Hollywood is in transition. It has entered the digital age. Hollywood's social leaders of the last 40 years are now all over 60, with some in their 80s. Six decades of younger professionals sit below them, succeeding in a corporate and digital world, wary of inheriting the social baggage of the radical "Hollywood Liberal", but extremely motivated to affect change. They number in the thousands and their power is at its peak as a group rather than as individuals. They are looking for the corporate version of marching down the streets. And they are needing an organization that can take advantage of the digital world's new technologies, sciences, and information to truly change the world. Welcome to the answer.
Technology and science are changing our world in ways we could have never imagined. Technology provides us unprecedented capability, and with that capability comes extraordinary responsibility. We live in a world of human cloning, biodegradable plastic, and ubiquitous instant communication.
The tools available to effect change are evolving at an ever-increasing rate. Today, there is a genetically-modified bacterium that eats sewage and emits fuel-grade hydrogen, a tiny machine that converts cow manure into energy to charge batteries, and open-source translation software that enables Swahili-speakers to use Microsoft office. Every day brings with it hundreds of innovations from around the globe.
Our ability to communicate and share information has also changed. Whether its email, instant messaging, worldwide video-conferencing, RSS feeds, podcasting, video-on-demand, or satellite TV and radio, we can be ubiquitously connected. It's only a matter of time until pervasive computing is realized and information is continuously available unrestrained and unwired.
In short, the agrarian age yielded to the industrial age, which now has been replaced by the information age. We've shifted paradigms and tangible inventory is replaced with intangible assets. With the digital economy upon the rate of exchange, the rate of change, and the power of impact shift the paradigm making Star Trek like imaginations commercial and social realities. The new century brings with it tremendous threats and tremendous gains, mostly all human-made. But with it, our ability to affect change has exploded, and not a moment too soon.
The threats we, as societies, face require high-impact, large-scale solutions. Mini-Nukes, Avian Flu, Bio-Weapons, Human Engineering, Global Warming, and a Global Energy Security are just a few of the most obvious dangers threatening to wreak devastation of holocaustic proportions. This is complicated by widespread global poverty and disease, a war of civilizations, ocean pollution, totalitarian regimes, cyber-terrorism, and the threat of a global financial disaster, and it's not a pretty picture.
But it is a picture we can improve. In this shifting world, the entertainment industry in general, and Hollywood in particular has become one of the most powerful social influences. Hollywood has one of the largest creative communities capable of reaching the billions of individuals daily. Hollywood has matured into a business savvy industrial complex complete with large financial resources, tremendous influence, and yet a strong sense of social responsibility. Combine all of these characteristics, and one has a high-powered catalyst for change.
The entertainment industry, and again, Hollywood in particular, has a charter to entertain and to provoke the imagination, raise awareness, present controversy, catalyze reflection, thought, and discussion, and in so doing, Hollywood has come to recognize that it has the responsibility to advocate and catalyze global responsibility. Like the free press but packaged in a manner to achieve its charter, Hollywood has the capacity to be a catalyst for social change. And we've witnessed ad-hoc efforts over the years. Now, the power of a digital economy presents an opportunity for a more orchestrated effort. To be effective in this new order, Hollywood needs a new organization. Its requires a sophisticated, highly-efficient adaptable infrastructure that can leverage thousands of Hollywood's skilled professionals, raise their awareness of issues, and organize initiatives and projects managed and completed by professional managers. What Hollywood needs is a combination of a think-tank, an event facility, a media production studio, a technology innovation lab, and a multi-pronged fundraising operation to provide the kind of self-sustaining social change machine to achieve the desires of Hollywood to effect global responsibility.
Sounds like a bit much? Not as much as you might believe. We've spent two years designing it, and now we're building it.
We recognize that Hollywood's professionals are very smart creatives and are used to juggling multiple projects at any given time. It is not abnormal then that they would approach social activism in the same way. Multiple interests lead to multiple issues, which lead to multiple projects. Therefore, rather than choosing long-term projects that take years to achieve results, The Hollywood Hill focuses on being the tipping point or catalyst for causes. Issues are selected, problems are analyzed, and solutions are crafted based on shorter-term goals that can have a tipping point effect. The organization's members can maximize their impact by harnessing their immense resources and having a laser-like focus that pushes causes onto higher ground.
Such an ambitious project is not for the faint of heart. It's for those who understand the days of Save The Whales are over. Affecting change in a global community controlled by many far-reaching power centers requires having a solid foundation, a self-sustaining model, and serious talent and resources. It also requires a new mode of thinking... a hybrid approach, based on proven techniques, but adapted to a new marketplace with new tools.
Lawrence Bender, Producer/Partner, A Band Apart
Mark Canton, Chairman/CEO, Atmosphere Entertainment
Victoria Hopper, Political Consultant
Arianna Huffington, Editor-In-Chief, The Huffington Post
Mike Medavoy, Chairman/CEO, Phoenix Pictures
Larry Winokur, Co-Founder/CEO, BWR Public Relations
Callie Khouri, Director/Writer
Scott Ross, Digital Entertainment Pioneer; Founder & Former Chairman/CEO, Digital Domain
Frances Arnold, Founder, Gevo; Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry, CALTECH
Philip Coyle, Senior Advisor, Center for Defense Information
David Howe, Managing Director & COO, Civitas Group
Babak Razi, Founder/Partner, Third Wave Ventures
Alex Steffen, Co-Founder, WorldChanging.com
Jonathan Zittrain, Co-Founder, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard; Chair, Internet Governance, Oxford
Ethan Zuckerman, Fellow, Berkman Center, Harvard
Lawrence Bender, Film Producer
Scott Z. Burns, Film Writer / Director / Producer
Nadia Conners, Film Writer / Director
Susan Bonds, President & CEO, 42 Entertainment
Doug Church, Independent Game Producer
Mark DeLoura, Independent Game Producer
Dave Durnil, Director of Engineering, Software Strategy and Multimedia Ecosystem Group, Qualcomm Inc.
Robin Hunicke, Producer, thatgamecompany
Stone Librande, Creative Director, Maxis (EA); Lead Designer, Spore
Adam Sussman, VP Worldwide Publishing, EA Mobile