Unraveling 'What's on Your Screen?' with The Screen Lawyer #202

In this week's episode of The Screen Lawyer Podcast, it's finally Pete Salsich's turn to answer the question: "What's on your screen?"

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Transcript

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What's on your screen right now? Screen you're holding in your hand. Maybe it's a laptop, maybe it's on the wall, maybe it's more than one at a time. We ask that question all the time here at The Screen Lawyer Podcast. What's on your screen? I'm always fascinated with my guests and how they're using their screens at the moment. Sometimes as consumers, sometimes as creators, sometimes as combinations of both. Well, on this week's episode of the Screen Lawyer podcast, I'm going to dig into what's on my screen, both from a work perspective and an entertainment perspective. And we're going to tee up some issues that we're going to be looking at all season. Stick around. Hey there. Welcome to the Screen Lawyer Podcast. I'm Pete Salsich. The Screen Lawyer. And on this week's episode of the podcast, I'm going to ask myself the same question that I asked my guests all the time. What's on your screen? I'm always fascinated by this. And as you've heard from other guests over the time, you know, this concept kind of comes from the fact that it's really the basis of the entire Screen Lawyer Podcast and social media presence and really my legal practice, because everything ends up on a screen these days, just about business is conducted on screens from just pulling on our phones to purchase something. In a way, we used to have to go someplace and give them cash or a credit card. Now we can do it on our phones. That's a use of a screen that we that is now ubiquitous but didn't even really exist a few years ago. So that's just one tiny example of how screens get used. We talk a lot here about the creations that end up on a screen, and we go through the legal challenges and in all the contracts necessary in order for a film, you something you watch on your screen, somebody, a group, a large group of people probably had to put together a lot of contracts, a lot of work, a lot of creativity, editing everything else, distribution agreements, business structures, investment points, all of those things were necessary. So you could watch that 30 minute or one hour or two hour program or that lengthy series, whatever it is, It took people's business, legal and creative efforts to get that to a screen. We talk about that all the time so we can assume on our screens I'm do it all the time. I have the screen on my wall. My wife and I have certain shows that we like to watch sort of at the end of the day, if we both for our schedules line up, there's certain things we always have, something that's ongoing and something that we're looking forward to next and things that we both have a common interest in. But she has shows that she likes to watch. I have shows that I like to watch, and that's another way that we use our screens. Certainly I'm a sports fan, so I consume my local sports teams on my wall, but sometimes on my phone, sometimes on my laptop or my iPad, sometimes I'm just checking results to see whether I want to watch later. All these things come up with so many different ways that we use our screens, and we've talked a lot about the legal issues that go into that. Today, I want to focus on just some of the different ways we use it and get you thinking about how all this happens. This is also something that we're going to tee up with our guests going forward. So I'm putting myself in the guest chair, so to speak, with this question and say, Hey, Pete, what's on your screen? Well, funny you should ask this morning on my screen, you know, maybe this is kind of obvious, but it was simply me putting my notes together for this very episode, compiling what I had and spending my time on screen before, and how I want to think about talking to you about it. That's a way that I use my screen. Obviously, after this is done, I'm going to watch a rough cut of this and that'll be on my screen for a little bit. But from an entertainment perspective, I this is still how I answer the screen first, this question first. So, you know, someone just said, hey, what's on your screen right now? Even though I am The Screen Lawyer, even though I just all day long, I'm staring at multiple screens work wise and I consume screens in lots of different ways. If you ask me that question first, my mind still goes to what am I watching for entertainment? What product of somebody else's creativity am I consuming? Because it's just so good. It just grabs me at that particular time. So for me, that first answer is entertainment. And last week's episode I mentioned two shows and we've been watching this this early this winter. And so there's another one I wanted to dig in a little bit because, you know, if you're like me, some shows you watch because they're bingeable and I don't even want to start them until I know there's a whole season or maybe multiple seasons, because I'm going to watch the next episode right away. But there are still some shows that come out that are new and we watch them each week and then we have to wait a week for the next episode to come back. You know how TV always was up until recently and those kinds of shows I think are a little bit more special, at least for me, because I look forward to Sunday. And just the other night I got to watch episode five of Monsieur Spade now is a mon-sieur Spade? If you're just reading it, it's the French for Mister. And of course, I don't speak French or not well, so I don't have the right accent. But Mr. Spade, you'll find it is on AMC Plus. And if you know the name Spade, it is a modern, updated retelling, not really retelling, just a moving forward of the character. Sam Spade originally introduced in the Dashiell Hammett novels and then played to sort of legendary perfection by Humphrey Bogart in the Maltese Falcon and others. And so that character, Sam Spade in the new show is brought forward about 20 years, and now he's played by Clive Owen, who and I read. What prompted me is