Some Problems I Have With the Dizi Industry — Day 22/30
Just the other day I found myself in a room with the owner of a production company I won’t name here. I was there to accompany a young actress who is soon going to have a supporting role in a dizi I can’t name now. The dizi is still in production and is counting days for its release. The meeting was eye opening. For those of you who don’t know me, mid March I started working in a creative agency which creates and also produces projects for the stage and also other platforms. We are currently making a musical, but have some dizi projects we are hoping to bring to life in the next months. Before this job I worked in advertising.
Anyway back to what I really wanted to talk about. It seems there’s a lot of issues in the dizi industry and where there are issues there is chaos. Most of us who watch dizis have little to zero idea about how difficult and exhausting various steps of the processes are. Yes many viewers can imagine how hard it is to shoot a 2,5 hours episode in less than a week but the problems do not end there. A lot of people including young actors are underpaid and mistreated. I mean of course they are not treated like trash don’t get me wrong but still it’s not as glamorous as it seems. Especially the young actors or supporting characters don’t make 1/10 of what leading actors and celebrities make. I know from afar it seems like they have dreamy lives but honestly I can confirm they don’t.
The TV channels see dizis just as a means to make money. Well of course they do. Let us remember they have to make money to be profitable and to survive. However TV channels like Fox abuse their power and financial dominance. What I don’t get is why do certain production houses choose Fox knowing they could easily lose the project after a certain number of episodes. I certainly have a lot to learn about how the system works. I am planning on making an interview in the near future with someone from the industry to understand how these decisions are being made.
Sometimes I’m deeply disturbed about the dizi industry, especially because I can see the potential our storytellers and actors have. Not only that but also the countless people who create stuff out of thin air and work tireless to bring those stories to life. And at the same time you also see how badly their media is managed, how the attention to detail on some aspects is non-existent.
Also don’t even get me started about how they are incapable of seeing the potential that lies in international views. They only way they can imagine using international views is by selling the dizi to some channel abroad. I can’t believe they are unable to use Youtube and social media to profit from the views and or come up with different solutions to turn this to revenue.
OK, I didn’t mean to have another rant today but I needed to share these thoughts. What are some complaints you have about dizis? Join me tomorrow as I share my thoughts on the trailers of upcoming dizis such as Bambaşka Biri (İki Yabancı), Dilek Taşı, Safir and Kirli Sepeti. Thanks for reading so far and hope to meet again on day #23. ❤
