Movies Suck & people are dying because of it
That’s a hell of a title, isn’t it? Yeah, movies suck. TV or streaming series too. Garbage. Each year, the amount of garbage-to-gold ratio is vomit inducing and insulting to our intellect and even to our simple desire to enjoy quality entertainment. You know why? Because we live in a world obsessed with rushing, inspired from the mental health destroying hustle culture we live in, itself born out of the insatiable hunger of capitalistic ideology. I’m not speaking to the basic idea of having a business and seeking to make profit and grow. That’s awesome! I’m talking about the version of this ideology that is built on the premise that you have to work as hard and as fast as you can, save as much money as you can for no reason except to just make more and grow without end, while completely disregarding people’s mental wellness and their labour rights, along with an array of other ethical and environmental issues deemed unimportant.
Do you know the amount of stories that have come out in the past years revealing the gruesome work schedule people in production have to endure just to meet production deadlines? 16 to even 18 hour shifts, employees underpaid and worked to death, literally. “Gary Joe Tuck was killed when he fell asleep at the wheel and rolled his car on a New Mexico highway after working an 18-hour shift (from 9 AM-3 AM)” [1]. They really bring the “dead” in the word deadline. And that’s exactly it. It’s a deadline-oriented philosophy, rather than a craft-oriented one. What the fuck is the difference, Mark?! Deadline-oriented means do everything you can to meet that deadline, because time is money. Fuck your health. Fuck your sleep. And especially, fuck taking our time. The unholy trinity that is behind why the majority of what you watch today on your screen is garbage. Craft-oriented, on the other hand, says fuck rushing. The idea of rushing art is so strange to me. I think of a sculptor being told to hurry to finish working and breaking the stone because of the pressure and then trying to sell us the idea that the broken pieces I’m looking at are a finished product, or the builder skipping the foundation just to hurry and build the rest of the structure, and then DARING to tell you that you can move in now. Who the hell would accept moving into a house with shitty foundations?! Yet, that’s what they do with scripts, with directing, producing and post-production effects, and they think it’s okay for us to just watch everything they produce, because… well, they gotta keep their numbers up, right? They gotta meet their targets, which is so ironic, because all that rushing to meet targets is causing negative returns, just like overtraining at the gym will work against you. Same shit.
That garbage is both a result and cause of our society, because art is a reflection of us. The majority of movies and series that are fed to us being a result of rush filming and editing means what we consume as a society and world isn’t the kind of stimulating art we are meant to consume. Art is powerful, it leaves a tremendous impact on our psyche, individually and collectively, just like a city or country’s infrastructure, and the infrastructure of our society is broken, because of the culture of rushing and the violation of ideas that have the potential to be amazing works of cinema. Even when it’s pure entertainment or a blockbuster movie or an action series, stories leave an impact. They resonate with us, they teach us. But the dominant industry behind them doesn’t give a shit about moving you, except if it means taking your money. And fine! Take my money! Who said business and profit is wrong?! Take my damn money, but why am I paying to eat the garbage you’re feeding me?
The irony I was referring to earlier is the fact that if they took their time instead of rushing, they would pay more attention to what needs fixing in the foundation of the story and tweak it along with any editing and effects until the final product was impeccable. It costs more time and money, of course, but the result is so much better, artistically and commercially. An excellent movie that took time to develop and was crafted slowly to perfection, will be much more appreciated by the audience and critics, which will in turn boost its sales. Quality over quantity. It’s a simple rule. Slowing down is better, and yet, it’s a foreign concept in business. Companies still praise the principle of working harder, not smarter. In what world is sleeping less going to improve productivity? Less is more. In fact, besides increased productivity by working less hours, employees will respect the employers much more and demonstrate more happiness and loyalty. All of this spills over into the craft. Have you heard about the 4 day workweek? It was tried in Britain and guess what? It was a tremendous success. Employees reported benefits, with 71% less burned out, 39% less stressed and 48% more satisfied with their job than before the trial. 60% said it was easier to balance work and responsibilities at home, while 73% reported increased satisfaction with their lives. Fatigue was down, people were sleeping more and mental health improved. And of course, productivity was dramatically improved [3]. The evidence is in our face, yet most jobs haunt their employees with work related stress.
The point isn’t just about movies, it’s about our restless culture. It’s an epidemic. Chronic stress is a silent killer, and it’s linked to six leading causes of death including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide, according to the American Psychological Association [2]. It’s hard. It’s hard when you live in an environment that constantly pushes you to move faster and that shuns you for being slow. You’ll feel the accusation that slow is lazy, that if you don’t have a million plans and a list of things to do, you’re not doing enough, that if you’re just wanting to do nothing, you’re procrastinating and not being productive. Keep producing damn it! You’re a fucking cow and we need your milk until you’re milked to death. Yeah, the movie industry, and in fact all the entertainment industry including music, social media and more, all of them are masters of milking, whether it’s milking stories for more money or garbage content for more likes. But I’m fucking lactose intolerant, so this shit is not working for me.
A culture that values your mental wellness and sleep health is a culture that values slowing down. A culture that values slowing down is one that values quality and mindful attention. It creates a society of more rested individuals, and when you rest, you improve creativity. A rested society is a creative and innovative one, and that has the power to transform our civilization worldwide. Can you imagine a world where we took our time in everything, where our money-making endeavours were in harmony with our priorities about mental health, where we appreciated slow cooked cinematic masterpieces over fast food movie garbage? Do you understand the kind of world we would create, the kind of movies and songs and all forms of art we would experience? Do you understand the kind of improvements we would bring to our nations worldwide?
But where does that start? To change the world, you have to change the culture, and to change the culture you have to narrow it down to the smallest element, which is you. Chronic stress is not beyond you. You have every reason to say that it’s hard, and even scary, because every aspect of our modern world wants us to stress more, so it seems impossible to break free from it, but it isn’t. You have to decide what matters to you. What’s the point of stressing yourself to death and perpetuating that kind of society? When do we get to start living and enjoying our life? I refused to be a slave to the stress inducing world we live in. Every aspect of my life that I felt was not how I wanted to live, I changed. I refused to tie myself to unhappiness. Why should I work in a job I hate? Why should I feel unhealthy and stressed? Why should I feel like I don’t have time to do anything or just fucking relax and chill for more than a tiny amount of time per week, rushing to meet all kinds of deadlines that aren’t as important to my life as I’ve been made to think? Why should I force myself to be put in situations I don’t really need to put myself in, or be with people that don’t enrich me or who I don’t connect with, who only contribute to adding stress to my life? I call this “the good life”. We often say it to each other, my wife and I. The good life is the life of relaxed enjoyment, because no matter who you are, you deserve the good life, free of chronic stress. I want you to make the good life a priority, a part of your core values from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. I want to see the principle of the good life in every aspect of our society, right down to movies. We love movies. We’re filmmakers, my wife Rita and I, and I can guarantee we’re taking our time preparing our dream films. No way that baby’s gonna get rushed.
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Works Cited
https://deadline.com/2018/02/hollywood-safety-drowsy-driving-long-work-hours-crew-1202275319/
https://www.slma.cc/the-science-of-stress/#:~:text=Chronic%20stress%20is%20linked%20to,to%20the%20American%20Psychological%20Association.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/4-day-workweek-trial-shorter-hours-happier-employees-1.6282611#:~:text=Not%20surprisingly%2C%20employees%20reported%20benefits,increased%20satisfaction%20with%20their%20lives.
