By Dessa Bayrock (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 14, 2012
“Why are the movies so bad these days?”
That’s the question David Spaner pursues in new book, Shoot It!, inspired by his work as a film critic for The Province daily newspaper, and it was also the question he discussed with a Film 110 class last week as a guest lecturer.
As film professor Michael Dayan introduces him to the class, Spaner raises his eyebrows, as though he’s incredulous at his own accolades. Movie critic for nine years. Editor. Column-writer. Winner of the Publishers Award for best feature writing. Co-founder of the Vancouver Film Critics Circle.
“What you find when you work as a film critic,” he tells the film class, “at least 80 per cent of it is absolutely awful.”
As part of his lecture, Spaner presents clips of several iconic actors—from James Dean to Miranda July—explaining the difference between the eight big Hollywood studios and independent films. When “the talkies” started becoming popular, he says, Hollywood imported actors, writers and directors from New York to keep up with demand.
“The studios didn’t mind them, as long as they were writing things like Casablanca,” Spaner says, noting that this is where the split between big movie houses and filmmakers began, which evolved into the culture we live in now – where “car crashes replace dialogue.”
Spaner tracks the process of evolution from studio to smaller-scale films with exhilaration, stopping to show clips as examples. He likens the first wave of filmmakers who started “making movies outside the system,” to modern culture of independent filmmakers, where anyone with a camera can make a film.
The main way to differentiate between studio films and independent films, Spaner says, is the motivation for making a movie. Studios are defined by their intent to make profit rather than their subject matter, which sometimes embraces counterculture in an effort to capture a counter-culture audience.
He grins as he shows the clips that demonstrate this – counterculture coming up against the old ways.
“I try to show how film reflects what’s going on in society,” he says. “The way it’s evolved by now is these giant global conglomerates . . . aimed at audiences everywhere.”
“What does that do to independent filmmakers,” he continues, “when they’re dominated by this global system?”
Spaner goes on to talk about Korea as an example of a country where independent filmmakers are encouraged, and a certain quota of Korean-made films must be shown in theatres by law.
This system, he says, has potential to work in Canada.
It’s similar to the Canadian Content (CanCon) laws in place in Canada’s music industry, which Spaner notes is part of the reason Canadian music has such a strong footing in the industry today.
“I think if you did do a quota in Canada, that people would rise to the occasion. There’s a lot of talent in Canada,” he says, especially in the era of digital filmmaking. Shooting a movie is no longer as lengthy nor as expensive. Spaner notes that only 30 or 40 independent films used to be shot in the U.S. per year, in contrast to the 12,000 films submitted to the Sundance Film Festival last year alone.
“Digital’s changed everything,” Spaner says. “Now anyone can do it and give it a try.”
Although this means there is more selection when it comes to what to watch on movie night, Spaner says that audiences have more to decide these days than just popcorn flavours. Supporting local or independent film will allow those filmmakers to keep working. Watching the latest installment in a superhero franchise will only support Hollywood’s obsession with blockbuster movies.
But at the end of the day, Spaner says, it’s important to follow your heart and watch what you enjoy.
“I got into this because I love movies,” he says. “What I like in a film is something that makes me feel something emotionally. And I think most audiences will agree.”
