By Tim Glover Director, Godwin PicturesWhat makes a film bad? Definitely a question you would hope is being asked when millions of dollars are about to be spent to make one!
We’ve all heard the statement ‘Sex Sells’ but my question is; is it the sex that sells, or does sex simply allow a bad undeveloped product to be sold?
Have you ever watched a film and thought ‘Yes, I’m seeing where it’s going, I’m following it but I’m just not going to invest the next hour of my life to be disappointed by where is takes me’? So you tune out, turn it off or walk out of the theater; or at least you wanted to. Well, some things in life are so simple they’re complicated, and story telling is definitely one of those things.
‘So I’ve got this script I want made, what am I gonna do to make it more interesting? How am I gonna make my idea stand out from the rest? …I know what will make it sell!’ You say.
I read a book recently that focussed my thinking in this area: On Directing Film by David Mamet. He says it’s when the ‘…story stops being interesting the bad author has to take up the slack making each subsequent event more diverting than the last; to trick the audience into paying attention.’ And what will keep your interest in something more than sex, violence and obscenity right?
Well, what’s the harm in it? You say. It’s just a little entertainment..
I put it to you that these cheap thrills come with a huge cost - more than the majority actually realise.
David goes on ‘…Over the course of a movie, it forces the filmmaker to get more and more bizarre. Over the course of a career, it forces a filmmaker to get more and more outré; over the course of a culture, it forces the culture to degenerate into depravity, which is what we have now.’
Does this mean that the quality of our storytelling, or lack there of, is actually having a devastating effect on our culture? I believe it is.
So does sex sell? Yes unfortunately it does. I’m not making a point about love or about intimacy; these are important dramatic factors in any story telling. I’m talking about the explicit use of sex, violence and obscenity in dialogue and action. My point is that these devices are used to sell undeveloped, unworthy screenplays that attempt to use shock tactics to hold the attention of an audience who would otherwise have tuned out. In doing so it pulls down values and erodes culture into ‘depravity’, which comes at a great cost to us all.
What do you think?
