My high school friend Mark Gill has had a very successful career in the film industry, and he recently gave his views of the future of the film business, and the independent film business in particular. I couldn’t agree more with his take on what makes a good film:
In the most reductionist fashion: here’s the holy trinity of structure, character and dialogue, of course; the crucial if more ephemeral notions of authenticity, voice, theme, and tone; and the imperative for originality of utterance and perception.
In the end, all of this has to add up (seamlessly if possible) to something that moves us– to the quality of the emotional content. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about thrills, laughs, tears, or an adrenaline rush. What matters is that we are engaged and, ideally, emotionally transformed and satisfied.
In a world increasingly dominated by numbers–financial, technological and most importantly the finite number of hours in a day, our very human desire for contact, meaning and emotional transformation isn’t going away. It’s growing. Those who remember that will survive and most probably win.
Aneil
Filed under: Industry Analysis, Marketing and Media | Tagged: entertainment industry, films, mark gill, movies, the film department
