The Rest Is Entertainment - The Power Of Agents

Episode Date: April 24, 2024

Richard Osman and Marina Hyde lift the lid on the power of agents in Hollywood and TV, offer advice for those want to write a screen play and answer a very important question "why are green screens, green?". Twitter: @restisents Instagram: @restisentertainment YouTube: @therestisentertainment Email: [e-mail] Producers: Neil Fearn + Joey McCarthy Executive Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport 🌏 Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/trie It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✅ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Rest is Entertainment questions version of the show. That's getting snappier every week. Yeah, sorry. It's just why am I so bad at it, Richard? No, you're not. You're terrific at it. Thank you.

It's because it shows it is kind of that non slickness. Actually in a weird way, it's very slick. But as you always remind me, it is also an answers edition of the show. Yes, questions and answers. But yeah, authenticity is what people like. Is it right, is it not? In which case, in the spirit of being completely authentic, I have got something wrong, obviously. We talked about category one deaths on this. If you didn't listen, it was... This is going to sound quite odd. Catch up now. Yeah, we did talk about category one

deaths on the questions edition last week. Questions and answers edition. Questions and answers edition. Which is the members of the royal family that the BBC will interrupt all news programming for and it's a matter of protocol. And I said that it was the King, Camilla, Prince William and Prince George. In fact, because Prince George is so young, he has not been made a category one. But Kate has recently been upgraded to a category one death. Not to do with the health story, I should be very clear about that. So now the category one death category is Charles, Camilla, William and Kate. And those are the people for whom all programming is automatically interrupted. Having said that, as we discussed, it would be interrupted for a lot of different people as well in the event of it.

And that's an editorial decision made by the editor-in-chief who is Tim Davie as well as being the director general. Here's a question from Oliver Marks. You've mentioned on the pod before that those wanting to write a novel should be reading lots of books. Is it the same with budding script writers? Should they read scripts or can you get enough from just being an avid viewer? Yes, first of all, you can find lots of scripts published and there's some some of the great I mean Faber recently brought out all the succession scripts and so those are really worth looking at.

But having said all that, I would say watching is by far the best for the rhythms of speech and when I first started writing scripts, I found that if you're writing Final Draft, which is the sort of software that everybody uses, my characters would be saying four or five lines to each other. Now, come on, okay? Any script that most people are involved with, now, you really got to earn your four or five lines of Final Draft. It should be one or two lines. Do you mean, do you mean, do you mean? In the Final Draft, in the center of the page, so it's not even a full two lines of

what you'd in a word document or anything like that. And when you're getting notes of someone like Armando Iannucci and you're doing the script I was talking to Ian Martin who was began as the swearing consultant on the he's a very He's the most wonderful person and I wrote a script with him on a series of Avenue 5 and it was just absolutely He's a delight But he will rightly say that all of Armando's notes essentially boil down to shorter, funnier. And actually quite often it will just say shorter, funnier in the margin of blue. So in the sense that looking at a published script is quite helpful, you actually see, gosh, these lines really are quite short and you learn not to waste

words. And actually, as in Rich and I, we've talked about this on the podcast before, learning not to waste words in any form of writing is the best thing you can do. Writing short first and becoming longer is always the best thing you can do. There's a temptation, isn't there? You look at Aaron Sorkin or Jesse Armstrong and you remember some big long speech, some big grandstanding speech that someone did, and to write like that. And actually, both of them use those things very, very sparingly. Yeah, you look at that speech in something like A Few Good Men,

the famous Jack Nicholson speech, you see how ratatat the scene leading up to that is, with Tom Cruise questioning him, and it's really, there's a lot of half lines in there, and then suddenly this kind of release comes. But in general, so published scripts are very useful for things like that, but in general, I would always say that watching and listening to people on the bus or anywhere or wherever it is for the rhythms of speech is better.

