David A.L. Venable

I create pretty things and ugly things, usually simultaneously. Artist working in film, traditional arts, and music.

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@JosephKahn 100%, this is such a common occurrence that I have friends who will straight up hold up a production until they’re given funds because they’ve been burned so many times. (Also, big fan, and funny enough I art directed a movie starring one of your stars from Ick).

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

Hilarious considering I’ve worked plenty of art department jobs that simply don’t pay because producers run off with the bag leaving everyone else scrambling because they’re owed funds. I STILL am owed $1900 from a movie that wrapped in February. But yeah, poor producers.

[Jeremiah Lewis @fringeblog]

Art directors risk nothing for their work. They get paid and they can move on to the next project. If the movie blows up they can leverage that massively or complain and make themselves a byword for industry insiders.

But the producers are the ones holding the massive bag if the movie bombs.

Is the art director going to surrender her salary if that happens? No.

Is the cast and crew willing to defer their fee in hope the movie does well? If so, let's have that conversation, but most wouldn't.

So why should they get an upside if the film does well? They don't deserve it, unless they negotiated for it and it is in their contract.

You can agree to the offered salary or not. But if you take it, and then the film makes a ton of money and then you complain about being exploited, you've shown your hand, and no one will want to play poker with you because they see how you operate.

Pay is a proxy for effort, but also risk. The risk you take as BTL crew is zero. The effort is compensated fairly (consent to the contract is agreement to fair, equitable trade).

But you don't deserve upside while also offloading all the downside to the producers.

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@pududeer Doing a rewatch of The Body and I was super emotional (as is the way with that episode) and then was immediately taken out of it by a boom in the shot when Buffy is standing over her mom.

[Praise @tufpraise]

this was literally the whole point of ai

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@PatrickGratton @scotty1123 I’ve been on shoots as the art director where the production designer essentially hands over every aspect of the department aside from design, you’re basically a department head.

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

As an art director, production designer, graphic designer, and even set dresser calling an art director “a glorified graphic designer” is maybe the best way to say you have legitimately no idea what you’re talking about. Sub-normie levels of familiarization with below the line.

[Mark Collins @mark_collins09]

If you're not in the film industry, you have zero idea how the film industry works.

You simply cannot apply conventional wisdom to it. Anyone who tries, fails.

Obsession is what we would call a low budget film. Short shooting schedule. Small crew. Small production.

Every single person working on the film understands that. They understand that you won't be making big studio feature money on this production because that money doesn't exist.

Art Director is a glorified graphic designer. For this kind of film, there's really not that much work to do. You're making posters and signs. $300/day on this budget and this job is totally fine.

If you're working below the line, you understand you don't have equity in the production. There are many reasons for this, all of them good.

In the current era, most everyone in film is pretty fucking retarded, while being woefully bad at their job because they spent more time ranting about politics than actually practicing their craft.

All of these things together, and looking at the art directors complaints, tell me that this art director is awful at their job, and they're whining about it on social media because they can't even get hired in the art department on any other film. They're hoping to leverage the success of Obsession into sympathy to try to get more work.

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@PatrickGratton @scotty1123 Truly.

[Janus Films @janusfilms]

@beksawe There is no film industry without workers. Let’s celebrate them.

[daniel goldhaber @chronopictures]

David Lynch made sure the crew of Eraserhead who worked for little to no money all had a financial stake in the movie. For many of them, it was a financial bedrock that lasted for their entire lives.

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@losslandscape Lmao right? And so odd for that guild to separate art director and graphic designer as two separate things to be covered under… And weird that I qualified for both things separately for very different jobs…

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@mark_collins09 @MysticAvila You’re the go to logistical planner, budget keeper, crew manager, and more. Again: you are incorrect here.

[Jeff Zhang 张佶润 @strangeharbors]

“That’s not how it works.” Yeah, no fucking shit. That’s why we need to have a conversation about it? You’re all Marxists until it comes to a horror movie you love that just grossed $200 million.

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@mark_collins09 @MysticAvila That’s a separate statement than the one you made. Art directors are not by definition graphic designers. They are art directors. They are second only to the production designer. And as someone IN THAT GUILD I’d listen to me on this.

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@mark_collins09 @MysticAvila Graphic designers are a separate thing from art directors. That’s a fact. You are factually, completely wrong. On low budget indies many hats are worn, but if your DP is operating as a cam op it doesn’t make the role of the DP “to hold the camera, duh” now does it?

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@mark_collins09 @MysticAvila No, tell me, what is it?

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@mark_collins09 @MysticAvila What’s ADG Local 800 again, can you tell me? I forget.

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@mark_collins09 @MysticAvila Boy I wish I had the confidence of an incorrect rando on Twitter who is literally thinking they know more than someone who LITERALLY DOES THE JOB IN QUESTION.

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@mark_collins09 @MysticAvila I have also been doing this a long time and as someone who is literally in the ADG you have no idea what you’re talking about. What’s your local number, cus mine’s 800 and 44?

[Derlis A. González | Composer @DerlisAGonzalez]

@AndyYoungFilm "She made $7,000 IN A MONTH"

Yeah, that doesn't mean anything if the next gig is 4 months away.

The amount of bootlicking I've seen today is disgusting.

[David A.L. Venable @DavidALVenable]

@teroterotero @AndyYoungFilm She said flipping. Flipping means turning it union.

[Andy Young @AndyYoungFilm]

Sure is a lot of “Obsession’s Art director should keep her trap shut about long hours/poor conditions and be grateful for the low rate she got” talk today from WGA/SAG members I marched on a picket line for 🤔