I recently read an interesting comment from a director at Pixar, Andrew Stanton about his views about creating content in the animated movie industry. Below is an excerpt from the article which I first saw on Ragnar Tornquist’s website:
The day we start thinking about what the audience wants, we’re going to make bad choices. We’ve always holed ourselves up in a building for 4 years and ignored the rest of the world, because nobody are bigger movie geeks than we are, so we know exactly what we are dying to see with our family and kids. We don’t need other people to tell us that. We trust the audience member in ourselves.
Anyway, I have to say that I agree with this statement full-heartedly. I have personally experienced games being made at companies based solely on user testing. It’s truly amazing to see a game designed with passion and excitement by the team involved and seeing it destroyed by integrating too much marketing, user testing, and what people think the audience wants. What started out with some really interesting characters, storyline, and gameplay got morphed into something that was flat, boring, and in general no one on the team liked.
It always amazes me how marketing has the innate ability to turn something that is marketable into something that is completely unappealing based purely on market research. Furthermore, I have also seen how “making what the audience wants” has severely impacted the development of a game that people on the team thought was good. This in the end lead to detrimental results.
Beyond just making something that appeals to an audience, I think there is something to be said for creative content created by a sole visionary. Having a singularity of vision is another reason why creating something for an audience can be particularly bad.
It seems like when I am happy I have a lot less to write about. I really can’t think of a point in my life where I felt so content and happy with the way things are. I’m not in the location that I dreamt about, but still, I am doing what I enjoy and I am with a person that really makes me happy to be who I am. I watched No Reservations again with Angel last night. One quote from it stuck in my mind:
Kate:
I wish there was a cookbook for life… the recipes telling us exactly what to do. I know, I know, you’re gonna say… how else can we learn.
Therapist:
Actually, I wasn’t going to say that. You want to guess again?
Kate:
No no, go ahead.
Therapist:
What I was gonna say was… you know better than anyone. It’s the recipes you create yourself that are the best.
I’ve created my own recipes for life. I hope the result are good. I stopped listening to what people told me I should be doing a long time ago. I stopped caring what people think. In the end what matters is what I think… and I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my entire life for it. For some reason, when I am happy, I have less stuff to write about. I guess the majority of my writing ends up being rants of some sort or another. When I have nothing to complain about, I just don’t have much to say.
So, I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t have much to write. It means that I’ve reached a point in my life where I am truly happy. I really hope this lasts. I’ve finally found the balance that I’ve been looking for in life. I’ve started cooking almost every day for me and my girlfriend. I’m spending time working on a game that is finally my own. And honestly, there are worse places in the world I could have set up shop than Kuala Lumpur (see posts about Singapore).
I have a wierd concept of home. My “home” is the U.S. It’s where I grew up. It’s where I went to school. But it’s not where I belong. Being in Singapore makes me realize that Singapore isn’t where I belong either. I have to go home.
For those who know me, this is a familiar state for me to be in. I’m confused! I’m not sure I know why or how I got into this state… well, alright, I do know why I’m confused. But, it’s not easy for me to explain it.
If everything were clear, if everything were straightforward, would life be as fun? But then again, I wouldn’t be sad like I am now. I know I’ve said this before, but I’ve met some of the most amazing people in my life. For that, I am so grateful. The confusion comes when I want to be with someone, when I want to be somewhere, but I just can’t for some reason. And sometimes, the desire to be with a person, means you have to hurt other people in the process.
I’m not sure if I will ever understand this myself. There are things that I need out of any relationship, be it friends or something more. And, I strive for these things with every fibre of my being. Reminds me of a quote from Great Expectations:
Lets say there was a little girl, and from the time she could understand she was taught to fear - Let’s say she was taught to fear daylight. She was taught that it was her enemy, that it would hurt her. And then one sunny day… you ask her to go outside and play, and she won’t. You can’t be angry at her, can you?
Well, I’ve seen the sunlight, and I’ve spent a long time looking in the dark trying to find the sunlight again.
I just watched Jet Li’s last movie (that he will star in apparently), and I have to say that the martial arts in it are pretty impressive. It’s definitely worth watching, if not for the martial arts alone. The scene on the wooden structure is to die for.
Other than that, the story was just so-so and the acting was pretty average. I think maybe the biggest problem with the story was that it was very hard to empathize with the main character, Jet Li’s character. He’s really kinda a jerk, and the movie does only a little to rectify it and show any sort of transformation.
Anyway, a brief synopsis of it is that Jet Li’s wants to become the best fighter in his province. In fact, he devotes every waking moment to honing his skills and beating up people. It’s a pretty standard plot in the end.
Overall, I would recommend this movie, not for the story, but for the kick ass martial arts. Good filmwork too. I wouldn’t say that this is Jet Li’s best work, Hero and House of Flying Daggers are way better, but it’s definitely entertaining and I enjoyed it.
I just saw Elizabethtown again, and I still love it. It really captures a lot of life in it. I love movies that make you think and Elizabethtown definitely makes you think. In the movie they really cover the idea of failure and substitute people. It covers failure because the main character starts out by losing Mercury shoe company $1 billion dollars. One of the most memorable scenes for me is when Claire is leaving Drew:
Claire: So you failed. Drew: You don’t get it. Claire: Alright, you really failed. You failed, you failed, you failed. You failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, you… You think I care about that? I do understand. You’re an artist man, your job is to break through barriers. Not accept blame and bow and say: “Thank you I’m a loser, I’ll go away now”
… Claire: You want to be really great? Then have the courage to fail big and stick around. Make them wonder why you’re still smiling. That’s true greatness to me.
It makes me wonder whether failing big is its own reward. If you can’t fail big, maybe it’s not worth taking the risk in the first place. I guess I’m on the edge of a precipice in my life and career. I want to take some chances and I want to fail big. Of course I would love to succeed, but if I fail big, I think I’ll be happy too. I’ve always thought of myself as an artist that draws in interaction instead of paint, and I’ve always thought that I could find a way to break through barriers somehow.
Another topic that really rung a bell with me in Elizabethtown was the idea of substitute people. Can you be a substitute person for someone? Am I a substitute person, or a substitue person for someone else? Sometimes I feel like a substitute person… like I’m not the one that’s really supposed to be there. Or sometimes, I feel like I need a substitute person… to fill in for the person that I don’t have.
In any case, the ending of Elizabethtown is to die for. It’s the way I want to go.
I just found out about this manga/anime called Yakitate! It’s all about cooking and has very interesting character descriptions. What a great idea. I’m such a big fan of food related drama. They even have a few episodes of the anime online:
I don’t know what it is about food/cooking related things that I love so much. Other movies that are food related that I really enjoyed were: God of Cookery, Shaolin Soccer (the bread scene is hilarious), Tampopo, Like Water for Chocolate. There’s something so emotional about food for me. I often find that if I haven’t eaten well in a day, I will be depressed. If I eat a good meal, then I feel happier.
About
Food, Travel, and Entertainment... the three most important things in life! I'm a video game player, a video game developer, a fulltime foodie, and a wandering soul. I'm passionate about life and believe in pursuing my dreams. I strive to be original and real, and I believe in meaning and truth. I'm a person in search of something... a Dreamer, a Gamer, a Traveller, a Foodie... on my longest journey.
I just watched Jet Li’s last movie (that he will star in apparently), and I have to say that the martial arts in it are pretty impressive. It’s definitely worth watching, if not for the martial arts alone. The scene on the wooden structure is to die for.