When going to college you tend to go the store to pick a new laptop up to start the New Year. Everyone, including the media, is telling you to buy a Macbook because it has everything that you need. It can’t crash and it looks amazing. You go to the store and as you talk to the sales associate trying to persuade you to buy the new $1,400 MAC laptop. You then notice that there is a HP laptop that actually is the same, but even more equipped than the MAC. The price is only $500 and you look online and see that the reviews and comments are all positive. The same thing works in the film industry.
With 2017 kicking off January is the time that blockbusters are released that are typically terrible movies. Some manage to entertain but overall the films are pretty bad. Films like Underworld: Blood Wars and The Bye Bye Man will win the box office and other films like Silence, A Monster Calls, and Patriots Day will be ignored.
Big budget Hollywood films are overshadowing smaller budget, independent films. Although big budget films are not bad and look amazing it takes away from the rawness of a smaller film. Smaller films need to be as appreciated as big budget blockbusters by the media and audiences, to prevent them being forgotten, and not deserve the recognition they should have.
Around the world, some people don’t believe that change is sometimes a good thing. When making a movie, film studios are making films to gain money. To receive money, films have to do well with the audience. Audiences now have forgotten what really makes a good movie. Studios look at successful films and instead of creating original content; they copy the formula over and over again. The best example of this is from the horror genre.
For example, when Blair Witch Project was released in 1999, the new technique of found footage revolutionized filmmaking, with having little to no and ending up as a big result at the box office. Studios see this, and then exploited the found footage films, recycling the same things, and instead made the found footage films kind of a joke. Since 1999 over 20 found footage films were made, with the film that originally used it fading away in the past. The Audience are showed countless times films like the ones I mentioned so often, that they believe that these are good films and when some small, and new comes out, they dislike it because it’s not the normal film that they are used. Audiences can change if filmmakers and studios constantly make films new and original.
In 1993, Jurassic Park was released. The film was known as a landmark of filmmaking largely due to the special effects. After the release films overused special effects, ignoring the story and plot and focusing on how good the film looks. In the late 1990s and the early 2000s film studios used the technology to as a cheap gimmick mainly for movie trailers. They also used the technology as a cheap tool to release films quicker. In fact, big budget filmmakers thought that using it would distract audiences from noticing anything in the plot and stories of these films. But audiences caught on because even though it looked cool, the writing and acting in the films looked like that were done without care, so in result the audience didn’t care. It was just an endless cycle of bad big budget CG films, such as, Godzilla, Battlefield Earth, and Deep Impact, that went on to be forgotten, and become huge flops in the film industry financially and critically. Jurassic Park was a success not only for the special effects. What makes the films we love today stay with us is emotion. The writing, direction, along with the emotion of the film is what truly made it a success. With the over use of special effects, the films become dull showing that special effects are a tool to cover up mistakes within the plot. Smaller films do not have a big budget, what’s makes them better films. With a smaller budget, these films can’t afford special effects sometimes, meaning that is the film doesn’t have emotion, good writing and direction the whole film falls. Films stay with a person not based on what they see but what they feel. Sometimes scene likes man walking away from a burning build is just as emotional as watching the sinking of the Titanic. Smaller films are sure to give a good product because they have nothing to lose, they don’t have to rely on special effects, and instead focus on nothing but emotion compared to hiding it behind a green screen.
With smaller films, they have nothing to lose. So new things are explored and created, giving a great cinematic experience. Big budget Hollywood film play things safe. Sequels and expanded universes are made to bring in money, and they know that they can rely on those. Hollywood needs to understand that the original films that created these sequels and franchises were once original ideas. So making new films and supporting smaller films, can also reward them by just the results of the films in the past. Many smaller films, such as Pulp Fiction, Dazed and Confused, and countless others were smaller films that had originality that have stand the test of time as classics, that stick in the mind of people even though both films are almost thirty years old. In 2008, the comic book company Marvel, released the film Iron Man in theaters. The reaction was universally acclaimed, and from there on out Marvel had decided to make more films and expand a huge universe around it and connection the films. Every Marvel had released at least one film, and with the recent purchase of Marvel by the Walt Disney Company the films have now increased. When The Avengers was released it had the highest- grossing opening of all time and was a career peak of the company. But after that huge hit the films starting losing touch, with sequels to hit films like Thor, and Captain America were not making as much money and press. When the sequel to The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron was released everyone thought that it was going to be the best film of all time and the highest grossing film of all time. But as the days after came by after the release, it didn’t do as well as everyone thought it would. It wasn’t a flop or anything. In fact it is in the top 10 highest grossing films of all time, but it is slowly declining compared to the rest of the films in Marvel, with some saying that all the Marvel films are the same and now getting boring because of the repetition. With directors leaving Marvel to take on smaller films, that end up doing well because of the reputation of the directors. Smaller films have more experienced and serious filmmakers behind those films. They make films for the audience and not the money.
Smaller films are made for the audience unlike big budget films, which are made for strictly ticket sales. Smaller films should be on the same level as big budget film. In 1977 Star Wars was known as a small film. But now it is one of the most treasure movie franchises in the world. With the prequels to those films, that show that the over use of special effects and sloppy stories and take the fun out of the films, which the original trilogy had created as a small film. Smaller films, care about the audience, they are original, and just sometimes over all better films, with directing, writing, and acting done well, and not using technology to just make it look nice. In life and not just film it is not about what you see but what you feel, and if smaller films get more recognized as much as big budget films, then that feeling of watching a good movie will always be with you when you go to the movie theater.
