On The Bookshelf: HOMEMADE HOLLYWOOD

Right, kids, a little soemthing for the book shelf here: Clive Young's Homemade Hollywood. Got any interest in the fan-film movement at all? Then this is the book for you, a comprehensive survey not only of the origins and key films of the movement - which by Young's reckoning goes back at least to 1926 when con men shot an unauthorized entry into the Our Gang series - but also a look at the impulses behind it, key figures along the road and Hollywood's attempts first to block, and then to co-opt it. It's a pretty fascinating read, one that balances scholarship - the man knows his stuff and backs up his sources extensively - with entertainment value and gives a solid inside look into what would possess someone to spend thousands of dollars of their own money to shoot those short films that you watch for free on YouTube.