There are tens of thousands of people working in Hollywood, and just as many stories of how people “make it” in their chosen professions. Usually, though, it’s the movie stars and a few of the top directors who get all the attention and the stories written about their pasts.Now, just as Below the Line strives to provide insights into the lives of the hardworking, imaginative crew members who really make the magic happen on movie sets, author Vivien Kooper has attempted to shine a light on what breaks open the doors to below-the-line careers. The resulting tome, Making Hollywood Magic: Secrets of Studio Work offers up more than 200 pages of tales from veterans at all levels of the industry.The good and the bad side of the book are one and the same, as it offers its tales in informative and fun yet too-breezy anecdotes that are mostly three pages each. The result is that a reader can learn a little bit about a whole lot of different jobs—from drivers to prop masters to construction coordinators to everyone in between.Thus, this might make a great book for a newcomer considering a job in the industry yet unsure of which path to take. But for those who have already been carving out an on-set career, it’s more a book where they can read about their peers and perhaps find the spark for a further conversation, but not enough to provide more than that kind of novelty.
Written by Carl Kozlowski
