Category: Entertainment Industry

Pay-or-Play language is a heavily negotiated contract clause for above-the-line talent. The simplest meaning is this: The commitment by a studio to pay the talent, regardless of whether the studio subsequently determines that such talent’s services are no longer required.

Every year we make resolutions – as an author, it’s to write more, to keep growing and learning, but how?

CHILDREN’S SAFETY, INTERNET MONSTERS, FEMINIST EMPOWERMENT Last week I went to a theater to see John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place(2018) so I could have that communal experience Peele talks about and because it was doing so well critically and financially. Also, because after Puerto Rico experienced a post-Apocalyptic situation during the 2017 hurricane season, I’m now interested in seeing if filmmakers get it right.A Quiet Placedoes a pretty good job, except for the electricity and running water, but they hit it on the nail with the emphasis on lack of safety.In fact, Emily Blunt says in an interview title‘A Quiet Place’ leads box office, as horror keeps making noisethat the film is about the difficulty of keeping our children safe. There is a scene that in particular explodes this theme, that is, when the little boy Beau, who innocently is attracted to a toy space shuttle, becomes a target of the “monsters.”A Quiet Placeis a “social thriller”because it metaphorically reflects not only the issue of children’s lack of safety in our schools but another very pressing issue: If you “speak” on any type of social media, in effect, you put yourself in danger of some “electronic-big-eared-big-brother-troll-monster” coming out of their “digital darkness” to “pounce” on you and your private information.Finally,A Quiet Placeis a film about women’s empowerment, but I won’t say anymore in case you have not watched the film yet. Let’s just say, the ending ofA Quiet Placeechoes Rod’s final line inGet Out:“We handle shit. That’s what we do. Consider this situation fuckin’ handled.”Don’t forget to check out the recent re-release ofNight of the Living DeadonThe Criterion Collectionand see all of Jordan Peel’s CNN interview at:‘Get Out’ director: My fear has become my power.

TO EXPERIENCE SOMETHING TOGETHER I recently experienced how watching a film together turns on the “communing” and “empathy” and“fun” factor when I improvised an “otherness” double feature for my film students at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. First, we watchedNight of the Living Deadand throughout the show in one class section there was intense silence coupled with nervous jumpiness while in another section there was near-constant loud cheering on of the main character, Ben, played by African-American Duane Jones. So all fun!But the ending was a bad let down for all: When Ben gets unceremoniously shot, and the still photos depicting his body being treated as meat start to come one after another, I could feel the communal shock in both of my classes. One of my students asked empathetically,“Is that it?”Implying: “But he’s the hero, the leader, he worked so hard to survive. The movie can’t possibly end this way.” Well it can, because Romero being himself an “outsider” (he was of Cuban-Lithuanian descent) was reflecting in his casting of Duane Jones and the film’s ending the real-life situation of African-Americans in the 1960s who still lived under the threat of mob lynchings. It’s a part of American history that only now is being revisited in a significant way via this month’s inauguration ofThe National Memorial for Peace and Justice.ForGet Out, Peele chose a very different ending from Romero, a final scene of empowerment. And much of the source of this power is to be found in the unlikely character Rod Williams, played with impeccable timing by Milton“Lil Rel”Howery. Rod is a caring person: He feeds and pampers Sid the dog who suffers from digestive issues and constantly warns his friend, Chris Washington, to leave his girlfriend’s family house.Moreover, Rod uses his intelligence and training as a TSA agent, to find and rescue the hero. And Rod achieves all this without ever throwing a punch or shooting someone. In fact, Rod is never even mean to anyone. He is a good guy who humbly goes about his work, but he is empathetic and resourceful and chooses to act, and I would argue, the film’s true hero.

Late summer’s intense heat often brings with it stormy downpours. Sadly this August has also brought with it scenes that, frankly, seem straight out of the dark middle ages: Inquisitorial hooded men with fire and anger in their ready-to-pummel fists and indifferent icy hearts.

Next time you read a book or watch a film, try this simple test. Answer three questions about women in the story.

