L.A. Media

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My American Dream

I'm now back in Boston where it's cold, the trains break down, solid precipitation is inevitable, and the cobblestone is a historic dark brown. After our dalliance with L.A.'s utopia, most of us have described our return as "going back to reality." To us, this is our reality: Boston is where we live, work, go to school, hang out. All of Boston's frustrating distinctions that are part of this reality made us hypersensitive to L.A.'s palm trees, sun, and chic enchantments. I wonder if we'd loose that after staying there for longer? Yuron from the Coffee shop hasn't.

In my first post before I left, I hated on Hollywood. Like many, I was disturbed by its plastic fakeness and its ability to distort our perception of reality. In some ways, I still feel that way. I also hated on my college for spending so much money on a trip to cover such a blase event when more significant happenings were occurring in the world around us, and I still do not think that this mainstream-movie lovefest is really all that special.

And yet I have to admit that it made me think about my reality in terms of our American identity in a global culture striving for something more than war or famine. In America, our reality is not only one in which an event like the Academy Awards can happen, but also one that can empower a small group of college students to experience, explore, and create- which is exactly what we did on this trip.

This, I think, is a facet that we forget to think about around things like the Oscars: it exists inside a reality in which almost anything is possible with the right ideas and available means. Sure, movies full of car chases and sex scenes can "blind" us from the terrestrial "truth" around us, but as long as we see them as nothing more than stories told through our culture, this is a perfectly healthy thing. If we remember this, than we will weed out the stories told, as Winkler explained, for the bottom line of selling the audience as a product. We will be able to look past the implications of living our life through movie stars and see them as they are: real people who are good at being someone else for a little while. We will understand that cameras and lights can distort the way subjects are portrayed not only in fiction films, but also in journalism and non-fiction filmmaking. If we understand Hollywood's reality as something fake that makes us happy sometimes and not as something real that we strive to be like, than all of its hegemonic side effects, I think, can be resolved.

Over the past week, I have created things, experienced places, met new people, became better friends with people I already new, and saw things most people never get to see in real life. I think a lot of people view Hollywood fame as "the American dream," but I think this is wrong. To me, my American dream is the ability to experience and explore a place or idea like Hollywood- which is exactly what we all did on this trip. I am thankful that we live in a place and time that this is possible, and I look forward to moving forward and instilling the importance of this journey to all that will listen.

Stay posted for media from our adventure!

1969

All week we've been driving by these gigantic, ambiguous billboards featuring only a rough sketch of the Statue of Liberty, and the text "1969" on it. I've been resisting the urge to research it online because I thought it was some tricky marketing ploy for a film or something. It's plastered on the side of our hotel and the front desk manager didn't even really know what it meant.

I finally caved in today, and I was surprised to find that it is actually a 1st amendment rights protest by a a billboard artist named Michael McNeilly relating to Los Angeles' new billboard regulations.

The L.A. Times wrote this about the controversy:

Art and commerce aren't incompatible, but in McNeilly's case they're indistinguishable; as L.A. officials try to enforce a moratorium on billboards, he's pulling his Statue of Liberty stunt on other buildings, daring the city to engage in another losing 1st Amendment battle. If the patriotic images should be replaced with movie ads after the legal dust has settled -- well, an artist's got a right to make a living, right?

Read more about it here, here and here

Right now, our good friend Josh has joined the throngs of media taking photos and videos of the stars making their way down the famous red carpet. Fans are screaming for them and fashion pundits are criticizing them, but what is it about these people that captivate our culture so deeply?

I think it's related to why we call them "stars" in the first place, associating them to the celestial bodies that can be seen from a distance but never touch. In both referents of the word "star," we feel their presence but we can never really experience them close up; they emanate light (through our screens or from the sky) and we easily forget that they physically exist at all.

Holding figures in heavenly regard is nothing new. Roman cultures named the planets after untouchable gods for a reason. These figures were idealized in much the same way as our culture idealizes our Hollywood stars: both the ancient gods and movie stars have the same added meaning to them, the same simulacrum of how a human being "should be." In fact, science has concluded that most of the elements that are around us and in our bodies came from early star explosions in the universe which settled in our solar system. In this way, it's easy to think of "stars" as a more pure version of our selves, and we often think of movie stars as just that.

