“We looked initially at David Lean’s B&W classics, such as Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), both shot by the amazing Guy Greene. They’re timeless, the cinematography is stunning, and they set very high bar to reach in they way they evoke emotions.
However, B&W movies are not the perfect visual references to show to studio executives wanting to make a big budget production in colour. So we also talked about certain painters that Ken [Branagh] and Dante [Ferretti, production designer] had in mind. The usual references for candle-lit period dramas are Flemish painters, such as Rembrandt and Vermeer. But these have been done many times over, and were not playful enough for Disney. That was the trick. For the more joyful moments in the movie, they asked me to consider the paintings of Fragonard, an often-overlooked artist. Fortunately, the UK has many of his works at The Wallace Collection in London. The Fragonards are colourful and playful, and I could see how they could open-up new cinematographic opportunities. The “The Swing” in particular, is slightly naughty and flirtatious, and there’s a direct reference to it in the movie.
For the darker, more wretched moments in the movie, we again avoided the typical references, and looked at the works of the French Baroque painter Georges De La Tour. They are unusual, dark, but with bold lighting and strong compositions. I’ve loved his work since being a student at Central St Martin’s and “Joseph The Carpenter” is a masterpiece.
Whilst these painterly references gave us two strong starting points to counterpoint the joy and drudgery within the story, we also wanted a way to treat the seemingly benign but evil step-mother – for her to appear more like a film noir femme fatale. So I suggested that we also consider the portraiture work of Joseph Walker, cinematographer on many of Frank Capra’s best-loved movies, inventor of the zoom lens, and a forerunner of the Hollywood glamour look, and also the large format portrait photography of George Hurrell, upon whom Walker had great influence.” — Haris Zambarloukos on finding the looks for the movie
Not in death, but just in sleep, the fateful prophecy you’ll keep. And from this slumber you shall wake, when true love’s kiss, the spell shall break. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
My source is a Facebook post that’s being circulated by representatives from the Cast Members’ Union.
On May 1, 2018 – for the first time since September 2017 – the Company entered the room to negotiate with the Union. They’ve put two options on the table.
Option 1: the exact same offer that 93% of voting Cast Members rejected back in December 2017.
Each Cast Member would receive the thousand dollar tax cut bonus that the Company already promised them, but only if they settle an unsustainably low raise (fifty cents per hour).
Option 2: the Cast Members will receive a more sustainable raise, but at the cost of renegotiating a bunch of really important Union rights.
This option is spelled out in a thirty-eight page proposal. It has a few ups, but a lot more downs.
• By 2021, the lowliest Cast Members would be paid fifteen dollars an hour. Higher-paid Cast Members would either get a seventy-five cent raise or a three percent raise, whichever is higher.
• All Cast Members would finally receive the bonus that the Company promised them.
• In the event of a massive closure – like during a hurricane – the Company would pay Cast Members for up to five days of missed shifts. (Currently, the Company isn’t contractually obligated to pay them anything.)
THAT SAID
• The Company would no longer have to pay overtime rates to Cast Members who are scheduled for fewer than five days a week. Tough luck, part-timers!
• The Company would get rid of sixth-day overtime and seventh-day doubletime altogether. So if you work for that brutal and exhausting amount of time, you would be rewarded with regular pay.
• The Company would stop the Union from having a say in how Cast Members are scheduled altogether.
• The Company would change transfer guidelines. A Cast Member would have to wait a full year before transfering to a new location. (Currently it’s six months.)
• The Company would only allow Cast Members to transfer to a new location if they have two attendance entries and no reprimands. (Currently it’s five attendance entries and one reprimand.)
• The Company would be allowed to transfer Union Shop Stewards to other locations upon whim. The Shop Steward wouldn’t have a say in the matter.
• The Company would no longer have to reimburse a Cast Member who takes a leave of absence due to civil or criminal charges, even if the Cast Member is found Not Guilty. (It shouldn’t matter either way, but still.)
• The Company would no longer be required to have a Shop Steward present when Management calls a Cast Member in for disciplinary reasons.
• Currently, Cast Members can clock in fifteen minutes before their shift starts and clock out fifteen minutes after it ends. The Company would reduce that to five minutes, before and after.
• If a Cast Member has a grievance that can’t be resolved by an Area Manager or a General Manager, the Company would no longer have to send a higher-ranking representative to resolve it. The grievance would just go unresolved.
• The Company would only provide Holiday Pay to Cast Members who have worked the day before the holiday, the day of the holiday, AND the day after the holiday.
• The Company would place a cap on the number of hours of Vacation Time and Sick Time that a Cast Member can accrue. (Currently it’s based on the number of hours that the Cast Member works, but the Company wants to base it on the number of hours paid up to 1,800 hours.)
• The Company would no longer be required to have a Shop Steward present for Scheduling Bids and Vacation Bids.
• The Safety Committee is a forum where Cast Members can voice safety concerns in their work area to Management. The Labor/Management Committee is a forum where Shop Stewards can voice their concerns to Management.
The Company would combine these two Committees, and diminish the Union’s representation in them.
• The Company would now be allowed to subject Cast Members to random drug testing at any time, for any drug, without even notifying the Union first.
• The Company would no longer allow Cast Members to speak one-on-one with Union Representatives while on the clock. Not backstage. Not during a break. Nothing.
• The Company would no longer allow the Union to contact Cast Members directly at all. They’d have to do it via mail or solicitation letters.
• The Company would no longer allow the Union to contact Non-Union Cast Members at all.
• The Company would allows Cast Members to join the Union without paying monthly dues. This would de-fund the Union, which would basically kill it altogether.
• The Company wouldn’t be required to negotiate another contract with its Cast Members until 2022 (assuming the Cast Members still have a Union to advocate on their behalf).
Jesus fuck. I love the things the people at Disney and the companies resources can create but fucking hate the company itself. Some of these terms are just pure evil.
Please spread this. Disney fans especially. People need to know how this company is treating its employees. The world needs to put pressure on Disney to treat its Cast Members right.
House of Brat 