Upper hand
To have the “upper hand” is to have the advantage in a negotiation. If you’re in a negotiation, you want to have the upper hand.
Today, in our story, we talked about moviemaking . And you heard that there’s the director, who is more artistic—he brings the script to life. The director makes the movie, the work of art. But then there’s the producer. The producer works for the movie studio.
The studio is the one investing the money. The studio is the one taking a lot of financial risk. So the producer, as the representative of the investor, the producer is typically going to want a shorter movie because it costs less and is more likely to be successful in the theaters. At least that’s the way it was in the past.
So before a director and a producer work together, they have to come to an agreement. They typically have to agree on the estimated length of the movie. And they have to decide who has the “final cut.”
The “final cut” means—who gets to decide what scenes stay and what scenes get cut. If a director has a final cut, then the movie is often longer. If a producer has the final cut, then the movie is often shorter.
In this negotiation—which happens before the movie gets made—in this negotiation, the producers often had the upper hand. The producers represent the people holding the money. And for a long time, there were only a handful of studios that could fund a major film.
So the producers had the upper hand, they had the advantage in the negotiations and they often got their way. But now, as you learned, not only are there the old studios, but now there are the streamers, who are flush with cash and eager to spend on big, artistic movies. That’s Apple, that’s Netflix, that’s Amazon, and others.
So now, a director who wants to make a long, artistic, three-hour movie—that director has more choices. And because he has more choices—it’s usually a he—he has the upper hand. The director now can tell the producer, I want to make a three-hour movie. And if you don’t like it, I’ll go somewhere else.
The producers had the upper hand before, back when there were fewer studios that could fund movies. Now, the directors have the upper hand because they can choose from many studios.
There was just a big labor strike here in the U.S. The major autoworkers’ union went on strike against three big American carmakers. The union specifically targeted the most profitable factories for the strike. And they had a very effective public relations campaign at the beginning. They were looking for the upper hand. They were looking to gain an advantage in the negotiations. Then President Biden—in a very unusual move for a sitting president—took the side of the striking workers.
I think the way the union managed the strike gave them the upper hand. They had the advantage in the negotiations.
Now you might be wondering, if the “upper hand” is the advantage, is the “lower hand” the disadvantage? And the answer to that is no. There is no such thing as the lower hand. You either have the upper hand or you don’t.
See you next time!
That’s all for today, Monday, November 20, 2023. Do you know what’s coming up? This week, it’s coming up. Black Friday is this Friday. That means American Thanksgiving is this Thursday and before you know it, it will be 2024.
If you are listening to this before Black Friday 2023, then I want you to pay attention to your e-mails and pay attention to this podcast feed. Because on Friday, on Black Friday, I am going to tell you all about what we’re doing for Black Friday this year—it’s going to be a great way for you to upgrade your English with us, but it’s only going to be available from Friday to Monday. So pay attention.
I can’t say what it is just yet because JR and I are putting the final touches on now, but pay attention, right here in your podcast feed on Friday, I’ll make the announcement. Sound good? All right. We’ll be back on Thursday with a new topic. See you then.
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