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Speaker 1: M Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties weekly podcast featuring conversations

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Speaker 1: with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment.

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Speaker 1: I'm Cynthia Littleton, business editor for Variety Today. My guests

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Speaker 1: in New York are Abigail Disney and Adrian Becker. Abigail

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Speaker 1: and Adrian joined forces in early two thousand eighteen to

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Speaker 1: launch the content studio Level Forward. The pair have vowed

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Speaker 1: to run Level Forward as a socially conscious, artist friendly

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Speaker 1: banner that strives to open doors for women and people

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Speaker 1: of color through storytelling. Level Forward has made an early

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Speaker 1: mark on Broadway as a producer of the recent revival

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Speaker 1: of Oklahoma and of playwright Heidi Shreks What the Constitution

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Speaker 1: Means to Me. Another play, titled Slave Play, has just

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Speaker 1: transferred to Broadway and is enjoying strong reviews. In film.

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Speaker 1: Level Forward as a producer on the buzzy indie drama

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Speaker 1: The Assistant from first time feature director d Green and

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Speaker 1: producer James Shemus, among many other projects. In our wide

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Speaker 1: ranging conversation, the partners discussed the philosophy that underlies the

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Speaker 1: business and how they are pitching that idea to creative

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Speaker 1: partners and financial backers. Abigail, who is the granddaughter of

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Speaker 1: Walt Disney Company co founder roy O Disney, also addresses

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Speaker 1: her recent criticism of what she sees as unreasonably large

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Speaker 1: compensation packages for Disney CEO Bob Eiger and others. Adrian

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Speaker 1: Becker and Abigail Disney, thank you so much for stopping

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Speaker 1: by today. Thank you. We're so glad to be here.

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Speaker 1: You two are the founders and leaders of Level Forward,

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Speaker 1: a new studio production venture that aims to take a

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Speaker 1: very different tack in developing content in the way you

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Speaker 1: work with your producing partners, your creative partners. Tell us,

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Speaker 1: I would love to hear in your words the origin

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Speaker 1: story of Level Forward, what prompted you to to join forces,

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Speaker 1: and how you developed the very specific ethos and mission

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Speaker 1: for this company. We like to think that our origins

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Speaker 1: story happened right around the Me Too re coming. Um uh,

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Speaker 1: and yet I think Level Forward has been information for decades,

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Speaker 1: if not centuries. You launched officially in January of two

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Speaker 1: Sundance two years ago. Um and we were a part

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Speaker 1: of a team of people who came together with an

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Speaker 1: idea to purchase the Weinstein assets and put them into

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Speaker 1: a different kind of a structure, a structure that the

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Speaker 1: entertainment industry had not yet seen UM and one that

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Speaker 1: had stakeholders in community based community change organizations that we're

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Speaker 1: fighting for the cause. But quickly it became clear that

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Speaker 1: there was a much large you're calling then the assets

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Speaker 1: themselves presented, and that this idea could fulfill UM. And

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Speaker 1: that was when the two of us met. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: and Adrian came to me with this thought about the

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Speaker 1: Weinstein assets and it just had this beautiful, kind of

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Speaker 1: brilliant justice in it. So of course I was completely

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Speaker 1: captured by the idea. This was the So this was

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Speaker 1: the moment in kind of late two thousand seventeen when

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Speaker 1: people the just the harrowing allegations about Harvey Weinstein had

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Speaker 1: really broken open. The Weinstein Company started to unravel. It

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Speaker 1: became very clear that those assets were going to be

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Speaker 1: put up for sale in bankruptcy. And you guys were

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Speaker 1: talking to various different financiers. Now, were you working on

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Speaker 1: separate tracks or you had already you already knew each

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Speaker 1: other and had already decided to join forces. We came

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Speaker 1: together through this process. So I had not met Adrian before,

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Speaker 1: and the idea had not entered my mind until you

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Speaker 1: walked into my office. I think of November, and and

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Speaker 1: so it was very quick to get from just meeting

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Speaker 1: a person with a brilliant idea two UM in January,

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Speaker 1: looking each other and saying, well, we just start our

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Speaker 1: own company. That's a little bit of an insane thing,

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Speaker 1: except that we were so clearly working in parallel lines

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Speaker 1: all of our lives UM, and that we shared an

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Speaker 1: ethos that was very strong at both of us UM

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Speaker 1: and that was embodied in this idea about the Weinstein assets.

