resistance is futile: In the series B to over-snow In 2008
The Dark Knight beat a record Box Office: more than 155 million raised in its opening weekend, overtaking
Spider-Man 3 film, it held since the previous year. Christopher Nolan tape also broke other barriers, one of prejudice. Critics hitherto suspicious of superhero films, were quick to praise, calling it not only as the best of the genre, but also as an exceptional film work. Gone were any adjustments, both on the big screen and television, and the moments in which Batman must settle for wearing Lycra tights and a parody of itself.
The Dark Knight is a good example of a phenomenon that has gained momentum in the last decade: the transformation of the "series B" in global consumer product. It was not the gun, but rather the peak of a process that took years in gestation. Cultural phenomena, until recently considered minor or "second line" as comics, video games or fantasy literature have made the leap and have moved to the front pages of all media. The effect has been of such magnitude that it has changed the way in which the major producers of audiovisual content they choose and plan their shots. The geeks, nerds, fans or just "fans" have become a public key, a source from which to take ideas and content should be maintained.
fans and public
could theorize about the reasons for this change, perhaps the maturity of the comics as a form of expression or the fact that prestigious authors such as Michael Chabon (
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay ) give their blessing to the genre, but unfortunately the simplest explanation is the money. The fans are an ideal target for many reasons, from the most basic means any executive would rub their hands of organized groups of teens, medium-high purchasing power, die-hard fans sagas, characters and fantasy worlds. No need to guess your tastes but the proud display, create communities and even advertised, thanks to the internet, communicate directly with publishers and producers to let them know your opinion. On the other hand are not closed nuclei, a typical fan move between different "factions" and therefore it can be reached by different paths.
The fan is faithful, do not go to the cinema by chance but can say with some certainty that all will attend the premiere of his character or degree preferred, and have shown
Twilight or Harry Potter. It is also likely to buy merchandise, whether in the form of shirts, posters or pictures, the soundtrack or the DVD special editions. The list of subsidiary products can be almost infinite, as demonstrated by George Lucas with Star Wars
over the years.
Looking back at all this, imagine the appeal may tener para cualquier creador de contenidos audiovisuales el público fan frente al público estándar, al que hay que captar y atraer, y que no se plantea otras formas de interacción con una obra más allá de comprar la entrada o pagar el libro. Para el verdadero aficionado la verdadera experiencia comienza después.
La crisis de creatividad de Hollywood Además del público potencial, la tan cacareada crisis de creatividad de Hollywood es otro de los motivos que suelen esgrimirse para justificar la situación actual. Sin embargo la “crisis” es más bien una terrible falta de confianza que la situación económica actual ha acentuado aún más. Las productoras not want to risk investing in new stories, preferring to buy licenses of novels, comics or video games and make an audience in theaters, albeit minimal. This is sometimes strange situations propitious, as they acquired the rights of minor titles or unfinished work, as was the case
Nemesis, by Mark Millar. The label "cult" serves to justify the proliferation of adaptations, remakes and sequels, a succession of bastards that keep writers working on new material and probably better. Nolan himself, we talked about at first, was pulled off last year
origin, a written instrument for him and superior to any of their work "unoriginal."
The truth is that many will put on, a cult does not guarantee success, let alone the quality. In recent years a proliferation of films devoted to the main Marvel superheroes and if we listen to what seen so far (
Wolverine, X-Men 3
) rather than a safe bet the result is a Russian roulette. Perhaps the problem is the context in which production should be developed. To change the theme of the movie does not mean to change the directors, writers and actors should roll them. Professionals that can address projects with experience but without references to gender and think they must soften the stories to please the public, or adopt the same habit of tics and clichés that have been run to the cinema standard. In summary, process and assimilate the content into something more palatable, because ultimately there will always be fear and distrust of what is out of the ordinary, to which is governed by other rules.
We can not forget we are talking about an industry, always and above all an industry that has long put profits above art. It is difficult for the impersonal machinery of the big studios will worry about the integrity of the genera- horror, fantasy, science fiction, which until recently was synonymous with series B and whose stories, almost inexhaustible overflow, do not inspire the same respect as a screenplay by Billy Wilder and Stanley Kubrick.
Television, stronghold of the great
Fortunately not all bad news. Taking advantage of favorable weather television series have multiplied, with its share of remakes and adaptations, as
Battlestar Galactica, True Blood
or
The Walking Dead, but also with original ideas as
Lost, Supernatural
or Fringe
. The list of titles is immense and growing day by day.
Television is a medium fast demanding punishment for the failures, not in vain hopes to stay on the air from 3 to 5 years, but also enables creative experiments impossible in the big screen. Budgets are more affordable and errors can be corrected on the fly, the public can say, again via the Internet, and this feedback can only save both series as ordered to the fire. If anything can stand out of the past decade is the amount of securities class left us the different chains, probably contributing more to the fantasy genre the film itself.
The risk of devaluation and saturation content
On the negative side, there is a real danger of dying of success. That sells so well gender material has resulted in many clones of dubious quality, the work of authors interested in capitalizing on the phenomenon or work on commission. The shelves are filled with horror fiction / romance teen movies are filmed with great inspiration, low budget and balance scripts or squeeze the already established franchises until they are unrecognizable. There are too many audio-visual products and most are disappointing or are copies of degrees of success. Imitation is the order of the day, every month come zombie novels, manga-themed supernatural, anime or video games only differ from the previous month in the title or character design, and sometimes not even that.
Worse, as with a photocopy of a photocopy, these successive versions are blurred, leaving the essence that made them different in principle to become a more mainstream consumer product, which follow the guidelines established: again the specter of assimilation.
Hopefully, this action does not always serve to attract the public. Eventually the system will to evolve if it wants to avoid collapse due to the saturation of content. If the revolution becomes routine and the quality is diluted in a sea of \u200b\u200bcommercialism, the public will end up leaving with keen interest the mainstream and seeking new works of worship, more original, more honest and not have to pay tribute to the profit margins or sales expectations.
