(no subject)

[trinityvixen]

It's so foggy right now that I could barely see the New York side of the GWB. What I could see of it literally faded into whiteness. New Jersey officially does not exist.

It's kind of like waking up inside a big dome, where the walls are so far away, you can't quite tell they're there. Or maybe it's like the Construct in The Matrix, where there's just nothing but white forever and ever. It's eerie. And a little like what I'd imagine purgatory to be--nothingness forever.

*

In other cheerful news, oh noes, you are not spending enough money at the movie theaters. AGAIN. I'm sad that The Golden Compass has already been judged a failure, since I don't think it deserved to be regarded as such, but I'm not surprised it couldn't draw in more people. For one thing, I'd absolutely forbid anyone who's not read the books from seeing it. If I didn't know already who all the various groups were and what they were doing, I'd have been really lost.

Regardless of me wanting the movie to do well, I don't give a shit about movie studios whining. They'd been on a high for three-quarters of the year so far, and now they play pauper so you don't forget that they still have movies out. Fuck that. I didn't even get to use my coupon for The Golden Compass because AMCs apparently don't take them. No sympathy for studios when I'm paying $12 for a movie. They had a bunch of sure-fire money-making sequels this summer and they even made a few blockbusters of uncertain quality (a long-delayed Die Hard sequel, the Transformers live-action movie) turn a profit. Are American audiences not entitled to some time off after making Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End unjustifiably profitable? Go to hell studios (but sign the writers a new contract and give them a share of your ludicrously large pie first).

Comments

[deltagrl.livejournal.com]

I like your description of the fog. I'm picturing it and it sounds eerily lovely.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It actually is quite pretty. And it was that way up high, too, so even on the 15th floor at my job, I couldn't see much.

If you look up at the sky, the buildings look fake because they have shape. It's weird.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

The writers strike is of course another reason for the studios to claim they're suffering--"Oh no, we can't give you a passable share of the profits on things you wrote because look, we're desperately poor ourselves!" Yeah, whatever. I still think the WGA should get an injunction, so that the studios and networks can't air anything included in the dispute until matters are settled. Watch them resolve this at lightning speed then--nothing hurts more than dead air.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

That would be ideal. I can't think that anyone is seriously against the writers at this point EXCEPT the tight-wad studios. The problem is that they don't understand that they can't just make more and more money always. They got spoiled by the boom of DVD sales, which have tapered off (growth-wise; they still sell as much as they ever did, they're just not selling more), and suddenly they see famine everywhere. Shitheads, the lot of them.

However, were it possible to somehow bankrupt only the bad writers in the movie/TV industry (thus leaving their jobs to competent scribes), I might be brought around on the subject.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Ah, if only, because then we could extend that method to crush all sub-par fiction writers as well, leaving way for *good* novelists and so on. :)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Yes, "if only," the two saddest words in this or any other language.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

I can think of others that I find equally sad, or far more so. Like "gefilte fish." Or does "horrifying and disgusting" not count? :)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I dunno, there's a sort of syncopated fun to saying "gefilte fish."

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

As long as you haven't actually eaten any. If you have it comes out more like "ge-ICK!-filte-UCK! f-GROSS!-ish!" :)

[droidguy1119.livejournal.com]

Hellooooooooooooo, any epic fantasy movie that is not Lord of the Rings business is a FAILURE. DUH.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Not so. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe did quite well for itself. It fell short of attracting the kind of rampant fervor of LOTR fans, but that's as much do the difference in the numbers/dedication of fans of the two source materials as anything. Narnia suffered for being a post-LOTR epic fantasy, but it pulled in good numbers. They're making sequels, so there has to be some confidence that the first justified them, success-wise.

LOTR has stolen the thunder of epic fantasies to come, but it has also opened a lot of opportunities to explore more classics of the genre, and I support that. If The Golden Compass does well enough in the long run, they will make The Subtle Knife, which is the Empire Strikes Back to Compass's Star Wars. That ought to bring people around and aboard this particular epic fantasy.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem, of course, is the cost involved. Golden Compass cost $180 million to make, so if it only makes $150 million it's still a flop. Often a smaller movie becomes a hit because it cost so much less to produce that it doesn't have to sell as much to actually turn a profit.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Hence Blair Witch and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Of course, you're right about this. The costs have spiraled out of control as studios just throw everything they can at a demographic and hope to get a hit. One hit finances five duds (if they're not severe). It's not exactly the most intelligently market-driven economic model. It's also, as I said, dependent on constant growth that assumes no loss of consumers over time, which just isn't a safe business model.

[mephistakitten.livejournal.com]

I love days like that. Watching the clouds over the river has always been one of my favorite things about living over there. I miss it... I'm on a high floor looking at a river here too, but there isn't anything so sweeping and dramatic as the Hudson.