Hello good people of Beantown. This is Craig Amabello your truly twisted & demented reporter signing in again.
For an X-Hollywood reject like myself, I sure am receiving a fair share of good responses & emails from some very Cool people out there that are enjoying my blogs.
I thank you all for the compliments & I am glad that I have opened up a SERIOUS, (yet, demented & silly) discussion on Hollywood verses Boston.
Entertainment has always been my game, & as long as I can see that some people out there are being entertained (& hopefully Informed), by my writing style, than I will keep on blogging.
Many Boston people out there keep trying to Insinuate that "what I have done" & "where I have done it" means NOTHING! But that is a bunch of CRAP!
I know in life, it is MOSTLY "WHO YOU KNOW", but damn it..... You just can not discount the fact that I spent 12 long hard years in Hollywood bustin my ass & I have very little to show for it in Tangible goods. But I most certainly have LOTS of Knowledge on Hollywood California that many people out here could truly benefit from.
Most people out here dream of going to Hollywood & already have what they think is "necessary attitudes" to prepare them to go to the Big city of Lost Angels.
But their attitudes SUCK. All big words.... Saying things like: "Get me a C-64" as opposed to just asking for a damn clothes pin! People out here are TRYING SO DAMN HARD to emulate what "they think" is standard procedure in Hollywood.... & boy let me tell you.... They have it all wrong!
People are people everywhere.... But Condescending attitudes, smarmy looks, big 50 cent words, DO NOT MAKE YOU HOLLYWOOD READY! You have to be able to Actually, Physically DO THINGS... ACCOMPLISH WORK. As opposed to just being able to BOSS people around, saying film maker terms, Pointing your finger & putting on your Director & Producer hat & just staring at a monitor all day.
Many days I had to shoot an entire short story, Documentary, Industrial, Music video, with limited scripts & NO pre-production in just 24 hours. There are NO BOOKS FOR THAT. You have to be able to wing it, & communicate with people to get the job done. Every time I worked on a production in LA with a producer or director that did nothing but bark orders, the day would not only be miserable, but VERY NON-PRODUCTIVE.
All these college edumacated Directors & Producers out here, with big 10 cent words, but NO REAL LIFE, PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE, make me laugh. Experience that I have, after actually working in the trenches of LA. Experience that has taught me that no matter how nice I try to be to people out here, they think, or assume.... "I BROUGHT MY HOLLYWOOD ATTITUDE BACK WITH ME!". I don't have an attitude, that's what confuses people. I just want to work.
Do you want to know how I learned my craft of digital film production? By Doing it! Not dreaming about it... Not learning fancy terms... NOT talking about it.... Not getting others to do my work for me.... Not getting on a high horse & acting all full of myself. I just did it because I had to to make a living & survive. To learn to Light, Direct, Shoot & Edit, can truly only be done by DOING IT YOURSELF! No one taught me, no one was there to catch me if I fell. I had to PRODUCE WORK, or I was FIRED.
In the 12 years of working in Hollywood "I NEVER CALLED MYSELF A DIRECTOR". But that's what I was. I must have directed at least 100 projects. I almost never had MY NAME on credits... I just wanted to get paid. A title meant nothing to me. Out here, many people seem to be more in Love with their damn titles than anything else! You would be amazed at the amount of Directors & producers, here in Boston, that I have emailed, spoken to & written to that haven't even done any real PAYING GIGS! Yikes.... Is it me? Am I stupid? Do I have it all backwards? Have I truly gone insane? Or am I just old fashioned? My philosophy is simple: Work well with others. Do the best work you can. Treat people with respect & just GET THE JOB DONE. Save the big words & titles for MORONS that think thats what's important.
This is what gauls me with these Producers & Directors out here, acting like big shots, & treating me like shit, with no respect, like I'm just some loser that fell off the turnip truck. I don't have BIG TIME credentials, or a perfect resume with big projects & big names. But at least a million people have seen my work, from cable, to tv, to DVD's, training tapes ect. But for the most part, when I am trying to get gigs out here, I am treated like some rank amateur. A bum. A lier. A loser. And boy let me tell you, IT GETS FRUSTRATING.
