Its the gift to be simple,
Its a gift to be free,
Its the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
Will be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend, we will not be ashamed,
To turn, turn, will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right
“Simple Gifts” A Shaker Spiritual
The writer, E.L Doctorow in his ground breaking book, Ragtime tells of the coming of the American century in the early 1900’s. One of the most intriguing characters in the novel is Tateh, a Jewish immigrant who would go on to make short one reelers to feed the tens of thousands of nickelodeons springing up across America. What is interesting in the novel is that it lays out the cultural forces that led to the creation of the movies.
What is interesting is the simple idea that movies were born of a simple need, to explain a new country to a population that was foreign born. The movies became interpreter, teacher, counselor and host for people entering the American experience. Movies, of course, evolved, but still the strongest elements of a movie going experience are still the same. As technology impacts the movies, they become more complex and as a result begin to lose touch with the movie going audience. There is a distancing and a sense of foreignness that audience cannot but their finger on, but the simple fact is…..movies are losing their impact on modern audiences.
What is fascinating is that one of the most prevalent trends with Gen Z’s and Millennial’s is that they have come to realize that when things are simpler they are better. I think it is something that the generation before us knew, but we in our headlong love affair with anything Apple, have forgotten about it. Now surprisingly due to the Gen Z’s and the Millennial’s the ides of simplicity is coming back and coming back big. Simple or in the words of marketers, Minimalism.
Minimalism is a word that carries a lot of weight these days. Ironic, considering it refers to a lifestyle that is all about living with less. To be honest Hollywood should live with less…less effects, less actors, less box office, less attitude, less box office rentals. The trend to minimalism favors experience over materialism. It really is an adjunct to the growing experiential economy. People who adopt Minimalism invest in experiences over possessions. Travel, indie concerts, vacations, community theater, not things…
Minimalists have a strong tendency to support local businesses. Local indie shops tend to be less motivated by profit. Sure, they need to make money to keep the lights on, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but earning a buck usually isn’t the primary concern of the local bookstore, restaurateur, or movie theater…they really just want to make a decent living and not a killing.. They are in business because they are passionate about their product or service and they want to share that passion with their patrons. Passion begets greater quality and better service, which makes the money they earn well deserved. Minimalists do not see anything really simple in the large theater circuits. Most people see circuit theaters as large, neon laden feedlots designed to extract as much money from the consumer as possible. Cinema chains are about cramming in as many people into a screening as possible, and then moving them out again, as quickly as possible.
The cold, hard truth is that movies today are overstuffed products, with more of an eye on the toy market than the artistic tradition of cinema. In many ways I do not think they are even movies. They are a commodity; a hugely expensive one, but a commodity none-the-less. The marketing may try and dress them up as important and artistic visions, but at their heart they are money making products nothing more. Gen Zs’ and Millennial’s see right through this.
Whenever movies have a period of stagnation their first impulse is to grab hold of technology. 3D, Cinerama, Todd A-O , CinemaScope, Dolby, THX, Dolby and then of course digital. In Hollywood to bring audiences, moviegoers were all subjected to surround sound with a hundred speakers…even Smell-O-Vision. We have had 3D for 4 trend cycles now…..and each time the result has been the same…failure. Now with streaming reaching the level of 4K, technologists are looking at how they can turn the cinema going experience into a holographic experience. That, like its predecessors will fail.
It’s a simple answer to what audiences want; a good story, projected well with clear and precise audio. They are tired of the razzle and the dazzle and they are moving back to the simple. They want simple and they want to know that the people presenting the product to them are passionate about that product. You see at the end of the day, passion is one thing you can always count on.
In China there are over 10,000 pop-up movie theaters. They are not sanctioned or licensed and in fact they are illegal, but people still want to sit in the dark and share stories.
We want to sit in the dark and we want a part of this world explained to us honestly or at least be distracted from the cares of an overly complicated world. Look towards the simple, that’s where the smart money is.
