Is it Illegal Downloading, or a Lack of Creativity?

I have been, for years, reading about the music, movie, and entertainment industry crying the blues about illegal downloading, and how it's killing the business, leading to retail shop shut downs, lay-offs, and lost profits. There's no doubt that illegal downloading, pirated movies and such is a contributing factor to the decline. But in observing the direction of music, movies, and TV as of late, I'm wondering if it's simply a lack of creativity and not Internet geeks that's the underlying problem.

Let's start with music. I already discussed this year's Grammy Awards in a previous post, where one big winner was able to accept her award while on hiatus from rehab. Nuff said. But also, remember the previous Grammys when troubled starlet Britney Spears was given the stage to lip-sync and prance around with absolutely no co-ordination, nor entertainment value, and an obvious lack of rehearsing. Is this the sort of content for which consumers are supposed to be willing to pay $17/CD? Of course we have tons of great artists on the scene, like John Mayer, Alicia Keys, Jack Johnson, and Josh Groban (judging from the comments on the aforementioned Grammys post, he has a diverse group of fans!) But when it really comes down to it, who gets the spotlight? The ones gallivanting on Hollywood Blvd., and/or with drinking and/or drug problems, and/or with great or odd fashion sense. There's no focus on the music anymore! In my opinion, absolutely NO artist should be permitted to lip-sync during a live performance. If you can't sing live, find another career.

Now let's move on to the movies. I can't help but notice that many of the biggest box-office sellers over the years have been based on popular novels of the same name. The Da Vinci Code, Memoirs of a Geisha, Atonement, The Last King of Scotland, and even this year's big Oscar winner, No Country for old Men. I'm pretty sure that if you dig deep enough into the credits of most big movies, you'll find that they are in some way, shape or form, based on a book. I do understand that a lot of work is involved in order to turn a novel into a screenplay. But I've seen many movies after having read the book, and the dialogue in some cases is virtually identical. Where's the originality? Are novelists the only people left with talent? Or is there a shortage of original screenplay writers?

Finally, there's TV, which has suffered an unfortunate blow because of the recent Hollywood Writer's Strike (perhaps these guys should have become novelists!) But even before the Strike was a glimmer in anyone's eye, reality TV begun to take over. In a typical prime-time TV line-up, there's probably 10 reality TV shows for every one scripted drama (this is just my guestimate, so don't hold me to this!) Everything from singing to talent competitions a la American Idol, to sticking people in a house or on an island and watching the drama ensue. If anyone believes that half of these shows are actually fully unscripted, they'll be sadly disappointed. But again, where's the originality? The creative juices that are working to entertain, not just provide shock value?

Sure, the Internet is making it much easier for consumers to get pretty much anything when they want it. But perhaps there's a reason beyond this changing face of technology that leads consumers to want to gather as much content as they can as quickly as they can. Do they feel they're not getting the quality they deserve? All I'm saying is that entertainment companies should take a long, hard look at issues like those mentioned above before forcing all the blame onto illegal downloading.

No Oscar for Canadian Men

I actually stayed up to watch the Academy Awards last night, figuring that perhaps with everything going on in the industry, what with the writer's strike, and methods of content distribution changing so rapidly, we might see something different this year. I was wrong. It was the same old, same old 4-hours worth of speeches, montages, and commercials.

Although the show overall was quite monotonous, there were some funny, not to mention gadget-related, moments. Host Jon Stewart was "caught" in the act of vigorously playing some Wii Sports tennis on the big-screen after a commercial break. On another occasion, he claimed to be immersed in watching a movie on a portable device. "This is great," he said. "But you can't really enjoy the full cinematography unless you watch it in widescreen," he added as he slowly rotated the small device horizontally." I guess this is his way of mocking the fact that consumers think they can really enjoy a movie, and everything it has to offer, by watching it on a tiny 2.2" screen.

Sadly, the heavily Canadian film Juno (Canadian director and several actors) didn't take home as many awards as many had hoped. Just one for its screenwriter (and ex-exotic dancer!) Diablo Cody. Funny enough, this was the only movie of all those nominated that I have actually seen!

No Country for Old Men, a movie about murderers, drugs, and money, took home a slew of awards last night, putting smiles on the faces of seasoned actors like Tommy Lee Jones (although he himself did not win) and Javier Berdam (who did win). Berdam is best known for roles in his hometown of Spain.

Judging from the range of winners, it seems that the best talent this year came from everywhere but the U.S. French actress Marion Cotillard won Best Actress for her role in La Vie En Rose; while the song from Irish film Once won for Best Song, despite being up against three, yes three, tunes from the movie Enchanted.

The Oscars are, of course, a serious event with serious awards given out to serious actors, writers, producers, costume designers, and everyone in between. But what happened to the funny sketches? Interesting and amusing banter between presenters? Sure, there were a couple of funny lines, but the audience was so uptight, it seemed they needed a teleprompter to tell them when to laugh.

In their defense, the Oscars could very well have been canceled this year due to the writer's strike, so the show was likely put together in a rush. Still, that's no excuse. The highly-anticipated Vanity Fair after-party didn't take place either. Stewart mentioned that the cancellation was made earlier in respect of the writers. "Here's how you can show some respect to the writers," mused Stewart. "Send them an invite to the party!"

Anyway, just because our home-grown Canadian film didn't win, we can take pride in the fact that it was an honour just being nominated.