Is Hollywood Out of Ideas?
Hollywood vs. Independent Films
·
Many
of the Hollywood movies that are being produced, are usually part of a
franchise, a sequel or based from a popular book, as their main priority is to
produce something that will profit and not flop in the box office, and by
producing a sequel to an already popular film, it attracts the fans to watch
the sequel which would be more profitable to the company rather than releasing
another film, which is uncertain to whether it will fail or succeed.
Many
of the Hollywood movies that are being produced, are usually part of a
franchise, a sequel or based from a popular book, as their main priority is to
produce something that will profit and not flop in the box office, and by
producing a sequel to an already popular film, it attracts the fans to watch
the sequel which would be more profitable to the company rather than releasing
another film, which is uncertain to whether it will fail or succeed.
·
They tend to be extremely plot driven with
little development of the characters as their main focus is to get the plot
across and to apply amazing visuals to the film.
·
An example of this is the Marvel franchise which
consists of series such as X-Men , Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk , Avengers etc.
(box office for all Marvel films $2.4 billion)
·
In comparison, Independent films goes into
a lot more depth in the characterization, and it makes the characters seem more
real and relatable to the audience compared to the Hollywood movies who are
just trying to get in as much action as they can.
In comparison, Independent films goes into
a lot more depth in the characterization, and it makes the characters seem more
real and relatable to the audience compared to the Hollywood movies who are
just trying to get in as much action as they can.
·
However, independent film companies tends to try
a be different from Hollywood’s fixation on profits from the box office, and
they tend to miss out one of the key factors to making a film, which is to tend
to the audience’s needs, which usually ends up confusing the audiences with
what is happening with the plot.
·
An example of an Independent film is Ida and The
Grand Budapest Hotel.
Plots of Hollywood
·
Hollywood has a reputation of repeating the same
plots over and over again, for example:
·
A misfit
yearning to fit in with the crowd, but through the film learns that it is
better to be the person you truly are - e.g. The Princess Diaries, High
School Musical, and Camp Rock etc.
·
Uptight
workaholic learns what is truly important in life – e.g. The Ugly Truth,
Liar Liar, Pretty Woman etc.
·
Person
lies about something to get someone, gets exposed and spends the film trying to
be forgiven – e.g. Step Up 3D, How to Lose a Guy in 10 days, The Wedding
Crashers etc.
Narrative Theory
·
Vladamir
Propp
o Vladamir
Propp was a Russian scholar who took 100 Russian fairytales and analysed their
basic plot elements within the story and he managed to make a breakthrough
theory which meant that he could categorise plots to their respective
categories.
o He
found that the typical characters that were used in the fairy tales were:
o The Hero – The protagonist
o The Villain – Opposes the protagonist
or the hero’s quest
o The Donor – The provider of the magical
items
o The Dispatcher – The person who sends
the hero on his quest
o The False Hero – The person who
disrupts the hero’s success by claiming his glory
o The Helper – Aids the Hero
o The Princess – Acts as the reward for
the Hero
o Her Father – Rewards the hero
o During
the fight scenes, Propp suggests that there is a series of events that always
happens in the plot. These are:
o Struggle between hero and villain
o Hero is overpowered
o Villain is overcome
o Order is reinstated
o Then
in the final parts of the plot:
o The false hero is unmasked
o Villain is punished
o Hero receives his prize
o Hero is recognised for his efforts.
·
The majority of Hollywood movies fit into
Propp’s theory e.g. High School Musical, Action films e.g. Pacific Rim,
Superman, Spiderman etc.