something I saw on my screen, on my phone prompt to say, Hey, check, you know, some site giving me things to watch. And there was a discussion about Clive Owen and his embracing the challenge of bringing a Humphrey Bogart character life. I mean, a lot of actors, I think, would find that completely daunting and terrifying to try to, you know, live with those comparisons. But I think Clive Owen wanted is probably one of the few that could do it, but he also makes it his own. But it was interesting in the interview, he talked about how he had watched so many of those old movies and just, you know, tried to absorb the mannerisms and the cadences that Bogie used and sort of how he talked in the way he thought about his responses. And I think you can see that coming through. But it never comes across to me as a copy of Bogart very quickly, you're into the story and you fully realize and believe in this universe. Now, there's occasional references to his life as a detective back in San Francisco, and I say back in San Francisco because this show is set in France in 1963, and it deals with issues of war, the war over Algeria that was going on in the late fifties, that a lot of French soldiers were involved in how they're dealing with their life now. Fascinating story. Interesting murder. I'm not going to give anything away, but we just watched episode five and there's one more episode. The season finale is coming up next week, and I can't wait. So that's something on my screen that is sort of traditional and I think kind of fun like, you know, another 150 million or 130 million whatever, some insane number of people recently the Super Bowl is on our screens and we like a lot of people, you know, that's not something you watch by yourself. So we had family over and we had a little party at our house. And of course, then you've got to do the Super Bowl commercial bingo. And so you're not only watching the show. So the game is you had a rooting interest. And in our house we had a rooting interest for the Chiefs, sorry, 49ers fans, But that's because my daughter is a Chiefs fan and so we've fully adopted it. So it's legit in our house, so to speak. But the game was sort of only something to be aware of while we were working on our bingo cards to watch the commercials and see other things that happened on the screen. That was kind of an interesting way, little old fashioned and new fashioned interaction with the screen, and that's when that was very communal, right? Because, you know, like if I'm watching a TV show, I don’t think of the rest of the world watching the TV show at the same time. But if you're watching the Super Bowl, it's a communal experience. You know that more people are watching that than any other thing that's ever been on the screen. And in real time, the the betting that's happening on screens, the other alternate recordings and broadcasts, the commentary on social media that's going on. It's fascinating. And of course, this year we had this. How many times was Taylor Swift going to be on our screens and then going on to social media and following people who are either really happy for that or upset about it and everything in between. A fascinating experience, a true sort of cultural universal of all things, watching a football game, pretty interesting use of screens and really cool use of technology. The doink cam, for example, embedded little tiny cameras embedded in the uprights. Nobody hit an upright this year, but again, it's constant screen technology being introduced to enhance the experience, not just the viewing experience, but the overall experience of something on a screen. I think that's something that is evolving too and kind of cool from a, you know, non consumer, but more of a worker perspective. I'm trying to spend more time using A.I. ChatGPT in particular, because I've talked about the legal issues related to it, and we're following a number of cases that are challenging the large language model training process under copyright infringement theories that are setting themselves up for strong, fair use defenses argued by the A.I. companies. Those cases are still in their early stages. They're in the motion to dismiss stage, but they're going to be something we watch very, very closely. And I've talked about that issue both from a copyright legal perspective. And then recently I was on a Zoom, another use of my screen with a group of people that we are all going to be on a panel in the near future. Speaking at a conference in this case for commercial real estate professionals on the use of A.I. and issues that come up challenges, opportunities, new methodologies used for improving efficiency. Really cool stuff as a practical matter. But I'm going to be talking about the legal and ethical responsibilities and sort of safeguards around the use of that. And what's interesting is this is in a you speaking in a business setting commercial real estate this time, that is not my normal sort of intellectual property or entertainment industry discussion, but the issues are the same because in any large industry or any really industry, when humans are signing documents or putting their names on the accuracy of those documents, using A.I. to generate those documents triggers in us a responsibility to make sure that what came out of the A.I. process is valid, truthful, accurate, so that we can put our names on it. That responsibility doesn't go away in this exercise of thinking about it outside of my normal industry. Reinforce that for me, that for some things those truths are universal. And so that's been something that's interesting. And one of the things I realize is that I don't use A.I. nearly as much as I probably could. And some of my colleagues, Mitch Jackson's a friend, he's been a guest on this podcast in the past. He is using it crazily effectively in his legal practice, particularly in his mediation practice. And it's really fascinating to learn about those things. And I realize I'm behind on that. I can tell you what copyright law says about A.I. quite comfortably, but I don't necessarily know how to use it that well myself. So this year right now on my screen is me learning by