The Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan

If you're a participant in the MPIPHP, I found out some reassuring information today ...

There was a report on the Plan delivered by labor trustees at the IATSE Winter Executive Board Meeting in San Antonio. The news:

* There is $7.5 billion in the Pension and Health Plans, and assets match liabilities so that the MPIPHP is in the "Green Zone" and not running a large deficit.

* Cash inflows have been above 2012's estimates.

* Hourly contributions have remained steady over the last several years, running at 75-78 million hours per year.

* The Active Health Plan has an 18-month cash reserve; the Retiree Health Plan has a 9-month reserve. ...

What all this means is that the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan, started in the 1950s, remains viable and robust in its seventh decade. I get asked from time to time if I think the Plan will still be around forty or fifty years hence, and I always say "The benefits will be there."

That's because A) the Plan is well-managed, B) there are federal backstops for non-government pensions, and I'm not a big believer in everything going to hell in a handcart. The big change in recent years is that, though the contribution hours haven't declined, more of those hours come from low-budget features, reality shows and commercials (also cartoons).

... The overall production picture in the Los Angeles area remains grim — despite double-digit percentage increases in both movie and TV drama shoots in 2013, a study released Tuesday by Film L.A. reveals.

On-location feature film shoots rose 19 percent from 2012 but are still 50 percent below their 1996 peak. And scripted TV drama shoots, next to movies the most economically beneficial for the region, were 39 percent below their 2008 peak despite rising by 16 percent over 2012. ...

But there's one more bit of good news regarding the MPIPHP: The Plan now has, after a year's search, a new CEO in place.

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Award Season: VFX Nominations

The Visual Effects Society doles out its award candidates.

“Gravity” led all films in nominations for the 12th annual VES Awards, according to a Tuesday morning announcement by the Visual Effects Society that should surprise no one.

Alfonso Cuaron’s groundbreaking space thriller picked up eight nominations for its visual effects in eight live-action feature-film categories. “Pacific Rim” received six, while “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” and Iron Man 3” received five each.

“Frozen,” “The Croods” and “Epic” led all animated features with four nominations each, while HBO’s “Game of Thrones” topped the TV nominations with four. ...

VES members in eight cities voted for Ryan, the “Gravity” character played by Sandra Bullock (apparently with the help of four VFX artists) [as the Outstanding Animated Character in a Live-Action Film.]

The above is why I keep referring to Gravity as an animated feature. Sure, you've got a smidge of Clooney and Bullock in it, but what the picture mostly is, is an animated movie. Click here to read entire post

Corporatism Now, Corporatism FOREVER

The D.C. Court has spoken.

Any semblance of net neutrality in the United States is as good as dead.

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s 2010 order that imposed network neutrality regulations on wireline broadband services. The ruling is a major victory for telecom and cable companies who have fought all net neutrality restrictions vociferously for years.

The original FCC order said that wireline ISPs ”shall not block lawful content, applications, services or non-harmful devices, subject to reasonable network management” while also mandating that ISPs “shall not unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful traffic over a consumer’s broadband Internet access service.”

In its ruling against the FCC’s rules, the court said that such restrictions are not needed in part because consumers have a choice in which ISP they use. ...

Sure. Abso-freaking-lutely. You can choose any provider you want as long as it's owned by Comcast.

As I enter my Seasoned Citizen years, I no longer stand with mouth agape as large corporations turn the country back into 1890s America. The mantra of "The government is evil! Private enterprise is good!" rings in our ears, and so what if "private enterprise" in the 21st century means that a few monster conglomerates control everything, including the Feds and state governments? (You might remember 2008, when some large banks, which market forces were on the verge of downsizing/liquidating, had the evil government come to their rescue.)

So now we have some big utilities ready to cash in, the appeals court has gotten the pesky FCC out of the way. And if "the market" starts to dismantle their big competitive edge? No worries. They'll find a way to have the evil government make sure they stay on top.
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Jill Petrilak Opening at Gallery 839

Friday night was the opening of the January art show at Gallery 839. By all accounts, it was one of the most successful openings of record. Estimates of over one-hundred people showed to the opening and quite a few pieces were sold.

