Done, move on

Well, one more spec screenplay finished and hopes that it will be sold. 

A friend of mine was talking about what he felt was the biggest problem in the movie and tv business - there are too many people in it for one thing - - but there's something else that is contributing to the mess.

Population

More and more kids are going to film school because it's cool and they have dreams of being stars and star directors and star writers. And their parents tell them they are -- but that's another blog.

What happened with digital and computers is that it gave everything away - VHS cameras were terrible, High-8 was better but digital was great. So great that they had to make it for everyone. And everyone can make a movie-- youtube.

There's an old expression, actually not that old -- "the good news is that everyone can make a movie -- the bad news is that everyone can make a movie".

When I grew up in the film industry there weren't as many people around, and they would hire the best but that changed with youtube and their millions of short films. Now everyone was a star.

And that's okay, because why not? Can't the ordinary guy film his cat chasing a stick, you tell me? Is that a movie? Should it be showing at your theater? 

What also happened is that since the studios and networks don't quite know what works for this millennial generation who watch some movies and not others and don't seem to have a star system anymore. Most of their time takes up staring at a smart phone.

And since networks and studios don't know, they try everything. And since there are so many writers out there, bad or good, they don't really know which to choose. So they look at everything. And when they look at everything they really find a lot of junk. Good stuff is rare. The Sopranos is better written than Charlie Sheen's "Anger Management" but there's more of Charlie's shows than Tony's.

It's sort of like buying cereal at the supermarket, which one do you buy, the same one you buy all the time or a new one. Which is healthier, which tastes better. And so on.

One of the guys who started the 100-plus TV channels said they thought there would be programming for everyone on earth - niche channels - but now that it's in full swing with 500 channels or more he realized he was wrong.

Instead, they created mediocrity - something for no one. 

"mediocre" -- of only ordinary or moderate quality, barely adequate"

Turn on your TV tonight and let me know...