October 9, 2025 • 15 mins
Alana Mayo is a film executive, producer, and the president of Orion Pictures. She is joined Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on 'Bloomberg Businessweek Daily' at Bloomberg Screentime to discuss the future of Orion Pictures and where she sees the media industry heading.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. She's a film executive,
she's a producer. She's the president of Oryan Picture. She
helped bring us films including American fiction. Alana Mayo stops by.
We're gonna be speaking to her in just a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, Ryan Pictures Man, they've been around for a while,
so interesting.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Different now though, yes, than it was in the nineteen seventies, which.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Is fascinating, right, you'd like to see how these things change. Hey,
also billionaire real estate developer and maybe la mayorial candidate
or maybe he wants to be governor of the state
of California. We're Caruso of Carusa is going to be
back with us. We're going to ask him, We're going
to push him. Last time we talked with him, he's like,
maybe I'm going to have a decision or announcement.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
So maybe he wants to do it live with us on.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Air, maybe just saying maybe we're ready, let's do it. Also, yes, chef, yes, chef, Yes, chef,
yes chef.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
We got the colinary producer of the Bear stopping by
and also the youngest female self made billionaire in the
world joins us.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Lucy Guo co founder.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Home wants us to say yes chef when he's cooking,
and we're like, not happening, that happening. That happening.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Also, the youngest female self made billionaire in the world
is with us. We've got Lucy grow co founder of
Scalai and founder of Passes. She's going to be along
as well. So she's a once to watch, isn't she.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, she's here with us. She's right here.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
She is right here.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, she's coming by in in like forty five minutes.
It's gonna be great.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I want to get to our next guest though, because
we are in the heart of Hollywood, live at Bloomberg
screen Time in La we're speaking to the folks who
are defining the next phase of pop culture, includes film
and streaming. Alta Mayo is with us. She thinks a
lot about these things, streaming and traditional releases, probably simultaneously
these days, which is like a little crazy of the
world that we live in. Oriyan Pictures goes back to
(01:41):
the late nineteen seventies. I think a day is silence
of the Lambs and more. It's different now, though Alana
joins us here at screen time these days. Orian focuses
primarily on films from underrepresented filmmakers. Releases under her tenure
include American Fiction Academy Award nominated Nickel Boys, and many more.
In a lot coming on the Harai M. Yeah too, welcome.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Thank you?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I'm very well happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
You just wrapped up this conversation with Mark duplas we
spoke to him a little earlier. Also Catherine Oliver as
well for from Bloomberg. She was the former film Commissioner
of New York City. The focus was on reinfigurating the
creative community.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
How do you do it?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Just that small question I just want This is.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Like the underlying theme of the entire thing.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
How why are we here?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well?
Speaker 5 (02:27):
I think we're here because we have so much change
in so dynamo, so much dynamism, And the reality is
that no one really knows what the next wave of
media content Hollywood is going to look like. So we're
at this incredible inflection point and having to innovate in
real time and build new systems while the previous systems
are being dismantled, are evolving, are changing. So well, I
(02:51):
wish I had a quick answer to your question.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Of how do we do it.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
What we ended up talking about mostly is how do
we just create enough sustainability for artists so that everyone
can sustain this moment in time? And so whatever is
on the other side of this, whatever that looks like
that the creative voices that build our industry can still survive.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Does it get worse before it gets better?
Speaker 5 (03:10):
I mean, if you look at it with a long lens,
you know, define worse, right, If you look at a
lot with a long lens, it's always this business has
always been challenged. This business has always gone through dips,
it's always gone through ebbs. And how long this moment
of uncertainty lasts is probably longer than any of us
would love. And if that's how you define the worse,
then yes. But I think, you know, I think it's
(03:31):
just going to always be changing. I don't know if
it's going to get worse or better. I think we're
going to continue to change and evolve.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I always think about supplying demand cycles. I've got to
dogree economics, and I think about the world in that way.