Executive Board member Bronwen "Bronnie" Barry was one of the attendees and captured the images above and in the slideshow after the break. We hope the rest of the year sees as much success for the artists showing at the Gallery.

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The Media (Sometimes) Drives Me Nuts

From today's Wall Street Journal:

[Frozen's performance highlights the emergence of family animation as one of Hollywood’s hottest performing niches: eight such films were released by major studios in 2013 and all but two grossed more than $100 million, the story notes. “Frozen” also took home a Golden Globe award. ...

This is supposed to be a big Flash!??

Close to two years ago, the Animation Guild's negotiating committee pointed out to the AMPTP that animation was the movie sector with the highest profit margins, beating all other segments of movie-making. And the big profits were going on years before that.

But when a newspaper of fact and opinion needs a storyline, it's always great to drag out the "Hey look! Crtoons are making money!" plotline. Why in God's nightgown is animation always emerging? It "emerged" twenty-plus years ago. By now it should be wrinkling in the sun.

Add On: And this high profit thingie is a worldwide phenomenon, as the Reporter points out:

Japan Box Office 2013: Animation Reigns Supreme, Hollywood Falters

Seven of the top ten hits of the year are animated, while Hollywood fare struggles to make an impact in a market it dominated a decade ago.

TOKYO – The Japanese box office was dominated by animation in 2013, with cartoons accounting for seven of the ten top-earning films. And even the third-biggest hit of the year Ted, the best performing live-action film, featured a CGI teddy bear.

A lack of the big local and Hollywood live-action franchises that have won over audiences in recent years, such as Umizaru, Bayside Shakedown, Harry Potter or Resident Evil, let the cartoons reign supreme in 2013, and left Hollywood struggling for market share. ...

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... And Sometimes Just Irritates Me

Fortune gets the broad brush strokes right ...

... Then came Frozen, based loosely on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, an idea that had kicked around Disney since the 1940s. Lasseter, whose first job was at Disney Animation, remembered a series of paintings of a frozen world and dug them out of storage when he came back. "I never forgot those paintings," he says. "They were so incredibly beautiful." Lasseter showed them to Chris Buck, the director of Tarzan, who had left Disney in the dark years, and helped convince him to come back. ...

And then the picture was developed as a follow-up princess movie to The Princess and the Frog, and then it got shelved by the main lot when TPATF under-performed (and hand-drawn features became toxic). Then it got revived, and now it's breaking records. (And selling lots of toys.)

The thing I know about history is, we mainly get the winners' version of how everything happened. That becomes the embossed and validated recitation of events. Except many times, it's not completely accurate. Frozen wasn't this unbroken march from development to release. John Lasseter always liked it, but Chris Buck had barely got the story up on reels when the Top Dogs across Riverside Drive put the project in a closet and locked it away.
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First Trophy of the Season

Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee's Frozen won a shiny statue for Best Animated Film at the 71st edition of the Golden Globe Awards held in Beverly Hills tonight. ...

Personally, I don't get the Globes at all. Stringers for foreign press associations hold wide sway over the festivities, and back in the old days the awards were considered as jokes. In fact, back in the real old days, it was a bore:

... The statues were given out exclusively by journalists (zzzzzzzzzzzzz) until 1958. Then, in a moment of drunken history, the core of the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.) stormed the stage and hijacked the show to the delight of the (let's be fair, equally soused) audience. The trio was invited back the next year and got this whole swingin' shindig started, man. Ain't that a kick in the head?

And since the uplifting of the show by Saint Frank and his disciples, the Globes are more zesty and relevant(?) Now all the A-listers show up, people love the dazzle and the razzle, and everybody's thrilled to win a small, gold-plated planet earth. And the things have become predictors of bigger awards down the pike.

So congratulations to Mr. Buck, Ms. Lee, Mr. Lasseter, and Diz Co. Click here to read entire post

Animation's World Grosses

Rentrak lays out how cartoons (and their cousins) are performing.

