One Reason I Don't Read "The Trades"

My neighbor gave me her trade magazines yesterday. She wasn't going to get to them this week, so she felt I should read them in the meantime. She has forever been trying to convince me that I should be "more aware" of the business.

I'm not talking about Backstage or newspapers that cater to working actors or write articles relevant to developing writers, or even blogs I can sometimes learn from (wink)... I'm talking about "the trades" that talk about multi-billion dollar companies, and seven figure deals to all the name players in the inner circle.

However, knowing one of my goals is to crack in, and develop into "one of those peeps," I took the paper rags from her, and gave them a read.

On page one of the first, Batman and box offices grosses at 4.13 billion this summer, on the other, it went on and on about how the amount of company logos before feature films has been increasing over time. Okay, not really things that I find relevant to my life or career. Telemundo is doing great with sport broadcasting... Filming in Canada is down... Miley Cyrus is up... Deeper inside, near the center crease of one of them, an article about how there's no real men in America, and how Hollywood has got to other countries to find talent to be men on screen.

Now I remember why I stopped reading these bullshit rags... It's because the people that write for them have their heads so far up their own asses they have no idea what they're talking about. While I can't disagree that more and more actors are coming from abroad, and getting roles many of us American men would kill to play, it's not because there's any lack of talent here. It's just that the talent here isn't getting the same shot or even being looked at in the same light.

Years ago, another article pissed me off, it was probably the last one I read before I stopped reading certain flimsy shiny pages. It went on and on about how comedy scripts were few and far between... How Hollywood was starving for a good comedy script. At that time, I was only writing comedy, just as many of my talented friends were, and not one of us could get any studio, agent or manager interested to even accept one in the mail.

Today, I read this article just one day after my entertainment lawyer's office called 9 top management companies on my behalf. The question was simple, "who should they (my lawyer's office) address a packet of materials to. For consideration of one of his clients to their firm."

Not even asking who his client was, or what his client had done to date (it was me), five of nine said something that translated into "don't bother," and the other four were not much more encouraging. "Don't send us anything, we'll find your client if we're interested in him," was one of my favorites. Encouraging, no?

I enjoy movies with Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood, I also enjoy Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman as much as any one, but to say, no American actors can be just as "manly"... We can't find scripts... We can't find manly actors... Excuse me while I sneeze...

Bullshit!

-- Quiche You ~ Tom Kiesche

Comments

[K.A.]

BRAVO! "It went on and on about how comedy scripts were few and far between... How Hollywood was starving for a good comedy script. At that time, I was only writing comedy, just as many of my talented friends were, and not one of us could get any studio, agent or manager interested to even accept one in the mail."

"We can't find scripts." "We can't find manly actors." Yes, truly maddening.

In New York, the CD of L&O once moaned in a Backstage article how "hard" it was to find actors for all the roles. AAARRGH!

My response to that is similar to yours: BULLSHIT. TRY AND LOOK.

BRAVO!