Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Friday, October 30, 2009

A Call for More Intrusive New Laws

I think that if we the public are going to support movies, and these movies are going to have these enormous budgets, which ultimately we the public are paying for!!! - then in the lower left-hand corner of the movie screen as every movie unreels, there should have to be a little digital dollar-ticker that keeps going up, showing exactly where all that money is being spent.

The counter would go faster or slower, depending on what's happening onscreen at that moment. For dialogue scenes, it'd basically just grow at a rate based on the salaries of however many actors are onscreen, and what proportion of their total salary that scene translates into. Then suddenly, the big FX scene crashes in on you and WHOA! LOOK AT THEM DOLLARS GO! Maybe the display could be green most of the time, but when it goes into budget-spend overdrive it could start flashing red for that scene. Or something.

This is about more than just entertainment. It's about transparency, accountability. These are our dollars, being spent here, and ultimately - there needs to be a way to account for it. If the film industry doesn't take matters into its own hands to implement this important reform, then I'm sorry, but it's time for Big Mister Government to step in - bat in hand, whistle perched on lips. Government should always be there with the ready threat of enforcement.

Responsibility: it's everyone's responsibility. And ultimately that means if you don't take it on willingly, then you will be forced to.

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