And I think there was a period where we thought, man,
if you're a content creator, you are a good as
gold because there's so many, you know, different platforms that
need your services, they need your content, and then all
of a sudden, I think there's a lot of content
and maybe I don't know, there was too much content
and the oversupply. So where is the rebalancing or how
(03:58):
do we get back to a different level.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I think we're seeing the rebalancing now. I will say
I personally am a little bit worried about the level
of consolidation that we have because I do think that
it is hard to keep saying swayed in the favor
of the creators and of the artists, which is really
the community that we need to continue any sort of
artistic endeavor and idea. But you know, I think Mark
said something. He may have already said this to you
(04:21):
guys earlier, but that I think is a really important
bit of context, which is the past ten years of
the streaming arms race was a boon, like that was
a spike, that that was an abnormal state of our industry.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Right, So this is a little bit corrective, right.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
It's not completely just the you know, Earth has fallen
out underneath us. This is a little bit of a
correction of something that was a real kind of an
aberration in of itself.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So a good thing a little bit maybe, but not
kind of your.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I think the good thing
is that there are more ways to monetize content, right,
And we talked about everything from direct to consumer models
to YouTube. There are a lot of different platfor forms
in addition to Hollywood where you can monetize content.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
How you do that? Right? Is the thing that a
lot of us don't yet know is you.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Know, uh, when it pauses, this could be serious.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
It's political too.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The President has weighed in recently and he said the
way to fix this is to put tariffs on films
that are made outside of the US.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
You're shaking your head.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I don't think that's the way to say this.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Why should we be filming scenes about Brooklyn in Vancouver?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I think that we listen.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
I definitely am personally invested in US keeping production inside
of the communities that, you know, where the people that
make them live, right, Because it's not just about are
we maintaining the integrity of the film itself by location
spased shooting. This city is where the majority of people
that make stuff live, and we've got to keep this
(05:50):
city healthy, and the economy and the infrastructure of that
has to be supported by films being made here, and
we've got to figure that out. At the same time,
if we're going to make the path of supporting these
artists is to be able to make more, to increase
the amount of stuff that is being made, we've got
to be nimble and if that means that sometimes shooting
things outside of the States, or shooting things outside of
(06:11):
LA and New York is the way to do that.
You know, a lot of the films that we've been
able to make that are really innovative and original and
risky have to find ways to cost less, and some
of the ways that we find to make them cost
less is to shoot them elsewhere. And then you have
American Fiction, which is a Boston set story that shot
in Massachusetts. So you know, we can figure it out
(06:31):
different ways, but we've got to have some.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Plex to figure out what college that was? What was it?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I went to college and doing Stayden.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
I don't believe they shot I would I would be
lying to you if I told you I knew exactly
where that location was. But it may not have been
a college at all. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I guess I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Remember where Sopranos was like taped in my neighborhood and
it's not in New York City, it's just outside New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, but it was.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Supposed to be perfect.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
So what do you say?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
What do you say? We're talking with a lot of Mao.
She is president of Ryan Pictures, you know. But when
you talk about right, like you want la and the
film scene and the filmy like you want it to
be alive and healthy. But I also do think about
you know, part of your market is a global market, Yeah, exactly,
So being able to film wherever in the world, Like,
(07:25):
that's part.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Of it, right, one hundred percent. We're you know, we're
a global community.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Without a penalty, whether it's a terror for one of
one hundred percent.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
And also what about the movies that we produced out
of Hollywood that are not set in the US. You know,
we also produce movies that are set all over the world.
You know, Mission Impossible doesn't just all take place here, right,
So I think we have to be a global industry.
We have to you know, be a global economy with
artisans that are working all over the world. But the
argument that I understand is that shouldn't be to the
(07:53):
expense of the film industries locally. Really, I feel very
strongly about that.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
You have a really cool background. You have worked twentieth
Century Thoughts, Paramount Pictures. You did a stinted Vimeo I did.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah, Oh my god, that's a blasphem with it's a
milling round. I know.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I haven't heard it.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
A while society.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Sorry Vimo.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
You came of age in an industry while it was
like undergoing this massive shift to streaming, which you alluded
to when you began your career. Did you ever think
that you'd be making movies at a company that was
owned by Amazon.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
No, I couldn't. I shouldn't do this.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
But I remember when Amazon first started making television shows.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I was at Fox and I laughed. I was like,
this is ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Because it will never laugh and everyone was like, and then.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
They started making incredible TV shows. And then you know,
to track from that moment to now working at a
film studio that is under the Amazon umbrella. I couldn't
have predicted any of this. I will say, though, when
you talk about all of those places that I worked,
part of the reason why I got my dream job,
the best job that I thought you could ever have
in film. I was a movie studio executive at Paramount.
