Plus ?a change, plus c’est la même chose – unless you actually give a fu… I mean damn.

Headline in the New York Times on Sunday, August 16 (sorry, I’m a slow reader ) – “The Week Old Hollywood Finally, Actually Died”.  I didn’t know “Old Hollywood” was even “a thing” anymore. There’s been nothing proverbially “Hollywood” about the industry since, well since the 70s probably. And even back then, the venerable Paramount Pictures (the only studio still to this day actually located in Hollywood) was owned by bloated conglomerate Gulf + Western Industries Corporation where it represented only 4% of the revenue of the “Entertainment, Ski Masks & Car Tires Division”.  Made the last bit up, but I’m probably not that far from the truth.  Hollywood should have been renamed “LA County” decades ago anyway if you think of it purely geographically. But what about now? Is there a new moniker we have to come up with, or stumble upon, to describe the filmed entertainment industry? How about “Commodity-ville”? or how about “Islands in the Stream”? Don’t ask me to explain which stream I am alluding to as they’re pissing away talent and money. Dang! Just gave it away…

You may not believe me when I say I’m not nostalgic (well, maybe a little bit since I had a pretty good run in the studio world), but as I have been saying for a few years - it’s “the best of times, it’s the worst of times” (sorry for butchering Dickens’ prose) for the media/filmed entertainment world. I couldn’t be more excited about an industry that is facing huge opportunities and equally sized challenges since a dialectic approach is the best one in times of radical and sweeping change. Well, I still call it “an” industry although it’s hard to find or establish where the boundaries are since the “every screen, always on” reality of today encompasses such a myriad of choices and entertainment options (some of which we are only seeing a diffuse outline of for now) and we have only seen the beginning of the loosening of the stranglehold of fixed formats (which in most cases were driven by ancient advertising requirements). I will explain what I think about this in a future word salad.

So now we’re meant to believe that the world of entertainment finally DO belong to the custodians and alchemists of algorithms and data crunching. Strange then that we have yet to see a feature from Netflix or Amazon (or anyone else operating in the entertainment/technology DMZ) with the commercial and critical heights of a metaphorical Mount Everest – something like “Citizen Kane” meets “The Avengers: Infinity War” (that’s the best MCU one, obvi). Or even the beginning of superstories or worldbuilding (or franchises as they were called in darker times). Some bloody good TV series though, that much is true. Well, guess we’re not there yet. Need some more data first… Or maybe it doesn’t work that way at all. Maybe you have to start out with radical ideas – whether they’re built out of sparks of imagination, or finding patterns in consumer choices, or shockingly discover that there are still a vast number of untold stories – some of which have not been told simply because no one wants to see them, but in most cases probably because no one dared to bring them to whichever screen was most suitable. Fear is still what holds innovation in storytelling back. The fantastic thing about streamers is that the DO actively try to push boundaries and be inclusive in the stories they bring to our screens. Here in the US I guess HBO were the first to challenge the norms and status quo. Of course if you look outside the walled borders of the entertainment capitals of the US, you’d find that the old world has been more forward thinking since, well since we started telling stories in moving pictures. You also need to know WHAT you want to do, know what you stand for, establish the values your company should share internally and externally (and not only process or inter-office communication and decision making culture), and creatively seek out the stories you NEED to tell – based on knowing the landscape – even historically all the way until today and way beyond. After that, the data, the consumer insights and the research will help you figure out what NOT to do. It will give you a roadmap. I personally think that it’s a chimera to think data gathering and crunching can tell you HOW to create entertainment that will resonate strongly with audiences/consumers (delete as appropriate) but it can guide in what NOT to do (I said that already, pay attention).

The closest an entertainment company has ever come to “cracking the code” and create the ultimate empire of all things entertaining is Disney (unless you disregard R-rated programming but I guess that’s why they devoured 20th Century Fox – sorry 20th Century Studios. They grow up so fast…). But then the pandemic turned up like your meth-addicted second-cousin to your wedding and everything collapsed – with windows being the first victim and with it a lot of value destruction. Unfortunately the smelly cat (“Friends” joke) is out of the bag and the old order has forever changed – for better or for worse. Clearly no-one is safe. There is no “The Way” of doing it. Complex and difficult challenges require complex and difficult solutions - there's no cutting the Gordian Knot with a sharp sword this time.

So, where does that leave storytelling today, more importantly, where does it leave the people who pay everyone’s salaries – the audience/consumers? When you stop and consider the current state and the future of the traditional movie theater business & experience and the traditional distribution models that follows it, you are either whistling “Eye of the tiger” or humming Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli’s “Time to say goodbye”. What you can’t argue against is that at its best watching a movie in its historically intended first port of call is an incredible experience. Larger than life itself. A conduit of every emotion known to man. A unique feeling of togetherness. To achieve this experience, you need the quality of the theater and the quality of the movie working in complete sync and harmony. One without the other lets the whole event down.

When you’re at home watching a movie, however, it can pretty much be a pigsty and/or it can be filled with people you despise, but that won’t keep you from watching and enjoying a…what?...”great”?...movie? Hmm. Not always, right? What does “great” or quality actually mean in movieland today?

