Seems I'm not alone in thinking that TV is the new Cinema.
Michael Bodey reveals in The Weekend Australian Review that Jane Campion is developing a six-hour mini-series for the BBC with the writer of her debut feature, Sweetie, Gerard Lee.
Not that this is the director's first TV project, of course - An Angel at My Table was made as a three-part NZ mini-series before being premiered in cinemas as a result of film festival plaudits.
Bodey writes that Campion is enthused about television's possibilities and dismayed by film's conservatism, and quotes her as saying: "You have to look at the industry and know what's going on, and to me it's really hard to make features right now.
"I feel like there's more freedom in doing TV; my mouth gaped open at some of the exciting stuff being done on HBO as compared to how conservative a lot of film is. You have to do event cinema now."
Campion, says the article, "laments that films today must have some other incarnation - a musical, series of novels or comic book - to gain financing or attention." Me too.
Campion's latest feature film, Bright Star, opens on Boxing Day. Sad to say, despite enthusiastic reviews, it failed to do spectacular business at the US box office.
4 comments:
Yearp. Films are mostly watched at home nowadays aren't they? And TV is High Def now (while downloaded movies are often watched at Half Def). TV dramas like the Wire are serious sagas that run far longer than cinema, like 30 hours.
So what's the diff? Firstly budgets - movies still pack in a lot more dollars per minute than TV . And the quality of TV or home movies is a driver behind 3D cinema because home 3D hasnt taken off yet and we don't have Imax-res screens at home either. I think you touched on this with Avatar - the notion of spectacle and super-cinema.
I'm not surprised that Bright Star hasn't done well in the US. It doesn't cater to that market at all. I think it aims squarely at the Europeans, and an arthouse market at that. So it will probably only have limited success.
Did you see Campion listed her fave films in the Oz? Made me sit up and think I may have dismissed her as a mere feminazi: she put cool films like Mad Max and Aliens. I was expecting pretentious answers.
Me again.. to bring it home, that conservatism Ms Campion observes is no doubt linked to the "lot more dollars per minute than TV" thing.
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