The I Feel Down Topic.

[NuttySquirrel]

Feeling furious counts as feeling down, right?

Because I'm sure feeling that way towards Warner Bros executives and CEO David Zaslav for their terrible decision to tax write off the completed Coyote vs. Acme film at the end of this month.

I haven't been this distraught since I learnt Disney canned Henry Selick's The Shadow King, which was in pre-production, but at least Selick has reacquired the rights.

That does sound incredibly frustrating - and a colossal waste of talent and resources if the film is never going to see the light of day.

At the end of the day, everything boils down to money. Forget creativity and entertainment, these corporations only care about the bottom line.

I'm still seething about the cancellation by Netflix of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance after one - brilliant - first series.

 

[The_bup]

Feeling furious counts as feeling down, right?

Because I'm sure feeling that way towards Warner Bros executives and CEO David Zaslav for their terrible decision to tax write off the completed Coyote vs. Acme film at the end of this month.

I haven't been this distraught since I learnt Disney canned Henry Selick's The Shadow King, which was in pre-production, but at least Selick has reacquired the rights.

Why’d they choose that as a tax right off? That movie sounds awesome I’d go see it.

 

[Rowe]

Well, here's the thing: I've found no good reason why it's being shelved and deleted at all!

Coyote vs. Acme was being produced under two previous regimes prior to Warner Bros. Discovery's merger* and had been in the works since 2018. It received positive test screenings even scoring up to 14 points above the family film norm, with high praise across the board and was even due for release in July 2023. Until April 2022, where it was replaced with Barbie. Then WBD, with their execs not having seen the final product themselves, announced they'd write it off in November 2023. They 'seemed' to backtrack from the backlash, screening and shopping it to other studios such as Amazon, Netflix and Paramount (inc theatrical release plans) who did put in bids but WBD rejected them all, refusing any counter offers, on anything that didn't match '$75-80 million'. There are mixed reports as to whether WBD even clarified to the other studios that was the figure they wanted.

There are other factors too. Warner Bros. hasn't known what to do with Looney Tunes for some time (Patrick Willems' great What Do The Looney Tunes Mean in 2023? video breaks down why) and it hasn't helped Space Jam 2 barely recouped its budget so it's not entirely surprising WBD has little faith in the franchise. But if Coyote vs. Acme was successfully sold to another studio for distribution, the success the film would likely have under said studio would publicly humiliate WBD and studio leadership*.

Spoiler: *WBD History

Warner Bros. Discovery has been slashing costs across all assets since April 2022, when the WB and AT&T merger finished, in an attempt to save $3 billion. This has included removing countless media on HBO Max, including Sesame Street and Looney Tunes, the latter of which done to avoid residual payments to use as tax write offs, as well as cancelling the nearly completed Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt films. Batgirl ($90 million budget) was cancelled due to negative test screenings and DCEU's disappointing run and Scoob! Holiday Haunt ($40 million budget) had a was cancelled due to Scoob!'s poor box office during the pandemic, both being due for release on HBO Max. Ironically, this has meant WBD is worth $20 billion less than when Zaslav began the cuts.

So, yeah. Great. Meep meep.



Sources: Rolling Stone, Medium, Gizmodo and The Verge.

 

[Matt N]

I’ll admit I’m feeling a bit down after having attended an industry outreach event today with university and presented my dissertation and its findings.

I’ll digress that I do not like public speaking and it does not come at all naturally to me, so I was already nervous to begin with. This is probably going to sound pathetic, but I’d prepared myself a very prescriptive script for my presentation and rehearsed it quite a few times so that I “learned my lines”, if you like. I have absolutely no ad-lib or improv ability or any general ability to think things like that up on the spot, so I felt more comfortable knowing exactly what I was going to say beforehand.

The basic premise of my role in the event was that I was one of 6 students “pitching” their dissertation, and there was a competition for the best “pitch”. The theme of the event was building bridges between academia and industry and finding investment opportunities from academic ideas. I had discussed my presentation beforehand with the lecturer who was taking us, and I was under the impression that I simply needed to show off my dissertation, its findings and the implications within a 3-4 minute pitch. The lecturer taking us had indicated that my presentation was fine.

However, when we got to the pitch part of the day, the first student came on… and they presented some absolutely beautiful, Dragon’s Den calibre business pitch, with full suggestions of what they’d done to commercialise their project, what stage they were at, how they were going to develop it, full costings, and a presentation full of enthusiasm, charisma and riffing with the audience. Some of the other ones weren’t quite so advanced, but they still had a fair degree of business emphasis and were fairly schmultzy. Whereas mine was very academic and went quite technical in terms of discussing my methodology, my results and such; it was pretty much purely discussing my dissertation and its implications. I have never had any intent of commercialising my dissertation or being entrepreneurial and making any kind of business venture with it; I only did the event because the faculty felt that I had one of my cohort’s strongest dissertation ideas, so I’d been asked if I’d do it to help raise the university’s profile. To tell you the truth, I didn’t really want to do it, but felt like I should.

