Week 15: An Informed Future

There are many aspects that affect where media is heading. It is often based on what the heads of an industry believe the population is interested in consuming. Another factor can be Politics. This currently has an interesting effect as political beliefs often appear to be increasingly polarized on social media.

An issue that is being especially focused on right now is diversity. The issue is that while people want to make things more inclusive, they also want to separate people out. While this is a need to preserve aspects of cultures, there needs to be a balance that currently I believe is being missed. 

I'm starting to question if a male writer would even be allowed to write a female protagonist as he hasn't experienced what a female has gone through. If this is what people want then are we not limiting female representation in media?

We’ve begun to shape a culture where people have to question if they’re even allowed to see Black Panther on the opening night as they're afraid that since it’s not their culture, they should leave space open for those who the film is most relevant to. If this idea became widespread, it could affect how these types of films do, and thus affect funding. The need to respect each other's cultures seems to currently be misinterpreted as being fearful of other cultures and encroaching on them. These current ideas only further the divide between races. I think that in the future, this idea will become intensified before it is resolved. 

More generally, cultural questions and how we define them will continue to be an issue that is focused on. This will shape literature as well as film. We’ve already seen how Get Out incorporated issues of racism as elements of horror. I think this will continue, although hopefully in a way that helps solve racial issues without furthering the divide between different people. When race is topic that is focused on in film, there is a fine line between what is acceptable and what isn't. As this topic is rising I think there will be many films in the near future that are deemed inappropriate as the film industry tries to capitalize off of this issue.  

Many topics have become sensitive things to discuss. While this can have its benefits, I also think that the extreme of hypersensitivity will lead to censorship in film.  Movies have become hyper-violent in a lot of ways. The stakes are constantly raising. This means that films/ shows often feel like they must be more violent or sexual than what they’re competing with. They use these easy tactics to grab attention. While this dues widely sell, I've already witnessed several occasions where people from an older generation expressed concern about these things. I think that especially with gun violence being a major issue that is discussed a lot, that some stronger form of film censorship will be a part of the near future. In the past censorship has lead filmmakers to still include the topics they want to incorporate into films. It would be interesting to see if this relationship will be relevant again.

            In regards to how the film industry functions as a whole, I believe many changes are coming. Due to all of the recent allegations involving sexual harassment and assault in the film industry, I think that a lot of room will open up in high up positions for a new generation of filmmakers. There is a shift in areas of the film industry that are usually held without much change. There will be a rise of people coming out of film school that see things differently from how the current industry is run. This could largely be shaped by my limited experience as someone currently still in film school. 

            I find it especially interesting to think about how the future of film will affect the genres we've been covering in the Literature of Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy. 

           There are many genres that used to be considered nerdy or geeky have become much more mainstream. I’m excited to see how much sci-fi is involved in some of the largest films currently being created. And there seems to be a wider creativity in horror that I find really exciting. With innovations in artificial intelligence and virtual reality, I think a lot is opening up for the sci-fi genera to be further explored in a very relevant way to the modern lives of most people that will draw in a wide audience.

I’ve just seen A Quiet Place and I think it’s a great example of taking a classic horror film and throwing new ideas to make it something unique. It forces even the common moviegoer to focus on an aspect of a film that’s often ignored, sound design. I find that interesting in regards to film as well as drawing the public’s attention to the sense of sound in general. The future seems promising to help explore aspects of life that have often been ignored, at least in mainstream films.

I think that fantasy has always maintained a solid position as a wide spread genre in film. Where the change seems to be happening is in it’s target audience. Fantasy films are often targeted more heavily towards children. For several years now, films have been made that widen that audience to an older one. Examples of this this are Bright and Once Upon A Time. However, I think that in most cases these films/ television shows are still meant to include children as the audience. I think this will continue to shift and I'm interested to see how far it will go and what this means for Fantasy as a genre. When I think about it, currently Game of Throwns is a great example. It will be interesting to see what shows come after this and if they follow it's model.