Whatever happened to the good old days?
There’s a lot wrong with Hollywood and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences these days. Fresh ideas are noticeably absent, casual racism is startlingly rampant, casual sexism is the status quo, and the presence of studios impedes novelty at an alarming rate. Movies that should be made, movies that should be screened, and movies that should be awarded for their efforts are few and far between, as studios continue to leap on the next installment of famous franchises practically begging to be ignored.
In short, like most American industries, much stock has been placed in making money, while maintaining an air of decency and grace now plays second-fiddle. Even the Oscars, a once glamorous and extravagant affair filled to the brim with Hollywood’s best and brightest has been reduced to a comedic footnote on the tongue of every host dishonoured enough to grace the stage with their presence.
“Tonight we honour Hollywood’s best and whitest – I mean brightest,” quipped Neil Patrick Harris, the host of the 87th Academy Awards, in his opening monologue.
Harris’ joke will be much retweeted and commented on in the weeks to come; pundits, preachers, and gurus will no doubt remark on Harris’ sexuality and his ethnicity while lambasting or lauding the TV and film star. The point still stands – as more and more people take to social media to share their opinions and insights, the more likely it will seem that Hollywood is in complete disarray. The sad truth of the matter, however, is that Hollywood might very well be the last American industry that can afford to inject $250 million into an endeavour only for it to spectacularly implode in a sea of bad publicity without a single person being fired.
That being said, there’s something wrong with the global economy if a film like Life of Pi can gross $609 million on a $120 million budget – as well as win Oscars for best director, cinematography, visual effects, and original score – only to scuttle the visual effects company that brought the film to life. Now, more than ever before, money talks at the movies, and only the people who are guaranteed to make money are given an opportunity to make it big in Hollywood. As for independent filmmakers, it seems that studios are becoming less and less willing to give up-and-coming artists a chance to have their visions shine on-screen.
There is, however, another side to this story that perhaps I’ve failed to acknowledge. We live in an era where anyone with an iPhone and a Wi-Fi- connection can learn to become an award-winning filmmaker. Ignoring Searching for Sugarman, a 2012 Oscar-winning documentary whose director famously completed filming using an 8mm camera app for his iPhone, literal guerilla filmmaking seems to be leaving its mark on the industry.
An article on media website The Verge, “How one of the best films at Sundance was shot using an iPhone 5S,” went into great detail to explain how Tangerine, a film directed by Sean Baker, was shot using an $8 iPhone app.
“So how do you make a Sundance movie for iPhone?” asked Casey Newton, from The Verge, in the article. “You need four things. First, of course, the iPhone (Baker and his team used three).”
“Second, an $8 app…Third a Steadicam…The final ingredient was a set of anamorphic adapter lenses that attached to the iPhone.”
All in all, an amazing Sundance Film Festival screener can be shot using equipment that barely totals $5000. For the financially-minded laughing at my grandiose figure, consider that the starting price for an ARRI AMIRA ALEXA camera – the device used to shoot the Oscar-nominated Selma – begins at $40,000.
My point stands: it’s easier than ever to make a movie, it’s easier than ever to fund a movie, and it’s certainly easier than ever to publish a movie. Social media travels at astonishing speeds, and sometimes, all it takes to become YouTube famous is a single well-timed tweet. For an industry that has long heralded itself as the heart of cinema all over the world, the presence of the internet is no longer a future terror, but a clear, present threat.
What, then, of the Oscars? What of Hollywood? What of the Academy? It seems clear that the human race loves cinema. In spite of the growing threat television provides to film, in spite of the millions invested in genuinely gripping ventures like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones, in spite of the large sums being invested in studios like Netflix and Amazon, there will always be room in the economy to support a prosperous film industry. For the simple, silly, sentimental reason that humans love movies, there will always be an industry dedicated to delivering two- to three-hour-long stories to audiences all over the world.
How this industry chooses to present itself, whom this industry chooses to cater to, and in what way this industry chooses to adapt, time will only tell. For one, the “AskHerMore” hashtag is a fantastic start to solving the problem Hollywood has with women. Soon, perhaps the Academy will choose to honour filmmakers of all gender, colours, and creeds, instead of heaping praise unto the old, white men who are the butt of every Oscar-snub joke. Until such a time, marginalized groups whose stories, opinions, and ideas are ignored by Hollywood will continue to splinter off to form groups and factions dedicated to the simple notion that everyone has a story that deserves to be heard.
In his now-legendary Post-9/11 Oscar Opening Speech in 2002, Cruise invoked the events of 9/11 by drawing parallels between watching the towers crashing to the ground – feeling that emotion – and experiencing watching a movie.
“We’re all here tonight or sitting at home watching because something came off a movie screen – a little bit of magic touched our lives,” said Cruise. “You always remember where you were – the theatre, the popcorn, the people you were with when it happened.”
The thing is, I love the Academy Awards, and I really do love Hollywood. The opportunities created, the stories told, and the lives changed by the best Hollywood movies continue to resonate through the annals of time and through the hearts of millions. As with all industries, Hollywood must, and will, change – if only to avoid becoming consumed by its own irrelevance.