Richard LittlerDec 5, 2023
This is no reflection on Wonka specifically, but...
FFS: Invest. In. New. Stories.
The last 30 years have seen remake after remake after reboot after prequel after spin-off.
So much of mainstream culture has become creatively timorous yet rapacious in its goal to milk intellectual properties dry.
Modern mainstream culture sometimes feels like a karaoke bar. Actually, an ouroboros in a karaoke bar. A never-ending cycle of consuming and re-consuming itself.
Show threadCharlie StrossDec 5, 2023

@Richard_Littler It's money-driven, innit? TV costs £0.5-3M/hour of running time to produce; movies are more like £50-100M/hour. So *nothing* gets made until the accountants green-light it, and they won't approve of anything new that isn't focus-grouped to hell, and recycling an IP with a proven track record is a safer bet than trying something new.

(FX: weeps over a pile of non-existent TV rights residuals after ~20+ years of media rights to 30+ books going nowhere.)

Show threadBob ThomsonDec 5, 2023
@cstross @Richard_Littler Gen X bias alert but what was different in the 80s when we saw original stories get made? Is it the corporatisation? Seemed like that started then with big conglomerates buying movie studios. Of course the 80s was the beginning of franchises and sequel-a-gogo too.
Show threadCharlie StrossDec 5, 2023
@bobthomson70 @Richard_Littler Corporatisation was the big thing—it happened in book publishing, too, as dozens of small publishers got hoovered up into the Big Six (currently down to the Big Five, soon to be the Big Four) multinational conglomerates. Film and TV similarly. Also note the rise of spin-off markets such as toys, pioneered by George Lucas, which made big hits vastly more lucrative.
Show threadAdvanced Persistent TeapotDec 5, 2023
@cstross @bobthomson70 @Richard_Littler also viewers expect higher production values now, employees and governments expect better safety, lots of things have contributed to increasing costs. Try running an 80s script past a modern audience and see how enthusiastically they respond (be ready to dodge the rotten fruit)
Show threadYami no senshiDec 5, 2023
@http_error_418 @cstross @bobthomson70 @Richard_Littler yes the CGI gets more and expensive by the movie I sometimes miss movies with practical effects
Show threadBob ThomsonDec 5, 2023
@Yaminosenshi there's an interesting video I watched the other day analysing the CGI in Attack of the Clones which makes the point many times about how the CGI artists are expected to do more and more with fewer and fewer resources in money and people and time. Reminiscent of the exploitative nature of the games industry.
Show threadYami no senshi
@bobthomson70 there was a situation of overworking CG artists quite recently at Disney more specifically Marvel it got so worse the Quality of the CGI at the recent marvel shows and movies got worse so they fired the lady responsible for that department and cut down on projects. She also had shown signs of toxic workplace behavior
Dec 5, 2023 at 3:11pmWeb