Hollywood Just Isn't Cool Anymore

The industry isn't cool anymore. It's not where the conversation is among people. Here's what is still cool:

Filmmaking, movies, and great TV.

But anything that comes directly out of the greater Hollywood machine (namely sequels and remakes) is no longer cool. In essence:

Hollywood has become like our parents.

THE NOSTALGIA PUNISHMENT

Remember when you were a kid and your parents were always coming down on everything you liked, usually with this sentence:

What we had was better! Let me show you what was REALLY great.

This is the entire business strategy of Hollywood right now. We are all being force-fed what out-of-touch rich people and nepo babies liked when they were kids, and being told that we should like it too. It's the large equivalent of being forced to look through your uncle's vacation photos and nod politely.

This is in lieu of what actually makes filmmaking magnetic:

Exploring new stories and experiences that might be interesting.

Even though films from A24 and Neon are essentially Hollywood films (Anora had an $18 million Oscar campaign), they aren't regarded as Hollywood. But the new Marvel and Jurassic World films are. This is because of a simple reason:

THEY FORGOT PEOPLE

Hollywood was once synonymous with the people who were a part of it, for good or for ill. You attached to the star or the director and followed their career.

Now it's all about IP.

A concerted effort was made to siphon power away from the creative people and focus it towards the creative property.This would allow the large corporations (i.e., tech companies) to have more control. And also do what they've always done:

Have you spend more time on their platforms.

This worked for a while when it was new. But the cycle has become stale. More reports are showing that younger generations prefer creator content over the traditional channels. To me, it makes sense because it's in essence:

A RETURN TO THE AUTEUR

Now, I personally abhor the terms "personal brand" and "content" when it comes to filmmaking. But what they really amount to is this:

An individual artist creating works.

As much as AI slop is interesting (in the worst sense) for a few seconds and a comic book character can poke at our nostalgia,

Nothing trumps the pull of appreciating the work of another person.

Younger generations trust creators because they are people they feel like they know and trust. You can't know and trust a large corporation whose sole purpose is to drive up revenue and stock prices.

Hollywood is now a large corporation in their eyes. But if you go on Letterboxd, you'll see that the appreciation of movies and filmmakers is very much alive. They will go to the theater and spend money if the following is evident:

Something novel and personal is being made.

For us filmmakers, it means that no matter our age, we still have the opportunity to create work that matters. We can look to our counterparts on creator platforms for lessons on how to do this.

This doesn't mean we have to become influencers. That's becoming a dirty word now. It means we need to share more of ourselves and our ideas in a public forum. It means we don't wait to create our art and we try to stay outside of Hollywood as much as possible.

In the short term, it means less money. But in the long term, it will have greater returns. To work inside the system now means providing everything ourselves for a chance at a larger budget.

If that's the case:

Just make your film for less and cut out the unreliable middleman.

Take the lessons from Oscar Micheaux, Mario Van Peebles, and Spike Lee. Create your work on your own terms and detach your self-worth from an industry hell-bent on destroying it.

Filmmaking is very much alive. We just have to return to our roots in order to foster it.

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THE PODCAST

Some of you might have seen that I've been putting out a podcast recording on occasion. If you haven't checked it out:

Here it is.

I'm committing to doing this on a bi-weekly basis, releasing every Friday at noon.

These are essentially some of my random thoughts about filmmaking and other related topics. Next week, I want to talk about how America is outsourcing all of our creativity, which will lead to a great collapse we might not recover from (see Russia).

But let me know if there are any other topics you'd like me to cover or get my thoughts on (i.e., blab). I'm committed to doing more of these episodes and eventually creating some videos as well...once I get a haircut...

Thank you all for your continued support. I write these articles (and now podcast episodes) because I believe that if we recognize and embrace our own creativity and agency,

We can each live the creative life we deserve.

Until next time.