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Speaker 1: So we felt like we could create a powerful thing together.

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Speaker 1: In fact, it was greater than that particular transaction because

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Speaker 1: what that process showed us so clearly and painfully is

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Speaker 1: that one of the biggest bottlenecks in the entertainment industry

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Speaker 1: is around capital, financial capital, and sourcing it. There could

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Speaker 1: be twelve little production companies run by wonderful women, people

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Speaker 1: of color, men that are are standing, you know, alongside

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Speaker 1: UM the need for change, but until me meaningful capital

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Speaker 1: comes into support system wide. And we had hundreds of

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Speaker 1: millions of dollars that we were raising very quickly, and

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Speaker 1: you want to do that thoughtfully, and that requires a

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Speaker 1: lot more time and energy than just you know, rolling

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Speaker 1: out of bed, getting getting some bank debt and then

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Speaker 1: going to the usual suspects for large checks. Yeah, the

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Speaker 1: term usual suspects has a new meaning to me since

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Speaker 1: what wind Stein allegations, Um, there being so many suspects.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, it seemed possible to do things differently, to

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Speaker 1: slow up and uh, you know everything um in the

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Speaker 1: way we understand business, the way it's been taught to

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Speaker 1: us is is a transaction at the beginning, and there's

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Speaker 1: a transaction at the end, and hopefully the transaction at

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Speaker 1: the end offers you more than the transaction at the beginning, right,

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Speaker 1: And then everything in between is what you do, you know,

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Speaker 1: to to make the second transaction meaningful. And like I say,

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Speaker 1: all of life is in between the two transaction is

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Speaker 1: um and it's really um. That's where you make a world, right,

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Speaker 1: That's how you create an environment, that's how you create

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Speaker 1: an ecosystem. Is how you behave in between these two transactions,

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Speaker 1: and so the well being of human beings, um, the

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Speaker 1: nature of the content where we're putting into the world,

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Speaker 1: the nature of the way we were interacting um with

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Speaker 1: other people who already cared about the issues we cared about.

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Speaker 1: All of these things get front loaded. They're not like

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Speaker 1: a nice little thing after the last transaction when we

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Speaker 1: have a little fluff at the top and we offered

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Speaker 1: that right before it, right right, yeah, when when they're

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Speaker 1: very um instrumental tests. So um, that's why, uh it

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Speaker 1: needed to change, you know, the whole series of transactions

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Speaker 1: along the way need to change in their nature. And

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Speaker 1: so as you guys pursued the Weinstein assets in the

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Speaker 1: bankruptcy process, which I think by all accounts was also

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Speaker 1: as hectic and opaque as you know pretty much everything

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Speaker 1: else involving the Weinsteins these days. So at some point

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Speaker 1: you guys said enough with that, but you decided to

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Speaker 1: keep going and link arms in level forward. How How

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Speaker 1: did how did you go about that process? I would

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Speaker 1: imagine that talking to bankers about buying some specific assets

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Speaker 1: where you knew you had some idea what the value was,

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Speaker 1: versus we want to do this and we want to

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Speaker 1: do this content venture in a very different way. That

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Speaker 1: must be a very different conversation with bankers in terms

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Speaker 1: of lining up the capital that is you said, is

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Speaker 1: so vital to really making an impact and getting things done.

