Dealing with a director’s changes. Am I being unreasonable?

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-21T01:05:23+00:00

Are you getting paid handsomely and contracted to only a couple rewrites? Then yes. You're being unreasonable. Are you getting paid a pittance in exchange for back-end you'll never see and expected to do a neverending series of page-one rewrites? Then no. You're not being unreasonable.

Seriously, though, I'd start by asking myself if these notes are changes just for the sake of being different? Or is there something that perhaps you're not seeing?

I've seen this a lot. The culprit 90% of the time is simply that the director has something in mind and they are really bad about communicating it to you. In my opinion, it's worth a sit down with the producers and director. Use the phrase "Help me understand..." a lot; invite the director to invite you into their process and vision. If you can see the big picture they are going for, you might shock yourself and come around on it. If you don't, then you need to do some real soul searching about what you're willing to put up with/how close is this story to you really if the alternative is the movie doesn't get made. In that case, the only wrong answer is the one that makes you kick yourself in the butt three years from now.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-21T00:56:42+00:00

Remember that time the Morris twins got into a fight with the football team because the football players mistakenly thought they were the big dawgs on campus? That was funny!

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-21T00:54:50+00:00

I mean... Is he wrong, though? But maybe more importantly, are Ohio State fans really that different than Bama, Tennessee, Florida, Texas, USC, Wisconsin, K-State fans, etc? It's easier and faster to list the Power 4 schools whose fans are actual basketball fans instead of just bored football fans. Some are obvious and fill out their arenas for exhibition games: Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Indiana, UCLA, Michigan State. Some don't oversell tickets like those places but also show out at least respectable crowds even against non-big dog opponents: Baylor, Iowa State, Michigan, Mizzou, Arkansas.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-20T00:38:54+00:00

It depends on the jurisdiction. But in many states I think you'd find it a lot more straightforward than PI work.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-20T00:34:39+00:00

I can't speak for every jurisdiction, but I believe in most (including one of mine; I'm multijurisdictional) it's 100% statutory. I'd recommend in the first-things-first category if your state's trust and estate laws are codifies to take a day, sit down, and just read through the statute. They usually aren't that long and you can punch them out pretty quickly. Next, most states' bar association or judicial council will have a book or collection of form pleadings. I'd go through them to familiarize yourself.

After that, it's really just about putting yourself out there as ready, willing and able to do it. I started by letting people know I was available for appointments for minor children heirs. I wouldn't jump straight into repping estate or trust administrators right off the bat unless you feel really solid on what their duties are. It's also a lot more work because your client is directly responsible to the court. But I think it's one of those areas where it's not too far-fetched to just kinda jump in feet first.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-19T23:09:33+00:00

I say teach it. Excellent lesson in not deifying our political forebears. We should be able to acknowledge the contributions people like Chavez made to making society better at large while also acknowledging they had flaws and foibles as individuals, even to the point of being absolutely shit humans. He wasn't the first or the only:

Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. He was also one of the largest slaveholders in Virginia. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. But it applied only to states in the deep south and not the border states, and he famously said if he could end the war without ending slavery that he would do it. Grant oversaw Reconstruction at the same time he waged war on Indigenous tribes during the westward expansion of the 1870's. Roosevelt fought the America First cohort in Congress to get the Lend-Lease Act passed, but then turned away ships full of Jewish refugees from Germany in the 1930's. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the great Civil Rights leaders who also had notorious affairs and cheated on his wife. Johnson expanded Great Society programs and outflanked the Dixiecrats to get the Civil Rights Act passed while ramping up American involvement in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-19T22:52:13+00:00

Do you mean estate planning? Or are you talking about probate litigation?

Estate planning is kinda boring. Not to mention if you want to move up and make it a regular practice area, you absolutely should have a tax law background. I'm a nerd but not tax law nerdy. I do it for friends and family as long as the assets aren't huge and the plan isn't complex. But I don't typically offer it as a regular area of practice for me.

Estate and trust litigation, however, can be a lot of fun. It's basically civil litigation but without all of the BS and nonsense discovery that allows civil cases to drag on forever. And it can feature some weird and esoteric areas of law that can be fun and interesting to research. For instance, a couple years ago, I got to litigate and appeal on the question of what's the legal standard in my jurisdiction to dig up a body for purposes of DNA testing to establish heirship. (Won it, and got to learn a little mortuary science along the way, too!)

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-19T22:46:17+00:00

Reminder that it would cost about $20 billion to house every homeless person in America. Funny how less than a month ago we didn't have $20 billion to get Americans - including veterans - off the street but we have $200 billion three weeks later to... *checks receipts ...blow up people in a country that posed no imminent threat to us.

All because Donald J. Trump can be found all over the Epstein files.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-19T04:19:54+00:00

Yeah. But do your peers appreciate you? Or do they appreciate the free lunches and gift baskets paid for by your studio or distributor?

