Film, Radio and TV - 7 |
Complicating the NPPA film ratings process is the fact that what's deemed acceptable changes every year—sometimes, it seems, every month.
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What's new and different is often exciting. What's old and familiar is typically just that—old and familiar. The key is to aim concepts safely in the green area—not too far ahead and not too far behind the times. This is a major factor in hitting your target audience in TV and film. Note that all this has nothing to do with period pieces, films that are set in the past. The Academy Award for the best picture in 1998 went to Shakespeare in Love. Before that Titanic won best picture. But even though these films were period pieces, the treatment of the subject matter was close enough to the cutting edge to hold audience attention.
Tailoring Film Distribution toGeography and Demographics For example, the film The Omega Code, which espoused Christian concepts and was produced by Trinity Broadcasting Network was mainly released in the conservative "Bible belt" of the United States. It did very well there, surpassing $2.4 million in its opening week. The film had been widely publicized in churches and on the TBN Christian network. Many films target black audiences. Some, such as the "Shaft" films, featured black stars, but their appeal cut across race and demographics. Black directors, such as Spike Lee and John Singleton (Do the Right Thing, She's Got to Have It, Clockers, Mo' Better Blues, Malcom X, Boyz 'N the Hood) have also made a major impact. Viewer preferences in television programming differ greatly in different parts of the country. Series like "Touched By An Angel," with its religious theme, did better in conservative areas of the United States than, for example, either "NYPD Blue" or "Law & Order, Special Victims Unit," with their frequent sexual themes.
This means that an educated person who grew up in a northern city would tend to be more accepting of sexual themes than a person with less education who grew up in a small southern town. (Incidentally, over the last few decades, age as a factor has not always been a reliable indicator.) And
if all this doesn't complicate things enough, they must remember from the
"Moving Target" drawing Even so, all of this represents just one of the many elements involved in a film's success. Against this background there are such things as star power, the "chemistry" between actors, the story line, cinematography, special effects, editing, and, most importantly, marketing.
Predicting Success Is Not a Science For example, the foreign film Melana was heralded as a triumph of filmmaking by some reviewers and it even won two Academy Award nominations. However, some reviewers panned the film as being one of the worst films they had ever seen. Even though the Academy members found the film worthy of awards, some reviewers were clearly uncomfortable with the adolescent sexual honesty. Film studios, which lose money on eight out of ten films they release, obviously don't have a surefire system of determining success—even with tens of millions of dollars riding on their judgment. Adding to the confusion, reviewers may pan a film, only to find it becomes the number one film in the country. And many films that have gotten excellent reviews are snubbed at the box office. In most cases, "word of mouth" carries more weight than what reviewers say. A good example is My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which we discussed earlier. Not listed below is the film, Avatar, which as of
February, 2010, had brought in a record two-billion dollars world-wide. Even
though the final figures were not known at that point, it was obvious that
Avatar would be the most financially successful film of all-time.
3-D Films For decades attempts were made to introduce launch 3-D in films. In fact, the idea of presenting images to audiences in 3-D dates back to the mid-1800s. Although almost half of the top-10 highest grossing movies of 2009 were offered in 3D, relatively few people saw them in three-dimensions. It wasn't until 2010 and the film, Avatar, that audiences warmed up the idea in large numbers. 
The futuristic 3-D spectacle about love and war set on a distant moon, took motion tracking (performance capture) and animated realism to a new level. Using this technique, camera movements were recorded while the "real" human actors went through their parts and animated their respective computer generated likenesses. Avatar was released in 2-D, 3-D and IMAX 3-D and relied almost entirely on computers and high-definition video cameras. Video projectors were used in many theaters that showed it in 3-D.
Meanwhile, there has been a shift from using film to using high-definition video in motion picture production. Today, the majority of theaters
are equipped to show digital (video) versions of pictures. This not only greatly
cuts the cost of making and distributing films but, as this article on
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traditional, ideas and values, it will probably fail.
Generally speaking, the acceptance of sexual themes in films and on
TV is positively related to the educational level and the urban-rural
background of audiences.
