There’s a message in this film, and that message is this: Todd Simpson has no connections in Hollywood.
I suppose that should be apparent from the title of the film, but usually when someone takes the time to put together a film about travelling to the land where stars are made, the film is about how they succeeded, against all odds. Or, at least, how they failed in a wonderfully interesting or perhaps humorous way.
I’ll give Todd credit, he certainly chose to blaze his own trail.
Here’s the layout of the film. Todd goes to Hollywood to pitch a TV show called “Time Ace.” He doesn’t really tell us anything about this TV show, but he does present a computerized logo for it. Perhaps that’s as far as he got.
He visits the Warner Brothers lot, but they won’t let him in. He moves on to the Universal lot, but they won’t let him in there, either.
His friend, an animator for Disney, gets him onto the Disney lot. He removes his visitor badge and goes in search of the production house. When he asks to speak to someone in development, guards are called to escort him out.
Then Todd tells us what he learned – make sure you have a contact before coming out to Hollywood.
I can’t help but question the logic in making a film like this. I’ll confess that it’s edited pretty well, and in spots is mildly amusing, but I don’t know what you would do with a film like this. I have this internal vision of Todd making hundreds of copies of this video and sending it to every agent and studio in Hollywood, hoping that some random, high-ranking individual will see it, take pity on him, and call him in for a meeting.
I find it much more likely that anyone presented with the tape will have the same reaction I did – the best way to get onto a studio lot is to have a great story to tell. Unfortunately for Todd, this isn’t one.
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