How Have Film & Television Trends Changed Over Time? Film Historian Jim Hemphill Weighs In (Part 2)

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Trends:

The Role Of Technology

Despite the exponential improvements in technology and visual effects to bring stories to life, have the types of stories that audiences enjoy changed that much? Not really, according to Jim. Filmmaking is certainly less expensive and more accessible, but that’s about it. You can now shoot a film on your phone!

There’s a lot more short-form storytelling and online content, but in terms of feature films, there isn’t much difference. The video/ DVD distribution model has simply moved onto VOD and streaming.

The relative ease of making a film has also produced a stunning array of content, but it has also created a glut in certain areas with a rushed, amateurish quality to them.

“You know, I hate this idea when people say, “Oh, just make films. No, make films with some thought and purpose behind them,” Jim asserts.

Risk aversion is something that hasn’t changed in Hollywood since the 1920s. In such a highly-speculative business, producers are looking for a “sure thing.” When something is a hit, a barrage of knock-offs, good and bad, soon follow.

“When The Thin Man came out, you had all kinds of sequels and remakes riding its coat tails. I just rewatched the 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon. We all know that’s a classic, but that was the third version of it that had been made in ten years.”

Curiously, Hemphill adds that reboots, remakes, adaptations, sequels, and spinoffs are also cyclical and follow business trends more than ever. Until audiences suffer fatigue.

The 60s were popularized by big roadshow musicals. Then, Easy Rider came out in 1969, which was as much about counter-programming as it was about counter-culture. It was an entrée into the hard-boiled, auteur-driven character dramas of the 70s, like Mean Streets in 1973.

By the mid-70s, these movies were superseded by what became the blockbuster. It was 1975 and the film was Jaws. Audiences went to see this multiple times.

In terms of film studios and their preference for existing IP, “it not only provides security for the studios, the networks, and the financiers. I also think that part of the reason it’s so prevalent is that it provides some security for the viewer too.”

 - IP acts as a security filter

Then there are movies like Babylon, Tár, and Blonde which made their mark on our screens. “I feel it’s essential to keep movies and TV shows exciting and inspiring, so you’ve gotta have that mix of the familiar and the new.” Although IP provides safety and familiarity, you also need a constant stream of original material to feed the pipeline to create new IP.

The horror hit M3gan, an original idea, is now going go become a TV series. Time and audience will dictate what other expressions of this will arise.

“I think the safest bet is spin-offs,” says Hemphill. After the success of the John Wick franchise, based on an original character by Derek Kolsted, we’ll see more of those. The stunning success of John Wick 4 laid the groundwork for the spinoff, Ballerina. John Wick 5 is also indevelopment.

Film Festivals

The festival circuit is certainly an avenue for independent filmmakers to get their material seen. They rely on a number of gatekeepers to allow entry and judge their films. Industry movers and shakers also need to attend these screenings with a check book and a credit line to make festivals a viable economic proposition.

“I definitely think a lot of the bigger festivals like Sundance and South by Southwest, are to a certain degree, closed off. There are really very few slots available at those festivals to a truly independent filmmaker who makes their movie on their own, with their own money, and without connections to the industry.”

As much as we love John Cassavetes films, “we don’t have the scale in independent filmmaking right now. The business is churning so independent movies don’t have that much of a path to profitability,” laments Hemphill.

“It’s a tricky time, but filmmaking has always been hard. I don’t think being a filmmaker has ever been easy. It’s not harder. It’s just different.”

We concluded our conversation by asking Jim Hemphill to name three movies he believes have shaped cinema in recent decades.

“I think, if you want to learn construction, the original Die Hard is a great movie to study. I think that the construction of that movie is just like a Swiss watch. And the way that that movie sets up and pays off everything is just brilliant.”

“You really can’t go wrong with Citizen Kane. That’s a very different kind of kind of screenwriting. It’s a great movie to study from a screenwriting point of view because there are so many different kinds of movies and screenwriting in it. It jumps through time. It has crazy montages, it’s a political satire, but it’s also a great character study. And, it seamlessly interweaves all these different things.”

“Back to the Future is another really great movie. It’s an elegantly constructed screenplay. And it’s an interesting one because, up until close to the time of shooting, the time machine was not a time machine in the original drafts of the script. It was a refrigerator. And that just shows you how one element changing can affect a movie.”

“And I’ll just throw out, as an honorable mention, if you’re interested in more unconventional forms of storytelling and more sort of elliptical personal forms, I think John Cassidy’s Love Streams is also a great movie to study.“