What does ‘Hollywood’ movie mean?

I read movie reviews, recaps, lists, featurettes, gossip, and more on Movie blogs. One phrase that often recurs is negatively describing movies as ‘Big-Budget Hollywood’. Since when was this bad? Lets make a list:

• Big Budget yet disappointing: Bad
• Big Budget: Good!
• Big Budget, poor execution: Bad
• Hollywood: not really good or bad, it’s a place

Generally, it all has to do with the promotion. Looking at actual numbers, usually fantasy, sci-fi, or other hi-tech needed movies are big budget, They require special effects, and they cost money. The actual cost of a movie is generally proportional to the effort that went into it. Special effects, numerous actors, raise the cost, but when a movie is described as ‘big budget’ usually it just means ‘well-promoted’. Possibly ‘over-promoted’.

TRON: Legacy is a good example, as it is a ‘big budget Hollywood movie’. Tons of money went into it, and much of that was the over-the-top promotion for the movie.

The point I am poorly trying to make is that describing a movie as 'Hollywood’ doesn’t mean anything! There is not a secret set of directors and screenwriters that all work for the man, churning out blockbusters while independent and cult directors make their own movies, the hard way. Stop describing movies as ‘Hollywood’. What does that mean anyway? Every movie, good movies, bad movies, ugly movies, they all had humans creating it. People putting time, effort, energy into their storytelling creations. Somebody had to write TRON, had to edit AVATAR, had to film The Last Airbender. Movies are created by humans! When a disappointing blockbuster comes out, and I hear people talking about how ‘Hollywood butchered another good series’ (remake?) or how its just ‘another Hollywood over-the-top action film’. It is not Hollywood! Hollywood is a location, a community, and an icon, but not a group of people. (it is a massive community, yes, but not the type that makes these individual movies) You should be saying that people butchered your beloved 50’s television show, and that people created a self-propelled plot with too many flashy bits!

Stop attributing a city to the creation of movies. Use directors and writers names, or even the name of the producing company. Please.

Potentially flawed, un-researched, and stream of conscience, but I don’t care. This is my rant for the day.

Exploring 2010 Movie Data

Eventually turning these data graphs into a poster that I will have printed. First I must collect data (done!) then organize it (shit!) then graph it (fun!) and analyze it (shit!). This blog post is a stepping stone to the poster, I will be using Google's chart API while the poster will be designed in Illustrator, I just want a playground I can start playing with the data on.

Lets start with what I already have, the graphs I created for/on the website, that are created up to date every page load from the database. The following are saved images from 2010 only.

The most difficult graph to program:

(click for bigger)

This graph shows you that in 2010, I mostly watched movies from 2009. This is because I went through and tried to watch all of the best movies of 09 in 2010. Woohoo! OK, lets look at movies released in 2010 alone.

 Home vs. In a theater for movies released in 2010

 

 

 

 

Home vs. In a theater for all movies watched in 2010

 

 

 

These results are exactly what is to be expected, so no real analysis here. Up next, Some high definition!

HD vs. SD

 

 

 

This graph ignores everything seen in theaters, only focusing on what is viewed at home. Blu-ray, or HD streaming is HD, and the rest is SD. Again, this data is pretty standard, although I am surprised that HD is as high as it is.

First Time Seen vs. Seen

 

 

 

This one I am surprised at, I did not know I watched so many movies before. I would have expected the seen before graph to be a mere sliver. But whatever.

And now my favorite, a graph of the medium of movies watched.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the home v. theater graph with home sections elaborated on. Netflix takes the cake, with over half of the movies I see coming from them alone. Amazon instant I use mostly for TV shows. TV or Tape is the expected minority, and I am surprised to see ‘owned or borrowed’ just barely beating out movies in a theater. I would have expected myself to have watched more of the DVD’s that I own.

This ends the graphs that I have already created, Now it is time to start playing with Google's chart API yet again, and get dirty in the numbers.

I will probably update this post, or create another when I make more graphs and get more data.

