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Catholic Director/Producer: Leaving LA, AI & Making Choices

Catholic Director/Producer: Leaving LA, AI & Making Choices

Last updated on: December 3, 2024 at 4:53 pm by Kate O'Hare

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Catholic Director/Producer: Leaving LA, AI & Making Choices 2024-12-03T16:53:04-08:00 Kate O'Hare

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Things are changing rapidly in Hollywood, in many ways, and for many different reasons. But, veteran TV and film director/producer Joe Menendez has some thoughts.

But first, some background …

When Hollywood Isn’t in Hollywood

One major change is that Hollywood often isn’t in Los Angeles anymore. Recent reports show that the amount of TV and film production in L.A. has fallen steadily over the last 30 years, then sharply since the pandemic.

It’s not that things aren’t being produced anymore, it’s that they’re being produced elsewhere. States like Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Georgia, etc., — along with Canada and various other foreign countries — are offering better tax incentives than California, and steadily siphoning off productions.

That’s having a ripple effect on not just actors but all the people who work behind the camera and the industry at large.

The loss of jobs, along with economic pressures, the rising cost of production — and just living — in L.A., and competition from other locations, have resulted in a steady exodus.

On top of that, there’s the fear that artificial intelligence, or AI, will reduce or eliminate jobs across the entertainment spectrum.

And if you’re a Catholic working in mainstream entertainment — and have a family to support — sometimes difficult choices must be made.

I recently had a conversation that covered all these topics and more.

Meet Joe Menendez

A few years ago, Menendez, the New York City-born, Miami-raised son of Cuban Catholic immigrants, did what lots of Los Angeles-based creatives have in the last few years — he left L.A.

(Full video interview here and embedded at bottom.)

He recalls:

There’s a part of me that says, oh, well this is it, Los Angeles. I have to be here. And to a large extent, yes, you have to remain in Los Angeles, because it’s still where things initiate, and it’s still where things are born in terms of projects.

But the itch starts, and then what happens is I’m missing a ton of [family] things here.

And so what I would find over the years is whenever I came to South Florida or to Miami, I would always say, “I’m going home.” But then when I would fly back to L.A., I would say, “I’m going back to L.A.”

It suddenly started to wake me up, and it’s like, why don’t I call L.A. home?

Production has been exiting Los Angeles for some time now, but it remained a place people had to be, because it’s where meetings happened and deals were made. But especially since the pandemic, many people discovered that a lot of these meetings could be held remotely.

As few TV directors work on more than one episode of a show at a time — and movie directors move from project to project — the outward shift of production required a lot of traveling to where the show was shot, which could be anywhere between Vancouver, Canada, to Atlanta.

So, as long as there was an airport nearby, and a director had established a name in the business, the actual home zip code became less important.

Says Menendez:

I was living in L.A., but I wasn’t working in L.A. I was leaving anyway.

But What Makes Other Places Better Than L.A.?

Filmmakers originally came to L.A. for the mild climate, average of 263 sunny days per year, and for the area’s dramatic, varied and easily accessible landscapes of beach, desert, mountains, forests and fields (and even acres of orange groves, once upon a time).

It turns out, though, that money talks louder than any of that.

Other states (and countries) with worse weather and less infrastructure started offering tax incentives to lure away film and TV. Over time, many of these places, such as Vancouver, added extensive production infrastructure and built a good supply of experienced crews.

Then, as costs began to rise in California, the tax incentives to offset them just didn’t keep up.

Says Menendez:

I am no expert in California politics or city politics or when they’re going to increase incentives or if they are, but the work isn’t there.

And I know so many people who have just said, “I’m going to move to Atlanta,” or “I’m going to move to Louisiana,” or “I’m going to move to North Carolina or to New York.” New York actually has better incentives than California.

And so, it’s tough, because it’s such a beautiful place, but you can only say the weather’s really nice enough times before you start realizing it’s not enough.

In late October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced an increase in the tax credits — but the jury’s out on whether it’s enough to staunch the bleeding.

Increasingly, Southern California’s infrastructure and incredibly clement weather have not entirely tipped the balance — but chasing those tax breaks can be difficult.

Recalls Menendez:

Believe me, I would love to not stand in the cold, wet nights of Vancouver, which I’ve done many times. I’ve done that in Toronto as well. I would rather not. I shot some nights in Toronto when it was snowing. It was just, you question your entire career. You’re like, is this really worth doing?

This is no disrespect to my friends and my collaborators up in Vancouver, but there’s no reason why we should be shooting nights in Vancouver in January, February. We should be shooting nights in Los Angeles, where … it’ll be chilly, but it won’t be in negative degrees.

