Bad Attitudes Will Sink You in Hollywood:
The Ingénue
by Jaden
One time, I worked with this actress on a terrible B-movie for over a month. 
We had to work with each other from 12 to 20 hours per day. She hardly said a single word to me, not even “hello” or “thank you.” When male actors sat with me at lunch, she called them to come sit with her. If a high level crew member like the AD or DP was talking to me, she would call them to come help her with something pathetic, like walking — not kidding.
When lower level crew asked her questions, she ignored them.
The crew nicknamed the film The (actress’s name) Witch Project.
One time between shots, two excited little girls on the street asked if they could take her picture. “I only give autographs,” she said. Autographs? Who needs her name scribbled on a napkin? Keep it and blow your snubby nose with it, lady.
To the lead actor and director, this actress was gushingly nice.
Just before this movie, the ingénue had starred in a film as Brad Pitt’s leading lady. She was on her way to being the next Gwyneth Paltrow or Angelina Jolie. She was equally pretty and as good of an actor, but by being unpleasant and ungrateful, the actress smudged out her future.
The ingénue’s career has been like amber fossilizing insects. Every film in which this woman has starred is a shelved artifact.
Bad attitudes cause negativity on the production set which transcends the film.
Happy casts and crews make box office hits!
At panel discussions with actors, writers, and directors, before Oscars are ever given, I can always tell who will win. The winners have a contagious positive spirit and speak kindly of each other.
Talking about how much fun they had and how hard they worked, the cast of Chicago
Be genuinely kind and appreciative if you want to succeed.
Sunday Picture Post 1 / Tip: Pithy Dialog
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: PITHY DIALOG
Dialog should be kept to a minimum. Show, don’t tell! Don’t have a character tell us what she did last night, write the scene and show us what she did. Verbose dialog loses the interest and attention of the audience. Remember, it is motion pictures, not rambling words.
Malicious Content: Gossipmongers and the Paparazzi
by Jaden
The media has massacred all that was charming, exciting, and glamorous about Hollywood.
Today’s press makes me sick; they have snuffed out the allure of entertainers, making them impotent at their job to fascinate.
I want to watch a movie and not think about how the actor had a booger hanging out of her nose at Coffee Bean. I want to believe in a character and not know about the actor’s real sexual history. I want to fall in love with a story and not be distracted by the actor’s personal life.
Watching TV with an actress friend of mine, a news clip came up about a new law to try to protect celebrities from the paparazzi. They showed aerial footage of photographers running into traffic and sticking their cameras up against the car windows of Britney Spears. She couldn’t see the road or drive. The cameramen looked like blood-sucking mosquitoes. It was disgusting. My friend added that she too once almost drove over a gang of stalker photographers because they just ran right out in front of her car while she was driving. Too bad she didn’t flatten a few of ‘em and make the world a safer place.
These stalkers with an apparatus give photography a bad name. It is not freedom of the press; it is a creep with a mental illness. The press are invited to premieres and official places where they are welcome to take pictures. Trespassing on private property, stalking, and violating traffic laws are illegal acts.
Wasn’t the death of Princess Di enough? It has only gotten worse since then. Hey, let’s see how many celebrities we can murder with our cameras. BONK!
Worship and envy combine to kill.
These things exist because the public pays for it. The public pays for the pictures. The public pays for the news about whose armpits stink. The public makes this happen and they need to realize that as long as they are buying, as long as the demand is there, the goods will be supplied.
To me, our society has degenerated into something ignoble. When we should be advancing, we are digressing.
Let entertainers do their job and entertain. If you want to voice your opinion about the quality of their work, go right ahead, but why pick apart every little detail about them that you hate? Hate and envy are ugly.
To endanger lives for a stupid picture is an embarrassment to our society. Why do you care whether they wipe their babies’ butts? Or buy coffee? Or eat? Or drive? Or get in arguments with their spouses? Of course they do! They are human beings.
Why are people so hell bent on breaking down and destroying others more successful than themselves? One should be inspired and feel hopeful by viewing others’ success, not held back and angry by it.
All someone else’s success means is that you can do it too. Everything is possible. You don’t have to be a beauty queen or have an operatic voice; success is available to everyone. There are endless examples of hugely imperfect people who have excelled to great heights. You just have to find the right niche for youself.
“That’s what they get. I don’t feel sorry for them.” 
Several different people have said this to me about celebrities having to deal with the paparazzi.
Why do entertainers deserve it? Because they enjoy performing for you? They deserve a bunch of creepy people harassing them day and night? What is the logic in that?
Acting and singing are jobs, and I am telling you from first-hand experience, they are a lot harder (and more fun) than sitting in a cubicle. Can you memorize 120 pages and deliver each line with believable emotion? Can you handle auditioning for years, several times a day, and deal with the endless rejections? Can you stand on a stage, dance, and sing in front of thousands of people or two strangers? If you think celebrities deserve it because you are envious of what they do, you ought to move to Hollywood, give it a try, and see how easy it is not.
