Learning – Page 11 – MindSoulStory

Against the Avatar Tide

I wanted to stand up and say, “The Emperor Cameron has no clothes!”

OK, I don’t want to offend you if you really loved Avatar and agree with those who say it’s one of the greatest films ever made. I would just like to argue for a higher standard. Certainly it will be one of the highest grossing films ever (though no one talks about total audience, which likely is not the highest ever, given inflation of ticket prices.) And, it is visually and sonically amazing. The visual achievement alone does make it a landmark film.

I’ll try to speak to my point.

A great film is a complete film. That is, a film is more than its visuals or technological advances or music or script or acting or editing or directing. A truly great film is created when all of those elements come together into one coherent whole. By this standard, Avatar misses the mark for me. Honestly, when I left the theater (yes, I saw it in 3D) I was saying to myself, “All that money and nothing for a script writer!”

Were there any characters that were not clichéd stereotypes out of a hundred other movies that you’ve seen? And what’s with the creative names for things: ‘unobtanium’, ‘banshees’? This is the best the writers could come up with for creating an exotic future world? I hate to say it, but the first thing that popped into my mind when Sully was introduced to the banshees was another epic adventure film, Dinotopia! My kids watched it over and over on VHS. Cameron totally ripped off the whole deal with the Skybax (sp?) for Avatar.

Were there any events that you could not predict miles away? Were there any crises that you felt in any way would not work out for the heroes? Other than on the most superficial level, I didn’t really buy the romance between this noble indigenous princess with all the knowledge of the natural and spiritual world and the moron from another planet? What was she thinking? I know what Sully was thinking ’cause she’s a hot, basically naked, princess. (I’ll give Cameron credit for actually having Sully’s character change over time, but in the most predictable way.)

It’s OK if you loved it and want to see it over and over. To me, it’s like an amusement park ride.

However, I actually believe that it is possible to make a really expensive film, with killer effects that have never been seen before, that is really popular, and at the same time not insult the intelligence of your audience. I mean, you have every tech guru on the planet working on the visuals, why not put a crack team of writers on the script too? Peter Jackson did it with the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. He had real literature as his starting point, and he chose to honor it. I’m not just all about weird indie films as the highest expression of the art. There are other examples, even within Hollywood. I just think James Cameron doesn’t respect the audience and got caught up with his toys. So, he made half the film that he could have made.

Personally, I can’t wait to see what a real, complete artistic team will be able to do with the technology Cameron and his team developed. It’s an incredible toolset, and in the hands of real artists it will bring us more than just eye-candy.

Just as an aside, here’s an article from the LA Times that explains any naysayers as reactionary conservatives. Thought it was funny.

Art, Creation and Christ

“…no one looks at a painting and begins talking to it to find out why the painting made itself. Behind every painting, there is a painter…”

There is a powerful love demonstrated in Creation and creative acts. This article [via Pioneers Media Archive – Art, Creation and Christ] from Pioneers.org tells of the connection two people made in Hungary. Zoli, a young man who recently attempted suicide, is also an artist. As their conversation progresses, the author makes the observation, “…no one looks at a painting and begins talking to it to find out why the painting made itself. Behind every painting, there is a painter…”

I think this is one of God’s greatest gifts to us – the ability to express the inexpressible, to communicate in multiple languages: sound, light, space, touch, color, smell. All of them are channels given to us by our Creator and each has a unique ability to reflect something of His character and action and love for His Creation.

I’m thinking of people I may know, like Zoli, who need to be told that they are beautiful creations, loved, and reflecting the image of God, no matter their circumstances.

How Important is Branding in Games and Films?

What am I doing today to develop that level of trust and comfort and influence with a specific audience, through the things I create?

I admit that articles like this discourage me somewhat.

The Spiteful Critic: Branding, Games, and Films

In this particular article, Lewis Pulsipher emphasizes the game world. It’s a great discussion of the realities of the power of brands to attract audiences. There is tremendous power, credibility, and trust in known identities. For large segments of audiences for every kind of media, they are attracted to the known. Even a person’s perception of quality is influenced by brand awareness (see the article’s study on McDonald’s food and kids in taste-testing). It is more difficult, and expensive, to introduce something new and different, that’s why game companies and film studios turn out ‘based-on’ products and sequels. They hesitate to take a chance on a property where they have to introduce entirely new characters and stories when they can exploit the existing interest of a large group of people who are already fans. This makes perfect sense.

But, most of us don’t have access to those kinds of stories and properties. Where does that leave us?

Of course, there are segments of audiences that actively seek out the unknown. These people might even intentionally avoid major brands. For these people, the idea of eating at McDonalds, buying coffee at Starbucks, or seeing a film in the ______ franchise is anathema. I would say that I tend that way, but I do have my brand favorites, like my Mac computers. I probably respond to Apple’s marketing in much the same way a kid might respond to McDonalds’. They have me hooked in some way. Is that an entirely bad thing?