I was on the Paramount lot, and after being there
(09:03):
for five or six years, I realized that the world
around me had changed. And I went to Vimeo very
intentionally because I thought, there's all of this cool stuff
that is happening in this digital space that I need
to understand it. And then I said, I got to
work with close to the talent, and I've got to
produce and be able to be scrappy and produce for
different platforms and different mediums.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I went to go work with Michael B.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Jordan and so it's been ever changing for the entirety
of the time that I've had the you know, blessing
of having a career in this industry, which is why
I think it's not falling. You know, it's not all
falling apart.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
What's it like? I mean, Amazon is mass company and
there are a lot of folks are like, yeah, that's
where I buy all my stuff, right, But we know
Aws is massive and we talked about it earlier too
here in terms of what they are doing media.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
All sports, entertainment. Doctor works for Amazon.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
And your pharmacist y like hands in so much of
our world and increasingly more so, what's it like they're
running a studio within the Amazon world.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
It's interesting, you know, the great benefit of it is
in this time of instability, Amazon has such scale that
it feels as if you can one still be innovative,
you can still take risks, and you can ride these
waves of change within this massive, you know, company that
can withstand.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Some of the headwinds that we're experiencing.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
So I think it's actually a place where innovation thrives,
which sounds like a talking point, but I swear I
just made that up. I'm like, let me see, I'm
like my cue cards, let me pull them out. But
it is also a big culture clash, you know, So
it's navigating those two things at once well.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And I also can I just just to follow like AI?
Right Amazon, They're so interchangeable, and then we're looking at
anybody who creates content and it's almost terrified of it.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
There are yeah where it's Those are difficult conversations that
we're navigating every single day in real time.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
And I think the difference from last.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
Year where AI never came up, not once in a
conversation about any movie that I was working on to
this year, where it is ever present in what tools
are we using, what tools are we not using?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
And also the fear I can only.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Imagine next year, you know, this stuff is happening exponentially.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Is the fear warranted?
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I think yes and no.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Right, I think anytime that you have a technology that
is going to cause a reduction in jobs, of course
it's worrisome for people like that.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
It's a real human I can't you know, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
I think for me, who works with a lot of
independent filmmakers and people that are making really highly original
stuff but at a lower costs, I think the tools
have honestly been mostly helpful because they are creating you know,
reductions and costs to our budget.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Beyond that, I don't know, Like how do.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
I was thinking? I think about this a lot, like
because we're starting to increasingly play around with things like Chachi.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
But stilt, I can't rely on it at all. Sure,
Like it's it's not.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
No, no, We're careful. We are, like I spend more
time to like I do everything trying to make it good.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Right, It's like I don't when I get back I
don't get the love that I need.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We check sources, But I was thinking about it in
the entertainment world, back to like that Star Wars movie,
the first one, and they were playing around with stuff.
But I think about CGI, and I think about animation.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
The first one, the first one, like in the nineteen seventies,
first one.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, but that was considered high. But you know, technology
has always had a roll increasingly, you know, whether it's
mission impossible, the things that Cruise is doing, and this
stuff happening around like pick pick whatever it is came
a throat like everything. So technology has a role. So
are we being silly to be so fearful of AI
or we just have to be smart or is it
(12:33):
something very very different from the things that we've had
in the digital universe.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
I don't think that it's silly to be cautious about
technological revolutions evolutions, because they usually come with the flip
side to the coin that can have some sort of
damaging impacts.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
But what I don't think is going to happen is
I don't think that we as.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Studios are going to start generating all of our scripts
from some l M and producing those scripts so that
we don't have to pay writers.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I said, that's a real or.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
It's not going to be all over the II actress.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
I'm sure Chilli will be in some things. She will
not be in a Ryan.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I have seen stuff that is so bad where I'm like,
this was definitely from AI. But of course I want
to shift gears a little bit and talk about sort
of the old school creative process and just ask the
basic question, how do you find the good stuff?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Well, that's you know, that's part of the job.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
As you you spend ten, fifteen, twenty years reading twenty
scripts a week, and part of my job is to
sift through all of that.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And okay, so, for example, to pick something like it,
to bet on something like American fiction, which I think
everybody knows. Yes, how many things do you pass on
before you get to that?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Probably over one hundred.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Yeah, the conversion rate of American Fiction was an incredible script.
