Movie Crisis

Movies have gotten better in the past few years, at least enough that I bother seeing one or two a year that are "new". I'm still really pissed that The Departed (which I thought was excellent) turned out to be a Hong Kong movie originally, thus re-enforcing my stance that NOTHING original is ever made in Hollywood.

I went to CalArts years ago and studied art, animation and film. To tell you the truth, I enjoy movies much more now that I'm not obsessing over technical aspects and various other art school bullshit. While there, I came across so many people with great scripts, just even in our script classes and meetings. Even more scripts were lining the shelves of the post-production office I interned at breifly (though I have no idea if any of them were good). Point is, there are tons of great scripts floating around that are original, but hardly anyone takes a chance on them.  And when I say original, I mean that in they are not A. Predictable B. Trying to be quirky on purpose C. Revised from a book, foreign film or graphic novel and D. Not toyed with a rewritten by the Development Department. I considered at one time becoming a D Girl just because it seemed really easy for me:

A d-girl or development girl is a person in a film production company who is responsible for finding and identifying potential movie ideas for their development into a script. Also, they are responsible for writing script coverage for scripts that arrive at a production company. Typically, a d-girl is the entry-level position in a film production company.

But they don't pay shit, they don't care that you might have some insight, and really, just want to make sure you know how to operate a xerox machine. A degree from Harvard means nothing in L.A. unless you know how to work a xerox and three-hole punch. Those junior VPs who green light have a life span of two years in those production offices, they also do tons of drugs and get happy with the red sharpie even if their revisions make no sense. I don't like naming names, but I can think of quite a few instances where the senior person doing the revisions and production notes for book adaptations, never even read the books! Okay for instance, there was a guy doing character design and co-writing the script for what was to be an animated version of Moby Dick. He was doing all of this, having never read the damn book! Yesh.

Still, the fact that every movie I watch today it seems like I could have written it as a joke. Movies I have never seen before I can predict EVERYTHING down to when the "slow clap" will chime in. I stopped going to movies because so many are terrible, it is very hard to tell which ones to bother with even. How many more 70s TV shows will be churned out? At the same time, people still go to these things. Elsa Maxwell said, "No one ever went broke in Hollywood by underestimating the intelligence of America"

I prefer to stick to my pre-1975 format, it seems to work for me. Still, I'm renting the original Hong Kong version of The Departed.