Captain PMS, Jenkins

Captain’s Blog Stardate10/02

“Yet these mechanisms of self-promotion move beyond what would be required to support a functional net work for amateur film distribution, suggesting that the fans, too, have come to understand that the art of “high concept” filmmaking (and the franchise system it supports) depends as much on the art of advertising and marketing as on the art of storytelling.” – Jenkins

Play the Funeral March people because what you hear is the beginning of the end. When Jenkins wrote this essay nearly four years ago things were a lot different than they are now even in a field as cutting edge as digital film making. With the success of web sites like You Tube and the new addition of devices like video ipods the market and the web are becoming saturated with so many amateur films that most of these homemade movies sink quickly to obscurity. Some would argue that this allows the cream to rise to the top, however, like the publishing industry, one can’t help but feel that with this much available media plenty of great films are put to the side for the newest download. Like a lot of media mediums, amateur digital video’s uniqueness and flexibility will soon give way under the weight of capitalism. Advertising, as Jenkins notes, is an art on par with storytelling for importance to successful digital production. This is fine for now, when the films that people advertise on are the ones that are the most popular and therefore, one would hope, those with some merit. It won’t be long, however, before advertising controls what is made just like it does for professional movies.