Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Tuesday Talkback: What's worse - negative reaction or no reaction?

So as you might remember, I walked out of Prometheus this weekend generally apathetic.  I didn't hate the film, but I didn't particularly like it either.  Until I found that bizarre crucifixion theory, I had little interest in giving any further thought to what happened on screen there.

This was kind of funny to me.  I'm the guy who can write angry rants about what I hate about both CW shows I can't stop watching and ABC Family shows that I only give half my attention while my wife watches.  I can spend three days talking about everything that Sucker Punch did wrong.  Conversely, I'm fully capable of giving the same attention to stuff I like, whether it's sticking up for an underrated CW series, or writing a three part series on everything the ER pilot did right.

But when it came to Prometheus, I just didn't give a damn.

So let me ask you, as an artist, would you rather inspire a bad reaction in your audience, or NO reaction?  Which is ultimately more insulting?  If someone walks out of your film fired up and angry, at least that suggests they had some level of connection or engagement.  If they walk out saying "Meh," it points to a lack of the same.


10 comments:

  1. I would hope that a work would inspire some reaction. It’s when a work seems to aim at eliciting a negative reaction, perhaps just to fuel the fodder on the net and in the trades – or setup a future installment, that an artist should reevaluate motivation and re-ask the question: “what’s the story?”

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  2. I'd rather people hated my work than were indifferent to it. At least I made them feel *something*. Of course, I'd rather they loved it...!

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  3. Works that create indifference will likely slip into obscurity. Who will give a a damn about them 5,10,20 years from now?

    With the other commentors so far. Better to inspire some emotion than none at all.

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  4. I submitted my thriller script to an agent's assistant nine weeks ago - a friend of a friend scenario and have heard absolutely nothing - nada, zippo. Perhaps he's still snoring to my own muse, but it is still unbelievably depressing. I think I would appreciate "This sucks" more.

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  5. I'd definitely prefer some kind of reaction and/or response. Even if they're angry or hate it, at least there's a dialogue.

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  6. Maybe it's a genre thing. How many romcoms have you said "meh, it was just okay" after watching? Quite a few for me. I judge them by whether I'd want to watch them again. It would take quite a bit for a romcom to make me angry, though. I would hope a romcom that bad just wouldn't get made. So, all that being said, for a romcom, I would rather be in the "meh" category than in the "this is so bad it's pi$$ing me off" category.

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  7. Why would anyone prefer a negative reation?

    "Meh. Thre's nothing really wrong with this, but it's not for me."

    or

    "This is the worst thing I've ever read. You shouldn't be allowed near a keyboard ever again."

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  8. I prefer the "Meh", but that's because I am sensetive to negative reactions. QoQ But I'm sure I will come across way too many of those on my journey, so I better get used to it! XD

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  9. There is usually some sort of truth about your story in negative feedback.

    I love it.

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  10. An apathetic reaction might be worse. Negative feedback might hurt at first but it helps you learn what didn't work and then apply that to the next script. If people are apathetic and don't care to talk about what's wrong with the story, there's nothing to learn from it.

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