I just finished watching M. Night Shymalan’s latest film, Lady in the Water, and I thought it was brilliant. The fact that it didn’t fare so well in the box office ($42.2M, whereas The Village took in nearly $114.2M domestic) suggests that either the film was woefully mismarketed or that my fellow Americans have no souls. The film is a contemporary fairy tale, a story about what happens when an everyday guy (Paul Giamatti’s Cleveland Heep) is drawn into a real-life bedtime story, and the whole thing is done with a wistful, beautiful tone. The monsters are cleverly designed, the proximity of the magical elements to our own reality is so close that it borders on magical realism (although nowhere near as much as Pan’s Labyrinth, natch) and I finished the film with a smile and that “I wish I’d written that” feeling.
Lady in the Water felt a little like a Neil Gaiman story, and watching it made me think about how my own tastes and passions might one day fit into the mainstream media market. Neil’s stuff certainly seems to be wending its way into Hollywood with some degree of success despite Mirrormask‘s paltry $850K US gross on a budget of $4M, I still loved it. I also loved Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, which didn’t fare horribly well in the box office either. In fact, most of the things I love aren’t big mainstream successes. My recent work with MTV has shown me that I’m not that much in touch with the “MTV” demographic anymore. I think that’s okay, though. It makes me think I want to try and do some kind of IPTV project that is aimed squarely at this type of content. Something for folks like me, produced on a very limited budget, and with limited expectations for ROI. A nichebuster project.
Hmm. I wonder.
After researching transmedia storyworlds at MIT, guiding Microsoft in its CTO/CXO's think tank, co-founding Microsoft Studios' Narrative Design team, and exploring the future of entertainment and media as the Creative Director and a Research Fellow for USC's Annenberg Innovation Lab, I'm now the Creative Director for USC's World Building Media Lab, a storyteller, a designer, a consultant, and a doctoral student in Media Arts and Practice at USC's School of Cinematic Arts. more »
The opinions put forward in this blog are mine alone, and do not reflect the opinions of my employers.
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