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Mind Groan

Mind Groan: Ready Player One Open Casting

There are a few things I want to make very clear from the very beginning of this entry.

  1. I loved the book Ready Player One.
  2. I was thrilled to find that the film rights to Ernest Cline’s awesomely geeky and adventurous novel were in the hands of one of (if not, the best) blockbuster film director/producers of all time.  I mean, come on…this has all the makings of a new Goonies kind of journey with a completely fresh and modern source material.
  3. I couldn’t contain my excitement when it was announced that I was up for the lead role of Wade Watts…yup, the casting for the part was open!
  4. When Deadline Hollywood broke the news that Tye Sheridan landed the most coveted young-male role in recent history, I was beyond pleased…I love all of Tye’s past work and I am so excited for his future performances; if I lose the part to anyone, I’m so glad it would be him…

But I gotta call bullshit.

I was cleaning out my email inbox today and found two messages regarding my participation in the open casting call for Ready Player One. One was a confirmation from Cast It Talent (the service that hosted all entries via a website they built) of my video submission, and the other was a free one-month subscription to Cast It’s parent site.  Free subscription, you may ask?  For those unfamiliar with the casting processes for “emerging talent” today (aka “actors starting out”…regardless of their level of passion, training, expertise, connections) there are numerous services we “have to” subscribe to so that we may be considered for acting jobs. Imagine a semi-private social network…each actor has a profile, complete with headshots, video clips, and resumes.  A job listing goes up, actors or their Agents/Mangers click “submit” and their full profile goes through to the casting team for further review.  There are a couple major must-have service providers, and it costs about $15 to $20 per month to maintain a profile on each…this does not include the added cost of uploading new photo/videos which can run anywhere from $15 to $60 for each individual upload. There’s a bit more to this process, but you hopefully get the idea: actors shell out decent portions of their monthly income for the opportunity to have their profile land in a digital pile of headshots that can be at least 3000 deep for a paid gig.  And this isn’t the only area in which actors are “encouraged” to pay-to-play…see the Hollywood Reporter’s Casting Workshops investigation for a whole other side to the shady financial equation of pursuing an acting career in today’s film industry. Anyways, there is a revolving door of new “must-have” services for the modern day actor and it appeared as though Cast It Talent had suddenly become the latest now that they were running the RPO search.

Around the time of the casting call announcement, I noticed Cast It Talent ads were popping up on my Facebook news feed…a lot.  Banner ads on websites too. It’s as if Cast It Talent paid for a major digital marketing boost targeting Andrew Fromer.  Or perhaps young actors just like him, that displayed a digital interest in being a apart of the Ready Player One movie.  And by the way, when I did submit, I followed their odd video encoding procedures.  What I ended up with was a two minute scene/slate as requested that (in my opinion) was so low resolution it completely distracted from the performance; the video/audio bitrates were so reduced and displayed in an outdated frame size that it felt like I had converted a BluRay to VHS. It is understandable to think that each actor’s entry would have to be limited to a certain amount of data when there are thousands of submissions coming into their servers…but then I asked myself, what’s the point? Now that free one-month subscription starts to seem more and more fishy to me. And as we all know, there’s no such thing as a free lunch…especially in Hollywood. Unless its craft services. But that’s after you book the gig…I digress…

Now, I want you to imagine you are a casting director of a big budget movie directed by Steven Spielberg; you have an incredibly juicy and super cool role to fill.  You could practically pick anyone you want, right? Don’t forget to take into account that you’re in an industry where social media presence is an increasingly important factor (projects are literally casting based off of who has more Instagram/Twitter followers). And the margin for error in filmmaking is slimmer than ever.  You could cast any rising Disney Channel/Nickelodeon star, or an independent film darling.  Now go check out some of the Wade Watts auditions on YouTube and ask yourself…would you and your team comb through thousands of these to find an unknown star from Middle of Nowhere, USA or would you rather start going through your inbox packed with emails from Hollywood, USA’s top agents? Who is really going to sell this movie at the box office?

Now maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Cast It Talent wasn’t trying to tease thousands of unknown looking-for-stardom-actors and passionate RPO fans into subscribing to their services. Maybe it wasn’t a charade, even though the Tye Sheridan news conspicuously broke one day after the submission deadline for the open call. But it wouldn’t be the worst marketing move by Cast It Talent if their goal was to up their game in the ongoing exploitation of fledgling actors…and the Ready Player One PR team certainly earned a spike in internet traffic for their film.  Do I blame either of them? Absolutely not…I recognize that this is indeed show business.  But I feel Cast It Talent set out to prey on those who believe in the age-old lie of instant success; thousands, maybe even millions of people who believe they can just show up and carry a $100 million dollar movie without putting their nose to the grindstone.  It is no easy task and one I am happy to see Tye Sheridan take on.

I can’t wait for this movie!

Mind Groan: Cam Newton is a Bad Sport

I know…sports. Doesn’t seem like it belongs here but I will save the parallels-between-sports-and-the-arts-discussion for another time.  One thing I will say is that the biggest stages can bring out the greatest performances, while also highlighting incredible shortcomings of our society. And the NFL is a pretty big stage.

