Filmmaker Terence Berry - Should you come to LA

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The Perfect Storm - A Single Story Arc

Over the past few decades, we have seen a series of seemingly random events leading to “A Perfect Storm”, which has created a powerful media culture. Do we have a single story arc that has emerged from today’s media? Has this story arc directly or indirectly through our mass media been institutionalized in our culture?

As I stated earlier, business, media and culture have combined to create a unique relationship, which is based on the pursuit of consumerism. This story arc is about convincing YOU that you are more important than anything. Your wants, needs and desires are your first priority and must be met at any cost. This keeps YOU as a good consumer. Any threat to this concept will disrupt the current system.

Today’s media culture does not deny the existence of God nor does it tell us not to believe in him, but it does allow us to the opportunity to put ourselves at the center of our lives. For Christians, the media culture has helped us to create an image of God that fits into our lifestyle. By doing that, we can pursue our own goals and objectives without feeling guilty.

I fully understand this message is not new. It has been around since the fall of man. It is our basic instincts, our worst nature. What is different today is the scope and size of the massive media culture which has been created over the past few years. Its ability to focus a message with enormous power is undeniable. Not every television program or movie will directly communicate this message, but most often it will be conveyed in subtext or some other subconscious means.

Consider the following facts. The average person will have watched 18,000 hours of television and viewed 320,000 30-sec commercial ads before the age of 18. That’s compared to only 12,000 hours in the classroom. It becomes a numbers game with the right images over a long enough period of time through many different platforms, such as movies, TV, web, and advertising. The media culture will find a way to get this message across that YOU are the center of the universe, and YOU are more important than anything else, guaranteed.

In 1956, the President of Indonesia had the opportunity to talk to some of the key Hollywood executives of the day. He stated that he regarded them as political radicals and political revolutionaries, who had hastened political change in the East (creating unrest). What the Orient saw in a Hollywood movie was a world in which all the ordinary people had cars, electrical stoves, and refrigerators. Now the Orient regards itself as the ordinary person who has been deprived of the ordinary man’s birthright.

The Perfect Storm - Part 8

The Fourth Media Age is heavily influenced by the philosophy of postmodernism. Where modernism had answers in science, postmodernism says there are no answers or absolutes. And no one belief system can explain the origins or meaning of life. Your truth or your understanding is only relevant to you and may not work for others. This philosophy has been thoroughly embraced by every form of media in the past few years. Where the Third Media Age may have had a clearly antiChristian bias, this age is more than willing to accept Christian philosophy. The problem is that Christianity is being blended into every other world philosophy or world religion.

Since postmodernism teaches there are no absolute truths, you are left in a position to pick and choose. In other words, create your own philosophy or theology that works for you. Could we be in the process of creating a new gospel, a new form of Christianity? Could that be the ultimate outcome of the Fourth Media Age?

It’s impossible not to talk about the impact that the DVD player has had in this age. The DVD player is the world’s most successful electronic device to date. It has revolutionized the way we watch movies. Its development caused a massive explosion in home video. Some studios decided to bypass theatrical distribution and go straight to video. This has lead to an increase in production of hundreds of films yearly that otherwise would not have been produced. Today, the average person will view at least 40 movies per year. That number is substantially higher for those under the age of 25. Movies have become a part of the fabric of life.

Another major development of this age is social networking. We have a need to connect. But the very thing we seek, we may lose. This new technology may be having the opposite affect. It’s allowing us the opportunity to stay behind the keyboard and create the kind of message that we want to communicate to others. We can be whoever we want to be without ever having to face an individual. In this new world, we are in total control. It allows us to have social contact without really communicating.

It is just like Marshall McLuhan said in his book, Understanding Media, the Extensions of Man. McLuhan believed the medium was the message. He stated that television would have consequences and would change behavior patterns in ways we would not understand for years. In the same way, social media and the technologies of the internet will also have consequences that we do not understand today.

