Half in the Bag Episode 130: Annabelle Creation

half in the back star on my scale yesterday and it said one at a time please [Music] [Music] oh my god Mike Mike wake up we overslept we were supposed to be up 4 weeks ago oh my god we missed reviewing a whole bunch of big summer movies let's get to the theater ok let's go right now well we're back there was a lot of time spent at the movie theater today J it was worth it though because it was hot out and the theater has air-conditioning and popcorn not starved me so J what did you think of war for the Planet of the Apes yeah it was alright so Mike what did you think of atomic blonde yeah it was okay [Music] well J what did you think of Dunkirk who's alright so Mike what did you think of the Dark Tower it was only 90 minutes so J what did you think of the emoji movie oh my god Mike the emoji movie looks so terrible that I willingly gave Sony my money so I could exaggerate my outrage in a YouTube video click here for the review just like Ghostbusters 2016 Oh what what well Janek were finally caught up with dismissively reviewing all the big summer movies no great hey do you want to talk extensively about the Annabelle prequel finally it's here Anabelle creation nothing makes me think of scary movies more than mid-august from the director of lights out David F Sandberg we finally have the prequel backstory to the Annabelle doll we've all been waiting for wait didn't we already see that yes but this is a prequel to that sequel prequel whew prepare to be bored I mean scared as many things will happen in this film from the start to the end I'm so scared so Jay what are your initial thoughts on Annabelle creations I thought it was slightly better than the first one but that's not saying a whole lot I thought it was mostly pretty dull and all the scare moments are incredibly predictable I think I like the first one more really but although I don't remember it at all well that's not a good sign of no but but I was reminded of it because the ending of this has a callback to the first Annabelle movie and so I was like oh yeah yeah yeah and then people had it the Dahlan on an apartment was Naomi Watts in it no that was shut in that was a completely different movie no one was in the first movie kind of like how no one's in this movie well no that's not true Miranda Otto from the Lord of the Rings is in this and what an easy paycheck for her she could spend the whole movie in bed they told her she was making of the new rebooted female phantom of the opera' okay she thought that would be great inspiration for little girls all over the world I finally have a female Phantom of the Opera and then she signed on and said oh it's an animal I'll be in bed how about my characters crippled but the scene doesn't take place I'll be in bed if you want me in your movie bring the camera into the bedroom mm-hmm I don't even want to show my [ __ ] face that was actually her house oh okay lives on a dilapidated dusty farmhouse that looks like the setting for a horror movie yeah that's a that's a very wonderful coincidence it worked out really well for everyone but let's delve into the the backstory and the the the circumstances surrounding this wonderful new Annabel sequel prequel so you mean we're gonna get into the stuff that's more interesting than the actual movie yes yes we're gonna talk about the actual movie and kind of get into why it's dull sure and terrible but let's talk about director David F Sandberg J you have a little history with him wait what what the hell oh yeah well David F Sandberg also directed lights out which we did not do on half in the bag I didn't see it so much later and someone on Twitter a while back had asked me hey what do you think of lights out you didn't talk about it I'm half in the bag and before I even responded to that someone else said yeah I was curious what you thought I was hoping you would do it on half on the bag and I think I was in line at like the grocery store or something cuz that's the only time I ever checked my Twitter's when I'm bored and so is this like I thought it was boring as [ __ ] cuz there's too much backstory to the monster which makes it not scary and then the second person that had asked me about it said well that's too bad well at least I know you saw my movie and that's when I realized I was talking to the director of lights out wait what what the hell I did not apologize profusely though because I still thought was a boring movie yeah you you you don't like or dislike him personally you don't know him on well no that's the thing it's like I looked into him afterwards cuz I like it was this guy and I found his YouTube page and he's just some guy that's been making these like short little horror vignettes with his girlfriend or his wife and their apartment just sort of random ideas and that's how lights out eventually got made it was just a short thing yeah and I guess that got the attention of someone in Hollywood and they said you're a little 2 minutes short or someone shuts a light off and there's spooky silhouette is great why don't you direct a feature film expand that 2 minute idea into a 90 minute feature filled yes and that's the problem with this short is that like oh this is a spooky little scenario because we don't understand what's happening and that's what made it creepy and then you expand it to a feature and you find out the backstory of what that spooky so I did just like oh it's a little girl with a skin