I sat in a meeting today with these, for lack of a better expression, Austin yahoos. It was weird to have witnessed. They were sort of posing as filmmakers but if you looked under the hood, they appeared to be nothing more than advertising agency dudes. Poseurs. Slick Product Magnates. It’s sad to see craft elevated to the ‘first position’. Maybe ‘attempted’ is a better (more hopeful) term. Maybe that mindset exists in Austin because it wants to be ‘known’ as a film town. It’s origins are Robert Rodriguez and his links to the Disney kid films he was paid to direct. Can’t think of the titles but they were much more about product than passion. I’ve known film editors that have moved to Austin with the expectation of being in the film biz only to find out that there is a film business, but its so small it only feeds the top three or four in food chain. Oh. The editor dudes that moved here? They all work for the advertising agencies. It reminded me of the Charlie Kaufman lecture — Pop-Tarts and iPad factories. The dudes at the beginning of my story were going on about a film they’d done for Nike. Kaufman said, these guys — (like) Nike — “have become the high priests of our culture. Our Dads.” It reminded me that he said he’d seen these ads (for Nike) and could be driven to tears by them… Theres nothing wrong with making a living but when the line between fine art and craft blurs. That sucks. Because not everyone has the perspective to recognize it and it becomes a very real possibility for downward cultural spiral.
These dudes were dressed in what I’d call “Austin au courant” but I kept wondering why weren’t they in suits? Their mindset(s) were… It must have been a game.
It’s weird being a human.