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Speaker 1: I think number one, we needed a clear and distinct

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Speaker 1: point of view UM, and that point of view had

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Speaker 1: to be as Abby said that, there are so many

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Speaker 1: decisions that come into play when you're in the business

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Speaker 1: of telling stories. We need to rethink how we see

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Speaker 1: those decisions, how we answer them, and how we involve

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Speaker 1: people in that process. And it doesn't mean that all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden you have a flat organization and a

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Speaker 1: hundred people in a meeting making a decision. It means

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Speaker 1: that there are so many people that don't even get

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Speaker 1: to participate, and when you let them in, that whole

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Speaker 1: process becomes different in and of itself. So what stories

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Speaker 1: are we telling? Who's telling those stories? How much are

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Speaker 1: they getting paid? Are they getting paid relative to one another?

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Speaker 1: How are you UM providing job training, access to education

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Speaker 1: so that they're not the same people just cycling through UM,

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Speaker 1: How are you distributing, how are you pricing? What do

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Speaker 1: you do with the profit? And then ultimately, by thinking

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Speaker 1: more thought consciously, I think mindfully about all of those decisions,

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Speaker 1: filtering them through this leveling lens. Can you broaden the

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Speaker 1: base of capital and just clear clear some of those

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Speaker 1: obstacles and dams to getting this thing flowing. Yeah. So,

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Speaker 1: um we you know, we constructed our own little corporation,

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Speaker 1: the two of us, and we've been raising money for

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Speaker 1: projects on a silo basis, I guess a slate basis,

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Speaker 1: um And and Adrian was so in touch with really

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Speaker 1: good people who were really working successfully that we could

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Speaker 1: jump into projects that were well on their way and

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Speaker 1: we've had, you know, an incredible first year doing that.

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Speaker 1: And a team is a huge part of this. It

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Speaker 1: was along with Angi Wang and Rachel Gould starting this

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Speaker 1: company and then being able to say to people who

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Speaker 1: were ready, like who had reached a point in their

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Speaker 1: career where it wasn't about this extra zero on the

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Speaker 1: paycheck like, and it wasn't about all these constructs of

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Speaker 1: the entertainment industry which we've been told to focus on

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Speaker 1: the beginning and the end, nothing in between. What's my conversation,

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Speaker 1: what are my you know, what's my bonus potential? How

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Speaker 1: many films is my name going to be on? What's

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Speaker 1: my percentage to modified adjusted grounds? Those are all rules

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Speaker 1: of a playing field that has been the only way,

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Speaker 1: and that in order to really change, we've got to start,

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Speaker 1: like we need the farm team and We don't need

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Speaker 1: just one. It can't just be level forward. It has

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Speaker 1: to be many farm teams testing out different sets of rules,

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Speaker 1: different goals, and different ways of getting there. What was

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Speaker 1: the response though, as you went to people, either potential

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Speaker 1: producing partners, creative partners, or potential financiers when you explain

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Speaker 1: that vision, did you get I rolls or did you

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Speaker 1: get people let's say, I get this. I think there's

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Speaker 1: a real niche for this. You would be surprised at

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Speaker 1: how many people in the creative community were, UM, so

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Speaker 1: appreciative to be having this kind of conversation that the

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Speaker 1: conversations that we just referenced, we're old and tired and

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Speaker 1: not working. Um. And so I would say amongst filmmakers, writers, directors,

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Speaker 1: a lot of wonderful agents, co financiers, producers, the response

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Speaker 1: has been not just a pat on the bat, but

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Speaker 1: a roll up the sleeves. Let's get into the room.

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Speaker 1: Tell us how you make these deals happen. Tell us

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Speaker 1: what your filters are, How do you like to work

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Speaker 1: on said how do you like to work in distribution?

