The Best Boy Diaries is a nonfiction novel about my integration into the Hollywood "studio system" (this is much more of an enigmatic misnomer than the phrase implies). Anyone who works in the professional motion-picture film production industry in Los Angeles knows exactly what I am talking about. For the rest, nothing short of a decade-long adventure told in 80,000 words or less could suffice.
What began as a journal to augment my writing skills and explore my experiences on the set as I learned about the business (years later) became a refuge from the audacity I would daily endure. I tried to put it together on paper, because in my head it didn't seem to make much sense. Just a year out of NYU film school and I was working on some of the more popular television shows and big-budgeted features, as I escalated through the ranks as a lighting technician.
That's where it all starts for this kid from New York City with stars in his eyes as he arrives in California ready to start a life previously imagined in the movie business. The experiences, tribulations and pitfalls which would follow accompanied by the characters of this new culture inevitably shaped up as an interesting and compelling story.
It wasn't until so many years later as I took a hiatus from the business that I decided to reconstruct my personal and professional journey as a novel. Although I temporarily left the business, I never abandoned my lofty aspirations to produce and direct the few films I had conceived, some of which were in the early stages of being written.
My encounter with a Madison Avenue literary agency that was interested in The Best Boy Diaries suddenly became an impregnated stalemate due to the state of the nation. As they were reviewing the materials, the 9/11 terrorist attacks on The World Trade Center froze the public consensus as a nation looked on at the devastation in shock. When the novel was finally returned with some outstanding praise for it's honesty and wit, it was obvious their focus (and that of publishers) was elsewhere.
Upon returning to the Hollywood scene, I kept witnessing the same creative stumbling block that had sent me astray. People were doing redundant things, getting paid extraordinary amounts of money to do it. It appeared that the art and craft of filmmaking was being replaced by an economic ruler. There are exceptions, but that is pretty much the way it seems from the sidelines.
After enduring more episodes of rehash, It became evident to me that the truth I was witnessing was more interesting than many of the stories being told. As the face of the entertainment business now radically changes, the importance of The Best Boy Diaries becomes more evident as an enduring chapter of the chronicle of this great screenland known as Hollywood.
While I work out the details and further establish the site map, I have now posted the text in its entirety in hopes of getting some feedback and publicity. If you have any ideas or reviews, please let me know what you think...