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Everything They Didn't Teach You About Working In Entertainment: Cynicism

by Chris Goss on April 13, 2014

This plagues me. This absolutely 100% does me in on a daily basis. I have to make a conscious, fighting effort to combat that which is single-handedly pushing and persuading me to give up this business.

I'm talking about cynicism.

A nasty word.

Most creatively minded youngsters hit college with rose-colored glasses. Like many, you opted out of basketball and into the school choir. Perhaps you were a stage hand for the fall Shakespeare or lucky enough to sing the showstopper in the spring musical. Regardless, you left high school thinking everything was great.

Then you hit college, ready to tackle entertainment head first. Ready to write the next Big Bang Theory because you just absolutely love Jim Parsons and think that show is nothing but hysterical.

But then something changes. You hear somebody behind you in class, that guy that shows up late, looks a little hungover or high, talking about how he spent his Sunday at the Rose Bowl Flea Market. You hear him call True Detective mediocre and swear by some foreign soap he got hooked on during his trek across South America. Then he says, "What a minute. You actually watch Big Bang Theory? I bet you liked Friends back in the day, too."

And you get to thinking about how you grew up on television -- watching and liking whatever was put in front of you. Until one day you're told everything you loved was crap.

I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm not the pot smoking world traveler, nor am I hooked on TGIF appointment television. I've dabbled in both ends of the spectrum, both as a lover and a hater of all things. I go through phases and my tastes are wildly inconsistent -- and it's been very hard for me to accept that.

I was an asshole in college. I stumbled across some old papers I had written criticizing the work of my peers and came across sentences that started with, "The reason I think this is the worst scene from today is..." I reflected on this mindset and recognized that developing a critical eye is paramount to the college experience. In fact, it's paramount to being a creative contributor. You have to meter good from bad so you can learn from what you do that's bad and what other's do that's bad and make it, well, good.

But at some point, you have to let that go. Hating everything doesn't help.

In fact, at this point in my life, it hurts.

I rarely go to a movie theater anymore. I call myself an aspiring screenwriting and I don't go to the movies.

Something isn't right there.

Yes, rude audiences drive me crazy. Yes, I'm tired of the summer superhero factory. Yes, Michael Bay's TMNT doesn't help this cause.

But at some point, you have to allow yourself to stop hating things. As a kid, you loved all things entertainment. I once dreamt I was an actor on Nickelodeon's Hey Dude. I loved that show. (Watch it now, and you'll wonder how it ever got made, but dammit if I didn't cry during the episode that Ted left the show). I loved escaping to a western resort motel where Christine Taylor kept you company. FIRST CHILD CRUSH.

And now I read scripts, and think...garbage. I see movies...waste of time. TV...that'll get canceled. If I don't have anything nice to say, I don't say anything at all. i.e. Stop going to the movies. Stop reading scripts. Stop watching TV. It's a cyclical hermit-inducing problem.

What good does that do somebody trying to make a living selling screenplays?

If this is you, if this sounds like you, if you wonder why they keep making Spider-Man movies, consider the following:

FIND WHAT YOU LIKE FIRST.

Instead of teeing up your movie watching experience for disaster, change your attitude. Find something that is appealing to you and focus on how that is executed, this is especially helpful if you're on a date and your counterpart wants to see the next Dame Judi Dench film. Not bagging on Judi Dench, she's truly one of the greats. But, you get the point. Go in with a positive expectation and find what there is to like. Love what works. There is bound to be something, find what that is and consider it a pleasant surprise.

SUSPEND YOUR DISBELIEF FURTHER.

We love to hate films that don't logically make sense. And, yet, it's fake. All of it is fake. None of it makes sense because it's not real. So why do we become impassioned with hating when stories jump the shark? This is two-fold because stories/characters are an investment we want to pay off, but be OK with allowing the investment a little wiggle room. Accept what perhaps you would normally disapprove of and just be happy to be entertained. Remember, you're lucky enough in life to be able to sit there, do nothing and watch something. Relish in that fact alone.

LOOK PAST THE MOVIE.

So, you hate a movie. Well, somebody loves it. In fact, that movie is someone's dream film. Somebody got their movie made -- they got paid and their career blossomed. Stop being such a ninny about how it wasn't you and appreciate the success of a completed feature film. It wasn't what you expected, but it is what they expected and it's their movie. Good for them.

ENACT CHANGE.

Moviegoing is the fuel to your own fire. Hate everything and you lose that fuel. Instead, allow each experience to drive you to finish your next spec. Find time to write following every single entertaining event. Watch a network comedy -- go and write. Catch the second half of a late-night feature on HBO, finish a scene before hitting the sheets. Read the latest three-page challenge samples from John August and Craig Mazin's ScriptNotes, revise three pages of your own. Use it all as motivation and immediately sit down to write.

APPRECIATE THE ART.

Every movie, good or bad, is art. Cinema includes every visual element of art in existence. Hate the story, love the design. Hate the acting, love the wardrobe. Hate the CGI, love the sound editing. You can't possibly hate every frame. Each piece of the puzzle came from the mind of a fellow artist -- nothing was left to chance. It was all a choice. Appreciate the specificity.

Boil everything down to simply wanting to be happier. That's the point of life, yes? Happiness? Satisfaction? Finding something to love isn't dumbing down your creative eye -- you're no less of an artist, no less intelligent, witty or discerning. You're simply choosing to be positive, to get excited. Entertainment is exciting. It's why you do what you do. Don't hate, appreciate. (Yeah, I went there).

If you hate the contents of this blog, find one sentence that rings true. Go ahead and burn your brain against the rest, but spend time thinking of the one thing that worked for you. I think if you focus on that one thing, instead of the ten things you didn't like, there will be something learned. And something learned is progress. It'll put a spring in your step, and it is April.

Everything They Didn't Teach You About Working In Entertainment: Power

Everything They Didn't Teach You About Working In Entertainment: Being A People Person

Everything They Didn't Teach You About Working In Entertainment: Dealing With Disappointment

Everything They Didn't Teach You About Working In Entertainment: Getting A Job

Everything They Didn't Teach You About Working In Entertainment: Paying Your Bills

Everything They Didn't Teach You About Working In Entertainment: Living In Los Angeles

 

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