Anyways, I could sit here and babble on about fine arts, but I already do that for my night job. Instead, I want to talk broadly about film. A few decades ago, it was fairly standard practice for films to be made on shoestring budgets. Creatives wanted to make their visions a reality, and while it was far from easy, it was fairly viable for any filmmaker with access to a camera to put something to film. Take Basket Case for example; Awful little movie, filmed on a less-than-industry-standard camera, with hardly any budget (and whose budget consequently ran out halfway through shooting), using dramatic arts students (who needed to play multiple roles due to the aforementioned budget problems), filmed over long weekends in mainly a singular location, which made use of shoddy puppetry and stop motion... Yet it still got made. Preserved, as well. It became a cult classic, in fact. And then, there was a period of creative silence. Soulless nonsense made to appeal to the widest audiences possible, in the pursuit of money. Trite, overdone, painfully boring drivel, that somehow had the general public in a chokehold for many sweeps after. There were exceptions, yes, but the vast majority were utter garbage. And then came the "indie" darlings. Films that were produced with heart, outside of the monopolizing film companies. Little trickles of genuine creativity that infected the oversaturated waters, and slowly began to turn people against the soulless deluge. Fascinating, isn't it, that even the people who enjoyed the slop, tend to acknowledge that their bland superhero nonsense was getting old, and welcome in such a change. Creativity is not something that can be replaced, and everyone knows it. It's very welcome to see smaller creators reach wide audiences in ways they were not previously able to. In many cases, I personally dislike these projects. They simply don't appeal. But I am relieved to finally begin hating certain pieces of visual art again. Hate is inspired. Neutrality and other mild reactions are far worse, and indicate a complete and utter failure on the part of a piece to engage its audience. To sum up my feelings on film, I would far rather hate a film than react tepidly. If there is something to hate, then that means, for someone else, there is something to love. That is why creativity will always win out over greed. Create for yourself. If someone hates it, you are probably doing something very right.


