The AvA Connection

🐝 The Weekly Buzz

1) 22 TV productions will get $256 million in incentives for shooting in California including The Studio and a new series from Larry David.

Why it matters:
-400% increase in applications
-The cap increases from $330 million to $750 million
-They are projected to bring in $1.1 Billion in economic activity
-Employ 6,500 cast and crew members and 46,100 background performers

5) BMG’s H1 revenue dropped 8% in the first part of 2025 even as streaming revenue rose to make up 72% of the total. The dip came from selling off its live business and weaker performance in the publishing and label divisions.

🚨 The Week of Lawsuits

1) Sting has been sued by his Police bandmates for unpaid royalties. This suit in particular is about two of the bandmates not getting credited for writing one of their most successful songs, ‘Every Breath You Take.’

2) The Wiggles are also being sued by their former CEO, which is just a funny headline that I wanted to share with you.

💼 AvA Job Board

Our new job board features 120+ early career roles in Entertainment:

Some standouts:

💼 Marketing Associate - Live Nation - Apply Here

💼 Visual Creative Coordinator - HYBE - Apply Here

💼 Sync Coordinator - Sony Music - Apply Here

💼 Livestreams Coordinator - Warner Bros. Discovery - Apply Here

💼 Content Marketing & Integration Associate - NFL - Apply Here

💼 Creative Production Coordinator - IMAX - Apply Here

💼 Client Servicing Operations Coordinator - Paramount - Apply Here

💼 Talent Ventures Assistant - WME - Apply Here

💼 Production Coordinator - NBCUniversal - Apply Here

💼 Celebrity Talent Relations Specialist - SiriusXM - Apply Here

💼 Viral Marketing Creative - Mr Beast - Apply Here

🎒 Visual Effects Designer Intern - Disney - Apply Here

📞 The Call Log: Alex Russell, Co-Exec for Netflix & A24’s ‘Beef,’ Producer for FX’s ‘The Bear,’ and Writer/Director of ‘Lurker’

Alex Russell is the writer & director behind Lurker, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. He served as a Co-Executive Producer on Netflix/A24’s Beef, for which he won an Emmy award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. And he was recently a Supervising Producer on FX’s The Bear. His episode – ep. 207 – titled “Forks,” was one of the best reviewed episodes of television last year and nominated for a WGA award. He got his start as a staff writer on the first two seasons of Dave – and was also recently a Producer on Hulu’s series Interior Chinatown.

Our conversation is below:

AvA: Both The Bear and Beef are known for their intensity and lived in realism. What did working on those shows teach you about what audiences are craving right now? 

Russell: There does appear to be a through line of obsessed male characters in all the things that I've worked on, I think it's also what I like to watch, often not just male, but I characters that want something extremely badly. It’s very easy to get invested in their story. You can start to get into something layered or something more interesting once you're on the ride of knowing what they're intensely trying to get.

I’ve also had an obsession with obsession my whole life, because for so long, I did not know what I was trying to do, and I wanted really badly to find what it was. So maybe that's why it stuck with me, too. I would have loved to be one of those kids, like the Williams sisters, where someone like hands you something at a young age, and all you have to focus on is that.

AvA: What surprised you most about seeing your script come alive on set was there a scene or character that took on a life you didn't expect.

Russell: I was just so floored by the fact that it actually worked, especially since I just wrote it like on my friend's couch randomly on a whim. I teared up on the first day of shooting. It was the scene where the two main characters meet for the first time. And I was like, Oh my God, thank God this works. It seems like the two characters are doing the things that are written in the script. I kind of knew the rest of it would work, so it was tears of relief.

AvA: What non-film influenced shaped Lurker the most? A song, a painting, a weird internet rabbit hole, etc.

Russell: Internet rabbit hole of vlogs for sure. Also following the lives of adjacent creatives to artists. I feel like I've seen on social media, someone go from someone who's just like tweeting at some artist to like being their photographer. And that, I think, is very interesting,

AvA: What part of yourself do you see hiding in lurker?

Russell: I don't think it's very well hidden, but I think it's my probably desire for feeling of community. I didn't really have one growing up, so I've always been that way. I didn't have siblings. I was always the kid that would want to hang out for longer in the neighborhood, and then, my friends would be like “all right, now it's time to go back to have dinner with my family and my siblings.” I'm sure this movie exists because I overstayed my welcome as a 10 year old one time after basketball camp. 

Quick hits:

AvA: What TV show are you binging right now?

Russell: This is a boring answer, but I’m watching Game of Thrones for the first time.

AvA: If you could work with one actor, dead or alive? Who would it be and why?

Russell: Zack Fox.

AvA: Wildest thing that’s happened to you on set?

Russell: It's honestly more wild that nothing crazy happened on our set that had a million sensitive personalities and very limited time and money and a million things could have gone wrong. The wildest thing is that it went right. I would say as close to perfect as a first feature indie film that I could have got for sure.

AvA: Last question, one piece of advice for someone just starting their career, especially on the creative side.

Russell: Make little versions of things. Make little things before you make big things and make a habit of finishing things. If you have the opportunity to make a really big thing, do a really little thing instead, because it'll be more important to be able to look at a finished thing and reflect on it and not be a perfectionist. Then do another one, and then sort of raise the bar as you as you get stronger.

👋 Enjoy the Holiday weekend and see you back here on Wednesday.

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This newsletter is written by Warner Bailey and edited by Riley Furey and Dominik Sansevere.

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