Peter Katz, Story Driven CEO: So if you feel you're not getting what you want and you're
a storyteller, maybe you're the one that sees something that needs a resurface that you
like or you see something that's not there ever and never been there and you want to
destroy the current movement.
You want to put it into the passe and this is your critique on it then you should.
Film Courage: Has Hollywood run out of ideas Peter?
Peter: No, because you can't run out of human experiences and everybody who's ever been
born looks at the world in a different way.
Film Courage: Why do we hear that so much though?
We see it in our comment, we hear it all the time that it seems we've run out of ideas.
We're only repeating the same story or IP [intellectual property] over and over again?
Peter: It depends where you look I mean I'm sure that it's also a taste thing because
some movies get made more, some kind of character or genre and there's an audience for that
if we're adventurous just go on Letterboxd.
Letterboxd is like the coolest website around or app and it just has so much exploration
for movies.
During the pandemic I created a crime film club where I would curate movies to my friends
and some of them were you know in Asia and all around the world and we before we'd hop
on a zoom call we'd watch one of these movies that i picked and I used letterbox to find
them and every title I tried to pick something that was obscure and nobody's seen in the
group because there are some cinephiles they're pretty hardcore so then it became like a fun
challenge can I get something that they haven't seen and i was successful I found multiple
movies that like the most hardcore crime film fans didn't ever hear of and we had incredible
time talking about them so i think the question is are the movies that you feel are derivative
maybe it's the type of projects you just don't want to watch that's fine what about you know
the onus is on you because like there's international cinema there's incredible storytellers on
youtube there's so many you know really interesting points of view or there's podcasts that have
you know started being created in the audio drama space with stories from you know creators
that we haven't been introduced to yet but now they're here in a new medium so i think
that lying about there isn't enough x or whatever i think that anybody is commenting on that
they have a point to some degree because maybe they just don't like what's popular but then
they also have the responsibility to seek out what they find interesting well taking
it with music since i know you're you're a music aficionado so a lot of people say oh
well there's no good music it made after the 2000s or whatever would you say that they
just haven't looked hard enough they haven't found some indie bands or different artists
that they're they're still in this mindset of what was fed to us through radio back in
the day which has kind of gone away
i mean maybe there's a band that they like and they broke up or there was a movement
and that isn't the the dominant one you know the artists are not pushing in that space
you know pushing that space or it's not getting a lot of press i mean i can't say don't feel
bad about the lack of the type of movies or music or you know writing that you've seen
and if in it you see like there's just a desert you know and there's not an abundance of options
i mean you should mourn that if that's the nostalgic quality i mean if you miss a certain
type of thing i get that i can only speak to myself like i can't say this is what the
industry is doing or not doing i could say that when i was looking for movies to entertain
very cynical friends of mine who've seen everything and i found things that were very inspiring
that's from my own you know experience but if there is specific types of storytellers
or stories that you don't see that's a valid concern i don't want to deny that i can only
talk about within my own you know range of experiences and you know what i've seen but
then at the same time if you don't see what what's out there and you it's kind of inspiration
maybe for you as an artist because now there's more fuel to get you really plugged into a
certain type of thing that that's missing in some ways i think art is kind of like criticism
if you make a movie that is a crime film that is directly uh diametrically like opposed
to what's out there like if it's all about like 80s action films and then another style
comes out that's different or a horror genre starts and it's all meta and that's the thing
everything's things about meta is that there's these different movements and sometimes a
new movement upends an old one so if you feel you're not getting what you want and you're
a storyteller maybe you're the one that sees something that needs to resurface that you
like or you see something that's not there ever and never been there and you want to
destroy the current movement you want to put it into the passe and this is your critique
on it then you should you should destroy you should in a way it's like you're kind of becoming
the next voice that's going to resonate and you might mean that you are in confrontation
with the current you know fancy you know filmmaker or author or painter and you're a necessary
part of this you know the waves that will happen you know in our culture and then you
should bring upon change you should fight to bring upon change but you don't like what's
out there and if you're not a creator you're a critic you could attack what's out there
you know or if you're just a commentator you could comment on this youtube video and that's
still a critique of something i mean that's totally fine i don't i don't think it's all
