Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by mousepod

I was talking with LSPE this weekend and it struck me that I'm really less and less excited with mainstream cinema lately as a vehicle for good storytelling. Short films (less than 30 minutes) tend to be worthwhile, because the time constraints force a certain amount of directness to the storytelling, and long-form drama like HBO's The Wire are great because they allow for real character development along with a more complex and ultimately satisfying plot.

The recent Wired magazine has an article about this. On the one hand You Tube is shaking up traditional media by making certain things "snack-sized" - why watch all of SNL, or Letterman when it's just one sketch, band, or monologue you really want to see? Of course on the other side, HBO style mini-series, Tivo, and Net Flicks makes it easier to tell a really elaborate story without the normal constraints of traditional broadcast media.