I can't do screenwriting and I've tried. I bet you can. I can't, I find it very difficult. I find it too fiddly, the business of the thing, having to put people's names and then sort of interior something there. I just want to get on with, you know, writing what people are thinking and saying, you know, so I feel it doesn't... Oh, I think you can do it. No, I've, oh listen, I just want to get on with, you know, writing what people are thinking and saying, you know, so I, it doesn't, no, I've, oh, listen, I've tried and I can exclusively reveal I can't do it. I'm very bad at it. It's like the Thursday Murder Club movie.

There's no way I would have written it, not just because of, you know, time and stuff like that. Just, I just, it's not my specialty. So I think for some people who've tried to do novels and it's not for them, screenwriting might be for them. and people who've tried to do screenwriting, it's not for them, do novels. Because they're completely different forms of writing. They feel like they're the same form of writing, but I think they're entirely different. But you can get, if you write plays, just there are so many brilliant things available now. There's lots of free resources online as well. Just all the screenplays to some of the greatest movies ever made, the greatest TV shows. So yeah, just look at them. Sometimes it's worth looking at them

whilst watching the thing. Because you see little changes and little notes and how, you know, little bits of stage direction are interpreted. And it just gets you into the rhythm of how these things are done. So I would say 100% if you want to screenwrite, read screenplays, and watch things and maybe do both at the same time. Yeah, that's a good primer. Richard, here's one for you from Aid Bond. When contestants are eliminated from a game show, do they wait in the green room for the rest of the contestants to join them or are they in the next taxi out of town?

I love the way we apportion questions with each other. I want to talk about writing. It's incredibly important about how all the great works of entertainment have been created, and I do. Contestants waiting around in green rooms. I think it's good. Yes, it's two different answers, really. Lots of shows are pointless. You're on the next show anyway, so you go back to your dressing room and get your next clothes on. By and large, if that's you off the show, you can go occasionally you'll do a show where you do pickups at the end and which because you have to stick around. You are, you know, things I think 15 to 1

does that though, because there's so many different camera shots in that they'd have to pick up lots at the end. So you have to just essentially go into your dressing room and wait and you can't even watch the show because the ring main and the ring main is in a TV studio, all the monitors can show you what's happening in the studio. It's called the ring main. And by and large, you switch that off anywhere contestants might be because you don't want them to see rehearsals before the show or you don't want to give anything away. So you can't even watch the TV. Just stew in your own juice about your wrong answers. Yeah, exactly. I think I have to do a pick-up. I won't even have to do a pick-up probably.

And your pick-up will always be the answer you got wrong as well. You didn't get me getting that wrong, so now I have to do it again. I have to act and say, I'm going to say Anne of Cleves. No, that's wrong. And you've had to wait four hours to do that. But on a lot of celebrity shows you get to go straight home because, you know, celebs won't stick around. We had lovely Kate Thornton on House of Games last week that we were filming, and she said that she had to get herself knocked out by round two of the weakest link because she had a taxi waiting because she had somewhere to be. And she said, I couldn't have gone beyond round two. So I think she, and so that you see that on Weakest Link a lot, people taking a dive and people very

happily sort of, because you get paid the same money if you get knocked out early or late. So, so off they pop. But yeah, by and large, you can go home, but yeah, certain shows you'd have to stick around because, you know, you have to go back to your podium and you know, relive your humiliation because the cameras didn't pan to you quite quickly enough. And the green rooms in TV shows is a whole other thing. If anyone wants questions about what's in a green room on a TV show and different dressing rooms in different studios. That's to say it varies in my experience.

Oh, I mean it really varies. And also, listen, I don't want to go, but the amount of how early you have to get called to a TV studio sometimes. Oh my god. Which remember in Covid, goodbye and I just call you somewhere two hours. And even though I'm a producer, sometimes I forget and I turn up when they say and you're in Covid, you would be in a tiny dressing room that no one was allowed to come into. You weren't allowed to go mix with anybody. And obviously there weren't allowed to be any snacks and people weren't allowed to bring you anything. So you'd be sitting, you know, in a cell for two hours, essentially. I mean, that's really niche. That's what that was TV during COVID. And that's, you know, I suffered.

