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| Thread: The Death of Original Thought |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 · NEXT» |
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Elvin
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posted December 09, 2009 12:01 PM |
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Edited by Elvin at 12:03, 09 Dec 2009.
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The Death of Original Thought
I recently stumbled upon a short article of the same name, dealing with the blatant lack of originality of modern cinema. While we see the occasional gems every year Hollywood's production of remakes, prequels or sequels is everburgeoning - the amounts are simply staggering. I'm sure a good number of you have thought that Hollywood has lost its imagination, heck it's crossed my mind as well.
The article gives a new look into the situation, namely that death of originality - or relative originality - couldn't be further from the truth and that we are instead the ones responsible for this situation. A notion that rings painfully true.. We are creatures of habit, too many people are drawn into the sense of familiar like a moth to the flames. Heck all you have to do is check what's on tv to get the picture.
Recently I had another thought on the matter, the role of franchising. It is effective, profitable, people seek it above all else - and why wouldn't they? A brand carries a certain history, conveys quality, trust, familiarity, safety, identity as opposed to something new, untested, less polished. And that comes with a price naturally. But when it comes to movies or games it is practically the art of milking an 'original' idea to the very last dime. Just because a studio has the rights to a movie they will resurrect a series - even if they don't have a vision, is probably worse than the original, likely lacks substance and a good part of its fans are going to hate it and not necessarily the fanboys. Same goes for adaptations, rule of the thumb is that the movie is always worse than the book  And oh the humanity, now they are making videogame adaptations non-stop. At least many of the comic adaptations were worth watching. Sequels? They are a dime a dozen. And now you can bet on a lot more soulless movies to come just because of 3D.
Ooh this time it's gonna be different!
Note that I am not dead-set on the other fan category, the one who always watches original films. But how can we not have gotten sick of this situation already? Do we really enjoy watching the same thing on repeat spiced by some flashy graphics and different actors? The same overused cliches? How many of you can guess lines before the actor even voices them? It's a sign that something's wrong. The imaginarium of doctor Parnassus was trying to draw our attention to this trend - that we have neglected nurturing our imagination in favour of simple pleasures that lack substance.
Junk food for thought isn't it?
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william
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LummoxLewis
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posted December 09, 2009 12:32 PM |
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AVGN, when he talks about movies, has also said some things like this. Like Horror movie sequels are rare these days because it's mainly remakes of original ones. It'd be so good to see something original these days but being good at the same time.
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Minion
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posted December 09, 2009 01:15 PM |
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Switch to wathing foreign films or independent american ones. Altought it is slightly more difficult as the major Hollywood movies fill most theaters. Nevertheless there is plenty to choose from, Hollywood doesn't have the monopoly of moviemaking.
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JollyJoker
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posted December 09, 2009 01:20 PM |
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Actually we have a combination of facts here.
1) Originality is and has been always the same - absolutely spoken. However, the total output is ever increasing, which means that the increase in output is mainly junk. Let's face it, there are only so many original ideas and writers, but the demand for stuff is increasing inspite of that.
2) If something is REALLY good, not only does it tend to stay (sequels), there's a market for "something like that" (copies, variations). That's just the way it is with good stuff. Combining the well-known with the original is quite difficult as every Homm player knows.
3) Market size. The bigger the market the more difficult it gets not to MISS the really original things. The big money isn't spent for risky enterprises, the big money goes into the known stuff which isn't original most of the time. However, the big evenets dominate the scene with advertisement and so on - the original stuff will be small fish most of the time, so it's difficult to find them amongst the whales.
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Corribus
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posted December 09, 2009 03:57 PM |
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It's really not that complicated. It's not so much that Hollywood has run out of ideas as it is that Hollywood - like any business - recognizes that products based on original ideas are bigger business risks than products based on established brand names. As an example, it took quite a long time to convince Fox to green light James Cameron's film, Avatar, despite Cameron's record of producing blockbuster films (e.g., Titanic). Allegedly, part of the reason for the delay (actually, Fox even passed on Cameron's original script) was that Fox was concerned about producing a big-budget Sci-Fi film that was not based on a established brand name (as from a video game or prior film).
It's not so different from the reason that no matter where you go in the US, you have the same selection of restaurants and stores. Brand name recognition is a powerful thing. The studios recognize that people (on average) are more likely to pay money to see a movie based on a video game they have played or a movie that is a sequel to an earlier movie they enjoyed than a movie with a name they do not recognize.
