Can This Man Save The Movies? (Again?)

[Boyd Ostroff]

Interesting article from the current issue of TIME Magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...172229,00.html

We are at the bright dawn of the movies' digital age, but the Hollywood establishment still has its shades drawn. In the Oscar show at the Kodak Theatre (named after a company that is crucially invested in the film-stock status quo), the most popular live-action digital movie in history, George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith, won no awards, not even one for technical achievement. The year's boldest, most innovative digital experiment, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's Sin City, got no nominations at all.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Thanks Boyd, the article is really great!

[Edward Slonaker]

Interesting, indeed. Although I recall SWIII did get an award (albeit not for technical merit) for Best Costume Design. Amazing all the money thrown into the effects and it gets no recognition. I guess the true accolades is in the gazillions of dollars returned from the box office, DVD sales, merchandising, etc....

[Keith Loh]

I don't see the value in giving the Star Wars franchise any more accolades than it already has. People like newness and Lucas has had his share of recognition.

[Raza Ahmad]

whats with the asmz???

and also... where is 'Lonely as the sound of lying on the ground of an airplane going down' from?

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Originally Posted by Raza Ahmad

whats with the asmz???

and also... where is 'Lonely as the sound of lying on the ground of an airplane going down' from?

Hey Raza, I see you're making a remark on my signature with the song titles of A Silver Mt. Zion

I really love their music, but I also think their song titles are very poetic, beautiful and touching too, so I wanted some of those texts as a signature.
'Lonely as the sound of lying onf the ground of an airplane' is the first part of their debut: He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light.
That album is divided in two parts:
'Part 1: Lonely as the sound of lying on the ground of an airplane going down'
'Part 2: The world is sickSICK, so kiss me quick!'
On the LP, those are the only tracks, big ones. On the CD, both parts are divided into songs (part 2 begins with 13 Angels Standing Guard around the Side of your bed)

sorry to go slightly off-topic here.

[Raza Ahmad]

ah indeed...

have you checked out set fire to flames and explosions in the sky? other godspeed offshoots... set fire is more noise based, experimental, explosions is more loopy and melodic like asmz...

again.. off topic... sorry...

-raza

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

Not clear which savior they're talking about, or which plan for salvation.

As far as boosting the box office goes, Lucas had his chance over the last six years. I don't think any analysts have credited Clones and Sith with rescuing exhibitors from plummeting receipts.

As far as pushing the technology ahead goes, there's an immanent justice to the Hollywood models--just as with any business--just as with any aspect of life. If digital projection or 3D or any of the other proposed gimmicks really enhance the viewing experience for the audience, the industry will be pressured toward them, inevitably, yes, but less slowly the more the existing pressure (profit potential), governed by the same laws that would govern the transport of molecules in a solution through a semipermeable membrane. And as the article does not venture far enough to point out, the failures of Soderbergh's experiments (Full Frontal, Bubble, out of the Dogme '95 school) ought to have conclusively demonstrated that distribution conceits alone cannot spell success for a movie--for a film to be boffo (or merely profitable) it must still possess all the elements that initially lure moviegoers (recognizable stars and/or properties, promises of action and special effects, etc.) and ultimately pay off in satisfaction (a story that evokes a vivid and continuous dream, and is a call to introspection--I have posted more about this here previously).

Shyamalan's quote at the end of the piece can lead one to wonder whether he understands anything about box office business and its evolution. Now that the piracy genie is more or less out of the bottle, and now that Hollywood is realizing the opportunities for revenue associated with internet & iPod distribution (create a convenient, legal platform for distribution and, though it will not curtail piracy, it will create a basis for legitimate transactions where previously piracy was the only option), what is the sense in wiping out all that progress to try to repressively force an old model into place? It is as if Shymalan has forgotten that the miracle model he describes was standard operating procedure just a few decades ago, one that the business has tortuously evolved out of, with all the associated growing pains and anxieties, an entropy that would take more energy to combat than would pay off with being recouped?