According to a study published by UCLA's Linguistic department, more than 80 percent of conversations in Hollywood include “in the industry” at several points.
The great majority of communication, both written and spoken, in the city known for drawing aspiring bartenders and servers from each geographic region of America include the phrase at the beginning, the end or several times mangled in the middle, author of the paper Professor Julius
Barnhoffer said. “Statistically almost every conversation spoken in Los Angeles, more specifically cafes and networking functions in Hollywood, will include the phrase at some point,” the academic said. “Sometimes it'll be at the beginning of a long winded diatribe or other times at the end of a rejection email.”
Although many assumed studio executives would account for a large percentage of the utterances, the research project discovered that usage of the phrase was spread out among participants with a range of exposure to the film business. From the pretentious art-house film audience member to the delusional “barback by day [although most work at night], screenwriter by night [although they never write]” to film producers behind on payments for their Mercedes, the phrase was commonly spoken.
The study, which reviewed various forms of communication in studios, dive bars and public restrooms, found the phrase pops up a third of the time at the beginning of a sentence, three times in sentences afterwards and at the end of a statement for dramatic effect. The professor and his team concluded that the exact placement and intended of the effect depended less on the credibility of the user, but was more correlated with the size of their ego and the length of their most recent wait time at Starbucks.
Barnhoffer and his team found that while some studio executives used the phrase during negations with licensed agents, esteemed scam artists like Eddie Kritzer and producers with limited connections were more likely to say “in the industry” while explaining their “career full of experience” in America's film industry.
According to the thousands of conversations reviewed, it was often employed by tardy producers with limited experience to rebuke writers and directors looking for their first break who expected professionalism or due diligence. They often implored the writers and directors to be more “collaborative” with their bank accounts and to see self-financing as an investment in their career to show confidence to the investors in “their network.”
“They'll often use 'in the industry' when shoveling work onto collaborators, explaining missed meetings and castigating professionals for not ignoring their day jobs,” the professor said.
The group is now working on a new study of the phase's appearances on screenwriting forums, where preliminary combines have discovered it's used exclusively by blowhard assholes.