When a football game is on, I hear a lot about how great Cam Newton is for the sport.  Even if its not a Panthers game being watched, there would likely be a game-break with Cam Newton highlights of him flipping over linemen or something, the commentators saying how he plays with a smile on his face, an enthusiasm that is welcomed and makes things fun for all…but now the season is over. I kept quiet to see how things would play out and I hope we can all now realize that Cam Newton is a bad sport.  Like in Week 15 of the regular season…oh, did you think I was going to talk about THE Cam Newton press conference walkout of Superbowl L? Not quite…

When the Panthers were playing my NY Giants (who are by no means bastions of sportsmanlike conduct themselves) Carolina was up 35 to 7 towards the end of the third quarter. Giants quarterback Eli Manning threw an errant ball out of bounds towards the Panthers’ sideline and Newton rushed over to grab the ball and feign like he was picking off the play. Everyone had a laugh, commentators said how he plays with a smile on his face, an enthusiasm that is welcomed and makes things fun for all…and then the Giants tied the game 35-35 with 1:51 left in the fourth.  “But Cam wasn’t responsible for the defense’s mistakes that led to the Giants’ 28-point comeback.” You mean to tell me you don’t think a franchise player dropping his focus will cause his teammates to loosen? I will be the first to tell you…the 2015-2016 NY Giants were bad at football.  There was no reason for them to get anywhere near 35 points. As the saying goes, the game ain’t over til its over and that one was a close call that Panthers fans should have been irked by even after Graham Gano’s game-winning kick.

“But Cam is young, still learning and growing.” OK. To take the heat off him for a sec, when Richard Sherman trash-talked his way to fame after the 2013 NFC Championship, a lot of people rushed to his defense, claiming he was speaking his mind and reacting off the heat of battle. A year and a Superbowl ring later, I vividly recall Sherman on the sideline celebrating to camera after a seemingly key turnover against the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX as if the game was virtually out of reach for the Patriots. It awoke within me a stirring feeling, and then came odd satisfaction when I saw Sherman’s reaction to, you know…that play. And let me be clear I categorically hate the Patriots.

Now these two men are not all bad. I’ve seen Newton celebrate touchdowns with terminally ill kids. I’ve seen Sherman shake the hands of his adversary even after a loss.  But I’ve also seen a growing acceptance of their bad sportsmanship, writing it off as “Cam will be Cam” or “Sherman will be Sherman” as if success can justify showboating yet a loss brings little accountability, all in the name of passion.  As the pundits discuss the aftermath of an unsporting act, its an actual debate as to whether or not what they did was justified. There is no justification for bad sportsmanship, no matter how passionate an athlete may be.  Sure, mistakes can be made, players can go overboard but they should be acknowledged as mistakes and then we move on.

Now…where do we draw the line between genuine celebration and showboating? How can we distinguish hyping up one’s teammates vs. trash-talking? What is the acceptable limit of passion a professional athlete can display? Maybe this is a good guide…if a kid who looks up to these athletes did the exact same behavior, would it be OK for them to say to their coach “who are you to say that your way is right? I know who I am.”

Mind Groan: Steve Jobs Pulled from 2,072 Theaters

It is upsetting. Frustrating. So much so that I feel an obligation to begin an entirely new section of this site, one that contrasts my usually positive “Mind Blown” series. I don’t like to be negative but I cannot sit idly by whilst an injustice must be brought to light.  Thus we have our first “Mind Groan.”

When I saw Steve Jobs a couple weeks ago, I instantly understood why it got an awkward release despite the all-star cast, commercially successful writer/director duo, and the fact that it is just a damn good movie.  Everyone, including and especially Universal Pictures, was taking a huge risk by putting this film out there. It is not a standard biopic. In fact, writer Aaron Sorkin dislikes the association with that word…understandably so.  It is a magnificently written, superbly acted play that was filmed like a movie, that is based on real life people/events, combining Sorkin’s signature high-speed dialogue with a Chekhovian structure. And this is why it was pulled from over 2,000 theaters on Monday; it’s just too refined, too smart for the masses to handle.

“America is getting dumber.”

I’ve heard a lot of filmmakers from all sides of the camera, from each type of office chime this sad statement. And it’s just getting truer.  In a world of poorly written comic book movies and uninspired remakes, Universal tried to challenge audiences to reach a little higher for an intellectually stimulating experience centering around the man who touched the lives of every single person in the computer-using world and beyond.  I applaud their efforts, avoiding a straightforward rise-to-power story and opting for a unique structure in which the messages of the film are morally challenging and not spoon-fed. They tried to break the negative feedback loop we appear to be trapped in, a growing gap between the filmmaking community and the audiences for whom they create; as we try to make smarter and emotionally richer content, the masses demand less thoughtful work, at least according to the numbers.  There was hope in Straight Outta Compton, a film Universal distributed with Circle of Confusion as the production company.  But Steve Jobs was their earnest attempt to bridge this gap, and it backfired; costing $30 million to make, it has only drawn around $17 million according to the most recent box office results.  Universal has called retreat.  Making matters worse will be the enabling numbers of another Universal film, Jurassic World, which has pulled over $650 million domestic. Don’t even get me started…