Considering how Hollywood is a business and has to be run as a business with millions of dollars at stake for each property, it’s a necessary evil. Unfortunately, control has shifted back to the studios to some capacity. Here we see the decline of studio controlled properties to a fundamental shift in directorial power and unbridled producer and writer muscle in an industry extremely resistant to change. The movers and shakers of this era, creatives that concocted some of the greatest films ever made, certainly never gave up, or gave an inch, in terms of sheer need to steer audiences in the directions they wanted. The specific mantra for this book is ‘never give up, no matter how crazy they think you are’. Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood may not be the first place you look for inspiration, but you don’t have to dig deep to find that examining the beginning, and end, of the massive change in Hollywood that occurred in the late 60’s through the early 80’s has much more to do with how we create and consume stories than we care to admit. Inspiration comes where you find it, often in places we least expect it. As much as you hear the mantra to ‘read as widely as possible’, the concept applies to non-fiction as well.

Easy riders raging bulls documentary