Connections

If you want to work in Hollywood, and if the way it tends to be depicted in most media is true, I think you would need to rethink your stance on the matter and just quite possibly make an exception to the particular field.

Otherwise I kinda agree with you, I personaly don't like to use my connections if the benefit is purely mine. The feel of using people purely as a means to an end is not one I enjoy too much. Of course I would be inclined to look otherwise if I'm jobless and looking for something to pay rent with.

So yeh, back to Hollywood, it does always sound that in the industry there, it really is about who you know, and what you may possibly know about them

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Thing is sprouticus, the way I would look at it in your situation is even though you get something because of your connections, if the end result of the work that you did is shit, it woun't really matter so much about your connections afterwards because people aren't great fans of taking risks all the time.

However if your end work is of good quality it should build reputation for you by itself (obviously if it gets decent exposure) and I would argue that it isn't such a hollow victory.

There's nowhere I can't reach.