[HN Gopher] Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Creating Bluey: Tales from the Art Director
        
       Author : cfcfcf
       Score  : 232 points
       Date   : 2025-04-28 01:04 UTC (5 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (substack.com)
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Recent and related (ok, maybe a bit much, but the new article
       | looks good too!)
       | 
       |  _'Bluey's World': How a Cute Aussie Puppy Became a Juggernaut_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43410874 - March 2025 (313
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _A look at the creative process behind Bluey and Cocomelon
       | (2024)_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43339206 - March
       | 2025 (215 comments)
       | 
       | Also:
       | 
       |  _Bluey, and the hierarchy of distractions_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41510482 - Sept 2024 (14
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _How Australia's 'Bluey' conquered children's entertainment_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38875399 - Jan 2024 (430
       | comments)
        
       | amiga386 wrote:
       | The art director's graduate animation project (as mentioned in
       | the article) from 10 years ago:
       | 
       | Pond Scum - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2VibU-NeEI
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | For me, at least, this shows the same emphasis on Story (talked
         | about in part 4) - the animation is decent if not great, but
         | the character does _exactly_ what you expect him to at the end,
         | and that 's Story.
        
       | aaronbrethorst wrote:
       | _I now avoid jobs that pressure everyone into thinking a good
       | show or project can only be created at the expense of everyone's
       | well being. Even if the IP they're offering you a chance to work
       | on is exciting (and unfortunately I've seen way too many times
       | now how this can be used as a bargaining chip to mistreat
       | people). It doesn't have to be that way. You can make something
       | great without killing your crew._
       | 
       | hear hear.
        
         | jazzcomputer wrote:
         | I came across a game studio a few years ago here in NZ that
         | does it right. I worked in a hot desk place that housed their
         | studio in a space - they were never working past 5.30, had
         | amazing staff reviews (they did them in a space where I could
         | overhear them), have a good IP, good wage packages, excellent
         | internal mentoring, a good gender split, recruit diverse staff.
         | 
         | I'm pretty sure there's a few other studios here too which are
         | good. I'm just sharing this 'cos, well... it's nice to hear the
         | positives.
        
           | unsnap_biceps wrote:
           | If you're willing to share their name, I'd love to take a
           | look at their games and support a positive place.
        
             | jazzcomputer wrote:
             | Runaway Play
             | 
             | I also hear good things about Dinosaur Polo Club
        
               | unsnap_biceps wrote:
               | Funny! I have played both the games Dinosaur Polo Club
               | has released.
               | 
               | I'll take a gander at Runaway Play later this weekend.
               | Thank you for the pointer!
        
         | ekianjo wrote:
         | > You can make something great without killing your crew.
         | 
         | You could get many counter examples of projects that did very
         | well and where everyone was in crunch mode for the last 6
         | months. There is no rule out there and one team being
         | successful once doing things one way is not a proof of anything
        
           | diatone wrote:
           | Don't think Catriona was commenting about whether or not it's
           | possible to make something great period. More that greatness
           | doesn't excuse not treating people like human beings
        
         | ninkendo wrote:
         | Was this in the article somewhere? I searched and didn't see it
         | (and I'm most interested in why she left, and haven't found
         | anything on it.)
        
           | jwmerrill wrote:
           | The article is a four part series.
        
           | aaronbrethorst wrote:
           | Weird, I think the link changed. I was quoting from part 3, I
           | believe, and it's been changed to part 1.
           | 
           | Edit: yeah part 3 https://goodsniff.substack.com/p/creating-
           | bluey-tales-from-t...
        
       | ggm wrote:
       | As a brisbane resident, seeing aspects of my city skyline
       | lovingly created for kids TV is fantastic. I like to imagine
       | small people the world over seeing the story bridge or "the zip
       | water heater" state government building or the brown snake and to
       | them it's just Shelbyville without a monorail but to anyone from
       | Brisvegas..
        
