Defending Ukraine
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Partially automated news about the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Plus own opinions. Posts are searchable within a timeframe of 3 months, and then automatically wiped […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mstdn.social/@ukrdef, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
![Todd Alcott:
What Vance did yesterday, in Hollywood terms, is called "The Stranger in the Room." Screenwriters, especially, are well aware of the role of The Stranger in the Room. The SITR is anyone in a meeting who is just there "as a friend," someone who has no creative authority on, and no stake in, the project being discussed, anyone in the room who is a last-minute addition. Sometimes it's a 20-something intern, sometimes it's an executive from a sister office, sometimes it's someone from marketing, sometimes it's an older, more experienced producer who's lending a hand for a day. Example: | was once pitching a legacy reboot project to a legendary producer, a real lion of the industry. His 22-year-old daughter was also in the room. She interrupted my pitch to say "Right, but we don't want, like, any conflict in the movie." The purpose of The SITR is to destroy the project. The SITR is the one who, after the writer and producer and director have all agreed on the direction of the story, says "How will that play in China?" or "This sounds a lot like [movie X]". The SITR is always, always there at the behest of the most powerful person in the room. Whether the Stranger understands it or not, they are acting on the behalf of the studio, and it is the studio's natural desire to say "no," because no one has ever gotten fired for saying "no," and Hollywood executives, more than anything else, spend their entire careers terrified they're going to lose their jobs for saying YES.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4rhhtjjgsucnkow3h3nno2eh/bafkreigc5mcyr6cpjtvj4xnzy3hi55otivmxifjqltxmd3gkd4w3engwsu)
![But they don't want to be disliked by creatives, so instead of saying NO, they bring in a friend, either a protege or an ally from another department, or just grab someone from the hallway and ask them to sit in on the meeting. They don't know what they're looking for, they hear a hundred pitches a day, they don't know what, if anything, will please their bosses, so they bring in an ally to get another viewpoint, any viewpoint, on the project, so that they can then say NO without looking like an asshole. Instead, they can say "Yes, that's a good point, we have to keep in mind the China market," or "Yeah, this DOES sound a lot like [movie X] now that | hear it out loud". […]
And then, suddenly, the balance in the room shifts. Suddenly, a collaboration, a negotiation as it were, becomes an argument. Where, just moments earlier, everyone was agreeing on how awesome the project sounded, now, suddenly, the creatives are on one side and the suits are on the other, and the meeting becomes a power struggle, one the creatives can only lose, because the suits have the money and the creatives only have the art.
So, in Hollywood terms, Zelenskyy was the writer/director/producer, Trump was studio executive terrified of losing his job, and Vance was the disinterested ally brought in to bring up some random point that would turn the negotiation into an argument that the writer/director/producer cannot possibly win. I'll leave it up to you to figure out who studio head is.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4rhhtjjgsucnkow3h3nno2eh/bafkreih2lzf5is2ti5lzsdwtzi7vydosukioeud45smh6k5ahk4dki2ceu)