HOLLYWOOD HAS IT BACKWARDS
Work-from-home seems to be killing entertainment. But as studios issue RTO (return-to-office) orders, employees rebel. Which Hollywood — the New or the Old — has it wrong?
A recent article in The Ankler highlights how those in a Hollywood headspace (the new generation of execs and their assistants) are pushing back on the use of office space as studios like Amazon and Lionsgate hail a return to their place.
Is the New School way of doing things (working from home, meeting through Zoom, sending emails rather than placing calls, conversing on Discord) better than the Old School way of doing business (schmoozing, lunching, talking on the phone, meeting face-to-face)?
My analysis below…
Downward Spiral
There is a significant, palpable deterioration in enthusiasm and passion, creativity and overall momentum in Hollywood right now.
This can be felt in the time it takes to have your phone call returned. The lack of response to emails. The lag-time between submissions and responses… all of which points to a fundamental decline in our collegial creative endeavors. But that collegial spirit and creative momentum is precisely what’s required to make movies and series possible and to make them well!
This feels endemic to working at home in isolation en masse rather than in an office esprit de corps surrounded by like-minded and able-bodied pursuers of the Hollywood dream.
Can you imagine the instruments of production Zooming into set to perform their craft? The key grip working from home? The director remote-directing through a screen? An actor “phoning it in?”
At least that would be some form of telephony, when Hollywood no longer seems to use the phone much. Our phone sheets were once the life-blood of the business, but now assistants, agents, creative executives, even Business Affairs don't pick up, barely dial out, dooming the "every-day-return-all-your-calls" edict of CAA founders Ovitz & Meyer a long-gone doctrine from the past.
This lackadaisical approach is less effective, less personal, less creative... and less FUN.
Zooming In
Driving onto the studio lot for a meeting is one of the pulse-quickening privileges of the enterprise. It reminds you what business you are actually in — and that there is NO business like SHOW business.
Being in the building, fielding calls and pitches, taking meetings, bounding from office to office, desk to desk, studio to studio, agency to agency, running into colleagues on the lot, pressing palms in the lobby, trekking to screenings, toasting triumphs, dodging defeat, pushing, pitching, producing, rolling calls from the car, from the plane, from the balcony at Cannes, from the after-party at TIFF… was never a burden. It wasn’t a punishment. It was FUN!
It was motivating, energizing, inspiring. It was being “on” all the time. It was the privilege of working in entertainment and the reason droves of us flocked to Hollywood in the first place. The Town shared a pulse, a common tempo. There was a rhyme to the reason, a reason to the season— and everyone could feel it.
Where Else?
In what other Town is everyone unreachable by phone from one to three because everyone’s at lunch — which is where you ought to be?
In what other industry can you dine day in day out for the purpose of chasing projects, chasing talent and chasing deals— and chasing them effectively?
In what other industry can you chat movies and series, awards and actors, scripts and books, stars and screenings; share your opinions on projects and people, what you read that moved you, what you watched that didn't; what’s churning in the rumor mill that will eventually come true — and call it all "WORK?"
This, sprinkled with a dash of glamour and a smidgeon of disbelief that we all get to do this—THIS!—for a living. Hollywood was a one-of-kind dream factory (yes, with challenge and inequity and maneuvering and manipulation), but people WANTED to be a part of it. And to participate in all of its "glamorous" tribulations and vicissitudes.
But now…
This new generation of Hollywoodites is so distanced from the height of what the Town was (and still might be) that they don't realize that what is being asked of them—to come back to the office, to meet in person, to do the work—is not a denigration of their lifestyle, but an enhancement of their profession.
This is not a poison pill to swallow, it's a shot of adrenaline in the arm of a dormant corpus.
There Once Was a Guru…
This current state of affairs reminds me of a guru who once had an undisciplined acolyte among the residents of his temple. The guru's other disciples came to complain about their lazy peer and pressed the guru to "punish" him.
"What would you have me do?" the guru asked.
The disciples suggested their peer sweep the floor, burnish the temple, chop the wood, carry the water. But the guru noted these were all chores the disciples themselves performed. He realized they viewed their OWN tasks as burdens when, in fact, they were PRIVILEGES — essential doings to keep the temple running and infused with spirit.
His mentees needed an attitude adjustment: he bade them return to their duties with an enlightened viewpoint and a sense of import in their work as their jobs were meditative acts to carry each toward enlightenment and the betterment of the community as a whole.
There's a clear analogy here. And a moral, which is: THE WORK IS THE GIFT. A reward. An honor. And the work of Hollywood is our collective privilege to tell human stories to human beings the world over.
You. Better.
In the same way that physically producing these stories requires in-person services, so does the creative pitching, packaging, dealing, meeting, greeting, networking and creative collaboration.
It demands we get in a room, press the flesh, grok the vibe, look each other in the eyes, revive the vernacular, pitch the project, read the script and the body language — in order to build and enhance our personal relationships. Essential skills that equip the current and future generations of Hollywood to not only tell better stories, to not only do better business, but first and foremost, to be better beings.
Better Business, Better Beings. Better Beings, Better Business.
Makes sense, even when it’s backwards.