       | meander_water wrote:
       | As someone who struggles to make anything that looks good, I am
       | fascinated by designers ability to take a brief and bring it to
       | life using their own unique artisic voice.
       | 
       | The second part to this is a fine example -
       | https://goodsniff.substack.com/p/creating-bluey-tales-from-t...
       | 
       | I've always wondered how they managed to make the show look and
       | feel Brisbane, and this delivers.
        
       | unsnap_biceps wrote:
       | Semi Related 20khtz episodes that are delightful:
       | 
       | The Voices of Bluey w/ Uncle Stripe
       | https://www.20k.org/episodes/thevoicesofbluey
       | 
       | The Organic Sound of Bluey w/ Sound Designer Dan Brumm
       | https://www.20k.org/episodes/thesoundofbluey
        
       | jppope wrote:
       | Amazing story, and what a narrative voice! The whole thing pulls
       | you in and pushes you off, it builds you up and breaks you down.
       | I loved this
        
       | einpoklum wrote:
       | Nitpick:
       | 
       | > * it was the beginnings of social media in the early 2010s*
       | 
       | - IRC + NNTP newsgroups were already popular by 1989.
       | 
       | - Myspace was quite popular by 2004.
       | 
       | - Facebook was popular by... 2006 I guess?
       | 
       | and that's just a few platforms I can mention.
        
         | aikinai wrote:
         | Your perspective of "popular" is incredibly far off. Popular
         | among people in your circle of socioeconomics and interests is
         | not that same as popular among the general population.
        
           | edejong wrote:
           | Your position is indeed supported by the data presented here:
           | https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media
        
       | JohnScolaro wrote:
       | What a fantastic write-up. As a Brisbane native and software
       | developer I often feel similarly to the author about Brisbane's
       | software dev scene. Brisbane so often feels like a backwater,
       | with the big dogs down in Melbourne and Sydney, and the 'peak of
       | industry' in the US.
       | 
       | I'd love to move to Seattle and work for Amazon or something to
       | get 'relevant industry experience' but what I'd _really_ love to
       | do is make a go of it here because - like the author - I believe
       | Brisbane is secretly still the best city in the world ;-)
        
         | phinnaeus wrote:
         | I lived and worked as a dev in Seattle for 8 years before
         | moving to Sydney. I want nothing more than for Australia to
         | have a thriving tech scene but I haven't seen much progress in
         | that area since I moved here 5 years ago. I still love it and
         | have no plans to go back. I just wish there was more
         | opportunity here and not so much constant pressure to move back
         | to the US for increased salary and challenge.
        
           | cadamsdotcom wrote:
           | Hey there, I've been in Sydney 5 years same as you (after a 7
           | year stint in SF) and feel exactly the same way.
           | 
           | If you're around in the next week or two it'd be great to
           | grab coffee and talk about it! Coffee being the great Aussie
           | connector and all.
           | 
           | You can find my email on my profile.
        
           | 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
           | Australia in some ways is the opposite of the US. Too much
           | regulation and not enough effort to help people start
           | businesses. It really needs to change and they're missing a
           | big opportunity to make the start up scene better. Just as
           | long as we don't do it while throwing out sensible
           | regulations.
        
           | weeksie wrote:
           | Funny. I lived in Seattle for 5 years before I moved to
           | Sydney, where I lived for 5 years. That was a different era
           | though, tech wasn't the industry it is now and the internet
           | still felt new. I moved down in 2003 and my American accent
           | helped me land a job I wasn't qualified for (having self
           | taught myself some php and java in Seattle, mostly working as
           | a bartender though). In 2005 I started a small software shop
           | with some friends. Back then (2003) the Ruby user's group was
           | too small to get a reservation at a pub so we'd have to
           | partner up with the Smalltalk guys. Rails came out a year or
           | so later and that changed.
           | 
           | I got back into web stuff when I moved to the states and have
           | been up and down the stack many times since, but I have a ton
           | of nostalgia for the stuff we did back then. Web 2 was an
           | annoying new buzzword and we were still mostly writing
           | software for kiosks, device drivers in C, bridging that with
           | Lua, and using Flash for the interface b/c everybody else in
           | the space was using shitty C++ Motif interfaces. . . . memory
           | lane.
           | 
           | Imagine that Newtown and the Inner West are a lot different
           | than when I lived there, but I do miss that time.
        
