this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024
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Shows and TV
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I have no idea why streaming companies will spend like 10 million dollars per episode, and then spend the absolute minimum on writing staff.
Like, they have the data on what everyone watches. They have to know that some mid 2000s content with worse visuals but better writing is beating a ton of their flashy new IPs. Yet they'll still insist on spending insane cash on something that will completely fade into the background in like a year max.
These decisions are made by people who view the world through spreadsheets. They wouldn't recognise a good story if you hit them on the head with it.
Okay but they should recognize the concept of ROI and diminishing returns. An accountant should be perfectly capable of realizing that that after a certain point it makes sense to spend money hiring more writers versus bigger name actors or CGI.
Corporations are simply groups of people, and people are terrified of being blamed for failure. The dumb things we see corporations doing are often cases of many people making small, super-safe decisions. Big names and big visuals attract eyeballs so that's a safe decision. Writers may be a swing and a miss, risky.
This is why a good CEO is paramount. They can take the risks that drive success. Of course some are cowards and only look to drive the needle one tick over, quarter after quarter, so the board doesn't fire them. But leaders like that will never hit it out the park.
You haven't worked in many large corporations, have you?
I've worked in a few.
I could understand if each department had massive budgets that were spent in an idiotic manner due to inexperienced and incompetent leads.
I could understand it each department got less than the bare minimum, resulting in a final product that was mediocre despite strong individual contributors.
What I don't understand is this mentality "hey let's spend $200 million on this new TV Show, but only 2 million on the writing staff."