Also you met your wife. So yeah, so come on, swings and roundabouts. Exactly. Here's a question from Daniel Barnes. It probably touches on something that's been in the news recently as well, but here's the question he's asking. Daniel says, when in TV and movies a character has a gun trained on them, is it just a bunch of crew with laser pointers or do they add it with VFX? Okay. It depends on the camera setup. They might, depending on whose coverage, as in, obviously every time a scene is filmed,

you'll have lots and lots of different camera setups to get every single piece of that scene. So there may be a part where someone is using a laser pointer but in general the weapons that come onto set are bought by an armourer. This has been in the news for various reasons recently and we'll talk about that in a second. In old Hollywood they would use live rounds all the time, it was obviously a complete sort of world worst. But now, you would have weapons with a laser sight on it, and the actor would be pointing them.

But that armorer who comes onto a set, I've worked on a couple of shows that there's been an armorer, and they are the most obsessively careful people you can possibly imagine. And for one of them, there wasn't even a gun. It was a sort of form of crossbow, but they are so careful in general and they have to be and they check everything a million times and you sometimes think why are we going over this like for a makeshift crossbow that doesn't even work? Why are we going over all these ridiculous protocols? Well, you'll all have seen the story that happened with Alec Baldwin on this filming this sort of again a Wild West film

called Rust where there was an armorer on set. She is now going to prison for 18 months. I mean, quite rightly. The weapon wasn't checked. Alec Baldwin discharged it in a scene, killed the director of photography, injured the director. One of the things I found fascinating about the story is that when I first heard about it, I was like, how absolutely dreadful.

This is the job of the armorer. And people who've worked on proper sets sets are well run with an armorer Nothing like that could possibly possibly have happened. There were live rounds mixed in with the blanks. I mean, this is absolute madness But what I think is quite weird and interesting is you just don't see anyone in Hollywood defending Alec Baldwin over this which I think is unusual or eye catching in some way and it may be because Alec Baldwin is quite annoying and I think is unusual or eye-catching in some way. And it may be because Alec Baldwin is quite annoying and people find him annoying in some way or another.

But also, I think that there's a perception that that movie is only happening because none of us will ever go to see the movies and see Rust. It's probably being made for TV. Yeah, so they're back on set making it, right? And they're back on set making it. But none of us would ever go, I mean, now perhaps people will in some ghoulish way go and look, but you would see it maybe on a streaming service, whatever. But that movie is only happening because of Alec Baldwin.

He has got a massive executive producer fee, he's got a massive, and sometimes you find that in order to get a film greenlit, you need, in this case, Alec Baldwin, otherwise nobody else is there. So huge amounts of money are siphoned from all the budget really towards a big EP fee, as well as the stars fee, he's starring it as well, but he's an executive producer too. Clearly on some of these sets, and people in the industry will talk to you about this and will say, yeah, then they're cutting corners because how you've got such a young armorer who doesn't know what you're doing, in a film that is a western by the way, so weapons is a significant part of it.

But pure speculation, but I'm wondering whether there's a lack of defense for him from the wider entertainment community, because people feel that at some level he, as a producer, and as a producer who is being paid a big fee, is responsible for the standards on the wider set. And if it's solely a vanity credit, then maybe stop taking the vanity credits and so much money in order that sets can be run properly. That is speculation, I don't know,

but I think it's very, very significant, the lack of public support he's had. And it's fascinating that thing of, as you say, you know, you've got a crossbow and it doesn't even work. And so why are you taking all those steps? And the reason you're taking all those steps is just to instil in every single person, this is what we always do, whatever happens. Because if you start kind of taking shortcuts on that, then you'll take shortcuts on the next step up and the next

step up. And that's why so many jobs involve absolutely going through the same motions every single time. It's like being a pilot or something you have to do, even though you know what you're doing, you have to check things off a list every single time every single time just because when you're doing a job with safety as paramount pilot armorer then you just need to make sure that the process is in place every single time. Absolutely and the fact that they've gone back to continue with it is truly tells you everything about the type of industry and the money and how they look at it. Yeah, I mean, Daniel Barnes, I know that's not what you asked, but I hope it's a... Sorry, it's a bit of a tangent there.

