In The News

Move over green screens, LED walls are here.

When the pandemic hit, productions scrambled to figure out logistics in the new normal. That’s when studios turned to an emerging aspect of virtual production: digital immersive environments capturing real-world settings (including lighting) rendered in real time using game engines such as Unreal. They are then projected onto LED walls made up of hundreds of high-def displays that serve as interactive backdrops for actors — like a green screen, but much more sophisticated.

IATSE, the major labor union for film, theater, and television workers, is mulling a possible strike amid ongoing negotiations with the AMPTP. The union, which represents 150,000 workers across 13 Hollywood locals, released a statement to members Tuesday indicating a vote on a strike could be forthcoming. The union’s major priorities include living wages, reasonable rest (turnaround between shoot days), better meal breaks, and sustainable benefits (e.g. pensions that reflect cost of living increases).

The major sticking point in the latest round of negotiations is over rates and/or benefits for streaming projects, which are currently slated at a lower rate under the “New Media” classification. IATSE argues that after 13 years, streaming can no longer be considered “New Media,” preferring the term “Not So New Media.”

Share your input with the Department of Economic and Community Development on potential business and nonprofit support programs. 

Commissioner Heather Johnson, Carlos Mello from the Finance Authority of Maine, DECD staff, and region-specific organizations are hosting virtual input sessions as a chance for us to receive feedback directly from you.  This is an opportunity for you to share how we can best help you as we move forward in our economic recovery.

Use the links below to register for Friday 9/10/2021 Zoom sessions below.  If you are not able to join a session in your region, please feel free to attend another session.

Share your input with the Department of Economic and Community Development on potential business and nonprofit support programs. 

Commissioner Heather Johnson, Carlos Mello from the Finance Authority of Maine, DECD staff, and region-specific organizations are hosting virtual input sessions as a chance for us to receive feedback directly from you.  This is an opportunity for you to share how we can best help you as we move forward in our economic recovery.

Use the links below to register for Thursday 9/9/2021 Zoom sessions.  If you are not able to join a session in your region, please feel free to attend another session.

This Stage 32 Blog comes from Martin Gooch, a director and screenwriter based in London, England. 

It all feels like some sort of dark art but technically what happens is this: You make a movie. You take it to festivals, it does quite well and you get some laurels. You then send it to Sales Agents (SA) in the hope they will like it. Some Sales Agents might even contact you and ask to see your film.

If they like it they will make an offer and send you a contract. If you sign it then you will send them all the ‘media’ (your film and posters, trailers etc. on a hard drive) they will try to get it distributed in different territories around the world.  That’s the process.

Sales Agents are arguably a necessary evil, as they already have the contacts with the distributors and the delivery pipeline. We sort of need them and they 100% need us.

Here are 32 tips, which I hope might, in some way, make your sales agent experience less painful.