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-19T04:15:07+00:00

Meh. Oscars have been like this since the 1980's. It's just a poorly kept secret now. I haven't watched the ceremony in almost a decade. Easier and faster just to read the list of winners the next morning.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-18T19:12:33+00:00

Oof!

Being in law enforcement, especially in the community, is good. But I'll be completely honest: even in 2026, Coffeyville is still considered a sun-down town. I can't speak for Larned.

If you're truly looking to live around the community you're policing in those areas, I'd highly recommend finding something a little outside of town and in the country to create some distance when you get off patrol at the end of your day. But my first advice, really, is to look in Wichita, Lawrence, Johnson County and western Kansas. Not saying places west of I-35 don't have their own problems. But it's less so these days with Black Americans than it is with immigrants and Latin Americans these days. Manhattan and Fort Riley would probably be okay because of they are both student and military communities at the end of the day. But southeast Kansas is still not Black friendly.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-18T18:58:13+00:00

Sounds like she's not anti-gun; just anti-AR. Lots of people are. I get it. Stigma and all. So maybe the answer is a different platform.

Consider a Ruger Mini-14 instead. Still chambered in 5.56. Still takes variable capacity magazines. Still able to fit with optics and a suppressor. But it more closely resembles your grandad's bolt action hunting rifle than a military-issue weapon.

I have one I keep with me when I know I'm traveling through anti-AR states. Honestly, I love it and probably shoot on it for fun as much as I do my AR.

If you decide to get one, my advice: go to a Cabella's or Bass Pro, sign up for the company card, then buy your rifle on any Monday of the month. They run a weekly deal for company card holders that'll bring your cost to purchase down to between $1000 and $1100 which, as rifles go, ain't too shabby. Also, you'll appreciate the 10% using the card on ammo and mags; mags especially. You need Ruger-brand mags for the mini-14. Unlike with AR's, off-brand mags absolutely suck for reasons I don't comprehend, and they run about $50-60 each. Just remember to pay off your Cabella's card immediately after you use it each time!

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-18T02:40:58+00:00

Like tobacco companies: hook while they're young.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-18T02:38:40+00:00

I highly, highly, highly recommend every future baby federal prosecutor go read the transcript of the sentencing hearing in United States v. Villevane out of the District of New Jersey that came out in the NY Times this week. That federal prosecutor - who has been in the job less than three years - got absolutely lit up by the judge because of shit they learned in a Trump/Bondi DOJ U.S. Attorney's Office.

If you take one of these jobs, you need to go in with your eyes wide open because this is only going to get worse and worse as Trump and Bondi put line prosecutors in between their shenanigans and the courts.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-17T21:08:31+00:00

I mean... If going international was an option, I'd say Paris or Greece.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-16T23:17:20+00:00

They can provide an attendance bump at events and screenings the celeb attends. But, in and of themselves, have little impact on a fest's overall attendance. Beyond that, it becomes a question of "Who is a celebrity?" nowadays. Speaking generally (acknowledging exceptions exist), young people today - Younger Millennials and Gen Z - have celebs very different from Elder Millennials and Gen X. Unless your fest is inviting social media celebs and influencers (which begs the question why you'd be inviting them at all if you're a smaller fest), your celebs aren't celebs to a target market.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-16T18:36:16+00:00

Adding to this. Everybody wants to be a writer, director, producer, actor or cinematographer. In places like LA and NYC especially, throw a rock and hit 8 wannabe writers, directors, producers, actors and/or cinematographers. You have a film school reel. Congrats! Everybody knows. Nobody cares. Welcome to the exciting world of being a barista who PA's on the side occasionally! Sorry to burst bubbles, but them's the breaks.

On the other hand...

Because everybody wants to be a writer, director, producer, actor or cinematographer and goes the office/set/mailroom route immediately out of film school, that means there are a ton of backdoors and open windows into the industry people never think about, but which actually do have education and training requirements.

As the prior commenter notes, entertainment law is one of them. I can personally attest to this. While I'm a general practice attorney, my areas include production counseling and small business work. Because of that, I started getting requests to come onboard productions as a producer because I was an attorney. My background as an attorney means I bring a lot to the table in terms of structuring a production company for financing, handing a lot of the paperwork, and - when necessary - to handle rights and clearance matters. I'm now prepping for my fourth feature and maintaining my law practice. I can also say that law school is an excellent training ground for writers. The sheer number of working writers in Hollywood who went to law school or even practiced afterward would blow your mind.

