The Physics of Hollywood
As an (less than) avid physicist-in-training, I have to deal with a lot of formulas. Gravitational constants, friction equations, and the ever popular E=MC2. Formulas can be applied to everything that moves (and some things that just revolve.) Recently, I've come to realize more and more that Hollywood has a formula.
More specifically, it uses a formula on us, the buying public. The repeats, remakes, sequels, spinoffs, and plain old copies prove it. How do I prove this to thee? Let me count the ways:
1. The Wild versus Madagascar
Madagascar features an endearing story of a zany group of zoo animals consisting of a lion, giraffe, zebra, and hippopotamus. It all starts when the zebra escapes his spoiled captivity in the New York Central Park Zoo to go to Madagascar. The rest of the group finally finds the runaway and joins him (along four zany penguins in finding freedom in Africa.
The Wild features an endearing story of a zany group of zoo animals consisting of a lion, giraffe, koala, snake, squirrel and other miscellaneous animals. It all starts when the lion goes missing from New York Central Park Zoo and the others band together to find him (along with the help of some zany penguins along the way)
I (obviously) haven't seen The Wild, but it bears a striking resemblance to Madagascar.
2. Finding Nemo versus Shark Tale
Finding Nemo is an epic underwater tale full of love, adventure and a host of wacky characters. Nemo, a young clownfish, is captured and put in a dentist's fish tank. His father (Merlin) sets off on a transatlantic ocean journey to save his son accompanied by the forgetful Dory.
Admittedly, the Shark Tale's story does not mirror Finding Nemo's as closely as my first example, but we have another comedic tale of loss and gain. Oscar, after falsely claming to be a shark slayer, gets into trouble with the shark mafia. With the help of the don's own vegetarian son, he eventually ends up working a car wash.
Although both summaries are (very) abbreviated versions, you get the idea. Two fishy stories by two different companies less than a year apart certainly denotes some amount of repetitive similarity.
3. The Evidence versus CSI, CSI Miami, and CSI New York
Aside from distorting jurors views about what real life investigators can really prove or disprove, the Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) series has turned into a successful television spot. The investigators must solve complex mysteries based on minute pieces of evidence located at the scene of the crime. The Evidence seeks to grab a piece of the pie by doing the same thing with better camera effects.
4. Reality Television
I understand that my perfect three points for speeches, essays, and the like are up, but reality television also has formulas. The Real World series should be sufficient evidence to support this point, but another American Idol spinoff should solidify my claim.
So, it seems that we are fed formulas. Either Hollywood believes Americans to be unable to denote the similarities, or Americans really do crave things almost exactly the same. Whatever the case, popular culture unfortunately seems to be racing as fast as it can towards mediocrity, repetition, and unoriginality in the visual arts.
More specifically, it uses a formula on us, the buying public. The repeats, remakes, sequels, spinoffs, and plain old copies prove it. How do I prove this to thee? Let me count the ways:
1. The Wild versus Madagascar
Madagascar features an endearing story of a zany group of zoo animals consisting of a lion, giraffe, zebra, and hippopotamus. It all starts when the zebra escapes his spoiled captivity in the New York Central Park Zoo to go to Madagascar. The rest of the group finally finds the runaway and joins him (along four zany penguins in finding freedom in Africa.
The Wild features an endearing story of a zany group of zoo animals consisting of a lion, giraffe, koala, snake, squirrel and other miscellaneous animals. It all starts when the lion goes missing from New York Central Park Zoo and the others band together to find him (along with the help of some zany penguins along the way)
I (obviously) haven't seen The Wild, but it bears a striking resemblance to Madagascar.
2. Finding Nemo versus Shark Tale
Finding Nemo is an epic underwater tale full of love, adventure and a host of wacky characters. Nemo, a young clownfish, is captured and put in a dentist's fish tank. His father (Merlin) sets off on a transatlantic ocean journey to save his son accompanied by the forgetful Dory.
Admittedly, the Shark Tale's story does not mirror Finding Nemo's as closely as my first example, but we have another comedic tale of loss and gain. Oscar, after falsely claming to be a shark slayer, gets into trouble with the shark mafia. With the help of the don's own vegetarian son, he eventually ends up working a car wash.
Although both summaries are (very) abbreviated versions, you get the idea. Two fishy stories by two different companies less than a year apart certainly denotes some amount of repetitive similarity.
3. The Evidence versus CSI, CSI Miami, and CSI New York
Aside from distorting jurors views about what real life investigators can really prove or disprove, the Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) series has turned into a successful television spot. The investigators must solve complex mysteries based on minute pieces of evidence located at the scene of the crime. The Evidence seeks to grab a piece of the pie by doing the same thing with better camera effects.
4. Reality Television
I understand that my perfect three points for speeches, essays, and the like are up, but reality television also has formulas. The Real World series should be sufficient evidence to support this point, but another American Idol spinoff should solidify my claim.
So, it seems that we are fed formulas. Either Hollywood believes Americans to be unable to denote the similarities, or Americans really do crave things almost exactly the same. Whatever the case, popular culture unfortunately seems to be racing as fast as it can towards mediocrity, repetition, and unoriginality in the visual arts.
posted by Matt Pitchford at 22:30
3 Comments:
One of the biggest things that film producers don't understand anymore... Unless you've created a world, NEVER make a sequal. NEVER.
Greedy, that's what they become.
Yes, but we keep *seeing* them. We keep *paying* for them. And in a world of supply and demand (which is what Hollywood has become, since they're not in it for the creation of beautiful art), the seller will supply what the buyers demand.
Be careful that we don't apply the brushstrokes too liberally, though. There are certain themes that are Biblical and timeless. (If a theme appears over and over in the Bible, I'm assuming it's ok for *us* to use it over and over in stories.) Specifically I'm talking about screwup and repentence, abandonment and restoration. And these are nothing more than lesser forms of the greatest story of all time: death and ressurection.
So using specific *elements* in movies over and over gets annoying, but we must recognize that certain *themes* will be with us as long as we have that glorious gift of Story. Which, since that's how God works, we'll have forever. Hallelujah!
Ahhh, so this is what the world is coming to, is it not? How pathetic, that they can't even make a new movie, instead they have to copy someone else's idea...movie after movie after movie. When will something NEW and DIFFERENT come into the theaters? Perhaps never, at least not in the way it's going right now.
Have they ever heard your persuasive Matt? It's a little something called: IMAGINATION.
I think someone should tell Hollywood that...before they destory themselves, from the inside out.
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