condition that's not scary he lights out don't breathe and hush I'll blend into the same movie okay for me but I think I remote is it's basically the gremlin from gremlins 2 who has electricity powers right is that essentially the plot no wasn't wasn't it a lady was given a like shock therapy on her brain like a radical treatment and it turned her into an electricity ghost I swear the [ __ ] I'm gonna be honest with you I don't remember that something happened at the end where it wasn't it wasn't a demon no I was a little girl with a skin condition yeah she's like spooky ghost but but I think they they gave her a shock therapy that was a weird experimental shock there remember they had that real like the whoever the protagonist wasn't that movie put like a film reel on and then it's like hi I'm doctor so-and-so and I'm crazy I'm gonna explain the plot to you I'm trying this crazy new electric shock therapy to cure this girl from her skin condition okay outside yeah sunlight would like kill her so so he tried this crazy electric shock therapy thing and then that made her crazy and died and then she turned into electricity goes I could be misremembering the plot but my point is is that it was not supernatural but it was more of a scientific evil plot if I hear it well and it has a good hook if nothing else like that trailer is scarier than the movie the shutting light out silhouette in the door when the light goes out like that's creepy image [Music] what was the movie where the mother and the daughter this may be the same movie where the mother and is pretending to be like a spiritualist or a psychic and the daughter that's the we just origin of each other okay they're all the same everything is set in 1950 was it sure it was well the back story maybe was yes it is but it was set in the past 60s 50s and 60s everything's sent the past and is a prequel now and there's a house an old Victorian mansion that has dust everywhere and a lady in the 1950s dress and a little girl okay so David Sandberg directed that film and we did not review it and I don't remember like being true passion or dispassionate about it I really think it was well-made I got no problems with his visuals or anything is just I didn't care about the story which is the problem with Annabelle as well yes but then let's move on to phase 2 of our prequel pre discussion okay if I said that right we're gonna talk about the Rotten Tomatoes score on this film and let's talk about Rotten Tomatoes just a little bit yes Rotten Tomatoes there's a war on Rotten Tomatoes by the studio's going on right now there they're convinced that Rotten Tomatoes is why all their movies are flopping and has nothing to do with their movies being terrible Rotten Tomatoes I'm sure doesn't help but we noticed a weird thing with this Annabelle what's the name of this movie Annabelle creation and a little creation there's a weird thing where for about two weeks before the movie came out it sat at a hundred percent there was like how many like 16 reviews and they were all positive and it's added a hundred percent and that was the only reviews and then it was like a second embargo lifted and immediately that started to drop but for two straight weeks BAM 100% Annabelle creation 100% and so we don't have any definitive answers on this but we were wondering why there would be an embargo on some reviews and not others yeah if it's a studio tactic which yeah which is a clever tactic so fine 16:15 reviewers who had viewed a similar film very positively in the past invite them to a special screening give them some cake and some punch maybe a free Annabelle doll say here's free Annabelle doll and in a swag bag filled with Warner Brothers merchandise and then um you know shake their hand at the end of the screening and go you thought it was great right mr. or mrs. so-and-so at this address with two children who attend this public school and walk home by themselves at 3 p.m. you like the film right and then then it comes out two weeks ahead of time it sits at 100% around tomatoes and goes oh I heard it's like it's like pre word-of-mouth yes and and that may or may not be what happened that's not what we're saying we're saying that's a clever tactic because either that if your movies crappy or you don't pre-screen for Christmas well in even the idea of it not being pre-screened for critics has a stigma about it too people hear that and they say I guess maybe not like the average person but people that are into movies hear that and they say oh that means it's probably bad yes so you screen the movie ahead of time but really the I haven't seen too many movies that were screened for select critics and then allowed their reviews to be posted yeah well the embargo lifted I think just a day or two before the movie came out which is kind of what they do for movies where they don't want advance reviews when they think the movies gonna get [ __ ] reviews so this is a weird and unique and unprecedented situation where there's just these handful of reviews for several weeks before the movie comes out that just so happened to all be positive right it's weird and it's suspect and we don't have any answers it's just something that we notice if anybody knows anything about this and if there's any sort of studio related shenanigans behind it I would be very curious to know yeah and then this movie still has like the red tomato it's still it's not certified fresh' it but it's red and it's like 68% which