doing. And I think that's important. That's the, you know, embracing new technology as much as we can so that we can understand the use cases, why people get so excited. And then for me, how we don't get in the way of that use, but make sure that that use comports with the law, intellectual property laws, etc. And that's an ongoing fascinating thing. So that's a big thing that's on my screen right now. Another thing I'm doing right now and this is well within my industry is my screen pretty much always open. I have a couple of different screens that I look at. It's a big ones and then smaller ones. So I've got my three screen rig at work and something that's pretty much always on one of those screens is the current application for the Motion Media Program Tax Credit that was recently introduced in Missouri last year. And the reason I'm spending so much time on that on my screen is because I'm working with people who are in the Independent film producer mode or want to grow into that mode locally here in Saint Louis and in the Midwest to help understand the role of the producer in putting a project together in such a way that it would be eligible to receive these tax credits if the filming and production is based in Missouri or for whatever percentage is based in Missouri. And this process, there are other states that have tax credit programs and there are a lot of similarities, but each one has its own particular nuances. And so here, as a film lawyer in Missouri, I'm focused on making sure I understand that application process very well and working through, you know, if there are certain things that maybe need some more clarity in as a defined term, then making that list and then setting up times to talk to the people at the Missouri Film Office about interpretations of that. It's very new. The film office is working with people. They want you to get the tax credit. They're not trying to keep it from you. It's not a trick, but it takes some effort and learning and going through the process. So that's on my screen right now. It's sort of a constant updating as I have projects that are interested in it, as I'm just trying to educate myself to be ready for those next projects. That's a big part of something that's on my screen and you can go find that on your screen by going to the Missouri Film Office, and that will take you to a link to the Missouri Department of Economic Development, which is where all of this tax credit information is housed. Tons of info. The application itself, all of that is there. So I'd encourage you to check it out if you're at all interested in that. I'm spending a lot of time with that on my screen. And then, you know, another thing and this almost goes without saying probably for you and just about anybody else, YouTube, YouTube is always on my screen. Typically either in my phone or my iPad, although occasionally on my wall, but I use it probably most. And this is sort of in my own personal enjoyment, my my all other life as a rock and roll dad band, classic rock cover band player. Yes, of course, I have to work full time because no, I'm not a professional musician, but I get to play music half a dozen times a year in a band with some good friends, and we really cherish this work. But we're playing covers, right? It's we're party band. It's called 81. If you're interested, you can check us out. But how do you go, you know, learn these songs? We should play so and so by this, this song, by that, you know, What do you do? I go to YouTube because I can watch. Not only can I get all the chords, get all the lyrics and all that stuff, but I can watch people play it. And then there's a ton of people that are have whole YouTube channels just teaching. Here's how to play this on this guitar. Here's how to play it on an acoustic, here's how to do this part. And I literally got getting lessons in my home. It's amazing. When I first started playing guitar years ago, you'd have to stop and start the cassette and rewind a little bit, and I think that's in a minor and you just you piece it out like that now, boom, anything I want I can find instantly and typically 5 to 10 examples. It's amazing. I use it all the time. I also use it recently to help me make sure I didn't screw up changing a faucet in my sink. YouTube is amazing. It's also where we publish our Screen Lawyer Podcast episodes. It's where we put up other content. It's where I see other professionals sharing their knowledge. I just think it's a it's a wonderful marketplace and I'm a both a contributor and a consumer way more than I ever was and probably going to continue to grow in that volume. One of my favorite things to watch on YouTube and it's sort of this combination of entertainment and music and teaching and just scratches on my itches and it stretches over into copyright law. And that's Rick Beato’s“What makes this song so great?”. Check him out on YouTube. He's got this long series and he'll go take a deep dive into he's got like over 100 episodes of various rock and roll songs and what it was about the song that made it so great. And he breaks down the instrumentation, the arrangement, maybe some of the back story, how it came to be. It's fascinating. It's great stuff. And he's had some pretty interesting run-ins with copyright notices and strikes over what I think is entirely fair use. But it's part of the ongoing challenge of putting out new content that comments on existing content classic fair use. But the YouTube is a little bit of the Wild West even still, and his story is a great example of it being done well, but also having to deal with those copyright issues. Definitely worth checking out. You know, recently as a Saint Louisan and, you know, Jon Hamm is somebody we pay attention to. Now, that's probably true for a lot of people, no matter where you live. But since he's from here, we were a little bit more interested in the things he's doing. And just this past month or so, we watched two different programs on our wall, both featuring Jon Hamm, both of him playing sort of small town sheriff or police officers, but with wildly different versions of that officer from Jon Hamm. At the same time, one of it is Fargo, the