Gilmore Re-worded
Sundance Film Festival director Geoff Gilmore has written a state-of-things piece for the new Indiewire called "Evolution vs. Revolution." Here's a taste with commentary interspersed:
Gilmore: "Audiences are changing. The over-30 audience is the target for much of the independent arena." Wells: Because a significant portion of the over-30s (more like the over-50s) have a habit and a history of reading reviews in magazines and newspapers. Most of the under-30s glance at the scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Maybe. The majority just watch trailers online or in theatres, and that's it.
Gilmore: "Whereas the new generation represents an interesting contradiction. There is no question that the current college audience is much more sophisticated about cinema -- about art film or international and independent work than my generation was 30 years ago." Wells: Yes, they probably are. But we're talking about a small percentage of this group -- i.e., the early adopter film-savvy sector. A fairly small slice of the pie.
Gilmore: "But frankly they seem to have less interest in it." Wells : Could this have anything to do with the fact that many under-30s have the attention spans of gnats? That chronic ADD is fairly rampant among them?
Gilmore: Or at least they have a greater range of activities to engage in and thus are more selective and demanding about how they are going to spend their hard-earned dollars." Wells: Fair enough.
Gilmore: "It's difficult to say whether the new generation will continue to harbor the passion for film that we had." Wells: Difficult to say? Obviously the movie passion among most under-30s is much less than it was 20 or 30 years ago. 40 years ago is like 400 years ago. No bearing whatsoever on the present. They're into whatever's going -- online videos, video games, TV series, a movie at the plex, ESPN, Nickleodeon, etc. But almost never an "old" movie -- i.e., a film made before 1990. And forget absolutely looking at anything in black and white.
Gilmore: "Independent film has broken a lot of ground and had a lot of success in the last two decades. But what was innovative then is now familiar. Whether new audiences can be intrigued by innovative independent work, coaxed by critics, and motivated by marketing, whether they will be interested by new subjects and artistic invention, remains to be seen." Wells: If you know anything about the term "remains to be seen," you don't need me to explain it. But I will anyway. It means that things are doubtful, don't look good, don't count on it, etc.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on January 12, 2009 at 10:55 AM
comment #1
BurmaShave
says ...
Wells when you say thinks like "ADD is fairly rampant among the less educated", as if ADD and education have anything to do with one another, this is when I have problems with you. It's just unnecessary and ignorant shit.
Posted by BurmaShave
at January 12, 2009 12:16 PM
comment #2
BurmaShave
says ...
And yeah, I'll cop to ADD being among the more over-diagnosed things of this generation, but some kids labeled with it are actually bipolar before it's really quantifiable in them. Imagine how little sense it would make if you'd send "And of course bipolar disorder is rampant among the less educated". Get real. Maybe you should stop visiting your son at college if his peers are going to piss you off this much.
Posted by BurmaShave
at January 12, 2009 12:20 PM
comment #3
Sabina E
says ...
I blame it on MTV, music videos, videogames, and big budget action movies. It's all about MOVING FAST!!! BRIGHT COLORS!! SWIRLING SHAPES!!!
Many people my age can't bear to sit through a quiet, sensible movie like "Benjamin" but will gladly watch shit-infested Transformers, because it has explosions and special effects.
Posted by Sabina E
at January 12, 2009 12:33 PM
comment #4
Sabina E
says ...
*I mean Benjamin Button
Posted by Sabina E
at January 12, 2009 12:33 PM
comment #5
CitizenKanedforChewingGum
says ...
"It's all about MOVING FAST!!! BRIGHT COLORS!! SWIRLING SHAPES!!!"
I'm pretty sure that's exactly how Speed Racer hypnotized me into putting it on my Top 10 list.
Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum
at January 12, 2009 12:39 PM
comment #6
Sabina E
says ...
I bet Speed Racer can probably give any small child ADD right away, instead of these small kids developing ADD over a course of years...
Posted by Sabina E
at January 12, 2009 12:44 PM
comment #7
NotImpressed1Yet
says ...
There was a cool segment that touched upon the whole ADD subject on the podcast for On The Media this week. The main point was that the internet is bears some responsibility for much of the the current generation's alleged "ADD". Once upon a time, when people read one book at a time and didn't channel surf or look at ten websites in ten minutes, your reward for sustained concentration on a given topic was greater clarity and understanding. But with the internet, you can quickly scan a multitude of works, and there's far less a reward for that kind of hard work.
Man, I still remember in high school and college, spending a half an hour getting a fix on a single sentence or paragraph in some book for a lit class. I don't do a whole lot of that kind of thing on the internet.
Posted by NotImpressed1Yet
at January 12, 2009 12:54 PM
comment #8
The Winchester
says ...
It's not just Speed Racer, but all advertising and music videos and viral videos and nonsense. I wonder how many young people read for pleasure anymore.
Posted by The Winchester
at January 12, 2009 12:55 PM
comment #9
Rich S.
says ...
Eh, people have said the same thing about books v. movies for decades. Dark Knight was nearly three hours long and made over half a billion dollars domestic. Maybe the real issue is that most indie product is just self-indulgent crap.
Posted by Rich S.
at January 12, 2009 12:55 PM
comment #10
Sabina E
says ...