           | dalanmiller wrote:
           | Similar story but Melbourne.
           | 
           | I just don't see _as much_ self-directed ambition or
           | obsession? Going to a meetup in Seattle or SF in the early
           | 2010s there were serious obsessives. Masters of domains like
           | Go or JavaScript and someone from Sequoia at the Startup
           | Weekend. Always flocks of folks looking to start their next
           | business. That same bug just never hit here?
           | 
           | This I find weird, surely there are people who can sense
           | opportunities unlockable by tech and Australia is not at all
           | easier or any less expensive than the U.S., I still can't
           | quite put my finger on it. For me there's still a magical
           | cultural element to a place like SF, and to an extent -
           | Seattle, when it comes to creating new opportunities.
        
         | chickenzzzzu wrote:
         | I live down the street from Amazon's relatively nice suburban
         | office (you couldn't pay me to step foot in Seattle).
         | 
         | Let me save you the trip, you don't want to work for Amazon at
         | the money they pay. They would have to 1.5x it or maybe even
         | double it to make it worth the suffering of working there.
         | 
         | Life is short-- work somewhere else, or failing that, on your
         | own thing :)
        
         | mnbbrown wrote:
         | As someone who's from Brisbane but spent the last 7 years in
         | London you're 100% correct. Brisbane is the best city in the
         | world. I'm excited to eventually move back.
        
         | lukan wrote:
         | "I believe Brisbane is secretly still the best city in the
         | world"
         | 
         | Personally the 3 times I visited Brisbane, were all in all
         | quite neutral for me, not great, not bad. But friends had way
         | worse experiences and when I found a iconic backpackers book,
         | "No shitting on the toilet", I had a good laugh about those
         | passages:
         | 
         | "A friend of mine would never leave a place until he'd had a
         | good time there. Another friend would not leave a destination
         | until he had learnt something encouraging about the people and
         | their culture. Both are currently stuck in Brisbane."
         | 
         | So .. I would have been stuck there as well. So please no
         | offense about your home town. I love Queensland. And Bluey. And
         | would give your hometown a chance again. But I do know people
         | who never ever want to go there again. (But it also has been
         | some years.)
        
           | JohnScolaro wrote:
           | Oh I can 100% see where all of that comes from too.
           | 
           | I think a lot of Brisbanes secret beauty is well hidden from
           | people just visiting. The temperate rainforests, glasshouse
           | mountains, some of the best beaches in the world all within
           | an hours drive. The strange birds, the general attitude of
           | the public. I think it's all quite nice. My only personal
           | gripe is that I think it's far too hot in summer!
           | 
           | I'm also extremely biased though, so take my opinion with a
           | grain of salt. Brisbane does have an awful lot of mediocrity
           | too, but I'm still proud of it, and keen to show it off in
           | 2032 with the Olympics!
        
             | lukan wrote:
             | "but I'm still proud of it, and keen to show it off in 2032
             | with the Olympics!"
             | 
             | Maybe see you there :)
        
         | markus_zhang wrote:
         | I live in Canada and Bluey is the reason I really want to visit
         | Brisbane.
        