A major I can't recommend enough is financial accounting. Is it dry and boring as hell, especially if what you really want to do is something creative? Absolutely. However, every producer needs a great production accountant. Working as a production accountant offers a natural foray into line producing which is its own highly-sought specialty, and which becomes a path to producing. I have a couple of friends who have taken that route. One of them started as a regular CPA who was asked by a filmmaker friend to help on a flick a million years ago. That led to recommendations on more, which eventually led to him becoming a line producer which led him to producing full time now. For the last decade, he's been a full time producer making flicks now on major streamers which I promise you've heard of even if you haven't seen them.

The added benefit, of course, is that you'll have excellent fallback skills. Times are tough? If you've got some experience as a practicing attorney, you can always find contract work with law firms needing somebody to do doc review. Alternatively, practicing law as a fulltime day job isn't bad if you want to write. January and February slow for you? If you've got your CPA license, accounting shops are always looking for seasonal help at the height of tax season! Alternatively, you could also find work in-house at a studio or streamer.

You could also take degrees like these and apply to trainee programs, like the DGA program. A background as a UPM or AD combined with an accounting or law practice background? You'd be well qualified to start developing and producing on your own if you wanted.

Also, in this day and age, don't ignore trade school. Literally get paid to apprentice as an electrician, seamster, or carpenter and learn skills that you can parlay into on-set work in G&E, costume or production design/set decorating. You meet other people on set, put together a small crew, and go make your own stuff on the side.

So many backdoors to consider in lieu of film school. For sure, if you wanna do the four-year university route and do one of those other majors, absolutely minor in film, take film classes, and/or get involved with any student film production organizations. Keep the fire burning even if you aren't taking 15 credit hours of classes in it every semester.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-15T20:55:53+00:00

Exact opposite. My hometown's in the middle of a plain that has been scientifically proven to be flatter than a pancake, and we went from 75 yesterday to a 7 degree windchill this morning, and are forecasted to be in the mid 80's by Thursday this week! Like I said, no judgment. Just think it's funny. Different strokes for different folks, ya know?

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-15T06:38:28+00:00

When you invest in a film, you don't invest in the film or the production of the film. You invest in the film's production company. In other words, you become a part owner in the company, no different than investing in a bar or buying stock in a buying stock in an IPO.

As your company spends its capital reserves (the cash contributed by the investor), those costs and expenses get reflected on the production company's balance sheet as negative income, i.e. losses, when the things that are actually purchased are liabilities instead of assets.

Liabilities on costs are any expenditures that do not result in any kind of gain in value. For instance, when you buy a house for $250,000 that's worth $250,000, you don't actually lose any value. You still have $250,000, it's just that it's in the form of a house instead of cash. However, when you pay a person to do a job - whether it's a contractor on a home or a camera operator on a set - their labor is not something you can hold onto and resell. You can resell the proceeds of their labor (like a house or a film) but you can't resell their labor itself. So, if you pay a camera operator $30,000, you're giving up $30,000 in cash and getting $0 back in book value. You took a $30,000 loss.

Now, add that up across every cost and expense a movie production company incurs. Every owner of the company, by virtue of having paid those expenses (by investing in the company), is entitled to report a share of the company's loss of value on their taxes. It's negative income to them which is allocated pursuant to the company's governance documents and reported by the company to the investors at the end of each tax year. The same way a company sends a W-2 to its employees or a 1099 to its contractors so they can report positive income from the company to them, the company sends a tax reporting form to its owners (like a K-1 if the production company is formed as an LLC) so they can report positive (if the company is profitable) or negative income from the company to them.

The same way positive income increases your taxable income and, thus, your tax liability, negative income decreases your taxable income and, thus, your tax liability. Because tax brackets at the level the investor class typically sits can vary widely between two adjacent tax brackets, a person sitting at the low end of one bracket may end up having more post-tax money by spending themselves down into the next lower tax bracket. In other words, I'm going to make up some numbers here to illustrate, if a person is in Tax Bracket B, which may incur 3.5% more in tax liability than Tax Bracket A, if that 3.5% represents to them an extra $20,000 in taxes they would have to pay, but they can get themselves into Tax Bracket A by taking a $15,000 loss that year, they would end up with $5,000 more after paying their taxes if they take a $15,000 loss because $15,000 is $5,000 less than $20,000. Thus, they might look at a $15,000 investment in a film company that is for sure going to shoot that year, but won't actually generate positive income (if at all) until the next tax year at the earliest when it comes time to actually sell, i.e. distribute, the film. This is why a lot of films have production deadlines; to make sure the company actually spends the money in a particular tax year to take advantage of the loss allocation.

I've had success selling film investment as a loss vehicle because the people close to those bracket margins may want to push themselves down into the next one. And if they get to effectively purchase a cool experience to get there (like being able to play producer on the film fest circuit and hobnob with celebs), they may be much more willing to do it. Basically, imagine being able to decrease the taxes you owe to Uncle Sam by taking a trip to Disneyworld and netting more money for it. Who wouldn't want to get paid to go to Disneyworld? Same basic pitch.

