How the World Should Work

So this started out as a Facebook post, but as always it got kind of long-winded so I decided to make it a blog instead.

I can already tell this whole breaking into the entertainment industry thing is going to be annoying. I mean I don’t expect to become an overnight success or anything, but this email really didn’t make me feel too optimistic about the kinds of people I’m going to cross paths with.

As most of you know, I submitted Continuity as a movie concept to three different production studios via greenlightmymovie.com. The first response (“I like your idea a lot but our studio has a strict no-religious content policy”) was at least somewhat encouraging, even though it was a rejection. Their reasoning was perfectly understandable obviously.

So after I saw their no, I decided to message the greenlight site as a precaution, telling them I wanted to be sure my ideas weren’t “borrowed from”. I know how ruthless Hollywood can be, so I figured it might make sense to at least voice my concern. I’ve done a TON of research into the entertainment biz and it’s abundantly clear according to what I’ve read that people steal things all the time.

Their response? A link to an article that litigation will get you blackballed from the industry. http://pitchamovie.com/litigation-one-way-ticket-showbiz-oblivion.html

Almost sounds kind of threatening, right?

My bad, greenlight. I guess I’ll just not worry that the book I wrote for my deceased mother might get stomped on by someone trying to make a buck. I mean what does that say about the type of people I’m trying to work with? If someone steals your property, intellectual or otherwise, you don’t just say whatever and let them get away with it.

So naturally my response was that I couldn’t care less if they blackballed me, and unlike Hollywood, I actually live by a certain moral code. After all, I wrote this thing for Mom, not to rub elbows with a bunch of materialistic crazy people. Not that they’re all bad obviously, but its sort of sad that this is the way their world works. I actually spent some time looking into who all does a lot of philanthropic work, and it turns out a lot of super famous people do some really great things. So that much is encouraging. Hopefully I’ll end up like them. I just can’t stomach the thought of having to compromise my beliefs to fit into a certain mold.

Of course the fact that the literary agent I spoke with today told me that Continuity would get picked up in no time did help me muster the boldness to reply like that, but still. Isn’t that kind of messed up?

I should probably add that it isn’t necessarily the greenlight people that are the bad guys here. I imagine the guy who responded was just trying to help me understand the industry a little better, which was actually a nice gesture. I think its more or less the fact that the article had to be sent in the first place that’s the underlying problem.

Thank God I copyrighted the thing a month ago. Jerks.