Foreign Weekend Box Office -- (World Gross)

Frozen -- $27,800,000 -- ($712,261,000)

Hobbit 2 -- $22,200,000 -- ($808,219,435)

Despicable Me 2 -- $13,500,000 -- ($935,144,155)

Walking With Dinosaurs -- $6,300,000 -- ($98,209,027)

Tarzan 3D -- $4,100,000 -- ($9,600,000)

Frozen has crossed the $700 million mark globally with $394.6 million generated in the international arena and is now the 4th highest grossing non-sequel animated film of all time. II doubt Diz Co. will be carving the Hat Building into condos. Despite the stunning views of the 134 reeway and Forest Lawn.)

Tarzan 3d, which is a motion-capture feature (and we all know how underwhelming pure Mo Cap has been in the world marketplace), doesn't look to crush at the box office, but we'll see.
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Domestic Box Office

The Saturday Stats:

1) Lone Survivor, (UNI) 2,876 theaters (+2,873) / $14.4M Friday / Estimated 3-day Cume: $37.4M to $37.7M / Wk 3

2) Frozen, (DIS) 3,329 theaters (-79) / $3.14M Fri./ Cume: $15M to $17M (-20%) / Wk 8

3) The Wolf of Wall Street, (PAR) 2,521 theaters (-36) / $2.7M Friday / Cume: $9M (-32%) / Wk 3

4/5/6) American Hustle, (SONY) 2,629 theaters (+111) / $2.5M Friday / Cume: $8.4M (-33%) / Wk 5

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, (WB) 3,075 theaters (-655) / $2M Friday / Cume: $7.9M (50%) / Wk 5

The Legend of Hercules, (LGF/SUMMIT) 2,104 theaters / $3M Friday / Cume: $8M / Wk 1

7) August: Osage County, (TWC) 905 theaters (+900) / $2.2M Friday / Cume: $7.5M / Wk 3

8) Saving Mr. Banks, (DIS) 2,671 theaters (+561) / $1.9M Friday / Cume: $6.2M (-28%) / Wk 5

9) Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, (PAR) 2,883 theaters (+16) / $2.1M Friday / Cume: $6M to $6.5M (-67%)/ Wk 2

10) Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, (PAR) 3,012 theaters (-395) / $1.8M Friday / Cume: $5.8M (-44%) / Wk 4

Frozen, though dropping back to #2, has the lowest percentage drop of any feature in the top Ten. To date it's accumulated a domestic gross of $305,702,000.

Add On: The totals from Monday ...

1). Lone Survivor, (UNI) 2,876 theaters (+2,873) / 3-day Cume: $37.8M/ Per screen average: $13,165 / Total Cume: $38.2M / Wk 3

2) Frozen, (DIS) 3,329 theaters (-79) / 3-day Cume: $14.7M (-25%) / Per screen: $4, 547 / Total Cume: $317.3M / Wk 8

3). The Legend Of Hercules, (LGF/SUMMIT) 2,104 theaters / 3-day Cume: $8.86M / Per screen: $4,215 / Wk 1

4). The Wolf Of Wall Street, (PAR) 2,521 theaters (-36) / 3-day Cume: $8.83 (-33%) / Per screen: $3,506 / Total Cume: $78.4M / Wk 3

5). American Hustle, (SONY) 2,629 theaters (+111) / 3-day Cume: $8.3M / Per screen: $3,158 / Total Cume: $101.2M / Wk 5

6). The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, (WB) 3,075 theaters (-655) / $3-day Cume: $8M (-49%) / Per screen: $2,609 / Total Cume: $242.2M / Wk 5

7). August: Osage County, (TWC) 905 theaters (+900) / 3-day Cume: $7.1M / Per screen: $7,910 / Total Cume: $7.7M / Wk 3

8). Saving Mr. Banks, (DIS) 2,671 theaters (+561) / 3-day Cume: $6.5M (-25%) / Per screen: $2,455 / Total Cume: 68.9M / Wk 5

9). Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, (PAR) 2,883 theaters (+16) / 3-day Cume: $6.3M (-65%)/ Per screen: $2,180 / Total Cume: $28.4 (-66%) / Wk 2

10). Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, (PAR) 3,012 theaters (-395) / 3-day Cume: $5.8M (-45%) / Per screen: $2,102 / Total Cume: 118.2M / Wk 4

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Internet TV, the Future Of

You might have noticed that content is getting distributed in a lot of different ways on a lot of different platforms. Some of our fine, entertainment conglomerates aren't pleased with some of the pipelines.

... Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon and devices like Apple TV, Roku, and Google Chromecast all make it easy to watch Internet TV. Many of the major Over The Air networks — ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS — however don't make it easy to watch all their shows on the Internet. Many people want to cut the cable or satellite cord, but find it hard to watch the major broadcast networks even with an OTA antenna. Aereo makes it easy for users to watch their local OTA TV over the internet. ...

TV networks hate this idea. Rather than allow their shows to be streamed to users, Major broadcasters and media companies such as News Corp., Walt Disney, Comcast, CBS, NBC and Univision have all sued Aereo. Fox even threatened to take its stations off the air entirely and turn the "Fox broadcast network to a pay channel." These companies are afraid they'll lose all control of how their content is distributed and that in turn will ruin their local TV stations and destroy the value of their cable and satellite TV deals." ...

SCOTUS has taken up the issue of "Whether a company 'publicly performs' a copyrighted television program when it retransmits a broadcast of that program to thousands of paid subscribers over the Internet." This is "a major dispute on the right of the television industry to stop the Internet streaming of its copyrighted programs by a firm that does so without permission and without paying anything." ...

I haven't the foggiest idea how this shakes out. I find it amusing that Aereo is a Barry Diller company, and that Barry pretty much invented the Fox Television network , so we have the spectacle of Old Barry Company suing New Barry Company.

If I were good at gambling (I happen to suck at it), I would place bets on the conglomerates prevailing here, because the Supremes are heavily tilted to business ... and BIG business in particular.

But let's not bullshit ourselves. Whatever the SCOTUS decides, there are going to be ripples and then waves with distribution methods and profit margins, and it will (ultimately) smack content creators on their soft seating areas. It always does. Click here to read entire post

Life in the Cartoon Yet

The animated feature might be long in the tooth, release-wise, but it still rolls up the grosses.

Universal’s animated family film opens No. 1 with $4M first day and is looking at $13.8M for the weekend

Universal’s “Despicable Me 2” opened at No. 1 in China Friday, with a strong $4 million.

The 3D animated kids film played in roughly 3,000 locations, including all of the nation’s 141 Imax screens, and dominated. It’s on pace for a $13.8 million first weekend, the studio reported.

The result is particularly impressive, because this opening is seven months after its global theatrical release and the original film, “Despicable Me,” was never released in China. ...

Chris Meledandri has pretty convincingly demonstrated that you don't have to spend $150 or $200 million to get yourself a blockbuster.

You just have to own a pretty focused idea of what film you want to make, then make it. And keep your costs in check.

Add On: DM2 no doubt prospered in the Middle Kingdom because of this:

Despicable How did Universal pull off [a big release] in a country that’s notorious for piracy? Universal Pictures President, International, David Kosse tells me the studio was “thrilled to have the movie go in, but we had to acknowledge that over six months, people had seen it.” So, a means to entice folks to theaters needed to be devised. Figuring that since the many who may have had access to a pirated version would have seen one that was subtitled or done with a sub-par dub, the studio did a “proper, great Mandarin dub with local voices that (Chinese audiences) know,” Kosse says. ...

It's worth pointing out that Mr. Meledandri, when he was running Blue Sky Animation, also used high-end local talent to dub Fox animated features. The strategy has paid off like a rigged slot machine with the Ice Age series. And it seems to be working with Despicable Me.
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Comic-RipOff

San Diego Comic-Con takes full advantage of its leverage.

New for 2014! Only single day badges will be sold. The Preview Night badge option may only be purchased if you buy a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday badge. Preview Night is not a stand alone badge option. ...

And prices have gone up! Such a deal! Click here to read entire post

Mojo's Predictions

Here are the Mojo's prognostications for the next two days of turnstile action:

Box Office Forecast (Jan. 10-12)

1. Lone Survivor - $23.1 million
2. Frozen - $15.3 million (-22%)
3. Wolf of Wall Street - $10.6 million (-20%)
4. The Hobbit - $9.2 million (-41%)
5. American Hustle - $8.7 million (-30%)
6. Her - $8.1 million
7. Hercules - $8 million
-. August - $5.1 million
-. Llewyn Davis - $3.3 million

You will note that Frozen continues to hold well. To date it's taken in $302,590,988 at the domestic box office, which has prompted reporters to call and ask:

How could this happen?

