Manifesto For Now

Laura Masana TAT 328Professor Riel 12/3/09

5 Points and/or Claims

There must be some sort of connection between the characters and the audience.

It helps if there’s a score or soundtrack. The writing should be clever. Unknown actors can be a good thing. Money is not the main objective!

One: Connection It is very easy to watch a film or television

show where the characters are relatable to oneself or to people one knows. For example, the film Knocked Up has characters that are very much like many people I know, as well as myself. It is easy to identify with them and it makes me want to watch the film.

Two: Score/soundtrack In the film Across the Universe, the entire film is based

around songs by The Beatles. The Beatles are such an influential band and loved by so many that that makes more people want to view the film. It also adds to the film as without the music, there is very little substance.

I think that music in a film helps round out the film and add different layers to it that without the music we would never imagine to be there. Also, I love when a character loves a song; seeing them so entranced in the music makes the character relatable, because we all have songs we love and feel the same way as the character at one point or another. (Ex. Natalie Portman’s character in Garden State and “New Slang” by The Shins)

Three: Clever writing Hayao Miyazaki is a famous

Japanese filmmaker who makes primarily animated films. His animation is beautiful, but another thing about his films that make them so great is the writing. His stories are always intricate and take unexpected turns. It helps draw the viewer in and get them more involved.

Four: Unknown actors

Though this is usually not the way to go, sometimes using unknowns works in the films favor. In the film Clerks, Kevin Smith uses all unknowns (at the time) but still had a successful film. The dialogue was so intriguing that it didn’t really matter who was saying it. Now he is a huge director with many hits.

Five: NOT FOR MONEY ALONE. I’ve always believed that one should make a

film because their heart is in it, not just to make financial profit. So many films bomb for this very reason; films based on video games, or ones with very little substance and just good looking actors. For example, sequels like S. Darko: just because the first film did well and is popular does not mean you should make another!