       | polotics wrote:
       | Wow the money shot of this I think is the quote:
       | 
       | "...Or at least have a bit more financial security to show for
       | it. My designs have generated roughly 2 billion dollars for the
       | people lucky enough to be cashing in on it. Not bad surplus value
       | for someone on an 88k salary."""
       | 
       | 88k AUD is less than 60'000 USD, and as this art director worked
       | one year on this, the raw ratio of wage earned to this is
       | 0.00003, so 0.003 percent. Sure there were other people involved,
       | but even if this art director's year of repetitive strain
       | injuries is only worth one percent of the value of Bluey, then
       | still it managed to capture only 0.3 percent of the value. This
       | 99.7% makes the 30% Apple-tax on developers look good. I think it
       | shouldn't.
       | 
       | The lesson for me is: creative endeavours are meant to die in our
       | society.
        
         | namdnay wrote:
         | But if Bluey (like most shows people will work on) hadn't been
         | a huge success, he would still have kept his 88k
         | 
         | That's the inherent trade off in a salaried position - you are
         | trading potential wealth for guaranteed security
        
           | z2 wrote:
           | Not at all familiar with animation or the broader industry
           | but could they have at least offered the potential for
           | royalties or some sort of sales based bonuses?
        
             | 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
             | I believe most of the value of Bluey is captured by the
             | BBC. The whole thing is a real shame for Australia. We've
             | had a couple of the best children's entertainment ever:
             | Wiggles and Bluey. Don't know why they didn't negotiate a
             | bigger piece of the pie with Bluey.
        
               | overfeed wrote:
               | Why didn't ABC fund the whole shebang? I suspect the BBC
               | has a much bigger warchest to deploy - recalling the
               | ludicrous amounts invested into Top Gear or the numerous
               | David Attenborough nature shows.
        
               | 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
               | Even the BBC war chest appears to be dwindling. Or at
               | least it's become harder to produce things on their own.
               | The latest seasons of Dr Who are produced in
               | collaboration with Disney.
               | 
               | But yes, they would have had bigger reach, and we might
               | not have gotten this far without the BBC. I just want the
               | ABC to have got a more significant chunk.
        
             | namdnay wrote:
             | For star voice actors or an animator who has already made
             | their reputation on other shows maybe?
             | 
             | The interesting question would be "if at the time they had
             | offered him 40k and points, would he have chosen that?"
        
           | ksynwa wrote:
           | Would be cool if there was a middle ground between risking
           | destitution by claiming a share of the income made and giving
           | up your fair share of the billions made in return of a modest
           | salary.
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | Such as buying shares of Disney stock?
             | 
             | Perhaps even via basically free 0.03% expense ratio index
             | fund that automatically gives the owner access to business
             | success across the entire economy.
             | 
             | Bluey is also made by the government, so technically, there
             | is no equity gains or profit to be had at that level, it's
             | just a negotiation of compensation.
        
             | Tade0 wrote:
             | There's the option of being a freelancer and establishing a
             | co-op with your freelancer friends.
             | 
             | Easier said than done, but some people I knew from college
             | actually managed to pull this off.
        
             | brookst wrote:
             | There is! You can negotiate a lower salary and higher
             | participation. Obviously they have to want you, but when a
             | show like this is starting up and not at all sure to even
             | make it one season, an art director who would work for 25%
             | pay and 1% of future profits would be snapped up.
        
               | phreack wrote:
               | Pessimistically, I'd then imagine they get burnt by
               | Hollywood accounting and end up fully empty handed
        
               | throwup238 wrote:
               | The way around Hollywood accounting is to negotiate
               | points on gross revenue or royalties rather than profit.
               | That's SOP in TV/movies for people with decent
               | representation and the leverage to ask for it. Points on
               | profit are largely seen the same way tech people view
               | startup options.
        
             | jl6 wrote:
             | The middle ground is usually to buy shares in your
             | employer. In this case it seems like it's the BBC who have
             | hit the jackpot, so I guess the real winner is... the
             | British public?
        
           | suddenlybananas wrote:
           | It's not like she was offered equity and chose a meagre
           | salary. Don't paint exploitation as a trade-off.
        