in school is a D+ so it's not that terrible review no well that's that's the other thing to point out with rotten tomatoes is that a lot of people don't seem to understand it it's not like oh it's a tomato that means it's good like it's not that simplistic it's just sort of an average so especially with the Sanibel creation review a lot of those and I try to avoid reviews before we talk about the movies but a lot of them could just be like that's okay yeah because not the most glowing review but it's a tomato it's technically falls on the tomato side and that's that's probably going to be our review I was bored I found many problems I mainly the lack of story but if I were to say positives I'd say some creepy visuals here and there you know like well shot well lit you know looks like a spooky horror movie and then because I had a couple positive things and so really yeah it's not it's not the most accurate tool I mean maybe if you're down at like 6 percent like the emoji movie it's safe it's safe to lean and the this movies probably [ __ ] right category but when you're in the middle you never know I've seen movies that were in the middle range that I really loved and some are really hated so it's hard to say and it's now it's starting to the studios are fighting back apparently where it seems like they're trying to manipulate the system to try and make it work in their favor yeah I don't blame them I'm you know it would suck if you know you worked really hard on this movie and it comes out and five days before it screens it has this that green tomato at ten percent and then everybody sees that and you know at least give the movie a chance and let word-of-mouth negative word-of-mouth work but I don't know well so David F Sandberg got to make lights out by making a short YouTube video roughly two minutes someone saw it yeah just two minutes long someone saw it and said hey let's expand that and do a feature and that's interesting because David's F Sandberg is the face of a new contest hi I'm David F Sandberg director of Annabelle creation and I have some really exciting news my Annabel creation and I I came across this and I was like oh what's this my Annabel creation and make a two minute short horror film in in the vein in the universe of the conjuring universe well now I want you to create your own short horror film inspired by James wants the Condren universe for a chance to win a trip to Los Angeles where you'll get to meet with New Line Cinema and me that's the prize to meet with them well that sounds like a like a great opportunity you know you make this short film and then I like look what happened to David F Sandberg you know he made his little two-minute youtube short it got expanded into a feature exactly that sounds very beneficial to the filmmaker yeah and so I looked at this and I said hey this looks like fun maybe maybe we'll make a short film well we we have an Annabelle doll somehow I think someone sent that to us when the conjuring came out yeah Oh miss me it has the conjuring tag on it so in theaters July 19 so we have an Annabelle doll and I thought hey maybe we could make a funny funny wacky short and submit it for fun and then I said wait a minute I might be a smart guy and I'm gonna read the contract so go check out the Official Rules and submit your short at this website what happened when you read the contract Mike well apparently nobody else read the contract but me no maybe not even David F Sandberg because you might be ashamed of himself for promoting this I have some really exciting news so I have a contract here and this is this is the part that that interested me okay each entrant and an entrant is the person that enters the contest agrees that in addition to the license granted above sponsor which is Warner Brothers or any of the sponsors parents affiliates or subsidiaries may upon written notice to the entrant at any time within approximately three months of the verification of the winner in this contest so they mean if you win the contest they have three months to kind of make a decision about this thing sure acquire from entrant an exclusive and irrevocable option to purchase all right title and interest in and to his or her entrance content in exchange for 50 US dollars provided that a the option will remain exercisable for a period of not fewer than three years during the option period sponsor will have the right to develop derivative works or otherwise explore possible exploitation of the rights that would be granted to it pursuant to the option so we're going to take your idea we own it and we don't have to give you anything in addition to that this isn't like well have you make the feature film they're basically saying they have three years to do whatever they want with your idea as long as they give you fifty bucks well fifty bucks in the event that sponsor executes sits option the sole and exclusive consideration provided to entrant in exchange for the purchase of all rights in his or her entrant content will be an additional fifty US dollars we're at a hundred bucks now J oh my god that's big money for big studios stealing your idea stealing anybody's idea J don't don't don't slander they're buying the idea for $50 a hundred possible you don't know 50 is for the option now it means they hold it for three years and they have the option to do something and you can't do anything with that idea during those three years and then in those three years if they decide