For me, the most emotionally-satisfying and effing funny (unashamedly commercial) filmed entertainment experience during the last couple of months was “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga”. A Will Ferrell comedy, you ask? “Emotional”? Yes. Do you know why? Do you want to know why it was, because it may challenge you? I believe it’s because it took its subject matter seriously and made it without cynicism. They made a comedy based on the huge, glitzy, glam and banonkers European (and flabbergastingly so also Australian) annual songwriting and singing entertainment event, yet still managed to be respectful and even loving in its portrayal of something that in less enlightened and emotionally intelligent hands and minds would have been turned into a bullying and insulting “look at those hilarious and pathetic members of the general public” embarrassment feast. The movie is not everyone’s shot of tequila, but even if you only have a fleeting awareness of the majesty of the Eurovision Song Contest you will get what I am getting at. At least it tried bloody damn hard - and mostly succeeded - to be funny, emotionally engaging and unique.

But having said that, would I have fought for a theatrical and traditional release model for “Eurovision” when I had that job, back in the days when "TikTok" was a song by Ke$ha that my daughters sang along to in the back of the car? No way, Sven! It would have been seen as too complicated to market as its immediate appeal is too narrow. It takes at least 180 seconds to explain the story, and why you should see it, and that’s not really high concept in today's world. By some peculiar coincide, two and half minutes was (still is, I guess) the traditional length of a theatrical movie trailer which back then was one of the best baits (maybe THE best) to get audiences to at least mentally commit to another movie theater visit. But those 180 seconds are damned hard to shoehorn into any other advertising medium or format. Which is obviously why a studio in those days would never have taken a chance on it, but thank Odin for Netflix in this instance.

I can rattle of TV series after TV series from streamers and older, but recently re-branded, outlets like HBO, that are truly supreme forms of entertainment and that sometimes even crosses over into - gasp! - art. But I challenge you to name ten movies produced and released on either old steam-engine broadcast TV or contemporary solar-powered streaming platforms that would, unchallenged and in their own right, take a spot amongst the top 100 movies of all time. Or top 500 movies of all time? Top 1000? And no, I’m not really asking you to answer this question in the comment section. Seriously. Don’t. But you catch my drift, don’t you? “Roma” or “The Irishman”, you say? Well, if you say that then we won’t attend the same Zoom Holiday party. 

But to be fair, let’s just include movies from the last 10 years.  Here’s just a little taster, but if this list doesn’t make you salivate then why are you reading this article about something as quaint as movies? The Revenant, Parasite, Force Majeure, Moonlight, Inside Out, 1917, Inception, Any MCU Movie, Some of the DC Movies, 12 Years a Slave, The Wolf of Wall Street, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Viva Riva!, Attack the Block, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Hereditary, La La Land, the trailers for the latest Star Wars trilogy (see what I did there?), The Master, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, A Separation, Elle, Selma, Avatar (yes, hater!), The Wailing, The Farewell, Get Out, Mission Impossible: Fallout. I could go on and on. The impact generated by these features was not because of the medium, but the impact was made greater by the medium they were presented in first, and the medium was picked because it would give them the most impact. Make sense, right?

I really enjoyed “Greyhound” when I watched it the other week (or was it longer ago? I have no concept of time anymore). Big fan of Hanks and even bigger fan of WWII movies - and a HUGE fan of “Saving Private Ryan” - but if I’m brutally honest, it felt like half a movie. Well, first of all it was only an hour and 28 minutes long, which gives you pause. Some great action, some great acting, but close to zero emotional depth. And no understanding was communicated about the crucial historical moment it depicted. Also, exactly who were they fighting against? Were they people or just a voice over the radio? First thought crossing my mind was the line delivered by Jason Statham in “Snatch” - Ze Germans? That pretty much sums up how deep my understanding was of who the antagonists were. Sorry to be so annoyingly demanding that I request that my entertainment goes a bit deeper than the ethics of the GOP.  There were big fanfares heralding the release – “most watched movie on streaming”. It was apparently financed and produced by Sony and intended to be released theatrically, but “Livin’ La COVID-a Loca” helped form a tryst between Sony and Apple (the coolest kid of the 70s & 80s snuggling with the coolest kid since 1998). You have to ask yourself who the smartest of the two corporations were in making that deal? Depends on your worldview and understanding of the machinations of the industry, but I believe I am being fair when I say that maybe they both shared the brainpower (or rather doubled it). Sony got a guaranteed return on their investment and Apple got to feel like Pinocchio for two weeks (which doesn’t mean they were lying but that they could feel like “a REAL movie studio”). Funny how the cool tech kids still want to be like fogey old Hollywood.  Look how giddy the Emmy nominations made Netflix and how hard they all try each year at Oscar-time. Woo-hoo! Back to the future of “Back to the Future”.