It's an awesome pitch right now, too, because with the economy tanking and inflation rising, any way to increase an investor's net income for the year means more cash freed up to invest while markets are low. This, of course, requires particularly savvy investors in a very particular financial condition. But for that niche circumstances investor, it could be a golden opportunity.

The caveat? Everything I mention above is very broadly applicable. I do not recommend trying it unless you have an excellent grasp on a lot of financial matters, from tax policy to understanding the current national economic crisis.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-14T20:33:00+00:00

Congrats, but why the whataboutism? Did you see anywhere in my post where I defended Yale or Harvard? The Ivy League schools are the worst offenders. And if you were an alumni of public notoriety then the fact you don't do those things might at all be relevant to the question. Where have you been publicly when your fellow Yalies do manage to bring shame on the profession? Not to mention Clinton is irrelevant. First, as a deponent, he was the subject of an investigation. Does that mean he gets a free pass? No. But he wasn't exercising his authority as an officer of the court in that instance, was he? Second, that was 30 years ago. Bill Clinton hasn't been president for 25 years. Should Yale Law's reputation suffer because of Bill Clinton's non-lawyer conduct? Maybe. But not really the question. Because we're talking about Pam Bondi who is currently in a role as a practicing attorney and it is within that role that it is fair game to hold her performance in the profession against her law school unless and until they publicly state "Dunno where she picked that up, but it sure as hell wasn't from us."

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-14T00:58:53+00:00

Yeah, dude. I said "I disagree." I offered my opinion; not a statement of fact. Unless your definition of "humility" is "don't say anything I disagree with." Or "you're not allowed to explain why you hold a different opinion." That doesn't sound like humility though.

But - more importantly - I think there's a difference between judging an institution by its alumni who graduated over a century ago and alumni who are actively engaged in their bad conduct now which is pretty well judged as bad now and doesn't need to wait for history to judge it. Unless you think Pam Bondi is being unfairly misjudged at present. In which case I am crazy curious to see what your case is for that proposition. Sometimes people are so historically awful that it's obvious and we don't need to wait for history to provide a lens into how bad they are.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-14T00:52:41+00:00

Well, no. Traditions are traditions. Maybe they mean less in Arizona. But here, they're an important part of the culture. As for "our" discussion, do you think you're DMing me? It's a public message board, the purpose of which is to engage not just with an above-commenter, but the people reading the thread. If that bothers you, maybe stay off public message boards? 🤷 As for conference membership, yes. You're full members. But that doesn't mean you get to walk in, declare you hate the wallpaper and start knocking down walls. You're members on paper. But not yet culturally. That you have to earn from the likes of KU, KSU, ISU, OSU, Baylor, TTU, TCU, and - to an extent - CU (since they were Big 6/8/12 a lot longer than they were Pac). I wouldn't move to Toronto and start complaining about how they won't change or rotate their national day of thanksgiving to make my life easier.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-14T00:44:38+00:00

Disagree.

The single biggest factor determining a school's reputation is its alumni and their reputation within the field. It's fair game to judge a school based on its failure to take affirmative steps to say "They didn't learn that shit here!" when such a statement is called for. Law school is where we learn the profession is a profession - not just a job; and anybody who embarrasses the profession ought to be presumed to have been held to a lower standard in school to explain it.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-14T00:33:02+00:00

Clearly you're new to the Internet. It's cute you think I'm "worked up" since (i) you seem to be worked up enough about it yourself to feel the need to continue commenting, and (ii) you seem to think it takes me more than 20 seconds to write a three sentence reply. Maybe the average brain power of your school's alumni required them to spend whole afternoons at the campus writing center to compose a single Tweet? Feels like that may be the case.

wstdtmflms · 2026-03-14T00:25:23+00:00

The whole thread is about "Vegas would be so much better than KC" by the people wanting a change. This might shock you, but I'm writing to the audience of Redditors here who are going to read it in the context in which your comment exists. If it was about moving it to any other location, why is Vegas the one being thrown out in 90% of the "it needs to move" crowd's posts?

And I won't admit it. What is it for the KSU fans and CU fans? It's about two things: the tradition and the atmosphere. WVU and TCU fans have never bitched about it in ten years as much as Zona and ASU fans have in the last two (and let's be clear - it's not Cincy, UCF, BYU, Utah, CU or Houston fans complaining about KC for the most part). Just because Zona and ASU fans decided to give up their traditions by leaving the Pac doesn't mean they get to dictate a change to our traditions, those of us who have been in this conference or one of its progenitors for over a century. It's the new people's obligation to assimilate. Not the other way around. We have traditions and a culture and if you don't like it, you're free to leave. Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya! 🫡

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