What makes a film entertaining?
Feb 23, 2017 · 3 min read
Of course this depends on the viewer, everyone has their own tastes and interests, we can look at measuring the entertainment value of a film with some agreed opinion — box office numbers can be an indication of popularity and over time the general consensus in the general public means we can say;
“Yes that was an entertaining film!”
However,
- If a film is not entertaining the audiences, word of mouth spreads and people start forming a negative judgement on it.
- If attendance of the screenings in cinemas or online is low then it is then considered a flop.
- If respected film critics write bad reviews or give low ratings then this also influences general opinion on a film’s entertainment value.
As a film producer, I believe in good “production value”, if the film is well made then the target audience will be entertained!
Production value includes many factors, simply listed;
- Budget / financing — basically the bigger the budget the more possibilities for the end result, smaller budgets can also create entertaining films in certain genres and a good production team can work with any budget.
- Script — this is fine art bringing a communication of a vision or idea to the screen — good storytelling abilities and imagination make for an successful script — bad dialogue, broken plot can cause disaster for a film even if it well made .
- Directing — the reason people talk about directors is they bring a vision to the screen — a story into reality on film, making crucial decisions and getting good performances out of the actors makes for a well crafted piece of entertainment.
- Filming — shooting a film requires hard work and concentrated effort by crews and cinematographer to capture it all, their “heart needs to be in it” as the extra energy they put in is often noticed.
- Actors — this goes without saying a good actor is praised for “award winning performances” to me this means they have convinced the audience that the mask they are wearing is real or a believable enactment in the role and they have become the character. When we start to admire the actor in many films, we know they are going to entertain us — so for fans this means will simply be entertained because they are a fan and enjoy seeing that actor in well chosen roles (actors agents alo play a role in this and have a responsibility that bad role choices and and bad performances are made).
- Soundtrack — just like directors the soundtrack creation / composing is a major influence on the complete project, even if audiences may not be aware — music plays a big part in the film and if the music compliments what is happening visually, this makes for a entertaining multimedia experience, along with sound effects, sound mix and quality of the voice recording.
- Editing — the final stage in making an entertaining film is editing and where the real magic happens, a very technical skill a film editor often works with the producer and directed to work with the “raw’ film footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished motion picture. Film editing is often referred to as the “invisible art” because when it is well-practiced, the viewer can become so engaged that he or she is not aware of the editor’s work.
Personally I am quite traditional in my tastes, how ever if the film is well crafted then it will be more entertaining than one that isn’t.
