Has Hollywood lost its edge?

Despite there being a called crisis in cinema as supposedly less people are going to the cinema than ever, box office takings are higher than ever at the moment mainly because ticket prices keep rising. There is crisis in film industry but it has nothing to do with ticket prices or cinema attendance the true crisis lies within the studios and their inability to risks anymore. In the last few years the box office top ten has been filled with sequels and re-booting of the old franchises and everything else that is released tends to be very by the books. The issue is not a lack of creative minds, it is the fact that they are constantly restrained by producers who unwilling to take any real risks that would alienate their audiences. They also allow themselves to be influenced by political and cultural pressures far too easily.

One example of this is the 'The Interview' that was pulled from release very quickly after North Korea claimed that they were offended by the film. The pulled release shows a genuine lack of artistic integrity that they are willing to bin a film because a few people find the film a bit offencive. The reality is that 'The Interview' was no where near as offencive as 'Team America: World Police', which left no stone unturned in terms of offending people of the time. 'The Interview' was just a typical Rogan/Franco film that happened the to be set in North Korea and there was no real political edge to the film, which left me wondering how this film was able to cause such chaos in Hollywood. Another example is 'Selma', which was a very gripping film that contained some fantastic performances but it didn't break any ground and just told everyone that Martin Luther King was good person who stood up for his oppressed people, which isn't exactly a new and groundbreaking idea. Although on the surface and in the background of the events in Ferguson many saw 'Selma' as a film that was breaking new ground, but in reality it was a very by the books Hollywood film that didn't really bring any new ideas it just told you what you knew already.

There are moments when studios throw a curve ball and really surprise you. Marvels 'Guardians of the Galxey' could be seen as one of these moments, the studio took a risk with a film that wasn't exactly in line with what they had been making. They even allowed writer and director James Gunn to use his own creative styles to give the film a unique feel. The risk paid of for them and Marvel were praised for finally breaking some new ground. However it wasn't long until they went back to their old ways after they gave Edgar Wright  the sack on the 'Antman' project over creative differences, because he wasn't willing to let the studio to dictate his every move.

We are currently being littered with reboots and imaginations of old franchises as studios seem very unwilling to realease anything new that could upset audiences, and if something new does become successful they just milk the success with as many sequels as possible. There are some opportunities for some film makers to be creative and bring new ideas to the table. For example Christopher Nolan has been able to do this with his recent films 'Interstellar' and 'Inception'. However some of the older film makers who made their name with exciting new ideas that hadn't been seen before like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron find themselves trapped creatively as studios are no longer happy to take a risk and are quite happy to make a new Jurassic Park or Star Wars if it keeps the viewers happy.

There is no real sign of a real end to this creative rut as studio life in Hollywood is becoming more and more political. Many of the Oscar nominated films this year were very by the books dramas that didn't really break any new ground. The only film to have taken a real risk was 'Boyhood', but the story itself was quite bland and didn't offer anything new. There is a real risk that all the politics around making a film could risk sucking the creativity out of Hollywood and it could be long time till we some true classics again.

The New Age of Cinema

In 2008 ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ received 8 Oscars including a well deserving Best Director win for Danny Boyle. Most people will see this as just another year for the film industry, however people within the industry viewed it as being a turning point. It was the first film to have success at the Oscars that was filmed digitally rather than on 35mm film. Showing how much this technology has moved on since the 90's when it was snubbed by most film makers until Danish Film makers like Thomas Vinterburg began using it too great effect, which resulted in Danny Boyle making a partnership with Antony Dod Mantle who went on to make 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire and there is no doubt that without digital camera's Danny Boyle would not have unable to capture the fast lifestyle in the slums of Mumbai, which made the film so appealing to critics.

This reopened the debate on whether digital film is a new tool for the future or a step back for filmmakers. In the new documentary Side by Side, Keanu Reeves spoke to both James Cameron and George Lucas who both seemed adamant that digital was the future. George Lucas being one of the first to embrace digital film on a large scale with his so called film ‘Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace’, which was the first major blockbuster to be filmed digitally. James Cameron has revolutionized cinema with his spectacular creation of the film Avatar which used 3D to improve the film rather than to increase its revenue. Other filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan believe that 35mm still has a strong future in cinema. Scorsese view is that continued digital filming will increase use of CGI and special effect resulting in audiences no longer believing that what they are seeing on their screen is real.

There is no doubt that digital has opened up new opportunities in cinema. Films can be made at less cost giving more opportunity to independent filmmakers and Sundance Festival is receiving more and more entries every year. Director JJ Abrams said 'anyone can make a big film now all your need is the software and a camera'. So are we seeing a process by which the exclusive club of filmmakers is being cheapened as anyone can make a film now? The film makers club may be less exclusive but distributors still only choose the highest quality films so that only the best makes it too your local cinema.

So what does the future hold, there is no doubt that digital will come to be used more frequently with the technology becoming more and more reliable and producing better quality, but the relationship that film makers hold with 35 film is one that will not be easily broken as the quality and reality one receives can still not be matched with digital film and top directors like Scorsese, Nolan and Tarintino are all sticking to 35 mm and will be for awhile.