It’s the same thing with Atlanta. You don’t shoot in Atlanta unless there’s tax incentives. I mean, that’s just the truth.

And Then, There’s AI and Other Technology

Advances in tech have also made the actual shooting location less important. For a while now, filmmakers have used green (or blue) screens and computer animation to turn smaller sets into full-blown buildings and even cities.

Now, there’s “Volume Technology,” which uses an indoor array of LED screens to simulate outdoor locations. So, rather than actors looking at a blank section to be filled in later, they look out on an actual landscape.

If you’ve watched, for example, Disney+’s The Mandalorian, you’ve already seen it:

Add in the quantum leaps we’re seeing in artificial intelligence, and everyone from screenwriters to actors to crews are wondering if they’ll be replaced with computer-driven creations.

Says Menendez:

We are not now, but we are potentially entering a world 10 years, 15 years from now, where a filmmaker can sit at a computer and create a movie on his or her laptop. …

Now the ethical problem with that, it’s like what Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park, just because we can, doesn’t mean we should, right?

AI and the Question of Originality (and Copyright)

One sticking point is how generative AI learns. It surveys the online library of images, sound, text and so on, swallows it all, digests it, and regurgitates it on command, in new combinations.

But all that existing content is someone’s creation, and copyright law may stand in the way of AI plundering it.

Says Menendez:

I’ve done two movies for Lionsgate and Lionsgate just hired, I forget what company [for the record, the AI company in question is called Runway], to basically do a deal where they can have their AI tool learn from all their movies specifically.

So Lionsgate is deliberately turning over their entire library, including two of my movies, so that AI can learn what was done. So in theory, everything that I did, that took me however long it took me to make the movie with the collaborators that I made it with, some bastardized version of that could exist in the future that was just sort of regurgitated by AI, because it’s going to learn everything …

So the ethical argument then is that you’re not really creating a movie from scratch.

Of course, human filmmakers draw on the past all the time, whether it’s just absorbing a stylistic influence right up to outright homages and remakes.

Once AI can do that with the touch of a well-written prompt, what is the future of all that?

Recently, Syracuse University professor and media consultant Shelly Palmer made the point: “If the audience can’t tell the difference between AI-generated and human-generated content—or if they don’t care—then, for all practical purposes, there is no difference.”

Menendez sees a silver lining in this, saying,

Well, maybe we got to get to a point where … we’re no longer interested in homing or in tipping our hat to it, or recalling something or borrowing. Maybe what this does is it’s going to compel us to think more freely and think differently, because that’s the one thing that AI can’t do yet.

Who knows in the future, but right now, AI can’t come up with new ideas. AI can only take what’s been made and recreate it in some fashion.

The Challenge of Being a Working TV Director

How do you stay true to your principles and your faith? If you want to be a working professional in today’s Hollywood, that’s an endless challenge.

Menendez likens it to being a plumber, who doesn’t get to choose what difficult or even disgusting situations he faces, but who nevertheless has the job to fix it.

That doesn’t mean that Menendez will do whatever comes his way. There are jobs he’s said no to (or, more often, just told his agent that he wasn’t available), because of objectionable content. After decades in the business, he’s earned that luxury.

On the other hand, though, he says:

I have a family to feed, and that’s my first priority … I don’t see myself as an artist. I see myself as a craftsman. …

There are times that I seek out cinematic art, and I know that I’m doing something that’s cinematic and artful 100 percent, but I don’t look at my job as, I am an artist and I have an ascot and a pipe. I don’t do that stuff. I look at it as I have a job to do.

I’m given the script. I have to interpret the script. I have to tell the story using my own instincts, my craftsmanship, my abilities, and tell that story. …

When I’m doing a show that I find objectionable, I have to put on my professional hat and figure out, this is my job. I’m not here to judge the show. I’m here to deliver as best as I can.

But every now and then, Menendez gets to work on a show that he would watch even if he didn’t have to, like Star Trek: Picard or Evil.

And sometimes, the TV director gets to do a movie and follow his own vision. On Jan. 17, Paramount+ premieres Henry Danger: The Movie, based on a live-action Nickelodeon series.

Menendez says:

I used Guardians of the Galaxy as a model, kind of like that tone where… you do the epic superhero thing, but then you could do the fun broad kind of humor as well. And you got to find that blend. So they said yes to that take, and I was hired.

Take a look:

Finally, here’s our whole conversation (and click here for his official website):

Image: Courtesy Joe Menendez

Don’t miss a thing: Subscribe to all that I write at Authory.com/KateOHare.

Religious Music and Entertainment

About Kate O'Hare

Based in Los Angeles, Kate O'Hare is a veteran entertainment journalist, Social Media Manager for Family Theater Productions and a rookie screenwriter. You can read more about the author here.

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