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Speaker 1: We want it, we want some of that. Um. And

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Speaker 1: then there are immovable forces which either don't see you

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Speaker 1: or don't want to see you, And I think with

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Speaker 1: time we will get there. But I would say generally

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of pets on the back. Then half

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Speaker 1: of that goes in to roll up the sleeves, and

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Speaker 1: then maybe half of that was like scratching the head. Still,

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Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit more about you've been very

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Speaker 1: active in the theatrical space at the outset. How did

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Speaker 1: was that by design? Was that by that those are

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Speaker 1: the things that came together at the first or how

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Speaker 1: did how did that come to be? I want to say,

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Speaker 1: I want to say that many many years ago and

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Speaker 1: I sat in a room and wrote a musical and

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Speaker 1: it was the master plan the dream. Um. But that's

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Speaker 1: the story for a different kind of podcast. UH. Several

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Speaker 1: years ago, UM, Eva Price and I were co producing

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Speaker 1: UH found the musical podcast along with two other wonderful

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Speaker 1: producers and UH we just started talking about what we

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Speaker 1: wanted to do next. UH and Jagged Little Pill came up.

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Speaker 1: And Eva had just signed on to Jagged Little Pill

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Speaker 1: with two other wonderful producers and musical based on Alanis

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Speaker 1: Morrissett's landmark album of the same name, Yes which she

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Speaker 1: wrote it nineteen UM and an album that transcendent music.

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Speaker 1: It became a part of our d n A became

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Speaker 1: it became a statement for a certain uh, for for

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Speaker 1: young women at a certain time. And as many people

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Speaker 1: have commented, it's hard to believe that we're looking back

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Speaker 1: twenty five years and that statement about what she was

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Speaker 1: shaking her fist at is as is as prevalent as

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Speaker 1: it was. It's such an interesting thing that was a

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Speaker 1: cultural landmarks, landmark for its time, but like it's more

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Speaker 1: necessary now than it was then and more contemporary, and

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Speaker 1: I see young people resonating with that, UM. It's extraordinary. Actually,

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Speaker 1: the whole cast, most most of them are very young,

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Speaker 1: UM are so excited by what they're doing because they

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Speaker 1: feel like women time traveled into their brains and and

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Speaker 1: knew what was bothering them and put words of music

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Speaker 1: to it. So it's kind of an extraordinary thing. And

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Speaker 1: then to have someone like talk about changes and distribution talk,

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Speaker 1: someone like Heidi shrak come along with a one woman

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Speaker 1: show about her body and the bodies of other women

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Speaker 1: and her family going back generation. The show called What

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Speaker 1: the Constitution Means to Me, which had was nominated for

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Speaker 1: a Tony has won a slew of other prestigious awards

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Speaker 1: and really just got nothing but rave reviews. To have

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Speaker 1: that show have rave reviews but also be a financial success,

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Speaker 1: a breakout of the season and has just closed a

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Speaker 1: two weeks run at the Kennedy Center and we'll open

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Speaker 1: a tour starting in January. But to have that as

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Speaker 1: a financial marker UM is really an incredible It's an

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Speaker 1: incredible reason for help. Yeah. And and then Oklahoma too,

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Speaker 1: which Eva was working on before we ever became a company.

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Speaker 1: But she went to the Hammerseein Foundation and talked them

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Speaker 1: into this impossible idea. This was not something the hammer

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Speaker 1: Sein's Foundation was very open to. This is a revival

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Speaker 1: of the very different view of Oklahoma, imagining of Oklahoma

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Speaker 1: in the in the American how it fits into the

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Speaker 1: American idea of itself and with some reality and truth

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Speaker 1: along with all the joy and all the laughter that

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Speaker 1: comes with that too. UM. I have to say that

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Speaker 1: that when I saw that, um my, my, um, I

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Speaker 1: just couldn't stop thinking about all that was possible um

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Speaker 1: because the door opened on that And I think that,

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Speaker 1: like this is the beauty of of um. When you

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Speaker 1: make a beautiful piece of art, you know, it opens

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Speaker 1: more doors than it closes and um and everything we've

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Speaker 1: done so far has been like that. It's sort of

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Speaker 1: resupposed what uh, what possibilities there are, and you have

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Speaker 1: designed level forward to to we've impact, not like the