The Perfect Storm - Part 7

Starting in 1997 with the wide availability of digital technology, we have now entered the Fourth Media Age or the Digital Age. This age is categorized by satellite television, cell phones, the internet, the DVD player, HD (high definition) television, social networking and mobile media devices. It is fueled by information and the need to connect and be part of something. When and where the media church started is a matter of debate. But it certainly found it’s place in the Fourth Media Age.

George Miller, the director of Mel Gibson’s Mad Max movies was quoted in 1998 as saying, “I believe cinema is now the most powerful secular religion. And people gather in cinemas to experience things collectively the way they once did in church. They are doing a lot of the work of our religious institutions, which have so concretized the metaphors in their stories, taken so much of the poetry, mystery and mysticism out of religious belief, that people look for other places to question their spirituality.”

Miller offers insight into how and why the church of media and entertainment has grown quickly. Today’s generation is asking questions and searching for spirituality. But they are not finding answers in the traditional church. But today’s media, especially movies, is meeting the need for spirituality. Where the church has withdrawn from art, poetry and the mystery of life, Hollywood’s screenwriters are more than willing to embrace the supernatural, mystery, mysticism and other forms of spirituality that can lead viewers to a new self-realization of truth.

The Fourth Media Age is defined by technology. There have always been technological advances, but this age is characterized by constant, rapid, and evolving technology. It seems like every month there is something new and exciting in the marketplace from iPods to iPhones to iPads. And every new product is a “must have” to the members of this church. As technology has evolved, it has led to lower prices and accessibility to more users. Today everyone under the age of 25 has some form of a mobile media device. For most people, it is impossible to go ten minutes without texting, checking messages or surfing the web. There is a need to be constantly plugged in and accessible to one’s media.

The Perfect Storm - Part 6

The Third Media Age was categorized by an explosion of technological development. Cable television was made possible by advances in new telecommunication technologies developed during the space program. Without satellites orbiting the earth, cable television would not have been financially possible. Cable television offered up to 40 new channels. Today that number is well over 200 and growing. Many of the new channels embraced MTV’s style of narrowcasting. It brought about an explosion of media choices.

Cable networks were interested in finding a niche market, one that they could control and dominate. One of the reasons why marketing became such a powerful force during this time was because cable networks had to distinguish themselves from each other. Before the cable age, there were only three television networks. Marketing was not a concern because the viewer had few choices to consider. That all changed with the arrival of cable television and MTV.

Cable networks saw themselves as unique brands. The Weather Channel realized there was an audience for 24-hour weather coverage. CNN appealed to news junkies, while ESPN appealed to sports enthusiasts. Lifetime Network was only interested in women. History Channel appealed to history buffs. Each new cable network looked for its unique audience and developed programming to meet the needs and interests of their viewers.

During the late 1970s, the video cassette recorder (VCR) became available to the general public. The VCR revolutionized the way people viewed television and watched movies. Perhaps nothing has changed television more than the VCR. For the first time, viewers could determine what they wanted to watch and when they wanted to watch it. The VCR was the perfect companion to cable television.

One of the most significant developments during this age was the creation of massive ownership groups. Media organizations were concentrated into powerful corporations. In the years following, five major media corporations have emerged, which control about 90% of media that is distributed in North America. Organizations such as News Corp., Disney, and CBS Corporation are a collection of movie studios, broadcast networks, cable interests, news outlets, internet, record labels and publishers. They had enormous power and the ability to move an artist, product, or project across a wide range of platforms. Most viewers are unaware that this is a form of advertising and marketing. For example, an individual could appear on a talk show, a television network and cable news program to promote his or her new movie or book. But most people don’t realize they are owned by the same corporation.

As a result of the creation of these ownership groups, the few people that run these massive corporations are in a position to determine what you see and hear in the media. That includes both entertainment and news.

And finally, the Third Media Age led to a decentralization of media. There was no escape from its grasp and control of our society. Media was readily available with cable, broadcast, video cassettes. Video images were everywhere from in-store to billboards. All this was intrusive, but it became a way of life.

