Why Good Actors Do Bad Movies
People tend to be really surprised when an actor or actress they really like winds up in a film that is terrible. More often, the actor in question takes a starring role in a movie that ends up being "just okay". Exactly who you think is a good performer, and which of the films they've been in is bad, is your own opinion. I'm not going to provide specific examples, since that's too subjective, but we can all think of a time when we've seen an actor we like in a movie that was difficult to sit through.
I'm not in the film industry; I'm a complete outsider who only ever worked on video productions for his high school TV Productions class, back when cameras recorded directly onto VHS tapes. But, when a critically acclaimed actor ends up in a film that's not well received by audiences or critics, it hardly comes as a surprise to me. The reason, I'm sure, lies in the difference between reading a movie's screenplay and actually putting what's on paper into practice. Movie stars, when they're choosing their roles, have very little to go on besides the script. They read the story, which lacks many of the elements that make a movie entertaining. It lacks depth, visuals, and the exact sense of flow. Knowing what the final result will be is not a function of the actor (usually), but instead of the efforts of the director and the many crew members involved in executing the production of the film.
Being a film director must be difficult. You have a vision, and you have to convey this vision to all of the other people working with you on the film. You need to find a way to point all of these different people in the same direction. You need to get the producers thinking that your idea will work. You need to have faith that the people in marketing will do your film justice when the time comes to create commercials, to communicate to the audience what the film is about. And you have to hope that critics, and the audience themselves, actually like it.
Talk about a labor of love.
The film industry interests me from this perspective. If the competition weren't so numerous and stiff for landing roles, I would love to be an actor in a television or film, just to witness how the whole process goes down. (It would also help if I could act, which I cannot.) Heck, screw the limelight...I'd be content being a gaffer or a production accountant, just to watch a halfway decent film director work his magic.
I think the challenges facing those who make movies are common to anyone working on a project that involves more than two or three people. According to The Mythical Man-Month, in the software business, as you add more people to a project in the middle of putting together a large piece of software, you actually make things more complicated and things take longer. The more people you have, the more people you have to get communicating with each other; therein lies the challenge.
When you're working on a movie with a multi-million dollar budget with hundreds of people involved, things are going to get ugly at times. Mistakes will be made, tempers will flare. You might remember that costly accident at the beginning of Tropic Thunder, when the confusion on a large movie set in the film caused a series of expensive explosives to be detonated when the cameras weren't rolling. People spent a lot of time flapping their gums in criticism of Christian Bale for losing his cool with a crew member on the set of filming the latest Terminator flick. These kinds of things don't come as a surprise to me; in my opinion, they're to be expected in any work environment with large groups of people working together. When you consider all of the factors involved, it's amazing that films ever end up getting made and released in the first place.
And when movies are done well, it seems easy.
I'm not in the film industry; I'm a complete outsider who only ever worked on video productions for his high school TV Productions class, back when cameras recorded directly onto VHS tapes. But, when a critically acclaimed actor ends up in a film that's not well received by audiences or critics, it hardly comes as a surprise to me. The reason, I'm sure, lies in the difference between reading a movie's screenplay and actually putting what's on paper into practice. Movie stars, when they're choosing their roles, have very little to go on besides the script. They read the story, which lacks many of the elements that make a movie entertaining. It lacks depth, visuals, and the exact sense of flow. Knowing what the final result will be is not a function of the actor (usually), but instead of the efforts of the director and the many crew members involved in executing the production of the film.
Being a film director must be difficult. You have a vision, and you have to convey this vision to all of the other people working with you on the film. You need to find a way to point all of these different people in the same direction. You need to get the producers thinking that your idea will work. You need to have faith that the people in marketing will do your film justice when the time comes to create commercials, to communicate to the audience what the film is about. And you have to hope that critics, and the audience themselves, actually like it.
Talk about a labor of love.
The film industry interests me from this perspective. If the competition weren't so numerous and stiff for landing roles, I would love to be an actor in a television or film, just to witness how the whole process goes down. (It would also help if I could act, which I cannot.) Heck, screw the limelight...I'd be content being a gaffer or a production accountant, just to watch a halfway decent film director work his magic.
I think the challenges facing those who make movies are common to anyone working on a project that involves more than two or three people. According to The Mythical Man-Month, in the software business, as you add more people to a project in the middle of putting together a large piece of software, you actually make things more complicated and things take longer. The more people you have, the more people you have to get communicating with each other; therein lies the challenge.
When you're working on a movie with a multi-million dollar budget with hundreds of people involved, things are going to get ugly at times. Mistakes will be made, tempers will flare. You might remember that costly accident at the beginning of Tropic Thunder, when the confusion on a large movie set in the film caused a series of expensive explosives to be detonated when the cameras weren't rolling. People spent a lot of time flapping their gums in criticism of Christian Bale for losing his cool with a crew member on the set of filming the latest Terminator flick. These kinds of things don't come as a surprise to me; in my opinion, they're to be expected in any work environment with large groups of people working together. When you consider all of the factors involved, it's amazing that films ever end up getting made and released in the first place.
And when movies are done well, it seems easy.