turn, and felt like it had enormous impact, even if
the label wasn't pumping it to the top of the charts. Sales are great, but not
all sales have equal impact on people's lives. Michael's later work really
connected deeply with the people who followed it, I hope he knew that. If by
any chance he was your friend, deeply sorry for your loss.

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humanrebar
> Not for nothing did David Mamet include these lines in Speed-the-Plow, his
> satirical dissection of the American movie business: “Two things I've
> learned, 25 years in the entertainment industry.… The first one is: There is
> no ‘net.’… And I forgot the second one.”

This is why I discount "profit sharing" and heavily discount equity when
evaluating job offers.

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Gravityloss
Recently watched District 9 and it has a lot of the same charm. Life is really
messy and chaotic, full of exploits and idiots, there are a lot of colossal
fxckups and nobody really cares.

~~~
snovv_crash
A lot of the lines were unscripted (particularly for Wikus). I suspect this is
what you were noticing.