When you hear about their salaries, take into consideration that half that amount goes to the government in taxes. The more money you make, the more they take. The next chunk of it (about 25-40%) goes to their representation: agents, lawyers, and publicists. They are then left with maybe 10-20% of that enormous sum. With that, they have to pay for food, home, and family, just like everyone else. On top of that, they have to pay for clothes, make-up, and whatever else so that they look fabulous when the paparazzi catches them off guard. Taking the expensive location of Hollywood into consideration, celebrities are not as rich or glamorous as you might think.
Briefly, I was an organ in the beast, but I could only go to so many red carpet functions and ask celebrities so many personal or trite questions about their face lotions, pets, and marital plans. It was humiliating. I wanted to ask respectable questions about the film and their role in it, but for that information, I was not being paid.
There is a difference between what is news, what is a critique, and what is malicious gossip.
“The movie tanked at the box office,” is news.
“The movie sucked,” is a critique.
“The actress looked fat,” is gossip.
A nude photo up a woman’s skirt is illegal.
One is informative. Two is an opinion. Three and four are simply malicious and creepy.
Some positive respectful movie-lover sites focused on news and opinion are:
For a fresh raging backlash at the catty press by Mystery Man on Film, click to read this excellent piece about 2008 Oscar winning screenwriter Diablo Cody.
Are you a malicious consumer?
Interview With Student Actor Kari Lane
by Jaden
1. When and why did you take an interest in drama?
I have always wanted to act. I was in plays as a child and have adored movies all my life. I wanted to be in that movie everyone loves; to play that character that touched someone’s life or to be the character that brings something special to that movie people remember and enjoy. I prefer film acting to theatre because it allows for more freedom (visual, spatial, and the chance to do a scene more than once) but I also enjoy stage acting.
2. What is your area of study?
I am a film major, mainly focusing on film theory and I have a minor in theatre; studying acting, stage/film makeup, and play analysis.
3. When will you graduate?
June, 2008.
4. Will you move to Hollywood?
Sorta. My husband and I plan on moving to Burbank, Glendale, or other similar areas that are close to Hollywood, but just far enough removed.
5. You married young; how has that impacted your studies and acting career?
Yes, I married at 18 and it has been 4 years now. It has been good and bad. It is wonderful to have a stable relationship and a partner who is there for you and supports you. It is bad because I have to be gone a lot for rehearsals and filming, so we do not get to spend a lot of time together.
6. Where do you work and how does that play into your career ambitions?
I currently work at Hollywood Video and feel the job is helpful because I watch tons of movies since they are free for employees. Also, once I have moved I figured I would get a similar job because it is fun, you get free movies and is not as cliché.
7. Tell me about what you liked and didn’t like about the screenplays with which you have worked.
Every screenplay I have read (about 9) seemed interesting and had a lot of potential. However, not all of them came out as well as they did on paper. Either I felt I pictured something better in my head or it just did not work out right for various reasons: the acting, the look of it, the director, et cetera.
8. Comic writing is good practice for screenwriting. I’d say it is the next closest thing. It is visual and potent writing. Are you still doing the comic? Tell me about that.
Yes, I am still drawing a comic but I have not drawn one in a while because I have been busy with school, and I am held back by my desire to only make comics I really think are good. So many of the comics published are just bad, and I cannot make a comic I do not think is at least somewhat funny. However, I think I need to get over that and just do it; same goes for all other art mediums. I need to not worry about how it will turn out, but rather just create it and then fix it up.
9. Do you see yourself writing your own screenplays and starring in the films?
Well, I have never actually written a screenplay, but I have had some ideas that I would like to see materialize. I am more interested in the acting and potentially directing rather than writing. I can think of a good idea but that is about it, no plot, nothing else. So, maybe I will write through collaboration with someone else.
10. In how many films have you had speaking roles?
I have had only speaking roles in student films — three as of right now and I will soon be in two more. That is why I like student films so much; they give you the chance to have a speaking part. I have also been an extra, PA, worked craft service and have done makeup. I always do my makeup because I want to make sure it looks good and I have not been fortunate enough to be on bigger budget sets that would have a makeup artist do it for me.
11. How do you have time for school, work, acting and all the other things you do?
That is a very good question. I do not sleep much. I also procrastinate a lot, so I have my free time and then at the end of whatever I am doing, I have a serious crunch time to get everything all done. Luckily, work is only four or so hours at a time and only a couple days a week, and this quarter I only have classes Tuesday and Thursday, giving me a few days here and there to get everything I need done. Somehow I guess I manage to squeeze it all in.
