"Being seen" "My truth" All this BS lingo needs to go.

Alan said, "Maybe the reason you're not being heard is because you don't have anything thing to say." Nailed it!

Chris Gore = "If the most interesting thing about you is your identity, then you're not interesting." Alan Ng = "The reason you're not being heard is because you have nothing to say."

100% YES. Narcissists with no life experience and it shows

I remember a Film Courage interview with someone who said sometimes when reviewing scripts from new writers, they thought “this should’ve come out in a therapy session or journal”. That made a lot of sense to me.

You know. I don't think I personally connect with anything about Shawshank Redemption. I just appreciate quality writing with exceptional acting.

One of my biggest turn offs with movies or television series is when I hear some line of dialogue that was written by someone who knows very little about the world. Lines like “it takes a woman to fix the problem “ that was stated by a successful professional female in a television series; successful professional women don’t talk like that; whoever wrote that line knows nothing about the real world.

Movies used to be about experiences we'll never have, lives we'll never live. We didn't need to have movies directly reflect our own personal lives.

My favorite movie ever is Ghostbusters. As a kid, a suburban white kid, Venkman was my favorite character. As a skeptical, working class adult, Winston is now my favorite character. Just goes to show you, when it's well written, it doesn't matter what the characters look like.

The problem is you can't weed out bad writers because they're in charge and they will only hire people who are like them. KK for example.

“I told you I understood, I didn’t say I agreed.” - Oppenheimer scientist.

The cause of wanting to be seen is probably due to chronic emotional neglect at the hands of distracted parents.

It’s not just the writers. It’s the corporate culture that breeds and encourages these types of suited and categorized writers. Because a Pakistani can’t be expressed or portrayed except by a Pakistani, or because a black person can’t be expressed by a black person, or a gay by a gay, or a woman by a woman, imagination itself is belittled and disbelieved. Imagination becomes an abstraction that an empty suit won’t afford. The depth of any given story is scooped out and stuffed with straw, and stuck on a stick to keep the crows in line.

Rather than showing, they outright tell you the characters are "awesome". "You took down a whole armada, you conquered the destroyer, you're amazing". SHOW US!

As Samuel Goldwyn once said, “If you want to send a message, use Western Union.” And that philosophy worked well at all studios for decades.

Predator spoke to me.... It warned me to stay away from people who push too many pencils.

It reminds me of a scene from Sunset Blvd. where the secretary says “ I think movies should say something.” And he responds “ oh you’re one of the message kids. I’d expect you to turn down Gone With the Wind!”

The inhabitants of North Sentinel Island need to be seen and I think all these young "woke" writers NEED to go see them up close.

It's amazing that this issue has went from bad, to worse, to so bad it's stunning now. I'm really starting to believe that they're not going to learn and change. If they could pivot, they would have done it by now. Also, anyone who needs to be "seen" is pathetic.

“Hollywood is not the dream.” I couldn’t agree more. I’ve got a feature, it’s all mine, no one can make me change anything, and I’ll never make a movie any other way. It’s not worth it. 💪

Echo isn't emberessament for the native americans because of some giant shard. It is an emberassment because the show markets itself as a superhero show, but Echo is instead a supervillain.

Last night my wife and I watched a reboot of a British TV game show called Gladiators. It is dumb but incredibly entertaining. The physicality, the theatre, the trash talking. We were both totally engrossed-both of us noticed afterwards that neither of us checked our phones during the runtime. That is super rare for us!

It's funny bc growing up, even the best writers, I did not know who they were. I just liked the movies.

I don’t want to see the writers, I want to see the story and characters. I don’t want to feel represented by my little demographic corner of the world. I want to connect to something else and be part of it for a while.

Before George sold Lucasfilm, it was the largest independent film company . That’s why even if you didn’t like his movies , they were always his movies . He had 100% creative control .

This kinda behavior from modern day writers doesn’t surprise me considering the really bad movies 🍿 and tv shows I experienced 🙄

Self insert is in EVERYTHING now. Movies, TV, books. Every character is wrong and weird.

This is the terminology they use - it’s either “seen” or “heard” when discussing representation in media. What I find so insidious about this particular vocabulary is how selective and arbitrary it is - if there is a perspective that they disagree with, it is not something they want seen or heard. That want it to just be about them, all the time.