most recent season of Fargo, in which he plays the let's just say it is dark, cruel, and I don't want to give away anything. It is worth watching, but it is a Jon Hamm who is frankly terrifying to watch and he's so good at it. Makes you wonder a little bit. Right. But the writing is fantastic. The other characters are awesome. Juno Temple is from If you Know Her only from Ted Lasso. She's amazing, totally different type of character. It's weirdly worth watching. But right before we started watching that, we watched a movie that was recently released called Maggie Moore's, and it's Maggie Moore with the S in parentheses, because the setup is there are two people named Maggie Moore. There are some murders, there are some stuff that happens. Jon Hamm is the sheriff who has to deal with it. Tina Fey is involved. And another Ted Lasso alum, Nick Mohammed, who is Nate and Ted Lasso, he plays a deputy with Jon Hamm. Also, this is a movie, not a series also involving some murders. There's a little bit of sort of dark stuff that happens and a couple of things. You're like, “Oh no!”, But Jon Hamm's character is the good guy, and it is just fascinating to watch the same actor do these relatively similar basic roles in such a radically different performance. Really, really cool to see and awfully impressive, in my view. One more thing that I mentioned this up a little bit. I'm a sports fan. I love my St Louis University Billikens a basketball that season tickets forever and man man, is it tough to watch this season? It's just a little bit heartbreaking. So I've been giving away my tickets a lot because people still want to use them and I check my phone to see the results because of course I've set the games up to record their all available on three screens if I want to watch them. But I don't know if I want to devote my time to get mad at the screen. The results. So I record them and then I check later. Is that being a Fairweather fan? Possibly. But again, I couldn't do that before. So my multiple screens and my multiple sources of information and how my screens interact give me the ability to watch what I want to watch and maybe avoid what I wish I hadn't spent all that time on. Interesting stuff. And just sort of a typical example of all of the different ways that our screens interact. One more thing I want to mention actually, two, because I want to give a shout out to my producer, Chris Hayes here, because among the things Chris does for us here is he makes sure that we are staying current with our data, privacy and security obligations as users of our system. In a law firm, you can imagine our security systems have to be extra tight, but they do. But that's really true of all businesses. But we have additional obligations that are independent of other people's privacy obligations, obviously. So our own systems have vulnerabilities. So what do we have to do? I've got to go on and make sure that I'm watching the latest training video and making sure of that. And as Chris knows, I'm a little behind on mine, but I that's going to be on my screen this week getting caught up on those. Just another example of our screens, helping us make sure we can keep using our screens safely and securely. That's the use of the screens isn’t going away. So we've got to be able to do it safely and securely at all times. That's a big thing. Lastly, I want to give a shout out to the folks at St Louis Filmworks This is a group in town here that formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to help create some education and nurturing entrepreneurial environment for filmmakers coming out of the St Louis area. And the timing is great because with the influx of the tax credit program, there is a ton happening. There's so much energy and what they've put together are, and I've been able to watch on my screen two times now. Recently these leadership summits in which it's a zoom of 25 or 30 people, but everybody has a is a stakeholder or a participant in the film and production world here in a different way. And so you hear from the people involved in the unions, people involved in programs that are training potential new crew, education programs for others. There's the producers, directors, the whole production houses, what technology is available, what other industries are impacted. And so I've been able to participate those lately. Add my part about the legal issues and the copyright issues and just the business side of things. And collectively, it's an example of people using a screen- Zoom in this instance - that we're all very used to now, but we really weren't just a few years ago in a really powerful way to draw a bunch of people together. And now everybody kind of knows how to do it. And it's a really productive two hour session with about 25 people. And I think everybody in my experience has really gotten a lot out of it. So sometimes Zoom can drive you crazy. This is a really powerful use of screens helping people come together in this community to put more things on screens, kind of an endless loop. So that's my update. That's what's on my screen. As you can see, it's a bunch of stuff. It ranges from entertainment to use to education to just pure wind down my brain enjoyment. All of that's probably true of you as we go forward this season and the screen on your podcast, I'm going to ask all my guests what's on your screen and we'll hear from them as the things that they're doing and working on. But I'd love to hear from you too. If you'd like to share what's on your screen, hit us up in the comment section. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can like and subscribe some. Look for that video that pops up next on your screen if that's how it comes up for you. So you'll get more Screen Lawyer content. And if you're hearing this on your audio podcast, fantastic. We're happy to be in your ears. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. We will be dropping episodes every other Wednesday throughout the year, and we're really looking forward to season two here at The Screen Lawyer Podcast. So take care. Take a look at your screen, Think about what's on your screen and let us know. See you soon.