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Speaker 1: cherry on top at the end where you distribute some

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Speaker 1: education guides to kids and call that impact, but you

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Speaker 1: have you have very consciously trying to both in the

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Speaker 1: subjects that you tackle and in the projects. Really we've

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Speaker 1: in a socially pro active positive component going forward. You

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Speaker 1: mentioned gut neutral. Can you talk a little bit about

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Speaker 1: that and how that played into Oklahoma and some of

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Speaker 1: the other things you've been working. I think about fifty

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Speaker 1: thou dollars and seventeen hundred has been assigned to the

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Speaker 1: destruction of seventeen hundred illegal weapons. Twenty three survivors of

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Speaker 1: gun violence were on stage at the Tony's in front

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Speaker 1: of five point five million people. Oklahoma was the first

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Speaker 1: gun neutral Broadway show. American Woman was the first gun

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Speaker 1: neutral feature film. UM And these are obviously just examples

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Speaker 1: of what could be done to generate recurring revenue for

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Speaker 1: the fight to kind of just protect our our country

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Speaker 1: and our citizens in the daily trail. So gun Neutral

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Speaker 1: basically says, count up the number of guns in a

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Speaker 1: in a film or and create a line item off set. UM. So,

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Speaker 1: whether it's a hundred dollars a gun, or it's five

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars ago and or it's a thousand dollars a gun,

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Speaker 1: if it's a high budget film, you could probably go

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Speaker 1: to the northern end of that and and donated to

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Speaker 1: either the Gun Neutral five one C three or put

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Speaker 1: it into organizations that are investing in youth programs to

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Speaker 1: give kids something that's something to do, particularly inighborhoods that

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Speaker 1: are underserved or have chronic gun violence. We're we are

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Speaker 1: partnered with some kids out of Parkland Shine UM. But

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Speaker 1: there are kids in the outer boroughs at Life Camp

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Speaker 1: but on Core that are dealing with gun violence every day.

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Speaker 1: And they are doing that because they make no mistake,

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Speaker 1: they see images and culture and it influences young minds disproportionately. UM.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that the movie character forced the kid

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Speaker 1: to pull the trigger, but it absolutely goes into shaping

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Speaker 1: young minds. There's a tremendous amount of research about that.

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Speaker 1: And also UM, it's it's also the collective consequences of

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Speaker 1: each individual filmmaker's decisions. And that's the part that that

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Speaker 1: has never really thought about. There's there's a collective effect

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Speaker 1: of that much violence in you know, just kind of

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Speaker 1: permeating everything from top to bottom. Something has to explain

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Speaker 1: what we're living through in the last couple of decades,

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Speaker 1: which is which has been I think just very hard

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Speaker 1: for a lot of us to make sense of. And this,

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Speaker 1: you know, I guess the skeptic would say, are you

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Speaker 1: really making a difference taking you know, destroying guns in

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Speaker 1: them just you know, making an effort to destroy guns

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Speaker 1: in the real world, but still use them, you know,

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Speaker 1: use them for dramatic effect. Here's my belief that three

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Speaker 1: of their nine million guns in UM in private civilian

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Speaker 1: hands in the United States. So that's more guns than

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Speaker 1: trigger fingers. So yeah, dollars, sorry, guns is not going

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Speaker 1: to make a difference seventeen thousand guns in the context

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Speaker 1: of UM of the inviting of a discourse and the

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Speaker 1: opening up of ideas about how we could take this on.

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Speaker 1: So we need to not throw up our hands and

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Speaker 1: say this is something that can't be avoided, this is

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Speaker 1: something we can't change. This bigger, it's too big problem. Right,

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Speaker 1: exactly and so and so. First of all, I've never

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Speaker 1: even heard gun destruction discussed publicly, UM, except among the

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Speaker 1: most sort of out there fringy people who were talking

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Speaker 1: about this years ago. So this is an idea that

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Speaker 1: needs to be brought into the mainstream and really discussed.

