Cinema Is Dead

Do you recall a time when you waited in line to watch a movie like "The Godfather?"

Those days are over. You can find this type of movie but it's going to be at an art house theater. And that's a shame. There are a few reasons for this:

The advent of big screen televisions really gave you a theater type experience without having to spend money to see it. The actual act of going to the movies is no longer a hassle. And you don't have assholes who turn on their cell phones during the movie.

The storytelling. No one these days would stand in line to see "Kramer vs. Kramer." In 1975-1976 they did. It was a word of mouth that got people to see it. The social discussion of divorce was really fascinating to people. Today, it wouldn't make movie-of-the-week on a 5th tier t.v. station.

The availability. We're really saturated with movies and t.v. And it's at your fingertips. People seem to like having control over what they watch when they watch it. I think it's really bad. Like brain-deadening bad to allow this. Simply because everything created now is so throwaway. The idea that you can "get to it when I get to it" loses the value of the material. What does this do? It makes you crave small bites rather than a full meal.

The talent pool needs stability. Being in this business is a terrible hustle. With movies, it's a constant shuffling. There are too many people involved to make a decision to be secure in scheduling your life. This is very taxing. When you have a television series, you know your day-to-day (if your series is picked up). In movies (and I've experienced this) the plug could be pulled even during the middle of shooting. This is like putting your yearly eggs in one basket. It is not only painful when this happens, it's sometimes life changing. For me, a television series would be great, since a handful of people just hop from one show to the next. And the community is tiny, so your reputation would proceed you. In movies, if you aren't the top 10% or been doing it for decades, you're invisible.

T.V. has gotten way better than movies. I recall a time, when working for television was seen as sub-level basement living. It was where you started and wanted to climb from this pit. Nowadays, feature writers go to television because it's so much more of a nice development of character. In a movie, you have roughly 2 hours to flush out your thoughts. For the blowhard writers, you might as well tell them it's a short. In television, you can extend for a ton of episodes. Why is Amazon & Netflix getting in this game. Because they can also extend your eyeballs to their crap.

Movies are entertainment only. I use to believe this whole-heartedly. If you want to depress people with how shitty life is...making movies isn't the way. They already know how shitty it is. HOWEVER, sometimes, people in shitty places need to relate to something. And guess what? We're all in different degrees of shitty places. There is a place to depress people with life sucks, the best we can do is earn it.

I truly miss the cinema experience. Movies...they are great distraction, but going to a movie and feeling that it was worthwhile is no longer on the table. I feel sorry for this era of movies. The full impact of appreciation for storytelling craft isn't touted, as much as which superhero joins which league. Just to pacify the action/tits and ass group (read: 14 year olds). I don't fault the business. It IS a business.