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"Despite the popularity and success of The Bright Sessions, the production was always living hand to mouth." I talked to @c_crampton about the financial realties of making @brightpodcast and gave raw #'s for the first time. I hope it demystifies some stuff hotpodnews.com/making-money-p…
2k for an episode is the absolute bare minimum - that doesn't include designer or composer being paid full rate and that doesn't involve me getting paid for writing, directing, producing, or editing.
11k (how much the musical cost) is a LOT closer to the cost of 1 ep where everyone gets paid fairly. It really varied for #TheAMArchives because of the # of actors per ep, but start there + you get close to per ep cost, w writers being paid but me still directing/editing for free
If you want a large cast of SAG actors (which we have for TAMA), you have to pay SAG minimums and Pension + Health on top of that. Which is great! But that means that the cost of talent for TAMA is greater than what I spent on the first 3 seasons of TBS.
When we started TBS, SAG didn't have minimums for "drama podcasts" (as they call it), so I could pay what I was able. Now they do have mins, which is A+, but raises the budget. There's a lot to be said for unions/guilds for podcasters as a whole but that's a whole other convo.
(I should clarify something: above I said I'm still directing/editing for free. That's not bc Luminary didn't give us a great budget - they did. But I chose to continue to operate the way I have been and start @atypicalartists instead in the hopes I can fund other indie projects)
and I'm not really saying all this stuff to talk specifically about the decisions I've personally made - I stand by those 100%. But I want to have broader conversations about the realities of audio fiction being a competitive and viable medium for artists.
Our current ecosystem is pretty limited in terms of sustainability and growth and I do NOT have answers on how to fix that. But I think it's important for us to try a lot of different things if we want AF to be a medium where artists can make a living in this country
Doing that AND making sure that the same thing that happens in Hollywood doesn't happen in AF is....hard. I don't want AF to become another medium where talented people are edged out because of lack of resources or geography or identity or any of those things.
Sending the ladder back down is a huge priority of mine, but my absolute top priority is making sure that the people who work for me can pay their rent + live happy creative lives. I'm not even close to accomplishing that. Hopefully both those priorities can happen simultaneously
I don't have answers, but I hope I can be part of productive conversations moving forward. There's so many different facets to podcasting and to audio fiction and all any of us can do is operate within our reality and try to help the whole thing grow. Rising tide, etc.
also another thing that's mentioned in this piece that I've talked about before but not enough: I quit my day job in August of '18. At that time I had a book deal, a TV optioning deal, all of TBS behind me, and was about to go into production on a series starring Kelly Marie Tran
now, I was VERY privileged to have a remote day job w flexible hours/not have student debt/live in LA, etc. Most people don't have those advantages at the start or the ability to work 80 hours a week for free. Which is why we need sustainable infrastructure that PAYS ARTISTS.