One of the best scripts I've ever read in my life.
And those are unicorns, and they don't come around often
and they cannot be generated. Can someone now write, you know,
a replicate script that's American Fiction esque, perhaps through an LM.
It's not something that's an incredible voice and writer who
(14:03):
wrote almost a perfect script, and that those just don't
come along often.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Do we have time?
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yeah, go your background?
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Your dad? Yeah, Radio, Yeah, he was a big deal.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
He's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Is a big deal, I think, so, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
How did that shape you kind of growing up in
that world?
Speaker 5 (14:19):
The best thing about having my dad and my mom
both worked in the entertainment industries is I knew that
you could make a living doing this, and I didn't
have parents who were scared of me chasing this. But
I will say I also had a parent who lived
through massive, massive technological changes in his industry. I remember
showing my dad and iPods, showing him Napster and his
reaction to how that was going to affect things. So
(14:40):
I think I have a little bit more kind of
tenacity around this because I saw that happen very up
close in radio, and it's almost exactly the same as
what we're experiencing now in film's entertainment.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, I mean, like we see it in our world,
and we now do shows that you know right now,
you're on our streaming service, you're on YouTube, you're on radio,
and we do a couple of hours that throwed you know,
tradition linear television into it, so it's this melding is
pretty wild.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Thank you, Thank you. What a pleasure. Likewise, yeah, really fun.
I hope you can catch up. I hope sin at
some point in the future as well.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Thanks Alata Mayor, she's president of Ryan Pictures, joining us
right here at Bloomberg screen time.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. She's a film executive,
she's a producer. She's the president of Oryan Picture. She
helped bring us films including American fiction. Alana Mayo stops by.
We're gonna be speaking to her in just a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, Ryan Pictures Man, they've been around for a while,
so interesting.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Different now though, yes, than it was in the nineteen seventies, which.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Is fascinating, right, you'd like to see how these things change. Hey,
also billionaire real estate developer and maybe la mayorial candidate
or maybe he wants to be governor of the state
of California. We're Caruso of Carusa is going to be
back with us. We're going to ask him, We're going
to push him. Last time we talked with him, he's like,
maybe I'm going to have a decision or announcement.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
So maybe he wants to do it live with us on.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Air, maybe just saying maybe we're ready, let's do it. Also, yes, chef, yes, chef, Yes, chef,
yes chef.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
We got the colinary producer of the Bear stopping by
and also the youngest female self made billionaire in the
world joins us.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Lucy Guo co founder.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Home wants us to say yes chef when he's cooking,
and we're like, not happening, that happening. That happening.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Also, the youngest female self made billionaire in the world
is with us. We've got Lucy grow co founder of
Scalai and founder of Passes. She's going to be along
as well. So she's a once to watch, isn't she.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, she's here with us. She's right here.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
She is right here.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, she's coming by in in like forty five minutes.
It's gonna be great.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I want to get to our next guest though, because
we are in the heart of Hollywood, live at Bloomberg
screen Time in La we're speaking to the folks who
are defining the next phase of pop culture, includes film
and streaming. Alta Mayo is with us. She thinks a
lot about these things, streaming and traditional releases, probably simultaneously
these days, which is like a little crazy of the
world that we live in. Oriyan Pictures goes back to
(01:41):
the late nineteen seventies. I think a day is silence
of the Lambs and more. It's different now, though Alana
joins us here at screen time these days. Orian focuses
primarily on films from underrepresented filmmakers. Releases under her tenure
include American Fiction Academy Award nominated Nickel Boys, and many more.
