But is it Quality?

In this day and age there are so many different types of films being produced all of the world. There are so many different genres, styles of animation, where and how movies are shot, and the list goes on. But are they all really quality or are they just popular or maybe even cheaper to watch?

There are so many steps that go into making and producing a film. There’s writing the script, who’s the director, actors, editors, music producers, lighting, and so much more. So why aren’t all movies top teer?

Foundation for the film is the script. It doesn’t matter if it’s a short film or a whole movie production, if you don’t have a good script to start with then the film will not be good. We’ve all heard of Hallmark movies, but in case you haven’t, the general idea of any Hallmark movie is a girl comes to a place that she isn’t familiar with, meets the townspeople, and eventually meets a guy while trying to do some big thing that she can’t do on her own. Not saying this is a bad plotline, it’s just overused. It’s very predictable. A script needs something new in each in each movie. If it’s company, like Hallmark for example, I feel like it’s okay to have their movies be similar to each other because that might be their trademark but it needs something new to look forward to or maybe not even expect. Marvel movies are a good example of this. They all have the same characters and same locations, for the most part, but they have variety in their plotlines.

Next up are the actors. You need actors that really know their character and who they are portraying. A good example of this is Taylor Swift’s short film of ‘All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Verson)’. The actors, for the most part, don’t speak but they have so much emotion at the song continues making it easy to follow the plotline. Another example, ‘Bad at Love’ by Halsey, this music video overall it not bad but the acting is not the greatest. Sometimes you are confused of what is supposed to be happening and other times you get the idea but there just could more. While these two films are very different in their own ways, you can still look at the actors and see which one might be better.

The last thing to discuss is the overall production. It has to send the message of the movie to the right group of people or else the whole thing will be a flop. For example more recently, the ‘Barbie‘ movie. This movie’s “a giant dance party, and everyone is invited,” said by Margot Robbie. But when you watch it, no spoilers, you can see it’s pointed toward the female audience and how females are realistically seen vs how they actually feel. And for those who actually played with Barbies as a kid most definitely watched the movie, so it was very well pointed towards the right audience of who it was written for. This whole idea of sending the message is mostly a marketing thought, not necessarily part of the plot of a movie but is still vital to get people to actually watch the movie. Like ‘Mamma Mia 2’, so many people have seen and loved the first one but not many people knew there was a second one. And this happens to so many great movies. Going off of this idea, on Nickelodeon, a kid/tween channel, there are adult ads on for movies and other products but those kids will not be the ones to go see or purchase those products so why are they on there?

Overall, what makes a good film is the plot, actors, and how you send the message. These are key points to focus on when making any sort of film, movie, short film, YouTube video, music video, ad, etc. Of course, there are so many other factors in this industry, but these are a good starting point.

Featured image: created by Katie Sumter using ‘Canva’