Thursday, November 17, 2005

From the gaffer who worked on "the Edge of Night" for an internship comes ...

In the Sept/Oct issue of "filmcomment" there is an excellent article by David Mamet regarding the dismal future of Hollywood. In it he ponders as he is looking at a current movie poster why there are 18 (!) producers listed. "ON THE POSTER?" he writes. He states the sentiments exactly shared by myself; which is: What would be the financial gain or loss to that movie should none of those names appear?
I love seeing commercials or trailers wherein the Voice Over states : "From the Producers of 'Dukes of Hazzard:The Movie' comes a new..."
What the Fuck? Do they not even have 30 seconds of compelling film to show the audience without groveling to some inexistent denominator of movie goer who actually gives two shits about who Produced 'Dukes'? Are the Special Edition 7-11 Nascar Cup drinkers who traded in their food stamps for cash to catch the opening weekend of "Dukes" really going to say over their TV tray tables to one another that since "Seth Blackbury" produced 'Dukes' we better check his 'Newest Release"?
Do you think the think these ticket buyers even know what a producer does?
Mamet goes on to state that for a film: "One needs a camera, some film and an idea (optional)."
The state of the current film business bothers me to no end. All I had to do was go on one interview regarding my first script to see what the deal was. I was asked if my vision was anything like Aronofsky's "Requiem". The script I was assuming they called me in on showed no hopes of becoming another "Requiem" nor did I want or conceive it to be. In doing that, I could have had more integrity had I walked a few blocks up to Hollywood Boulevard and started selling handjobs for a dollar.

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