Anything Goes : California culture by Ron Schaefer

Define 'California Writer or Director'. Within the 50 states in the US there are dialect variations for sure. Knowledgeable writers recognize this as character specific facets and use it in character development. All Directors (good/bad) apply their creative vision to the story. I don't understand your terminology.

Where's the answer I printed?

For whatever reason, the comment I placed here was removed. What I said was that just like Billy Joel will sing about a "New York State of Mind," so too is there a California one that permeates the film industry as a cultural entity that's different from the rest of the country and the rest of the world. It doesn't matter where the writer/director was born: they could be from Dearborn, Michigan, graduated from Princeton, did a doctorate at Oxford -- when they come to LA they become part of the system, a cog in the machine. And they start turning out product that looks like everybody else. Outsiders as well as natives lose their identity and produce work that looks like they've never been outside the Hollywood bubble at any point in their lives. And to guys like me -- that's very noticeable in the work that appears on the screen.

Ron - you been watchin' to many factory films. There is some fine filmmaking emerging in the up-n-coming Indie Filmmaker world; you just got to find it.

I'm saying...there is a "California state of mind" factory or independent and it is recognizable.

So? What does that have to do with the price of wheat in Kansas?

You seem to be explaining your broad generalization by restating your broad generalization. That is not an explanation. Exactly what do you mean by "you can always tell a California Writer of California director by what's on the screen"? How???

Please, do tell, what is it you are seeing on the screen that forms this notion in your mind? Examples? That should be easy since everything done in California apparently has some ingrained little something that they inherently include and identifies them as being one of those people.

It tends to rule out innovation, especially if the power centers -- the money -- is of a single mindset. It becomes disturbing when the newer producers, the ones most likely to pick up on new writers and new scripts, think in the old "tried and true" way. Even among independents.

Well, that makes 2 strikes. Let me try one last time I simply asked you to explain how you could “tell a California Writer or Director“ as you stated you always could. No answer to that question. Instead of an answer, your deflected response is that “it” rules out innovation. Please answer the simple question about your statement that you could always identify a California Writer or Director. Please include examples.

As to your “deflect to” position, who or what is this “it” that rules out innovation? What innovation? How, why, and how do you know this? Again, please include examples that illustrate the veracity of the points you are alluding to.

Perhaps by the "CA' tattoo on their neck?

I'm not sure "Always" is accurate. "Often" may be better. I'm assuming that you don't agree with the thesis, and therefore have not noticed it yourselves. But I have. There is a distinct cultural difference between American and British films, though they both use the same language. There is a cultural difference between American and French films (ignore the language difference for a moment) and between English and French movies. I'm guessing that you have noticed. There is also a distinct cultural difference (generally speaking) between American films; more noticeable in east and west coast styles, subjects. And it doesn't, necessarily refer to when/where the writer/director/ or producer was born/raised. It's where the movie was completed now. I may be echoing Woody Allen's depictions here, where New Yorkers tend to overthink everything, and west-coasters (LA) don't think much at all; but you can see the results on screen. West-coasters tend to initiate/resolve dramatic situations with guns and car-crashes. East-coasters tend to do it with psychological trauma. West-coaster projects tend to be more simple-minded, wanting to spread to the biggest audience and therefore the lowest common denominator in the marketplace. East-coast projects may not have as big of budgets or audience, but are more complex. Here in the midwest, where I'm from, there is another culture that doesn't get noticed as much (okay, there's all those Chicago TV shows). When represented organically, it offers a different take on things. If that same midwestern project gets financed and built on the westcoast, it becomes Hollywoodized, and the change is noticeable. Like the campaign staff in Jon Stewart's "Irresistable," where an east coast crowd tries to find out what midwestern voters want, and ends up talking down to them, rather than listening. Tyler Perry's Atlanta group may add yet another dimension here as something to watch. None of this is necessarily bad, it just is. The only problem is, so much of financing and distribution of film still is LA based that decisions are made as to what the market is, what it will buy, and how it will be made, it tends dominate, and create stasis. Hollywood loves technical innovation, but not in other ways -- fields. So if you want to write to get movies funded and made -- unless you fundraise yourself -- you join the system and create what they do. The solution is simply to have more methods and more ways of financing from other places besides southern California, so that film art and industry itself is not so static. At the moment there is too much money in too few hands. Disney alone might as well declare nationhood.

