Santi said on March 11, 2003 10:53:

You should read some Aristotle (or Aristoteles as we say in Spanish) :p I read not far ago (two days) an essay about film screenplays related to this kind of things (freedom, happiness, hope), that most successful movies show in some degree this feelings. But anyway, everything is based on ancient Greek philosophy :p

Th_Th said on March 11, 2003 10:56:

Oh, if the essay is not available online, could you please tell me more about the bit, that states, that the most successful films are about hope etc?? I already have a good Idea how to use this point in my essay.

Nefatari said on March 11, 2003 11:02:

Hope is the energy which carries wishes into reality :)

Santi said on March 11, 2003 12:12:

Well, what the essay tried to say was. Basically when people watch tv, seeks for “do what they like”, information or entertainment, the most important of reasons being the first one exposed.
So a program on tv has to be liked by people, otherwise companies won’t want to have their ads in it cuz no one watches it and that is no business for the TV channel, so the program won’t receive financial support anymore and will be cancelled (even if it’s the “best” program in the world...).
So writers are always gonna write a certain kind of screenplays for tv programs and movies, because you can, thru experience, know what people likes the most. In fact this is not so “exact”, but many programs that don’t match the requirements won’t ever be aired neither on tv nor on theaters, or will be marginal “arty” or experimental cinema that doesn’t reach the mainstream.

Whatever it is the reason, you, on tv, if you realise, almost always watch the same stuff, that is in fact what people, by means of watching the program, demands the tv channel to play. That “same stuff” sounds also too much “strong”. It would be more accurate to say that you see the same kind of stories.
When a writer is about to write a series, a movie or whatever audiovisual thing you wanna write, the textbooks about this say that the first you gotta know is the end and the start of the story, then you have to connect them. The connexion between both should be expressed (according to textbooks about writting screenplays again) in no more than 2 lines. The rule of thumb is that “If you need more than 30 seconds to understand the idea, then it’s bad”. Because cinema, tv, has to be universal, to be understood by anyone, even people that can’t read and write.
So the most successful films can be described in two lines, and if it’s about common human feeelings, it can be understood by everyone, it’s commercial. The point is that you could see here a similarity with commercial music... most songs around are actually love songs... or about freedom, and they never stop writing them because a love song is always gonna sell!

The point is that movies try to be a mirror of actual live, with characters that serve for the writer’s idea to be materialised. You watch it like if it was real, even though you know it has an end, from the start. But still you can watch the movie and you see those characters have hopes, loves, they seem to decide, they seem to be alive, they have freedom! (In fact they are not free, since they serve to an idea written far before the characters even come into “life”).

But you look at them and they make you think, they make you realise you are free (and freer than them!) and you can hope, you can be like them or even better. Since the “good characters” are those that “do” what is written is gonna be best to achieve the “end” and the bad ones are the ones who take the wrong decisions so they never get to the right end, you can make a paralelism with human life. And having into account the “end” of a human is to become happy and films actually show those universal feelings, they are “teaching you” and you like it because that is what you want the world to be. Everyone wants that the good character’s hopes come to be true, and they always are :D

Well, you see, I’m a bit messy, I hope you understood something! I think that little by little I could be able to explain myself better :p

Th_Th said on March 11, 2003 12:45:

Santi, thank you so much for writing all of this. I really do appreciate it.
You know, thinking about it, I can not think of any films in the world, where the Hopes of the character isn’t the main story of the film...
Interesting point... mmm

Aaso said on March 11, 2003 14:42:

SUN .... Whenever I feel hopeless i look into the Father “sun” I am one of his poor lil orange rays in the evining .... and when I look to the SUN I think I have to be like him...

coyboyusa said on March 13, 2003 19:29:

hope is somethign man creates to fulfill things he either can’t achiever or can achieve but won’t get up of his ass to do it

i_jera said on March 13, 2003 21:18:

well, hope... 2 things I’ve written about it before some time:
———-1st———-:
all alone, here, I don’t have anybody with me now...
and I really need. I need some words,
I need a hug, I need a touch, I need, I need, I need, I need...
I feel lost, I feel weak, I feel trampled upon,
I feel overwhelmed, I feel broken,
and I’m yet alive.
hope.
hope is all I have now.
hope is the inner strength.
hope. hope. hope. do never lose it.
———-2nd———-:
(it’s a drawing - closed circle with written the following words, but as I cannot draw it here /you can see the drawing, If someone wants to upload it on the i-net/, I write the words)
hope - human being - life - death - inevitability - life as only option - need - love - dreams - unreality - beyond the visible - hope
————————-
that’s all by now, maybe later I’ll come with some more.

Th_Th said on March 14, 2003 08:42:

thank you guys, you have given me some brilliant Ideas!
Now its time for me to finish of the essay, as I have got to hand it in next monday.

Aaso said on March 15, 2003 17:36:

Cool carlos...

Roxrider_USA said on March 16, 2003 00:11:

Thanks, Mel!

Take care!
Carlos E., New York.

Aaso said on March 16, 2003 11:22:

Cause the only important thing is to dream and then have hope....

pumpkins said on September 15, 2005 09:58:

I hope you got good credits for that essay.

Rebelheart said on September 16, 2005 08:17:

@ ally77:

He hasn’t logged into ebay since 2003, or into this site?