JazzManJim
On the Downbeat
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2001
- Posts
- 27,360
I've seen an awful lot of movies - both good and bad. I've spent three plus hours of my life, and good money, watching both "The Thin Red Line" and "Streetfighter: The Movie" (Yes. Pity me now.)
But I can't say that there have been many movies which have really excited me to any great extent and that's kind of sad to me. There used to be a time when at least once a month, there was a movie out there I really wanted to see. Now, I'm lucky if there are two a year.
So here are my own thoughts on ways to improve movies. Sure, no Hollywood types are going to show up, saving perhaps DCL (but I don't know that he's got the juice to get these to someone who'll listen). Your thoughts and additions are very welcome.
1) Stop making movies based on TV shows. They are inevitably horrible, with only very notable exceptions ("The Blues Brothers", and that was about the music). Put down the old TV Guides and write a real freaking script.
2) If you have to use the soundtrack to push the movie, you have a problem. The only exception to this is if you're making a musical. J Lo and KRS-1 will be just fine without their insipid music in your half-assed movie.
3) Write a good story. Don't worry about star power and flashy effects. They'll come if the story demands it. A strong plot, good setting, and interesting characters will always make for a good movie. If you have those, then your actors and director will make them live, and your audience will be plentiful. Watch "Gosford Park" sometime. You won't be able to walk away, I don't believe.
4) Enough with the sequels. Please? Yes, some movies are meant to be a series. Those are fairly obvious. But please, please, please, stop making sequels after sequel. They're almost never as good as the original (saving perhaps "The Wrath of Khan", and "Aliens"), and they get worse and worse after that.
5) Be daring. Step away from the tried and true and stake out your own ground. Nearly every time a filmmaker has done this, it's translated into, if not a good movie, at least a movie that gets buzz and attention. Be different from everyone else. Tell us somethign in a way that no one else is, or has, before. Show us something we've never seen before. If you don't believe me, ask M Night Shmalyan.
6) Remember that we are smarter than you think we are. Give up the glib turn of phrase. Show us the plot twist you don't think we'll understand. Plumb the depths of a topic you don't think we see enough and gie it to us in a way we don't expect. We can think very well if you give us reason to.
7) Edit a quality trailer. Don't give us too little or too much. If there's a major plot twist, for the love of God, don't give it away in the trailer! Trailers are there to whet our interest. Whet it, don't sate it! Oh, and along this topic, please stop using Verdi's Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, Orff's Carmina Burana, and that Click Click Boom song in your trailers?
8) If you're making an action movie, it's perfetly fine to write compelling characters and snappy dialogue. In fact, you should. This is what made "Die Hard" such a great movie. There were undercurrents of real humanity. There were good characters, and great dialogue. You can step head and sholders above the competition if you just expend a small amount of effort.
9) Revisit some of the old styles and give them a touch of the new. Make a noir movie, but set it in a new place (Hong Kong? Undersea?), give us a character study built into an action movie ("Starship Troopers - the book, not the movie!), do a Western, but set it elsewhere (Manhattan, The Arabian Desert). Do a hanuted house movie, but make it an elevator or an alley or something like that. Shake it up a bit and see what falls out.
But I can't say that there have been many movies which have really excited me to any great extent and that's kind of sad to me. There used to be a time when at least once a month, there was a movie out there I really wanted to see. Now, I'm lucky if there are two a year.
So here are my own thoughts on ways to improve movies. Sure, no Hollywood types are going to show up, saving perhaps DCL (but I don't know that he's got the juice to get these to someone who'll listen). Your thoughts and additions are very welcome.
1) Stop making movies based on TV shows. They are inevitably horrible, with only very notable exceptions ("The Blues Brothers", and that was about the music). Put down the old TV Guides and write a real freaking script.
2) If you have to use the soundtrack to push the movie, you have a problem. The only exception to this is if you're making a musical. J Lo and KRS-1 will be just fine without their insipid music in your half-assed movie.
3) Write a good story. Don't worry about star power and flashy effects. They'll come if the story demands it. A strong plot, good setting, and interesting characters will always make for a good movie. If you have those, then your actors and director will make them live, and your audience will be plentiful. Watch "Gosford Park" sometime. You won't be able to walk away, I don't believe.
4) Enough with the sequels. Please? Yes, some movies are meant to be a series. Those are fairly obvious. But please, please, please, stop making sequels after sequel. They're almost never as good as the original (saving perhaps "The Wrath of Khan", and "Aliens"), and they get worse and worse after that.
5) Be daring. Step away from the tried and true and stake out your own ground. Nearly every time a filmmaker has done this, it's translated into, if not a good movie, at least a movie that gets buzz and attention. Be different from everyone else. Tell us somethign in a way that no one else is, or has, before. Show us something we've never seen before. If you don't believe me, ask M Night Shmalyan.
6) Remember that we are smarter than you think we are. Give up the glib turn of phrase. Show us the plot twist you don't think we'll understand. Plumb the depths of a topic you don't think we see enough and gie it to us in a way we don't expect. We can think very well if you give us reason to.
7) Edit a quality trailer. Don't give us too little or too much. If there's a major plot twist, for the love of God, don't give it away in the trailer! Trailers are there to whet our interest. Whet it, don't sate it! Oh, and along this topic, please stop using Verdi's Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, Orff's Carmina Burana, and that Click Click Boom song in your trailers?
8) If you're making an action movie, it's perfetly fine to write compelling characters and snappy dialogue. In fact, you should. This is what made "Die Hard" such a great movie. There were undercurrents of real humanity. There were good characters, and great dialogue. You can step head and sholders above the competition if you just expend a small amount of effort.
9) Revisit some of the old styles and give them a touch of the new. Make a noir movie, but set it in a new place (Hong Kong? Undersea?), give us a character study built into an action movie ("Starship Troopers - the book, not the movie!), do a Western, but set it elsewhere (Manhattan, The Arabian Desert). Do a hanuted house movie, but make it an elevator or an alley or something like that. Shake it up a bit and see what falls out.
