PROJECT: Prove that an economic success or technological change makes the greatest innovative film.
Some films paradoxically can be both innovative and brilliantly marketed. Hitchcock’s Psycho is such a film. Hitchcock cleverly used a TV crew to save money. Audiences familiar with TV films didn’t give it a second thought and warmed to it like a TV show. Then Hitchcock marketed the film as being so frightening that latecomers could not be seated. It became a national sensation and blockbuster.
If we had to judge greatest film in terms of technological and financial achievement, what would we consider?
Would it be Birth of a Nation, and its 3-hour time, complex plot lines, displays of racism, and complex battle scenes, or the fact that the film was the largest grosser of 1915?
What about Titanic and its epic disaster shots, and its financial success?
What about Citizen Kane and its closed ceiling, camera work, long and deep camera angles, hidden microphones, insightful editing, innovative dialogue, and its money loss?
How would one discuss the Transformers series that critics loathe, but that generate great income? The series has finished one trilogy, is starting a second trilogy, and is extremely popular internationally (popular in China).