In a lot coming on the Harai M. Yeah too, welcome.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Thank you?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I'm very well happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
You just wrapped up this conversation with Mark duplas we
spoke to him a little earlier. Also Catherine Oliver as
well for from Bloomberg. She was the former film Commissioner
of New York City. The focus was on reinfigurating the
creative community.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
How do you do it?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Just that small question I just want This is.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Like the underlying theme of the entire thing.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
How why are we here?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well?
Speaker 5 (02:27):
I think we're here because we have so much change
in so dynamo, so much dynamism, And the reality is
that no one really knows what the next wave of
media content Hollywood is going to look like. So we're
at this incredible inflection point and having to innovate in
real time and build new systems while the previous systems
are being dismantled, are evolving, are changing. So well, I
(02:51):
wish I had a quick answer to your question.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Of how do we do it.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
What we ended up talking about mostly is how do
we just create enough sustainability for artists so that everyone
can sustain this moment in time? And so whatever is
on the other side of this, whatever that looks like
that the creative voices that build our industry can still survive.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Does it get worse before it gets better?
Speaker 5 (03:10):
I mean, if you look at it with a long lens,
you know, define worse, right, If you look at a
lot with a long lens, it's always this business has
always been challenged. This business has always gone through dips,
it's always gone through ebbs. And how long this moment
of uncertainty lasts is probably longer than any of us
would love. And if that's how you define the worse,
then yes. But I think, you know, I think it's
(03:31):
just going to always be changing. I don't know if
it's going to get worse or better. I think we're
going to continue to change and evolve.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I always think about supplying demand cycles. I've got to
dogree economics, and I think about the world in that way.
And I think there was a period where we thought, man,
if you're a content creator, you are a good as
gold because there's so many, you know, different platforms that
need your services, they need your content, and then all
of a sudden, I think there's a lot of content
and maybe I don't know, there was too much content
and the oversupply. So where is the rebalancing or how
(03:58):
do we get back to a different level.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I think we're seeing the rebalancing now. I will say
I personally am a little bit worried about the level
of consolidation that we have because I do think that
it is hard to keep saying swayed in the favor
of the creators and of the artists, which is really
the community that we need to continue any sort of
artistic endeavor and idea. But you know, I think Mark
said something. He may have already said this to you
(04:21):
guys earlier, but that I think is a really important
bit of context, which is the past ten years of
the streaming arms race was a boon, like that was
a spike, that that was an abnormal state of our industry.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Right, So this is a little bit corrective, right.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
It's not completely just the you know, Earth has fallen
out underneath us. This is a little bit of a
correction of something that was a real kind of an
aberration in of itself.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So a good thing a little bit maybe, but not
kind of your.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I think the good thing
is that there are more ways to monetize content, right,
And we talked about everything from direct to consumer models
to YouTube. There are a lot of different platfor forms
in addition to Hollywood where you can monetize content.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
How you do that? Right? Is the thing that a
lot of us don't yet know is you.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Know, uh, when it pauses, this could be serious.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
It's political too.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The President has weighed in recently and he said the
way to fix this is to put tariffs on films
that are made outside of the US.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
You're shaking your head.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I don't think that's the way to say this.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Why should we be filming scenes about Brooklyn in Vancouver?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I think that we listen.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
I definitely am personally invested in US keeping production inside
of the communities that, you know, where the people that
make them live, right, Because it's not just about are
we maintaining the integrity of the film itself by location
spased shooting. This city is where the majority of people
that make stuff live, and we've got to keep this
(05:50):
city healthy, and the economy and the infrastructure of that
has to be supported by films being made here, and
we've got to figure that out. At the same time,
if we're going to make the path of supporting these
artists is to be able to make more, to increase
the amount of stuff that is being made, we've got
to be nimble and if that means that sometimes shooting
things outside of the States, or shooting things outside of
(06:11):
LA and New York is the way to do that.
