I'm Really Annoyed (A Video Ryan Coogler Sent Me Inside)

A:

I’m really annoyed, I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I just watched a shitty cheap movie that still made me cry and was massively triggering without a warning. I’m not very stable after not eating lunch, I was cranky, then I watched fucking Thunderbolts. At fucking 3pm. I wasn’t sure why all these people didn’t have to work, yet here I was, not working either. Later I found out that these people probably worked in VFX for this film cuz I was sitting behind them and we were waiting for the same credits. The behind credits scenes were totally not worth it by the way, but I was actually there for the credits, cuz I was curious: after they’ve pretty much made every single visual effects company go bankrupt, and their only solution of their a decade of treating their post crew like shit was to fire the head of visual effects, what a baller move, Kevin Feige, Like I said, your time is over, you had you time, now GO, unless you have something absolutely important to say, and commercializing mental illness is not one of them. So I was wondering who’s still working for them, without surprise, ILM, Rising Sun, Base from China, and some other new random companies maybe formed out of the remains of the already bankrupted ones.

I always knew Marvel was only good for the first Avengers… But after you’ve emotionally invested in it, it’s hard to let go of the entire universe they built. Plus, back in college, everyone wanted to watch them, so I participated. I watched the one between Infinity War and the first Avengers, all of Iron Man, I like Iron Man, I don’t like anyone else, no one else is likable. Maybe Micheal B Jordan’s character, he’s very likable. I don’t always like villains, they just happen to be villains, or “villains”, just because they believe in something else. I’m so sick of these “correct” “hero”s, correct my ass, who are you to say you are on the right side? Also, in the movie, there were all these big words thrown around without explanations, such as “sometimes, you grow up to understand, that there’s no good guy, only a bad guy, and a worse guy”, so millennial. Like, oh geez, what a huge realization. You found out about the biggest secret in the world, big deal. Grow up. Marvel really knows that the only people that’s still watching them are millennials, but also, while other millennials have moved onto better, deeper, more age-appropriate things, some millennials are still into you, Marvel. You can’t do better, I was wrong, I thought you could. This is the best you can do, I’m sorry. At least these still watching marvel millennials aren’t the majority, the reducing amount of marvel movies has shown that. With so many great films in the market right now, hollywood for the first time in the human history isn’t dominating the world of commercial cinema, and I’m here for it. Audiences have finally developed their tastes to have very specific things they want to watch, no matter how niche, how non-mainstream, all kinds of films that couldn’t be made before are being made, directly criticizing American war, or preaching faith, even with concert films skipping studios by having the profits directing going from AMC to the artist. The movie Sinners, that’s currently on, is the fifth top grossing film of 2025 so far, the movie started with a slow sale, but gradually picking up because of word-of-mouth. For this movie, Ryan Coogler reached an extremely rare First Dollar Gross deal, which means, he don’t gotta wait for warner brother studios to pay him, AMC wires him a percentage directly from the box office as it sells. This is insane. There never used to be this kind of “theater” film royalties like royalties in music, not that I heard of. This is unheard of.

Ryan Coogler did his first film when he was, I think 26? with Micheal B Joran, and Sinners is the fifth movie they did. More on this film later, when I worked with him on Wakanda Forever at Barnstorm, they immediately pointed out that Ryan’s also from Oakland when I told them I live in Oakland. They said, “you get brownie points for that”, I was like, “ok. why do i care, how about some real money, not brownies.” It’s only a lot later that I realized what a privilege it was, that I worked with him, and also that I live here. It is getting more gentrified and a little weird, but idk, where else would I go. At least not for now. As much as it’s been different, I still somewhat like this pocket. There will be a video he sent me to share with the rest of our VFX team at Barnstorm towards the end, just so you know we are not lying. He was sending that video because their post production dates got pushed back over and over and they were asked to reshoot and blablabla, basically who they worked with had other projects so they dropped out, and our company came in last minute - we were only working on Antman at first, and suddenly they were like, how about 200 more shots from another movie, and apprently our producer said yes?? So everyone was overworked. And Barnstorm had a problem with me being paid OT, insinuating that I was OT-ing when I didn’t need to. Bitch(not gender-specific), just because I can do it in 2 hours, doesn’t mean you don’t pay me for eight. 1. you are already underpaying me, cuz I’m foreign, 2. I was there to do work, not to kiss yall’s asses, so there’s extra charge there, 3: you know damn well that I do in two what others do in eight. So don’t make me actually work eight hours, you'd be paying me triple. What an asshole company, with their narcissistic owners (at least one of the two). Anyways, Ryan sent us that clip to share with the overworked other artists for “saving the film”. Please enjoy, this was a while ago, maybe 2022? Three years ago.