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Speaker 1: Gun destruction is that maybe the way to dial back

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Speaker 1: a little bit on the number of weapons we have

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Speaker 1: in private civilian hands. I mean, the number of them is,

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Speaker 1: in a very large measure a part of our problem,

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Speaker 1: just the number. UM. So that's where UM media and

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Speaker 1: ends up being such an important piece of the equation

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Speaker 1: and making a difference. I think that you can do

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Speaker 1: both something that's concrete and on the ground, even if

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Speaker 1: it's a small contribution, but if you pair it with

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Speaker 1: the dialogue and the and the and the active advocacy,

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Speaker 1: then you have something really powerful. We had a filmmaker

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Speaker 1: who we did not ask to change the script. She

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Speaker 1: just became aware of gun neutral on her own. Change

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Speaker 1: the script took the gun out of the shot UM

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Speaker 1: and it reframed the way the scene played out in

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Speaker 1: the film. And I think that that conversation, that consciousness

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Speaker 1: does cumulatively start to make us think and ask questions

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Speaker 1: that we had not tell us a little bit about

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Speaker 1: Level Forward in terms of as I understand you guys

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Speaker 1: split your time. Adrian you're in l A. And Abigail

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Speaker 1: you're largely in New York, so you have kind of

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Speaker 1: the bi coastal operation. What UM in terms of like

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Speaker 1: your permanent staff, where are you right now? In terms

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Speaker 1: of size, and we've grown, UM, we've grown a little

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Speaker 1: bit in the past couple of months because the bandwidth

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Speaker 1: that we had to execute on everything that we had

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Speaker 1: set out to achieve over the past two years started

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Speaker 1: to exceed our ability to do that. So we've brought

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Speaker 1: on people. We have a wonderful creative team out in

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles UM that's mostly focused on on film and television. UH.

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Speaker 1: In in New York, UH, it's more focused on the theater. UM.

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Speaker 1: We have a tech group out in l A that's

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Speaker 1: responsible for Rotten Apples UM as well as Level Forward

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Speaker 1: community building online and off UM. Angie Wang and Rachel

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Speaker 1: Gold in New York are kind of like holding down

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Speaker 1: the forward UM and make everything run smoothly. UM. And

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Speaker 1: UH we have you know, we have incredible people who

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Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, after all

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Speaker 1: of the difficult conversations UM about how to how to

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Speaker 1: walk this fine balance and what does it mean to

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Speaker 1: be a public benefit corporation? Which Level forward is um

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Speaker 1: all believe so deeply in the mission and and and

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Speaker 1: that this this path must be carved in order for

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Speaker 1: other companies to follow it and for the financial community

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Speaker 1: to see it as viable, so that it's not just

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Speaker 1: the impact investing conference were level Forward speaks UM, and

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Speaker 1: that ultimately the impact invest a conference goes away and

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Speaker 1: it's just about investing. And this is the way we

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Speaker 1: do it now in America. Abigail, you have made headlines

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Speaker 1: in the last couple of months about being very outspoken

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Speaker 1: about an issue that has definitely caused a lot of

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Speaker 1: debate and has a lot of you know, a lot

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Speaker 1: of strong feelings on people have different perspectives on it,

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Speaker 1: but that the level of particularly CEO but executive compensation,

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Speaker 1: particularly at public companies has just kind of inexplicably, you know,

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Speaker 1: gone up by triple digits in the last couple of years,

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Speaker 1: along with the rise of you know, the growth of

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Speaker 1: the equities market. But you have been very specific about

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Speaker 1: a company that is close to your home with the

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Speaker 1: last name of Disney. You have very specifically said that

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Speaker 1: you think Disney's CEO much admired and you know, successful

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Speaker 1: by any measure, Bob Iger nonetheless at a pay ratio

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Speaker 1: that is more than a thousand times the median pay scale,

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Speaker 1: the median paycheck for Disney employees, that you think that

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Speaker 1: that is out of whack, and you talk about why

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Speaker 1: you have taken that on. I mean, this is all

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Speaker 1: of a piece. I mean, we really are trying to

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Speaker 1: reimagine how you can build a business where you know,

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Speaker 1: everything from the bottom to the top reflects your values.

