The sad state of the film industry

[Braintree]

Remember that video games and film are very different mediums. Watching film is voyeuristic and playing a video game is interactive. There are some games with great stories, but the inception of either medium is approached very differently.

 

http://youtu.be/KG1ziCvLkJ0

 

I think it's mostly the monetary risk as to why the film industry has been shit for the past 30 years.

[gmanyo]

Oh man, I have been binge watching Extra Credits recently. They're super professional, that is literally their first episode.

[triachus]

relevant

 

[Atop]

the money goes where the money grows.

 

 

@OP: I guess I am easier to please and a lot of what you hate about the film industry right now, I don't as much.

 

That being said I agree with you on the amount of quality films is dwindling.

 

Inherent Vice, Gone Girl, and Interstellar are all that I am thinking will be truly great films this year but I am looking forward to some of the lower brow stuff like Guardians, which I think will be entertaining as fuck!

 

These films all have one thing in common though. There was a ton of money spent on them and that is the name of the game right now. Indie is out and whatever makes money is in.

 

TV is where the new medium of quality entertainment is. I think we all get that now.

 

and quality smaller films on VOD.

[Npoess]

Remember that video games and film are very different mediums. Watching film is voyeuristic and playing a video game is interactive. There are some games with great stories, but the inception of either medium is approached very differently.

 

http://youtu.be/KG1ziCvLkJ0

 

I think it's mostly the monetary risk as to why the film industry has been shit for the past 30 years.

Well all the those story telling obstacles video games have to face, that are pointed out in the video, just makes video game's current state more impressive, and the movie industry's current state more laughable. I mean the plot of Red Dead Redemption actually connected more with me, than any movies I've watched in recent years.

the money goes where the money grows.

 

 

@OP: I guess I am easier to please and a lot of what you hate about the film industry right now, I don't as much.

 

That being said I agree with you on the amount of quality films is dwindling.

 

Inherent Vice, Gone Girl, and Interstellar are all that I am thinking will be truly great films this year but I am looking forward to some of the lower brow stuff like Guardians, which I think will be entertaining as fuck!

 

These films all have one thing in common though. There was a ton of money spent on them and that is the name of the game right now. Indie is out and whatever makes money is in.

 

TV is where the new medium of quality entertainment is. I think we all get that now.

 

and quality smaller films on VOD.

Look, the Guardians of Galaxy could be a fun movie, I knew I could in trouble for bashing it, maybe not the best movie to shit on. It has gotten some good reviews and people who have seen it seems to like it, but from an aestethical standpoint it's just not a movie Im ever going to watch. It's just not my cup of tea, but it was to give a recent example of why movies don't really speak to me anymore. But my issue might just be that my preferred genres and types of movies are not that represented anymore.

 

One movie that really made me lose faith was Elysium, I was so excited for it, District 9 was great and it looked awesome in the trailers. But it was just another dull action movie, I dont know why I expected anything more than that.

 

Also.. I am actually excited for Interstellar (and Inherent Vice). But Nolans two recent movies, Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, were both slightly silly, so Im probably a bit more skeptical of Nolan than I used to be. But McConaughey and a well done sci-fi movie is something I can get behind, so I'm really optimistic for this movie, could restore my recently lost faith.

[Candiru]

TV series are stealing the thunder. They also give lesser known or overlooked actors a time to really shine.

[Candiru]

TV series are stealing the thunder. They also give lesser known or overlooked actors a time to really shine.

 

But inherent vice is the only one I've been looking forward to for a while

[Braintree]

Well all the those story telling obstacles video games have to face, that are pointed out in the video, just makes video games current state more impressive, and the movie industrys state more laughable. I mean the plot of Red Dead Redemption actually connected more with me, than any movie Ive watched in many years.

 

 

I'm not saying one is better than the other. I just think that film will always be film and video games will be video games. One will not eclipse the other since they embody two separate paradigms of interaction. One is passive and one is active.

