Is movie and TV production in LA dead? Visited a friend who says he's in the business, but all he does is film commercials and advertisement slop for web brands. They're not even international campaigns. He seemed really excited, but made it seem like he was working with Spielberg and going to be the next Tarantino when I would text him. I helped on one of the sets and it was all redundant and stupid but they all acted like they were cool professionals working on a big project. The models were hot though, but not actual union actresses so that's how I knew he was full of shit when he said it was a big advertising campaign. Do all low level film people have their head up their ass like my friend?
Yes actually, the higher up you go in the industry the less people tend to speak or want to be there. In regard to your friend, he seems to be on the right track. Advertising of any kind you have to be wired a certain way to continue to get contacts and work. The schmooze is real. I worked on a multi-day commercial and all the advertising agency would talk about is the fact they're using the same cameras and DP Transformers used (he worked on 2nd unit for 2 days).