Hollywood Screentest has
restructured and refocused their goals, and it
excludes all areas I was involved in. Yeah, a pretty
massive restructuring. Basically, the technoogy that
they developed as far as submitting a "screentest" to
a website, will be a "service" they provide for other
sites. For example: if another site, say "NIKE.COM",
wants to run a contest where their readers submit
their own commercial, HST.com will provide the
inner-workings of that contest. A step-by-step set of
instructions that anyone can follow to get their
submisison onto the site. So Hollywood Screentest now
morphs into a small web-feature business? I guess
so.
Their first such "screentest" is
with TheDotCom Guy. Heard of him? A guy locked himself
in a room with a computer and 20 webcams on 1/1/00 and
has lived the whole year off the computer...bought
everything through the net and through sponsorships.
He actually legally changed his name to "dotcomguy" -
Anyway, he's coming out of the house on New Year's
Eve...and already has interviews lined up with Oprah,
the Today Show...and you will know this guy come
January. Hollywood Screentest will be running the
search for the new dot-com guy.
As I type this it certainly
seems strange to me. I'm not sure I truly understood
what the founder of Hollywood Screentest's original
dream was...though I'm pretty sure providing a service
to OTHER websites wasn't it. It seems like giving up
but holding on to SOMETHING. Who knows. Just a
theory...but as a dreamer this all seems wrong to
me.
My involvement of course is over.
The lack of syndicating shows knocks out 2 of my big
involvements. One of course Movie Minded, and secondly
my video editing work. Now the shows are still for
sale on isyndicate.com, and if someone buys it we
certainly won't turn 'em down...but things don't sell
by themselves, and they aren't pushing them. My
involvement in web design is completely over
because...well there's no web site anymore. It will
just be a page advertising what service they provide.
A one page thingee, and I think someone's creating a
little flash-animation for them. And my final
involvement was of course the MTV commercial,
which again fades away because there's nothing to
advertise anymore. What a shitty day - LOL. It seems
kind of wrong to have the grand prize for a contest
just - not happen...but what am I gonna do? Sue 'em?
Eric said he may fulfill the bargain by putting me in
a demo tape they may do with TheDotCom Guy. What this
really means is, we may need actors for our demo, and
we don't have to pay you because you won a CONTEST.
Weak indeed. It was a prize before because it
was national exposure...and I was still joking about
the fact it was just free work - NOW, it's not even
exposure. I am pretty glad I wasn't that excited about
it when I won though. Anything not judged on talent or
skill is a joke. It's pretty meaningless, and now it's
nonexistent.
I also bought a $1500
computer since my old one was DYING because of the
work from HST....so that sucks. Blew that money. It
works fine now that it's not being slammed so hard.
And the new monitor because video editing required so
much space. (sigh)
Well the true positive here, and
it is indeed a positive: if I hadn't met up with
HST in April, I would not be living in LA right
now. If you remember back in April I wrote the
infamous entry that was completely desperate and it
wasn't but 12 hours later that HST came to the rescue.
Providing me with the money that kept us in LA. And
now that Jess has a better job, this recent debacle
isn't as scary, it's just really disappointing. Man
this has just been an insane year for me. Can it
really continue like this? How many years can I live
another 2000? What will it do to Jessica and I? When
do I say it's been enough? I said 5 years
before, but 5 years of THIS? CHRIST. I like adventures
as much as the next guy, but this is just
nutty.
Ha! It's Friday the 13th...in
OCTOBER! That happened in 1989 too. I remember it
vividly...was that the last time? Let me check. Nope
1995. Anyway, as is always the case - big events this
year have happened on special days or special entry
numbers.
So back to square one, and trying
to find some computer work as I continue to push 4tvs.
Thank God I never sold those puppies.
Oh, and I made a
pretty cool
video for the
ocassion to the tune of "Say Goodbye To
Hollywood"...lol