Say what you will about the good ol’ studios (and whatever you say will probably be true in some sense) but the machines, when they were well oiled and firing on all cylinders, could create massive global awareness and heat for product (movies, films or motion pictures if you’re a sensitive creative soul, but we’re talking business here) that in most cases still only managed to muster up a theatrical lifespan similar to that of a housefly but created value through many release windows over an extended period of time. And when done right, for the appropriate projects, created worlds rather than mere stories that could live in various forms and incarnations for decades – and even between each new release installment. Right now, most original features and series released by streamers have a social media life of around two weeks.I am under no illusion that it won’t change before we know it and that we will see features produced and released by the streamers that will rock most people’s world. But right now, it’s about feeding the insatiable beast with quantity. Yes, you have to have new stuff to offer your subscribers to get into, but it can’t be the only motivating factor. The bar, as mentioned above, is lower when you casually watch something at home (and when it seems like it’s for free even though you pay subscription). But the competitive edge as we see the field getting crazily crowded will gradually move towards true audience satisfaction. So, do you work. Figure it out. Try your bloody hardest to create, tell and deliver stories that elicit emotions from people (not “consumers” or even “audiences”) that makes them feel that what they saw, heard and felt was worth more than the time and money they spent on it. After that it becomes hedge betting. Create a portfolio/slate/smorgasbord of stories, since as certain as the Swedish ice hockey team fail at times, so will many of the stories - commercially and critically (yes, we should still care about that too even though film & TV criticism is in a sad, sad state). 

Also, I want to take this moment to note that I think there's an unhealthy addiction to the word “story”. Too technical. The story is the vessel that takes you across the river. The emotions (and possibly even some learnings) are what you get to keep and bring with you after your destination has been reached.  Aim to elicit emotions that connects the audience like glue to whichever screen your story is presented in. What’s the old saying? “Never underestimate the audience’s intelligence, but never overestimate the audience willingness to pay any attention to what you’re peddling”. OK, that wasn’t the saying but it should be. Please do not use the “but they are new mediums and it takes time to blah, blah…” argument. Takes time to do what? It’s still the same story telling technique, and the same vessel taking you across the river. How we produce and consume fiction coming to life in sound & vision will evolve, but the core of the experience we seek will remain the same. We are at the cusp of new ways to connect people with stories, and in many instances let people also control part of the stories, which makes these challenging and forever changing times truly exciting. 

I am not arrogant or stupid enough to think that I can give anyone any type of meaningful advice. I only write about what I personally feel and think; and use a combination of experience with a never-fading passion for what I do whilst I also welcome change. Status Quo should always be rocked (but rock shouldn’t always be Status Quo – old dad/music joke).  Here are my own set of goals, as I write this at least: Pay close attention to what you’re doing - it has the power to change things. Innovate. Develop the crap out of the projects – and I mean that literally and figuratively. Do extensive research - research that helps you understand your world and your audience – and which gives you actionable data. I’m the first to admit that consumers don’t always know what they want until it’s presented to them, but you can find out more about bigger societal changes and attitudes to themes presented in TV series and movies by actually checking in with the people who actually pay your salary (said it again for emphasis). Understand that diversity is not a buzzword – if your team, creators, stories and target audience doesn’t reflect the world you live in, you will fail. And you will have a less fulfilling life as a by-product. Check in with marketing and distribution before it’s too late.  Don’t be an asshole. If you’ve made it in Hollywood (yes, still using that description for now) it probably means you’re smarter than anyone in the current White House administration, but you should never dial up your smugness setting as it will alienate you from people who can challenge your beliefs, help broaden your worldview and make you a better person and professional in every aspect. Hollywood (OK!! I know!) is, and has always been, a gated community. The powers that be live behind gates, and they work behind gates – real or implied. You know the clichés – “No one ventures east of La Cienega Blvd”. I’d also like to know how many in positions of power own passports that they actually use for business purposes? And that question is for the “old” guard as much as for the new kids. Look outside our borders – for inspiration and sometimes caution. Try to find out why certain stories are not being told, because maybe now’s the time. Have a good time doing what you do and always strive for positive change. Oh, and of course hydrate, meditate, and cut down on sugar.

Full disclosure: I am writing this as I’m launching my own production company, with the moniker MAD SCIENCE. Maybe you see the first word of the name as particularly apt after this article... It’s damn hard work but I truly want to change the world – starting with my chosen profession. My shirt-sleeves are rolled up. Who am I kidding, I only wear t-shirts since March. I used to procrastinate, but now I don’t seem to get around to it, so now’s the time to jump off every cliff I can find! With or without parachute (and I know there are people out there who’d wish I would do the latter…). I hope I didn’t offend anyone or piss anyone off so that they won’t take my emails or calls. My ramblings are just borne out of passion and a fear of being forgotten about... sob! So just to be on the safe side let me finish with this: I, for one, bow to our new overlords of all-things media and entertainment. I salute you and I am ready to serve. There, that should do it.

Footnote: Did you also find it bizarre that the music used during the final battle scene on the bridge in “Extraction” was stolen from Hans Zimmer’s score for “Inception”, especially the track “Time”? Was it meant to be an homage or a blatant rip-off? Either way, hats off. And just the names of the movies - "Extraction"/"Inception"?