I watched “Ready or Not” with my wife. It was so unconventional the only critique she could manage was, “I wasn’t bored.” I laughed and said, if that was the nicest thing someone could say about my movies, I’d be happy. What about you guys? If the audience is entertained, is that enough, or should there be other standards?
Screenwriting : Audience standards by Stephen Floyd
Other topics in Screenwriting:
Check out Trending Discussions
Register / Log In
I mean, the Roman audience was entertained by people chopping off each other's heads (not a disparagement against your wife just a comment on 'entertainment' of any audience being the end-all)
1 person likes this
Tyler Perry movies sell millions of tickets but film critics & filmmaking peers don’t respect his storytelling. There was a historic weekend where a “Madea” movie crushed the box office, besting new releases starring Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck.
It depends whether you believe movies should reflect society or dictate it.
1 person likes this
Really depends on what you want to get across to your audience.
If you make money people will let you do it again. If you don’t make money you will not be allowed to do it again.
That sum maybe averaged across your career.
If you Film is bad (from a critical POV) but made a huge profit I would say it is a good movie. There is no law saying that being entertaining and having a message cannot exist in the same film.
Boring is my biggest fear. I am happy being hated, cursed, looked down on. My passion is to have people lean in.
1 person likes this
Some people get entertained by watching a cat playing piano with chopsticks, it tells it all.
1 person likes this
I mean...I can live with the audience being entertained. While I prefer my films to go a lot deeper and leave the audience with something more than just being entertained, I don't see a problem with a film having that sole purpose. Once it's good, and the audience is satisfied.
1 person likes this
I’ve given up on having a message in my movies. I think that falls into the category of trying to force my films to be something specific, rather than let them be themselves. My highest priority has become writing something compelling and watchable. If it challenges the audience’s perception of the world, that would be incidental.
1 person likes this
The minimum standard I like for my clients is that the film sells.
2 people like this
Dan MaxXx - you're right. Laurel and Hardy films were always huge hits with the audiences of the day, yet they rarely (if ever) got good reviews from the critics. Sometimes people don't want to think, see constant explosions or CGI - they just want to laugh and have fun for a little while.
1 person likes this
Stephen, as long as I can entertain an audience, I'm cool with that, too.