A: Audiences like the story and characters.

Does this cause any angst at Pixar?

A: I have no idea. I'm guessing John Lasseter and Ed Catmull are happy either way. I DO know that morale has risen inside the Hat Building.

Will Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios be merging?

A: No. Diz Co. is THRILLED with two high-grossing cartoon nameplates. Why would they want to erase one of them?

(Why a scribe thinks I have the inside dope of Diz Co.'s next corporate move is a mystery. And why somebody would think two thriving animation subsidiaries would meld into one, after each division had hits, is a riddle wrapped in fog bank of "Whaaa?"

If Pixar and Disney Features were ever going to merge, it would have been some years ago, when Disney Feature Animation was flat on its back. But now? Don't THINK so.)
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Blockbusters: Never a Sure Thing

The Big Hits sometimes have bumpy rides to their bigness.

The first screening, in summer 2012, was an unmitigated disaster.

Alfonso Cuaron had just shown his movie, a space-set survival tale titled Gravity, to its first test audience and was reading the comment cards. "Why aren't there any aliens in this?" read one, while another said, "I wish there was a monster in this."

Card after card it went, with Cuaron shaking his head. The audience didn't get it. ...

The first free fall: Universal chairman Marc Shmuger and co-chairman David Linde were ousted in 2009. Cuaron recalls Universal co-chair Donna Langley saying she didn't know where Gravity would fit into the new slate. ...

Then Jolie dropped out. ... Downey departed to shoot the Sherlock Holmes sequel and The Avengers. ... When the test screenings started, the movie wasn't done. ... Most of the scenes that would stun moviegoers in the finished, fully rendered film were crude, blocky animatics. ...

It was as late as July's San Diego Comic-Con International that things began to turn around. When the film's bravura opening debris-strike sequence was shown during the movie's panel, the 6,500 people in attendance were silent in rapt attention. And then they went wild. ...

Often big fat blockbusters are thought to be disasters for months ... YEARS before they're finally released. Snow White was going to sink Disney.

Star Wars got put into turn-around. (Ditto for Lord of the Rings.) Toy Story had a near-death experience before characters and storyline were straightened out. And the new blockbusters Frozen was developed, then shelved, then dusted off multiple times before finding its way to the screen.

Box office verdicts are in, so now the awards season.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) announced the winners of their third AACTA Intl. Awards Jan. 10 at a ceremony in Los Angeles. ...

“Gravity” won best picture, with director Alfonos Cuaron taking the director trophy, while “American Hustle” won for Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell’s screenplay, and Jennifer Lawrence’ssupporting actress role. ...

You just never know. With a different twist of fate, the picture wouldn't have been made.

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The Third Pillar of Animation

There's Katzenberg, there's Lasseter, and there's ...

... It is lunchtime and Mr Meledandri is sitting in a restaurant in Santa Monica, a short distance from his office – a warehouse-like building populated with cut-outs of Minions and characters from his other movies, such as The Lorax, an adaptation of the Dr Seuss story.

There is no sign outside the office to reveal the identity of the company within and visitors may encounter Harpo, a friendly beagle, who belongs to one of the employees and who runs about at his own leisure. “He is the self-appointed office dog,” Mr Meledandri says.

It is a low-key workspace, which fits Mr Meledandri’s own temperament. A quiet man who weighs each word carefully when answering a question, he does not fit the typical Hollywood mogul mould. Yet he has become one of the industry’s rising stars thanks to hits such as the Despicable Me films and a record that includes launching the blockbuster Ice Age series while heading the animation business at 20th Century Fox. ...

Twenty-some years ago, Jeffrey Katzenberg said to me that he was the only guy in Hollywood who knew how to do animated features.

It seems in the last two decades, a couple more people have learned how to do it. Click here to read entire post

Miyazaki

So maybe the master isn't retiring after all, but still ...



