Hollywood = Out Of This World
And Out Of Its Mind
Long before I shifted my focus to art and graphic design, I wanted to be a filmmaker.
I spent years working behind the scenes on film/tv sets while writing screenplays and searching for my break into directing and producing. But after working in Hollywood’s sausage factory long enough, my dreams faded.
Turns out the only thing more creative—and outlandish—than Hollywood’s films and tv shows are its accountants and lawyers.
Behind the “lights, camera, action” lies a labyrinth of labor unions, marketing costs, production budgets, and profit participation deals. Each adding up to make making entertainment as expensive—and exclusive—as possible.
The bigger the production, the bigger the stakes.
Most in Hollywood seem more invested in preserving the industry’s escalating budgets and overhead than in fostering creative innovation or truly embracing technological efficiencies.
Take Star Trek: The Motion Picture, for example, which premiered on this day in 1979.
Production began with a modest $15 million budget, but by the time the film was released, costs had ballooned to $44 million—a staggering sum at the time.
The film grossed $139 million worldwide, which might sound like a success, but it fell short of Paramount’s pie-in-the-sky/high-on-their-own-supply expectations. The financial disappointment prompted the studio to “propose a less expensive sequel.”
Released in 1982, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan reportedly cost just $12 million to make and grossed $97 million worldwide. While it earned less than the first film, it was likely more profitable. Many fans and critics also consider The Wrath of Khan as not only the best Star Trek film but the one that reignited interest in the franchise.
Fast forward to 2016 and the release of Star Trek Beyond. This time, the budget had exploded to $185 million, with the film grossing $343.5 million at the box office. (And the end credits were longer than some Academy Award-winning shorts.)
On paper, those numbers might seem like a win. But when you factor in marketing costs—which often exceed the production budgets—and Hollywood’s notoriously “creative” accounting, the margins get razor-thin.
Studio films rarely break even, despite their massive earnings. At least on paper.
At some point, I realized that the dream of directing or producing in Hollywood just wasn’t happening for me. I saw too many friends going bankrupt producing indie films and shorts. And the few who managed to carve out successful careers did so not as creatives….but as executives. Not my cup of tea.
So, I shifted gears and pivoted to other creative roles. After a few years working as a freelance designer, I returned to the Hollywood sausage factory, this time behind the scenes in a different way—helping to market films, TV shows, and ancillary products. It wasn’t always fun, but allowed me to stay connected to the entertainment world.
Off and on for a few years anyway…
When I was a freelance, non-union crew member—based in a right-to-work state—I knew the jobs were short-term. Only a few productions lasted more than a few days or weeks.
When I became a full-time designer, I mistakenly thought some semblance of job security would be amongst the corporate job perks. I quickly learned that stability doesn’t really exist in Hollywood—or anywhere anymore, for that matter.
A typical Hollywood production has hundreds of cast and crew. A typical Hollywood studio employs tens of thousands to manage its media empire. But when the “magic” isn’t that magical, producers and studios are quick to fire, lay off, and/or retire as many of its worker bees as possible.
Even after its many rounds of layoffs, Parmount Studios’s parent company, Paramount Global still has around 20,000 employee. Compare that to MrBeast—the biggest content creator on YouTube—who recently said he emploees, on average, 400 people across all his businesses and ventures worldwide.
And most content creators—myself included—are one-man bands.
This shift has sparked an entertainment revolution that Hollywood seems reluctant to acknowledge.
When SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America went on strike in 2023, shutting down most of Hollywood—with the industry still recovering from the pandemic—many audiences simply turned to independent creators for their entertainment fixes.
And not all of them have turned back.
Why? Because today, with the right combination of skills, stories, and tools, it’s easier than ever to bypass the Hollywood sausage factory entirely.
Thanks to platforms like YouTube and Substack, content creators, filmmakers, and storytellers of all kinds—and all locations—now have a direct line to their audience. Without gatekeepers, labor unions, or studio bosses to get in the way.
No one needs a $100 million or a team of hundreds to make a movie anymore. You can “make it work” without Hollywood’s brand of “lights, camera, action.” You just need a camera, a computer—or a smartphone—and the determination to bring your vision to life.
It’s a far cry from the Tinseltown of my childhood dreams, but it’s a more attainable and rewarding reality. Technology has changed and democratized filmmaking and storytelling forever, putting the power back in the hands of creatives and creators.
While Hollywood will always hold a special place in my heart, I’ve found greater fulfillment as a one-man band, creating and sharing my work on my own terms.
I count my lucky stars to have connected with so many who appreciate and support what I do. People like you, boo.
Thanks for reading!
Clint
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
How to Master the Art of Filmmaking (Dan Mace) 📺
Why Hollywood Fears the Sony FX3 (Anthony Aguiar Organalog) 📺
Upside Down & Inside Out (OK Go) 📺
ON THIS DAY = DECEMBER 7
BIRTHDAYS
1863 = Richard Warren Sears = American businessman and Sears co-founder
1873 = Willa Cather = American novelist, short story writer, and poet 🌈
1904 = Clarence Nash = American voice actor and singer
1917 = Hurd Hatfield = American actor 🌈
1923 = Ted Knight = American actor and comedian
1928 = Noam Chomsky = American linguist and philosopher
1932 = Ellen Burstyn = American actress
1948 = Tony Thomas = American screenwriter and producer
1949 = Tom Waits = American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1956 = Larry Bird = American basketball player and coach
1958 = Rick Rude = American wrestler and sportscaster
1960 = Jane Castor = American politician 🌈
1964 = Patrick Fabian = American actor
1965 = Jeffrey Wright = American actor
1966 = C. Thomas Howell = American actor and filmmaker
1979 = Sara Bareilles = American singer-songwriter
1982 = Jack Huston = English actor
1987 = Aaron Carter = American singer-songwriter and actor
1989 = Nicholas Hoult = English actor
OBSERVANCE
EVENTS
1732 = The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England.
1776 = Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arranges to enter the American military as a major general.
1842 = The New York Philharmonic holds its first concert.
1917 = World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1932 = German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.
1941 = World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor: The Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
1963 = Instant replay makes its debut during a Army-Navy football game.
1970 = Painter Romaine Brooks, dies in Nice, France, at the age 96.
1984 = Leonard Cohen releases “Hallelujah” as a single.
1995 = The Grateful Dead break up after the death of Jerry Garcia.
PHOTO + QUOTE OF THE DAY
“This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah.'“
Leonard Cohen
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This Day in History:
The day I swore into the United States Navy! 🫡
Done on purpose, so I'd never forget the date.
A VERY long time ago. 😉
Two of the most revealing statements I have read about the big movie-making industry are:
. 1.) "There is less here than meets the eye."
. and
. 2.) "The entire mass-marketing mania known in the secular world as 'christmastime' was caused by a handful of eastern European Jews who produced movies with that theme."
The capital investment, working capital requirement and expenses of that industry were incomprehensible and incredible to everybody outside the industry. Merely learning how a professional-quality 35 mm motion camera worked gave me the idea clearly. Learning how a technicolor camera worked was awesome for me. Knowing that makes it understandable that the producers and studio owners were so crassly obsessed with earnings. Not pretty.