 

I really enjoyed Red Dead Redemption, but mostly for the sandbox aspect. I didn't think the story was that great at all. Here's Jonathan Blow [creator of Braid] on Red Dead Redemption:

 

 

He's using it as an example to make a larger point in this video, but I agree with his sentiment. I didn't really care much about his family by the end of the game.

[Audioblysk]

I think that the film industry, like the music industry is afraid to take chances due to loss of potential profit.

 

Make something that pleases 75% of the masses with dullard trough feedings of 'entertainment' and you still make (potentially) 75% of people your audience.

 

Make something that pleases beard scratchers and people who watch 'Pi' and you're dumping money into a movie that nobody will care about, therefore, no money.

 

Michael Bay makes money, that is why the film industry sucks asshole.

[Braintree]

My previous video link got totally borked. Here it is, hopefully embedded correctly:

 

http://youtu.be/6OV2rYM6mRo?t=45m52s

What the fuck.

It starts at 45:52

[Friendly Foil]

Sounds like that Blow dude kinda misunderstood what RDR was about. Either that, or he just wants to appear way smarter than he is (which seems pretty typical for these indie dudes *ducks*).

Not saying that the story in that game was flawless or anything but as far as I remember it never tries to paint the main character as a saint or as someone you should necessarily identify with/feel sorry for. Sure it might use the shoot-lots-of-people gameplay as a "crutch" but using that as a critique of the story, and calling the ending "absurd" because of that, is silly. It's like saying that I shouldn't care about the main character and his "story" (using that term very loosely here) in Braid because of all the cute dinosaur creatures he kills throughout the story.

 

edit: I get his point though. I just disagree with his use of RDR as an example. A better example would be the yearly military shooters like COD and BF where you shoot a billion times and then expect you to feel sorry for your fellow faceless allies when they get shot, sad pianos and all. I think that's way more bizarre, and a way better example of shitty writing, than RDR.

[PhylumZunami]

go watch ENTER THE VOID. 2010 film that will most likely make you nauseous

PS

the movie industry hasn't gone to shit, you just gotta work to find the gems that are out there. and there are many

mainstream movie industry, sure

[Braintree]

Sounds like that Blow dude kinda misunderstood what RDR was about. Either that, or he just wants to appear way smarter than he is (which seems pretty typical for these indie dudes *ducks*).

Not saying that the story in that game was flawless or anything but as far as I remember it never tries to paint the main character as a saint or as someone you should necessarily identify with/feel sorry for. Sure it might use the shoot-lots-of-people gameplay as a "crutch" but using that as a critique of the story, and calling the ending "absurd" because of that, is silly. It's like saying that I shouldn't care about the main character and his "story" (using that term very loosely here) in Braid because of all the cute dinosaur creatures he kills throughout the story.

 

edit: I get his point though. I just disagree with his use of RDR as an example. A better example would be the yearly military shooters like COD and BF where you shoot a billion times and then expect you to feel sorry for your fellow faceless allies when they get shot, sad pianos and all. I think that's way more bizarre, and a way better example of shitty writing, than RDR.

 

I don't think the point of the game is lost on him. I think the genre of game doesn't lend itself to be very emotive. Walking around and killing hundreds of dudes is kind of desensitizing, and by the end of the game, I really didn't care about his family one way or the other. Not to say it's a bad story, it's just not congruent with gameplay. If they wanted violence to be more impactful for the story, they should have limited how much of it is in the game.

 

But this is just one little point from my overall view. I think they're two very different things, and some games can be very emotive, but they have to be tactful in the way they do it. Most of them aren't.

[Guest M360]

 

 

Sounds like that Blow dude kinda misunderstood what RDR was about. Either that, or he just wants to appear way smarter than he is (which seems pretty typical for these indie dudes *ducks*).

Not saying that the story in that game was flawless or anything but as far as I remember it never tries to paint the main character as a saint or as someone you should necessarily identify with/feel sorry for. Sure it might use the shoot-lots-of-people gameplay as a "crutch" but using that as a critique of the story, and calling the ending "absurd" because of that, is silly. It's like saying that I shouldn't care about the main character and his "story" (using that term very loosely here) in Braid because of all the cute dinosaur creatures he kills throughout the story.