The Winchester:
Harry Potter? Twilight? Those have witnessed huge mania from young people... Yeah, those are COMMERCIAL fiction, but still, it is better than not reading anything.
Posted by Sabina E
at January 12, 2009 1:04 PM
comment #11
The Winchester
says ...
Deaf - Obviously you picked the only two book series that young people read and that publishers make a profit from. It helps that they both have spawned multi-million (In Potter's case billion) dollar film franchises, which begs the question are they reading because of the movie's existence? Or vice versa?
I'm not suggesting that teens pick up Proust for a fun Saturday night in, but I'm saying the generation needs to unplug for a bit.
Of course, this is coming from LA, where I never see anybody read anymore, no matter what the age.
Posted by The Winchester
at January 12, 2009 1:12 PM
comment #12
BurmaShave
says ...
And the crack cocaine! Our cities used to be so lovely...
Posted by BurmaShave
at January 12, 2009 1:23 PM
comment #13
Mr. Muckle
says ...
Let's face it, film as art is played out. And film comment? What's that, now?
Posted by Mr. Muckle
at January 12, 2009 2:18 PM
comment #14
raygo
says ...
Burma, I don't see where Jeff associates ADD with the less educated.
Wells : Could this have anything to do with the fact that many under-30s have the attention spans of gnats? That chronic ADD is fairly rampant among them?
Posted by raygo
at January 12, 2009 2:37 PM
comment #15
Sabina E
says ...
The WInchester:
mmm yeah, BUT I've read about how there have been spin-off books inspired by Harry Potter, and it have even pushed many youths to check out classic literary books, like C.S Lewis and Charles Dickens, to get a taste of British literature, and even checking out Greek folklore.
I don't know about Twilight, though.
Posted by Sabina E
at January 12, 2009 2:56 PM
comment #16
tombstoneblues
says ...
More of the same. Old people bitching about stuff they don't understand. Let's face it. You don't know anything at all about ADHD (it is no longer called ADD) and you have no idea whether all young people are less intelligent than you. All you do is find the occassional idiot and act like everyone his or her age is exactly the same. If that isn't ignorant stupidity I don't know what is. Just for that, my generation is going to take away your social security and medicare.
Posted by tombstoneblues
at January 12, 2009 3:42 PM
comment #17
storymark
says ...
"which begs the question are they reading because of the movie's existence?"
What a silly question, given that The Potter books were massive sellers before the movies started, and the Twilight series was also doing very well - that's why the movie got made. Sure the films have encouraged others to read them , but the only reason they were made in the first place was their success on the page. And they're not the "only two" series that kids read.
Posted by storymark
at January 12, 2009 5:28 PM
comment #18
nemo
says ...
The younger generation has been going to hell since the time of Hepatitis and the ancient Greeks.
Posted by nemo
at January 12, 2009 8:32 PM
comment #19
NotImpressed1Yet
says ...
"The younger generation has been going to hell since the time of Hepatitis and the ancient Greeks."
But there's something different about the internet. I've got ten tabs open right now. The sheer amount of information that you can bring to your fingertips - and then skim the surface of quickly and relatively meaninglessly - has fundamentally changed the way most people now consume information, probably for the worse.
Posted by NotImpressed1Yet
at January 12, 2009 9:03 PM
comment #20
YRG
says ...
I still haven't been won over by Rotten Tomatoes. I keep hearing about it, but whenever I visit, it's horrid design scares me away. I don't know how anyone except 13 year olds with pimped out MySpace pages can stand it. I mainly stick with the blogs and trailers on apple.com or imdb. HE's a good place to start .
@NotImpressed1Yet: You don't think it's hard work to look at 10 websites in 10 minutes? I don't think it's fair to say that only young people benefit from advances in technology, either. I'm sure that 100 years ago theater producers were complaining about loss of revenue due to these new things called movies... why can't things be changing for the better rather than the worse? For example, instead of going to the library and searching through the card catalog for bibliographies, I can go to Wikipedia for a modest article on an author, and follow reference links back to the source for more accurate information. The commodification of information isn't such a bad thing...
@Mr. Muckle: The progeny of the film critics of yesteryear are too busy making snarky comments on blog sites to formulate well-thought film critiques.
Posted by YRG
at January 12, 2009 11:08 PM
comment #21
YRG
says ...
[Correction: "its"]
Posted by YRG
at January 12, 2009 11:10 PM
comment #22
NotImpressed1Yet
says ...
YRG, the abundance and easy access to information right at our fingertips can cheapen it too, and make us pay less attention to any one thing (because there are so many others). Of course no one has to let this happen to them, but I have no doubt it is happening to many, including myself.
I'm not denying the benefits of the internet that you stated, just pointing out some of the ways it is changing the way people take in information.
Posted by NotImpressed1Yet
at January 13, 2009 7:02 AM
comment #23
dangovich
says ...
"Independent film has broken a lot of ground and had a lot of success in the last two decades. But what was innovative then is now familiar. Whether new audiences can be intrigued by innovative independent work, coaxed by critics, and motivated by marketing, whether they will be interested by new subjects and artistic invention, remains to be seen."
SNIP
"In the meantime, I will only program movies with name actors and will avoid films made by unknown directors and unknown actors, even though that's what put the festival on the map to begin with."
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at January 13, 2009 1:03 PM
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