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"Most drama today sucks" --- "This is called write-to-market" Yes. I doubt you disagree, but I needed to point that out. These two, along with writing-by-formu

"Most drama today sucks" --- "This is called write-to-market" Yes. I doubt you disagree, but I needed to point that out. These two, along with writing-by-formula, are intricately related. There's nothing wrong with writing being a racket. If you want to feel depressed and lack a sense of optimism in humanity, spend some time learning about the publishing industry. Woof. It's nothing but formulaic conservative market-driven darkness all the way down. AND all the players are well-established, they've driven out inefficiencies, and they've got plenty of tricks to keep the riff-raff out. They've been doing that for centuries. I don't like joking on HN, but this is a personal joke I've used for some time and seems appropriate: Want to start a new streaming series? Throw together a bunch of marketing-driven adjectives and end with "and they solve crimes." "She's a gay little person goth time-traveling alien, he's an autistic left-handed incel Quaker. They live in Portland, and together they solve crimes." My opinion is that people are going to eventually get sick of this stuff, much the same as they got tired of the B Monster Movies in the 50s, but who knows. Detective and True-Crime novels are perennials. Not my circus, not my monkeys. Working like this sounds to me like having a job I hate.

sph 2y ago
> "She's a gay little person goth time-traveling alien, he's an autistic left-handed incel Quaker. They live in Portland, and together they solve crimes." I'm pretty sure a Netflix executive would have signed on this concept based on this sentence alone half a decade ago. Now it seems the entire world is waking up to these formulaic data-driven products that have been pushed by media conglomerates for a decade. This is especially apparent in the gaming world, where big productions seemingly flop out of nowhere (cough Concord cough) while indie studios keep innovating. It's so easy to blame this phenomenon on rose-tinted glasses and older people like us thinking all old things are better than modern, but when the world wasn't decided by "data scientists" and corporate committees, there was more variety, more volatility. Lower lows but higher highs as well. I've been thinking about this a lot the other day while watching snippets of the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", wondering where pure, plain fun movies that are not pushing an agenda or pandering to some audience have gone. And now, in the current era of the remake, which still has to reach the film industry, it is gonna get worse. When they'll find they are unable to invent the new multi-billion franchise, why not go and remake and "modernise" an older one? It's basically free money.
- guitarlimeo 2y ago
  > "And now, in the current era of the remake, which still has to reach the film industry" You haven't heard of the Disney live-action remakes of the old classics? It's already starting to happen.
  - sph 2y ago
    I am not at all surprised. It's pure exploitation of a bias of human psychology: we do not like to leave our comfort zone, that's a fact. Why should they try to risk making something original, when remaking stuff that already exists guarantees you an audience and packed theatres? We had the decade of superhero flicks, we're entering the decade of remakes and re-imagining of beloved franchises of the past 100 years.
    - bonoboTP 2y ago
      What if the 20th century was the unusual time? How much "novel IP" was produced before, in the majority of human history and before? My impression is that inventing unique "3D" characters became common in the modern era. In deep time, people told stories with their cast of characters from their mythology, legends and sages. Folk tales are often written about trope, archetypal characters that are flat and predictable by modern standards. The expectation that new stories must be set in a freshly created "universe" with fully new characters is quite new. We may be returning to that old mode of storytelling where we repeat more. Just as people still play Shakespeare with new actors each time, why can't we retell a 20th century film with today's actors and technology? And why can't we make sequels about already beloved and known characters? Seems quite natural in fact. We now have a new canon for this era, and it consists of superman, and Darth Vader etc. The one (big) difference of course is that in the old times there was no concept of copyright and trademarks so people were free to recombine characters as they wished.
- taormina 2y ago
  Check out how Snow White has been going. The film industry is absolutely there, but the good news is it's going exactly as horribly as you predicted.

sph 2y ago

> "She's a gay little person goth time-traveling alien, he's an autistic left-handed incel Quaker. They live in Portland, and together they solve crimes." I'm pretty sure a Netflix executive would have signed on this concept based on this sentence alone half a decade ago. Now it seems the entire world is waking up to these formulaic data-driven products that have been pushed by media conglomerates for a decade. This is especially apparent in the gaming world, where big productions seemingly flop out of nowhere (cough Concord cough) while indie studios keep innovating. It's so easy to blame this phenomenon on rose-tinted glasses and older people like us thinking all old things are better than modern, but when the world wasn't decided by "data scientists" and corporate committees, there was more variety, more volatility. Lower lows but higher highs as well. I've been thinking about this a lot the other day while watching snippets of the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", wondering where pure, plain fun movies that are not pushing an agenda or pandering to some audience have gone. And now, in the current era of the remake, which still has to reach the film industry, it is gonna get worse. When they'll find they are unable to invent the new multi-billion franchise, why not go and remake and "modernise" an older one? It's basically free money.

guitarlimeo 2y ago
> "And now, in the current era of the remake, which still has to reach the film industry" You haven't heard of the Disney live-action remakes of the old classics? It's already starting to happen.
- sph 2y ago
  I am not at all surprised. It's pure exploitation of a bias of human psychology: we do not like to leave our comfort zone, that's a fact. Why should they try to risk making something original, when remaking stuff that already exists guarantees you an audience and packed theatres? We had the decade of superhero flicks, we're entering the decade of remakes and re-imagining of beloved franchises of the past 100 years.
  - bonoboTP 2y ago
    What if the 20th century was the unusual time? How much "novel IP" was produced before, in the majority of human history and before? My impression is that inventing unique "3D" characters became common in the modern era. In deep time, people told stories with their cast of characters from their mythology, legends and sages. Folk tales are often written about trope, archetypal characters that are flat and predictable by modern standards. The expectation that new stories must be set in a freshly created "universe" with fully new characters is quite new. We may be returning to that old mode of storytelling where we repeat more. Just as people still play Shakespeare with new actors each time, why can't we retell a 20th century film with today's actors and technology? And why can't we make sequels about already beloved and known characters? Seems quite natural in fact. We now have a new canon for this era, and it consists of superman, and Darth Vader etc. The one (big) difference of course is that in the old times there was no concept of copyright and trademarks so people were free to recombine characters as they wished.
taormina 2y ago
Check out how Snow White has been going. The film industry is absolutely there, but the good news is it's going exactly as horribly as you predicted.