God damnit, Bob Dylan actively using Twitter like a modern Theme Time Radio show could be the one thing that would ever convince me to get back on that cess pool of halfwit ideas. I wish he’d come to Substack.
The Hollywood exodus is inevitable. Those tax credits are a band aid on a bullet wound.
1. As Ted has pointed out repeatedly, legacy media is capturing a continuously diminishing share of entertainment revenue.
2. Los Angeles has extremely high sales and income tax.
3. While it has a lower property tax than other states, a lot of entertainment workers can't afford to buy a house since the median home price in LA county has nearly tripled in the last 15.
4. Los Angeles has terrible infrastructure. The public transit system is booty cheeks, traffic is terrible, and going to auditions or playing gigs requires a working vehicle and hours in gridlock. Major movie studios, TV studios, and corporate offices are scattered from all the way up north in Burbank to downtown and Culver City (to say nothing of the fact that Youtube, Netflix, Apple, and Amazon have their main offices in NorCal/Seattle).
I can see the synergistic value of having a centralized entertainment hub, but LA in 2024 is the worst possible version of one.
AI slop will most definitely come here as well. My husband Peco recently wrote a piece that called on Substack founders to not only uphold freedom of speech, but also stand up to protect creators' uniquely human speech:
"Substack is growing fast, yet the tools for creating the equivalent of Rolex knock-offs of its main products are growing even faster... Substack needs to act on this issue quickly, if it wants to protect the authenticity of its content and safeguard the trust of its readership. Maybe we need to get authors to sign a declaration indicating whether they use AI in the generation of their content? Or maybe Substack can introduce an app to help detect whether an author’s works appear to have been AI-generated?
I’m not suggesting that people who use AI shouldn’t be allowed to publish on Substack; rather, that without some form of intervention, the power of AI will undermine many people’s faith in the platform."
No word back from Hamish, Chris, or Jairaj yet. Maybe you can add your voice to this Ted?
That olive oil coffee could’ve made the grade…if Starbucks would’ve gotten it included in the mandatory prep protocol colonoscopy patients have to follow before their procedures.
I don't agree with this snobbery about horror films, they are the punk rock of cinema in that it is much easier for small producers and artists to break out as budget and production values is not a dealbreaker for most fans - indeed, many horror enthusiasts even say they often prefer a good old cheapo effort. And as a composer, it is by far the most fun genre to write music for, as the broadest palette of styles that work.
Neither am I in the full sense - I do enjoy the artier side of horror and/or when it blends with other genres -, but respecting the craft and the graft is a must.
The answer is obvious—film composers aren’t deceiving people by distorting history. They don’t pretend their music existed decades ago. Honesty is not a small thing.
For starters there's no human involved. It's art without the passion and the emotional urge to create it.
Second, with AI music bands and composers are ripped off (their music as training material) but not even a single composer or musician is getting paid.
Third, there's the scale, and the ability to flood the internet, the streaming platforms, and so on, with millions of pieces of AI slop, which it's not an issue from film composers.
But the worse is people consuming it and getting used to it.
There's plenty of ways of using AI. It's not as easy as claiming that all AI music is generated entirely by the machine. AI (or machine learning, as it used to be called) is baked into a lot of instrument plugins or DAWs.
And it's not the machine itself that's choosing to flood the internet. That's the users.
Obviously Bob Dylan has good taste in literature. I'll be curious to read your thoughts about Machen. Is The Great God Pan really that obscure? It's kind of a foundation stone for those of us who delight in weird lit.
Also, I had a look through your previous articles on J.G. Ballard. Thank you for those. I think everyone should read at least some Ballard. Whenever someone at the publishing house says “This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!” rush out and pick up a copy of that book! When the establishment inmates of the high-rise asylums are saying "Do Not Publish!" ... those are the voices we need to pay attention too. Ballard, I contend, was probably one of the most sane writers of the 20th century. But like others who see the insanity of their own society, gets branded as a mad man.
High Rise is probably my favorite Ballard novel. His novella Running Wild is brilliant as well, and less read.
I’m almost moved to say that the success of “Terrifier 3” makes me sadder about movies than I would have thought I could ever be. But I’m sure someone is waiting to give money to some sicker little twitch out there to film something worse.
Re. "Idiot Nephew" Theory. Cf. more circumspect music and lyrics for The Loud Family [Scott Miller], "Idiot Son," _Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things_ (1993).
If the budget was $28 million (in Hollywood, a lady truly never tells) then the ad spend was probably a bit more, given that the first movie was such a hit and I saw the trailer for this one on EVERYTHING in the last four months.
Let's say it was $40 million, though I'm sure it was a bit higher. That would take the project's total cost to be $68 million. Given rules of profit participation, the movie would break even theatrically if, given a 50/50 domestic/international gross split, it grossed $136 million worldwide. Likely to happen, but they're not there yet!