So if it sounds like I am constantly blowing my own horn..... Its because I am punch drunk from having to explain myself to others out here. All I want is PAYING GIGS... I don't care what it is... As long as it is LEGAL, I'll do it. Just treat me with some common courtesy & respect & pay me when the day ends.
I have bent over backwards to give people information about myself when applying for gigs. I have been polite, courteous, kind, complied with all their requests & for the most part.... I NEVER HEAR BACK FROM THESE PEOPLE.
So Bizarre. So Weird. People advertising out here that they need a Pro Editor... Pro Director... Pro camera operator..... & when I send them my resume, they just Blow me off!
The people that run this site STILL REFUSE TO EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE MY BLOGS & won't even put them up under the new postings section....... WHY?????..... I am getting good responses from my blogs. I believe I am driving some traffic to this site & helping this site by writing my point of view on Hollywood. Getting people involved. Opening up real discussions about the business. Hopefully entertaining people. Hopefully Giving them some insight into Hollywood verses Boston.........
But I STILL DO NOT GET RECOGNIZED AS POSTING NEW BLOGS UNDER THE "NEW BLOGS SECTION!
After my very first blog... Lindsay said "that I was surely Blacklisted now!" I thought she was kidding. Obviously my opinions piss people off. People that are shallow... Jealous & just plain don't get it.
I am honestly trying to contribute to this site & yet I am being FREEZED OUT by the people in CONTROL........... IT MAKES NO DAMN SENSE.
To me it just shows the small minded nature of so many people out here in Boston, ( & yes, the rest of this country is no better).
I am done rambling... Sorry to bore you with my tirades... But I am hoping that some of you people out here get what it is I am saying.
LEAVE THE ATTITUDES AT HOME. Show up for work, be creative... HAVE FUN.... make money.
SHOW BUSINESS is a job, just like any other job.... I just wish more people understood that & would stop watching so much damn TV that makes them think Hollywood wants people that are ALL ATTITUDE & COOL.
All Hollywood wants is: people that can make em money & not be a pain in the ass to deal with.
LEARN TO BE REAL PEOPLE.... HAVE CONFIDENCE IN YOURSELVES... WITHOUT ABUSING OTHERS.
We are all just people, trying to get thru life & have some fun....
WHY MUST THAT BE SO DAMN DIFFICULT!
Not everyone in Hollywood is as demented and Useless as Paris Hilton!
I wish all the cool people out there.... A long life... Happiness... Health... Fun... Sex & Success!
Rock On.
From your truly demented reporter of life, Craig Amabello
Hollywood California.... The land of Dreams to so many... The world of Nightmares & despair to most that go there & have their hopes snuffed out by the hot Santa Ana Winds.
LA is a tough place to make it... But if you wanna be in the Rough & Tumble Business of Show, Hollywood is STILL the place to be. (I, obviously, was not tough enough to make it). So I ran back to my hometown in the east in shame, humiliation & abject failure after 12 long years of struggling. So many years spent trying to climb that elusive ladder of success, & each & every time I grabbed a new rung on that ladder, the damn thing broke & shattered, sending me right back to the bottom again!
But every time I mention to people that I spent over a decade living & working in Hollywood, they act like it's nothing... & then instantly launch into some preachy type speech about HOW GREAT THEY ARE & How little I must know.
These very same people go on to explain just how special & talented THEY TRULY ARE, & all the wonderful projects that they have worked on & all that other babbling crap & yet.......
These very same people have NEVER, EVER, SUSTAINED THEMSELVES, (IE: actually made a living), in the entertainment industry for any length of time, let alone over a decade!
