The other day, Dillon Tanner told me his main motivation for taking this class was to disprove the nightmare that is the stereotype of the entertainment industry. Though I have only realized it in hindsight, my time in Hollywood has accomplished this unfogging the illusion of “the industry” as well. How my perception has changed:

1. There’s more to entertainment than stars, directors, and writers – Though my knowledge of the industry jobs bridged this inane understanding before the class, my understanding of the abundance of directions one can go in entertainment was limited. The normal understanding seems to be that, upon moving to LA, you will come out either homeless, your brain decayed by months of eating ramen and attempting to write the next Gone with the Wind in your one room studio in the ghetto, or Stephen Spielberg. As we walked into the back room of the bar to meet with the CC alums, most about 2-3 years out of graduation, I half expected to walk in on a group of the aforementioned ramen eaters, magically aged 40 years and asking Clay and Dylan for takeouts. However, unless my understanding has transitioned from erroneous to erroneous, there seem to be an abundance of jobs in entertainment that I was not even aware of, and the possibility to attain these jobs. Having met with sound mixers, documentary filmmakers, small production company owners, magazine editors (the list continues), it is safe to say that there is a middle ground between bums and stars.
2. People in “the industry” are not all assholes! – My dad’s friend, who worked for a long time in National Geographic, once advised me never to work in entertainment unless I felt I absolutely had to in order fulfill some sense of self worth. His reason – everyone in entertainment is an asshole. Well, my view may be skewed due to the fact that we have met with many CC alums (who I would tend to think are abnormally friendly), I have been struck by just how accommodating, and eager to help everyone has been. Furthermore, it makes sense. As the entertainment industry seems to revolve around who you know (and what they think of you), it seems completely logical that in order to find work, one must have some level of social grace.
3. There are still undercurrents of creativity. Though there is an abundance of blow-em-up movies, every individual with whom we have met has stressed that Hollywood is, as much as it ever was, about storytelling and creativity. Yes, the technology often shapes these stories, but the idea that Hollywood is simply a assembly line, churning out products without any thought or creativity seems blindly elitist. Even if one cannot get over the blow-em-up movies, individuals such as Kyle Schember, Dee Baker and Tim Sexton make it clear that creativity has not been stomped out by the angry execs.

Overall, these changes in perception have given me nothing but hope. Though the dream of being Tom Cruise or Martin Scorsese (or the next millionaire exec) is clearly alive in this city, it is reassuring to understand that there are many individuals in this city finding work with enjoyable individuals in a creative setting.

Facebook is clogged with “inspirational” posts informing the world to “be yourself,” and angry posts about people that are “fake.” This branding of what is genuine and what is “fake” is blindly applied by all, and too often that it makes it difficult not to snicker at these posts wondering, among all these self proclaimed “real” people, where are these “fake” people they all condemn? Today, as I was walking around Hollywood Boulevard, I must admit that I myself felt an immediate disgust to the “fakeness” of all that I saw. The tour buses advertising sightseeing of celebrities mansions; the saggy, plastic armor of the too-short Darth Vader and his inattentive Storm Troopers; the horribly blocky and gaudy decorations of the overly priced Hard Rock Café – It all disgusted me in its “fakeness”.

What does this mean? What is this fakeness? The most obvious evaluation of this sentiment is a perceived masking to accommodate for some interest (social, monetary etc.). But, what does this masking itself entail? Can there be no genuineness in the reinvention of oneself? Is not the accommodation itself a representation of some personal quality? What, rather then accommodation is at the core of the creation of “fakeness”?

As implied by the Facebook rants about others’ fakeness, this experience is not solitary, but inflicts itself upon its surroundings. The “mask” cannot be applied by oneself, because there is no interest to accommodate to in solitude. Reinvention, without exterior interest, can only be imposed for self-interest. Here we find inherent in the creation of the fake a necessity for an exterior interest to accommodate to. This interested tends to be social are monetary. The façade of Hollywood Boulevard accommodates to monetary interest, the source of this interest being the tourist – us. Namely, we are the interest. In being the source of the interest, I believe we find the key in our disgust. I felt disgust in the fakeness because I felt cheated; I felt exploited. I was not being presented a human with whom I can converse and connect to; I was being sold a way how to feel and a an image to give money to. I did not feel cheated and exploited in the restructuring of the representation, but in the restructuring of the representation with me being the monetary interest.

This sentiment is paralleled in my feelings towards exploitation (of the audience) in movies. The line where I feel unattached and exploited by a film is crossed when I am targeted as an interest rather than a human; when I am an object of the film rather than a participant. I watch “The Notebook” and I am told how to feel. I am told to be sad. I am told to feel compassion. The film exploits my emotions; that is how it appeals. On the other hand, there are stories that have no agenda, no creed, no moral. They do not tell you what to feel, or how to think. They do not try to make you laugh, or cry, or cringe, or holler with excitement. Instead, they invite you into the film. They invite you into their world. They invite you to interact with the characters as people rather than characters. Most importantly, they interact with you as a human, not as a means for their interest.