The "I told you I understand, I didn't say that i agree" line was from a Star Trek Episode said by Spock to one of the planets leaders that was waging a war. A great episode!

For the last 5 YRS I have literally given up on Film and TV. Growing up I watched anything I could get my hands on during the 80's 90's (my favorite decade). When video stores closed for good I found access to films become limited or inaccessible. I was a moviephile, well now I cannot watch anything because nothing from this industry is worth my time to even watch. You design a story to appeal to as many people as u can. To me just come up with something COOL.

None of these people have real life experiences. They have nothing more than drinking latte at Starbucks and sending out tweets on twitter. Most of the early good writers experienced life, then drew on those experiences when they wrote their stories.

I wrote a time travel novel in 1980s and actually had the main character reference me, but when the story was reimagined ten years ago and rewritten, I had the common sense to abandon that scene.

All stories have a message, or are attempting to convey an idea. Kind of why we tell stories. The problem with current Hollywood stories isn't that they are trying to teach the audience something, but that 1) what they are trying to teach is stupid, wrong, overblown, or just tired,, and 2) and told with the style of an adolescent fan fiction writer. As a result, they don't entertain, but come across like propaganda pieces.

I think there are a lot of questionable developments that have happened in our culture alongside the rise of social media, but the inability to relate to people outside of your instagram bubble and an inflated sense of self importance and ones opinion, which constantly gets reflected back onto us instead of challenged, is truly saddening. Writing and story telling is a very obvious victim of this , but our growing inability to compromise and relate to one another in the political sphere is probably even more dramatic.

Narcissists gotta preach, preach, preach their immature messages to the world, because they're so focused on the evils in the world. I suppose we should be glad they didn't go into journalism/broadcasting or politics. At least we can ignore these fictional propaganda pieces; we don't have to watch them.

I had a Star Trek The Next Generation marathon on Netflix, I watched while I wrote. What was wonderful about that series (and others at that time and in the 90s) you as the viewer was able to think, and make up your own mind when it came to the story lines, including the morality of the characters. Writers today have no idea how to make people think, and have debates. It's sad that they'd rather preach to people, then allow their viewers to have spirited debates, and still be friends afterwards. Networks should have the bollocks to take control over the televisions shows that are being produced. And Indy Studios should be able to create their own shows etc without the fear of ridicule or cancellation.

Their characters want attention without merit! This is a refection of how they live!

It is pretty normal that different groups are over- or underrepresented in specific fields. IN child day care, the majority of the jobs is done by women, becuase the most people interested in the job are women. If you make a quota for men there, you have to choose less qualified people.too. I dont know why these DEI supporters dont understand basic concepts. That is the case even if the groups have the same probability to be good (same success in the education system).

Great art is made by interesting people. Bad art is made by people who aren't interesting. Most writers and filmmakers today simply aren't interesting people. And there lies the heart of the problem.

Modern writers want their, self diagnosed conditions to be seen. I say this as an Autistic man, with ADHD and Dyslexia. Scottish with Irish heritage. I’m starting to sound like the Joker here. 😆😆😆

Good writers in the past, actually had life experience, whether it was being raised in a dirt poor farming or coal mine town, fought in World Wars, travelled the world, and faced adversity at every corner etc. These schmuck writers/activists probably haven’t even been outside of California, let alone the USA? The only adversity they’ve faced, is losing their cellphone signal for a few minutes?😂

I’ve been writing spec screenplays as a hobby for over ten years now. I never put myself in my own films.

I've always been aware, as I'm sure everyone is, that stories are a delivery format for information. Wisdom of some kind, that inspires us or warns us in some way. An exploration of the human experience by presenting different viewpoints/perspectives & experiences so that we can live vicariously through others to better understand ourselves and the world around us etc. What we have now is something quite sinister, more akin to propaganda. Not designed to inform, inspire or entertain, but to indoctrinate. An angry tantrum by adult toddlers lashing out to make themselves feel better. It's all quite narcissistic (infantile) when you boil it down.

Alan's comments are absolutely 100% on point. It now appears that the main qualification a young TV/Film writer requires is to be a Narcissist.

