Interesting. One of the technicians that worked on Severance said that it was total chaos, with wrong schedules and more importantly delayed paychecks; they often had to work without a paycheck.
Without giving Apple a pass on these issues, I wonder if Netflix had these same growing pains when they got into original
content production? Granted, they had the DVDs to your home business and streaming other studios content as their main profit drivers, they still had to build the infrastructure from scratch.
Either Eddie Cue is not delegating enough or he hasn’t been given enough lieutenants to grease the wheels.
Paychecks not getting paid speaks to Apple trying to do accounting for the entertainment business the way they pay their vendors. Having been on the vendor end with Apple, this is not the way to do it. Generally, each production has its own small accounting department that pays based on the budget for the picture, in a prescribed method. The last thing you want is the catering and the set decorators not getting paid in a timely manner. People will work, but they are going to file grievances with their union reps after the show is wrapped.
Frankly, if these big deals are going all the way up the chain through Apple Legal and to Tim for final sign off, that’s a complete waste of time and resources and Apple is going to miss out on productions where things are already ready to go with other suitors waiting. Any prep diction above $X might require Cook’s sign off, but under $X, Eddie should be given $Y amount of signature authority and his lieutenants get $Z. Either Eddie knows what he’s doing and has smart acquisitions people or he doesn’t and this needs to be rectified ASAP.
I get not working with studio partners because Apple wants to own the rights and the content outright, but that alone is going to slow productions down immensely. Apple is going to have to build a studio as
formidable as Warner’s or Paramount and that is no easy task in today’s way of doing production. Have bought studios in LA, outdoor studio space? I heard they were going to do that or had, but I wonder if Tim is still dithering?
It sounds like there are some control issues at the top that have to be dealt with and Apple doesn’t yet grasp how Hollywood works? Hint: It’s dysfunctional as hell, but no amount of supply chain expertise is going to change that, I’m afraid.
