The principle product of the modern film industry is the narrative

Question

True or false 

Answer 1

Simple answer (False) Now keep in mind this question is being addressed from the perspective of music composition and production point of view.  Beginning in the 90s and continuing to the present the "traditional" film score has been replaced by the popular song which does two things.  1) It increased the mass appeal of the film initially, important because the studios can no long count on the fat foreign residuals, so the film has to gross big up front.   2) It drastically reduces the shelf life of a film.  Literally speaking there are 4 maybe 5 orchestral film composers still working in LA and the number of sound stages capable of recording a full-score motion picture has been reduced from 5 to 2 and those are both on life support.  So it has come down to making as much money as fast as possible, period.  Case in point that horrible abortion of a "Star Wars" film Disney tried to make...that had nothing to do with the grand theme of the Star Wars saga.   It was just a bunch of cute little scenes put together in a barely coherent pastiche that even the great John Williams had a hard time making musical sense of. 

 

The principle product of today's film industry is money  ---  can you imagine someone trying to pitch The Matrix to a modern studio  exec  lawyer.  

 

Again, since we are approaching this from a, largely, musical perspective.  The two most successful, non-electronic composers working today are Ron Jones and Walter Murphy who have a lavish staff and a 90 piece orchestra to work with every work  to score Family Guy...which I happen to love...but it's hardly a sweeping narrative. 

 

I hope that sort of answered the question.....

Answer 2

First, let me make a grammatical observation:  You should be asking for PRINCIPAL Product.  (The word principle pertains to a basic tenet such as "The Principle of One Man, One Vote."  OOPS--I should say "One Person, One Vote--if of age 18 or more.

 

If I were to answer the question, I'd opine that the principal product of the modern film industry is the SEQUEL to a blockbuster violent fantasy film.  Which is why I rarely attend movies anymore.

 

In the golden era of movies (the studio era), I would say that the principal products then were the narrative--so many great films had great screenplays, often based on the greatest novels of literature. This literate, artistic temperament was often attributed to those great studio heads, several of whom fled Hitler in 1930s. 

 

I'd welcome feedback from this. Thanks.

 

Ken Seidel