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102 sats \ 5 replies \ @Tony OP 9 Sep \ parent \ on: The Decline of the Original Film & the Rise of Franchise charts_and_numbers
I also feel the decline of quality. Not in special effects of corse, but in terms of work of the screenwriters. The latest example is the last Jurassic Park movie. It’s like they don’t even wanna bother creating decent scenes leading up to action. Almost every time people get in danger because of their extraordinary stupidity: “I’m on an island full of predators, I think I should go take a leak as far away from the camp as I can” type of thing.
Or am I being picky?
Its basically a bozo-spiral.
- Regurgitating pre-written stories is cheap and more profitable
- Same regurgitated stories leads to less intelligent people going to see films
- Less intelligent audience means less appetite for new stories and more pressure to have simpler stories.
- Goto 1
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I don't think you're just being picky. I've been re-watching some old classics with my kids, and even they realize the superiority of screenwriting in the past.
I don't know what's going on in the industry, but writing quality is really gone down. It could be a product of our DEI-focused English and Film departments across the country. It could be a general decline in educational standards. It could be cost-cutting by film studios, relying on cheap talent instead of the best. But the effect is real.
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It seems like, with the internet and tools like AI, the ability to come up with well-researched, fantastically weird and interesting plots should be at an all time high. Access to media is unprecedented: any writer can read or watch the greatest stories from all of humanity (any language, any time). There's almost no story you can't get your hands on.
And yet all we do is produce shallow plots and sequels.
I'm pretty sure it has to do with funding: a story that has already been successful is a safe bet. Doing a sequel is more likely to make a return than some un-tested new story.
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Couldn’t agree more. Can’t wait for one of the stories from Fiction month to be turned into a film!
Here’s a good example of a short film being totally possible with relatively low budget. And that’s long before AI kicked in.
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I believe focus groups have a big impact here too. Saw this in some movie and felt that it is really a big thing.
Producers and directors often rely on the masses (represented by focus groups) when making decisions about certain pieces of the film. They have to dumb down some parts or at least make them straightforward to ensure higher ratings by most (or average) viewers.
That said, we’re lucky to have variety humanity didn’t have before and I can’t complain — there’s still tons of gems out there.
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