Terror/Horror

Khash Najib najibjp at yahoo.co.jp
Wed Aug 28 11:37:28 EDT 2002


> it's too early to
> really see any possible decline. The major movies
> that are coming out now
> have started production before September 11th.

Well I don't think so; the production cycle for most
Hollywood productions is surely shorter than a whole year.
I agree than the conception and planning phases do take
place over a year before release, but those phases consume
only a fraction of film budgets, and changing or canceling
planned projects, if they are perceived by the producers
to be risky or against the public mood, is a usual thing
to do. You know, even events as big as the then-scheduled
ceremony of the Emmy Awards was cancelled. Also don ’t
forget that the media was indeed sensitive to the obvious
enormous effects of the attacks on the national psyche.
Microsoft sited that they made the effort to erase the
twin towers from their games (some of which include many
fictional structures) not only for accuracy reasons but
because they thought that the sight of the towers might
provoke traumatic feelings in some users. And with the
anthrax scare that followed, I wouldn ’t be surprised if
film producers thought that it is not a good time for a
disaster flick.
I’m also not sure that the decline in “catastrophe
movies ” happened naturally or because of saturation in
the market. I feel that the genre is one of Hollywood ’s
bread-and-butter lines of production with its devoted
audience. I also think that those movies embody some of
Hollywood ’s most basic values, and some of the
industry’s favorite social, and even religious,
projections (perhaps the place of this argument is not in
this message, but I mean that the genre is not a temporary
fashion).
Anyway thank you for pointing out that the decline in such
productions is not as overwhelming as I had thought.
I was also wondering if producers of “Pearl Harbor”
would have gone ahead with the project had it been in its
earlier phases last September. Having said that, I am
aware of the validity of the opposite possibility. I mean,
some producers could have thought that nothing would be
more needed at a time like that than a film like Pearl
Harbor. After all, the film is about an attack that
America managed to weather, and which happened at the
beginning of a war that America won.
Well, no way to make sure of what would have happened to
Pearl Harbor. My basic question is about how much film as
a medium would respond to national mood. Apart from the
obvious  “yes, there is a relation between the political
atmosphere in a country and the films produced there ”, I
guess that young generations in many parts of the world
now, because of being less politicized than, say, in the
60s or 70s, are kind of separated from much of the serious
 “status of the world” discourse and enjoying an
“independent world ” of filmed entertainment, even if
the “status” concerned is of their own countries.
 
Cheers,
Najib







 --- Silvia Groniewicz <LinaInverse at blackbox.net> からの
メッセージ:
> >Dear List,
> >I hope some members find interest in the following
> three questions:
> >1- I don't know how statistically sound my
> observation is, but I have
> >noticed a decline in the American "catastrophy
> movie" phenomenon (volcanos,
> >earthquakes, floods...) since September 11. Do
> people here agree with me?
> 
> I disagree with you in that point. It's always an up
> and down for those
> kinds of movies and after we had seen nearly
> everything a break is only
> natural. Besides there have been a few "catastrophy
> movies" even though
> they are either fantasy ("Reign of Fire" a.k.a.
> "Dragons take over the
> world" and "Eight legged freaks" a.k.a. "Giant
> Spiders take over a town")
> or in the true life segment ("K19-The Widowmaker",
> the true story of
> Russian incident that could have caused a 3rd
> worldwar). I think that it
> only seems less, because those movies are not the
> summer-box-office hits
> that "Titanic" or "The Perfect Storm" were. Besides,
> it's too early to
> really see any possible decline. The major movies
> that are coming out now
> have started production before September 11th. 
> 
> Greetings,
> Silvia
> 

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! BB is Broadband by Yahoo!  http://bb.yahoo.co.jp/



More information about the KineJapan mailing list