Some thoughts about the similarities between Hollywood and Silicon Valley:

When I started my very first startup in the computer games business, way back in the mid 1980s and software was packaged in ziploc baggies and 5" floppies, I was living in Pacific Palisades, in this odd apartment building near the beach on Sunset Blvd. It was nestled between the Yogananda Lake Shrine and the world headquarters for Transcendental Meditation. For good measure, Carlos Castenada's power spot was reputed to be across the street. Such a New Age draw was too much for Hollywood flotsam, and would-be screenwriters, models and budding actors flourished. My next door neighbor was Chris Penn, down the hall were Ally Sheedy, Tina Gallegos (Miss L.A.), and a pantheon of wannabes. I was amazed that Shirley Maclaine didn't live in the building.

What's amazing about Hollywood, is that everyone - and I mean EVERYONE - was working on a screenplay. Well, except me. I was working on a videogame and a business plan. I figured that as long as I refused to write a screenplay, I was safe in L.A. I would never turn into one of those guys dressed in a black shirt and leather jacket, thanking Jesus for finally dragging my sorry ass into recovery, begging for five minutes with any studio executive who might have crossed his path, somehow managing to survive on nothing but hope and yoga.

What struck me was when my next door neighbor, Chris Penn invited me over, and I realized that his apartment was identical to mine, except that instead of programming on an IBM PC compatible, he had one of these new fangled Macintoshes. "What are you doing with that?" "Oh, writing a screenplay." Bang, it hit me. What we do is the same. We stay up all night, creating a vision, praying that someone besides us will believe in it, and eventually, it becomes something that is encoded in bits or captured on silver nitrate.

Well, eventually, the allure of Hollywood corrupted me, and I signed up for Robert McKee's screenwriting class, and banged out a sci fi screenplay. Even managed to option it to some small production company. But in the end, I knew it was time to leave... Silicon Valley was calling. So I packed up my bags and headed for something more solid and substantial than the Hollywood dream machine. It was the right decision for me -- I ended up selling a zillion copies of my various computer games, raised $20 million in venture capital over the years, etc etc. Yes, the recession really stung, but I have learned some valuable skills in high technology.

But over the years, I've realized that the road I took was not so dissimilar to the one I forsook. A screenwriter is very much like an fledgling entrepreneur/visionary, living on the good graces of the "angel" community for interim financing. And screenplays are like businessplans... 90% fiction and 10% hope. And VCs are just like Hollywood executives, who "suggest management team changes" instead of killing off your favorite characters and completely changing the concept of the film, have the power to invite you to lunch with them at the hotspots like Buck's in Woodside, and inevitably leave you in perpetual state of "almost greenlighted". And the cost of doing a deal with the "devil" is usually giving up control. Now, I have to say that most first time entrepreneurs really are crummy at being CEOs, but you know, sometimes they're better at it than the "world class CEO" that is brought in. Case in point: Steve Jobs.

Anyway, back to the analogy. Consider the tendency to fund too many online pet food companies or asteroid disaster films. Doesn't that "world class CEO" eventually act an awful lot like that "world class director" who completely revamps a script in his own image? Doesn't the writer/visionary/enterpreneur eventually get screwed 99% of the time? Are a few points of the net really the same as shadow stock that's underwater? Consider this: 50,000 screenplays are registered every year with the Screenwriters Guild, how many make it to theatrical release? 200? What's the track record for Silicon Valley? Of about 100,000 ventures that get funded by professional venture capital... how many make it to an IPO? In a good year, 200-300, right? Isn't the return on hope about the same?

Well, there's one fundamental shift that's changing both entrepreneurship and indy filmmaking. Indy filmmaking, empowered by low cost digital video solutions, is an awful lot like the explosion of Indian programmers - which has made it possible to spend $25,000 instead of $200,000 to code up a prototype of an idea. Now, you can actually shoot a feature film, and edit on Final Cut Pro, for maybe $300,000 instead of $3 million. This makes it possible, to profitably produce direct to video (I mean, IF you land a negative pickup deal), and even have a chance to DO IT YOUR WAY. Hollywood studio executives and VCs have a tendency to impact the vision... usually in a positive way for the venture or film, but often to the distress and aggravation of the screenwriter or visionary. Now, it may be possible to get a film made, that is true to the vision of the original writer.

So, I think that in the long run, Moore's Law will positively impact both high technology and filmmaking, as the Information Revolution continues to drive costs of bit-production down by an order of magnitude per decade.

Anyway, that's my two cents on the issue.

You know, I've been so busy that I simply haven't had time to think about my life. So I'm now taking a few minutes to do so now.

I gotta say, life is good. Complicated... but deals are happening, the energy of the world is resurging, love and pollen and change are in the air.