And yet when you finally see them walking in front of you in real life, it almost feels like a let-down. They aren't the shining bodies that we somehow wish they were. They are just like us. And we desire more than what's just like us, perhaps because media and advertisement frames is that way, or maybe just because we enjoy creating fictions around our lives. Yet when you see an ET reporter's smiling face drop to a grumpy frown after he completes a take, you see the illusion that screens can project.

I definitely do not think this illusion is always bad thing, I just think we should keep it in mind.

"Reality" TV: We're All In It Together

The other day, Henry Winkler talked a lot about being in "show biz," but one thing that really stuck out in my mind were his ideas about the entertainment industry using media purely for financial gain.



In today's television world, the only reason shows exist is because of advertising- networks sell you and I, as viewers, to companies. Effectively, we are the commodities that AOL/ Time Warner, Viacom, Walt Disney, Sony, etc. are selling to companies, and the content they produce is just a gimmick to get us watching.

I don't necessarily think this is a bad system. After all, in a capitalist economy we need money to do things, and the things that these companies profit from make most people happy. However, Mr. Winkler and I agree that what the media industry and we as a culture need to get into our heads is that money is only a means to an end- not at all an end in itself. When monetary wealth dictates things we do and happiness translates into getting the items we want, our minds go screwy and we want more and more and care less and less about each other and the "real" world around us. It's like a drug that we all desire in some weird way, and it's extra hard to ignore in such a luxurious city like L.A. where it's easy to get caught up in the glitz and glam of Hollywood nightlife.

In some ways, I think that the financial fiasco we are in right now (which almost all of our interviewees have mentioned) isn't such a bad thing. This shrinkage of wealth in the world, a growing global conscience about the environment, and the rise of two-way media on the internet is forcing us to look closer at ourselves and allowing us to express what we find in more ways than ever. Once a majority of the global population really gets this, we will tip into a new found global and personal benevolence and refresh our humanity.

Who needs reality shows when the theatrics of real life are just as satisfying?

And also, Henry Winkler is a great guy.

Ammunition

I always knew that cameras had a lot of power in today's society, but I guess I didn't realize quite how much until I cam here to L.A.

Every time our crew walks into the red carpet area, or near the ballroom, the media escorts and security guards scrutinize our credentials and camera gear with squinted eyes. They remind us over and over again that we CANNOT take still pictures. Then they huddle together and whisper about us as if we were carrying sub machine guns and grenade belts, and they're not sure if they want to let us into "the club."

I guess without scripts and executives, cameras are, in a way, mightier than the sword (or gun) because they do have the ability to capture things that the spoken word simply cannot recreate.

Hollywood Necromance

After the live shot this morning from L.A. to Boston, my friend Cat and I took a long walk down Sunset looking for breakfast. On the way, we passed L.A. Ink and some other landmarks that we recognized from TV and the movies. It's interesting how cameras tend to create an aura around people and places that make them feel either hyper real, or super fake (I'm not sure which), but when you see them in real life, they just...are. Film and video lenses trick our eyes into thinking things are something that they are not; the angles and depth of field make space feel longer, or wider, and frame rates create a feeling of present tense reality (29.97fps video) or past-tense fiction (24fps film).

On our walk, I spotted a folded chalk sign that had a coffee cup drawing on it, which meant breakfast was nearby. The owner, Yaron, was a sweet L.A. local who made us feel welcome in his shop and cooked a killer omelet.

It turns out, an obscure jewelry shop that Cat was looking for, Necromance, was right next door. The store was closed, but, according to Yaron, they sell jewelry and artifacts that are made completely from deceased animals including a human molar necklace charm and decorative monkey skulls. "Everything in there is totally real," he said, "it's freaky."

I found this immensely interesting: among all the studios and extravagant sets that try so hard to extend beyond "reality," there was a tiny boutique that was so real it made Yaron, an L.A. resident of 28 years, shutter. "I only went because the owners told me they just got a lion tail in and my horoscope is Leo. Otherwise, I would never go there, I can't even do hospitals."

I think Yaron's fear of modified dead things illustrates a key part of what Hollywood and its perfect weather is all about: a distraction from reality, a breath of fresh air from the mundane, an escapism from life's sometimes frightening inevitabilities.

I mean, it doesn’t even snow in this city!