Hollywood Clog

Saturn Devouring his Children, Goya

I checked out a screenwriters class last night and learned that it wasn't right for fashionRIP's next act. I learned how rare it is for the artist to be in control of their work and how the film industry has parceled up the players so as to control the parts and put together films based on the mechanistic model that is so last century. No wonder the blockbusters are unremarkable in staying power, like candy they are a sugary burst with little lasting value (and at what price the sweetness?). Hollywood is corporate, short term and full of its own ego. The saddest thing is that unless it helps its children thrive, there will be nothing left to save. What good are hoarded scripts, controlled, stymied talent, rooms full of awards and piles of money, if the critics, audience and family is no longer well enough to show up?

Topping off the evening, i learned that "violence with out a story, is boring," from a petite young woman who wrote code or something for the game industry. I learned that a few writers are paid well by the studios despite rarely seeing their work become a film and how "why care; "you're paid, right?" is normed.

The "reality" we accept is but a worm we allow to live inside us, eating us alive, nibble by nibble, relentlessly satiating itself as we do not "feel" the problem. Like how can it be a problem if no one else thinks it a problem? Therefore ignore the issue because if it was bad "we" would be told it was, right? Because we are "good people" right? (The Leaderless Revolution by Carne Ross, poses similar round talking in international diplomacy. Trapped by mirroring our ok'edness appears a universal malaise)

I was hoping for a class that was independent minded, future oriented and less "keep me in la la land," When boring documentary is "sentenced" by the prof and serial killer ethics and murder in the liquor aisle, are tossed about a room, i am another kind of bored.

I am again, stunned, at how myopic, unheroic and brainwashed we are educated into being.  Listening to the stories the writers framed showed me that what we learn, we repeat. What we repeat, we accept and as we up the ante of tolerance, we accept things that are synthetically addictive because that is what we can sell most easily.
The useful neutral information i gathered was that it is essential to write a story that will grab an audience. This is an "of course" but putting it back in italics was helpful to me.  I also learned that one can snag good used Final Draft copies, as FD is the industry standard.

I am glad i went. FYI: if possible check out an intro class at a school before you enroll, it is well worth the time.

When i brought  up the idea of  decentralizing the industry; hoping for an affirmative reaction from others, i was told Hollywood is changing. Each studio now has an independent film department. Is this like a problem?

Knowing that the dominator wants to eat its children is no mystery, Saturn Devouring His Children (Goya, around 1820) comes to mind. Studio and independent is a paradox, the motivation and heart are dissimilar by design.