Tom's Top 3: July 16, 2024
Cavemen, Consolidation, and Creativity
Hi everyone! Welcome to this week’s installment of Tom’s Top 3 Tuesdays, where I highlight three pieces of content (Podcasts/Shows/Songs/Articles/etc.) that I found interesting or noteworthy from the prior week.
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Let’s get into it:
[Board Game] Paleo
Seattle is full of board game cafes, and we love to go to one of them in particular. This past weekend, I was speaking to one of the employees and asked what game he is obsessing over right now. Without skipping a beat, he responded: “Paleo.”
My LA brain thought he misheard my question, and I was about to have to sit through a tedious homily on why we should all strive to eat like the epitome of health: a Stone Age caveman.
Instead, he explained that Paleo is a cooperative board game set in the Paleolithic Era, where you have to complete missions to stay alive long enough to create a cave painting to “secure your legacy.” We took his word for it, tried out the game, bought it, and have subsequently played it probably ten times in three days.
It’s nice to mix it up every now and then (a.k.a. let tensions cool) with a cooperative game, but I seem to have similar complaints with many co-op games. They either are too easy to complete, or you know too early in the game which way things are gonna go (good or bad). Paleo doesn’t have this issue, but it does suffer from a different fate: this game is hard. Once you get up to some of the mid- and upper-level difficulties, success is far from guaranteed. This is kind of refreshing, however, and motivated us to keep playing.
[Podcast] Land of the Giants - Disney is a TV Company
This new podcast series from Vulture is rather timely for me because I am currently reading The Keys to the Kingdom by Kim Masters, which is all about the Eisner era at Disney.
For all of my life, Disney has been a behemoth of a company with toeholds in every aspect of consumerism. It’s hard to believe that this wasn’t always the case. When Eisner came to the helm in 1984, Disney was in disarray, battling to survive multiple takeover attempts. Eisner sought to “restore the magic.” And that he did — the podcast includes a clip from Eisner where he humbly bragged that, from 1983-1995, the stock went up 1700%. Magic.
When I think of the Eisner era, I immediately think of the box office hits that revitalized the company and are quintessential ‘90s Disney. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King. But as the title of this podcast states, Disney during the Eisner era is all about TV.
The Fin-Syn Rules, which prevented companies from distributing their own content, were eliminated in 1993. This deregulation of the entertainment industry led to a period of consolidation. Eisner, being a TV guy from his days with NBC, CBS, and ABC, got in on the fun by purchasing Capital Cities/ABC in 1996.
This is where the history of Disney took a fortuitous turn. Tucked away at Capital Cities was the “sleeping giant” ESPN, and an overlooked clause in its contract with the NFL rocketed Disney to the top. The success at the box office allowed Disney/ESPN to secure the largest deal in NFL history at the time. But this deal included a clause that would allow Disney to raise its rates 20% a year… indefinitely. The compound interest from the contract bolstered the entire company and funded Disney Channel’s rise to prominence. The snowball effect that Eisner set off with the revival of the film studio led to a nearly 20-year TV boom for Disney.
[YouTube] Paul E.T. - How Filmmakers make Cameras Disappear | Mirrors in Movies
Ever try to sell a mirror online? Then you understand the struggle of trying to remove a camera (and camera operator) from the shot.
Thankfully, cinematographers are professionals. I definitely took for granted the skill of making mirror shots possible, and this video does a great job of highlighting some of the creative techniques that filmmakers use to solve the problem. A very interesting watch for any layperson like me who is curious how the magic is made.
That wraps up this edition of Tom’s Top 3 Tuesdays. If you know anyone who would like this newsletter, please consider sharing. I’ll be back next week. ✌️