Politics is downstream of culture

[HTRN]

Anyone planning a move to a red state?

*HTRN waves at blackeagle*

[blackeagle603]

/heh/

[Jericho941]

...Charlie Chaplin?

This is news to you?

Anything worth limping him in with the others? Yes.

[Greg]

...Charlie Chaplin?

This is news to you?

Anything worth limping him in with the others? Yes.

I've heard about the telegram. Was there more? Because if it was just the telegram, there were a lot of people there when he sent it....

[Aesop]

I'm sure his life and even death were before your time, but for nearly 20 years, he was virtually persona non grata in the US, self-exiled, and widely regarded as a communist based on his expressed politics and activities from 1940-1952.
Being English by birth, siding with Russia at the height of the Cold War, and telling people his politics at the end of The Little Dictator were decidedly not career-enhancing moves in an era when the public didn't tolerate a clown trying to play Hamlet.

Idiots like Clooney, Damon, and Penn have it far easier these days.

[Greg]

I'm sure his life and even death were before your time, but for nearly 20 years, he was virtually persona non grata in the US, self-exiled, and widely regarded as a communist based on his expressed politics and activities from 1940-1952.
Being English by birth, siding with Russia at the height of the Cold War, and telling people his politics at the end of The Little Dictator were decidedly not career-enhancing moves in an era when the public didn't tolerate a clown trying to play Hamlet.

Idiots like Clooney, Damon, and Penn have it far easier these days.

I just knew he was a Stalin cheerleader. I don't do Hollywood inside baseball. I also knew that there were a lot of Stalin cheerleaders (like Orson Welles and Katherine Hepburn, IIRC) who were present for one (famous?) incident of Chaplin actually cheering for Stalin directly, and we don't customarily spit when we say their names.

So I was wondering if there was more. Thanks.

[Aesop]

There was also a paternity trial, which he lost, followed by marrying a woman 36 years younger.
At a time when neither of those things were seen by American audiences of the 1940s and 50s as behavior to emulate.

He basically invented every way to F*** up your film career by the numbers, did them all, then left America in disgrace after his popularity was near Obama levels.
Choosing Robert Downey Jr. to play him (rather brilliantly) in the biopic of his life was eerily prescient on many levels.

[Mike OTDP]

It seems to me that with modern consumer cameras able to shoot stabilized HD video, and YouTube as a distribution system, somebody could do some very good pieces - and make enough of a reputation to get funding for something bigger.

WRT fiction films and TV, I think it worthwhile to point out several things.

1. Concept matters most. If the basic concept doesn't lend itself to making a lot of episodes (or one Big Story), you've got a one-trick-pony.

2. Scripts matter next. Good writing solves a lot of problems.

3. Acting matters third.

4. Production values come last.

If you want an example, allow me to recommend the original Star Trek series. Rather cheap (if pricey) production, but decent acting, extremely good scripts, and a rock-solid concept. It's a license to print money.

One other point...don't get too preachy - unless you are doing a straight history piece. In which case all bets are off. And there are some good "controversial" history pieces...like "Why FDR's screw-ups prolonged World War 2 by six months", or "Woodrow Wilson - Tyrant or Fool?"

[Aesop]

Which is exactly how it's working in real life so far.

The point now is, there's no one getting between content makers and the audience and saying "No, you can't do that.", whether it's books or movies.
There's also no safety net if you screw up to "fix it in post", or editorially tweak it.

If you want to play with the big boys, you have to make it under big boy rules.

But the cost of making a movie or writing a book is your time, electrons, and the price of a laptop or an HD camera at BestBuy.
There is thus no reason not to play anymore.

[blackeagle603]

to wit, "My Date with Drew"

Done on a credit card, and returned the camera inside 30 days for a refund before the credit card bill came due.