One reason entertainment has ventured so far away from anything resembling identifiable reality is that the purveyors of entertainment feel an ever-increasing pressure to give audiences something they haven’t seen before. It’s like drugs. You develop a tolerance to its effects, so you “up” the dosage.
In every succeeding offering, the violence has to be more graphic, the special effects more special, the characters more twisted, the storylines more extreme. There’s a constant pushing of the envelope, to keep the audience engaged.
The inevitable consequence is this:
I saw this cartoon. An audience watches a performance on a small stage in front of them. A banner strung above the proscenium indicates the nature of the entertainment:
“LIVE SEX SHOW!”
Onstage, as advertised, there’s a mountain of naked humanity – plus some barnyard animals and selected pieces of fruit – engaging in every possible permutation of sexual engagement. Nothing is off-limits. They’re doing it all.
In the foreground of the cartoon, a bored couple is walking out.
At the bottom of the pile, a participants in this sexual smorgasbord looks up at the departing couple, and laments,
“What do they want!!!”
What do you give people after you’ve given them everything?
I agree with yesterday's commenter: I've enjoyed the shorter posts & I look forward to the regular ones as well. Kisses. R
ReplyDeleteIt's the same in music really. The thing is they don't KNOW what they want. Often if left to decide, it will go "top this" or lowest common denominator.
ReplyDeleteBut that's because they would have to have almost the talent to write it or imagine it...and if they did they wouldn't NEED what you offer.
I guess I'm saying, you supply the fantasy, the imagination that they lack. They don't know what they want, but they know it when they see it. Common myths, I don't believe Star Wars when if first came out was the effects, it was the story AND the fantasy of when and where (and as my friend told when he said I "have to see it"..."it is so cool, the spaceships are like dirty and dented, like they really would be!"
It isn't "top this" it is "capture our imaginations". Do that, and you get a hit I think, if you can convince a pinhead exec to take a chance.