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Speaker 1: And um, so you know, I've been talking about inequality

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Speaker 1: for a really long time, and it never really actually

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Speaker 1: nobody cared until now people are listening. Yeah, and I

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Speaker 1: think so, I think it says something about where we

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Speaker 1: are culturally that um, it's it's something we really feel

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Speaker 1: has gotten so plainly out of whack that it really

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Speaker 1: has to be taken on. Um. You know, I have

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Speaker 1: nothing but admiration for Bob Buyer. My god, the man

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Speaker 1: is brilliant. He's run this company. You know, he's brought

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Speaker 1: this twentieth century company into the twenty one century, and

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Speaker 1: that was not an easy task. Um with tons and

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Speaker 1: tons of values. Brilliant man, he's very nice man. Um.

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Speaker 1: The problem is with what passes for nice. I think

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Speaker 1: because I think that we should as people take accountability

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Speaker 1: for all of our actions from top to bottom. And

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Speaker 1: if your managers, manager's messagers, managers at the bottom, you know,

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Speaker 1: after all these steer steps down to them are pushing

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Speaker 1: down on people's salaries and affecting their lives in a

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Speaker 1: very real way. UM. Maybe because not because you've said

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Speaker 1: it directly, but because you've sent this message across the

404
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Speaker 1: company that you know costs people are costs, they're not assets,

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Speaker 1: their costs. Um. Then then walking home with two times

406
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Speaker 1: your median workers pay is maybe should make you stop

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Speaker 1: and it should maybe make you wonder. M. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I am working for the same company. I do need

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Speaker 1: them to do the work. Then I asked them to

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Speaker 1: do even if it's lowly and I can't connect a

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Speaker 1: nactual financial value to it. Um. But I'm certainly not

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Speaker 1: going to do it myself. And if that's the case,

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Speaker 1: then there is no justifiable excuse to pay them. UM.

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Speaker 1: What is basically a a slave wage. I just was

415
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Speaker 1: with a couple in Anaheim last week who each makes

416
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Speaker 1: fifty an hour. They worked from eleven o'clock at night

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Speaker 1: until seven o'clock in the morning as janitors and UM,

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Speaker 1: they have four children. UM, and I took them out

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Speaker 1: for a pancake breakfast and until the I told them

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Speaker 1: I was going to treat them, they wouldn't even look

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Speaker 1: at the menu because it was outrageous for them to

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Speaker 1: even imagine ordering pancakes with me, UM on a Sunday morning,

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Speaker 1: because they were just couldn't find that kind of extra

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Speaker 1: money in their pockets. Now you know how many children

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Speaker 1: they have. Whatever shouldn't bear on your decision at objective

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Speaker 1: level about what they should be paid. But what they

427
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:48,360
Speaker 1: should be paid is definitely more than what they're being paid, UM,

428
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Speaker 1: because they're so far from a living wage where they

429
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Speaker 1: are and no premium for work in the third shift

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Speaker 1: in the middle of the night. That makes no sense

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Speaker 1: to me. So so I saw this happen. I saw

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Speaker 1: this happen over my life of time, and it was

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Speaker 1: a was a shift in mindset that UM that that

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00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:10,440
Speaker 1: has been pretty consistent, And UM, I think we all

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00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:13,080
Speaker 1: need to kind of wake up from this sleepwalking we're

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00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:16,400
Speaker 1: doing and ask ourselves or these really our values. There's

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00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 1: just nothing inappropriate by applying your value system to the

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00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 1: things you do as a company. Do you think it

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00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,440
Speaker 1: makes a difference for people like you to speak out?

