Welcome to Gimmicktown!

Being the old, crotchety miser that I am, I try to stay open-minded to new endeavors in cinema, but the truth is, I’m always reluctant to accept a new, sensationalist change on a classic tradition that I hold near and dear. Reason being, is that most of these changes I’m referring to come about in an effort to increase revenue, not to increase creativity or production. My topic of concern is that movies are being more and more redily made into 3-D. Dreamworks, the perpetrator in this situation, started the machine tentatively, producing only a handful of 3-D movies in the last two years. However, the movies that they did release in 3-D went above and beyond their monetary expectations. While the argument still stands that this could be the wave of the future for film and that any revenue is good revenue in an economy where most people have LITERALLY no income, it’s still very hard to look anyone in the eye and tell them that 3-D IS more than just a money-making gimmick. Harder still to tell them that Hollywood will use 3-D to further storytelling and enhance the medium rather than to cheapen good narratives for the next few years and then suddenly drop once its profitability wavers. DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, THOUGH! Just take a gander at actual quotes from Jeffrey Katzenberg which I found on /Film:

The consumer has shown now time and time again not just a willingness but an aggressive ambition to trade up for a premium experience. There’s been zero price resistance, in the worst economy in our lifetime. And as the economy changes and improves, that’s only going to continue to grow….The research we’ve done everywhere in the world said the consumer said they got a valuable experience at a $5 premium. And nobody has done a $5 premium.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!!!

In a business where margins are sinking like a stone in water, suddenly something comes along that for a small incremental investment you create huge incremental income possibilities for you. Why every studio isn’t out making three, four, five 3D movies is inexplicable.

Now, before you get your pitchforks and torches out let me reiterate a VERY valid point that /Film makes. Katzenberg is an executive. His sole purpose in life is to drive sales and fill the company’s wallet. That’s what he’s paid to do. In /Film’s Russ Fischer’s own words, “Granted, Katzenberg is an exec. It’s his job to make money, and his job to drum up support for plans that will put coin in his coffers. So a statement like this isn’t too surprising.” But my earlier point only stands strengthened. I hardly believe that anyone in the upper echelons of Dreamworks have any intentions other than fiscal ones when they add 3-D to their films. This gold-plated gimmick is far from being used for the right reasons, and until we can even fully undertand what the “right” reasons for using 3-D storytelling are, we shouldn’t do it. I SAID, “GOOD DAY,” SIR!