 

edit: I get his point though. I just disagree with his use of RDR as an example. A better example would be the yearly military shooters like COD and BF where you shoot a billion times and then expect you to feel sorry for your fellow faceless allies when they get shot, sad pianos and all. I think that's way more bizarre, and a way better example of shitty writing, than RDR.

I don't think the point of the game is lost on him. I think the genre of game doesn't lend itself to be very emotive. Walking around and killing hundreds of dudes is kind of desensitizing, and by the end of the game, I really didn't care about his family one way or the other. Not to say it's a bad story, it's just not congruent with gameplay. If they wanted violence to be more impactful for the story, they should have limited how much of it is in the game.

 

But this is just one little point from my overall view. I think they're two very different things, and some games can be very emotive, but they have to be tactful in the way they do it. Most of them aren't.

Not that they have stories but tactical shooters had (is almost an extinct genre) that immersion-through-believability to them, as far as shooters go

 

(e.g. Rainbow Six, Arma, etc)

[zero]

TV is where the new medium of quality entertainment is. I think we all get that now.

 

 

TV series are stealing the thunder. They also give lesser known or overlooked actors a time to really shine.

 

Could't agree more...TV shows on the cable networks are killin' it

 

I rarely watch movies anymore and haven't gone to watch a movie in the theatre in more than 3 years...am perfectly happy with watching quality TV series

[Rubin Farr]

This thread is going into ranting territory, so apologies in advance if I come across as a dickhead, but I need to get this off my chest somewhere:

Why has the movie industry turned so absolute crap?

 

I honestly can't remember the last time I was excited for a movie. Never has there been so little originality and variation, it's just superhero movies, silly comedies and bad popcorn flicks, with the occasional movie that tries something else/new, and gets massively overrated *cough* Gravity *cough* because the competition is just horrible in general. I'm probably just beating on a dead horse, but how did things turn this bad?

Where are the Taxi Drivers, the Blade Runners, the Aliens of this movie generation? Have we seen a movie of that quality for the last 10 years? I want those aesthetically mindblowing movies with storylines that feels larger than life. But where the hell are they?

And the big 'visionaries' like Ridley Scott has obviously just turned into a turd, and that could be said for a number of directors. And there doesn't seem to be any new ones there are particular interesting (with few exceptions of course, Paul Thomas Anderson for example).

I'm just kind of tried of everytime I go to my local cinema's website to see what movies are running, I'm always massively disappointed with the selection.... Guardians of The Galaxy, my god that shit looks silly.

The only reason this annoys me so much is because I used to have a lot of passion for movies. But that has completely disappeared for me. I Basically only watch like 2-3 movies a year at this point.

But maybe I'm just blinded by nostalgia or something... I dunno.

(good thing there are tv-series though)

You need to deal with the fact that everything seems better from your childhood. That bubble is burst when you reflect with adult eyes, but in this society a lot of people seem to have a hard time dealing with maturity.

[Npoess]

So liking Transformers movies = maturity?

 

 

 

 

I'm not hating on everything, there is still good stuff, no doubt. Maybe I was over-exaggerating a bit, to get a point across.

 

But the market has been flooded by low quality movies. Even the people working in the industry will tell you the same thing. I mean you really have to like superhero movies not to think so.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/spielberg-movie-industry_n_3435818.html

 

The more I think about, I think what a lot of modern movies lacks for me is general atmosphere (agian... with exceptions of course). I know that is probably a pretty abstract statement, but when you look at movies like Blade Runner and Alien, they have an atmosphere that is just absorbing when you watch it, I want more of those experiences.

 

I don’t want to complain too much on CGI, because I actually like well-made CGI (that is also a rarity, directors tend to get overambitious with it), but too many movies are too reliant on it, and that makes them suffer. And they don’t take the time to build the atmosphere either, it’s all about having the next plot point happening within a couple of seconds, so the viewers with attention span shorter than 2 secs won’t lose interest... and all that sensory overload.