Mild Paranoia

I have come to the conclusion that I have mild paranoia. Not legitimate paranoia, but paranoia of a sort. Amateur paranoia. Chronic Nervousness.

I have discovered this not because of a constant nervousness that plagues my brain, but rather, the means in which I prevent this from happening. It is not secret to anyone who knows me that I keep a knife on me at all times. During school, its just a small one in my backpack. Waiting in the car is a Leatherman ready to be fastened to my waist, where It will remain until society says ‘no knifes here’. Most people think it’s a cell-phone belt clip, and this avoids awkward situations.

It was only recently when a friend asked me why I kept one with me. “I don’t know” I replied. “Just in case. . . I mean, you never know.” My friend was not content with this as an answer, and he was really the one who came to the conclusion that I am a paranoid. “Dude, nothing bad will happen!” It was the conversation between us that forced me to enter my own mind and figure out why I have to have this protection on me. Knives and 550-cord are on my body at nearly all times! I came to the conclusion that the heavy multi-tool obstructing things and weighing down my belt makes me confortable. I am more comfortable when I have it than when I don’t. Therefore, I wear it. Besides, it is still a useful thing to have with you. As a person who likes to spend time studying and ‘hacking’ their own brain, I was curious if I could figure out a way to wean myself off of the knife habit. A bit more thinking led me to the conclusion that It wasn’t worth it. There is nothing socially wrong with having a knife on you, and if it makes me confortable, than that’s all right.

A creative thing a day

I have been trying to do this for the past 4 months or so. I won’t document it daily, but I will try and show any interesting things I do. If I write as part of one my writing projects, don’t expect to see anything, but if I draw something or do something musically, or do whatever interestingly enough, I might throw it a post over here. Heads up.

Creative things (reminder to self)

• Writing
• Art, Drawing
• Music, Harmonica Practice
• Website creation/design
• Programming
• Poetry (I know, right?)
• Art/Craft
• Whatever else

So I don’t know. I have been doing this for a little while, resorting to writing for most of my creative things (thingsthatarewin.com, anyone?), and I guess 2011 means I will try to stick to it more rigidly. Being creative is a good thing, right? Yeah. It is.

Quotes For Today

“Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.
–Chuck Close

“Requires surgical expertise and keen moral flexibility” – E merl.

thinking about taking that chuck close quote, grabbing some Helvetica and maybe a lens flare, making a desktop background

Finding Happiness

Adapted excerpt from an essay written as part of an application to a college. In regard to finding happiness.

. . .Ok, hobbies are different for everyone, maybe you have a secret passion for pin-hole photography or possibly cross country skiing. So what is a more universal answer to this find happiness question? My answer to that: creating and discovering. Discovering is the ultimate bringer of joy. Who doesn’t like watching Discovery Channel or Animal Planet? Not you? Liar. Learning things is naturally fun! The natural act of learning brings happiness, perhaps it is as simple as an evolutionary advantage -- learning things means survival. The brain releases endorphins when you succeed and while I do wholeheartedly believe this is the cause, that doesn’t mean it isn’t good! Creating is similar. Perhaps not as global as discovering, but look at the world. Creation is arguably the largest conveyor of happiness. From Lego sets to novels, writing to painting, filming to cooking, creating brings happiness in greater volume than anything else on this planet, and not just creating, but showing others your creation! . . .

Inane Art Workflow

My pattern art is a painful one. Simple in form -- Draw, but complex in execution -- Draw a lot; the art is time consuming at best and suicide inducing at worst. It involves extreme detail which takes place over months of work. All that aside, here is my (for self-reference) workflow:

Find a photo of subject (billy mays)
go to photoshop, black and white it, and cutout filter it.
(note, i dont actually use the cutout filter, but this effect is desired.)
print the simplified work, as if to carve a jack-o-lantern
Trace the outlines in pencil on the canvas at size.
draw, going from most detailed to least detailed areas.

It's that simple!