Just read this article on Yahoo!News. http://yhoo.it/LGj5hY "Speaking at the Sanford Bernstein Strategic decisions conference last week, Roberts said the film business was much more volatile than the television industry..." "After recent flops like "Battleship" and "Dark Shadows," it's not hard to see why film is out of favor. Movies are growing more expensive to produce and market, and attendance, at least domestically, has declined in recent years." Being a rather finicky TV viewer ( ie I don't watch reality TV) this puzzles me. Seems like if a show isn't an INSTANT hit, its cancelled. Series like X-Files which started small and then blew up, would never make it today. Has anyone seen this in their career? Has anyone stopped writing scripts for movies and begun writing for TV shows? Now I wish I'd taken that TV Pilot class at Pitchfest last weekend.
Anything Goes : TV trouncing Film by Jacqueline Becks
TV trouncing Film
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An interesting article. Is it more about theater viewing versus TV watching ... or is it about feature-length films versus 30-minute "shows"? If people are still willing to watch "made for TV" movies, then does this simply suggest an impending and final move of the feature film venue from theaters to TV streaming and cable? If so, then feature film making still has a bright future, I would think. But something tells me the fundamental problem is that Hollywood needs to be hiring the talented scriptwriters that are here at stage32! At base, I think viewers (like the studio execs) are looking for a guarantee that they're going to get something awesome for their movie investment (time and money). For a long time, having top-name actors used to be the way to do that. With TV, once a great show gains its following and momentum, both the viewers and the execs sense that guarantee that they will get a great payoff for watching (or airing) that show again. But I'm guessing that despite having top names, many big-budget movies are just destined for failure with uncompelling and uninspired scripts. So now, people don't just go to see a movie because Johnny Depp or Liam Neeson is in it. They hear their friends describe what a disappointment it was, and folks decide to save their money. The solution for films, IMO? Market top scriptwriters. If I saw a great movie, and the writers names were made prominent and marketed to me, I'd sure invest the time and money to see the next film they wrote. There's my guarantee that its probably going to be another great film. Of course, knowing the film has great actors, a great director, as so on with respect to the film composer, film editor, etc. .... knowing all that would help too. But so many Hollywood films are falling down with regard to the script in my opinion, that we really need some fresh talent and to turn those talented people into the "stars" that the actors have become. That way people could say "Hey, another film out by screenwriter, Richard 'RB' Botto! Man, we gotta go see that!" :-)
A case in point about the need for great script writing: I'd go see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os_EVPfZdO8