A Movie-Goer’s Responsibilities!

In olden days there would be claps, whistles and cheers for a hero introduction, especially for a Superstar introduction, but today, all you see are flashes from the mobile phone cameras! These pictures are immediately uploaded in social media and then followed by other updates on what is going on in the film. Nowadays, people can express what they feel through social media platforms.

There will be live tweets, first half review, second half review, trailer review, songs review, climax review, teaser review and what not! Especially in a country like India where, on an average, 1600 films get released in a year, it will be surprising if people don’t discuss films. But to what extend are we taking this? We are not denying that the film is made for the audience to watch but isn’t there a responsibility for every audience to give your favorite form of entertainment the respect it deserves? OK responsibility may sound like a big word to you, we can explain that.

Every film takes birth with a basic plot which transforms into a story and then a script. This script is taken to the producers, actors and other technicians. After finalizing the cast and crew and other pre-production works, the film goes on floors, as in it gets shot. Then the post-production works get started, editing, re-recording, dubbing, color grading are all the parts of this procedure. The work is not over yet, there is promotion. Every film must be promoted highlighting it’s own specialities therefore every film needs a different promotional strategy. The film is sold to the distributors and exhibitors, also to the television channels. The teasers, trailers and music is also put out with a strategy to attract audience. And finally the movie releases!

All the above said procedures involves a lot of hard work, adjustments and struggles, it literally takes blood, sweat and tears. Even the worst film you have ever watched was made this way. This is the primary reason why movies deserve respect. It may just take a tweet to destroy a film and may the film is a bad one but even criticizing a film should be done with certain manners.

All the films that has a star in it will receive a certain opening. Big hero films sometimes recover the budget in the first week. A strong fan base is the biggest blessing an actor can get. Loving and celebrating your favorite star is not a bad thing but degrading the films of other actors, is a silly act. Many fan wars happen on the topic of box office collections, the fans of one actor would not want another film to cross the collections of there favorite star. This is not the way to treat a film, all the superstars have seen their fair share of hits and flops, when we look at their blockbusters they have been good films backed by star power. The box office results do not necessarily show the quality of a film, also it is not compulsory that a critically acclaimed film can’t earn money. So, fighting on the actor’s name or the box office collections is cannot be appreciated when it comes to talking about a film.

There are many films that have gained huge success through mouth publicity, the audience become the promoters of a film. People can never resist their love for a movie if it truly impressed them. In such situations, the active movie buffs on social medias play a major part. There are great advantages with this wide attention that movies receive such as the above mentioned. But sometimes to please these audience or to create a buzz, the makers would promote a film in a way that it would catch instant attention.

The film might be about a completely different plot but a mass appealing teaser or trailer would spoil the end result. Such misled promotions happen when the makers take advantage of an actor’s huge fan base. These posters, teasers or trailers become a trend and people go to the movies expecting the same. So the “trendy” status of a film cannot be taken as the end result may differ. Also expectations can sometimes ruin a film viewing experience! Therefore, it takes a certain amount of responsibility in even retweeting a movie’s first look poster!

When it comes to the audience there is the most important factor, our time and money! No one would want to waste these two things. The ticket prices are high, the popcorn and drinks cost more than the ticket, the parking is charged and it takes minimum three and a half hours of our day to finish a movie and come home. Obviously all of us would want to watch the best films and if the film is bad, it will annoy us. Most of the makers respect the money the audience earn and the majority is not coming in to see how well the camera angles are placed or what type of lighting is set, they come in for entertainment and if there is a message in the film it is a bonus.

Now you may ask after spending the money we earned after a month of toil, if the movie is not good why can’t we say it loud?! The question is valid, but there are a lot of people like the make up man, make up assistants, light men, spot boys, drivers, cinematographer’s assistants, the guy who carries the umbrella for actors, junior artists, and thousands more who buy bread and butter because of cinema! Just think of the people who stick posters in midnight or the people who serve you in the theatres. Cinema doesn’t just feed the actors or producers or directors, it feeds lakhs of people. A major reason to respect cinema.

Bad films may come in your way, everything has good and bad. And no director shoots a film or no producer puts money in a film knowing it is a bad film, no crew gets assembled like “Come on guys let’s make a bad film”. When you are criticizing a film, go ahead and do it in the right way, know what went wrong in the film and speak of it, simply don’t find the heaviest words from the dictionary and bash the entire crew.

Every single person may have there own taste of cinema, there won’t be a single film that is liked by all or disliked by all. But most of us are the ones who would stand in front of the ticket counters every week, why do we watch movies? Each of us may have our own answer, but no one can deny the fact that movies takes us to there own world, they show us things that we would want to do, they somehow satisfy some of our needs, they can make us laugh and cry and these are not a new thing that you would hear about movies. But when a form of media that is made mainly on entertainment purpose can give you so much, why can’t we be a little responsible while talking about it. You don’t need to go and refer filmmaking texts or wikipedia definitions, just take in the story that is visually told! Accept and celebrate good films, forget and forgive bad films, get back to theatres every week!