The days of "Bad Day at Black Rock" or ""The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" are gone. (Just examples) TIGHT script writing, long shots, body language, taut original score.... I miss excellent films.

Everyone's being "seen" but they forgot that it's about the audience. Not the creator.

Nothing topical will ever be timeless. These people refuse to put in more thought to the scripts beyond what is already trending online. They aren't trailblazers they're bottom feeders.

I don't understand "wanting to be seen". I prefer to be just a face in the crowd. Being ignored by people who don't know me is wonderful!

I've often said that entertainment has been taken over by bad fanfiction writers. You used to see them on forums and whatnot. Ship wars. Once upon a time, they were simply fun online debates about who got the girl. But these devolved into groups of high school/college age girls who would hang out on the internet in these online echo chambers that were akin to online cults. Their "ship" was *absolutely* going to happen and they were downright cruel to anyone who said otherwise. Even cringier was when you had fujoshis creating similar echo chambers, shipping two characters together who were good friends. (In one especially cringey video-game case I can think of, people would ship this one guy with his own clone....Yeah, messed up.) And woe to anyone who said "yeah, I'm sorry, that's just not canon..." Often all these groups would clash with those who simply wanted to predict who got who. And when the series ended and the ship was inevitably sunk? They would go *INSANE*. Now we go over to fanfiction. Now, I get that it was a thing before the internet was big, and that the fujoshi crap preceded these days (Kirk/Spock and other such crap), but starting somewhere in the mid-90s fanfiction was actually kind of fun. You had people writing many, and I do mean many extended adventure stories with your favorite characters and favorite series. It was as if your favorite show, game, movie, or book series would last forever. Yeah, there was a lot of silly self-insert stuff, but back then it was all in good fun. Maybe it was because at the time the idea was relatively new to many. But fanfiction in those days felt less about shipping and more about honoring a series in rerun-heaven. But then the crazy shippers took over. I will say I still indulge in *good* fanfic. But anyone looking for a good adventure fic to read is going to spend a very, very long time, scrolling past shipping crap (some of it downright vile), no matter how many filters you apply. How does this apply to modern media? Simple. Remember all those silly fujoshi high school/college girls you told "I'm sorry dear, that just isn't canon, and won't happen on the show because most people aren't interested..." Somewhere between 2010-2015, some of these fanfic girls started getting into actual show teams. They'd impress a showrunner on Tumblr with some awesome fanart or fic or whatnot, and somehow managed to get themselves hired. Remember Legend of Korra? I remember going in season 4 with no real shipping expectations whatsoever, but thinking that a certain two girls made great sister characters. Yeah.... And as this stuff got more and more common, these "hired off Tumblr" writers successfully convinced the higher ups that this was necessary for the poor oppressed peoples of the world who just wanted to see themselves in a show. (Was great for ESG and DEI initiatives, after all!) And just like that, it was suddenly everywhere. TV shows would toss in a "SURPRISE! THEY'RE GAY!" frequently two or three seasons in, making sure the audience was already emotionally attached before slamming their viewers over the heads with it like a Looney Tunes (or Rumiko Takahashi) character with a large mallet. The fanfic-writers would then hire their friends, who would hire *their* friends.... So now most entertainment looks like something from AO3 or Tumblr, and the fujoshi fanfiction writers have all the "canon" they desire...but nobody's interested. As for me, I saw the pattern years ago and completely gave up on western media. Some new studios are popping up, others are avoiding the crazy, and I am somewhat hopeful that pure capitalism eventually resets western media back to the realm of art. But until then, I keep my streaming limited to foreign works and my wallet closed. TLDR: Hollywood was taken over by people who have incredibly unhealthy, kinkish understandings of how interpersonal relationships work, enabled by DEI initiatives. They are completely unable to understand friendship that is not romantic (and they don't really understand romance either). They write characters to satisfy their own kinks rather than to make them believable, memorable, and loveable. And they seemingly don't understand that this stuff "works" in Japan because Japan understands it is a niche audience and keeps it away from most of their mainsteam stuff, and clearly labels it so that niche audience can easily find it, while poking fun at it in more mainstream works.

The dark Knight is great because of its visuals and simplicity. It's like no one has faith in actors performances to carry scenes.