to make into a feature film you'll be compensated with another 50 bucks whoa you get your facts right for the purpose of clarity and without limiting the foregoing entrant understands that should sponsor take and execute the option described here sponsor will own all rights in the entrance video and may adapt it into a feature film without any obligation to further compensate entrant this sounds like a great contest and very beneficial to the people entering it oh you mean the other way around Oh for a chance to win a trip to Los Angeles where you'll get to meet with New Line Cinema and me if neither mr. Sandburg nor a sponsor selected executive from New Line Cinema is available to participate in the meeting on the sponsor appointed date the portion of the prize will not be awarded and no substitute or replacement will be provided and lastly it says nothing in these Official Rules or any option agreement executed by the parties will obligate sponsor to exercise or exploit any of the rights granted to it meaning like they decide they don't like your idea they're not legally bound to do something with it it sounds like you make a two minute long or movie idea a la David Sandberg with lights out yes you submit it to us if you win this contest your prizes will fly out to LA and you can meet with the director and/or the director is not available somebody at Warner Brothers doesn't even say who it's just as an executive it could be some some intern gonna be the guy that gets to coffee yeah and it just says you'll meet with them anything hey we'd really love to short you're really good at making them movies okay get back on your plane and then they they can take your idea and turn it into a movie without compensating you more than 50 bucks stay classy Warner Brothers [Laughter] well Jay I think we talked a lot about more interesting things with Rotten Tomatoes conspiracies bogus contests conspiracies you think well big Studios [ __ ] people over you and David Sandberg your your personal relationship which goes back ways we're like this now because we had an awkward encounter on on Twitter once the film opens with Annabelle being made by a kindly old man who sounds like Liam Neeson Jenna told you not to use that room there was Anthony LaPaglia I don't think I've seen him in a movie in like 20 years I don't know where he's been brought all the stars out he's building the Annabelle doll in a barn and then he's making custom makes toys in this little small town and then he has a little daughter I know like okay daughter's gonna die it did happen way more abruptly and almost comically than I was expecting cuz yeah it's we see them they're at home and then they go to church and under leave in church and then their car breaks down on the side of the road and there doesn't feel like there's any sort of buildup we're just sort of seeing these things happen and then like one of the lug nuts from the car falls into the road for no discernible reason the daughter runs to grab it I don't know why she would care and then a car just smacks into her cut Annabelle creation and is this so like abrupt and awkward it was very weird it's contrary to most ghost stories I was really expecting because the film opens with Annabelle she's playing a little game with her dad like come find me she leaves a little note under the door yeah which is a reference to the real-life Annabelle doll I think oh really wrote notes and left in places the real-life Annabelle doll has a cameo at the end of this which it looks it's ass like a Raggedy Ann doll yeah and I think the worst thing it did was I made a knocking sound and I moved around and I pardon but yeah I think that's a reference to that but then you have the the dad and the daughter kind of like goofing around the living room and the mom comes in and she's like don't be goofing around and then there's a little thing where she was I'm just kidding let's all have fun and I from the moment the mother walked and I thought although the mom's gonna be weird it's got a special bond with the dad and they both kind of issues with the mind like the ring is not what happened their mom throws the girl down the well something like that and again because she goes crazy and she kills the girl in the well and so I thought was gonna be something like that where has more of a emotional spiritual thing with a girl oh that would kind of leave her spirit stay behind some sort of tragedy but then it just gets hit by a car you know like the daughter first yes or like any of these people I guess you're supposed to like the parents because they get along with the daughter I mean they're going for something there but that's it for the rest of the movie we don't really care about anybody the two then then we get a busload of girls is like what 12 years later or something and now their house is like a boarding house I guess or like an orphanage shaking the chicken and orphans yeah so this busload of orphans show up we don't get to know any of them except for the two main girls which have like a sisterly bond they're not literally sisters but one has like a [ __ ] leg and those two actresses are really good I thought they were both pretty solid one of them was from ouija uh origin of evil which just like this movie it's a prequel to a shitty movie so they were fine I guess we don't really get to know much about them but they get to the house and then spooky things happen for 90 minutes yeah there's no the only plot element