Moviemaking: A civilized debate

[The Doctor]

I'm currently reading an INCREDIBLE book titled "DisneyWar", by James Stewart. It's an indepth investigative report into the Walt Disney Company and it's management team; the triumphs and the turmoils.

While reading this book, I've learned ALOT about the entertainment business. I find the more I study Disney, the more I learn about how the movie business works. I just love studying Michael Eisner and Jeffery Katzenberg to learn from their successes, and, very important, their failures.

I finished reading the chapter where, after the disappointing release of (name that's short for Richard...when it meant that cause it was used in a more innocent time) Tracy, Disney Studio Chief Jeffery Katzenberg (1984-1994), [the man who gets credit for the studio turnaround since it was under his tenure that we had the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, the Lion King, Aladdin (and he shepherded along and assisted in the development of Home Improvement, and even Toy Story)] wrote a 28 page memo that analyzed the situation in Hollywood and told of dangers ahead and what studios should focus on to be successful.

Mr. Katzenberg warned of rising costs in the entertainment industry that would severly harm the bottom line for many of the entertainment companies, and stressed that it shouldn't be big budgets, flashy actors, or uber special effects that one should focus on to make a successful movie. That is not what makes a movie succeed, he analyzed; what makes a movie succeed is a GOOD STORY. He stressed that the development of the story should be chief above all other requirements, that a movie can stand not having a super star actor, a high profile director, and the best effects money can buy, but a movie without a good story is a recipe for disaster. To be successful, companies should stop cow towing to the insane price demands of the super star actors and directors, and focus rather on creating and developing quality stories.

Oddly enough, this wasn't the first time such a memo was circulated around Hollywood. Katzenberg's then boss, Michael Eisner, had written a similar memo way back in the early 1980's when he was the chief of Paramount Studios.

I agree with both Mr. Katzenberg's and Mr. Eisner's analysis to a point. I personally think that when making a movie, a manga, or an anime, your chief focus should first be cultivating a good story. Then you work on the rest. The story is the cake, and everything else is the icing; the actors and special effects, the artistic drawing should all serve to ENHANCE, not replace, the story. Get the best actors you can for the budget you have, same for the drawing and such. If your story is really good, a few cut backs here and there may be forgiven.

But what are the opinions of the other artists here? I think it important for us future Christian producers, directors, animators, and writers to debate on this subject so we can decide how to approach impacting our world in the future.

And don't forget that before his ego got to him, Mr. Eisner was highly successful, and Mr. Katzenberg's string of animated successes speaks for itself. I should note though that though they had both written the same philosophies, they were prone to ignore it from time to time; and sometimes those detours proved disastrous.

[Nate]

I agree completely...I've always said that plot is better than special effects. Some of the best movies there have been are small budget films...like Clerks. Though many people on CAA may not like it due to the content, it was regardless an excellent movie made with a small handheld black and white camcorder.

Most movies that have big budgest special effects are trying to compensate for a lack of storyline...*coughindependencedaycough*

*hackdayaftertomorrowhack*

Must be coming down with something.

[The Doctor]

Thanks KM.

I'm interested in what Inkhana, Mave, our other resident manga-ka's, and the admins/mods think as well.

[Psycho Ann]

I've always echoed the sentiment that plot/pacing/storytelling is crucial above all else. Like I've said before in a thread somewhere that I read manga for the story, not for the pretty pictures (which I call 'sequential illustration books' for such manga). Movies and anime just the same, I can easily forgive limited animation for the storyline.

[Zane]

You want to know why those big blockbusters are really poor in storyline, character devlopment etc... compared to indepedent stuff? Kam.

Because a big hollywood producer isn't going to spend $200 million bucks on a movie in which the main character is too complex for people to understand. Look at it this way;
The bigger the budget; the simpler the characters, script, plot etc.
Of course it looks good, but its got no soul.

Thats why I like world movies, hollywood is the biggest recyling machine and usually it plain sucks.

