Trust the Audience

"...people are clever. If you're sincere in what you do and you try to do it the best way, and you try to put your emotions into what you do, I think people feel it."

That's an obscure quote from a french video game developer trying to make a game for grown-ups because he appropriately believes that shooting, driving, and jumping are for kids, and you can't justify playing those games when you're older. Just like you don't really watch the same movies now as you did when you were a kid, unless for nostalgic purposes...which I think is probably why for the most part any older people still play Mario games. There's really nothing adult about it. And I mean adult as in mature or literary. Something that stimulates a more developed and cultured person.

But that quote in an article I was reading really struck me. There are lots of movies I love for various different reasons. But there's not really one concrete thing that I've thought about that they all have in common. I mean they tend to have visual tendencies and more unique stories, but most of all I think this guy said just it. They're movies that you can tell people put a lot of thought and time and effort and emotion into. And that transcends more than just the artsier films I tend to favor. You can argue The Dark Knight or Lord of the Rings were succesful for other reasons, but they're also movies that everyone knows and can tell that a lot of heart and soul and effort went into making, and people favor and respect that.

And I think that's what a lot of people tend to overlook. It's obvious in more commercial films, but even indie filmmakers like us. We're trying to more objectively identify what makes a good film or photo or any kind of art, and try and figure out some sort of specific improvements to make each time, but at the end of the day it's the projects that we really try the hardest on and have a personal stake in that I think tend to shine. The script maybe could have been better or the acting could have used some work, but those are details. There's always going to be something like that, and bigger budgets, and bigger crews just make it easier to cut down on how much of that there is, but it's not really going to change the effect of the end product that much.

And now that I think about it, I'm reminded of another quote and I don't remember who it's by:
"Filmmaking is not about the little details, it's about the big picture."

For some reason that quote doesn't strike me in the same way though. I think because it doesn't say anything about trusting the audience to sense what you're doing. It's often easy to think of the lowest common denominator in the audience, but almost all my favorite movies don't appeal to them. You can be successful and not appeal to everyone. I don't mean it to sound like I'm having an epiphany about GOS because I certainly don't think it'll appeal to everyone, but I think it's solid for a certain niche so I feel like I'm on track.

It's just a different way to look at it. For me, at least.