they only reveal is kind of like when the nun goes into Miranda Otto's bedroom it's just got her Phantom of the Opera mask on yeah and she says what's it up with the doll [ __ ] and she's like oh well here's some hair some exposition great to see you love it garlic started small it wanted permission to the eventual doll so that it could be with us forever but the thing is it's not really even a reveal because what she reveals is the doll is possessed by a spooky demon which we already know well okay I guess it's supposed to be oh it's not Annabelle but we know that yeah well we know that because she's doing evil things right the reason for the little girl to be evil but yeah so there's multiple things happening of the spooky nature you got the doll which visually looks spooky then we see the ghost of Annabelle which is not really Annabelle it's a demon so the parents felt so grief-stricken by the death of their daughter that they prayed to Jebus let can we have our daughter back and then when that didn't work they switched to the black arts and they prayed to the devil or any power that in the universe that could possibly bring their daughter back we didn't see that montage of them praying to all sorts of other gods and other monsters and demons it'll skip all that it's correct like in Hindu Road and then so the doll is never really possessed that's movie that was my problem with the first Annabelle and that's my problem with this one is if you're gonna make a spooky doll movie make a spooky doll movie the doll is is incidental it doesn't have anything to do with anything this is a demon movie just like the conjuring movies just like the insidious movies there's a doll there but it's not like the doll is the only conduit like that's the only way the demon can do anything right because we see like there's a scarecrow and the Scarecrow starts to move at one point and then we just see the demon at certain points the demon just does things Steven can do whatever one can do it there's no rules which I know my complaint about lights out is that they explain too much backstory but this one there's there's no backstory and there's no rules and that's a problem too yeah when you're making a feature film where you have to know what to be scared of yes yes I am a big proponent of rules in your horror films I think it completely depends on the movie but this is such a like traditionally structure just like spooky studio release horror film right like you got to give us something to grasp on - yeah I mean what are like there's the part where the dad is holding up a crucifix of the demon and the demon starts like breaking his fingers to get his hands off the crucifix yeah and then the demon at the end is like shattering the house of course and and it's like what are its powers bad imitations we don't know right cuz he yeah he has a crucifix he has a religious symbol of the doll and the demons just like yeah whatever breaks fingers but then at the end they throw the demon into a closet that has Bible pages on the door and can't get out of that I guess so I nod why one enough the other rules you can't just have spooky things happen that make no sense well that's the thing with the director is is his his thing is I'm setting up this the spooky visual this thing's gonna and and it's all very predictable um it's like okay now things can happen like I was like like going okay I was like now when I'm watching the movie the girl closes closet door the dolls in the door or behind the door she walks away there's there's lots of negative space on this side of the frame I'm like and door opens and and a lot of that stuff I mean some things were unpredictable but a lot of things are just bang right loud noise well the things that were unpredictable were unpredictable because they didn't really make any sense they set up there's a - situations that were set up in the movie or as a who this could pay off in a cool way one is the girl with the gimpy leg she's like oh why is my bedroom upstairs how am I going to get upstairs and then they established that there's a whatever that is like a mechanized chair this is deagle chair mrs. deagle chair that's the official name for it that's like ooh you could do some spooky stuff with that where she's going up at night and then it gets stuck or something and she sees the demon coming towards her they kind of did it but then nothing happens like like oh she's going up the stairs and there's the demon at the top of stairs oh oh the demons gone yeah and then she sits there for a minute and then the demon just pulls her out of the chair and that's the end of that scene it wasn't like anything clever about it or scary because it was just sort of like oh he just pulled her out of the chair okay yeah even something much more basic where she's sitting in the chair she's going downstairs in the chair and then it just stops and then and then slowly going back up and there's a demon at the top of the stairs bang I'm gonna get you and she's just slowly going up click on the button I can't shut it off again so darling and she's almost a demon is it yeah and then someone flips the lights on and everything's okay right this is like where you're out using just a basic build up and voice you have no control and there's a lots of build ups and releases in this movie and lots of like whoa go away but it's the rules it's the rules in the logic the Annabelle doll has very little to do in the film there's a demon