Other than the first dollar gross, Ryan Coogler also negotiated a historic clause: after 25 years, the full IP rights to Sinners will revert to him and his company, Proximity Media. See, usually, the studio hires the director, even though the director makes the movie, and the product, which is the movie itself, belongs to the studio. Every dollar they make in theaters, proceeds to the studio, and every time it’s played on a streaming platform, if it’s on demand, they pay the studio “royalties” which I believe is called “residuals” in film industry or something; if it’s sold as a movie for millions directly to the platform with a usually 3-year or 5-year term or something of that sort, it also goes to the studio. After which, studio decides how much to pay the director IF there’s a backend negotiated. But now, after 25 years, Ryan Coogler owns Sinners. This means he believed that this is going to be a movie that will be watched, over, and over, and over again. He will continue to make money from all the profits from this film after 25 years, not the studio. The studio must not know how good he is, otherwise, I wouldn’t agree to this deal.

B. At Thunderbolts, the theaters filled with 80% millennials, who thought the movie was great because: 1. they still want to think they are special, 2. they are sad to know they are not special, but still want to feel special, 3. been hearing about this “mental health” thing but they don’t understand, but they want to feel like they do, so they watch this movie, and feel like they “understand”; and two gen-z, who thought Sinners were better, and me who felt EXTREMELY ANNOYED that I got mansplained, AGAIN, about my own conditions, bipolar, severe depression, and PTSD (Akron General’s Diagnose).

Like, who the fuck asked?? I came in here for some good old fun. Bitch(not gender-specific), now a bunch of people are gonna be like, “oh yeah, I know how that feels” to me, ASS, no you don’t. Also, to all the bitches out there, who want to come to me now and be all like “oh I didn’t know”, “oh I just didn’t want to invite you”, “oh I thought blablabla”, I don’t care. The so-called “sorry” when it’s this much delayed, when it’s finally becoming socially unacceptable to treat the mentally illed like shit, and you chose to apologize now, doesn’t magically erase the past. Like I said, I very much still feel the trauma, pretty much everyday. All the times I asked for help, you fuckers tell me to just “be happy” or “stop being overdramatic”, “you are so emotionally unstable”, damn right I am, you wanna know how much more unstable I can be? I can show you. You looked at me like I’m crazy, and now? Suddenly you understand me? No you don’t. Oh hell no, you don’t. Also, stay away from me, you phony ass only doing this to make you feel better, not me. No, I don’t want to play along to make you feel better. I want you to feel worse. Thunderbolts was a very necessary market research that I did and it was absolutely not worth the almost mental breakdown. The bar’s still pretty low these days.

I was already riled up, writing up my first rant. I was mentally burned out, somehow still couldn’t sleep, I felt like I had to process something, my head was feeling stuffy and tight, as if someone screwed my head, I couldn’t relax. I started scrolling on my phone, and next I knew I was almost starting a debate with someone who seemed to want me to disagree with him more, but at the same time claimed that he wouldn’t change his mind, because he just likes what he likes. There’s really no point of me persuading someone stubborn that I don’t know. I guess I am the same, except, I do want to be proven wrong. MCU is dead, because all their best films were not Kevin Feige's ideas, and they ran out of good directors. They’ve made it so that people don’t feel happy working for them, and they can’t offer more creative freedom than any other production houses that are currently the better options, such as their own production company, or A24, or Blum House, or literally anyone else.

Ps, calling Warfare a documentary is obscene. There’s nothing documentary about it, except the “real time” timeline. It is quite an intense way to make a movie, and it’s quite strong just like Garland's all other stuff. Garland is too cool, and read too much. This internet dude must have not seen a documentary. A documentary is like, idk, Sudan, Remember Me, or How To Build A Library. Like an actual, documentary. Warfare is cinema. There’s sound design, set design, acting, collaborations, special makeup, special effects, the whole shenanigans.

Ps2, Blogging is starting to get distracting. I’m not sure how I came to be addicted to blogging, such an ancient way of communicating. As cathartic as it is, I notice myself spending too much time talking about what I do, instead of doing it. Speaking of which, i’m logging off now. Have a good night everyone.