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Comment by blatherard | Hacker News Reader

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blatherard·

The Orchard is developing a film transparency platform that addresses pretty much exactly this problem.

http://transparency.theorchard.com/

http://www.indiewire.com/2016/09/orchard-transparency-platfo...

(disclosure: I'm working with them as a consultant.)

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But the problem with Hollywood accounting isn't that distributors are unable to transparently share financial details. It's that they've worked very hard to find ways to obfuscate it, so as to reap higher profits.

What incentive do the distributors - your customers, and gatekeepers to using this approach - have to adopt it?

Surely, this is a technical solution to a non-technical problem?

The Orchard actually is a film (and music) distribution company itself. The idea is that transparency is a competitive advantage against other distributors.

If the talent demands all related transactions be disclosed through such a platform, then it might have some effect? The studios are going to resist it tooth & nail though.

Getting a screenplay bought is like winning the lottery. It's a buyer's market.

Plus, now that every single agent knows about hollywood accoutning (and probably knew about in 1980) it's not even a problem. If you want a cut, you ask for a cut of the revenue, which isn't fakeable.

Instead of a 1% of profit, you ask for 1% of revenue above 75 million.

Tell that to the Tolkien estate who had an agreement of 7.5% of the gross, but did not see a penny until after taking New Line to court.

http://deadline.com/2008/02/more-bad-news-for-new-line-tolki...

Apparently one trick is to delay paying royalties for years by saying "we still haven't received all the revenue on this feature from all the companies we licenced it to in year x".

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