在路的尽头，行驶3940公里后，是加利福尼亚州圣莫尼卡海滩。但真正的目的地是好莱坞，那里的神话已失去部分光彩。夏末时节，游客挤满好莱坞大道，那里有廉价的景点和不可避免的杜莎夫人蜡像馆，游客们在星光大道上与他们最喜欢的明星的星星合影，尤其是迈克尔·杰克逊。克里斯托弗·诺兰的《奥德赛》以70毫米IMAX放映，感觉像是回到了1960年代的辉煌，当时好莱坞制片厂向世界输出大片。
At the end of the road, after 3,940 kilometers, lies Santa Monica Beach, California. But the real destination is Hollywood, where the myth has lost some of its luster. In late summer, tourists crowded Hollywood Boulevard, with its tacky attractions and the inevitable Madame Tussauds wax museum, posing for photos next to the stars of their favorite celebrities on the Walk of Fame, Michael Jackson in particular. Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, screened in 70mm IMAX, felt like a return to the splendor of the 1960s, when its studios flooded the world with blockbusters.
但步行15分钟之遥，在日落大道另一边，斯凯亚·西奥巴尔德提供了一幕幕幕后景象。在一家高档泰国餐厅里，人们谈论电影就像在旧金山谈论科技一样，这位24岁的年轻人讲述了她西行的经历。离开故乡纽约后，西奥巴尔德梦想征服这座城市，就像中东欧犹太移民当年在几乎只是橘子林的洛杉矶创办制片厂一样，那时66号公路甚至还不存在。其中包括华纳兄弟、威廉·福克斯、阿道夫·祖克（派拉蒙）、路易斯·B·梅耶（米高梅）和卡尔·莱姆勒（环球）。
But a 15-minute walk away, on the other side of Sunset Boulevard, Skya Theobald offered a behind-the-scenes look. In an upscale Thai restaurant, where people talk about movies the way they talk about tech in San Francisco, the 24-year-old recounted her journey west. Having left her native New York, Theobald dreams of conquering the city, as Jewish immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe once did when they founded studios in a Los Angeles that was little more than orange groves, before Route 66 even existed. Among them were the Warner brothers, William Fox, Adolph Zukor (Paramount), Louis B. Mayer (MGM) and Carl Laemmle (Universal).
但一切已不再相同。她向我们展示了自己参演的影片。如果能称之为影片的话：第一集时长两分零六秒。它主要设计在智能手机上观看，共59集。“这些集数非常短，几乎每集都有新的反转。由于人们的注意力持续时间缩短，每个人都不停地盯着手机，目标是迅速抓住注意力，然后通过快速连续的事件带来的多巴胺快感来保持注意力，”西奥巴尔德说。
But nothing is the same anymore. She showed us the film she had acted in. If you can call it a film: the first episode lasts two minutes and six seconds. It is meant to be watched mainly on a smartphone, across 59 episodes. "These are very short episodes, with a new twist in almost every one. Since our attention spans have shrunk and everyone is constantly glued to their phone, the goal is to grab attention very quickly, then hold it with the dopamine hit you get from a rapid string of events," Theobald said.
1950年代制片厂制作的90分钟影片已让位于这些给智能手机成瘾者的短篇作品，有时被称为微短剧。这项工作是非工会的，因此报酬低，由公司ReelShort在一周内拍摄完成。
The 90-minute film studios churned out in the 1950s have given way to these vignettes for smartphone addicts, sometimes called microdramas. The work is non-union, and therefore poorly paid, and was shot in a week by the company ReelShort.