Saturday, December 26, 2015

Hollywood Hustle: Holiday Edition


Hope y’all had a great Christmas. A safe and happy one.
It’s really the strong push of Hollywood to get their movies into award season. All these people kissing, hugging, happy to just be nominated. Crock of shit.
First, women gripe because they’re not paid enough. Here’s where it gets fuzzy. This year, there are massive movies about women for women by women. Don’t let that smoke screen fool you, because it’s about throwing a dog a bone. Yes, I was blogging earlier about women need to stop complaining about not getting enough roles and so forth. What I really meant was, women have to stop griping about the money if they get the juicy roles. See the bait and switch. Sure, we’ll give you more roles, if you take less money. Oh, you want more money? Be a girlfriend of the action hero then.
That’s one. The second thing is…whatever small town you come from, consider that there were other people who came from small towns. And they’ve been here for say…ten years. They’ve toiled and danced with trying to break into the movie industry. Now you decision to come out to this town to make it…well, you may just crack it right out of the gate. What are the odds of that? Since you’ll be filtered by that guy who has been spending years toiling. What if it isn’t that one guy? Thousands who you have to get through gone through the same thing. It is not in their best interest to promote you in any way. In fact, it’s a risk if anything. High pressure moments in that world require only one bad decision to get knocked back into the mailroom. The guy who schedules us…is a glorified secretary. You can literally pull a random college student  out of school and plop him into this guy’s job. Because essentially that’s what they did. Guy was in client services, which means he was a waitress. He’s a schmoozer. He spends more time on the phone then actually physically working. A real worker bee sees this. And he takes screen credit before anyone who actually worked on a movie. That’s ballsy. Does he care? No. He wants to feel important, as he’s derailed his dreams (in his 50’s now) and unable to grow. This is the guy you have to filter through. So the longer you’re here, the more you see more despicable jerks like the one mentioned above. They’re something no one ever mentions because we thrive on the perception of dreams…they are the first line of defense between your initial survival in Hollywood.
Fortunate for me, I sidestepped that, since I don’t answer to him. Though he tries vainly in a passive aggressive way to maintain his authority (which is laughable). I secretly help those who keep working on film. Because it means something. Because, it seems, the people who shoot on film have dreams that CAN be realized. Being a small part in someone else’s climb to fame while you’re doing your own thing is the goal…I would think. I think many become so derailed with so many disappointments, they aren’t willing to be so supportive. I find that to be the saddest person in town. Because they are the ones who rely on the perception of their position rather than the reality of their goals. You don’t move this way. You just keep spinning your wheels. So, if you ever get in a position where you can be helpful, forget the toiling anger that got you to just midlevel. It’s okay to shoulder someone to the next level. Even if it means they ignore you while they’re in the limelight. You didn’t do this for them, you did it for you.

No comments:

Post a Comment