Quality via consensus and the Box office
Here is a list of the highest Grossing films of 2017. I know, I know you are saying, "But Taraz doesn't do lists." I do not but, this is a little different to perhaps clarify some points at Steemit.
- Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) ...
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) ...
- Beauty and the Beast (2017) ...
- Despicable Me 3 (2017) ...
- The Fate of the Furious (2017) ...
- Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) ...
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) ...
- Justice League (2017)
This is 'quality' via group consensus in action. The only one on that list I have seen is Beauty and the Beast because well, it is a 'tale as old as time' and, I was with my wife.
Now, I am sure that many of you have seen most, if not all of these films so let me ask you, which of them fundamentally made you think differently, change behaviours and make your life better? I am not talking about making you feel better while watching or discussing it later, I mean improved your everyday life experience in some way, increased your quality of existence. I would suggest not many and if they did, not much.
But according to IMDB: 1.6B, 1.1B, 1B, 960M, 950m, 910M, 890M, 800M. Together, that is 8.21 Billion dollars spent by millions of people just to see the films, let alone the money to produce them which is about 70% of the gross takings. Almost 14 billion spent on very little value past a way to spend a couple hours. This doesn't include the merchandising or after sales, just the box office.
Now, look at that list again and tell me if you see the pattern.....
None of them are even close to original and the stories that are are spin-offs from previous versions. Of course, there is no such thing as an original idea but, these don't shift very far from the 0 point on a distribution of creativity, do they?
What gets highly rewarded in the movie industry? What people already know, what people already expect, track-records - comfort.
This is the same for 'quality' at Steemit too IF one regards rewards as an indicator of quality of content. The beauty of Steemit is that the group decides via their preferences and their stakes as to what is quality content and as individuals, we are largely comfortable supporting what we already know, what doesn't push our boundaries too far.
There is nothing wrong with this except for one major problem, what doesn't change us for the better has no personal value to us, not in the short-term, nor the long. If what we are consuming is not conducive to better health of experience, why consume it? The answer is simple; entertainment.
We entertain the mind and body to avoid dealing with the shortcoming we face in ourselves and our experience. We take our mind off the stresses of life and instead bury our heads in the sands. Do we expect that when we raise our heads and spit out the dust that the circumstances of our lives are magically changed for the better?
The problem with consensus in regards to indication of quality is that for the most part, what we consume is a guided experience based on a mass push for popular appeal. We learn to enjoy it via repetition and when the time comes for the powers that be to allow us free choice, we choose exactly what we have been programmed to choose. Not much changes as we support what makes us feel comfortable.
The challenge is, change is always a movement away from where we are now and positive change generally requires the putting down of the entertainment, pleasures and topics of avoidance to pick up the tools of work, the tools to build. It is not a comfortable movement as it requires emotional and psychological suffering as the *Fear of missing out' on pleasure takes hold.
What we consider quality these days in the world has been hacked by a system designed to restrict our ability to choose differently, to train us to choose what benefits a few, rather than the many. It is no different at Steemit currently as that is where we are comfortable playing.
Perhaps we each need to go back to ourselves and ask if we are in the position we want to occupy, if our life experience is what we want it to be, if the world at large is the kind of place we want to live.
What answers arrive, what hurdles do we face, what needs to happen in your opinion to make this world better? Are you doing them, or are you waiting for an authority to brainwash the masses to behave better? That is not what authorities do.
TL:DR - If it doesn't improve experience, how much value does it hold?
A tale as old as time...
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
- Do you think the 14 Billion dollars spent so far just making and watching those 8 movies could have been used in a better way?
Quality: one’s trash is the other’s quality.
As proven by above movie list. As proven by most best selling lists (or best selling/most visited news sites/papers).
Indeed, best selling lists are largely an indicator of average minds.
most excuse trash as "so bad it's good"
aka, the Room effect
I prefer to think "so bad it's good" is Will Ferrel in Get Hard.
Men Behaving Badly, Father Ted, Black Books: so bad it's good (rather so awesomely bad/un-PC it's good).
Trash: Baywatch the movie. That was just bad.
Related: Michael Bayhem (not related to me btw).
The Room is on another level for its lack of self awareness
Your right about this @tarazkp. We crave for these movies but when we reflect about them after watching them.. we realise we've put to waste more than 2hours of quality time. Time if put to good use can be used to learn something new in life. And yet billions are spent on producing these movies. I think the 14 Billion dollars spent so far just making and watching these 8 movies could have been used in a better way.. There are a lot of innovations going on around the globe that require more funding to complete. These innovations would still bring back much returns from the investments made. Just like the returns from producing the movies.. just that in innovation, the world would become a much better place for the current and the future generation.