Professionally, the recession is lifting, and the possibility of growth and profit are once again alive and kicking like a newborn baby screaming to my absolute attention. My primary line of business is in corporate transformation, and things look pretty good. For example, I wrote the cover article for the forthcoming issue of a significant technology magazine, about this vision I have for the NEXT Internet, which I call the MetaNet. The editor loved it, but I have no idea how it'll go over with the hundreds of CEO's who are about to read it. But with a little luck, I'll be flying all over the world again, trying to talk a consortium of multinational corporations into making a billion bucks with me.

Also, I recently accepted a position as the Executive Producer for The Cameraphone Summit, the premier conference for the emerging cameraphone movement. The conference will be held on Maui in late April this year, and companies like Nokia and Hewlett Packard are sponsoring the event. Inside of this conference is the seed of a non-profit art project, called OneWorld/OneDay, where we'll attempt to get 1 million people to upload a photo of something or someone they love on Valentines Day 2005.

In terms of creative endeavors, I've accumulated some decent photographic equipment (camera, lighting kit, chroma key backdrops - stuff like that)... and have started doing a little art photography on the side. And later this month, I'm going to splurge on an expensive semi-professional "movie" camera, called a 24p film look camcorder, and will start shooting indy documentaries and stuff this year for fun.

This camera, the Panasonic DVX100, was used as the principal camera for the film November, that just won the best cinematography award at Sundance. Amazing, this kind of camera cost over $50,000 a few years ago, and can now be had for under $3000.

Also, I'm now finishing my book of poems, titled Dharma Baby, and am submitting it to various publishers.

I love this TV show called Angel. Damn good production values, acting and humor. And even though the show is going great, they cancelled it. Curious, I went to the Nielsen ratings, and found:

"ANGEL outpaced "The West Wing" on NBC, and "King of Queens" and "Becker" on CBS in the time period to rank #3 among persons 12-34 (2.3/7), women12-34 (2.6/7), men 12-34 (1.9/6), adults 18-34 (2.2/7) and men 18-34 (1.8/6). The series topped both NBC and UPN among women 18-34 (2.6/7). The program scored outstanding year-to-year gains in all key demos, including a +36% improvement in total viewers (4.3 million) and a +37% increase in females 12-34."

Angel is WB's #2 show and is beating West Wing. WB is renewing Charmed, but cancelling a show with a cult following. Now WHY would any network executive cancel one of its most popular shows... and what's more, something that might end up as a billion dollar franchise? Well, snooping a bit more, I found a religious right movement on the web that is trying to get Angel cancelled. Their petition reads:

"After the events of September, 11, America has been thrown into the realm of prophecy fore Jesus Christ, king of kings and son of God, will soon walk the Earth again. Because of this we ,who have created this petition, believe that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its spin-off "Angel" must be cancelled immediately or it will draw the wrath of Jesus upon us with the show’s endorsement of the use of magic and its philosophy of demon worship. From the very depths of our hearts and souls, we beg the staff of Mutant Enemy Productions and the WB and UPN networks to stop the show for the sake of posterity before our Lord scorches the land with plagues like the Land of Egypt."

I suspect that the WB is bowing to the religious right in its decision to cancel one of its most popular shows. All I can say is that I hope UPN picks it up!

--

Anyway, I found a forum where Joss Whedon logged in. This is what he had to say:

"joss says:
(Sat Feb 14 22:31:16 2004)

Some of you may have heard the hilarious news. I thought this would be a good time to weigh in. to answer some obvious questions: No, we had no idea this was coming. Yes, we will finish out the season. No, I don't think the WB is doing the right thing. Yes, I'm grateful they did it early enough for my people to find other jobs.

Yes, my heart is breaking.

When Buffy ended, I was tapped out and ready to send it off. When Firefly got the axe, I went into a state of denial so huge it may very well cause a movie. But Angel... we really were starting to feel like we were on top, hitting our stride -- and then we strode right into the Pit of Snakes 'n' Lava. I'm so into these characters, these actors, the situations we're building... you wanna know how I feel? Watch the first act of "The Body."

As far as TV movies or whatever, I'm not thinking that far ahead. I actually hope my actors and writers are all too busy. We always planned this season finale to be a great capper to the season and the show in general. (And a great platform for a new season, of course.) We'll proceed ahead as planned.

I've never made mainstream TV very well. I like surprises, and TV isn't about surprises, unless the surprise is who gets voted off of something. I've been lucky to sneak this strange, strange show over the airwaves for as long as I have. I don't FEEL lucky, but I understand that I am.

Thanks all for your support, your community, and your perfectly sane devotion. It's meant a lot. I regret nothing (except the string of grisley murders in the 80's -- what was THAT all about?) Remember the words of the poet:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn."

See you soon."