Sounds more like upper Midwest sour grapes to me. I'm a small time indie film producer and march to the beat of my own drummer. I produce only self funded short films. There's no profit motive so in reality, it's only a hobby, but I'm okay with that. I'll keep on 'till I die or run out of money - whichever comes first.

Why don't you put your time/effort into fixing what you see as a problem, you could move to California (I did that) and run the trackus rodentious (rat race). I see it as your choice; stay up there in cheese country and freeze your butt off all winter while you whine about it, or get out there and do something about it.

Thank you for trying to explain your point of view. I believe I now have a pretty good idea about your point of view and its likely origin.

It sounds like Doug has an ax to grind, especially regarding his own situation. I talk about the difference between east and west coast cultural styles and he uses it as a platform for personal attacks. However, I don’t see how the two subjects relate. Styles and cultures are just that. In classic pop, the Beach Boys represent a west coast form of rock-n’roll; Lou Reed, an east coast version; Mitch Ryder, a Detroit version; and the Beatles, an English version. It’s all just rock’n’roll, but there are noticeable differences. Same in film. And I believe geography plays a crucial role in establishing it. When the movies moved out to California they had all this open space at their disposal, cheap land, and no seasons; unlike New Jersey where the industry was born. So they had all this space for westerns and their chase scenes (then the rage) which was limited in NJ. If you look at some of the old silents of Chaplin or Mack Sennet, where they are doing car chases, even down Hollywood and Vine, it looks like a farm field with telephone poles. So the industry grew up around the thinking of big open spaces, action scenes, and chases, and stories were told that way. Unlike NY in which everybody lives on top of each other, and is the home of commercial theater, where stories were told more with character interaction and dialogue, than physical bravado. I believe that remains true. The TV show, Saturday Night Live could not have been born in LA, nor could The Fast & The Furious have been incubated in NY. For east coast examples, Woody Allen is almost too obvious; but Martin Scorsese is certainly an east coaster. Not just because he is from there and a lot of his movies are set there, but because stylistically, his movies have an east coast cultural feel to them. Steven Spielberg, on the other hand, is obviously a west coaster, despite his diverse catalog. Ready Player One, one of the few Spielberg movies I hated, and I’m a big fan, is pure west coast, with its rapid editing, mish-mash of borrowed material from other movies and sources, fast ADHD pacing, and aim at a 12 year old audience. Michael Bay is pure west coast. So too Shrek, even with its self-deprecating humor to show the filmmakers are in on the joke, is a very west coast culture kind of product. I don’t mean to make it sound that all west coast movies are only for kids, just giving examples. You can even tell with actors. Actors in the LA system, either because that is where they are placed or because that is how they choose to portray things, are geared more towards stereotypes and looks than actors in NY or Boston who fight their way through little theaters. The “problem,” as I see it, is not this style versus that style, it’s market domination. The heart and soul of the film industry is still LA, despite the “democratization of video” since YouTube. Marketing is still in the hands of the very few and the very big, and they are west coast based, and all of what the rest of us have created are bigger and bigger slush piles of everything else. When one group swallows up all the screens with their product because they have the money and influence, you have a domination problem. This is what happens in an age of hyper-capitalism, which is what we are in, when too much money is in too few pots, and these are the ones who decide what everybody else sees (buys). And these deciders decide in favor of what they think the market takes based on their research; and the research is based on what people think they want based on what they have already seen (enter sequel-itis). And that stifles innovation. Movies aren’t the first industry to have this problem, just the most visible. So one has to keep that in mind when one writes a script or makes a film. By the way, I do not make short films. Thanks for the interest, guys. Good discussion.

No axe to grind here & I'm pretty okay with my 'situation'. Bye Ron.