When it came to my actual delivery, I also felt that I was really wooden and awkward, whereas everyone else oozed charisma and looked so natural up there. I was incredibly anxious and found the presentation utterly excruciating, and I had to look at my slides a fair bit more than I’d have liked.

While I was able to answer the questions I was given by the panel at the end, and the accompanying lecturer said that I “spoke like I really knew my stuff” and that I hadn’t done my presentation wrong at all, I still feel embarrassed and like I completely messed up. For starters, I feel like I completely misunderstood the assignment by not really incorporating a business angle into my presentation; I think I went much too academic and technical compared to everyone else. I’m also a bit embarrassed by how wooden and nervous my delivery was compared to everyone else’s.

I don’t know… I just feel like a complete fool.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I’ll admit I’m feeling a bit down after having attended an industry outreach event today with university and presented my dissertation and its findings.

I’ll digress that I do not like public speaking and it does not come at all naturally to me, so I was already nervous to begin with. This is probably going to sound pathetic, but I’d prepared myself a very prescriptive script for my presentation and rehearsed it quite a few times so that I “learned my lines”, if you like. I have absolutely no ad-lib or improv ability or any general ability to think things like that up on the spot, so I felt more comfortable knowing exactly what I was going to say beforehand.

The basic premise of my role in the event was that I was one of 6 students “pitching” their dissertation, and there was a competition for the best “pitch”. The theme of the event was building bridges between academia and industry and finding investment opportunities from academic ideas. I had discussed my presentation beforehand with the lecturer who was taking us, and I was under the impression that I simply needed to show off my dissertation, its findings and the implications within a 3-4 minute pitch. The lecturer taking us had indicated that my presentation was fine.

However, when we got to the pitch part of the day, the first student came on… and they presented some absolutely beautiful, Dragon’s Den calibre business pitch, with full suggestions of what they’d done to commercialise their project, what stage they were at, how they were going to develop it, full costings, and a presentation full of enthusiasm, charisma and riffing with the audience. Some of the other ones weren’t quite so advanced, but they still had a fair degree of business emphasis and were fairly schmultzy. Whereas mine was very academic and went quite technical in terms of discussing my methodology, my results and such; it was pretty much purely discussing my dissertation and its implications. I have never had any intent of commercialising my dissertation or being entrepreneurial and making any kind of business venture with it; I only did the event because the faculty felt that I had one of my cohort’s strongest dissertation ideas, so I’d been asked if I’d do it to help raise the university’s profile. To tell you the truth, I didn’t really want to do it, but felt like I should.

When it came to my actual delivery, I also felt that I was really wooden and awkward, whereas everyone else oozed charisma and looked so natural up there. I was incredibly anxious and found the presentation utterly excruciating, and I had to look at my slides a fair bit more than I’d have liked.

While I was able to answer the questions I was given by the panel at the end, and the accompanying lecturer said that I “spoke like I really knew my stuff” and that I hadn’t done my presentation wrong at all, I still feel embarrassed and like I completely messed up. For starters, I feel like I completely misunderstood the assignment by not really incorporating a business angle into my presentation; I think I went much too academic and technical compared to everyone else. I’m also a bit embarrassed by how wooden and nervous my delivery was compared to everyone else’s.

I don’t know… I just feel like a complete fool.

Public oration is tricky. It's a talent in its own right. I've spent a career helping people in some of society's darkest places realise that they have the potential and ability to present confidently and eloquently. It comes naturally more to some than it does to others.

It's entirely possible that you got the wrong end of the stick when it came to the presentation. It's also entirely possible that your peers got the wrong end of the stick, when it came to the presentation, choosing style and cliche over actual substance.

Matt, I hate seeing you doubt yourself on here. You're brilliant. You're wonderful. You're bright and you have excellent written communicative skills. I can't speak for your presentation abilities, but if you put half as much effort into it as you do some of your posts on here, then I have every faith in your ability.

I'm really sorry that you feel down. Nothing I, or others, say will take away that feeling. I want you to know though that many great people are awful at presentations, and that's ok. Cast your mind back to 2020. During television broadcasts you had one Muppet, who was considered a great presenter, flagged by two scientists with awful delivery skills. In such a scenario we all knew who we trusted more.

That you didn't realise your dissertation had potential commercial applications is my favourite part of your post. I absolutely love that you came at this from a purely theoretical, academic and potentially utopian angle. I feel that too much emphasis on good work is given on whether it's going to generate money or a profit. The greatest invention we've ever known, the World Wide Web, only exists purely because its creator didn't realise, didn't care and didn't think about the potential commercial applications of what he'd created. He just wanted to share it with the world.

