Whither Paramount Vantage?
It looks like today is D-Day for staffers of Paramount Vantage, the mini-major that last month went through a management restructuring, had it’s slate cut from 12 to 6 pictures a year and had parent company Paramount assume marketing and distribution responsibilities. People who follow this kind of thing began speaking of Vantage in the past tense, assuming it would be absorbed the way Warner Bros. swallowed Picturehouse, Warner Independent and New Line.
Today Anne Thompson reports that a memo is going out to Paramount employees saying 60 jobs across the company would be eliminated.
Ordinarily we wouldn’t be too interested in such news, but this is the company that helped bring Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood to the world last year and it stings a little bit. It’s also another example of storm clouds on the indie horizon.
Filed under: News
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Yikes, that’s quite the trifecta from last year.
It’s times like this that it’s just safe to be a lone ranger and work for yourself on the interwebs. Of course you have to get paid to that, so…
This is trivial, but I’m one of those people that gets intensely giddy seeing the production company lead-ins as the movie starts, and the punch labels from PV always made me excited for the movie. Same with the Picturehouse flood lights.
Storm clouds indeed. This is really tragic, in large measure because of what this label has given us. I know Focus Features is struggling to stay afloat too. Disturbing.
What’s particularly frightening about this (beyond the stellar releases from 2007 Paramount Vantage for which Paramount Vantage was responsible) is that, as Sam says about Focus Features, these “mini-majors,” as Craig says, are responsible for the larger bulk of films that are actually… You know, intelligent and interesting (which typically means at least somewhat limited in their appeal). What a year they had in ‘07; it makes this news particularly sad, and, to borrow Craig’s term, stinging.
I’m a logo guy too Daniel.
Looking at the other side of this, I’ve worried in the past that the majors were muscling in on indie territory with these dependent studios and in recent years they really seemed to drive up the cost and expectations of arthouse type films.
I don’t disagree with you at all there, Craig. The majors have certainly muscled in on indie territory. There’s really three tiers, with the big studio product, the mini-majors and then the true indies. Naturally, it’s the latter tier that has continued to struggle the most, only more so because of the prominence of the mini-majors.
I like logos as well.
I’ll add my voice to the logo-lovers.
Someone on another board mentioned how he’d watched the trailer for There Will Be Blood so many times that he thought the DDL throat clearing was a part of the logo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3THVbr4hlY
Holy Shnike, I haven’t watched that in months. That was awesome.
I like the logos too….lol
In an age where having some fancy and typically silly (insert X production company’s name here) intro to your movie was considered some new form of penis measurement, it was nice to see that Paramount Vantage and Picturehouse both had the common sense to do a tasteful, stylish and not entirely distracting intro for their films.
Both of their logos are very modern from a design point of view, but they look nice and they could have aged well.
I also liked the simple animation of the Warners Bros Independent intro thingie too. Nice and simple.
But my favorite amongst these mini-majors remains the Miramax intro, with the sweeping camera into Manhatten over the sea that disolves from a star field of city lights into their big fat logo.
That was fucking brilliant and iconic.
Anyway, sorry to hear these good folks are getting laid off. That’s really too bad.
As far as logos go, I do also like the Pixar one. That little light bouncing over and stamping down the letter “i” in Pixar is way cute.
Agreed on the last sentence, Joel. That’s really the worst part of it - the people who are going to be out of work.
Indeed, that’s why I mentioned that the loss of the logo was trivial.
Seems odd that jobs are being cut both behind the scenes and also in the newspaper rooms. We’re headed to a future that only includes blockbusters and bloggers…?
Sadness. Just sadness.
Also *ahem*…
Is there a site redesign in play or I am I missing something? I freely admit that it MAY be me.
There used to be a column on the left side of the screen that let you know what the most recent articles were that had been published. It’s not that confusing but its absence kinda gives me a headache.
What gives, my precious crab boy?
Talk to me, baby….
Oui mademoiselle. I evened out the length of the side bars and I took off the recent posts list ’cause I figured my front page is so long it’s easy to scroll.
You no likey?
Well…
It’s not my site, Craig. Hee hee.
I thought there might be another logical explanation. But this is it.
I’m not going to complain. That would make me a diva. I know everyone around here all ready knows that I am one. But I’d prefer not to get too radical.
I did like it better before. But that’s strictly up to you, honey boy. It’s only a personal preference. Not the end of the world.
Anyway, I DO owe you an e-mail. I may not get back to you immediately, sweetie pie. But I’ve got some stuff to discuss. So I can talk about site business then too.
But it’s your place of worship - and you’re the boss. It is entirely in your hands…
Well, I didn’t know if anyone actually used the Recent Posts list. I know I rely on the Recent Comments list, but the other was kind of an afterthought.
I rearranged stuff a little since I’m an ad whore now, but it’s all still kind of a work in progress.
Your input is always welcome.