Theory of Equilibrium
o Tzvetan
Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian historian and essayist, and he simplified the
idea of the Narrative Theory which Propp came up with and he came up with a
more complex theory of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium in film plots.
o The
theory of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium is split into 5 stages:
o 1. A state of equilibrium – Everything
is in balance, all powers are equal and peaceful.
o 2. An
event which disrupts the equilibrium (disequilibrium) – This is usually
something that is outside the social norm e.g. a murder.
o 3. A recognition of the disruption of
equilibrium.
o 4. An attempt to repair the damage of the
disorder.
o 5. Restoration of a new equilibrium at the
end of the narrative.
o The
narrative is seen as a circular structure rather than a linear structure and
the whole narrative is based upon trying to restore the equilibrium that is
disrupted and the ending equilibrium may not the same as the initial
equilibrium.
o This
theory can be applied to many different media texts e.g. fiction, books, film
etc.
News articles
o Like
this news article states, Hollywood seems to be severely fixated on the idea of
having a lot of sequels or making massive franchises instead of coming out with
more original ideas like Avatar. This is probably down to the fact that these
types of films as more profitable as they already have the success of the
previous film and the fan base that is already there. This is logical as it is
less risky than throwing a completely new film out that could potentially be a
flop.
o This
article also goes onto the subject of remakes of popular films e.g. Star Wars,
Freaky Friday and Planet of the Apes.
o This
news article makes a strong emphasis on the remake aspect of the Hollywood film
industry.
o It
notes that Hollywood does come out with extremely strong original films when it
does come out with an original film e.g. The Hangover, Independence Day, 127
hours etc. However it doesn’t come out regularly enough as Hollywood is always
preoccupied with remakes of classic films.
o This
writer also wonders whether it is Hollywood being lazy or being logical to
which film would be the cash cow.
University Essays
o In
this essay done by a university student, she compares the European film
industry and the Hollywood industry.
o She
states that the European film scripts and plots are a lot more interesting a
developed compared to the Hollywood scripts which tends to be very generic, and
as I stated earlier, to be quite repetitive. However, the European film
industry tends to have a smaller budget compared to Hollywood and this means
that they have less advertisement on the film, and the casting will not be as
extravagant as the Hollywood movies and also the equipment and outcome will not
be as good quality as the Hollywood movies.
o She
also found that Hollywood tends to concentrate more on the production and
visuals of a film, rather than the actual plot and characterisation, which is
subject to criticism by people, as they usually only lightly touch on the
characters background stories.
Blogs
o This
is a blog that was done by a blogger, and he states all of the points which I
have covered above, and he further reiterates it.
o He
is one of the many people who are getting increasingly frustrated at the amount
of remakes that Hollywood releases each year, and there was a record breaking
24 movies that were remakes that was released in 2003, and that is a very high
percentage of the films that were released that year.
o Not
only does he mention that there are a lot of remakes, he also mentions that a
lot of the remakes do not do the original movie any justice e.g. the Texas
Chainsaw remakes.
o So
this blogger actually suggests that it may just be a waste of time and
productivity to be making remakes, and it may be more worthwhile to put the
money into making better original films.
Example of a Hollywood Film
Iron Man
o The
film begins with Tony Stark (the hero) living a very well off and peaceful
life. (equilibrium)
o The
disruption occurs, when he kidnapped by a group in the Middle East (villain)
during his tour around the area. (disequilibrium)
o He
then build his first prototype of the iron man suit to try and escape
o He
escapes and he is nursed back to health back at his home.
o Another
disruption occurs as his uncle (villain) turns out to be the one who ordered
the kidnapping.
o Tony
fights the uncle and wins.
o Tony
resumes his peaceful life with a new love (prize) (new resolved equilibrium)
In conclusion, from the information that I have gathered
from different sources, I think that Hollywood is not out of ideas for movies,
but they are just being smart and careful to what movies to produce so that
they would receive the biggest revenues out of the box office as they do not
have the freedom as you do in an independent film company, which is more
focused on the creativity of a film rather than the money making aspect.
Another reason, is because I think that they are stuck
within the circle of Todorov’s theory, as it is hard to come up with a story
that breaks these conventions, so even though they made an original story, it
still seems like they are repeating the same storyline over and over again.
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