Chris Fenton’s book “Feeding the Dragon” explains ways to proper the abilities

Posted by Thomas Shaw on April 22nd, 2021

I was reading a book entitled Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, and American Business by Chris Fenton and it produced me curious how points have changed inside the previous quite a few years. The time frame in the tail end of the 20th century to present day brought us unbelievable advances in almost everything we could consider, telecom and medicine being two shining examples. Nevertheless it also ushered inside the inevitable downsides of such advances - rapid off shoring of jobs, mega online retailers crushing local mom and pop shops. Get more information and facts about Chris Fenton

Probably one from the least noticed but most pernicious trends will be the rise from the Super Middlemen. They're the “experts”, without having whom nothing at all seems to acquire completed. They've grow to be an entire business, peopled with “professionals” that add nothing for the equation other than perpetually drive the require for other folks to work with their services.

Such will be the tale woven by author Chris Fenton in Feeding the Dragon, a posterboy for appropriations of other peoples work. It’s a book set against the backdrop from the extraordinarily profitable business of cultural exchange among Hollywood and China. It's this experience that Fenton purports to possess that's the basis for the book - a particular understanding that couple of people recognize. It is actually unique knowledge he somehow gleaned even though not speaking the language or spending significant amounts of time in China.

As such, super middlemen’s sole objective seems to become using the status as “expert” to grow to be gatekeepers to an entire industry or at the very least, parts of an industry. The best example of those new super middlemen can loosely be referred to as the “Hollywood Agent”, who can become movie producers without doing anything more than lunch.

The job of a Hollywood agent would be to introduce producers to studios or actors to directors - that type of factor. Inside the previous, it was limited to just that - introductions. Now, they invariably get in to the middle from the process, taking an active part in either the business or inventive process or each, adding extra layers to a deal which is commonly already a complicated process.

So, how is this feasible? Agents do not produce an original thought for a film or tv show. They do not write scripts. They do not direct or create the film, they don’t finance anything and they may be absolutely not actors, at the least not ones you see around the screen. They are inside a special position due to the fact the agent is representing a person or some thing that producers or studios want - an actor, director, script, intellectual property rights, etc. And this can be precisely exactly where they apply pressure and insert themselves in to the process. They know they can slow or even cease the intended project, siphoning off money devoid of producing a issue or assisting anybody apart from themselves. In quick, they proper others’ talent and labor to spend themselves.

Indeed, if you spend interest to credits on films you may have already been wondering why you'll find so many additional producers than there have been twenty years ago. The answer in one word, while maybe just a little oversimplified is: agents. They basically insert themselves into the deal and viola, just like magic, a run of your mill agent has come to be a producer, in spite of they brought nothing at all creative or financial towards the project. Hat, meet rabbit. That is possibly the cause more than the previous handful of decades we've noticed the number of producers on films jump from maybe 3 or 4 to ten, fifteen even twenty.

But back towards the book that triggered these observations. Released in 2020 and entitled, Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, and American Business by Hollywood agent, Chris Fenton is really a prime instance of an agent so lost in his personal inflated story that he truly chronicled it within a book.

The book is supposed to be concerning the US film studios and their dilemma with China on the subject of releasing American films there. In fact, it is actually a 270 web page egotistical journey, chronicling the author’s maneuvering to insert himself into the film making process. But his story is about far more than that; he implies each of the way via and in just about each and every circumstance that he was the guiding force behind each of the achievement the varying companies enjoyed.

The great people over at Terrible Book Club have read the book and have come to similar opinions, observing that the author “starts wanting to tie himself to greater people and events” at each opportunity. The term they use is “starfu**er”. They go on to say, “it seems like he only survived by becoming close to the people who in fact make the deals….”

Now, to become certain, he provides himself an out before the book even gets started. He says before chapter one:

Although I used substantial notes along with other source materials to detail events from lengthy ago, particular creative freedoms did come into play, possibly resulting in some inaccuracies. My career has focused largely in the movie business, exactly where “showing” as opposed to “telling” will be the norm. The quoted dialogue from real people all through the book was inspired by my recollection of every event and should not be taken as verbatim.

