Entourage

After reading Negus, I thought about a storyline in the HBO series Entourage. For those who have not seen it, it is about four guys that go to Hollywood to make it big. “Vince” is the star, his brother “Drama” hits it in TV, “E” is the business manager, and “Turtle” is basically the gopher. Vince does a period piece that was short on budget. He felt very strongly about the movie, but it turned out to stink. His PR person and agent tried to sell the movie by its trailer, which was beautifully done.

When Negus talks about “suits” I think of Vince’s agent selling producers an idea that was outside of the actual creativity (or lack of it) that Vince and the director believed the movie obtained. It seems that without actually being a creative force, the “suits” in this instance were able to create a product that other thought they needed or wanted. The movie did sell, but Vince did not have a "suit" to write a contract. After the movie was viewed, the buyer pulled out.

When I think about advertising (including movie trailers), I imagine a group of people brainstorming on how to present products to the public. I am not sure they are all authors, but I do believe they are all part of a creative force. I think they are masters of the language and I think they do have a hand in creating values within cultures (what is beautiful, healthy, popular, etc). Which in itself is art.