I recently borrowed a Monty Python DVD box set from a friend.
In this set there is a disk of meta-python programs, like Pythonland (about the locations of the Monty Python sketches, presented as a Michael Palin travel program), the famous Live At Aspen interview and documentaries that include interviews with the individual members.
In one of the programs about Monty Python, Terry Gilliam explained that the decision whether a python sketch was good enough to air or not, was made by the 6 pythoners. That was all.
They’d bat the sketch around a bit, and if they didn’t like it, they killed it. If they liked it, it aired.
Terry Gilliam then said something that really struck a nerve with me:
This was probably some of the last television made, where that decision was made by a handful of guys that wrote it.
Think about that for a second; Only the pythoners decided. There were no focus groups. There were no brand managers. There were no television executives that had to exert some kind of creative control to justify their obscene salaries. There was no one to come and smack them over the head, because the sponsors had complained because a certain sketch didn’t cater to the core demographic.
This, I think, is one of the main reasons why Monty Python has legendary status.
They weren’t making a “market-smart” entertainment program, with a key demographic selected by the average viewers buying power.
They were (and 5 of them still are) a bunch of really brilliant guys, who were just making what they thought was funny. This gave their show enough heart, guts, soul and gall to be loved by an astonishing number of people more than 30 years after the fact.
I am guessing a television executive might think something like “Yes, but moderating them just a little bit would mean we wouldn’t alienate the religious demographic, and wouldn’t detract from the quality”.
That television executive would be so incredibly wrong.
So many good things are ruined by decision makers afraid to step on someones delicate sensibilities. Moderating it a bit. Toning it down a bit.
“God is in the details” said Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Well, don’t mess with God – leave those details in there.
You might not understand the subtleties, because you are a business school drone with no sense of humor or love for anything but money, but to the rest of us they make all the difference.
And this is something that concerns me a great deal, because of what’s happening to most of the media today. Especially movies, television, music, and games.
This is very much relevant, whereever business meets art.
Investors are out to make money with the least risk possible. So when someone comes up with a truly original idea for a game or a movie, they might very well have problems finding funding for it; if the idea doesn’t have a proven track record (i.e. it’s been done to death), it’s too big a risk.
This is causing the same pathetic, voyeuristic and cheap “reality show” concepts to be produced over and over again all over the world. Popstars. Idols. Save My Pathetic Hairdo. Watch Me Sell Off My Principles For Money.
This is causing the four hundreth forgettable boy band, singing the same tune about heartache, with a solo performance by The Cute One, and music by The Slightly Musically Inclined One (who is also The Ugly One) – but mostly, of course, by the hit producer.
This is causing Armageddon (the hairy mole on Steve Buscemis career, not the biblical event).
This is causing a constantly increasing flood of watered down, lowest common denominator, unoriginal, predictable, uninspirational garbage. Empty calories for the mind.
Because of this, almost every single movie that comes out in the theaters today is a piece of shit.
I can still stomach stuff like “I, Robot” with a sardonic smile and even be entertained by it, but by god, there is such a long wait between the Fight Clubs and Pulp Fictions. Such a sea of bland crap. Backed by multi billion dollar advertisement campaigns.
And here is the point of this:
I am convinced, that trying to do what you think the market wants will result in bland, politically correct, forgettable garbage. At best, it’s forgettable mediocrity.
Doing what you really feel strongly about has the potential for greatness.
It also has the potential for complete failure, but that’s the risk you take.
There is no place in history for the guy who played it safe.
At least you love what you are doing while your audience is staring at you in fastidious disbelief. While the investor is making angry phonecalls to make sure you wont work again.
My lamentations are not specifically about the investors, it’s about the whole rotten situation.
But if any investors are reading this, this is how you can help solving this problem:
Find someone you believe has what it takes to do something great. Let them do their stuff. Then shut the fuck up and sell it without ruining it first.
If they turn out to be crap, maybe you shouldn’t be investing in something you don’t really care about.
Why is that so hard to understand?