Presentations are entirely about effectively communicating your message. It's about making your intentions known. You're imparting wisdom and knowledge to someone else. You can do this in a myriad of ways, but as long as it's succint and well paced, it doesn't matter how much pizzaz you throw at it. A turd is a turd, you can't polish it.

I wasn't there for your presentation and I'm sort of sorry I wasn't. I expect that was delivered with great understanding of the subject, enthusiasm for the project and passion for the topic. I expect that it was delivered in such a way that anyone coming away from your presentation knew exactly what you were talking about.

Please don't second guess yourself. Well done for today. You did a difficult thing. You need to be proud of what you accomplished. I'm proud of you. I'm sure we all are.

Keep up the good work. 🪿

 

[Matt N]

Public oration is tricky. It's a talent in its own right. I've spent a career helping people in some of society's darkest places realise that they have the potential and ability to present confidently and eloquently. It comes naturally more to some than it does to others.

It's entirely possible that you got the wrong end of the stick when it came to the presentation. It's also entirely possible that your peers got the wrong end of the stick, when it came to the presentation, choosing style and cliche over actual substance.

Matt, I hate seeing you doubt yourself on here. You're brilliant. You're wonderful. You're bright and you have excellent written communicative skills. I can't speak for your presentation abilities, but if you put half as much effort into it as you do some of your posts on here, then I have every faith in your ability.

I'm really sorry that you feel down. Nothing I, or others, say will take away that feeling. I want you to know though that many great people are awful at presentations, and that's ok. Cast your mind back to 2020. During television broadcasts you had one Muppet, who was considered a great presenter, flagged by two scientists with awful delivery skills. In such a scenario we all knew who we trusted more.

That you didn't realise your dissertation had potential commercial applications is my favourite part of your post. I absolutely love that you came at this from a purely theoretical, academic and potentially utopian angle. I feel that too much emphasis on good work is given on whether it's going to generate money or a profit. The greatest invention we've ever known, the World Wide Web, only exists purely because its creator didn't realise, didn't care and didn't think about the potential commercial applications of what he'd created. He just wanted to share it with the world.

Presentations are entirely about effectively communicating your message. It's about making your intentions known. You're imparting wisdom and knowledge to someone else. You can do this in a myriad of ways, but as long as it's succint and well paced, it doesn't matter how much pizzaz you throw at it. A turd is a turd, you can't polish it.

I wasn't there for your presentation and I'm sort of sorry I wasn't. I expect that was delivered with great understanding of the subject, enthusiasm for the project and passion for the topic. I expect that it was delivered in such a way that anyone coming away from your presentation knew exactly what you were talking about.

Please don't second guess yourself. Well done for today. You did a difficult thing. You need to be proud of what you accomplished. I'm proud of you. I'm sure we all are.

Keep up the good work. 🪿

Thanks for the post @GooseOnTheLoose; I thoroughly appreciate it.

I feel it’s more likely that I got the wrong end of the stick. Put it this way; some of the questions asked by the panel asked me to clarify and explain in more detail the more technical aspects of my presentation to clear up some confusion, and I did not win the pitch competition either. I did have two different industry people approach me afterwards to discuss the presentation and ask further questions, though, so perhaps going technical wasn’t necessarily entirely bad…

I know for a fact that public speaking does not come naturally to me, and it isn’t something I like at all. I always hated performing and public speaking when I was in school, and it’s always made me very anxious. Whenever I do it, it doesn’t feel at all natural, and I’d quite happily have had the floor open up and swallow me whole at times in that presentation. I don’t know if it actually comes across that way, but to me, I always think my nerves make me a very wooden, awkward orator when it comes to presentations.

In terms of the commercial potential of my dissertation; I’d never even thought of commercialising it. I simply viewed it as an interesting piece of research I did to get my degree qualification, and I didn’t really have any intentions of taking it forward and turning it into a legitimate business venture. I’m not particularly entrepreneurial; I know that it would be some people’s idea of hell, but I am perfectly fine being a small cog within a bigger machine. When I leave academia and get a job, I have no problem with going into industry and working as a small employee within a big company. I’ve never even pondered things like making my own startup, as I simply don’t have that kind of mindset.

I think it doesn’t help that the whole event wasn’t really my thing. Despite how I may come across on here, I’m definitely somewhat introverted in real life. There were large portions of the event dedicated to “networking”, which to me basically seemed like an industry term for having a good old chat with friends. While some people were there “working the room”, if you like, and looked like they were having the time of their lives, I felt completely out of my depth and didn’t feel comfortable in that kind of environment at all. That kind of thing is designed for extroverts, and I’m simply not an extrovert.

On the plus side, I guess this was a relatively low-stakes presentation; the presentation had no real consequence for me. The dissertation viva I have to do in a month’s time is very different… although I’m hoping that the academic, technical approach might land better when my audience is academics!