You know, a lot of the films that we've been
able to make that are really innovative and original and
risky have to find ways to cost less, and some
of the ways that we find to make them cost
less is to shoot them elsewhere. And then you have
American Fiction, which is a Boston set story that shot
in Massachusetts. So you know, we can figure it out
(06:31):
different ways, but we've got to have some.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Plex to figure out what college that was? What was it?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I went to college and doing Stayden.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
I don't believe they shot I would I would be
lying to you if I told you I knew exactly
where that location was. But it may not have been
a college at all. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I guess I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Remember where Sopranos was like taped in my neighborhood and
it's not in New York City, it's just outside New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, but it was.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Supposed to be perfect.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
So what do you say?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
What do you say? We're talking with a lot of Mao.
She is president of Ryan Pictures, you know. But when
you talk about right, like you want la and the
film scene and the filmy like you want it to
be alive and healthy. But I also do think about
you know, part of your market is a global market, Yeah, exactly,
So being able to film wherever in the world, Like,
(07:25):
that's part.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Of it, right, one hundred percent. We're you know, we're
a global community.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Without a penalty, whether it's a terror for one of
one hundred percent.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
And also what about the movies that we produced out
of Hollywood that are not set in the US. You know,
we also produce movies that are set all over the world.
You know, Mission Impossible doesn't just all take place here, right,
So I think we have to be a global industry.
We have to you know, be a global economy with
artisans that are working all over the world. But the
argument that I understand is that shouldn't be to the
(07:53):
expense of the film industries locally. Really, I feel very
strongly about that.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
You have a really cool background. You have worked twentieth
Century Thoughts, Paramount Pictures. You did a stinted Vimeo I did.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah, Oh my god, that's a blasphem with it's a
milling round. I know.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I haven't heard it.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
A while society.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Sorry Vimo.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
You came of age in an industry while it was
like undergoing this massive shift to streaming, which you alluded
to when you began your career. Did you ever think
that you'd be making movies at a company that was
owned by Amazon.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
No, I couldn't. I shouldn't do this.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
But I remember when Amazon first started making television shows.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I was at Fox and I laughed. I was like,
this is ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Because it will never laugh and everyone was like, and then.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
They started making incredible TV shows. And then you know,
to track from that moment to now working at a
film studio that is under the Amazon umbrella. I couldn't
have predicted any of this. I will say, though, when
you talk about all of those places that I worked,
part of the reason why I got my dream job,
the best job that I thought you could ever have
in film. I was a movie studio executive at Paramount.
I was on the Paramount lot, and after being there
(09:03):
for five or six years, I realized that the world
around me had changed. And I went to Vimeo very
intentionally because I thought, there's all of this cool stuff
that is happening in this digital space that I need
to understand it. And then I said, I got to
work with close to the talent, and I've got to
produce and be able to be scrappy and produce for
different platforms and different mediums.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I went to go work with Michael B.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Jordan and so it's been ever changing for the entirety
of the time that I've had the you know, blessing
of having a career in this industry, which is why
I think it's not falling. You know, it's not all
falling apart.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
What's it like? I mean, Amazon is mass company and
there are a lot of folks are like, yeah, that's
where I buy all my stuff, right, But we know
Aws is massive and we talked about it earlier too
here in terms of what they are doing media.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
All sports, entertainment. Doctor works for Amazon.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
And your pharmacist y like hands in so much of
our world and increasingly more so, what's it like they're
running a studio within the Amazon world.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
It's interesting, you know, the great benefit of it is
in this time of instability, Amazon has such scale that
it feels as if you can one still be innovative,
you can still take risks, and you can ride these
waves of change within this massive, you know, company that
can withstand.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Some of the headwinds that we're experiencing.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
So I think it's actually a place where innovation thrives,
which sounds like a talking point, but I swear I
just made that up. I'm like, let me see, I'm
like my cue cards, let me pull them out. But
it is also a big culture clash, you know, So
it's navigating those two things at once well.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And I also can I just just to follow like AI?
Right Amazon, They're so interchangeable, and then we're looking at
anybody who creates content and it's almost terrified of it.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
There are yeah where it's Those are difficult conversations that
we're navigating every single day in real time.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
And I think the difference from last.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
Year where AI never came up, not once in a
conversation about any movie that I was working on to
this year, where it is ever present in what tools
are we using, what tools are we not using?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
And also the fear I can only.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Imagine next year, you know, this stuff is happening exponentially.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Is the fear warranted?