Yeah, I hope you found it helpful. In-flight entertainment, Richard. Darren Hintze asks, my question's about movies and TV shows that can be watched on airplanes. Who chooses what will be shown? Is there good money selling a movie or TV show to an airline? Are TV shows like hijack banned from being shown? Do you know what I was on a plane recently and someone was watching hijack on their iPad Let's write in front just sort of in my eyeline So, you know, yes, yes, they are banned from being shown or certainly they're not encouraged to be shown Yeah anything with them with their air crashes. So by and large, I mean, we all know what those entertainment systems are

They're sort of a mix of TV shows and films and you know it's always like they've got Kerbero Enthusiast and they've got one episode and they're big bang three, they've got 40 episodes and you know Tolstokings they've got episode two of season one and episode five of season two. But there is sort of method behind the madness by and large. I mean there's a sort of very simple answer, by and large, it's, I mean, there's a sort of very simple answer. By and large, it's for an hour of content, be that film, TV, documentary, whatever, you would get $1,300 per hour if you're the producer. So if you're the distributor who's selling that onto the airlines, you would get $1,300 an hour for your content, which doesn't sound an awful lot, but two things Make it slightly more lucrative

One it's always non-exclusive. So you're getting $1,300 an hour from British Airways, but you can sell the same content to Virgin and Delta You could send you can set it around that you can set it to 40 airlines if you want the exact same thing So suddenly you're getting you know 45,000 pounds hour. And secondly, it's only for three months. They got a three month license on it. And in the world where I mean, if you if you're making a big Marvel film, it's not making a huge amount of difference to your bottom line. But you do an overall deal in that situation if you're if you're a studio.

But if you are, you know, a documentary maker or you have a sort of smaller British sitcom and we've talked before about how everything is deficit funded now, which is channels can't afford everything. If you're suddenly getting another $40,000 an hour for your product and you don't have to do anything. No. Literally, it's just money in your back pocket. And it's marketing.

And it's marketing as well. Then it can be incredibly useful. So it kind of works for the airlines, because they're not paying a huge amount per hour for what they're putting on. It works for producers because they can be on 40, 50 different airlines around the world. And it's money that they haven't put in the budget

and they're not expecting. Kind of works for everybody. But in these days of everyone bringing their own tablets and things onto planes, I'm not entirely sure how long that industry has left. everyone bringing their own tablets and things onto planes. I'm not entirely sure how long that industry has left. But there's certain films that work beautifully on planes. I watched an amazing film called Swing Vote with Kevin Costner. I've watched that on a plane. Yeah, there you go. It's an absolute classic. You know, and it just seems great. The entire US election comes down to one vote. Kevin Costner. It's Kevin Costner. Yeah, it's as good as it sounds. But I imagine if I saw that

at the cinema, I'd walk out. Oh yeah. I mean. I can't envisage myself buying a ticket at the window. But also, good luck walking out when you're on a plane. I mean, you really have to hate a film. I can say there's one film I saw in the cinema that genuinely if I was watching a plane, I would open the emergency exit and throw myself out. Which one was it, please? I begin to tell you the mail we would get if I said what that film was. Is it by Guy Ritchie? Shall we go to a break now? I'm Anthony Scaramucci, former White House Director of Communications and Wall Street

financier. And I'm Katie Kay, U.S. special correspondent for BBC Studios. I've been covering American politics for almost three decades. Welcome to The Rest Is Politics U.S., brought to you by Goalhanger. In this pivotal year for the United States, democracy and world affairs, Britain's biggest podcast, The Rest Is Politics, Britain's biggest podcast, The Rest Is Politics, is launching Stateside. Uncovering secrets from inside the Biden and Trump inner circles and how they shape the

world's most important economy, but also the global economy too. New episodes are released every Friday morning. Just search The Rest Is Politics US wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back everybody. I'm going straight into a question about agents. That's a good idea. Don't you think on the question and answer, you know. Yeah. Alistair Otto would like to know, with a 35 year passion for football, I think I possess a good understanding of agents and their impacts on maximizing players potential and earnings after following this side of the game in the media. Thank you. Good use of euphemisms, Alastair. All right, the rest is football.

