Movies in Theatres: from skills to sucksville

Last night I was watching the Dark Knight as a primer for the final of the Batman movie series coming out some date some time soon. I couldn’t help thinking about how many incredibly moral lines there are in the script. We all know the basic Vigilante story line. It covers everything from the hope of a people
“What good does Gotham have when the good people do nothing” to the fragility of the fight between those who do for good and those who do to corrupt
“he wanted to prove that even someone as good as you could fall”.

Words that have meaning are quite valuable, just as the movies these words find themselves in. It’s the stories of people that inspire and reach us to the core,  which is why I can’t for the life of me understand the future of film. So many in the industry are struggling to grasp a market that has many likes and dislikes, many interests that are always changing, and many influential factors for all of these. What solidly sells are the stories in which people learn about people, moral issues, daily decisions and their lifetime effects. Sure, they may involve a dash of magical rings, the handing down of curses or fighting crime downtown; but stripped away it’s all about the choices we make and the roles we play at the odds of some hypothetical fate.

A friend and I went into the closing Blockbuster’s down the road, only to find a lack of recently released movies that were worthy of our five dollar bill. Between the box office flops and poorly structured plots of many films over the past year or so, we went home and watched some oldies.

Something inside of me is afraid that once the Batman series, Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter leave the theatres and movie stores, so too will high quality entertainment and the creative vision behind the development of a film.
I’m afraid that talented actors and crews will begin to hit Broadway ne’er to return to a film role out of a lack of something meaningful to work at constructing or portraying. There’s already quite a few key actors that have been standing on the stage rather than left of screen as of lately.
We’re slowly —maybe rapidly actually— running out of recycled and original ideas to generate to the public for entertainment, culture value and dollar value. “Let’s get a huge budget, blow up some cars and post-produce the thing for 3D. Yeah, that would work.”

Yet there’s no value, no story being told or character to connect with. What happens when the last movie of a book series is filmed and sold? Will Harry Potter have a “Hobbit” equivalent? What happens when Michael Bay isn’t granted another Transformers gig because of budget?

It’s not like making an incredible series is easy or predictable to create and promote. I’m slightly amused that Captain America was forced to sign a 6 movie contract. How far it goes should be interesting. Unfortunately crappy movies tend to have huge budgets, just like incredible movies do. At the end of the day you’ve got to rely on all the pieces involved in the production to get you to the theatre. Casting, score, script, Directing; it’s all got to be good. It’s also got to be solid entertainment value, showing us something we actually want to see.

Just a few thoughts I found worth sharing today. Nothing too enlightening I don’t think, but something to reflect on the next time we see a Pirate’s of the Caribbean 14 trailer and consider the quality that comes from a sucksville reproduction rather than an incredibly skilled recreation or new story.

Gen Y, entrepreneurism and the changing culture of business.

Yes, I happen to be a part of the Facebook generation. I grew up making fun of the “myspace angled” pictures we took, forgetting my myspace login and building communities of friends and one-time meet-ups on facebook before it let non-university students use it.

It’s interesting to think that many cringe at our generation, GenY, assuming we have a strong dislike for hard work and an attitude that wants things now rather than later.

Care for a translation?
We like work that’s rewarding, and we aren’t going to waste our time dealing with the logistical bureaucracies that management before us have emphasized.
We create quick and easy systems, clear communication and an attitude that getting things done means fixing the things that went wrong before we came along.

Canada’s Profit 200 recently published an article featuring Grail Noble and Yellow House Events Inc. Based out of Toronto, this business is headed by Gen Y workers that get the gigs done fast and friendly. Noble touches on the fact that Gen Y isn’t about to drop it’s personal priorities and values for a work related role when she mentioned the firing of a client because of the stress it caused her staff, something that causes a double cringe from many a management afraid of passing down the ropes.

So what can we learn from our differences? Granted, we speak very different languages and walk the walk while we text, not just talk. The media based origin we are derived from is based on community and team-work, so while we find it in a job ad it’s harder to actually locate it in the physical work environment. This growing entrepreneurship wave is happening our of a love that us Gen Y’s have to do things differently. We’re sorry that some of you may not have the patience to talk and work with us.

It’s just that we have so much to offer. Like you are skilled and have things to teach us, we’re filled with information and natural giftings that come from our social media and youtube habitation. Quite possibly, you will have more luck hiring a social media expert without filling in the job description. We know what needs to be done. We know the limits. While we know a lot and aren’t afraid to say it, we also aren’t afraid to share our knowledge with others and build up those around us. We’re great at sharing, really!

How else can you explain the fact that we come from a time when we gave away music for free, or let people subscribe to things for free without advertisements or commitments?

Some have mentioned that Gen Y speaks in movie quotes and song lyrics. I’m sorry but, there’s a bit more to it than that. See, like the Gen X’ers completely done with the trashy jean ads ( KC you make me ill) and rebelling from advertisements with their Arsenio Hall, Gen Y only speaks in quotations from movies that are good!

Between the Michael Bay sequels and disappointing predicted political outcomes in the world around us, Gen Y actually remembers and lives by the important things. We know trash when we see it, which is why we don’t understand half of the advertisements out there and ignore 3-D television completely. We have our values and our habits, and money isn’t often among the top three.

I haven’t had a job in four months. I’m a recent graduate from SFU with a degree in Communications and an emphasis in Political Science. I could tell Sears three things that would make their investors, and customers, come running back. But would it make me happy? Since my former Manager at Sears didn’t know what a communications degree was, I thought it made more sense to quit trying to help people with deaf ears and I quit. Don’t worry, I was nice about it. That was last summer, when I was just starting my 4th year in uni.

Today I’m helping two businesses with their visions, both personal and professional. It’s challenging them, and their stories challenge me. All of us are achieving our personal and career goals, they coincide. I’m not getting paid a dime to do it, but I love it. I don’t even have an income right now, but one of the companies I’m working with has more than doubled their income in less than 9 months of me saying “I just need you to trust me”. That’s the return on my investment. ( You say ROI and you just might lose people who either don’t understand or simply head to Lord Google to find out what you mean in plain english).

The perfect conclusion is just that, you’re going to have to trust us Gen Y folks.
Hopefully you haven’t been bitten by any of us, not all of us are self-absorbed know-it-all fire-breathing interns and incoming staff.

Next time you’re trying to help us improve our sales, just try telling us how to be better rather than threatening a decrease in our hours. Really, we love learning and doing things that are worthwhile for the company. Give us something that motivates though.
—Because as I stated earlier, our values are different that yours. It’s not just about the pay. It’s about the culture of the office and the attitude of our co-workers, whether upper-management or lower pay grade. That’s just how we are, and that’s just the way we like things. So it’s how we’re building, testing, failing and improving the work-force, with or without the traditional idea of an office.

*That article in Canada’s Profit 200 can be found in:
the Summer 2011/Volume 30/ Issue 3 edition