By Laura Medina
It has been "brain trust" week all through this recent week.
It has not been your usual glam-slam Hollywood party.
It's of a different tier of Hollywood, the current Establishment who have ruled for so long and so consistently that no tidal wave of the popularity game can rock them off their ledge.
They are so secure in their position that hungry people hunt them down like rare truffles; and the Establishment knows it.
This is why, after so many years accumulating wear and tear of experience, they sense it is time to release their knowledge (what others call secrets) to the hungry masses, hoping they can apply it to people's own lives and careers.
First up is Brian Grazer. For the industry players and the wanna-bes and the struggling, he is the Man. A mainstream winner supplying the mainstream movie pipeline with sure-fire hits that becomes ready-steady classics such as "Eight Mile," " A Beautiful Mind,"" American Gangster,"" Apollo 13, "and "Frost/Nixon,"
A man of sure-fire bonafide hits, in both movies and television, that he is recently been appointed to head the Discovery Channel's new digital studio, New Form, with long-time producing partner, Ron Howard.
During an IVY Conference, jam-packed with hungry producers and aspiring industry players, what's his secret?
Curiosity.
In an ego-free, one hour-long lecture, Brian Grazer talked endlessly and sincerely about being curious and being interested in people is what spark him ideas and concepts for tv shows and movies, and how universal they can be.
If Deepak Chopra describes yoga as a practice (more on that later) then, Brian Grazer describes curiosity as a practice. It also might be his secret fountain of youth because he is the executive producer for FOX's hits and classics, "Empire" and "Arrested Development."
In this race-baited climate, Brian said being curious breaks down prejudice, stereotypes, racism, and ego, increases sympathy and empathy while it creates humility and relatability.
He used two examples to describe this mentality of getting to know people, "Eight Mile" and "American Gangster."
Way before "Eight Mile," Brian got really interested in rap that later morphed into hip-hop in its nascent stage during the early eighties. Back then, most disrespected it as a fad. The ones who respected it, put it in its place as a sub-culture. Not Brian, he sense it will grow big to transform mainstream pop music industry unto its own industry. He never call it a "sub-culture." Brian called it a "culture" and treated it as such.
He has been watching the hip-hop culture steadily as it grows until he heard Eminem. Brian Grazer dug deep in what make this cauasian kid get into a predominantly African-American genre and industry that most call and keep their own.
This is also linked to one of his most respectable failures, "American Gangster." It was about man who used American service planes to smuggle heroin (inside coffins of dead service men) from the Golden Triangle, into the United States.
Both films dealt with acceptance, respect, self-worth, and the lengths that people go through to attain and keep them. Deep universal themes that resonant, regardless of eras, decades, and audience, or market.
Sure, "American Gangster," may had been a flop out of the gate, but it's now a timeless classic.
Brian said and advise, if you get to know these people, your humanity and knowledge will expand.
He suggested that everyone has a thematic mission in life.
A hit movie or tv show should start out with an emotional destination with the foundation of the right director and actors; and it should be properly aligned, "Can you dream it or visualize it?'
Brian has the weariness, humility, humbleness, and the wisdom what constitutes a failure of a movie or a tv show: not thought out, not universal, no self-worth, no positivity, and no love.
As someone who has a steady and strong track record, Brian Grazer said this about having influence or power, "I don't like having power over people. I like having power to make stories and having power over self."
Yes, Brian Grazer will and does admit that Hollywood is an image town. What he calls "Cosmetic Identity"...and that's how he got his spiky hair.
Being in the shadow of his more popular producing partner, Ron Howard, Brian was actually going against the grain of the Eighties time. He wasn't a big, loudmouth macho guy like most producers. So, he didn't went with the prescribed hyper-masculinity of the beard, the mustache, and the testosterone-bodybuilding buff. Even though he hates exercise, Brian likes the result; and he can't grow a bushy beard if he tried.
In the early Ninties, he came out of the swimming pool, when his daughter exclaimed his spiky hair. It's been hair gel ever since then.
If you read his break-out book, "A Curious Mind," he interview and inquired Letitia Baldrige on the difference between manners and etiquette. Later on, in the book, he talks about the importance of curiousity in one's partner to keep the interst alive in a relationship.
Here's his take on what are manners and etiquette in a relationship.
"Manners are the love in the relationship. It's about whomever you're with, making them feel love and comfort." Etiquette is the hardware, the externalities of what manners are about."
Segue way into something much more deeper and scientific, the BOLD Mind and Body Conference started 8 o' clock in the morning with no-nonsense Deepak Chopra in the heart of Hollywood.
Right now at his institute, the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California, he and his research team are doing research on Bio Electric Magnetism. What we down-to-earth average people call, "vibes."
He is well-known for backing up spiritual teachings with scientific data.
Deepak Chopra, simply said and joked, "We are an Indian brain that speaks English."
This early-morning attentive audience listened to how we all communicate on a very deep inter-cellular communications because we all share the same DNA molecules and chemistry but it's the combinations that makes us physical unique but we are all made out of the same material.
What Deepak is talking about are "vibes."
In other words, if one's attitude or feelings or sincere, deep thoughts can be sent out on a molecular-cell level, it can be sent out and communicated, affecting those near-by, aka, "vibes."
Then, Deepak reached out then unknowingly tied to what Brian Grazer said about manners and etiquette in a relationship. Simply put, Deepak Chopra said that love is when two people are on the same wave-length. Love is felt on a deep inter-cellular molecule level, that goes beyond skin deep.
No comments:
Post a Comment