Simon Howson
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2004
- Messages
- 1,780
Well, one issue is that Hollywood filmmakers seem to adopt the same intensified style irrespective of genre or story they are telling. Action films, romantic comedies, biographical or horror films all feature some combination of fast cutting, camera movement, uses of extreme lens lengths, and frequent close-ups. That group style is now the base line for what is considered "good filmmaking". Of course there are impressive versions of it by Spike Lee, Scorsese, Michael Mann, Ridley Scott, et al, as well as completely over the top versions by Michael Bay, Greengrass, and Tony Scott and others. But they are really modifications on a very dominant theme, rather than completely opposing styles the way Hitchcock and Aldrich opposed Preminger or Minnelli.
Things have changed in significant ways, and what has been lost is the diversity and breadth that can be seen in the studio era. Sure back then there were bigger cameras, slower film stocks, noisier lights, but somewhat paradoxically, there was a greater range of styles exhibited 50 years ago in Hollywood than there are today. I'm yet to read or hear anyone convincingly argue otherwise.
Things have changed in significant ways, and what has been lost is the diversity and breadth that can be seen in the studio era. Sure back then there were bigger cameras, slower film stocks, noisier lights, but somewhat paradoxically, there was a greater range of styles exhibited 50 years ago in Hollywood than there are today. I'm yet to read or hear anyone convincingly argue otherwise.