or one thing i think it's a confluence of different perspectives it brings to mind this
quote um we don't see things as they are we see things as we are exactly so then when
we complain that there's no more good movies anymore there's no good music anymore we can't
it's all been done before it's really more on us it's what it's the filter that we're
seeing it through and that maybe that means that we need to tell those stories well i
don't think people should be able to complain about what's out there i think it's fine i'm
just saying that in some way if you really don't like a certain way a genre is being
explored by the current you know fancy people in the space who are getting all the attention
you might come out of left field and completely like ruckshop on it like there could be a
there could be a musician from soundcloud that says i hate what these djs are doing
now and electronic music they don't know what's going on and because of the the platforms
are so much about amplifying anything that gets traction you might just in your parents
basement make a song that gets attention and now you're challenging what's out there or
you make a film for no budget it plays the festivals and then suddenly people go oh it's
not about the thing that you don't like or if you're like i said if you're not a filmmaker
you're just a writer you just comment on every article you're still there you're still present
you're still pushing against something it's okay to not be a fan of what's out there you
know i think it's ridiculous if someone's like just smile and consume everything you
don't have to you could you could just be annoyed that whatever you're really into is
not being like embraced but then you also have the abilities to be a thorn in the side
of what's there or potentially be a death sentence to that movement that you don't like
and maybe not a distance in the sense that it never could get reborn but lily could put
on hold stop it and then challenge it with your own voice
just be like a mindless consumer you think that's what they want from us i don't think
anybody wants to be a miles consumer and i think that like the idea that there's a hollywood
movie and it's just you know doesn't take thinking to make a movie nobody who's making
movies mindless it's incredibly challenging you know task to do that and there's so many
people involved in the process that are brilliant so i don't think a movie is just mindless
and i do think that a movie's goal is to have some type of reaction you know it's not they
don't want an apathetic audience that doesn't feel anything they're they're wanting to like
create an experience that's memorable or at least not memorable it makes you forget the
challenges of your life so you know i don't think that is idea that you just pour content
down somebody's mouth and that's uh and that's what it what the system is it doesn't work
that way it's it's a there's al it's basically there's all sorts of stories that are being
told and some of them being pushed to front and center some of them are more in the background
and as time goes they shift uh based on the what's popular or what's you know the new
cool you know the new cool voices the new cool distributor you know what's 824 doing
it just keeps shifting you know but it's your job to decide where you're participating in
it if you're commenting on it and if you don't want to do anything else you just think that
it's bad it's fine too like there's no there's no responsibility for any individual regarding
what level of in you know proximity they have to this culture as a creator or a commentator
excellent point so we have free will of course to extend and the algorithm doesn't follow
us and i mean it depends on how you um consume content or movies or comic books or i mean
like there's a spectrum of ex ways that you interact with media is it physical is it you're
super nostalgic and you get dvds and vhs are you getting them off netflix are you getting
them off criterion i just don't think there's like a one size fits all for anybody and there
isn't like just some psychographics that defines a giant chunk where everyone's like all you
do is watch these videos be because that's not true i mean i listen to certain types
of podcasts watch sharing con's movies read certain kinds of journalism like i'm a very
specific in that way and there's other people that will be all about watching video games
on youtube or somebody's all about food i think that like there's this idea that like
there's the death of what we of what we love or there's nothing here i do think that there's
ways that journalists sometimes will create an absolute like they'll say it's like so
i think they're creating the and sometimes not all of them obviously but some of them
have like a frame that's convenient because it invokes conversation so it's like how do
i how do i say something that's bombastic that gets you talking i mean i know for a
little while uh years ago they were saying horror movies are dead that was like an article
there was a few bombs or whatever horror movies are dead and then i was like how's that true
when the world at times is horrific when the human experience could just be terrifying
and confusing how could hormone movies be dead yet we need an outlet to comment on this
complex nature of our mortality so there's no way but at the same time the journalists
maybe just want people to talk about we're sick of schlocky horror movies and maybe that's
the protest that's the writing that's fine but i just think that these type of frames
on the grand scheme as much as they're conversation starters if you take them too seriously they're
also limiting.
Question For The Viewers: Does it feel like Hollywood has run out of ideas?