4 ms·
The three act structure of most "film" is also killing it. Television, cable, streaming and Youtube have introduced much richer versions of content formats... a
by jvagner 10y ago
The three act structure of most "film" is also killing it. Television, cable, streaming and Youtube have introduced much richer versions of content formats... a 100 minute action movie, or historical drama, will follow so many familiar beats nowadays that there's almost no way to make it compelling.
- malnourish 10y agoWhile I agree that we could use some structural novelty, I would be hard pressed to believe that mainstream audiences care.
- thenomad 10y agoThey care far more than you'd expect. Almost everyone watching a movie has seen hundreds if not thousands of movies. They're experts on movies. They might not be able to explain their expertise, or turn it into creation, but they recognise and have feelings about the structures and the tropes. They may like them or they may hate them, but assuming your audience is ignorant of the cinematic form is one of the big newbie filmmaker mistakes.
- gowld 10y agoThe mistake is assuming audiences don't want the age-old well established hugely popular and profitable cinematic forms.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- npsimons 10y agoOne of the things they don't tell you about getting old (or you don't believe it, or you ignore it) is that once you've seen/heard enough stories/music, it all starts to sound/look the same. I can tell from a trailer or sometimes even a movie poster exactly how a movie will play out to the point I don't want to see it because I'll be bored to tears. This is also why Hollywood markets to the young: they haven't been alive long enough yet to recognize the repetition.
- awl130 10y agoevery narrative based art form has a three act structure; even successful 6 second vines have a beginning, middle (with climax) and resolution.
- l33tbro 10y agoI actually find the opposite here. For me, television follows more of a formulaic narrative arc than a traditional feature film. Television is mostly a writer's medium, and generally has a story-telling model where it is about dispersing narrative units of information in a pretty straightforward way. Film, on the other hand, is a director's medium. While the worst films can be subject to the familiar beats as you say, overall it is a much more visual medium and, when done well, has a lot more ambiguity to it. Or at least more potential to be compelling.