Discontinuity

“Change is the only constant,” Heraclitus

Waves of change have buffeted the film industry ever since the first scrappy producers fled New York — and Thomas Edison’s patent police — early in the 20th century to set up camp in Hollywood, where land was cheap, snow scarce, and sunshine abundant. They made the most of their new home, and although a few early movie stars rode the outhouse-to-penthouse roller coaster right back to the gutter, the industry prospered.¹

The first revolution to hit the new Hollywood was the introduction of sound, which ended the careers of those who couldn’t adapt to the new reality.² Another casualty was the visual sophistication silent films had achieved, using exceptionally fluid camera movement to refine and expand the scope of cinematic language. The noisy cameras of the time needed to be encased — sometimes with the cameraman — in huge sound-proof enclosures, rendering them essentially immobile, while the bulky microphones that made “talking pictures” possible were hidden on set in ways that hindered the actor’s ability to move.

Photo courtesy of Cine Collage

This led to ponderous movies — lots of talk and little action — until quieter cameras and better sound recording equipment were developed, bringing motion back to the screen.

Filming on location with a blimped camera and carbon arcs at the LA Arboretum, 1944

As the technology improved, so did the movies, ushering in the first Golden Age of Hollywood as the studio system achieved a new level of stability … but not for long. After courts ended the lucrative vertical monopoly studios had long enjoyed, another revolutionary technology — television — began to compete for audiences, forcing studios to produce vastly more expensive cinematic spectaculars to keep theaters full and profits rolling in. Making movies has always been a risky business, but putting more eggs in fewer baskets raised the stakes to the point where a single flop could threaten a studio’s survival. The final nail in the coffin of the old studio system was driven by an influx of young writers and directors using newer, more compact cameras and lighting equipment to make radically different movies that captured the imagination and ticket-buying dollars of their generation.

It turns out Heraclitus knew what he was talking about.

The waves of change keep coming, with the ongoing digital revolution now turning Hollywood upside down, not only changing the way work is done on set, but undermining the economic foundations of the industry in a major way. The new technology, rapid proliferation of international financial incentives (read: bribes), and lower labor costs overseas led productions to shoot offshore, leaving much of the below-the-line workforce in LA — and the rest of the U.S. — high and dry.³ Although I rode the boom-and-bust roller coaster through some serious bad times during my forty years in Hollywood, I never experienced anything like what’s happening now.

All of this was on my mind when an aimless trek through the wilds of Substack brought me to No Soul, No Dark Nights, by screenwriter Dean Bakopoulus. Although it was written more than two years ago (well before the current political insanity), it sums up what’s haunting so many people in — and beyond — the film industry these days:

“I found ‘discontinuity’ to be the perfect way to describe how so many people are feeling right now, whether they’re worried about climate change, or something more immediate, like heartbreak, or a layoff, or any rejection of some key part of themselves by a force they cannot control. Discontinuity is a moment where the experience and expertise you’ve built up over time cease to work. It’s extremely stressful, emotionally, to go through a process of understanding the world as we thought it was, is no longer there… There’s real grief and loss. There’s the shock that comes with recognizing that you are unprepared for what has already happened.”

I avoid politics on this site in favor of concentrating on the film industry — my lived experience was in Hollywood, not the corridors of power in Washington D.C. — but I encountered that paragraph as the current regime began taking a wrecking ball to the institutions of government so many Americans have relied on for many decades. Although there’s much dust, chaos, and confusion at the moment, one thing is clear: we’re transitioning to a very different world. This new reality has rocked millions here and abroad as they wonder where all this disruption will lead, and although history suggests that we’re sliding toward a very dark place, nothing is yet cast in stone. There’s still time to stem the tide, although rebuilding what’s been broken won’t be quick or easy. Meanwhile, much of the country and beyond has joined Hollywood in being traumatized by uncertainty and fear. It’s not a comfortable feeling.

I won’t pretend to know what’s coming — for Hollywood or our country — but it’s safe to assume we’re in for what the Chinese refer to as “interesting times.” Indeed, we’re already there, so buckle your seatbelts, people: wherever you are and whatever you do, it’s gonna be a very bumpy ride.

1. See: Fatty Arbuckle

2. John Gilbert was among many famous actors who didn’t survive the transition to sound.

3. A “perfect storm” of factors contributed to this, including Covid, which stopped the industry dead in the water, after which strikes by writers and actors shut things down. The subsequent contraction by the major streaming entities led to massive unemployment in Hollywood at a time when the high cost of housing makes it difficult for single-income families of film industry workers to survive, let alone thrive.