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I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're goin', and hook up with them later. -Mitch Hedberg
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Fauch
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posted December 09, 2009 05:41 PM |
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talking about uwe boll? 
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DagothGares
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posted December 09, 2009 07:23 PM |
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Quote:
2) If something is REALLY good, not only does it tend to stay (sequels), there's a market for "something like that" (copies, variations).
Because, you know, the twilight-franchise is "Really good"?
I doubt quality has anything to do with sales numbers.
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Fauch
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posted December 09, 2009 07:50 PM |
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quality alone doesn't sell.
a bad product well advertised will sell much more than a good product poorly advertised.
(and we wonder why the quality of what we buy is crap)
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JollyJoker
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posted December 09, 2009 08:07 PM |
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There my be exceptions, but generally you can be certain that something that sells big first time has something "original" and something in terms of quality going for it.
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Lord_Woock
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posted December 09, 2009 08:31 PM |
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Quote:
I doubt quality has anything to do with sales numbers.
The market cares about the intersubjective definition of quality, not the objective one.
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Yolk and God bless.
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My buddy's doing a webcomic and would certainly appreciate it if you checked it out!
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DagothGares
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posted December 09, 2009 10:04 PM |
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Quote:
Quote:
I doubt quality has anything to do with sales numbers.
The market cares about the intersubjective definition of quality, not the objective one.
Kind of a sad notion that twilight has a high intersubjective quality then.
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Elvin
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posted December 09, 2009 10:21 PM |
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I knew you'd say that But hey as long as something is popular who needs quality right? On an unrelated note I still cannot comprehend how titanic had the biggest ticket sales ever.
Enough about that though, we don't need a movie bashing thread Twilight may have its shortcomings but the writer played her cards right and gained a good fanbase. I cannot tell how many people had already read the books and went to see the movie just because of that but it certainly must have helped in its success. That and of course captivating the interest of certain age groups.
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TheDeath
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posted December 09, 2009 10:31 PM |
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Really easy. Because it's business, not art.
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Elvin
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posted December 09, 2009 10:40 PM |
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Speaking of which take a look at this page. It's just a game but shows how selling a product goes these days. Twitter, facebook link, maybe a flash game, lots of promotional videos.. In assassin's creed 2 they went as far to make a prequel movie or write a webcomic.
The good stuff will probably sell but they sure give a nudge or two in the right direction. I remember in eight legged freaks they had a case of exotic spiders at the cinema heh
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Map also hosted on Moddb
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DagothGares
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posted December 09, 2009 10:41 PM |
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Quote:
That and of course captivating the interest of certain age groups.
You don't know the half of it!
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TheDeath
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posted December 09, 2009 10:43 PM |
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Twilight is really popular.
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DagothGares
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posted December 09, 2009 10:45 PM |
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the adult (I don't mean erotic) book industry is suffering, because the sales of twilight pull the others down 
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Lith-Maethor
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posted December 10, 2009 03:41 PM |
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ahem...
Quote:
Speaking of which take a look at this page. It's just a game but shows how selling a product goes these days. Twitter, facebook link, maybe a flash game, lots of promotional videos.. In assassin's creed 2 they went as far to make a prequel movie or write a webcomic.
The good stuff will probably sell but they sure give a nudge or two in the right direction. I remember in eight legged freaks they had a case of exotic spiders at the cinema heh
while you do have a valid point, Dragon Age: Origins really -is- a gem of a game and worth all the promotion it got
with only three classes and three races it still wins on diversity over most RPGs
in war, victory. in peace, vigilance. in death, sacrifice. in promotion, everything. we are the grey wardens, join us.
i won't comment on Avatar since its a sore subject
*walks away muttering about airbenders, racebending, stolen titles and stupid people*
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Elvin
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posted December 10, 2009 04:02 PM |
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I wouldn't dare, I have immensely enjoyed that game  Btw you were so right about the witcher, brilliant.
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blizzardboy
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posted December 10, 2009 07:12 PM |
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If you want to dig into deeper material: read books. Books are motivated by profit just like everything else in the world, but they are less costly investments compared to games and movies, and appeal to a smaller fanbase (with rare, mega-selling exceptions). This means that authors can unleash themselves more and write what they want to write and still be able to get it published and make a modest profit. Industries that require a larger investment, and thus have a much larger risk attached, are much more inclined to use safe material that is already known + lowest common denominator.
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