Film production and the industry is changing constantly since its very beginnings in the 19th century but the digital transformation is a fundamental change like nothing before. Most of all there are unparalleled hopes and fears; on one side this is the Yukon, the great gold rush, on the other side it’s overwhelming if we do not commit ourselves to a constant learning process we don’t survive.
Digital transformation can mean a lot of things. There is no simple definition. It’s both a challenge for artists as production companies or any distributor. Endurance Entertainment GmbH approach was from the beginning to be an open-minded learner. Being in Berlin and in a constant exchange with digital companies some insights formed over the last years. There are no golden rules here, but things appear to become more clear over the time and we might find a sort of a “survival guideline”:
I. First of all, any discussion or any attempt to adapt means a lot of organized thinking. Since the early years, things got easily mixed up often in public panels. A good example is video-distribution. Even it’s very obvious content produced for platforms like Youtube is a completely different thing like Netflix. It’s true that change is constantly happening and it takes some effort to be informed about new business models or new platforms.
II. Second, don’t be intimidated because you are not a digital native and ask questions. A lot of film producers didn’t have the time or see any sense in investing their precious time to understand what a multichannel-network is or how they should develop an online marketing campaign. Today, there are many possibilities for digital marketing but we need to know if it serves the intended purpose. Even if you don’t want to do your social media work yourself it’s always good to understand how it works. If we understand something it enables us to ask the right questions.
III. The 4K Age – Anything is possible: Yes and no. Digital transformation in the first place is a massive change in technology. Not so long ago at the time of “Super-8” there was an eternal border between the “amateur” and “the professional”. That changed (even if some people will protest here), but its good to differentiate. Basically, there are a huge variety of standards here. And its true that smartphones and DSLRs can do amazing things and yes we can do the edit with freeware. The question is what do we want to achieve and/or what is the client’s expectation. This means we need to do our homework and have the necessary info about our equipment before we make choices, i.e. DSLRs might do great pictures but could pose problems in VFX-postpro.
IV. Try harder. If we like it or not but digital transformation requires more technical understanding for many professions in the industry. The producer today needs technical knowledge and you need to be a fast learner. This is often a frustration for people who want to use things and not always to learn “how to”? The experience is that many technologies need time to understand or some attention but learning-by-doing works more often better as expected when we overcome the first difficulties.
V. Long-Term Commitment: sometimes it appears that efforts with video/film in the digital world do have no clear business models or being completely unpredictable. It’s true there are often very short time spans or anything appears fast-paced but it’s also true that successful format development often needs a lot of time.
The conclusion is that it’s always better to be active rather than waiting for what is happening.
This was about scratching the surface. In the blog section of Endurance Entertainment GmbH more will come up about Film and the digital age hopefully helping professionals as interested people.
When asked why they love a movie or series, most people will mention the actors, visuals, story, tension, or that it was funny and entertaining.
However, there is an important factor that empowers stories, makes movies successful, and even shapes our belief systems: Norms&Values.
As the system of values and norms operates more under the surface, it is often not the first thing that comes to mind, even though values are often literally expressed in dialogues. More importantly, however, is how the values and norms in a movie interact with the viewer’s own systems of values. This is a crucial parameter for any project assessment.
If a character in a movie does bad things, we usually don’t like him. We empathize with the good guy who restores order. We all know that things have become more complex over the years, and in good movies, the value system is often challenged.
The core value in the movie
But most of us have a clear idea of what’s right and wrong. This is what the core value in a movie is about (not to be confused with the core value of a movie). The core value is what is negotiated in the movie and is defined by a set of norms. Oversimplified, it is the story’s morale.
Horror movies are traditionally often cautionary tales: If you go alone in the woods at night, you won’t come back, or there is a conservative norm: forbidden sex leads to violent death. Today’s movies are much more sophisticated but often still centered around some simple norms and values. Some older movies proposed pretty conservative norms and rules.
In the Movie classic “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” the value and norm are obvious – you can’t get away with guilt. Stephen King wrote a lot about the underlying norms and values, and sometimes their political intentions – the 50ties Paranoia movies with their message “Watch The Skies!” came as a result of the Sputnik shock and were supposed to raise awareness about the communist threat.
Sometimes, there is an “agent of the norm” in the movie, correcting the mindset of the characters. That norm might not be what the writer/filmmaker agrees with or what the audience agrees to, but it is a way of showing a character arc, of how perhaps an inner voice deep inside us, which has a completely different attitude compared to our mindset on the surface, shows up and demands “correction”. The famous cowboy scene in David Lynch’s example is a good example for shaping values and attitudes when the idealism of the character is broken apart by the no-nonsense Cowboy:
If the intended value or morale is too obvious, the story becomes propaganda. But in most cases, where there is a political intention, it is delivered in a much more subtle, manipulative way.
In good movies, often the core value of the protagonist (and the audience) gets challenged. This creates an inner journey that could deeply impact the viewers, for example, the transformation of Michael Corleone in The Godfather, where values are shattered.
The shattering of values and beliefs in modern movies
In classic movies with their clear distinction of good vs evil, the world is often restored in the end. The belief in the superiority of goodness is confirmed. A good example is The Lord Of The Rings; however, in modern storytelling, the opposite is not only possible, but there are cases, which are at least thought-provoking, or where the whole belief system lies in bits and pieces, and ethics are shattered. This is the case with Game of Thrones, and it is an important question what kind of new values arise.