Patty Jenkins has been vindicated, but her story follows a disturbingly familiar pattern. She wrote anddirectedMonster(2003) which won a slew of awards and an Oscar forCharlize Theron. In his contemporaryreview ofMonster,Roger Ebertwrote:“Jenkins, the writer-director, has made the best film of the year.”Yet, after that achievement, Jenkins did not direct another feature for over a decade.And now herWonder Womanhas proven that a female Super Hero can more than hold her own! But why should anyone be surprised?Lynda Carter,who portrayed Wonder Woman in the 70’s show, is an adored icon. As part ofLibrary of Awesome,Carter sat at theLibrary of Congressnext to a super-woman in her own right,Dr. Carla Hayden,and gave aninspired talkabout her experiences: Being told other women would not watch an hour-long TV show with a female lead, that many women would outright hate her, and that the show’s producers had hired a man, chest hair and all, to be her stunt double.TheHollywood’s gender-gapchanges very slowly (if at all), but one thing has never changed, girls and women all over the world love the idea of Wonder Woman and bond around it, asAlondra N. Abreu Carlo, a nursing student at theUniversity of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez,said to me,“Girls can do anything they set their mind to…Me and my sisters went to watch the movie together so it was a big deal at my house.”After my own bonding experience with Carter and Hayden via YouTube, I wanted to know more about theLibrary of Congress‘ link to Super Heroes, so I dug in and discovered this institution is amega-serious collectorhousing more than 100,000 comic books! Also the Library holds original artwork for the first American comic-book,Famous Funnies No. 1,which appeared in the 30’s duringThe Great Depression,and the first appearance ofSpider-Manin 1962, the same year JFK gave his inspiredMoon Speech.Wonder Woman is a child of her times, first appearing inAll-Star Comicsat the end of 1941 and on the cover ofSensation Comicsin January 1942. Her birth coincided with the agonies surrounding thePearl Harborattack onDecember 7, 1941. Wonder Woman represented a new heroic human being that would integrate and utilize the best qualities of both sexes, a true(wo)man. Her creator,Dr. William Moulton Marston, was a bohemian psychologist who belonged to a “cult of female sexual power.”Moreover,Jill Lepore, author ofThe Secret History of Wonder Woman(2014) has said that the Wonder Woman character probably began to develop in Dr. Marston’s mind in 1911 when he was a student at Harvard, and this institution was so afraid of thesuffragistEmmeline Pankhurst,that they banned her from speaking on campus.Later in his life, and with the world immersed in the second nihilistic war of his lifetime, Dr. Marston stated,“Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who, I believe, should rule the world.”So if our Super Heroes rise out of specific historical circumstances, I ask, “Why now a first stand alone, big budget-high-production-values Wonder Woman Super Hero movie?”You might say,“Hey, it’s just “silly” entertainment!”And yes,Wonder Womandoes follow some well-entrenched tropes in fantastical girl stories: On her journey, Diana travels with somewhat “broken” companions as Dorothy inThe Wizard of Oz(Sameer, Charlie, Chief = Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion, making Steve Trevor akin to Toto), Etta Candy, Trevor’s secretary, functions as a Fairy Godmother helping her “protégé” find the perfect dress for the “ball” and Dr. Maru, a chemist and clearly the most formally educated person in the story, is relegated to play the jealousWitchin Disney’sSnow White(1937). (BTW: I do hope Dr. Maru’s character gets more developed in future installments). But in spite of some short-comings,Wonder Womanpresents a heart-felt allegorical story that condemns the atrocities of war, criticizes violence as a means to solving problems, highlights the evils stemming from racism, and shows how even in London, England it wasn’t that long ago when women did not have full civil rights, could not vote, and were banned from male-dominated social and political arenas.Finally, speaking about social and political arenas,Dr.Kyle William Bishopwrites in his book,American Zombie Gothic, thatNight of the Living Dead(1968) functions as “allegorical condemnation of the atrocities of Vietnam, violent racism, and the opposition to the civil rights movement.” (pg. 14). That “silly” piece of entertainment, directed and co-written by Cuban-AmericanGeorge Romero,was released nearly 50 years ago and has since then become a significant American cultural artifact chosen in 1999 by theLibrary of Congressfor preservation in theNational Film Registry,as“culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”and in 2016 fully restored by NYC’sMoMA.I don’t know what the next 50 years hold forJenkinandGadot‘sWonder Woman, but for now, I highly recommend going to see the film and enjoy it as entertainment. But also think about the historical circumstances that have helped birth an updated version of a beloved feminist icon in the protest-wracked summer of 2017.