             | bobxmax wrote:
             | Exploitation? Thousands of people are getting paid $90k to
             | paint pointless characters nobody will ever see. It's not
             | exploitation because one of them succeeds.
        
               | suddenlybananas wrote:
               | It's a technical term. She produced immense value and she
               | didn't receive it, someone else took it. That's
               | exploitation in Marxism.
               | 
               | I also don't get where you get these idea that there's
               | this huge glut of artists producing work that's unpopular
               | _and getting paid for it_. If you 're at the point you're
               | getting paid 90k a year, you're working in studios that
               | almost certainly turn a profit.
        
               | AstroBen wrote:
               | The vast majority of startups lose money for their
               | founders. So if that happens the founders should have
               | been paid? The workers were the exploiters?
               | 
               | I've hired people first hand for projects that ended up
               | being a flop. They made out much better than I did
               | 
               | Someone has to take the risk. It's not guaranteed it'll
               | be a risk with a positive expected value either
        
               | suddenlybananas wrote:
               | You know that if an employee works at a start up that
               | goes under, they also face risk right? Like you're aware
               | that people get laid off and fired?
        
               | AstroBen wrote:
               | No I had no idea. Thanks
        
               | dahart wrote:
               | The entire reason someone takes the risk is for the
               | chance to have a 'positive' expected value, which in
               | startup land means the company gets really big, hires a
               | lot of people, and makes a lot of money for the owners
               | (founders & investors) by selling a product for more
               | money than they pay the workers.
               | 
               | Startup investors often treat this like an odds game,
               | expecting that while 9 out of 10 investments might fail,
               | one of them will return better than 10x, which turns into
               | a net profit on investments.
               | 
               | The "risk" might be relatively big for small investors,
               | but it's quite low for the bigger savvier institutional
               | investors.
               | 
               | Startups are economically interesting, but they are not
               | the majority of the economy. When evaluating parent's
               | argument, don't forget to think about companies like
               | Walmart, Amazon, Exxon, and Disney.
        
               | AstroBen wrote:
               | > Startup investors often treat this like an odds game
               | 
               | Yeah, it's not free profit though. If you're not good at
               | choosing investments you end up with 9 out of 10 failing,
               | and 1 only making 2x. That's what I mean by there are no
               | guarantees of it
               | 
               | It's very easy to look at an isolated case where they
               | made 10x and see it as unfair.. and miss the 9 other
               | shots they took which lost money. Or hell the 90 other
               | shots, and they're still in the hole overall
               | 
               | > When evaluating parent's argument, don't forget to
               | think about companies like Walmart, Amazon, Exxon, and
               | Disney.
               | 
               | Yeah these are definitely a different ballgame. Not sure
               | where I stand on it - I don't know enough about the
               | economics of that
        
               | dahart wrote:
               | I agree, and it's objectively true, that there are no
               | guarantees on investment. I don't think GP was making any
               | arguments that implied otherwise.
               | 
               | > It's very easy to look at an isolated case where they
               | made 10x and see it as unfair
               | 
               | "Unfair" is subjective and an insanely deep topic we
               | can't even begin broach here thoughtfully. It's always
               | true that a profitable company has incomes that exceed
               | its costs, by definition. Since costs include employee
               | pay, it's always true in a profitable company that
               | employees are collectively providing a greater value to
               | the company than they are capturing for themselves.
               | You're still arguing from a failed startup perspective,
               | and by and large, failing and failed startups are not
               | running the economy, nor are even a significant portion.
               | The majority of people in the economy are working for
               | someone else's profitable company. People who have money
               | do take risks on startups for the chance make it big, but
               | those people had money to begin with.
        
