Dealing with the Hollywood Hippo

Now that we’re sitting between the way the entertainment industry looked before the advent of every last distraction known to man, and the way the entertainment industry is already beginning to become, a side-lined art form of yesteryear, what can we do as writers to increase our chances of success? There are folks who have thirty-year resumes in this business who are regularly ignored, so how is someone new going to break through the very thick walls of this exclusive club? Do we want to get into that club if it already shows maintenance issues? Any honest job hunt advisor will tell you, you’ve got to look directly at the pain of a company or an industry and come up with palatable, potential solutions to offer them…just Ask Liz Ryan.

How would you solve Hollywood’s Hippopotamus problem? How would you solve the dilemma of shrinking market share in spite of their best efforts to attract audiences with wiz bang special effects, exciting stories and celebrity devotion? Especially think of the fact that all Hollywood studios are now completely invested in gaming, web presence, and social networking themselves. They are burdened by out-moded copyright and intellectual property investments that prevent them from jumping into the steady stream of open-source creative material, and thus none of those protected properties will see the light of day in new media loops. Case in point “Thirty-Something,” a great show, but have you seen clips of it on YouTube.com lately? This is about it. Their business model is as challenged now as the music industry’s business model of a decade ago was challenged by Napster. Dare I say, “Piracy?” And, Hollywood loves the idea of pirates but hates the effect of piracy.

As a writer, can you possibly find a way to tell a story on film that is different, unique, and particularly tasty, than what has been told before and over and over again? Why does an audience need to spend two hours of their time and a hundred bucks of date money on your story? I, personally, have found myself more offended by the expense than entertained by the story lately and I have had a very long marriage with movies! These are the questions that every agent and producer has floating around in their head when they get your script in the mail. How does your take, your point of view change everything? You've got to up your ante, understand what is at stake, if you're going to enter the Hollywood dilemma. You've got to hit the hippo right in the heart to hook the audience's attention, garner loyalty and begin to put a salve on that pain. "Bigger than life" has always been Hollywood's motto, but now that the world is in the palm of our hands that dream may have to be even bigger, or it may need to be ever smaller. Think about that for a while before you write, "FADE IN:".

Does this mean there is no hope for screenwriter/filmmakers? Ask yourself if there is more opportunity or less opportunity for writers today than there was twenty years ago. If you really think that the demise of paper books, covered with cardboard, or newsprint that leaves your hands filthy is the end of writing this must be the first blog you've ever read. Grin. In fact with the advent of blogs, self-published eBooks, publish-on-demand and the many social media forums there are more opportunities for writers to reach an audience than ever before. If you really think the demise of the album is the end of music then you've possibly never heard of Justin Bieber or any given Metal Band, or the Vitamin String Quartet. Bigger Grin. What lies ahead for screenwriters and filmmakers is in your hands...how will you shape that future?