Yeah. But he's curious about the entertainment industry. How influential are agents? Is having a great agent more crucial than having a good one? Or does an individual success ultimately hinge on talent alone in this field? Hmm. It is fairly crucial, I would say, to have a great agent. I like the fact that you do not have a TV agent there, Richard. I don't have an agent. I think I'm the last remaining... You've got a literary agent, but not a TV agent.

Well, because I don't understand the business of books, but I do understand the business of TV, so people will send me a contract. And you go, that doesn't look exactly right to me. Certainly in the world of comedy and entertainment, the big agencies have a real stranglehold on who's on television. And that's not quite as incestuous as it sounds, because actually people gravitate towards those agents anyway. So by and large, they tend to get the

kind of big names coming to them. So in comedy, there's Off the Curb, which is huge, a guy is no longer with us, Addison Creswell, who for years and years looked after Jonathan Ross and Michael McIntyre and loads of Lee Evans, loads and loads of big names. There's Hannah Chambers, who looks after Jimmy Carr and Joe Lysett and lots of other people. So there are a few big names out there. And if you are with one of them, it is a huge advantage. First, it's a huge advantage

when you start out because, you know, Addison would say, well, of course you can have Jonathan, but if you have Jonathan, you have to take client X who he's just got on his books and Hannah would do the same. And, you know, not always officially, they're not kind of, but they're just saying, I would love it. I've got this new client. I'd love it if you would, if you'd look at them and you know that if you do that, you have access to the bigger clients as well. Avalon, who's another of the big agents, would do exactly the same. They'd often package up whole TV shows which are just their clients. And certainly if you wanted to book their client on a show that, because they were a

production company as well, Avalon. So if you wanted to book their client on a show that was not made by them, it would get tricky sometimes. And by the way, that's their business by them, it would get tricky sometimes. And by the way, that's their business, they're perfectly allowed to do it. I think sometimes it does their clients a disservice because... Are they the most loved in the business? Is being loved all there is?

Is... No. You know? I will say something in terms of writing agents, which is, I've spoken to quite a few comedy writers about this and maybe some of them are all with big people now but I remember speaking to someone who's very very successful saying that when he was younger in his career he signed with one of the big agencies I can't remember it was maybe it was UTA or something like that and he thought I've arrived yeah and actually what if he ended up going to someone smaller because he felt that they had so many big clients that kind of those clients got

lots of the jobs and you sort of feel like, oh, I'm represented by Ari Emanuel or I'm represented by, you know, CAA or something like that. And there's some sort of big sort of status brand thing about the agency. But actually, there are so many brilliant younger, much hungrier agents who really are thinking about your career and building you as maybe as a writer and making sure that you don't have to do the things you don't want to do and really looking after you. So a big shout out to the smaller agencies and the smaller agents as well who often people think they get a much better sort of tailor-made service rather than being with these kind of big behemoths.

100% I say if you're you know an option you can take if you just had a great Edinburgh and people love your comedy and you're working out who to go with, you could either be a smaller cog in a bigger wheel, but there is something to be said to being a bigger cog in a smaller wheel and someone really building your career. So, you know, Avalon will put on live shows as well and we'll take people up to Edinburgh and we'll build people's profile and all that kind of stuff. But there are downsides to being part of that machine. Whereas if you've got a slightly more personalised, smaller agent, whom you're their most important client, yeah, your emails are probably answered a little bit quicker. But my goodness, is three

or four agencies which have a real stranglehold, especially on television comedy, I would say, and television entertainment. And when movies as well. I mean, if you look at the big ones in, you know, you look at CAA or Endeavour, what I would say about those is that even the really big agents there, and I absolutely love reading about agents and agenting,

it's a real sort of, there's two great books on agents. The one about CAA, which is- And CAA stands for? Creative Artists Agency. Which is one of the big... It was started by Michael Oveitz and Vath for others in the 80s, nitpicker, always at the late 70s, I can't even remember. It defines everything and he ends up packaging shows