I often get the same enjoyment by reading a book than going to the cinema. The problem is, most people don't like reading books, and a book is almost always more time consuming and expensive than any blockbuster film.
Yes.
Wow yet another food for thought ...What goes on in the movie industry and in the world at large can also be likened to what happens here in my country. A music will be released and you will hate it after listening to it for the first time. Soon you start hearing it everywhere and start seeing it being played repeatedly in tv and subconsciously you start enjoying it and soon it becomes one of your favorites , not because you like it but because it's been pushed into your subconscious by popular demand.
So really I think the concept of quality these days is based on what the majority think. Excpet for a few like you who, most of the times, have a different opinion . #smiles
All Work and no play makes Jack a dull boy...so I wouldn't categorically call itbabwaste after all. Sometimes we need to unwind and these are the things we use to do just that
Repetition is the mother of learning and the sister of boredom
Brainwashed. There is actually a methodology for this. If I remember correctly you could search Outkasts - Hey Ya to find how they do it.
How much time unwinding and how much creating? What are we unwinding from, our problems?
Despicable me 3, The fate of the furious and pirate of the Caribbean have really been a disappointment to me when they came out. Obviously most of them still live in pass glories of earlier episodes.
Of course there are more ways that the money would have been used. But then we have to balance our lives so its okay to have put lots of cash in making these movies. But with that amount we would have expected more creativity out there.
Meh, I have better things to do than watch them and better ways to invest my time, money and attention. It actually helps me that so many people are willing to spend their effort entertaining themselves as it means less competition.
there is no need for risky creativity when regurgitation works for most franchises
Taraz, to me that sounds a bit extreme.. :D Of course we get spoonfed a certain type of entertainment, but that's because these industries know it will bring revenue. I think people go to the movies to forget life for a few hours, and the majority thinks the best way to do that is to watch these action-packed movies. The storyline isn't the main focus anymore for the costumers, and that's fine. It's about enjoying the cinematography, the loud bangs, the flashes, the explosions, the visual effects... These no-brain movies (which I don't mean in a bad way) are what attracts a lot of people. It's a good way to ease the mind for a bit I guess.
Are those 8 films worth 14B dollars? That's an whole other question... But if that money resulted in millions of people getting entertained and forget about their worries for a while, then it can't be too bad....
what about movies that are made to worry people?
...
How many escapes to 'forget about worries' for a while are needed? Perhaps people should find ways to reduce the negative experiences that worry them instead of increasing the ways of escape.
When the people arise, entertain them.
the entertainment industry is Hugh , must be a trillion world wide . People have to escape the everyday hassle of life . What a nightmare it would be if people did not have something to escape to . Population of the planet would be tripled .
I think people need to deal with their everyday hassles.
that is is true , I believe that most people escape it then deal with it . Its easier .
how does it go
why do it today when you can put it off until tomorrow .
that's it
Getting high can have the same effect XD
Different escape. same result
everyone has their own method . from hobbies to entertainment and everywhere in between
Hollywood is the modern Roman colloseum. People go there to forget their worries by seeing other people struggling in the most basic and usually horrible ways. Television exists to scare us with other places far worse than ours, so we will be pleased with what we have.
nowadays film industries is running more speed. i hope in future it will get more speed in future
whoosh
Not sure what you’re trying to say but absolutely sure it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
Lmaoooo
Hahahahaha.
I think... too much speed.
Film industries running speed. Back in 1994 and in the future?
Now that I've seen the new star wars my fundamental thinking of the force is ever changed. And now I can once again better dream of being a Jedi knight and wooshing with a light saber and things like that! Awesomeness.
To be honest, it doesn't really have to change my life. As long as I like it. Does it matter if everyone is taught to like the same things? Wouldn't it be good if everyone always just agreed? That would fix a lot of problems. There wouldn't even be problems. Someone says that we need to fix the climate, we fix the climate. Someone says we need better quality content, we make better quality content. But that is just a dream.
As for creativity. The misconception about creativity is that it is something innate. I don't believe that, actually I know that it isn't that simple. Everyone is creative when given the chance. Some people just know how to channel it better. Of course there are some differences, but mostly creativity comes from around us and the ability to use existing things to come up with something new.
Yes. How creative can people be when time is spent consuming and the masses tell the next step to take?
Each person understands the next step differently. The closest step might be highly similar but through variation the next step after that already differs more and more. A kind of compounding effect of variability can be perceived. The average of today and the average of the 2000's the 1990's the 1980's are all very different. But who would've predicted this?
After having a wow moment with Fast and furious 7, I expected more from "The Fate of the Furious", but only not to derived the kind of joy I initially expected from it.
However, I had learnt something beautiful about team work and family. And about making peace with people and working with a former enemy turned friend.
Nonetheless, the monies invested into the production of some of these movies is sometimes just superfluous.