A tribute's a tribute. Click here to read entire post

Deeper Into Televisionland

As, sixty years ago, Walter D. partnered with the broadcast network ABC to help grow his animation company, so Jeffrey K. partners with the newer media of the 21st century to grow his animation company.

YouTube and DreamWorks Animation will co-produce a series of daily shows called “YouTube Nation” for the world’s largest video site, according to two individuals with knowledge of the plans.

The shows will recap the most popular daily clips on YouTube, a common format for shows both on YouTube (Ray William Johnson’s “=3”, Phil DeFranco’s “SourceFed”) and off (Comedy Central’s “Tosh.0”). Yet YouTube is financing and co-producing this one itself, and will feature the show on its home page.

DreamWorks Animation already established a foothold in booming online video world when it acquired AwesomenessTV last April. AwesomnessTV is one of the fastest growing networks of YouTube channels in the world, and CEO Brian Robbins quickly became a confidant of DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. ...

DreamWorks Animation desires to expand beyond its core business. This is one more step of its growth cycle. The future it would like?

To build itself into a conglomerate along the path blazed by Walt, or ...

To be purchased by a conglomerate. Click here to read entire post

Women In The Arts, Gallery 839 January Show

The January Gallery 839 show, Women In The Arts - Oil Paintings by Jill Petrilak opens tomorrow. Reception from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Gallery 839 is located in the Animation Guild at 1105 N Hollywood Way in Burbank.

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Renewals (and Startups)

The trades tell us:

Disney Junior said Wednesday that it has ordered new seasons of its animated series Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins and Jake and the Never Land Pirates. ...

The network, which targets kids ages 2-7, has picked up Sofia and Doc for their third season and Jake for a fourth.

All three series ranked among the top 10 cable TV series in 2013 for kids ages 2-7 as well as among the top 10 preschooler cable TV series in total viewers and women 18-49. They air daily on both Disney Channel and Disney Junior, as well as around the world, and have spawned their own product lines. ...

Sofia and Jake are produced by Disney TV Animation next to the fabled Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. (Both shows are housed in the Yahoo building.)

Doc McStuffins is produced by Brown Bag Productions, an outside supplier.

Meantime, on the eastern edge of the San Fernando Valley, DreamWorks Animation will be, per DreamWorkers who claim to know, eight series for Netflix, most of them based on DreamWorks Animation properties. (Don't ask me to name them all; I don't remember, and in any event have no desire to get out ahead of DWA's press releases.)

I'm informed that a lot of production work will be done by Bardel Entertainment, up in Vancouver. Click here to read entire post

Ratification

Not ours, but the Directors Guild of America.

Directors Guild Members Ratify New Contract With TV, Film Producers

The deal will run through 2017 and includes a 3 percent annual wage increase and a breakthrough in high-budget new media

Directors Guild of America members have approved a new three-year deal with TV and film producers, the guild said Wednesday.

The DGA said its membership has voted by an overwhelming margin — though the guild didn’t release specific figures– to ratify the new collective bargaining agreements between the DGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

The new contract’s three-year term will take effect on July 1, 2014 and will run through June 30, 2017.

Gains include an annual three percent wage increase; increased residuals bases; improvements in basic cable; the establishment, for the first time, of minimum terms and conditions for high-budget new media made for subscription video on demand; the establishment of a formal diversity program at the TV studios. ...

The Directors Guild seldom strikes. In fact, in recent years it has never struck except for 15-minute job action a couple of decades ago. But the DGA has leverage and savvy, with experienced negotiators who generally achieve a satisfactory deal.

The significance of this deal is that we have, at long last, broken out of the 2% bump-ups of the last few years and returned to the broad, sunlight uplands of 3% increases, which will (likely) become the new normal in the Land of Pattern Bargaining. There is also the prospect of establishing wage minimums for some higher-end internet production. As an IA rep said to me last week:

The studios and conglomerates are making more money, and the DGA was able to get some of the increasing wealth. ...

Anyway, that's what it looks like to me. There's been a rising tide, and the boats of labor are enjoying a bit of lift. Click here to read entire post