and putting, as Richard has just described, when you're putting all of your stars into a show or a movie, you bring the director, you bring Scorsese, you bring... But these guys Someone like Michael Ove it's such a monster actually but one of the great monsters of Hollywood But sort of a fascinating figure and he was written his own book, which I've also read which is called who is Michael Ove Oh, wow, you should know mate, but and it's By Michael Ove it yeah, but yes by Michael Ove it's but what those

agents do is it's really interesting, things like Cape Fear was originally a script that Steven Spielberg had, and Martin Scorsese had the rights to Schindler's List. And it was Ovitz who finessed and said, I think actually you'd both be better off with these and did the sort of switcheroo. Oh really? Yeah, but there's so many, so many stories like that. There's stories of them ringing in, you know, there's stories of them ringing in bomb threats to stop planes taking off in order to sort of get there.

I mean, the skullduggery is extraordinary. But equally, Ron Mayer, who is Michael Avis's partner for a long time, will sit for five hours on the phone to Sylvester Stallone, who wants to talk in absolute depth about where his career is going. You know, and they built an incredible career for him. It's fascinating, there's less money in TV now, and so I was just thinking then that agents are a little bit gentler now, but I think that's because there's less money,

so they have less room for maneuver. But Addison Creswell, for example, I mean, he was an unbelievable character, such an incredible wide boy, absolutely, you know, loved his clients and everyone was incredibly loyal to him. But the deals he would make in the 90s when TV had a lot of money were huge. I mean, immense. I mean, the money that people were getting paid TV presenters and comedians for TV shows in the 90s and the noughties was absolutely phenomenal, largely due to Addison because he just kept raising the ceiling of what you get paid per show.

To the extent that BBC started having to slightly match that as well, to the extent that even if you were with a smaller agent, your fees would be going up as well. And he sort of bankrupted a lot of entertainment companies, Addison, and he wasn't doing it for that, but he struck such amazing deals that a lot of TV comedy became almost impossible to make because it became too expensive. And living through the sort of 10, 15 years afterwards when you would say you actually have to take a pay cut now and for like a series it would be absolutely resisted, no one was going to take a pay cut. And then the agents, all the big agents suddenly realizing

they're not kidding anymore, the show is going to come off air. If my presenter who's currently being paid £50,000 an episode, they're going to have to pay £30 presenter who's currently being paid 50,000 pound an episode, they're going to have to pay 30,000 pound an episode and I'm furious about it but I guess that's the new economics. We had a presenter once on an ITV show and this is not really an agent story but he was on I think 20,000 pound a show for one of those big long running shows a show that was on like 200 episodes a year so you know was like, you know, kind of 4 million to do this. And they just commissioned another series of it, I think 100 episodes, something that was due 2.5 million.

And they took it off there about a week before this is actually not gonna make it. And so the production company, it was a terrible thing for them because it's a huge business and lots and lots of people who were about to be employed for the next six months suddenly weren't employed. Contractually, they still had to pay the presenter so he got two and a half million pound for a series he never had to record and that was TV back then. That's agenting.

Before I became a presenter that's for sure but yeah it's really really important which agent you're with. And at the award ceremonies you'll notice this if you go to the award ceremonies at the after parties in America, like the Emmys or Oscars or whatever, almost a whole agency is there. And they're sort of forming a ring of steel around the big clients so that no other agent is going up to them saying, oh, you didn't see that script. No, I heard they send it to Jennifer Lawrence.

But you didn't see that? Your agent didn't get you that. Or whatever it is. because people do change agencies We've yeah Dakota Johnson she changed agencies in the week that the madam web trailer came out perhaps rightly and but you know people do change agencies and then They're gone. They're lost to you as a money-making opportunity So there is real defensiveness about your clients even if you don't think they're that great You don't want anyone else to have them.

