why modern movies are HOPELESS
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- Опубликовано: 4 фев 2025
- Hollywood movies aren't like they used to be and I think I know why.
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#movies #screenwriting #film
Sadly, indie filmmakers are being incentivised into eliminating their first act on the fear that a viewer will just click out of their movie if they aren't immediately entertained... we're being incentivised to make absolute shit.
It’s not the writers, or the filmmakers. It’s the distribution process. In the last few years I have had to re-edit several features that were not respecting the “second screen experience” or needed to be able to shock an audience in the first 5 seconds or the rest of the movie “won’t work”. Distributors, streamers etc, dictate these ridiculous rules, then pay a fraction of the budget, and then cook their accounting, so that the artists will get nothing, and neither will their investors. You want good movies to come back, we need to figure out a way to bypass traditional distribution
what about a niche streamer like what HBO was to cable?
@ I think historically HBO was one of the best creative outlets for projects, since the Discovery takeover, I can’t speak too much to their content practices, I’ve been through it in the edit process much more on the indie side with more legacy distributors, like Vertical, RLJE, Shout Studios, Lionsgate, Screen Media, etc. I know from a lot of folks, the “second screen experience” is a big term thrown around at Netflix in the bays. Basically, saying that the phone is the primary screen, so you are making edit decisions based on distracted audience members
This sounds like a dystopia
ALIENS is a great example that stands in stark contrast to ALIEN: ROMULUS. We see Ripley living on a station somewhere, having nightmares, trying to reintegrate into society after being in cryo-sleep for so long, etc. for like--what is it--THIRTY MINUTES?? Something like that. All of that before the movie ever really "starts." And it's amazing. We CARE about her. Solid thesis here.
Facts!! I’ve been saying this for years. You never get to know the characters anymore. You have no reason to root for the characters anymore. It makes it feel like the movie has no heart.
When there's no light to compare it to, darkness feels dull
Modern movies give me a constant uncanny valley feel. From acting to the production design, there is this ever-present artificial feel spanning the whole movie. Its impossible for me to relate to these characters, i feel nothing
Totally agree. Shyamalan said something similar a couple years ago in regards to "there are no first acts anymore". A lot of this lies at the hands of bored script readers and execs who want to be "grabbed by the throat from page one".
Damn, I really want to watch a proper film like they used to make in the good old days, but I can't, my brain has rotten to the point where I can't go more than 10 minutes without the next dose of dopamine, so I just sit here in the dark alone, endlessly clicking from one video to another 😅
If you can be engaged it shouldn’t matter.
The Rant 2.0 was a good one.
So many excellent points here. Too many modern movies don't seem to understand how to invite the audience to engage with the characters. One of the biggest questions most audiences are going to ask going into any story: "Who are these people, and why should I care?" The skill of creating engaging characters (funny, smart, mysterious, contradictory, etc.) far too often seems to have been forgotten. Instead there's a rush to get to action and spectacle, without getting us to care first. There's no real suspense, if you don't care if the characters live or die. One of the best ways to make an audience care about characters is seeing them care about each other (which can be really fun!) but too often they just seem to be arguing with each other because "It needs conflict". So you get conflict for it's own sake, instead of feeding the story.
Both Alien and Aliens are masterpieces, loved even today. And both start pretty slowly, getting you invested in the characters and the world before they start throwing monsters at you.
I love the commentary about pacing. Stories are like music, they have upbeat parts, and falling parts where thing rest, and sometimes they change and become a different kind of song all together.
It's also worth pointing out that most of these modern ideas of about story beats and structure are a really recent development. There's some good ideas, but most seem born out the idea that if we just check off all the boxes, it'll be a good story and make money. Way too many great films don't follow those structures at all. Studios want to make the process of storytelling to have a winning predictable formula. And writing has never been that clear-cut. Real creativity has always been a mysterious process, and movie execs hate that. (You don't see a lot of teachers saying a novel has to follow a beat-sheet.)
A terrific video. Thanks for the thoughtful content.
The Deer Hunter is a great example of this. But so many others of the 70s, 80s, 90s and into the 00s.
You hit the nail on the head. I think so many movies are way too self serious now. Even the genre movies.
More of this! I'd happy listen to you discuss films
I caught A Complete Unknown last weekend just before it left theaters. I really appreciated how it took me to the 60s. Nothing felt fake or green screened. Great movie.
I thought i was alone with this sort of opinion. Refreshing to see someone talking about!
Thank you for saying this. I have a feature vampire script that I am trying to get off the ground. Feedback says the inciting incident should happen sooner. My inciting incident happens on page 26 of 120. The first act allows you to live in the characters' world and understand their relationships. It is necessary to care for the characters as they face horrific moments later in the story.
Just watched A Hidden Life. Would highly recommend that film. You spend a lot of time just kind of hanging out with the main leads doing their work. So much so it was almost too much, but once the story started to take shape it really had me invested. And just wow, the way Malick is able to make you understand character motivations and what is going on plot wise with hardly any dialogue is just so impressive and refreshing. (Also it was shot with the Red Dragon, just to throw that out there).
Contrast that with the new Jurassic World trailer where you already have so many cliches it's hard to keep track. Namely, the character that's solely there to explain what's going on mid-dinosaur attack because action and character reactions would be too hard to comprehend for us. Depressing.
As a viewer I feel the same poison from the modern movies. And I have a very powerful antidote - watch anything made before the year 2001. And yes, the peak of cinematography also ended in the 90s.
What about Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy? That came out after 2001.
Rant rant rant rant
Ok so I think something we are missing more so nowadays has to do with how they have been executing on empathy towards characters. This encompasses, like you said, the ups and downs in the story hopefully making them more relatable, almost realistic, in this made up story. The worst is when movies chuck in backstory dialogue of why/how I should feel as a viewer.... the worst!
Attention spans.
Now you read these how to books, especially in terms of writing and they tell you you have a certain amount of minutes to grab the readers attention. Edit: the engagement conversation in the podcast: most people are considered pretentious these days for wanting to engage and turn their brain on when watching something. It's probably at this point a combination of attention spans and also anti-intellectualism.
Great points in this video. Additionally, Hollywood has an obsession with vomiting lately. I have watched multiple recent feature films and episodic shows that have extended scenes of people vomiting. It is gross and unnecessary. Suggest the vomit via audio and move on. I don't care if your FX handler developed a hyper-realistic method for actors to vomit. I don't need to see it. The same is really true of all of the blood-letting. See the recent Nosferatu. A great looking movie with over-the-top blood-letting. Note: I am not a particularly squeamish person. Spend money on a better screenplay rather than over-the-top liquid FX.
Superbad great screenplay and acting. Not just for a teen sex comedy.
i see spenser i press like
What are you talkin about? There are many great films. Conclave and The Substance are two from last year which are only two examples from many that are not 'fun' yet they are amazing. This video sounds like old man shouting at the sky except it is a young man doing it. And Top Gun maverick was grreaat. You're runnin out of video ideas???
Nah. I believe this. I made this video on a whim. The substance is a super long short film. No real story. Just one long metaphor. Which is fine! That is fun. That’s not the type of movie I’m talking about. The Substance is not a traditional Hollywood film at all. And Did I not say Top Gun was good? That was my “good” example. Maybe that wasn’t clear.
100% facts. loved this video
This rant was SO cathartic! Didn’t know how much I needed to hear this reflected🙏🤌😁 I love movies and storytelling but it’s been ages since I last felt like going to a movie theatre.
Thank you 🙏