Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: The Cutting Room Floor deal, YouTuber films at the box office, Taylor Swift x Toy Story + more

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MINI SCROLL: The Cutting Room Floor deal, YouTuber films at the box office, Taylor Swift x Toy Story + more · Mini Scroll

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  Coming up today on Mini Scroll, the cutting room floors, Patreon
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  deal, the YouTube films, breaking the Hollywood box
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  office, Taylor Swift X Toy Story and another Patagonia versus
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  Patagonia update. Hi everyone.
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  Welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet culture podcast
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  bringing you the biggest stories from social media, the creator
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  economy and the digital space. Every Monday through Thursday
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  and sometimes Fridays, I'm your host Lauren Meisner, the founder
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  of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll everyone and thank you so much
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  to today's sponsor, The Commons, Australia's premium Co working
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  dot AU. All right, so welcome back to
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  mini scroll. Everyone.
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  Before I get into it, Please remember to rate, review and
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  subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
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  It helps us so much. It helps us grow.
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  It helps us keep going and getting more brand deals, which
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  actually leads us really well into my first story for today.
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  So I guess let's just get into it.
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  We have big news for independent podcasters today and the
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  industry at large. Fashion podcaster Rachel Amandi
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  has signed a three-year strategic partnership with
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  Patreon. And this partnership goes well
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  beyond a typical creator of monetization agreement.
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  So according to Fast Company, Patreon is committing to helping
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  grow the cutting room floor, which is her podcast, into a
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  broader independent media company.
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  Patreon will contribute to her marketing spend and production,
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  and this will include hiring new team members and expanding the
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  content beyond the podcast itself.
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  This is so cool. OK, so the cutting room floor,
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  if you guys didn't know it, launched in 2018 and by 2021,
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  Rachel put the whole show behind a paywall on Patreon and
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  reportedly it's become a top 1% podcast on the platform.
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  This is significant because it's an investment into essentially
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  an individual creator where Patreon's essentially betting on
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  her being able to build and grow a media ecosystem from a single
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  asset. And I wanted to talk about how
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  this relates also to the most recent time that we spoke about
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  Rachel and the cutting room floor, which was during $55,000
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  Gates. Do you guys remember this?
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  So last year Rachel faced criticism over a job posting and
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  this whole saga became known as 55 K Gate because which
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  basically she had advertised a full time role with the cutting
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  room floor and it had a salary of $55,000 per year before tax.
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  The problem, well the main problem that most people have
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  with this was that the role was really chaotic.
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  So it was essentially asking someone to do multiple jobs,
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  including being a personal assistant to Rachel and also
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  like a production and studio assistant for the business.
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  People thought that there were like literally 4 jobs in one,
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  which in this job ecosystem is not that unusual.
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  But I think she's pretty high profile.
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  People saw the job, you know, I'm sure there are tons of jobs
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  that are advertised just like this through companies.
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  But of course, in her situation, there was a face to a name and
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  there was lots of backlash because of that.
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  Some people are arguing that the pay was too low for people
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  living in New York City. And of course, the range of
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  responsibilities was like multiple jobs, not just one.
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  In response to the backlash, Rachel initially defended the
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  listing during a TikTok live, saying that her starting salary
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  after graduating was $30,000. And she also did acknowledge on
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  this live that the pay was low, but that she was looking for
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  someone who essentially was like eager to gain experience and
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  build their career in New York City in their early stages of
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  their career. And as you can imagine, this did
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  not go over very well. So she later issued an apology
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  after even more backlash and like news articles about this
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  and stuff. She issued it to Patreon through
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  a voice note explaining that she would pause the hiring process
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  and reassess the role before moving forward.
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  I don't know if she actually ever ended up hiring for this
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  role. I'm not sure what happened.
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  However, I thought that this was like an interesting turn of
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  events less than a year later because now she's getting
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  funding and can expand the team and hire for roles, presumably
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  with a lot more confidence and less concern around budgets.
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  That's the dream. I think I said this back then
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  but independent media is so fucking hard to make money in
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  even if you are audience funded like she is.
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  I don't agree with how she responded to the backlash
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  initially and I don't necessarily agree with like her
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  original job posting, but I can understand the struggle of
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  having no money and so desperately needing people
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  because media is such a high output business.
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  It's like impossible to scale if you're bootstrapped.
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  It's almost impossible to scale if you don't have a number of
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  people working for your organization.