Anyway, yes, Smile 2 is dark, and yes the franchise's premise is predicated on the depression notion that one cannot trust the genuine joy we show to others (not to mention the probably-unintentional relationship to that creepy COVID era lament to ban masks at schools so "we can see our children smile again!"). But this sequel was probably, unexpectedly, the most visually daring studio film I've seen all year, a sonic and visual adventure unlike any I've experienced lately.
I doubt very much that Apple is actually trying to help people. The did, after all, assemble various existing technologies into the smart phone and other than making Apple filthy rich the outcome of that effort can only be described as mixed at best.
I can’t fully explain my distrust off the whole AI phenomena but it is just a visceral distrust. At first ihought it was clever, but as time went on I realized that I don’t respect falsies at any level or size. Call me old fashion,
backwards or naive, I’ll accept your wrong opinion. But I never feared good old hard work, creativity and going au natural. But that’s just me. Frances.
Agree with most of your sentiments here, but like some others, I am leery of "government regulation of AI".
Didn't we have that with Twitter/FBI?
Isn't the The Government now managing significant parts of healthcare, airlines, mass transit, and other sub-optimally successful ventures with incompletely-perfect outcomes?
Even assuming your goal is suboptimal and incomplete outcomes, isn't what is simply another centralization of and control by some cloaked elite or unelected star chamber a part of the problem? (Spoiler Alert: I think so.)
I would and I do put my effort into making my own and others' discernment regarding ( and ownership by) social media greater (and lesser) respectively.
"Isn't the The Government now managing significant parts of healthcare, airlines, mass transit, and other sub-optimally successful ventures with incompletely-perfect outcomes?"
Depends on how you measure. Medicare is one of the most successful ventures we got for human health and well-being. The airline industry was largely deregulated decades ago. Mass transit is pretty much government-dependent no matter how sliced (otherwise alla the roads would be private, and we'd pay some joker every five miles or so just to walk along it).
Anyway, no – not perfect. Perfection and human enterprise are perhaps on parallel tracks (but of course will never meet).
God damnit, Bob Dylan actively using Twitter like a modern Theme Time Radio show could be the one thing that would ever convince me to get back on that cess pool of halfwit ideas. I wish he’d come to Substack.
I remember Robert Rodriguez saying something to the effect that if a studio gave him a $100 million budget, he'd make 10 movies with it.
If you know Joel Haver, he'd probably make roughly 50,000 movies with that money.
The Hollywood exodus is inevitable. Those tax credits are a band aid on a bullet wound.
1. As Ted has pointed out repeatedly, legacy media is capturing a continuously diminishing share of entertainment revenue.
2. Los Angeles has extremely high sales and income tax.
3. While it has a lower property tax than other states, a lot of entertainment workers can't afford to buy a house since the median home price in LA county has nearly tripled in the last 15.
4. Los Angeles has terrible infrastructure. The public transit system is booty cheeks, traffic is terrible, and going to auditions or playing gigs requires a working vehicle and hours in gridlock. Major movie studios, TV studios, and corporate offices are scattered from all the way up north in Burbank to downtown and Culver City (to say nothing of the fact that Youtube, Netflix, Apple, and Amazon have their main offices in NorCal/Seattle).
I can see the synergistic value of having a centralized entertainment hub, but LA in 2024 is the worst possible version of one.
AI slop will most definitely come here as well. My husband Peco recently wrote a piece that called on Substack founders to not only uphold freedom of speech, but also stand up to protect creators' uniquely human speech:
"Substack is growing fast, yet the tools for creating the equivalent of Rolex knock-offs of its main products are growing even faster... Substack needs to act on this issue quickly, if it wants to protect the authenticity of its content and safeguard the trust of its readership. Maybe we need to get authors to sign a declaration indicating whether they use AI in the generation of their content? Or maybe Substack can introduce an app to help detect whether an author’s works appear to have been AI-generated?
I’m not suggesting that people who use AI shouldn’t be allowed to publish on Substack; rather, that without some form of intervention, the power of AI will undermine many people’s faith in the platform."
No word back from Hamish, Chris, or Jairaj yet. Maybe you can add your voice to this Ted?
See the full piece here "The AI Curse is Coming for the Creator's Economy" https://pilgrimsinthemachine.substack.com/p/the-ai-curse-is-coming-for-the-creators
> I’m not suggesting that people who use AI shouldn’t be allowed to publish on Substack
Why not?
That olive oil coffee could’ve made the grade…if Starbucks would’ve gotten it included in the mandatory prep protocol colonoscopy patients have to follow before their procedures.
My friend joked that if they are going to serve the olive oil coffee the toilets should have one of those roller coaster safety bars.
I don't agree with this snobbery about horror films, they are the punk rock of cinema in that it is much easier for small producers and artists to break out as budget and production values is not a dealbreaker for most fans - indeed, many horror enthusiasts even say they often prefer a good old cheapo effort. And as a composer, it is by far the most fun genre to write music for, as the broadest palette of styles that work.
Neither am I in the full sense - I do enjoy the artier side of horror and/or when it blends with other genres -, but respecting the craft and the graft is a must.
AI also uses extreme amounts of electricity; and for what? A useless power suck we don't need.