               | AstroBen wrote:
               | Yeah unfair was the wrong word. I mean just to focus on
               | exploitation in the Marxist sense suddenlybananas was
               | using it
               | 
               | The economics are the same for a startup and established
               | company, no? I was just talking about that because that's
               | what Bluey was. Walmart was also once a tiny business and
               | the returns are still happening today. We're all free to
               | own part of them through publicly traded stocks. Of
               | course the returns are a lot lower now simply because
               | there's less risk
               | 
               | If they're extracting so much extra from employees that
               | they're overpriced in the market, that leaves room for a
               | competitor to offer lower prices. "Your margin is my
               | opportunity"
               | 
               | If they're getting outsized margins by paying tiny
               | salaries, it opens up room for a competitor to get the
               | best people to work for them by paying more
               | 
               | Worker co-ops are still an option under capitalism, also
               | 
               | It's not a perfect system but it seems to work fairly
               | well?
               | 
               | > those people had money to begin with
               | 
               | Well.. are we not posting this on a VC firm's website?
               | There are options to getting money if you're starting
               | with none
               | 
               | I can very much get behind removing generational wealth.
               | That benefits no-one
        
               | dahart wrote:
               | > The economics are the same for a startup and
               | established company, no?
               | 
               | No, I don't think so at all. A startup founder and a
               | startup investor are starting from completely different
               | places and have completely different risks from a minimum
               | wage Walmart or McDonalds employee, and they usually
               | occupy different social classes.
               | 
               | Workers in a co-op are part owner, so they become, in
               | part, the capitalists. They might be fractional
               | capitalists, but they are part worker and part owner.
               | That's fine, and it's not what Marx was worried about.
               | Marx was worried about the plight of the laborer who gets
               | no share of the ownership at all. Startup founders are
               | sometimes also owners, they are capitalists. Investors
               | are more pure capitalists, they use their money to buy
               | ownership of companies in hopes of making more money.
               | Stock purchases are also a way to be a fractional owner
               | in a way, that's one way to look at it. Most minimum wage
               | employees don't have any stock, most of the lower class
               | doesn't have any stock.
               | 
               | Nobody said that owners don't take risks in capitalism.
               | They do take risks with their capital when they invest.
               | 
               | > Your margin is my opportunity
               | 
               | Tell that to the low-paid & minimum-wage workers across
               | the country. Somehow competition has failed to result in
               | the minimum wage going up on its own. Somehow competition
               | hasn't eliminated the working poor.
               | 
               | BTW most of the ultra rich capitalists are wildly in
               | favor of generational wealth, since it benefits them and
               | their families. Historically it was true that the
               | majority of ultra-wealthy people had inherited their
               | wealth, despite all the rags-to-riches and startup
               | stories we're told.
        
               | brookst wrote:
               | What studios consistently turn a profit?
               | 
               | They have years where they make hundreds of millions,
               | years when they lose hundreds of millions.
               | 
               | It is weird to want the security of a paycheck,
               | participation in unlikely huge successes, and no exposure
               | to much more likely flops.
        
               | bonaldi wrote:
               | It's not weird at all; in other circumstances we call it
               | a bonus.
               | 
               | You get baseline security by trading away the unlimited
               | upside, but you are still incentivised to produce your
               | best work by knowing if you help create a huge success
               | you'll get additional compensation for it.
        
               | suddenlybananas wrote:
               | You don't get security. You can be fired easily. It's
               | workers who face the consequences of the risks taken on
               | by capitalists.
        
               | pastor_williams wrote:
               | How would her work operate under Marxism? Would she get
               | to keep the immense value? That's not my understanding of
               | Marxism but maybe I'm mistaken.
        
               | suddenlybananas wrote:
               | I'd recommend reading about what surplus labour is so
               | that you could better understand the relevant arguments.
        
               | bobxmax wrote:
               | She didn't produce value. Someone else created value out
               | of what she created.
               | 
               | You ironically and accidentally stumbled onto the very
               | reason Marxism has always failed so miserably.
        
