When Hollywood Melts Down What Does It Mean For Us?
It’s a great time to be a geek. Man Of Steel is huge. We got to watch The Avengers fight aliens and bring shawarma into public consciousness. We’re waiting on things like Guardians of the Galaxy.
It’s an age of Big Geeky Blockbusters.
Not there are reasons to be concerned. My friend Serdar has made excellent cases that we’re seeing a very technocratic form of filmmaking, one I analyzed in detail at another blog. My concern is that a lot of geek films are being made with a checklist of things to put in for maximum audience interest (and when you have thunder gods and space aliens, you really have lot of opportunities to shoehorn things into a film).
I’m concerned that this cautious, by-the-numbers approach that appears in a few too many Big Films (many of which are very much nerd/geek targeted) is going to result in an eventual meltdown. There’s a point where you can only do so many things by the guidelines before something not only doesn’t work because it’s not on “the list,” but you don’t know what to do when it fails.
Lynda Obst’s latest book “Sleepless in Hollywood” explores a lot of what’s going on in the movie industry, but this excerpt on why Hollywood is broken really provides food for thought.
Essentially, studios are terrified about what to do, going beyond risk-adverse to risk-phobic, and are relying on big tentpole productions to make it work. A lot of those are things targeted at our market because they have broad reach and popularity. We of course are enjoying the hell out of it, and I know *I* at least want to see how Marvel handles Rocket Raccoon in “Guardians of the Galaxy.”*
But in an age of checklist film making, huge budgets, and risk-phobia, something will give. Someone will be too scared to take the right chance, and . . . well I think we’re going to see some pretty big Hollywood meltdowns. Sadly I suspect many of them will be films that appeal to us because those are big, bold, merchandisable, and ones that get the international market.
Remember, this is an industry that Spielberg thinks is heading for an implosion. I see no reason to doubt him.
Something will give, eventually, the checklist won’t work, and . . . kaboom. It’s happened before.
I don’t think anyone knows what’s next if that happens (which I figure is going to happen, I see no reason why not at this rate). But when the blame gets apportioned out, I hope it doesn’t result in the things we like being blamed.
A failure of Hollywood is not going to be because you adapted Guardians of the Galaxy, or The Inhumans, or Elfquest, or whatever. It’ll be because people figured they could apply a checklist to geek properties, minimize risk, and then promptly screwed it up because the checklist only works until it doesn’t. When it stops working, you’re lost.
I hope they learn before they blame.
And I think I need to get Obst’s book.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.
* Because economics aside, cockney talking gun-wielding Space Raccoon.
