One of my favorite topics Scott. That which I predicted a few years ago, shooting my mouth off to friends and family...

The localization of the major arts.

The music biz is, for all intents and purposes, dead. They missed the boat on everything in the name of greed and it cost them. What stands in its wake (besides really bad FM radio) is localization. Bands thriving and surviving on a regional scale.

I see this happening with film. Not today, perhaps not tomorrow, but it's coming. And nothing could make me happier.

The BIG OPENING WEEKEND mentality is gonna' bite Hollywood in the ass hard. It's a broken, severely flawed business model. You can quote huge Transformers 2 box office all you like but ONE money is gonna' feed the beast? I think not.

Remember the 90's and early part of this decade when it was all about FACE? Jim Carrey, Julia Roberts, Mel Gibson? Now, those actors are all taking pay cuts because the studios know they can't hinge their films on those faces. It's trickling down from there.

And I love every minute of it.

And what is the ONE state in the union that's utterly, completely financially vanquished? Slap on an Austrian accent and say it with me kids... "Callyfonia!" Since Hollywood and the golden state are so inexorably linked, it only goes to reason that filmmaking, both pro and otherwise, will start to look elsewhere for a viable place to do business.

It's a really neat time to stand back and watch all this. I think we're at or nearing a historic turning point.

Even if it means projectors and screens in your local gymnasium!

Yeah, Jeff -- on the one hand, it's great. On the other, a lot of people in California are hurting.

But I think there's no mistaking the fact that Hollywood is killing itself, and better get hip quick or see itself swept aside like the record companies were. The creative equivalent of "think globally, act locally" is here, and the internet only makes it that much more viable an option.

Hence my plans to produce some of my own stuff in the very near future...

Luzid...

My cavalier attitude towards California's plight are directed solely at the entertainment industry. I can't imagine what it's like trying to get any sort of support for critical government social programs out there right now. Very sad.

I imagine we'll see a reverse Grapes of Wrath soon, this time with the wagons headed eastward.

Jeff, I got that much -- some of the people hurting and now needing those programs are industry folk. That was kind of my point.

Believe me, when you're on the outside like we are it's very tempting to herald the downfall of the studio system -- especially when you're banging so hard on the gates to break through. But the truth is that California, and this country, needs the revenue Hollywood creates.

Indeed.

Point taken.

The last thing I would want are the craft services, IT admins, receptionists, drivers, electricians, and carpenters to suffer... (especially since I've been each one of those at some point in my life!)

Going back to Scott's post, I guess my real joy is to see the marshaling in of a new and improved distribution network for the arts, one more creator controlled than corporate controlled.

We're definitely in agreement on that last point, Jeff. I personally feel that screenwriters not owning their i.p. is a travesty -- and something that needs to change in the future. No studio ever sits in front of that blank page, afraid that no matter how many times you've done it before you may utterly fail this time around.

Technology is both destroying the old system and creating a new one. Quite a time to be alive and creative!