In the background you can see the Hollywood sign. I lived at the base of that sign. And always had a view of it to remind me of the good ol' days. I never ventured up that hill, believe it or not. Seemed the sign was just a guidepost to that adage "a man's reach should exceed his grasp"
I never wanted to work in Hollywood, per se. It seemed so structured. In the late 90's the Twin Towers hadn't yet fallen. And internet was at its infancy. No social media except MAYBE MySpace. But even that was clunky. I rarely stayed online. I watched from a basement apartment Hollywood dregs walk around. Smog was HORRENDOUS then. Every morning I'd get awful breathing issues. Didn't help that I smoked. Also, Hollywood back then was an apocalyptic wasteland. Nothing like the Disney store level shopping you see today. It was bad. But there was a theater on Hollywood Boulevard my roommate and I would go see a double feature for $5. The last thing we saw there was "The People vs. Larry Flynt" and...oddly enough they also filmed IN that theater. Talk about meta.
They closed that theater down, so the New Beverly was the only place you can catch a double for that cheap of a price (it's long since become Hipster and is barely tolerable with the supposed cinephiles of Hollywood. Glad to have them around to show movies ON film, but horrid because it's attracted a very different crowd than what I remember back then). I'm sure the ones who were going post 2000's know what I'm talking about. To be fair, I wasn't O.G. but I certainly didn't follow the trend to attend. It was just a cheap theater back then. And, on weekends, only a smattering of people went. They're mostly sold out now. When Quentin Tarantino took over, many people attended for the irony of it.
A friend in his late 20's saw a photo of myself in 1998 and messaged me that film school must've been great back then.
It was.
It was amazing. We had some really wacked out nutty filmmakers who focused solely on making movies. No social media to contend with, YouTube wasn't an avenue, and we read books. You really had to care about the stuff you made. Or you really studied how things were made. I know a lot of Millenials watch videos to learn, but nothing like actually doing things to learn. And you weren't hindered by social media lambasting you for your efforts. To us, we wanted professionals to give us a nod. Not the general public. But that's become the gauge at which we decide what is good. How many followers and how many likes. So many women look incredibly fake for this reason. Not that that is a bad thing, but it makes you think how long we've had this in our core. I've suspected most young women like sexy photos of themselves before they let themselves go. So when their grandchildren un-Earth it, their friends would tell them how hot grandma their grandma was.
Anyway, making films back then was an effort. Internet didn't offer convenient ways to buy things. EBay had only small vintage things. You could buy there, but not much was offered (looking back, I didn't have the money anyway). But you had to sit there and write a story. And dream about how to make it. I beg and borrowed in film school to get ANYTHING done. It was very difficult but steeled me for the reality of it all. Which is, nothing you do will be easy. Today, things are infinitely easier. So therefore, it seems, less valued. But there are great things people are making, who make things naturally. Perhaps their talents exceed my own and excel easier, and will through life.
I love the actual craft of movies. We went to school everyday where we argued about films, watched films and learned every aspect of filmmaking. Though I don't think any of this has changed to today's filmmakers who attend film school. And maybe they'll look back on 2020 and tell the future generation that THAT was when film school was still fun.
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