Hollywood Before The Internet

A lot of you will probably never know what it was like before the internet and working in Hollywood.
I pity you. The place was magically sleazy.

In a strange way, I feel EXTREMELY privileged not to have known everything that was out there. Most people, and that is the world, were perfectly fine with clips of people doing dumb things. Most of us put our hands up like "why bother?" When something like that occurs, you just can't pinpoint your way into the industry. I see it today, a LOT of people are perfectly fine making their short flicks on their phones and uploading. A LOT have gotten incredibly sophisticated and those are the people who have carved a niche for themselves when Hollywood shut their doors.

I have a love/hate thing with the studios. That system (and still is) is meant to be a gatekeeper. In other words, the popular kids get in, you get stay out. It certainly what you wouldn't consider fair, but it took a lot to get in, even more to stay in. That's where the sexual assaults and such happened. They knew they could ruin careers. Baffles me why most women didn't stand up then, but now over-exert their accusation cards now. It happens to gay actors as well. They seem to be willing to pay the price and has been silent.

The internet pre-internet you see now was still a fantastic place. I actually lived in Hollywood. At Van Ness And Hollywood Boulevard. I thought I'd made it...in a single bedroom apartment that smelled like wet dog (if you YouTube my short film "Nicki Sweet" you will see the location. I loved it. I had a girlfriend visit that shithole. We slept on the mattress in the living room, and I'm sure she fondly remembers those times as well. Young and not distracted by anything but the mystery of Tinsel Town.

Today, due mostly to the internet, the sense of tradition seems to be...corny. They use to broadcast stars getting stars on the Walk of Fame. It doesn't happen as much anymore. Most of the public thinks it's trite. It's, at most, a clipped video. Been a while since I saw anyone putting their hands and feet at Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Hollywood before the internet also didn't guide the product we're getting now. We've gone pretty ridiculous. Where we once packed theaters to watch family dynamics story...it's now loud superheroes. Which tend to draw a crowd of talkers to the audience (fuck you and the shit hole you come from). The internet has a sounding board for all, apparently they bring that into the theater.

If you see much chaos in the world, it is most likely because the internet stimulates and prods in the worst way possible. Instead, our minds are meant to be quiet and meditative. We are bombarded with fast paced images. We can't have silence in our noggins, since the internet.

I can't bad mouth a thing that has given freedom to some unspoken voice in cinema. Particularly the motion picture film community (the people who don't shoot digitally). These filmmakers found a platform that didn't require you fulfill the studio systems game and circumvented it regardless of their decisions on what to shoot on (granted watching film on digital is pretty shitty). This community does the most interesting work, and that is a benefit I can attribute to the internet. We are able to reach out and have this community. Which, for the most part, has become my real community. I've met a lot of people who shoot on film. This wasn't a thing, had there been no internet.