And so I went from hero to zero in a split second. The last thing I ever wanted to be was difficult, but we were not talking about the same project. I needed to let Mr. Jaws know – in so many words – that as exciting as his new vision was, it would take my story down a completely different path; that even though both stories shared a myriad of elements, they couldn’t possibly be more different. Needless to say, Mr. Jaws was not happy; he had taken time from his busy schedule to fly into NYC to convince me that their new direction was the way to go; instead, he was going back to L.A. empty-handed. I felt horrible and yet empowered because I had put my foot down. I had artistic integrity… yes?Maybe… but did I still have a movie to write?In the movie business credit is everything and in order to get that credit you have to work… a lot – yes, quality is paramount and we, as artists, are obligated to strive only for the best quality writing possible; but is there a limit to how far one can test the limits of creative integrity before we find ourselves right back where we started and fresh out of a job? Sadly, there is; and I found that out the hard way.Had I been a little older or a bit more experienced, I would have thought things through; but the truth is, I wasn’t and I didn’t – and although I did try to undo some of the damage done during our first lunch meeting, the relationship was already compromised. Our lunch was not the last time we spoke – we reconnected via phone a few times after that and I made strategic suggestions as to how we could marry both ideas, but it was too late. Mr. Jaws seemed more and more disinterested every time we talked… until one day we stopped communicating altogether.A year and change went by and going to work became exponentially more difficult with every passing day – most of my friends and co-workers were curious about the project and questions about it were being asked; they wanted to know when I’d be quitting my day job and moving out to L.A.; when I thought we’d start shooting; they wanted to know about casting choices – I won’t lie… that shit drove me crazy. It made me feel like I was living a lie… mostly because I was too embarrassed to tell the truth – to tell them that I had literally fucked it all up and that, much to their dismay, they’d be seeing my ugly face around the office for a while longer.But just when I thought I couldn’t possibly get more depressed, I spotted a trailer for an upcoming movie whose main focus was a duffle bag… and guess what it contained? You got it! Eight fricking heads!I went home that night and drank almost as much as I did when I celebrated the offer to write the script. Was I upset about not giving in and writing it just the way they wanted me to? Was I pissed about not having my first movie – my first project ever – sold, filmed, and shown in theaters across the nation? You bet your life I was! I was furious with myself for being such a proud idiot!In the end, I should’ve compromised right from the get-go – I should’ve seen this huge opportunity for what it really was – a way in! Having a film out would have given me the chance to write others… write better and more interesting stories –maybe even content worth fighting for – not this one. This one wasn’t worth it and I knew it.So here I was… deeply demoralized – no film, no glory, and what’s worse, no money. That’s right, Mr. Jaws owed me money – it is true that his movie, the one he ended up shooting, was nothing like the one I wrote; and in many ways, I was happy about it – however, my story was the inspiration for his, and for that reason alone, it was my right to at least get the “story by” credit along with some of the cash that was promised to me on the contract we both signed.But it didn’t happen… he was a Hollywood shark. I heard later on that he’d peddled the story around town, sold it, and moved on. In other words, I had absolutely no way to pin him down and get paid; no way of proving our creative discussions during our lunch meeting ever happened; he didn’t even attach his name to the project. It was his word against mine. Yes… it was over.The moral to this story is simple – take the time to meet the right people in the biz.; this will be time well spent – and don’t just option your work to anyone; patience pays off in the long run. The other lesson here is: work hard, and when tested, work even harder; because compromise is the name of the game, and no one – I repeat, no one – is irreplaceable.See you next week;

I’ll never forget the day I received the first call from a Hollywood producer – I stuttered throughout the entire call. I was so excited, I was practically hyper-ventilating; especially because I didn’t expect my very first story to ever get anyone’s attention – let alone be offered what for me was a good chunk of cash for a couple of days worth of work. But this is the movie industry, a world where dreams come true overnight, right? Well, it sure as hell seemed that way!

I sat nervously across the table from Joe Cohen at CAA; I had never been there before and the stakes were higher for me than for anyone else in the room – why? Because