               | suddenlybananas wrote:
               | This is an insane point of view. I genuinely don't
               | understand how you can hold it. You don't think the
               | person who actually made the product is the one who made
               | the value? Do you believe in magic? Are capitalists just
               | bestowing magic juju that creates value and any actual
               | labour and hard work is irrelevant?
        
               | exitb wrote:
               | The product is a cartoon (and associated services,
               | merchandise), not the idea. There were countless people
               | involved in creating the set of products, even if just
               | one person came up with the concept.
        
               | suddenlybananas wrote:
               | Sorry, I think we're talking cross-purposes here. I agree
               | that the workers are the ones who should receive the
               | profits. The art director is one such worker (out of
               | many).
        
             | jdgoesmarching wrote:
             | This is not a forum that is capable of factoring in power
             | dynamics in any economic discussion. The market is always
             | perfect, everyone has equal opportunities to capitalize on
             | their own labor as an entrepreneur, just negotiate with
             | your employer, etc.
        
               | bobxmax wrote:
               | She's an artist, not some poor wage slave. The fact she
               | gets paid a living wage at all for doodling in a notebook
               | is thanks to the miracle of consumer capitalism.
               | 
               | Van Gogh couldn't trade his paintings for stale bread.
        
               | suddenlybananas wrote:
               | "doodling in a notebook". Are you aware of how big of a
               | thing bluey is?
        
           | treyd wrote:
           | That's a great point. I'm glad to know that this is the only
           | possible option and that the world can't be any better than
           | it is.
        
         | andrepd wrote:
         | A certain 19th century German thinker wrote abundantly on that
         | issue :-) It's not just creative endeavours.
         | 
         | The fact that access to capital is not evenly distributed means
         | that those who don't have it have to surrender their surplus
         | value to those that have it.
        
           | MrBuddyCasino wrote:
           | [flagged]
        
             | polotics wrote:
             | Are you sure you read the parent post? It was not about
             | wealth being immanent at all as I read it, it was about
             | capital ownership granting full access to work-created
             | value.
        
               | lotsofpulp wrote:
               | Doesn't the British government and/or Australian
               | government own Bluey?
               | 
               | What capital is there to own? Maybe Ludo Studios
               | negotiated a piece of the pie for themselves, but I doubt
               | it is much in the grand scheme of things.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluey_(TV_series)
               | 
               | > It was commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting
               | Corporation and the British Broadcasting Corporation,
               | with BBC Studios holding global distribution and
               | merchandising rights.
        
               | dahart wrote:
               | The government part is a good point, this is not the best
               | example of a capitalist endeavor.
               | 
               | > What capital is there to own?
               | 
               | The rights you mentioned is part of the 'capital' - these
               | days capital and 'means of production' certainly involve
               | intellectual property. I think it always did - capital
               | was always referring to ownership - but the mix is
               | starting to lean heavily on intangibles now, with
               | software running so much of the world. The ABC & BBC
               | capital used to include tons of high power broadcasting
               | equipment, but maybe that mostly going or gone now?
        
               | lotsofpulp wrote:
               | I didn't mean capital in the accounting sense, I meant
               | receiving capital as remuneration as opposed to a salary.
               | The more accurate word would have been equity, but I was
               | using the term polotics used:
               | 
               | >it was about capital ownership granting full access to
               | work-created value.
        
               | dahart wrote:
               | What do you mean? @plotics wasn't talking about
               | remuneration for products or services, nor equity.
               | "Capital ownership" in the sentence you quoted is
               | referring to the company, the ol' ownership of the means
               | of production. "Granting full access to work-created
               | value" means the owners (investors, CEO, etc.) would
               | split profits among workers rather than keep the profits
               | for themselves.
        
