Sometimes the question to ask people is “What do want?”
You ever ask yourself this question and sometimes find yourself running short on how to answer it or its variations?
It stems in many parts of our lives from career goals, relationships, housing, and so on. It follows us everywhere and sometimes we don’t know how to answer it and if we do there’s another question that remains if we’re really satisfied with the outcome or not?
The same holds true for our taste in entertainment (esp.movies). you read about it daily regarding the latest releases every week then you see the postings on IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and publications everywhere about the ratings.
Rarely do these films ever reach certify fresh or high marks among critics who write for these publications unless its a favorite actor, a product they like, or something they gain from telling you their perspective.
To make matters worse sometimes they’ll go into a narrative or ideologue that explains how they would’ve wanted a certain character to behave, or how it would’ve benefited them if a character made their change in early Act 1 rather than the break in two (Screenwriters know this). Or how they would praise the character for being a strong female without understanding the direction of where the character was going in the first place (Confidence = good, Arrogance = bad).
Keep in mind however that all critics aren’t so bad as they are doing their job and sometimes they’re on point about where plot lines are weak and Characters development is a bit lacking. Unfortunately when it gets to their own narrative and how they would operate (esp. if the Ego is in charge) that tends to go against the whole point of the movie. There are plenty of reviewers that go into their agenda more than just discussing the movie and you get to see that sweet bias a lot.
It can get disingenuous, and destroy what might have been a clever film if not used properly.
So I tend to ask the public the hard question as I pursue film making, and that often is “What do you want?”
-pause-
I ask again “What do you want?”
Now considering all of the worldwide opinions out there I guarantee that I will never find the correct answer and even if I did, whatever I or anyone creates will never satisfy any or all of them. Even if someone was to get they wanted to the finest details, they wouldn’t appreciate it and find ways to move themselves out of the equation by writing how they would want that to go differently too. So as I look at all of these movies that seem to be cookie cutter prints, riding on the strong woman feminist narrative, and are pre-sold to the point where they’re going to get audiences via every dirty trick in the book.
I’d say that those who even attempt to create “original IPs” will have a 10 yard fight on their hands, and in the end that’s what everyone claims to want.
Everybody wants “originality” but little did you realize we’re all steadily copying off anyone and everyone who has ever worked in the media industry. Everyone is copying off of someone but they either put their own spin on it, or they’re just so blatant about it that no one really notices, and then there’s the complainers (story for another post). Not saying that you shouldn’t strive for an original touch but much like perfection it can destroy more than establish.
If “Originality” was to show itself in any medium could you handle it?
Would you notice it?
Chances are you probably wouldn’t…Not unless you had something against the person who made it or unless you took the time to create films yourself to realize how difficult the process is. Now while I do agree that remakes are annoying from time to time, pre-sold markets aren’t helping much, and shared universes are starting to put salt in the wound but you can see how we caused this right?
Because we won’t stop buying into it, sure we have all of these wants and desires but we either don’t pursue them or we see how the top creatives just rework and resell the pre-sold stuff to us.
For example, a classic movie like Friday the 13th is getting a remake, and upon seeing initial production pictures and news we (the purists) cry out in anguish yet we still buy our tickets for the midnight showing to see it. The movies at these points don’t have to be good or bad, some of us do it because we want to see how bad it is but still they don’t have to try as hard because we’ll go see it all regardless.
Whether we want to do it for laughs or to make content discussing the movie in question and how it went wrong or right, in the end the movie execs won. Because they got our hard-earned cash and gave you the best slop they could cook up but remember although you ate that slop you still discuss your implacable and insatiable “wants.”
So if you’re a creator in any medium whatever the people want is a variable inconclusive concept. Just make a great story, and do the best you can to sell your content out there.
Because things are so over-saturated now, the public can’t tell the difference anymore.
