Kinda sad, times are tough here.

P

Peternap

Well-known member
I have been seeing more and more people selling Video equipment on Craigslist just to pay bills or get Christmas money. Today there were a couple of things that I'd love to have but have no use for so I passed on them. The fellow lowered the price three times in two days and kept adding more.

It's not just camera equipment. I went to a meeting last night and bought a S&W 629 and a Taurus Tracker in 45ACP for half what they were worth. I felt bad about it and even gave him an extra hundred.

The bottom feeders have come out of the woodwork buying gold and silver.

Crime is way up and I'm glad I live miles from anyone else.

I wonder why since I saw on CNBC that we were recovering.:huh:
 
The only outdoor type shopping are here is for rent, the second laundry mat went out of business and you know when a laundry mat goes out of business that's bad.
 
Didn't they say that the film industry really took off during the Great Depression, because people wanted to take their minds off of dismal reality and take refuge in fantasy, and everybody had 10 ¢. Now we have what is termed The Great Recession. Shouldn't the same rules apply? So people should - theoretically - be eager to go to the movies (of course, maybe the cost of movie tickets has gone up more than inflation - but I'm too lazy to check). In that case, it should be a great time for filmmakers - no? Anyhow, it's probably tough all over, but it's certainly tougher in some places than others - here in California, we got some of the highest unemployment in any state. But the real trouble for California is that our budget is busted - we have serious debt problems. I suspect - and was just reading an article to that effect in the NYTimes - that times are about to get drastically worse, as some states will simply be unable to function when the debt load scares away bond buyers (and so CA will not be able to sell bonds to patch up the budget). When that happens, services will be cut on a massive scale, prisons will be emptied, cops and firefighters cut, teachers cut, nurses cut, many schools and hospitals closed, state (as opposed to federal) social services cut and state programs eliminated. Why is this a problem? Well, simple: even if you are not one of the affected directly by losing a job, you are going to be dramatically affected when all those millions of disappearing jobs mean that the money those people would have spent in the economy, will no longer enter the economy - and that means that the knock-on effects will spread to all businesses big and small, and people will not be buying stuff, so whether you work in retail, or in manufacturing or advertising, or, or, or, or etc. - and then when your position is eliminated, that feeds on even more restriction of economic activity etc. - and there you are in the second Great Depression.

So before that happens, go ahead and have fun, because what else can you do - as a famous economist (Keynes) once observed: "in the long run we're all dead". Hey, maybe it's time you made that Zombie movie :)
 
The film industry has been consistently successful since the 1920s because, like you said, it is relatively cheap to go to the movies as opposed to a dinner at a restaurant or to take a vacation. And when even critically unsuccessful films get release, they often make money back on the original investment.

All the more important to get into the industry sooner than later...
 
OldCorpse said:
Didn't they say that the film industry really took off during the Great Depression, because people wanted to take their minds off of dismal reality and take refuge in fantasy, and everybody had 10 ¢. Now we have what is termed The Great Recession. Shouldn't the same rules apply? So people should - theoretically - be eager to go to the movies (of course, maybe the cost of movie tickets has gone up more than inflation - but I'm too lazy to check). In that case, it should be a great time for filmmakers - no? Anyhow, it's probably tough all over, but it's certainly tougher in some places than others - here in California, we got some of the highest unemployment in any state. But the real trouble for California is that our budget is busted - we have serious debt problems. I suspect - and was just reading an article to that effect in the NYTimes - that times are about to get drastically worse, as some states will simply be unable to function when the debt load scares away bond buyers (and so CA will not be able to sell bonds to patch up the budget). When that happens, services will be cut on a massive scale, prisons will be emptied, cops and firefighters cut, teachers cut, nurses cut, many schools and hospitals closed, state (as opposed to federal) social services cut and state programs eliminated. Why is this a problem? Well, simple: even if you are not one of the affected directly by losing a job, you are going to be dramatically affected when all those millions of disappearing jobs mean that the money those people would have spent in the economy, will no longer enter the economy - and that means that the knock-on effects will spread to all businesses big and small, and people will not be buying stuff, so whether you work in retail, or in manufacturing or advertising, or, or, or, or etc. - and then when your position is eliminated, that feeds on even more restriction of economic activity etc. - and there you are in the second Great Depression.

So before that happens, go ahead and have fun, because what else can you do - as a famous economist (Keynes) once observed: "in the long run we're all dead". Hey, maybe it's time you made that Zombie movie :)
Click to expand...

In a way, it did. With the exception of the earlier writers strike and then the later SAG looming strike in 2007-2009 area, which held the industry back quite a bit, there has been a boost in movie-goers, movie renters. Going to the movies or renting films was a great alternative to other more expensive activities... but who feels that boost? Surely there is lots of content out there so a boost in movie watchers doesn't = a boost in production in terms that we would all feel a brisk and exciting boost in work. Truth is, the people who really made out during that period were those who had already made films or had made them and were looking for distribution. The latter was a result of the pending or actual strikes, yet despite those reasons, many semi-mediocre studio films which were shelved for quality reasons, peeked their ugly heads out on the market when the economy tanked and the pending or happening strikes really choke-held the industry.

This is speaking for the big guys. The recession has not been much help to the indie filmmaker, as where for the studio system, many investors tightened up or disappeared... now imagine those investors of the indie world. Almost a myth now. This is where all the good funding and investors went running out the door.

So people who made money off of the boost of movie goers during the recession tended to be people who already had made films, either ready for distribution or already released. There are so many movies already being made, a greater demand to see films just meant more people watching relatively the same number of movies. If there was an increase, or still is one, it's not being felt in the film production work force. Perhaps in the studios accounting ledger....
 
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