Television Increasingly Attracting Film Screenwriters

In the world of entertainment, it isn't news to hear that the most promise for Hollywood screenwriters no longer exists in the world of film, but in television. Once the bastard stepchild to cinema, TV is in the midst of trailblazing its own tracks and creating a new frontier for entertainment.

After reality TV took over the airwaves, it was hard to imagine that television would ever make a comeback.  I certainly wasn't a believer.  It only seemed to me that things would get worse.  But like Robert Downey Jr. And Ben Affleck TV has made a momentous comeback in just a few short years. 

Yes, the reality shows keep coming, but they are becoming easier to avoid with increasing number of quality programming that's available.  Television is now where you can find solid writing and multiple shows worthy of binge-watching.  Television is where multi-layered plots and diverse characters can co-exist with great storytelling and roles that traditional "movie stars" want to play.

Now the role's are reversed and it's film I worry about.  Film, most of all.  That's where it all began...

But if there's one thing Hollywood loves more than anything, it's a good comeback.  I hope Hollywood films can stage their own, but that would mean taking risks on financing movies about real people and not comic book characters with super-human powers and franchise appeal.  The writers are still writing and the stories exist, but it's television and cable networks that are snatching up the good stuff and giving writers the opportunities and acclaim that once only came with a "Written by" credit on the big screen.

(c) Copyright 2014 by K.Liedle/@cococaffeine

For more on this topic from the perspective of screenwriters, check out this link from today's Los Angeles Times:  https://twitter.com/kennethturan/status/513784987225952256

The Touch. The Feel. Of Film.

It's nearing the end. The lights are on. The magic is gone. Movies on a flash drive, digitized and pixelated. This is where we've arrived. I knew this day would come, but I didn't know exactly how or when.

I remember when we painstakingly cleaned the 8mm family movies my grandfather had shot. We sprayed a chemical on it and carefully brushed away the dust, dirt and fingerprints. We did this frame-by-frame, reel-by-reel. The process gave me a respect for film and respect for my family's past--long before I even existed. I learned that film was to be treasured and preserved--not cast aside and neglected. In actuality, there may be no way to screen these films in the future.

In past few years, theaters have been disposing their film projectors in favor of digital projectors. This is the future, as much as I hate to admit it. Digital projectors go for upwards of $150,000 or more while an industry film projector will set you back about $35,000-$50,000. That figure's probably less now that theaters are unloading their 35mm projectors to anyone who will take them. It makes me angry and sad. The lifespan of a film projector used to be 30-40 years, but rumor has it that some theaters have apparently even resorted to selling them for scrap. In contrast, digital projectors may last you ten years, but we all know that technology will advance and those digital projectors you buy today will be obsolete tomorrow.

I admit; I'm attached to film. I'm attached to its texture, its richness, its depth, its majesticness, and ultimately, its fragility. With film, every frame-- like every moment of our lives-- flickers only briefly. Moments matter. They make up our past and determine our future.

From beginning to end, film sputters and spools its way to the screen. It works hard to put on a show: running 24 frames per second, 16 frames per foot, and 90 feet per minute. Digital is robotic. Point and click. Hit start. It does what you tell it to do. No emotion. No connection. Functional, it is. Beautiful, it is not.

Traditional studio prints are about $1500. Digital? Not much more than the cost of a flash drive. Although, the upfront cost for digital (projectors) is higher for exhibitors, it's cheaper in the long-term for everyone. Cheaper to shoot. Cheaper to distribute. Cheaper to exhibit. I'm glad that digital filmmaking has brought costs down especially for the independent filmmaker. And the quality of digital is getting better and better. However, there's no question that something has been lost... Cinema Paradiso.

© 2011 by KLiedle