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  Because a media organizations value and thus growth trajectory
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  often is reliant on having a number of people that can put
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  out original content, strong original content frequently and
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  that takes a lot of manpower and you often don't have the
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  budgets. So much budget has been funneled
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  to the creator industry from like traditional, like quote a
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  quote media. A lot of brands are still not
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  totally convinced in spending with new media yet.
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  A lot of times audiences don't want to pay for content or they
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  can't afford to pay for content. So we're kind of in this like
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  lose, lose situation. So this is a dream and I see
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  this as a huge win for the independent podcast industry and
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  indie media in general. And like, we don't know the
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  financials obviously, but like regardless, this kind of funding
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  so rarely goes to women solo founders and also women of color
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  who are solo founders. So this is a win for all of us
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  all around. All right, the next story that I
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  have for you guys today, another win for the creator economy this
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  week, is that everyone's talking about how these YouTube made
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  Hollywood films are just killing it at the box office.
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  So the ones in particular that people are talking about this
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  weekend, back Rooms, which opened with $81,000,000 USD at
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  the box office this weekend, and Obsession, which has earned a
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  nearly $150 million USD and I believe that's been out for like
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  two or three weeks. Both films outperformed major
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  franchise releases, including Star Wars.
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  Allegedly. And I say allegedly because
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  like, I don't know anything about Star Wars.
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  I'm not keeping up with Star Wars.
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  OK, allegedly there's a new Star Wars movie.
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  And both of these films were directed by first time film
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  makers in their 20s who got their start on YouTube.
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  Interestingly, Backrooms was also based on a concept that
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  originated from a 4 Chan post. So we're talking like deep
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  Internet culture roots here in both of these movies.
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  So even though Youtubers have been trying to transition to
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  Hollywood forever, like that is literally the reason why so many
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  of the OG like skit based Youtubers started posting on the
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  platform back in the day. So they could build a portfolio
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  for their entertainment careers in hosting, acting, directing,
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  all of that kind of stuff. Hollywood has rarely taken them
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  seriously. Which is also crazy when you
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  think about how Youtubers essentially have to do it all,
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  like they are doing it all and for so many years usually, like
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  storytelling, filmmaking, storyboarding, editing,
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  marketing. They are doing all of that on
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  basically no budget. But there's a lot of industry
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  people that think maybe with these two box office hits, you
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  know, coming together at the same time, essentially beating
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  up some of these franchises, it maybe will be a sign that things
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  will start changing. I wanted to read this theory
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  from Ryan Broderick from Garbage Day.
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  So he wrote. What with this YouTube invasion
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  though, there are roughly 3 distinct things happening here.
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  There are Youtubers adapting their homegrown IP for bigger
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  screen, Youtubers being plugged into original films, and
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  Youtubers effectively being the pitchman to get people in the
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  door. Separating these three lanes out
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  is important because we're still trying to figure out what the
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  value of a YouTube audience actually is.
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  Are Youtubers creatives? Are they producers?
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  Are they underdeveloped IP based on success so far in typical
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  messy Internet fashion? I think the answer is all of the
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  above. But also it depends and I agree
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  with that. There's a lot of think pieces,
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  especially on LinkedIn right now, curse where people are like
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  this is going to be the thing that changes everything.
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  I disagree. I do not think it will change
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  things overnight. I understand it is hard to
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  ignore YouTube films beating out something like Star Wars, but I
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  fear we may be underestimating how long decision makers at the
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  top actually take to be OK with change.
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  As somebody who obviously is building new media and almost
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  all the budgets, at least in Australia, cuz it's still kind
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  of like a slower market to adapt to change.
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  I would say somebody operating in this ecosystem, most of the
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  budgets in media are still going to the big conglomerates to, you
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  know, the big mainstream media titles.
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  It doesn't matter how good your numbers are, it doesn't matter
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  how engaged your audience is. It's easier for the decision
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  makers to go with the status quo if they can still justify it to
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  whoever they need to justify it to.
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  They will choose that in my experience, like 9 times out of
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  10 over like trying to actually disrupt.
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  So I'm cautiously optimistic that this may be the start of a
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  permanent win for the creator economy.
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  But like, I'm not holding my breath.
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  All right. My last story, I have two
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  stories, but they're like updates so they're quick ones is
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  the Taylor Swift Toy Story collab has been confirmed.
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  And normally I would not cover an artist doing a song for a
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  movie, but this became like a conspiracy theory a few weeks
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  ago. I think it was a few weeks ago
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  and I covered it. So we're closing the loop on
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  this. Taylor Swift has officially
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  confirmed that she is part of Toy Story 5.