I've always made a point throughout my entire career, always, always, always, whenever I'm with a piece of talent, someone like an on-screen presenter or comedian or something, I always tell them how their agents have dealt with me. Always. And if they've been rude, I always say, oh, you know, your agent was, there was what, there was a friend of mine who was with an agent who was notoriously awful. I mean, just genuinely a bad human being. I said, you know that you're, that's really, really represents you. Like every time someone talks to that person about you and they're genuinely rude or, you know, put the phone down or shout, it reflects on you. And he left that agent very soon. But I'll always make sure you always have to, if someone, especially if they're going,

oh, you can't have him unless you take so and so, because that comedian doesn't know that. No, they should know what's been done in their name. So I always, always tell, I always tell. That's very good. So for any agent who's ever done that to me, I've always told your client immediately afterwards. Equally, sometimes agents will go out and say, particularly I've noticed in BBC salary stories, when the salary will come out and someone will say, this is really gross, why is my client only

getting paid this? Remember someone quite high profile news presented this happened with and I remember thinking, I don't know mate, but it's your fault, isn't it? Why is your client being paid that? Yeah, because you're the agent. I wouldn't announce it in a sort of, it's your fault, you've messed up, I hope she leaves you. One of the lovely things on House of Games, because we have lots and lots of people on that, so we do deal with lots of smaller agents and people just starting in the business as well, and sometimes they'll come along. And I love that, I absolutely love it, and you know, they just couldn't be nice. And they'll often accompany the client, you're getting the real tailor-made service at that point.

Yeah, and you can tell they're friends, and you always sit down and have a laugh with them as well. That was a long answer to a short question. Actually to be fair it was quite a long question as well because we had all the stuff about football. So Alistair listen. Which we didn't even get onto. I don't think that's our business is it? I don't know. That's almost media. That's one for the rest is money or the rest is football. I think we've got time for a short one though sometimes I ask a question that I think is going to be short and then we bang on. Probably drag it out. I think this is going to be short though. Certainly it's a short question.

Joe Rose is even a short name. Joe Rose says, why are green screens green? Oh, very good. Okay. Green screens are also sometimes blue. There's also blue and green screen. Now they use green mainly because it's the color least present in skin tones.

So it's least likely to kind of mess around with the people who are in front of it. Having said that, if you've got a bit of practical set at the front, which a lot of these things do have, or there's a bit of green in costumes, then you're going to want a blue screen. Funny enough, the show I'm working on at the moment, even though it's a sort of behind the scenes

on a superhero franchise, all our green screen stuff has been blue screen. Marvel, there's a brilliant picture that I really urge you to Google. If you Google James Gunn's brother, Rocket Raccoon, okay, obviously Bradley Cooper voices Rocket Raccoon, but James Gunn's brother is there in a little green onesie. I mean, it looks so poignant.

I mean, I really have to say, interesting relative values that one would be. There's Dave Batiste, the big wrestler, petting him in a still. I strongly urge you to look at this picture. So that is... Oh, that's good. Neil, can you get that for us? Oh my God. That's haunting. The expression is, what am I doing with my life? That expression is, I am am gonna bring mom straight after this Wow, you gotta have a look at it. It's so sad

So it's not just screens that are green props costumes anything that's gonna have to be taken out afterwards a chroma key They call it blue is better. It's easier to light blue green is the most reflective color on the spectrum So you've got a light is perfectly. Yeah, strangely. It's got the highest level of luminosity I'm gonna take issue with that Yeah, just don't argue with me on it And so it's easier to and blue is easier sometimes to light but essentially green is the thing that's least like skin tones Yes, but there's some really amazing footage now of green screen Marvel I think it's very odd that they've allowed people to see behind the scenes. So you just see these people

Making these incredibly soulless scenes that then become like some great big battle which in my view are quite soulless as well. My favourite bit of Planet Earth is always the five minutes at the end where they show how they shot the meerkats. Talking of shooting meerkats, I think we're done. That's where we're off to. Because we like to socialise after the podcast. This is a fun thing. Rupert Murdoch sent us the invitation. They said, guys, we're on a meerkat hunt. Guy Ritchie's going to be there.

Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. We're not really hunting meerkats. No. And on that note. See you next Tuesday. See you next Tuesday. The End