October 19, 2006-- Not MyTube

Walking east last night across Greenwich Village after seeing the wonderfully lunatic Nixon’s Nixon, Dick and Henry drinking and praying and reminiscing together the night before Nixon resigned the presidency, two blocks ahead the sky was so brightly lit that it looked as if aliens had landed in Washington Square Park.

As Rona and I approached we realized that they were shooting scenes from the latest Will Smith movie. There were literally hundreds of technicians and grips and sound and makeup people racing around. The entire neighborhood surrounding the park was blockaded and there were vans and dressing-room trailers and catering trucks and generators all over the place. Will’s personal trailer was about a block long, had a raised roof on which there were three satellite dishes and with its pushed out sides the inner space must have been at least 1,500 square feet, much larger than almost all the nearby apartments. As if there weren’t enough real trees and bushes in the park, the set designers had added about a dozen artificial trees so as to turn the place into a virtual jungle.

We have a friend who is a feature film producer and from him we have a pretty good sense of the hourly burn rate for a major production. Let’s say in this case it was well into the hundreds of thousand of dollars per hour.

And to produce what? Something as good as Nixon’s Nixon? Your call.

So when I read the piece in today’s NY Times, “Why Old Media and Tom Cruise Should Worry About Cheaper Technology” (attached below), from last night’s experience I immediately understood. With exponential advances in computer-simulated “actors,” not only might “real” actors (if I can call him that) like Tom Cruise find themselves replaced by electronic images, and with so many people creating and airing what media folks call “content” via outlets such as YouTube, maybe Tom and his ilk’s days are ending. Minimally, they are likely to get something substantially less than their current $20+ million per picture.

So I checked YouTube this morning to see what’s in store for me in the post-Tom-Cruise Era.

Among today’s Featured Videos is one called “Power-Hungry Cop Takes Over Walter’s.” It runs for just 41 seconds, so it won’t take up too much of your time if you want to check it out. If you’re not inclined, below is how the video-maker describes it--

Great concert cut short: A few songs into Two Gallants' set at Walter's on Washington in Houston, an officer appeared on stage very near the mic. I then either made sure it was set to video or switched my digital camera to movie mode and hit record. The physical confrontation seemed to begin immediately after that and I quickly moved toward the stage to document the already surreal setting we were all quickly lost in.

According to police, the officer asked that the music be turned down. I was attacked and used his Taser in self-defense. I spent the better part of a day in jail because of that crazy cop.

Call me old-fashioned, but at the moment Will and Tom are looking pretty good. I am loving those Hollywood trees.