Movies portray political undercurrents in society
Movies and series can portray undercurrents and changes in society in an excellent way by showing how values and norms are deconstructed and falling apart; there is, however, an inherent danger that dangerous messages are promoted, even without intention. A movie or series can involuntarily promote even barbarism if the creators exploit the shock and awe moments of violations of our fundamental human ethics, where there is also often a hidden fascination, even if the authors just use these ontological shocks for effect or as a simple portrayal of how things break apart. No need to moralise, but there is a huge responsibility for what kind of value a movie promotes. The Walking Dead is great in describing how things fall apart, but in the later development, the question arises as to what kind of human value is still defended. We are in danger of promoting the law of the strongest or the law of the jungle. If we give in to such messaging, we lose everything.
The management of the system of values and norms is not only a question of morale, but it is also a question of long-term value and commercial success. The audience must be able to relate to the values that are at stake in the story. If we do not any longer relate, there might be still sensations of shocking moments, wenn evil is even more evil as we have assumed (Joffrey in Game Of Thrones) but in the end we lose interest, because the story teller has to drive the effects to the extreme instead of an intelligent development of the systems of values and norms in a movie and series.
How do values work to keep the audience engaged?
If we focus our attention on the system of values and norms, we would be surprised how much dialogue is centered around values, norms, and what is right and what is wrong. In the classic movie Pulp Fiction, John Travolta and his partner discuss what’s legal and not for a long time, even though they are killers.
Values and norms add to the market potential of a movie because they engage the viewer, and he starts to think about his own values, and the reaction is often an emotional one.
We can detect important norms and values in a movie, often in dialogue lines that stick, lines that we never forget, and are similar to what a parent said in childhood days about rules. A few examples are: Cinderella’s “Have courage and be kind”, “It’s not our abilities that show what we truly are… it is our choices.” — Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, “With great power comes great responsibility.” — Spider-Man, “Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
The values often express what a character has learned about life. It can also be the worldview of the author:
“In Robert Towne’s Chinatown (1974), the central set of values revolves around a cynical, corrupt, and nihilistic worldview where power, corporate greed, and sexual depravity (symbolized by incest) triumph over moral, social, and legal justice. The film depicts a world where honesty is a myth, and traditional, “respectable” public figures hide vile, private, and predatory behaviors. Chinatown suggests that the very notion of an honest, trustworthy leader is a myth. In Chinatown, people in positions of power are never what they seem to be, and their true nature is always harmful to the people beneath them. ” (Sparknotes)
What values are at stake
We should not begin to lecture audiences; we should intelligently entertain them. In that regard, it is important for the successful development of movies and series to understand what the story is supposed to present in terms of what values are at stake here. This is also a key criterion for rating and improving movie projects: Is there a compelling conflict? Values and norms have always to do with conflict. Values at stake mean conflict. Will the hero live up to his moral standards, or will he get corrupted? What if two values are at odds with each other? That’s conflict, and conflict is money in the bank for storytellers.
Beginnings
What we need to have in the first place is an incident, an event, or a plot point that creates a strong emotional response by the audience. A very common story element is that somebody becomes a victim of injustice or the main character witnesses a scandal, which activates them. For example, in a movie about pollution, a character like Erin Brokovich decides to take action. It is important to have something with potential that triggers an affect, an emotional response.
From there the conflict deepens, and the main character might be even conflicted between different values. Sometimes a protagonist has the best intentions but makes a horrible decision. Perhaps because he wants to live up to his values. A person with good deeds might be vulnerable to unforeseen evil that a bad person brings upon him, because sometimes evil is beyond our imagination. This is how we keep the audience engaged.
The importance of the message at the end of the movie
In the end, the most important question is: what is the way out of the conflict? Whether we want it or not, it is here where we deliver the message of the movie. Is it worth fighting for your values, or does that no longer work in a broken society? Sometimes we can’t avoid being pessimistic; in that case, the ending of the movie might be more of a wake-up call that things must change, or everything gets worse. Or there is no hope, and the author leaves it to the audience to think what can be done. The famous line in Chinatown is: “Forget it, Jack”.
In Chinatown, the sobering message is about “The Helplessness of Common People in the Face of Evil
No matter how good a character is or how noble his or her intentions are, Polanski is careful to show how impossible it is for the common people to overcome or even escape the corruption that is so pervasive in the world of the film and the world itself. Unlike what Jake and so many other characters tell themselves, corruption isn’t confined to just one area. ” (Sparknotes)
Whatever it is, what kind of values are either questioned or reinstated in the ending, it is good for writers and filmmakers to know in the first place, before starting to write the whole script, where the story is heading.
It is furthermore good to have an antenna for the discourse about values in the real world. Often, we ask ourselves why a certain movie was so successful at the time of its release when it looks less relevant from a contemporary perspective. For commercial success and artistic relevance, it is an incredible advantage if a movie hits a nerve, if it addresses issues that are meaningful for the audience.
Film production and the industry is changing constantly since its very beginnings in the 19th century but the digital transformation is a fundamental change like nothing before. Most of all there are unparalleled hopes and fears; on one side this is the Yukon, the great gold rush, on the other side it’s overwhelming if we do not commit ourselves to a constant learning process we don’t survive.
