__________ is/are overrated.

[Max Rockatansky]

why wouldn't you just play it safe creatively for a bigger chance at financial success?

Because that's artistically bankrupt?

Playing it safe is how you get media that gets criticized for being "soulless". If there isn't something in there for people to potentially dislike then there is no chance there will be anything in there to potentially like.

This is why capitalism ruins art—the best art is when someone is out there saying the message they want to say without regard to whether it's popular or not.

I'm currently rewatching One Battle After Another.  As much as I find this movie entertaining and unique I can easily understand how this was a commercial failure.  It certainly seems like Paul Thomas Anderson films are those to watch if you want something unique/critically acclaimed but tanked with general audiences. 

[Scott5114]

This is why capitalism ruins art

Nothing compares to all those awesome movies from 1980s Angola!

I don't know a whole lot about 1980s Angola, but I'm guessing that there aren't a lot of movies from there because there weren't a lot of people with the expertise or resources to make them.

Now that I think about it, I think this is probably a reason I don't really care for movies as a medium (you could even say I think they is/are overrated). Movies are stupid expensive to make, which means that you need to get someone to bankroll them, which usually means whoever is providing the money is going to want an ROI, or at the very least creative input on the project. I think that generally makes them less good.

Recently there have been some indie animation projects, published on YouTube, that avoid this by aggressively selling merch to fans and use that money to fund future development of the show. That is a little better, but that introduces its own compromises—you have to have characters that work as plushies and keychains or whatever it is you're selling. At least that gives you an incentive to create characters people will get attached to enough to want a keychain of them.

I tend to gel better with works like books and webcomics and such where the scope of the work is small enough one person can realistically handle the majority of it and not have to rely on others to fund part of it.

[GaryV]

a moment of silence

Official moments of silence are overrated.

Why do you say that?

Because someone always manages to sneeze or cough.

[kphoger]

True artists don't create for money, they create because they want or have to.

True artists create because they want or have to.  But true artists who decide on art as a career also do so for money.

Also, art is by nature something that exists not just in the mind of the artist but is also engaged with by the community—whether through active participation or by passive observation.  Therefore, what other people think about an artist's work does inherently matter.  If I compose a song, it belongs to me alone, but only so long as I only ever play it in my own house.  As soon as I perform it or publish it or record it for sale, it becomes a medium through which I interact with the public—so the effect it has on those other people becomes a defining part of its art.  Most artists actually want their audience to interact with their art positively:  therefore, most musicians produce music that they expect people will actually want to listen to and/or join in with, and most movie producers want to make movies that people actually want to watch.  If financial success reflects greater enjoyment by the public, and if greater enjoyment by the public is one of the goals of an artist, then there is nothing fundamentally wrong with making art with financial success in mind.  Your suggestion that true artists pay no mind to financial success seems to suggest that true artists pay their audience no mind.

[Rothman]

why wouldn't you just play it safe creatively for a bigger chance at financial success?

Because that's artistically bankrupt?

Playing it safe is how you get media that gets criticized for being "soulless". If there isn't something in there for people to potentially dislike then there is no chance there will be anything in there to potentially like.

This is why capitalism ruins art—the best art is when someone is out there saying the message they want to say without regard to whether it's popular or not.

I'm currently rewatching One Battle After Another.  As much as I find this movie entertaining and unique I can easily understand how this was a commercial failure.  It certainly seems like Paul Thomas Anderson films are those to watch if you want something unique/critically acclaimed but tanked with general audiences. 

I like the movie, but a couple sequences are drawn out way too long and it seemed like he tried to use music to cover them up.

I think I've ended up liking half of his movies that I've seen.  Really like Punch Drunk Love.

[Max Rockatansky]

why wouldn't you just play it safe creatively for a bigger chance at financial success?

Because that's artistically bankrupt?

Playing it safe is how you get media that gets criticized for being "soulless". If there isn't something in there for people to potentially dislike then there is no chance there will be anything in there to potentially like.

This is why capitalism ruins art—the best art is when someone is out there saying the message they want to say without regard to whether it's popular or not.

I'm currently rewatching One Battle After Another.  As much as I find this movie entertaining and unique I can easily understand how this was a commercial failure.  It certainly seems like Paul Thomas Anderson films are those to watch if you want something unique/critically acclaimed but tanked with general audiences. 

I like the movie, but a couple sequences are drawn out way too long and it seemed like he tried to use music to cover them up.

I think I've ended up liking half of his movies that I've seen.  Really like Punch Drunk Love.

For reason I get way too much amusement out of the mean spiritedness of There Will be Blood.  It doesn't hurt that Little Boston clearly is a stand-in for Coalinga and the Oil City. 

[DTComposer]

why wouldn't you just play it safe creatively for a bigger chance at financial success

You are obviously not an artist. True artists don't create for money, they create because they want or have to.

First, I'm not talking about my perspective, I'm talking about the corporate studios' perspectives. If that's now how my comment came across, I apologize.

Second, I make about a third of my living as a professional performing artist, and the rest of my living as a non-profit arts administrator. I know exactly what it's like to create art because I want to - otherwise I'd have a lot more money

[Molandfreak]

I've never really understood the hate for the Star Wars prequels.  The Ewoks are way more out of place than Jar Jar.

Obviously they would want to capitalize a bit more on the technological advances, but I wish one of the directors that George Lucas approached to direct the prequel trilogy would have obliged. The original trilogy was more of a collaboration that started with his ideas, while the prequels were pretty obviously the work of a writer and director who hadn't done the latter in years.

And some of the choices were awfully strange for a cohesive saga. Like the audience is really supposed to believe in a redemption arc for someone who murdered innocent children just 3 movies ago?

[DTComposer]

why wouldn't you just play it safe creatively for a bigger chance at financial success?

Because that's artistically bankrupt?

Playing it safe is how you get media that gets criticized for being "soulless". If there isn't something in there for people to potentially dislike then there is no chance there will be anything in there to potentially like.

This is why capitalism ruins art—the best art is when someone is out there saying the message they want to say without regard to whether it's popular or not.

I obviously didn't write my comment correctly - I was talking about the corporate studios' perspectives, and yes, a lot of it does become artistically bankrupt.

As an artist, I in no way advocate for this approach in creating art.