For smaller content creators like me it can be a daunting task to even imagine cracking a general audience market. However, every creator, no matter how small, should take the time to understand and develop a brand identity. We live in a world, if guys like Seth Godin are to believed, made up of tribes – each with identifiable interests, needs, and places where they hang out.

It should be possible for almost anyone to create products that speak to specific tribes, that are of value to them, and products that develop trust and credibility with them. As we create for that niche, we have the chance to create a brand out of products that speak in similar ways, have similar values, and give that audience the same feeling that kids get when they eat at (or think about eating at) McDonalds; or, perhaps, the feeling I get when I enter an Apple Store. The best brands feel like home, or even better, to their audience. They make you feel like you, or like you want to feel if you were the best you there was.

So what am I doing today to develop that level of trust and comfort and influence with a specific audience, through the things I create?

Artists, It’s Up To You

“…it is up to you, men and women who have given your lives to art, to declare with all the wealth of your ingenuity that in Christ the world is redeemed.”

Scott McClellan posted an interesting blog article in Collide Magazine this week. He references a letter Pope John Paul II wrote to encourage artists in the Church. Scott was quoting from a book that references the letter. I appreciated the few quotes Scott included, such as:

… In Christ, God has reconciled the world to himself. All believers are called to bear witness to this; but it is up to you, men and women who have given your lives to art, to declare with all the wealth of your ingenuity that in Christ the world is redeemed.

You can read Scott’s post in Collide Magazine on-line: Collide Magazine » Blog Archive » It’s Up To You.

I have a copy of the Pope’s letter, kindly sent to me by my friend Byron Spradlin. The Pope gave his address on Easter Sunday, 1999. He began with these words, “To all who are passionately dedicated to the search for new “epiphanies” of beauty so that through their creative work as artists they may offer these as gifts to the world.” You can read the whole text here.

It’s great to have a lot of voices out there encouraging artists. Sometimes it seems as though faith communities still don’t get it, or at least don’t get artists (and vice versa).

For my part, I’m about extending the vision beyond our own local faith communities to see how artists can bring their stories to the ends of the earth and to learn the stories that God has given to other cultures. Art makes the transcendent concrete and it has the capability to cross cultural barriers in ways our texts and practices often can’t. How far can you take your creative expression?

Filmmaking and Gamemaking

How does collaboration differ in game development from film development?

How does collaboration differ in game development from film development?

My son is a game developer and fan of both computer games and films. I am not really a gamer myself, but I appreciate the power of interactive, participatory storytelling and the way some games have become more and more filmic and story-driven. I hope someday to be collaborating on games with my younger friends who are more literate in the medium.

Here’s a brief post that observes the difference in the type of collaboration that happens on film projects versus game projects.

Filmmaking and Gamemaking – The Difference

For the moment, I’ll keep learning and playing with ideas for storytelling that is compelling and influential yet highly participatory. I don’t believe that even the most complex stories in computer games has risen to the level of Shakespeare or Hemingway; perhaps that is not even the goal.

Games are already a larger entertainment phenomenon than film in terms of opening grosses ($300+ million in one day for Call of Duty 2) and active players. I hope to be a part of anything so influential.

The Death of Merely Good Films

The loser in a world of almost limitless entertainment choice is not the hit, but the near-miss.

“The loser in a world of almost limitless entertainment choice is not the hit, but the near-miss.”

As a maker of films that fall into ‘niche’ categories, I appreciate new technologies that enable us to reach smaller audiences in new and creative ways. When I began my career, the options were few and if you had a film that wasn’t a mainstream film, it was almost impossible to get it to audiences. You could show it on one of the Big Three television networks, in theaters, or…

…I guess there were VHS tape and home video stores. But the reality was that everything was pretty locked-up, especially for smaller filmmakers who had films that would appeal to a smaller segment of the audience. Even if you could identify them accurately, it was really difficult and/or expensive to reach them.

The development of broadband internet and social media and all of the other constantly changing technologies now make it possible for us to target and actually touch audiences with niche media. This is the promise of the new media world and we are all clinging hopefully to that promise!

Interestingly though, another side-effect of the new media world is what I would describe as a widening gap – kind of like what happens in developing economies. Instead of a great, flat, democratic media landscape where everything has equal footing and ability to impact audiences, we are seeing an interesting trend in the world of the ‘blockbuster.’ While there has been tremendous growth in the production and distribution of small films to small audiences, there seems to be a greater emphasis at the opposite end of the spectrum. What is being lost is in the middle – those films that aren’t quite blockbusters but are bigger than the niche film. Are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer?

This interesting article (originally from The Economist) describes the phenomenon very well. “Independent filmmaker earning a living in world where blockbusters dominate”

How does this impact folks like us? It’s not really my dream to make ultra-low-budget films ($0-50,000) for the rest of my career. But I am called to stories that fit smaller niches. It would be nice to be able to gradually make larger films, fill the gap between the blockbuster $150 million films, or even the average $50 million studio feature. Isn’t there a huge market now for low-budget films that are of high quality, made for $3-5 million? I know people who are aiming there. This article suggests that they are in for a battle for an audience.

What do you think?