Many people out here.... (I am NOT SAYING ALL PEOPLE, but there seems to be an awful lot) Just seem to be jealous, petty & angry that somebody who has actually lived & worked in LA & has come back, has something to say about it. (Remember, its just my stupid opinion & I'm a NOBODY! I never claimed to be anything other than another Broken dreamer that was crushed & blinded by the big city lights of Hollywood).
But the very comments, (like the latest one), from some people on my "I WANNA GO BACK TO HOLLYWOOD BLOG", Just seem down right childish, angry, rude, condescending, Jealous & BITTER! (Just read a couple... Several people were very good, but a few others, like the first woman's post... I Still can't tell if she was joking or not. Her comments confused me. And now the last post, seemed down right Snooty).
What gives people? Why the ATTITUDES? Is Boston truly filled with petty, jealous vindictive SHOW-BIZ WANNABE'S that make Hollywood sharks seem like tame lil puppies?
All this Boston attitude reminds me of a shoot I was on once in Malibu. I was filming a behind the scenes documentary for an Adult film known as "Babe-Watch" A Buck Adams feature for cable.
Buck Adams, (The Director), hired some young girl from Boston to be the production manager on this shoot & when she showed up on set, she actually brought members of her family! (Who brings family members to watch them flip hamburgers, Dig a ditch, or operate on a patient... So Why would you do it working on a Hollywood film?)
This is a professional endeavor with tens of thousands of dollars on the line & yet so many people bring this fantasy of PLAYTIME to Hollywood with them when they come here... THIS is a JOB people. This is a CAREER for some... This is OUR LIVES... (the ones that live & work out here at-least) Not some lil game! What is wrong with people?
As I was saying, this girl was brand new at all this & was quite overwhelmed by the whole process. Making a film & being in Hollywood at the same time confused & excited her, (understandably so, nothing wrong with that).
But... instead of just being real, & asking for help..... She just turned into a Hollywood Scum-bag overnight! She became, Pushy, Bossy, Rude, Aggressive, Arrogant, Demeaning, Condescending, & down right Hostile to the members of the cast & crew that she felt she could bully! ( I, of course being one of them... because I am a very easy going guy & unfortunately, in my past, have allowed many people to push me around).
Everyday you could see this deranged production managers horns growing & her ego getting bigger. She continued to bring friends & various family members to the set everyday like it was a freakin Disney Tour!
We, the cast & crew, were all old school Pro's by this time, she had only been in town for 2 weeks & had already grown into this She Demon MONSTER from Hell.
One day, coming back from Catalina Island on a boat, this production manager told ME that I had shot enough footage for the day & to stop rolling camera. I could not believe my ears. This half-assed Hollywood NEWCOMER was already brazen enough to start telling me what to do!
It took all of 2 weeks for her ego to blow up so big that she started acting like an OLD SCHOOL, RUDE SCUM-BAG. Telling me, a damn veteran of the biz at this point in my life, what the hell I should be shooting!
I remember thinking to myself that she was joking with me, until I realized that she was dead serious & became quite adamant that I should stop rolling tape & I just laughed at her! (Since when do production managers become Freakin Directors?).
My long winded, convoluted point is this: I learned a long time ago by dealing with TRUE Hollywood Stars & TRUE Hollywood personalities, that 90% of the BIGGEST people in the business are very cool, human, down to earth & approachable. (I have had the nicest conversations with big time directors like Sam Raimi & Penelope Spheeris & I was only a lowly Extra at the time!).
Those big time personalities treated me & other people with human dignity, kindness & respect.
BUT every time I deal with a HOLLYWOOD WANNABE, A NOBODY, OUT HERE.... I get all kinds of attitude & disrespect. I have finally learned that the reason for this is that they are so scared, so paralyzed by their own fears & self doubts of not coming off as somebody important, (or at-least, MORE important than myself), that they feel the need to disrespect myself & Hollywood.
They can't wait to ignore, condemn or judge my meager accomplishments out in Los Angeles out of what I perceive as nothing other than: SHEER JEALOUSY.
These small minded people, with such BIG attitudes only prove themselves to be one thing: VERY SMALL, NARROW MINDED BEINGS.