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  She has an original song that she wrote and recorded called I
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  Knew It, I Knew You for the upcoming film.
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  The track, Taylor says, was inspired by the character Jesse
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  and it will be released on June 5th, which is, I was going to
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  say tomorrow, no, that's Friday. Ahead of the movies June 19th
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  premiere. Disney has described the song as
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  a return to Taylor Swift's country roots with long time
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  collaborator Jack Antonoff. I, I know, I know a lot of
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  people don't agree with me, but I love the Taylor Swift Jack
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  Antonoff collab. OK.
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  The music that they make together for me has crack in it.
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  So I'm actually excited for this song.
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  So yes. This news follows on from weeks
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  of speculation Swifties were doing their detective work.
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  They became convinced that she was connected to this film after
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  a mysterious countdown appeared on her website, featuring
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  imagery that resembled Andy's bedroom from Toy Story.
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  And then fans also spotted a series of TS billboards around
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  the world, leading to theories about a collaboration between
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  Taylor Swift and Pixar. And then the next update I have
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  is on Patagonia versus Patagonia because that is my permanent
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  beat. Now is this lawsuit, as I've
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  said many times, I'm like the last person who should ever be
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  reporting on lawsuits, But I feel like there's just like a
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  lot of litigious stuff going on that's like relevant to us.
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  OK, So I actually kind of wish now, I mean, hindsight is 2020.
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  I would have had no idea that they were going to release a
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  statement. But obviously I just gave you
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  guys an update yesterday and I wish that I could have just
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  given you this update altogether, but here we are.
• 11:37
  Hi everyone, doing a pick up again through editing.
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  I don't know why I keep having to do these, but I'm going to
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  play a TikTok from Patty Gonia. She released another video.
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  I didn't see this. She released a video yesterday
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  and then I will get into the rest of the story.
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  This is straight up lies because the first time we heard from
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  Patagonia after filing our trademark application was four
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  months later when their internal lawyer emailed to say that
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  Patagonia had filed the lawsuit against me for trademark
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  infringement. So there was no conversation,
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  not because I wasn't willing to have it, but because Patagonia,
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  you never reached out. You blindsided us.
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  So I'll tell you what's really going on here.
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  Either you, Ryan Geller, CEO of Patagonia, are lying to the
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  public or the people under you are lying directly to your face.
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  Speaking of trademarks, not only did I submit my trademark to the
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  US Patent and Trademark Office, but it passed the first step and
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  the examining attorney found it. And I quote not confusingly
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  similar to Patagonia's mark. Patagonia, from the beginning,
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  all I've wanted is peace. And I don't think you're
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  entitled to what I'm about to do, and you certainly don't
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  deserve it for your extremely disappointing behavior.
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  But I'm going to offer it to you right now.
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  You're saying the issue is the trademark.
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  I'm willing to drop the trademark.
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  And if I do that, you drop the lawsuit.
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  So Patagonia has released a statement on their Instagram.
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  I'm going to read it for you, they wrote.
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  There's a lot going on around the lawsuit we filed in January
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  to protect our trademarks, and we owe you an update.
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  We wish this lawsuit had not been necessary, and we want to
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  acknowledge any hurt it has caused, especially in the LGBTQ
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  plus community. We don't want to argue trademark
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  law and social media. Importantly, we continue to want
• 13:20
  to resolve this. As we have said to Pat Econia,
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  we can do that if they withdraw all trademark applications, stop
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  using our logos, stop selling and promoting apparel and other
• 13:29
  products as Pat Econia. If we can agree on this, we can
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  workout everything else and Patagonia could continue as a
• 13:35
  performer and activist. We share a common ground with
• 13:37
  them, including the goal of saving our home planet and
• 13:40
  creating a more inclusive outdoors.
• 13:42
  I think it was right that they addressed this publicly.
• 13:45
  I have seen some people say to drop this statement on the first
• 13:49
  day of pride month was a choice, but I think at this point,
• 13:52
  because it was brought to the public, I understand why they
• 13:54
  felt like they probably needed to address this publicly.
• 13:57
  Anyways guys, that's it for mini scroll today.
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  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 14:01
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 14:03
  I don't think Annabelle will be doing mini tech tomorrow.
• 14:06
  She has some family stuff going on, but I will talk to you on
• 14:09
  Thursday and also Friday. OK bye.
• 14:12
  Centennial World Podcast Network operates on Gadigal land.
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  We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the
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  traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to
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  elders both past and present.