InsaneJournal

hershey.

He's the biggest film snob in town and he makes sure everyone knows it. The Milk Duds studied film in college and is now a successful film critic for the local newspaper, but sometimes it's hard for him not to bring his work home. He's constantly critiquing everyone's taste in movies, cramming his opinions down their throats. He's also practically a walking IMDB, able to tell you who starred in or directed any given movie, rattling off quotes and trivia.

general info.
NAME: Cameron William Stafford.
NICKNAME: Cam.
BIRTHDATE & AGE: August 2, 1973 / Thirty-five.
OCCUPATION: Film Critic for The Hershey Chronicle.
HOMETOWN: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

history.
Chances are that if you've seen a film in the past six months, Cameron Stafford has seen it as well, and his opinion about it probably differs from yours. As if that weren't enough, he's going to sit you down, pull out his notebook, and tell you all the reasons why you're views on the movie are incorrect. Loved Atonement because of its gripping love story? You don't know what love is, the characters spent far too much time apart. Spent the majority of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on the edge of your seat? Go run into a wall many times over, go back in time and see a real Indiana Jones movie before George Lucas decided to destroy an institution.

Cameron William Stafford came into this world as many children do. After thirty hours of labour, shouts of "How could you do this to me?", and a broken hand bone or two. But in the end, William and Shelley Stafford were on top of the world as they welcomed their first born into the world, who they affectionately called Cam from day one. The Staffords lived in a small home near the downtown core of Nova Scotia's capital city, Halifax. The two bedroom house on Oxford Street was modest and perfect for the Stafford family, considering that William worked only a block away at the Oxford Theatre as an usher.

On some days after school, Cameron would join his father at the theatre. While William tore tickets and showed people to their seats, Cameron sat at the back completely losing himself in film. The stories contained within the films took Cameron to a world that he dreamed that one day he might be a part of. From an early age, Cameron knew he wanted to be an actor. His dream was to one day star alongside Harrison Ford in some sort of Star Wars movie (when you're seven when The Empire Strikes Back comes out, you assume the saga will go on forever). When the time came to have the annual school play at Bloomfield School, Cameron always auditioned for the lead role, but was often cast as a tree, or a playing card (in the case on the school's production of Alice in Wonderland).

Upon getting to middle school, it became apparent to Cameron that acting wasn't his strong point, but the desire to remain involved in the acting community remained. Cameron took on roles behind the scenes, becoming director to some school plays, producer, or set designer. Cameron was actively involved in the theatre community throughout the rest of his education, finding his calling behind the scenes making sure that everything went swimmingly.

After graduating from high school, Cameron enrolled in the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design's (NSCAD) Media Arts program, where he majored in Film. Cameron excelled in his studies at NSCAD, and after four years of doing nothing else but working on his projects, essays, and films, he graduated at the top of his class with a BA of Fine Arts, Major in Film.

The prospect of going to Hollywood had captivated Cameron his entire life. He'd spent his teenage and young adult years making a lot of acquaintances, but very little friends. While the majority of people at the age of twenty-one were going to parties and spending time with their friends, Cameron had a job at the local theatre, Neptune, which he devoted all of his free time to in order to save money for his move to Hollywood. A year after graduating from NSCAD, in 1995, Cameron Stafford finally packed up his life and moved to Tinsel Town.

There was only one small problem. Tinsel Town didn't want Cameron Stafford.

It was nothing personal, there was simply no room for him. No amount of showing executives his degree, listing off to them things he'd accomplished in the past could get him anywhere close to a movie set. He would've settled for becoming an intern in some capacity with absolutely no pay, but they didn't even have room for him in that aspect. Cameron managed to act in a commercial or two to aid in paying his bills, but at the end of the day it wasn't what he wanted. After spending two years working at a dive bar serving Z-list actors drinks and scrambling for something, anything, career-wise in the pictures, Cameron shouted a loud "Fuck you!" to Hollywood and packed his bags.

To say he was bitter would've been an understatement. Cameron had devoted his entire life to one day making something of himself in Hollywood, but it now seemed he had done nothing but wasted it. With a small suitcase of clothes, and a couple hundred dollars in his bank account, Cameron decided to start living. Not in the sense in which blood flows through your veins and you breathe, in the sense he had been neglecting for twenty-four years. He traveled the United States until his money was gone, crashing in random hotels and random houses, waking up next to a random and forgettable girl or two, living the life he'd never lived. Cameron hadn't been happier in his entire life. A life of careful planning and nothing but work had become reckless and absolute, drunken perfection. Not once during that time did he set foot in a movie theatre.

One day, the money ran out. Cameron was left stranded in a town called Hershey, with the clothes on his back and a threat that if he ever came near that girl again, he'd receive a broken nose. Cameron managed to find solace in the basement of an elderly lady's small home, hitting the pavement the next day to look for a job. After a day of roaming the town the buttons on his suit jacket were no longer buttoned up, and his tie was askew (the suit had belonged to the elderly woman's son). It was Hollywood all over again, but on a lesser scale. When Cameron stumbled into the offices of The Hershey Chronicle, the last thing he expected from them was a job. He was more or less expecting directions to a local shelter because he, quite honestly, looked like a bum.

Getting the call for an interview from the editor of the Entertainment department was certainly not what Cameron was expecting. Apparently impressed with his stellar education at NSCAD (which Cameron now viewed as mediocre and a waste of his time and money), the editor inquired if Cameron had any interest in perhaps overseeing the proofreading of the current film critic's articles. Cameron failed to see how his credentials didn't overqualify him for the position, but took it as he needed money.

Within a month, The Chronicle's film critic, Steven Keating, quit ... largely due to Cameron. The young man would storm into Steven's office every day, shouting that not every movie could be fantastic and get no fewer than four stars.

"Some movies are simply absolute garbage! A four star rating for Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls? Really. Did you get high before the movie?"

And that's only a sample. Cameron was relentless in his critique of the critic's reviews, sometimes making his own revisions without the editor's knowledge. Under most circumstances, this would get one fired, but the editor agreed with most of Cameron's statements, acknowledging the fact that in recent years Steven's reviews had been less than stellar. Something may have been mentioned about learning how to parasail in the Caribbean sucking up a lot of his free time. Cameron was in Steven's office a month after getting hired at The Hershey Chronicle.

Overseeing The Hershey Chronicle's film department for a little under ten years now, Cameron Stafford has finally found his calling in life - judging the movies that he never got to direct, produce, or a be a part of in any way. His brief stint in Hollywood still leaves him bitter to this day, although he does try to exercise anything but his bias when attending movies or premieres. Cameron has been back to Hollywood a couple of times to review a movie at a premiere, but he often leaves shortly after getting material. Cameron actually refrains from telling people about his life in Hollywood, although he's not entirely certain if he's embarassed by it or not.

Currently living in a two bedroom bungalow with far too much space for a single man, Cameron spends his time when he's not at the office or at the cinema at a local bar with friends (and perhaps a lady friend). On his days off he can be found playing the piano (he'd developed an interest in playing it when the elderly lady he lived with for a few months demanded he let her teach him), or working on the script he one day hopes to take back to Hollywood with him.