(BTW, I saw Mallrats is Clerks any better, same style... pm me)
Sorry to steal your thread Doc, and I'm sure thats also the reason why Disney isn't as respected as it used to be. It no longer is the family movie company it used to be... i see it more like Maccas or Nike now myself, particularly when I found out that Disney owns 50% of all comics produced worldwide!!! They must have everything except all the original Manga.

[bigsleepj]

I do believe with all this "recycling" (as Zane said) going on mass audiences are getting afraid of movies that are too "artsy" which might explain the poor box-office reception for great movies like "The Aviator". In the old days of Hollywood producers would still make a movie they know that would fail just so that they can at least have something at the Oscars to show that they don't always make tripe (Daryl F Zanuck did that sometimes). These days they are less concerned with the Oscars as anything else but a marketing tool.

The smaller independant movies are the best sometimes (one of my personal favourites is "Fargo") but maybe too loose sometimes for me to really enjoy. But they are more original and character driven than the average Hollywood movie.

As Orson Welles said of Hollywood: "It's the only factory town in America that doesn't have a laboratory for experimentation."

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Interesting. I've always enjoyed D i c k Tracy and The Rocketeer sort of movies. (Richard indeed. You can say D i c k Tracy).

[The Doctor]

I think you can have a blockbuster budget movie that has a great story. Lord of the Rings anyone?

[Zane]

True Pilo,

But you can probably count the number of good big budget movies on one hand... there are way more big budget movies with poor character development, pretty poor plot and just shallow in general.

Plus L. of the R. is based on a novel so it doesn't really count as an 'original' big budget movie. Naturally there are exceptions to the rule of thumb.

[true_noir_chloe]

I somewhat agree, Doctor. However, a manga with lousy art - good story or not - is not worth reading. If I wanted a good story I'd read a book for that matter. Half the draw of a quality manga is the art, believe it or not. Why is Death Note awesome? It not only has an interesting plot but has some of the best art out there.

Now, I think for a great manga you definitely need a great story with the art.

Does this flow over into moving pictures or animation? I think it does to some extent. If someone makes this great story with lousy camera work and bad editing, good story or not, it's going to be hard to watch. There is more to the subject than just saying "good story." A good story is merely a building block, a foundation to a project where everything clicks; for example, music, acting, drawing, dialogue and scene structure with quality art or acting.

I read plenty of books when I was studying publishing, Doctor, which always keyed in on "good story, good story, good story." That mantra has been spoken by scriptwriters like J. Michael Straczynski and many others for the last 15 or 20 years.

Believe me, I don't disagree with the ideal of a "good story," but there is much more that goes into a "piece of work." The good story is a great place to start, but it is not a cure all.

I'd love to think that my writing could stand alone, but that is only with a lone endeavor like a novel. If I want to continue writing scripts I can only do so much to help the rest of the team. But, I do want to put my best forward because I am part of a team - that makes it worth it. ^__^

[Nate]

But see, this is where I disagree, T_N_C. My favorite Final Fantasy game is Tactics. FFIV is also higher on my list than FFX. The story of FFIV and FF Tactics make it rank higher than later games. They had an excellent storyline, and even though the graphics are lousy by today's standards, they are still awesome games.

Heck, look at the original Legend of Zelda for NES. Super Mario Bros. Nintendo just released them on Game Boy Advance as part of the classics collection. Why? Even though the graphics are shoddy, they are AWESOME games, which is why they rank higher in some gamers' eyes than the shiny graphics-intensive games of today.

Heck, Zork III is high on some people's lists of favorite RPGs, and it had NO graphics.

Storyline is infinitely better than art. If you have crappy artwork but a good storyline, people will enjoy it.

[The Doctor]

After much internal thought, I will say this.

When you make a movie, manga, or anything, FIRST focus on crafting the story. THEN you must focus on making it look and feel as good as possible, adding actors, technology, effects and such that will best enhance the story, but you make the additions that best fit within your budget, which is a plan based on what you can afford. Naturally, be prepared to adjust your budget from time to time, since plans do change, but try your best to stay within the plan since you do not have unlimited resources.

That's my say.