running around and it's kind of thing where the demon is there in the beginning but decides to not do anything super super crazy until the end for no reason yeah that's that's all these movies are gonna do that and obviously you do that because you have to have things happen at the end of your movie so they have the crazy build up but usually it's motivated by something and then at a certain point the demon will just possess the main girl because it has that power to I guess well she does say I'll swallow your soul how about this it's cliched and terrible but the demon needs to eat five Souls and when it does it has enough strength to open a rift to hell something sure some sort of little thing that's gonna happen yeah or we find out we find out the nun has a like a secret bad backstory I was waiting for there's a photo of her with like some other nuns early on and then he's like who's that and it's the nun from the conjuring too so and I thought maybe that was gonna tie in but it doesn't it's just a reference the conjuring to because I think they're making a non movie now too the demon goes nun I forget her name none I know your dark secret yeah and disappears and then so what's going on with the nun it felt like like a Disney horror movie yeah there was some blood I mean there's there's some slit throats and yeah there's a character that's ripped in half we don't see it ripped in half but you see the aftermath of it but yeah it all felt very disturbing about it really like safe and predictable as far as scares go I kept thinking like while watching this I have the shining kept popping in my head I don't know why because that's a really great horror movie me well yeah but it's something with like I don't know the dad walking around being creepy and I was like I'm like can you imagine like a horror film maker from like the 70s or the 80s like watching this and going this is what's horror it felt like a g-rated film yeah I felt like Little Orphan Annie like with with a couple of like blood drips on the ground yeah I'm like when is this Annabelle doll gonna start offing these orphans well that's the thing too is I knew that was gonna happen because they're all little I mean technically yes they kill a little girl to begin to the movie but that's sort of the setup for it but I never thought any of these little girls were in any real danger they introduced the the older ones I was waiting for them to get killed like the only reason they're in here is to get killed right right exactly there and then they're being mean to the one girl go play hide-and-seek and let's talk about boys and giggle and so like okay there's a dialogue that was clearly written by a 40 year old man he's a writer yeah none of it felt like a little girl speak but yeah so I'm like when are like and they even have that elongated sequence where the one girl is in the barn and the Scarecrow man is being possessed by a demon and she's trying to fix the lightbulbs and like this girl gon get killed and then she she just gets spooked it almost felt like a reshoot she cornered and she prays like Oh Lord Jesus help me and then and then her friend just comes out of nowhere and goes come on and then I'm like where where did her friend come what what in the world yeah I bet you that that girl got her head ripped off and then the studio goes so Mike would you recommend Annabelle what's a call Annabelle creation [ __ ] sake Jay it'sit'sit's let its leaves my brain before it even enters it uh nope I would not this move is boring and needed more music and needed to be cut faster Zhou or 49 minutes it clearly could have been 49 really yeah I'm good about 9d it could have been 80 but the longer you drag something out that automatically creates tension just having something be silent and someone walk around instant tension it's creaky floorboards you know those little sounds going on in the background like that makes it scary but I can't imagine watching this film with the theater filled with like antsy teenagers on their cell phones because they would be bored no I would not I might be I might have been a little more lenient on this movie if it came out in like October and you're just looking for a spooky movie in the theater to see around Halloween but why is this movie coming out in August maybe they're concerned because like the it movie comes out in September and then you saw a movie comes out in October and the Saw movies are always super huge around Halloween or they wore the older ones so maybe there's like this is the only slop they had before it got into Halloween season but no they wanted to get it out before North Korea nukes us it's really important that everybody animals what if this was the last movie you saw before you died how depressing of a thought is that I think statistically it's possible right sure this is probably the last movie that somebody will see before they die yeah that is the worst thing you've ever said so tweet at us or comment below if you know someone who died and this was the last movie they saw and be sure to smash that like button and don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube like our Facebook page and follow our Instagram and be sure to check out our merch store for all red letter media products and we're offering a special this week only where you can get a t-shirt made with a picture of your friend who's just died so you can remember them and the last movie that they saw before they died [Music]