               | lotsofpulp wrote:
               | That is called equity (at least in the USA).
               | 
               | > Granting full access to work-created value" means the
               | owners (investors, CEO, etc.) would split profits among
               | workers rather than keep the profits for themselves.
               | 
               | This is remuneration, the reward in exchange for your
               | effort/wares/risk.
               | 
               | In this case, the artist would have had to ask taxpayers
               | (or the taxpayers' representatives) to sell them a piece
               | of the taxpayer's equity. Or some type of royalty/revenue
               | sharing agreement.
               | 
               | Obviously, that was not going to happen for a small time
               | artist (that kind of stuff is reserved for well connected
               | people when it comes to government assets).
               | 
               | But the second best option the world has come up with is
               | public equity markets, where the common people can invest
               | and gain access to equity, which is also very liquid.
        
               | dahart wrote:
               | You asked what the capital is, and the government assets
               | reserved for well connected people is the "capital" in
               | this case.
               | 
               | You can call capital equity or remuneration, but that
               | seems slightly weird even though there's overlap of
               | concepts. Either way, I don't think that's what the
               | phrase @plotics used was referring to. The "capital" in
               | that case was referring to the money, goods, and other
               | means of production used to finance the project _before_
               | any remuneration occurs. Capital is the leverage by which
               | the well connected people assert the rights to the future
               | profits. Workers not having equity is indeed what not
               | having access to the full value means, which keeps
               | workers from building capital.
               | 
               | I think we're probably in agreement. And even though
               | there's an analogy to capital, Bluey wasn't a capitalist
               | operation so definitely not clear Marxist ideas apply
               | here.
        
             | danielvaughn wrote:
             | If you've seen the show, you'd know that this artists' work
             | was deeply instrumental to the creation of the wealth. It
             | would be one thing if the author was an associate grabbing
             | coffees and scheduling meetings.
             | 
             | In this case, not getting a royalty for their contribution
             | is shameful.
        
               | MrBuddyCasino wrote:
               | I agree it is shameful. This is however not the issue
               | that is being discussed here.
               | 
               | Fyi, George Lucas made sure everyone involved in Star
               | Wars got taken care of.
        
             | suddenlybananas wrote:
             | Or maybe the people who actually build that wealth deserve
             | to keep it.
        
             | tomhow wrote:
             | _Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet
             | tropes._
             | 
             |  _Please don 't use Hacker News for political or
             | ideological battle. It tramples curiosity._
             | 
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
               | Uehreka wrote:
               | After the number of times I've seen people invoke the HN
               | guidelines to trample good spirited discussions there
               | should be a guideline against quoting the guidelines.
        
               | input_sh wrote:
               | If anyone's entitled to quote the guidelines, it's the
               | mod you're replying to.
        
               | dredmorbius wrote:
               | Announcement:
               | <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43558671>
        
             | dahart wrote:
             | How do you think wealth works? Regardless of your political
             | stance or economic beliefs, that doesn't seem like a very
             | informed or thoughtful summary of Marx, who I assume is who
             | the parent comment was referring to, and was one of the
             | more influential economists of all time. Have you read
             | Marx? He might have thought and written about wealth more
             | than both you and me. FWIW he didn't argue that wealth
             | somehow exists, he argued that for business owners, wealth
             | stems from the discrepancy between what laborers are paid
             | and what their employers collect. He went much further than
             | that, but that much is technically true, right?
        
           | bobxmax wrote:
           | How does that remotely apply here? If she has the value, why
           | didn't she distribute it herself?
        
         | mrlatinos wrote:
         | Was this quote removed from the post? I'm not seeing it.
        
           | polotics wrote:
           | it's in the 4-parts series, the whole is well worth a read
        
       | fuzzfactor wrote:
       | >there's a huge amount of calculated work and effort that can put
       | yourself in a position for luck to occur.
       | 
       | >I truly realised that if you create what YOU want to create, the
       | jobs and opportunities that will creatively satisfy you the most
       | will come out of exuding that energy into the world.
       | 
       | This is all about the commercial application of art, but I find
       | it can work for science as well.
        
       | abbycurtis33 wrote:
       | Somehow this is written with an Australian accent.
        
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