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Truly Free Film

Nobody Knows Anything #10: The Hare Hypothesis

By Charles Peirce

The Hare Hypothesis by Iain Spence is an interesting piece of pop-culture analysis which tries to link trends in youth movements to a larger pattern operating throughout history. It’s easy to understand the appeal — as anyone with a bit of historical perspective might start to notice the repetition of certain cultural trends. For Spence, whose background is in writing about music and youth in the UK, those repetitions are cycling in a four-stage pattern which he connects with his own, specific reading of the Life Scripts concept of Transactional Analysis.

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Truly Free Film

Nobody Knows Anything #4: Rethinking Franchises and Sequels

By Charles Peirce

OldBatmanv4It would seem, to the eyes of Hollywood, the high form of film has become the franchise. It satisfies the two poles of conventional business wisdom: limiting risk as it promises more of the same, maximizing profit as it entices investors with that self-same prospect.[1] The Hobbit is stretched out to encompass three movies, hordes of young adult novels are on the horizon, and Bob Iger suggests Frozen will now be a franchise after its huge success, but it’s hard to imagine that wasn’t always the plan. Strangely, though, two of the pioneers of the form, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, both predict doom for what they helped create. And the recent failure of The Lone Ranger (and John Carter before that) suggest they might just be right.

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Truly Free Film

Nobody Knows Anything #1: Marketing and the Collective Unconscious

By Charles Peirce

Nobody1-300In Adventures in the Screentrade, William Goldman famously opined that “nobody knows anything” in Hollywood, a curious concession for a man with such a marked record of success. The truth, though, is that Hollywood has always known something — its very business centered not just on creating hits but also on predicting future ones.

Originally the Studio System developed a series of principals which, if not always guaranteeing success, at least mitigated against disaster. That legacy persists today, albiet more loosely: in coverage, screenwriting structure, and the identifying of a film with its stars. The rise of the blockbuster didn’t undo the Studio System legacy, but it did change the metrics of success — once the end product becomes less bodies in seats and more associated merchandise, the thinking on what makes a good movie changes significantly. New aims call for new methods, and Hollywood has evolved its strategies with the times.