How it works in Hollywood

I presented the last ten pages of D.R.06.2, also known as The Untitled Stefan Avalos Project, also known as A Kinda Version of That old Script, Diamond Road to my writing group…

… Where, after the obligatory “well dones”, it was sent back to the kitchen, so to speak. “Make the end bigger”, was the overall consensus.

“Yeah, you’re right”, I grumbled.
“Don’t get too smart”. More valuable words were never spoken in this town.

It’s strange how this job of imagining things has gotten more difficult since I was a kid. It seemed so easy back then.

An anecdotal story of a famous director explaining what he wanted in the action screenplay being developed was brought up by one of the writers in my esteemed group: “I want something big in the beginning, something bigger in the middle and something really big at the end.”
Pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

User customization for increased productivity

If there is on and off wackiness of this journal in the upcoming days or weeks, it is because I’m attempting to migrate it to a different place. Why? So I can customize the look and feel of it better. Also, some of the blogspot.com limitations are beginning to annoy me.

So far, I’ve wasted two days.

Playing with the look and feel of desktops, fonts, screensavers and websites costs the U.S. an estimated four billion dollars in lost company time per year! Actually, I don’t know. I just picked that number out of the air. However, a lot of precious time is spent during the workday doing just that. “Increased productivity”, I see those words on more things that require hours of installation and fiddling than anything else.

In terms of a blog or website, yes, it’s nice for things to look good, be ergonomic, represent the self, etc., but really, how much does that matter? Most of the time, I go to a website purely for information. Presentation is ancillary unless it’s so bad as to be a distraction.

When the web started out, and everyone was making their first websites, a lot of content-impaired people would basically take their bookmarks and turn them into a web page. Websites consisted of a lot of links going to other websites with lot of links going to…

A website or blog has to be pretty damn good for me to look at the links. Now that RSS feeds (essentially links that update themselves) have become the rage, people are building a lot of pages that use them instead old-fashioned links.

It’s sort of a different shade of the same color. Most people really can’t create content of any worth, so they just point to other content and try to change the color a little.

Profiting with the new Paradigm of Entertainment Media
or how I convinced myself that ringtones were somehow important

Let me preface this all by saying that I have not turned into Andy Rooney.

I went to a holiday film festival party last night. Everyone was very nice, the drinks were free, but the junk being espoused… Eesh. Good thing I was wearing my boots.

There is a desperate attempt to figure out what the popularity of new Internet sites and new methods of disseminating media mean. Everyone wants to be part of it, and I see a lot of business cards being waved around by “media consultants” – almost as many as panels and conventions for ‘media developers’. When “myspace” is talked about as revolutionary, I know I’m listening to people who are only parrots and trying to get in on the ‘new thing’.

Let me be the bearer of news to those who haven’t figured out that, the Emperor, while not naked, is wearing only a string thong.

Ipod = walkman
Podcasts = radio show
RSS = ticker tape.
Website = magazine, newspaper or catalog
Youtube = public cable
Mobile content = walkman with a crappy picture and sound
Myspace.com = “My first web template” web templates for people too ignorant to do one themselves.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying these things aren’t cool. I’m just saying that they are not revolutionary in the way that most people are desperately trying to make them.

You know what was revolutionary? – Radio, TV, the Telephone, Answering machines, Internet for the masses, Email, The VCR.

Ringtones are not important. Neither is most ‘mobile content’ ‘alternative distribution channels’, ‘information dispersal’ or ‘new media ventures’ Sorry, it’s not.

Revolution doesn’t just mean ‘something new’. Revolution means change, and most of these new gimmicks will not inherently change a thing. Note that I didn’t say ‘all’.

It feels like 1996 again. Everybody is trying to figure out how to profit from the “upcoming paradigm shift”. Heck, when Google spends 1.65 billion dollars on Youtube, who can blame people? There’s an inherent lottery ticket mentality continually at work here.

So what do you get? A bunch of people with not a whole lot to say or do or show, covering that fact - by pointing to other people with either a link, an RSS feed or a podcast interview - the latest update on the old trick of seeming cutting edge by association.

It may all be moot though...

Just this morning, I read that the thong-wearing Emperor has died…

Time Magazine made “You” the Person of the year.

Without fail, when Time Magazine decrees something is hot, its time has past. When it comes to trends to report upon, they have the uncanny knack of being the last to know what’s important.

By the way, if you’re an advertiser or Television Network trying to figure out how to make all this eyeball-competing free-media work for you, let me know. I figured out how we can all make a ton of money by giving it all away.

Seriously.

Now go do your Holiday Shopping.
On the Internet, of course. That’s revolutionary!

And don't forget you can add the RSS FEED to this blog to your awesome website.