Hollywood's official creative death

Phil Rhodes · December 22, 2004

Hi,

I'm with Ms. Wengenroth on this one. But also:

> Hmmm. Try Australia, Phil. And try our television networks too.

I'm sorry, we're talking about the country that produced Neighbours and Home & Away and exported them to every country in the world; you have nothing to say about bad imported TV!

Phil

Annie Wengenroth · December 22, 2004

Let's not get nasty now. :P

I'm kidding, you know I love you guys. I feel very compelled explain myself more clearly so that I don't come off as some 20-something cynic who doesn't know what she's talking about. (A common misunderstanding I suppose!)

I guess I wasn't clear about "Requiem". I think that even four years ago, the "popular" ideas in entertainment were very different than they are now. I guess that was the point I was trying to make, without making the film look like a dinosaur.

As far as taking less time to shoot things in that "sloppy chic" handheld way (I know it has its place, don't worry!), I suppose I am talking more about the people who tend to abuse it and *don't* do it the "right" way (the "right" way meaning in a way that's motivated and effective). Does that make more sense? In other words, I recognize that it takes just as much time to shoot handheld; (believe me, I know!) however, I don't think that's the case when the people involved in the movie or music video are not as experienced and don't have the proper context for this technique.

It could also go back to the aforementioned post about not knowing how to block scenes and the like. I'm not sure. I can see why people might assume that I'm bashing what I don't like, but I should probably clarify now that I *do* enjoy handheld- when it works for the film and not against it. So if anything, it's more that I'm against the school of "I'm going to go handheld and shake the camera around a lot just because I can, even though this shot should really be on sticks".

I also recognize that this isn't a common aesthetic in films today as much as it is common for all of America's beloved reality TV. My point is that I think audiences are affected by what they see on TV and eventually they want to see that same type of "look" or idea in the movies they watch as well.

It's a pretty subjective thing, to be sure. I didn't mean to come off as someone who is blindly criticizing things she knows little about. It's more that I see my fair share of lousy handheld camera work and I guess it's colored my thinking a little. For me it comes down to not *how* somebody did the camera work a certain way, but in many cases, *why* they did. Knowing these reasons gives us a better context in which to accurately judge whatever we're looking at.

There's also the common refrain that I have been hearing which is that the REALLY shaky style of handheld camera is simply overdone at this point, and I don't think it's so much overdone as it is used for the wrong things.

Hope that cleared some things up. Oh by the way Mr. Bunnies, that silent film sounds like a great idea and I hope it goes well. Hey maybe that's what we need, a revival of the silent movie era! :lol:

Jon Allen · December 22, 2004

Votes for Annie!

Seriously though, a very disturbing trend in the movie world today is remakes of relatively popular movies made not too long ago. First, it was the parent trap, then freaky friday, then godzilla, now we've hit a low spot remaking movies that were meant to be campy- thus increasing our campiness and lowering our standards for "good" filmmaking.

This mostly seems to be written by a team of people that write raunchy teen comedies and "friends", relying on physical gags and worthless one liners to get an audience into the theater.

Besides the fact that there are more stars in it that you can shake a stick at- it's got the same formula as "Shark Tale" except with live action. The sad thing is that my dad will probably want to go see it because he likes both steve martin and peter sellers.

Annie Wengenroth · December 22, 2004

This is going to sound ridiculous but when I heard they'd remade "Psycho", I was just devastated! I really, really love Hitchcock's films. I even took a special topics class about them. (I can now say that I've seen 24 Hitchcock films!) My parents love his films too so I grew up watching them. So it was quite a shock to see a trailer for the remake. Well, I actually watched it in a class at school and it wasn't *awful* but it just seemed pointless. I feel like, if you're going to remake something, you should at least do it a little differently and take some risks.

Jon Allen · December 22, 2004

Yeah, I've also heard they're going to make big over-produced hollywood versions of The Chronicles of Narnia and Willy Wonka.

I guess it is a matter of business, I can hear the big hollywood execs saying "Fire all the writers! We don't need them anymore!"

Felipe Perez-Burchard · December 22, 2004

On the up side, some of these big money makers and reality tv movies (i.e. the real cancun) are flopping. I saw The Day after tomorrow to a crowd that was laughing out loud at it and walking out and asking for their money back.

This in turn might turn studios to take more risks and maybe we are coming up towards a new era of filmmaking... an exciting time to be coming up; its up to all of us to make the next great films!

Or maybe I'm just deluding myself with optimism to hide the reality...

:>)

-felipe.

PS - eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, the incredibles, kill bill, the aviator, juat a few hollywood movies that came out this year that I think are pretty great.