And just like that, he lets himself with the hook for every misstatement, exaggeration or complete fabrication.

In case you make a decision to read the book, study it carefully since there's many double speak where he maneuvers the reader to assume a lot of items inside the pages. For instance, he implies he made the dual release strategy for the Bruce Willis film Looper, with one version for China and a different for basic world release. He does not genuinely say he did it, and he most certainly didn’t do it, but he surely desires to leave the reader with that impression.

And Impressions appear to become what this book is about. So as to reinforce his expert credentials, he liberally lifts paragraphs from other published operates, which frequently leave the reader baffled. To again quote Terrible Book Club: “I don’t really need to read 3 paragraphs of an article about how cool you're within a book you are writing about how cool that you are.”

But he doesn’t cease there. He makes particular to tell the reader that he logged 140,000 air miles more than the course of a number of years, implying that that was all amongst the US and China….his second home as he calls it in the book. But other published reports say he was only in China a handful of times - absolutely not 140,000 frequent flier miles worth or adequate to justify calling it you’re second home. In attempting to make himself into an specialist, he admits he doesn’t speak Chinese. Surely, someone claiming to become an expert in the way a country goes about its business should be fluent in the language, must have lived there and know the people and its culture. But he has completed none of those items.

This brings in one more issue with agents or other so named “experts”. People can self-publish articles or press releases stating they may be an professional within a specific field. But like numerous issues on the internet, there’s no verification. You say “what’s the issue?” Nicely, none if you’re writing about the Red Sox bullpen prospects or why pencil sharpeners are exciting. But should you are claiming to become an professional on US / China Relations, your guidance can cause real problems simply because US / China relations are tense pretty much all of the time.

But back towards the book. Probably the silliest but most emblematic vignette issues the author when he was functioning as a waiter at Olive Garden. Once he figures out the system for upselling patrons and winning Employee in the Month twice(!), he declares himself “an Olive Garden God” (page 41). Drunk from the hubris of getting the Olive Garden God, he begins sneaking in to the restaurant walk-in refrigerator, ultimately stealing and consuming 273 tira misus.

But even as his manager fired him, Fenton spins the story in his favor, telling his future former employer methods he could boost his business. The boss looked at Chris and pondered this and mentioned, yes that sounds like a terrific thought, thank you Chris. Now does any one really think the incident occurred as written? Most will get in touch with BS but lots of are going to be left believing, “he really is often a fantastic guy”. In spite of the reality he’s a thief and likely a self-assurance man.

And there you've got it: in typical agent fashion, one gets caught undertaking one thing bad and embarrassing, the story gets spun into an accomplishment. Bravo!

Immediately after the Olive Garden incident, Fenton tells us, he started his career in the film sector as an agent in the prestigious William Morris Agency. Right after a thriving tenure there he moved on to DMG Entertainment, a global entertainment company that created such films as Iron Man 3 and Looper. He worked for that company for seventeen years where he attained the position of President of North American Films.

This can be what he tells us in his book though journalist Andrew Rossow, Esq. did a bit of investigating. Based on Rossow, this can be the actual story: Fenton did get a job at William Morris where he was fired. The reason Fenton offers is that he was as well good a guy. Which means, he will not tell us why he was actually fired. Subsequent, he got a job at MBST. There, he was fired for cause, reportedly for attempting to steal clientele from the company. His entire tenure at MBST is mysteriously entirely absent from his book. When a thing is fully left out of an autobiographical book, one has to suspect the worst.

Subsequent, Fenton began to accomplish freelance work as an agent for employ, his primary client becoming DMG Entertainment. There, He worked as a free agent on and off for numerous years until they ultimately hired him. His time employed there was for five years not seventeen. He was subsequently let go from that company and is now embroiled inside a million dollar lawsuit for fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligence.

And, there you may have it, the life and profession of a Hollywood agent now, somehow, a china professional.