A good story is a good story. To this day if I ever talk about Spider-Man for more than maybe ten minutes, I eventually bring up the first Spider-Man comic I remember reading. Great story featuring an Iron Man from the future that travels back in time to Spider-Man's present. I often can't remember who wrote or illustrated it, just that it was a very good story. It technically meets all sorts of inclusivity/esg/dei/whateverthephuck criteria, but it's not just to meet any criteria. It's a well written story that gets Spider-Man and what makes him "Spider-Man". That's what these writers today don't understand or care about. As one of you said, they're just a bunch of narcissists. What's worse is that being self absorbed is heavily rewarded. You fail upwards, often faster if you get the audience to really dislike your work. The hell is going on today?

Not my place to tell anyone how they should feel when it comes to interpreting media and characters, but I all I care about is can you make a compelling story. At the end of the day that is all that really matters, but that seems so foreign to many people lmao

"Write what you know." But what if you don't know anything?

Good writers are the ones who can surprise audiences with their versatility in regards to tones and genres. While I’m not a big fan of Aaron Sorkin (most of his characters usually sound like the same person), I really admire under-the-radar guys like Don Payne who can transition seamlessly from writing for “The Simpsons” to the “Thor” films.

Older movies are great and the characters are relatable humans. Most newer films are so out of touch and the writers get high off their own farts. They think people need to be preached at, but their "messages" are shallow pandering garbage 🗑

It is not just the Entertainment industry; it is across all industries. Brand and IP is just something to be hijacked so you can suck the value out for shareholders of it or leverage it to promote the message.

This is why I can’t stand any new show or movie. The writers’ ego and incompetency are too palpable. Their narcissism is so off putting

They believe competence doesn't matter, but their poor writing proves it does.

There are still writers and creators who "get it", but they are getting more and more scarce. I submit "The Bear" as a sterling example of pure entertainment. I can't relate to any of the characters because they are foreign to me, but I still feel for them, I hurt for them and I laugh and cry with them. Bravo!

Alan tells it like it is.

Some of the best and worst movies have been indie movies. One of my favorites is Black Sheep. A horror comedy about a mad scientist who works on cannibal sheep. The best part is the environmentalists in the movie are in part villains themselves by constantly releasing the sheep 🐑 😀 😅.

All those participation trophies have produced a generation of narcissists who want to be successful without any real understanding or effort.

The whole point of a scene use to be to not be seen. Those who want to be seen need to relearn the meaning of being part of a scene.

Alan, that is spot on why I love RUSH. Multiple times in my life, it felt like Neil, Geddy and Alex were saying 'we know this sucks but it will get better, we've been there and wrote this about it.' Excellent points.

The industry is suffering from a narcissism problem. 💯

This is truly the age of blind mediocrity! 😔

I don't want to be seen. I want my books to be read.

Blue eyed samurai is excellent.

Of all the ways in which modern writers for movies and TV have gone astray, no creative decision can be as destructive as writers mistaking their scripts for mirrors. Instead, they should see their scripts as a telescope or microscope, used to look outward at the larger world, or to view beauty of the minutiae that constitutes our world.

I saw the Beekeeper yesterday and on the way home I bought The Creator on Blu-ray for my DVD collection. I'm in a good place...😊

"being seen" oh what a shock to find out it's not about you or being seen. it's show-BUSINESS, not show-FEELINGS.

Just subbed to the channel. Had been meaning to for a while as I really enjoy Chris’s talents and opinions on this woeful industry on Nerdrotic and Drinker streams. Excellent insight.

Good movies need a good story with good characters. Good characters have good character development. A good character has strengths, but also major flaws. A good story has a character evolving and overcoming those flaws to accomplish something.

Great video guys. I feel a key element missing in studio films is authenticity, especially vs Indy films.

In the 90s I knew a guy who worked in Hollywood and he said the problem was writers had no interesting life experiences. I doubt that has changed.

I havent watched any modern shows, during the pandemic and till now, ive revisted all my favorite childhood movies and shows, i get to laugh again, its nice. I have netflix and prime, but i haven't watched them in months.

Godzilla Minus One tells a story that deeply resonates with Japanese people. But anyone, regardless of ethnicity or nationality, could relate to the story. It's a story about finding something to live for. That's the thing about great stories and great characters. Anyone can relate to them. And good writers try to write stories that appeal to everyone.