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00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:27,840
Speaker 1: I think it has made a difference, and I'm a

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00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:31,840
Speaker 1: little surprised that it has. I'm definitely the worst possible

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00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:35,000
Speaker 1: messenger for this, But nevertheless, I don't know why people

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00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,399
Speaker 1: are willing to accept that. It woke a lot of

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00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,040
Speaker 1: people up. And um, it got a certain number of

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00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 1: people activated who I think maybe we're feeling hopeless before. Um,

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00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:48,200
Speaker 1: and it's certainly feeding into the Democrats side of the campaign.

447
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:53,280
Speaker 1: So there's been real progress in traction now suddenly, um,

448
00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:55,959
Speaker 1: because I spoke up and because others are speaking up

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00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:59,480
Speaker 1: along with me, and uh, and I'm I'm glad because

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00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 1: this isn't just about CEO pay really and you know

451
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:05,119
Speaker 1: the CEOs at tip of the iceberg. There's a massive

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00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:09,000
Speaker 1: iceberg underneath the CEO of people getting massive bonuses. We

453
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:11,920
Speaker 1: need to talk about the whole bonus pool and why

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00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:15,000
Speaker 1: does it stop at level three down? And you know

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00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:18,119
Speaker 1: it's not trickling down. Guys, you're buying your second year

456
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:21,040
Speaker 1: third yacht. You don't need it. So um, there's a

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00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:24,439
Speaker 1: point at which everybody has to stop accepting business as

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00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:29,000
Speaker 1: usual as as business is necessary. What will success look

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00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: like for you guys in five years time, in six

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00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 1: years time. That's a really good question. I'm learning Adrian

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00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 1: to answer that. That's why you're the CEO. I think

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00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 1: you know, there was some fellow who wrote on the

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00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 1: comments of maybe Variety UM during the origin story of

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00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:55,359
Speaker 1: Level Forward, no bank, no one will ever loan a

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00:27:55,440 --> 00:28:00,280
Speaker 1: woman a hundred million dollars. So we're definitely only on

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00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:02,919
Speaker 1: a course to get to a hundred million in the

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00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 1: near term, UM, and we won't stop there because that

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00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 1: is truly the way that we concede multiple versions of

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00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:19,760
Speaker 1: Level Forward, multiple producing pods, of producing pods, UM, lifting

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00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:23,240
Speaker 1: and including and creating the space and time to have

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00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:27,600
Speaker 1: these kinds of conversations that can be very difficult for

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00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:33,680
Speaker 1: people but are absolutely essential. If we can penetrate capital structures, UM,

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00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,520
Speaker 1: that's the only way we're going to change the nature

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00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: of what gets produced, because as long as it's still

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00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,480
Speaker 1: a boys club, then the boys will decide what we see.

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00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:48,640
Speaker 1: And I would add another kind of measure of success,

477
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 1: which is all the parts of the food chain. So

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00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 1: thankfully there are many production companies cropping up that are

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00:28:56,360 --> 00:29:00,240
Speaker 1: optioning and developing and even producing. We've got us start

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00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:07,040
Speaker 1: focusing on financing, distribution, and sales and marketing because we

481
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 1: can make as many wonderful women focused films, people of

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00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 1: color driven storylines. But if we're not getting them to

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00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:21,000
Speaker 1: the audience, if the cmos don't get the story, don't

484
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:25,120
Speaker 1: see how they can market to that audience, haven't read

485
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:30,720
Speaker 1: that the Latin X audience is exploding, then we've got

486
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:34,560
Speaker 1: to find a work around and we will. Wow, there

487
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:37,600
Speaker 1: is no shortage of ambition and drive, and I really

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00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 1: just respect you both. Then we will definitely keep an

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00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:42,239
Speaker 1: eye on level forward. Thank you so much for coming in,

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Speaker 1: Thanks for thanks thinking, thanks for listening. Be sure to

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Speaker 1: tune in next week for another edition of Strictly Business

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Speaker 1: m