How does AI creating fake music from the past differ from a film composer imitating a temp track that the director insists that they copy?
The answer is obvious—film composers aren’t deceiving people by distorting history. They don’t pretend their music existed decades ago. Honesty is not a small thing.
So it's really about the intentions of the humans that chose to artificially generate the track, rather than whether the result is similar?
For starters there's no human involved. It's art without the passion and the emotional urge to create it.
Second, with AI music bands and composers are ripped off (their music as training material) but not even a single composer or musician is getting paid.
Third, there's the scale, and the ability to flood the internet, the streaming platforms, and so on, with millions of pieces of AI slop, which it's not an issue from film composers.
But the worse is people consuming it and getting used to it.
There's plenty of ways of using AI. It's not as easy as claiming that all AI music is generated entirely by the machine. AI (or machine learning, as it used to be called) is baked into a lot of instrument plugins or DAWs.
And it's not the machine itself that's choosing to flood the internet. That's the users.
Obviously Bob Dylan has good taste in literature. I'll be curious to read your thoughts about Machen. Is The Great God Pan really that obscure? It's kind of a foundation stone for those of us who delight in weird lit.
Also, I had a look through your previous articles on J.G. Ballard. Thank you for those. I think everyone should read at least some Ballard. Whenever someone at the publishing house says “This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!” rush out and pick up a copy of that book! When the establishment inmates of the high-rise asylums are saying "Do Not Publish!" ... those are the voices we need to pay attention too. Ballard, I contend, was probably one of the most sane writers of the 20th century. But like others who see the insanity of their own society, gets branded as a mad man.
High Rise is probably my favorite Ballard novel. His novella Running Wild is brilliant as well, and less read.
I’m almost moved to say that the success of “Terrifier 3” makes me sadder about movies than I would have thought I could ever be. But I’m sure someone is waiting to give money to some sicker little twitch out there to film something worse.
But neither makes it into the over all top 10 highest grossing film tier.
Re. "Idiot Nephew" Theory. Cf. more circumspect music and lyrics for The Loud Family [Scott Miller], "Idiot Son," _Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things_ (1993).
Such an interesting array of topics. Lots to think about. Thanks!
Fyi, a word on Smile 2.
If the budget was $28 million (in Hollywood, a lady truly never tells) then the ad spend was probably a bit more, given that the first movie was such a hit and I saw the trailer for this one on EVERYTHING in the last four months.
Let's say it was $40 million, though I'm sure it was a bit higher. That would take the project's total cost to be $68 million. Given rules of profit participation, the movie would break even theatrically if, given a 50/50 domestic/international gross split, it grossed $136 million worldwide. Likely to happen, but they're not there yet!
Anyway, yes, Smile 2 is dark, and yes the franchise's premise is predicated on the depression notion that one cannot trust the genuine joy we show to others (not to mention the probably-unintentional relationship to that creepy COVID era lament to ban masks at schools so "we can see our children smile again!"). But this sequel was probably, unexpectedly, the most visually daring studio film I've seen all year, a sonic and visual adventure unlike any I've experienced lately.
Happy Halloween!
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com
Since I know you are a big Apple fan Ted (haha) I’ll just point out that Apple has purposefully opted for a very slow rollout of AI.
They are waiting to see where the technology lands and seeing how to best implement it in their products, in such a way that actually helps people.
I doubt very much that Apple is actually trying to help people. The did, after all, assemble various existing technologies into the smart phone and other than making Apple filthy rich the outcome of that effort can only be described as mixed at best.
I can’t fully explain my distrust off the whole AI phenomena but it is just a visceral distrust. At first ihought it was clever, but as time went on I realized that I don’t respect falsies at any level or size. Call me old fashion,
backwards or naive, I’ll accept your wrong opinion. But I never feared good old hard work, creativity and going au natural. But that’s just me. Frances.
Agree with most of your sentiments here, but like some others, I am leery of "government regulation of AI".
Didn't we have that with Twitter/FBI?
Isn't the The Government now managing significant parts of healthcare, airlines, mass transit, and other sub-optimally successful ventures with incompletely-perfect outcomes?
Even assuming your goal is suboptimal and incomplete outcomes, isn't what is simply another centralization of and control by some cloaked elite or unelected star chamber a part of the problem? (Spoiler Alert: I think so.)
I would and I do put my effort into making my own and others' discernment regarding ( and ownership by) social media greater (and lesser) respectively.
Without pointing a gun or a jail cell at them.
"Isn't the The Government now managing significant parts of healthcare, airlines, mass transit, and other sub-optimally successful ventures with incompletely-perfect outcomes?"
Depends on how you measure. Medicare is one of the most successful ventures we got for human health and well-being. The airline industry was largely deregulated decades ago. Mass transit is pretty much government-dependent no matter how sliced (otherwise alla the roads would be private, and we'd pay some joker every five miles or so just to walk along it).
Anyway, no – not perfect. Perfection and human enterprise are perhaps on parallel tracks (but of course will never meet).