NAILED IT

Following is also on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection

Modern writers suck

You can be wise and young, or talented and young. It's just none of these people are, lol. If any of them were, we'd all know it. (We're swimming in a culture where wisdom and talent are no longer valued, so even if there are wise, talented young people, we'd never know it because they are not wanted to tell stories.) ... And there is nothing wrong with having a moral or lesson to a story. "After school specials" did it all the time, as do other great films. But you have to be talented enough to dramatize something close enough to reality that the audience can come to the lesson on their own. If your "story" is just a baseball bat to the head, with no characterization, no sensical plotting, no compelling theme, no craft, no style, no voice, etc., then no "light bulb" can go off for the audience because none ever went off for the creators. (If the novel, story, movie, or show is such that you HAVE to find out about the creators. You HAVE to know the creative force behind it, and get all their other stuff, and look forward to their next thing. This almost never happens anymore.)

Following was released on blu ray by Criterion.

This is why I enjoy Panos Cosmatos work so much. Brilliant writer/visionary director.

Hear hear Alan!

As a scientist and an educator, something that's become clear to me over my life is that everyone has things left to learn whether they know it or not. Old and young. There are things a lot of older people refuse to accept and there are things young people think they know everything about. I'm not saying either side is right in any particular situation, but I do know that the very best way to make people from either group resent you and your "message" is to force it on them without any choice or consideration of their personal situation, or even any concession or negotiation. Reckless short term supposed gains for your objective at the expense of building long term anger, resentment, and eventually backlash .....is frankly, stupid. And there has been so very much of this in recent years.

I think I have a hypothesis on bad writing: Maybe the reason writers today are so unwise is because they never had anything to say. They just wanted to be writers because they are too lazy or weak to work any other proffession. That limits their life expierence making modern writers insincere. I really think the only people who should be writers are people that have something to say about life.

The movies and books that I really liked from the 80s didn't have obvious messaging, they were just trying to entertain and make money. People trying to make "message films" should remember that bad, preachy propaganda isn't entertaining.

DEI has made everything really average....

Propaganda doesn’t equate life lessons

6:14 Following isn't hard to find. It's on Blu-ray from Criterion. And Nolan did three commentaries. One on that disc, another on Memento, and then a unique one on Insomnia where he did it by the order of when the scenes were shot. It was after that from Batman Begins onward when he stopped doing commentaries. My bigger gripe with Nolan with his home video releases is that he won't ever allow an Atmos mix on his Blu-rays or UHDs. Even recent films like Dunkirk, Tenet, or Oppenheimer.

When being seen required huge amounts of capital, those paying the bills were interested in vetting their chosen individuals on merit. Today anyone can be seen, so what happens when an entire generation is told being popular is the most important thing in life - at least that's what their peer groups expound. Being totally involved with self teaches the desire to manipulate/lie without conscience. Why try to divide a population that is successfully doing it themselves?

Emphasizing identity over imagination is creative impoverishment.

It´s not just that they want to be seen. They want to live their power fantasy through their pseudocharacters, so they are written like villains but the plot bends around them and treats them like her-oes. Prime examples: Bo-Karen Guyladriel that brat from Wish Batwhaman Crapt. Marvel Phoebe Whateverisherlastname´s character in not-Indy 5

Army of darkness. Was one of my favorites. I dont have a boom stick lol. Or in medieval time lol. Love the comedy aspects with horror mix.

I like that "Alan's Corner" features him speaking only 50% of the segment.

The problem is the only way you can make a movie now a day is to make it part of a successful franchise. I blame the industry more than the writers.

The thinf apparently nobody today has or understands is empathy. Empathy means being able to sympathize with other people and their emotions or situation even if you cant relate. I dont need to insert myself into a movie to understand a characters emotions or situation. I can watch characters that have nothing to do with me in completely foreign circumstances and still get invested in their story. When i watch Japanese samurai movies wtf do I have to relate to with them? Nothing. But i can still enjoy the damn movie.

08:30 that was the Josh Harnett line. Its was pretty neat

WAKE THAT TEA UPP 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

Maybe a lot of young people just have nothing to say. Nothing to strive for. No friends in their life, no love. Just nothing.