There has been a turf war going on in Hollywood between the “creative types” and the business executives or “suits” for far longer and with sometimes more cataclysmic consequences, than the one between the “Crips” and “Bloods”.

The suits never seem to grasp the vision of the creative types and therefore can seldom justify spending money on their respective vision, and the creative types never understand why the suits won’t just write the check and leave them alone.

In the early days of Hollywood (1920’s – 1950’s) this was much less prevalent a problem because the studios had contracts with the creative talent including actors, writers and producers so they theoretically “owned” the talent so talent did what they were told.

Once the studio system broke down in 1954, talent gained control over their careers, their projects and their pay; this event revolutionized the industry and so began the era of talent agents and managers.

Meanwhile, back in the Ivory Tower, the suits were going insane. They had virtually lost all control and within a year it seemed that the inmates were running the asylum. Eventually, things began to sort themselves out but the fallout from the “big bang” still reverberates within the industry to this day.

Today, although the “studios” no longer control the industry, a far greater force does; the conglomerates.

These conglomerates, often referred to as “The Big 5” include; Sony, News Corporation (20th Century Fox), Time Warner (Warner Bros.), Viacom (Paramount) and NBC/Universal.

As a result of what can only be described as a gradual yet perpetual hostile take-over of the entire Hollywood entertainment apparatus, most major decisions regarding which television shows we watch or which films make it into theatres are made by the heads of these conglomerates.

The decision to “green light” a project is based upon the return on investment that investors will recoup; that return depends largely on who is starring in the film. In many cases, the quality of the material and/or the story barely makes the top- ten criteria for green lighting a project.

Over the past several years Hollywood has noticed a surge in the emergence of independent films. Many of these films have not only won over audiences but have shattered previous box office records in the indie film world.

Perhaps two of the best examples of this are 2007’s “Little Miss Sunshine” which had a production budget of $8 Million dollars and grossed over $100 Million to date and 2008’s “Juno” had a budget of $6.5 Million dollars and as of May, 2008 had reached an unprecedented $255 Million dollars in worldwide sales.

So the line between creative types and suits continues to blur.

The independent film world is fighting hard to keep the “indie” spirit alive and prevent the big green monster from swallowing it whole. Independent film makers struggle to remain autonomous; doing so, however, requires money, lots of it.

What the entertainment industry needs, at least in my own humble, albeit experienced opinion, is a massive paradigm shift towards left-brain, right brain convergence. The next generation of film makers, producers and executives not only have an obligation to work towards such a shift, but an opportunity to make a significant “positive” impact throughout the industry by heeding the call to do so.

Sometimes, all we have to do is take our own egos out of the equation long enough to listen to what the other side is saying and visa-versa.

Who knows?

Maybe someday we will actually hear each other and make a difference.