They are making Boston seem like a very rude, delusional place. A bad place, where good people wouldn't want to come to work & make creative entertainment.
It is so sad that many people on the East coast act this way. And no matter what I seem to do, or where I go around here, I keep stumbling into these frustrated, rude, arrogant idiots.
WHY????????? I know there are good people out here. Talented people out here. Creative people out here. Hard working people out here? WHY CAN'T I FIND THEM??????????
Please Good, creative people of Boston... Don't let these Snooty, highfalutin, Hollywood Wannabe, snot nosed brats Brats keep giving Boston a bad name.
COME OUT INTO THE LIGHT... Show us that there is more to this town than: Sad, disturbed, demented lil people of small, frustrated minds & huge egos that want to topple & devour all that come into their paths.
Which are you: A happy, Cool, Creative Camper..... Or a demented lil Nobody, who enjoys being rude & hurting other humans?
These are only my opinions... Take them as you may....
Andrew Keen was interviewed in today’s Metro Boston discussing who Web2.0 was ruining the Internet and culture in general. He states in his new book “The Cult of Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture”: “millions of millions of exuberant monkeys … are creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity,”
Original link: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200706/20070611/article_319089.htm
Keen rips apart user-generated content as a threat to existing cultural standards saying that anyone with a keyboard and a camera or a microphone can make their own news, movies or music and disseminate it on the web. The crux of his stand is that this is disintermediating Hollywood, news outlets, record labels, etc. He further states; “My fear is that if Web 2.0 continues it’s sort of idealistic rampage through mainstream media, we’re going to be left with nothing but this level playing field, and professional media is going to be undermined.” Wow!
What Keen is missing is that the cause behind the surge in user-generated media is the basic law of supply and demand. If the demand did not exist, the supply would dwindle. Why are there so few horse-drawn wagon repair shops? Because something better came along that people wanted: cars. The public constantly complains that today’s films and music, for the most part, suck. That’s not to say that there aren’t great movies and CDs being made. What is true is that many are jammed together, lowest-common-denominator targeted rehashing packaged for mass consumption. There wouldn’t be a half-dozen independent film channels if the public was happy with the available cinema. Certainly the latest Shrek or Fantastic Four has it’s audience (me for one), and a large one at that. But the public is fragmenting by choice. They are no longer willing to accept what they are force fed and are looking elsewhere for entertainment that touches them on a deeper level. I heard recently, so it may not be true, that most movies lose money. This is most likely due to the enormous operating costs of the studio, actors, special effects, directors, marketing, etc. Yet a little movie like the Blair Witch Project, made for $60,000, made over $29 million in it’s opening weekend. This was filmed with a small crew and limited cast, virtually no special effects, unless you count flashlights, and was marketed on the web by it’s writer and director. Blair Witch 2 was made for $15 million and made only $13 million it’s opening weekend. This one was made by a major production company. By the way, the original gets an 8 out of 10 stars rating while the major studio version got only 2 out of 10 stars.
There is a serious movement to abandon network news and news paper outlets in favor of consumer-generated news, blogs or the BBC. Many feel that due to their focus on the bottom line, network news agencies are focusing more on local drama or celebrity gossip than international news. As a musician, you don’t want me to get started on what record labels have been pushing. Keen says “I think record lables historically have found and polished marvelous talent.” Is he kidding?! Does he listen to the schlock on the radio? Are the Britney’s of the world really marvelous talent? Let’s not forget the Paris Hilton CD. This is typical of record company offerings. You don’t get very many White Stripes, Tools or Dave Mathews. Whether you like bands like this or not, they are quality musicians, writing quality music and releasing quality CDs. Not pre-packaged tarts with a crew of 50 year-old songwriters and mixing board gurus that represents a majority of record company releases. What he additionally fails to mention is the financial structire of record companies. Most bands don’t even make money from their CDs, the record companies keep it. Most must rely on ticket and t-shirt sales.