Channel: RedLetterMedia

Views: 1,811,647

Keywords: redlettermedia, red letter media, red, letter, media, plinkett, half in the bag, best of the worst, mike stoklasa, jay bauman, rich evans, annabelle, annabelle creation, conjuring, rotten tomatoes

Id: _HrR5X72_LM

Length: 36min 16sec (2176 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 16 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/VanFitz]

TL:DW - If you win the contest, WB gets to option your idea for $50, and if they make a movie of it, they give you another $50. And that's it.

[u/oldschoolfl]

$50.00 US Dollars? That's purely evil. Like, who even thought of that?

[u/tits-mchenry]

David F Samberg contacted WB studios for further clarification on the matter. You can see him talking about it here https://www.reddit.com/r/RedLetterMedia/comments/6u3zse/half_in_the_bag_130_annabelle_creation/?st=j6g6wvcb&sh=376ed258

[u/[deleted]]

This kind of contest is very common in the music world. Or, at least it was about a decade ago when I was a struggling songwriter. I would get come on's in the mail. DO YOU WANT TO BE A STAR? ETC.

I recall there was the ol' "John Lennon Song Writing Contest". You would actually pay like $25 per song submission hoping to win the grand prize. I think the winner received a demo deal with some producer or maybe you could win some gear too.

The rules stated, enter as many times at you like. All the up and coming bands in my area sent in their songs. The contest people raked in the cash and I don't think I ever received any notice that I won or lost the contest. Nobody ever blew up or benefited from this kind of contest. This is the kind of thing that so called "gate keepers" and Simon Cowells use to suck the life and $$$ out the young artist.

[u/Didiathon]

When does a contract become ridiculous enough to be voided? I bet if you had someone sign a 500 page document that had a vague line in the middle about now owing 1 quadrillion dollars, a judge would dismiss it outright. I'm sure part of the strategy behind sleazy shit like this is to intimidate people with legal proceedings regardless of whether or not they'd win, but I've always been kind of curious about where the line is with incredibly one sided obviously deceptive contracts like this.

[u/[deleted]]

They didn't mention the real horror story. You fly there on United.

[u/[deleted]]

For those of you just finding Red Letter Media due to this post, you lucky bastards, check them out they are great.

[u/Procrastanaseum]

Even with the peanuts they're paying out, there's going to be at least a handful of film makers who jump at this "opportunity."

[u/rabbitsayer]

WOW! between this and ham-fisting an atrocious microtransaction system into the new Shadow of Mordor game, WB can wholly go fuck themselves. Bunch of greedy fuckin' assholes

Edit: I can spell