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I think yes and no.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Right, I think anytime that you have a technology that
is going to cause a reduction in jobs, of course
it's worrisome for people like that.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
It's a real human I can't you know, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
I think for me, who works with a lot of
independent filmmakers and people that are making really highly original
stuff but at a lower costs, I think the tools
have honestly been mostly helpful because they are creating you know,
reductions and costs to our budget.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Beyond that, I don't know, Like how do.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
I was thinking? I think about this a lot, like
because we're starting to increasingly play around with things like Chachi.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
But stilt, I can't rely on it at all. Sure,
Like it's it's not.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
No, no, We're careful. We are, like I spend more
time to like I do everything trying to make it good.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Right, It's like I don't when I get back I
don't get the love that I need.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We check sources, But I was thinking about it in
the entertainment world, back to like that Star Wars movie,
the first one, and they were playing around with stuff.
But I think about CGI, and I think about animation.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
The first one, the first one, like in the nineteen seventies,
first one.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, but that was considered high. But you know, technology
has always had a roll increasingly, you know, whether it's
mission impossible, the things that Cruise is doing, and this
stuff happening around like pick pick whatever it is came
a throat like everything. So technology has a role. So
are we being silly to be so fearful of AI
or we just have to be smart or is it
(12:33):
something very very different from the things that we've had
in the digital universe.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
I don't think that it's silly to be cautious about
technological revolutions evolutions, because they usually come with the flip
side to the coin that can have some sort of
damaging impacts.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
But what I don't think is going to happen is
I don't think that we as.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Studios are going to start generating all of our scripts
from some l M and producing those scripts so that
we don't have to pay writers.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I said, that's a real or.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
It's not going to be all over the II actress.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
I'm sure Chilli will be in some things. She will
not be in a Ryan.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I have seen stuff that is so bad where I'm like,
this was definitely from AI. But of course I want
to shift gears a little bit and talk about sort
of the old school creative process and just ask the
basic question, how do you find the good stuff?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Well, that's you know, that's part of the job.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
As you you spend ten, fifteen, twenty years reading twenty
scripts a week, and part of my job is to
sift through all of that.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And okay, so, for example, to pick something like it,
to bet on something like American fiction, which I think
everybody knows. Yes, how many things do you pass on
before you get to that?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Probably over one hundred.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Yeah, the conversion rate of American Fiction was an incredible script.
One of the best scripts I've ever read in my life.
And those are unicorns, and they don't come around often
and they cannot be generated. Can someone now write, you know,
a replicate script that's American Fiction esque, perhaps through an LM.
It's not something that's an incredible voice and writer who
(14:03):
wrote almost a perfect script, and that those just don't
come along often.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Do we have time?
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yeah, go your background?
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Your dad? Yeah, Radio, Yeah, he was a big deal.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
He's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Is a big deal, I think, so, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
How did that shape you kind of growing up in
that world?
Speaker 5 (14:19):
The best thing about having my dad and my mom
both worked in the entertainment industries is I knew that
you could make a living doing this, and I didn't
have parents who were scared of me chasing this. But
I will say I also had a parent who lived
through massive, massive technological changes in his industry. I remember
showing my dad and iPods, showing him Napster and his
reaction to how that was going to affect things. So
(14:40):
I think I have a little bit more kind of
tenacity around this because I saw that happen very up
close in radio, and it's almost exactly the same as
what we're experiencing now in film's entertainment.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, I mean, like we see it in our world,
and we now do shows that you know right now,
you're on our streaming service, you're on YouTube, you're on radio,
and we do a couple of hours that throwed you know,
tradition linear television into it, so it's this melding is
pretty wild.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Thank you, Thank you. What a pleasure. Likewise, yeah, really fun.
I hope you can catch up. I hope sin at
some point in the future as well.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Thanks Alata Mayor, she's president of Ryan Pictures, joining us
right here at Bloomberg screen time.
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com