The Rot Within An Industry
A Tale of Hubris And Collusion
Ink2Quill November 2017 Editorial
www.ink2quill.com

If the Bard were alive today I think he would undoubtedly change his quote to “Something is rotten in the Hollywood entertainment industry.” I originally wanted to write an editorial on the Convention in New York City last month, because what a great convention it was. There were writers, cartoonists, lecturers, book and graphic novel companies and artists of all kinds including some of the fashion people from the fashion institute, but I digress. Hollywood scandals have taken center stage and have been getting worse as their revenues plunge amid changing technologies and times. So what is my opinion of things going on in Hollywood? Just as a warning though, I have to say that not all aspects of this editorial are positive. Generally I like to keep my blogs positive focusing on the good points of a particular book, movie, bolg, play or graphic novel but this just might be an exception. So brace yourselves.

So for those of you living under a rock Hollywood is the American film industry whose films are seen around the world. They basically have universal distribution but in spite of this they are only the world´s third largest film industry. Yes third. Bollywood, the film industry of India and Nigerwood, the film industry of Nigeria, Africa are the first and second respectively. Just as a side note though I´ve seen many films from Nigerwood and have been greatly disappointed by their quality. They still have so much growing to do in terms of stories, set design, special effects and everything else but they´re getting there.

Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California and the home of the U.S. film industry. It was started by a group of jewish immigrants who all came to the U.S. from the same part of Europé to flee antisemitism. Like so many immigrants and ancestors of slaves who came to America they were hard working, ingenious and bold and built a thriving international film industry. The best way to describe what is going on in Hollywood is to call it a kind of transition where an outdated way of doing things is decaying and we have yet to see the new emerging Hollywood. So I see two possible paths for a Hollywood in crisis. One is its complete decay and death in which case something else will be reborn from the ashes. The second is a Hollywwod shedding outdated ways, being more inclusive and making changes to thrive in a world and market that has changed.

What do I mean by outdated ways you might ask? Well Hollywood was born in a time of segregation, sexism and all kinds of nonsensical rules that kept a large segment of their audience from getting characters or storylines they could relate to. So for example a little person would only be cast as a dwarf or a role where they would be ridiculed. Women were always shown as being helpless and dark skinned people were always the villians or servants. Similarly, behind the facade of the silver screen during production a lot of unfair and criminal behavior was going on by those in power. Some of those crimes still happen today but in this more modern world where communication is so much simpler and the news is no longer centralized the truth comes out. In the case of the past few weeks that truth has been like a dam collapsing that has left us all shocked and outraged. We all heard stories of the shady goings on behind the closed doors of tinseltown but never had it put in front of us and laid so bare. The crimes alleged to have been committed include all types of sexual assaults against men and women and the blacklisting and sabotaging of people and projects just for starters.

Why did so many people go along with the bad behavior they saw around them? The list of people who went along when they knew things were very wrong is long and varied from famous to not-so-famous actors, the media, police on both coasts, lawyers and of course politicians. There was talk by some that this sudden moral compass in Hollywood came from the people who were not getting the lucrative work they once had and that may be true but let us not forget that serious crimes have been committed here by very powerful people who abused their power. You also have the people who make false accusations of sexual assault or other serious crimes and they are just as despicable.

I really believe that Hollywood would be a much more prosperous industry if they only treated people respectfully. That one simple change could be a big help to revitalize the decaying Hollywood industry because I believe that right now Hollywood is rotting from within.

So is Hollywood headed for annihilation like so many are saying? There are rumors of actors being replaced one day by computer generated actors who are far cheaper than flesh and bone ones and don´t attract scandal. I´m deeply disturbed but hopeful on the fate of Hollywood. No matter what industry we all work in we need to make treating people decently an important priority.

Written by John

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