 

I probably sound like an old grumpy man, but the movies I adore are before my time, and a lot of them are movies I've watched for the first as an adult. So saying it's all just nostalgia for me, is simply not true.

[ambermonk]

I've been to the theatre maybe three times this year, and all in the month of May. The Lego Movie was kawaii, the latest Godzilla took a dump all over the 1998 version, and Divergent was meh-ok-whatever. Those are the three 2014 movies I've seen.

I agree that it's apparent with TV series dominating over the film industry in terms of popularity, although I don't have a TV at home. In fact, it's a declining trend that I hear my coworkers, acquaintances, or family members talk about the latest movies anymore. The general public have grown tired of recycled Hollywood remakes and cookie-cutter action flicks I think.

Still, I can think of a few 21st century films worth watching again.

[Goiter Sanchez]

the movie industry hasn't gone to shit, you just gotta work to find the gems that are out there. and there are many

In the same sense that the music world has seen a hyper-saturation in the sheer amount of it available online, so too has the motion-picture world seen an exponential increase in the amount of content made independently and streaming on sites like Vimeo: the Internet's ease-of-dissemination and the availability of inexpensive consumer-level software which is as powerful as its commercial counterpart plays a large role.

But it doesn't directly explain the notion of the Major Motion-Picture Industries' wares declining in quality over the past decade. For that I think we need to consider the following:

 

More people are torrenting movies than ever before which has been causing an increasingly precipitous decline in earnings from both theatre attendance and DVD sales: both antiquated pillars of profit within an industry-model that is fundamentally antiquated. 'Experimental' films are more likely to attract an adroit, technologically-savy audience who will be more likely to torrent, making a high-budget experimental indie gamble even less profitable in the long run.

By focusing resources on lowest common denominator tactics, such as endlessly milking Millennial nostalgia, the Film Industry attracts a greater demographic-swathe to pile into the theatre on opening weekend making the monetary blow dealt by torrenting less of a mortal one...

 

And so an archaic business-model limps onward at the risk of virtually everything in the theatre now being a sequel, remake or a modern retread of an established folktale. As has already been said the industry and the medium are outmoded with television and Video Games now pushing entertainment in more dynamic directions than were formerly possible.

[jeremymacgregor87]

I'd probably agree with the sentiment of OP however it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking of a time a few decades back as a "golden age" of cinema while brushing aside the droves of garbage that was out there; our memory seems to work that way. There have been some great movies in the last decade: Synecdoche New York, The Master, Under the Skin, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, There Will Be Blood, The Tree of Life, to name a few

[usagi]

I was going to say I think video games have surpassed film & tv in terms of quality storytelling, but on reflection I'm not 100% sure. they are definitely different mediums with different characteristics as Braintree pointed out.

 

games are definitely up there though. Bioshock will always have a special place in my heart and I seriously hope no one ever makes a movie out of it.

[Klopjob]

Studios are playing it too safe due to the financial instability of the industry, they know that hiring rigidly generic writers and directors from narrow minded education systems will get them sure-fire financial success.

[MadameChaos]

For as long as it's viewed primarily as a business rather than an art form, the quality of the output is going to suffer. But what do I know? Most people are stupid and like to sit in a dark room and watch explosions amarite?

[Amen Lare]

There is enough good movies. Look at, say, Cannes festival's competition for the last decade, i'm sure you haven't seen 10% of it, even though it's mostly films by famous and established directors from all over the world. Why should every multi-billion product appeal to you? I can agree that "state" isn't in its best form.

[Npoess]

But what if you want the big productions values AND the great story. The best of both worlds. I'm not saying everything should be highbrow hyper-intelligent movies or anything, but I just want to be entertained when I go to the movies.

 

That probably sounds a bit entitled and spoiled, but there was a period in time where it was possible, so it sucks that it is not the case anymore.