From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business.

Documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim's first feature, which explored the very

Trumpy Florida retirement community, The Villages, premiered at Sundance in 2020.

Oppenheim was just 24 years old, but he'd managed to win the backing of filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.

He was really, I mean, I'm so fortunate that at the time he didn't have as much going on, he said,

I'll help you make your first feature, I'll help you get, you know, financed, and we can leverage the resources of our company and my name to help people believe in you and for you to make this film.

Oppenheim talks about how he started pitching short films to the New York Times in high school and how he cold emailed his way into Aronofsky's inner circle.

Oppenheim also explains how his interest in people who get consumed by their fantasies inspired Renfair, his HBO docu-series about the drama behind the scenes at the country's biggest Renaissance fair.

But first we banter. Stick around. It's the business from KCRW.

I am joined by my colleague in banter Matt Bellany.

Hello, Matt.

Hi there.

So I think Hollywood may be breathing a tentative sigh of relief because Ayatzi, the union that represents below the line workers in Hollywood, people behind the camera, has reached a tentative deal with the studios. This is a deal

that many people hope will sort of signal the ramping up of production again because people

are sitting around and it seems like nothing is being ordered and they're not working.

And some people believe they were waiting for a Yatzi to make a deal.

This deal promises raises and a heavier penalty if you expect people to work more than 15 hours.

And there's something, something on AI, a subject of concern to everyone.

Yeah, that's the big question mark here.

Because as you said, the gains on the wage front were pretty good. 7% in the first year goes down after that. And there are protections for longer days as such. The AI language, I'm quoting here from what the union sent to its members. It says the deal includes, quote, language that ensures no employee is required to provide AI prompts in any manner that would result in the displacement of any covered employee.

So that sounds at the same time vague and also somewhat declarative.

I think we're going to get a lot more clarification in the next days and weeks over what that means.

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