The Perfect Storm - Part 5

The Third Media Age started in 1981 with the arrival of MTV. This Cable Age and MTV would clearly define the Third Media Age. MTV became the first of many networks who would embrace the new concept of narrowcasting. In the past, broadcast networks such as ABC and NBC aimed to capture a broad-based audience. MTV on the other hand was interested in only ages 12 to 24. Their primary focus was the youth culture.

Robert Pittman, Founder and Chairman of MTV, stated the following concerning MTV’s philosophy, “We are dealing with a culture of TV babies. They can watch, do their home work, and listen to music all at the same time. And at MTV we don’t shoot for 14 year olds, we own them. And the strongest appeal you can make is emotionally. If you can get their emotions going, they forget their logic. Then you’ve got them. They will accept almost anything over the screen. The only people that understand the new way to use that television set are the people who grew up with it.”

Pittman summed up the entire Third Media Age in the above statement. First, there was a total commitment to reaching the youth culture. And second, there was an understanding and knowledge of the use of the television medium to captivate and hold audiences. Only those who grew up with television could fully understand how to use it effectively to reach audiences during the early days of cable television. MTV realized the power and the promise that television offered. If you understood how to use television effectively, you could control what the audience thought was important. And, by doing so, you could control their buying decisions.

Through very sophisticated marketing concepts, MTV learned how to eliminate the space that existed between entertainment, advertising, programming, branding, news, and marketing. These became indistinguishable from each other. MTV helped to establish the idea that marketing was more important than the program you were producing. Hollywood embraced this concept thoroughly at the beginning of the third media age. The marketing of a film became more important than the film itself. Thanks to MTV, every form of media soon realized that the best way to maximize market share and to increase profit margin was to focus attention and resources on the marketing and selling of what a show or film represented rather than to concentrate on the programming itself or quality of the programming.

They learned the power of images and mythology as well as belief systems. Picture images can evoke deep emotions. They understood how to call up these deep emotions and memories that are buried deep inside of us. Today’s image makers are using images to take on “new meanings” and have created new myths that are shrouded, often deliberately, by those deeper memories. They understood how to manipulate viewers to be good consumers. Their methods were psychologically driven and often very subtle. It’s then that the viewer ends up buying the “idea” being sold by the image makers.

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The Perfect Storm - Part 4

The Second Media Age or the Age of Television started in the late 1940s with the dawn of television and clearly had the greatest, single impact on our culture than any other technological development in the 20th Century. Its development helped to create today’s modern media culture. At the beginning of 1950, few Americans owned a television set. They were relatively expensive, and the prices would not significantly drop for at least a decade. But by 1954, 56% of Americans had a television set, and by 1962 that number reached 90%. Why did television grow so rapidly? It came along at the right time and found the perfect companion in the form of consumerism in the 1950s.

Just like a dam, the development of television and consumerism had been delayed for years thanks to a worldwide depression and World War II. By the late 1940s, Americans had put there lives on hold (in some cases for two decades). They had delayed marriage, starting a family and, in most cases, just living life. There was a pent-up desire to live life to its fullest. There was perhaps a sense of entitlement, which is easy to understand considering what America had just gone through--depression, war, death and destruction.

Many people reasoned that “if I survived all this, there must be a reason--perhaps a better life for myself and my family”. They wanted to believe in the American Dream. But what is the American Dream? Is it based on freedom, justice and the pursuit of happiness? Or did the new emerging media have a different view of the American Dream and was more than willing to sell it to us. It now had the perfect delivery system, television.

So who would pay for the development of programming? The answer was advertisers within the programming itself as well as paid ads. Commercial television led to the beginning of the modern development of media. It created a relationship between business, media and culture. It is based on a triangular relationship with business and media at the bottom and culture at the top of the pyramid. Business needed a demand to fuel consumerism. Media, such as television, needed financial resources to develop programming. The two formed a relationship which served each other’s interests.

Television had the ability to influence culture (shared beliefs and behavior patterns or general consciousness), particularly how we spend our money.

Advertisers used this to create the desire for goods and services. Americans came to believe that what they saw on television through advertising and entertainment programs was a lifestyle that they believed was achievable. This was a version of the American Dream presented by Wall Street and the entertainment industry. Television and consumerism were the perfect companions.

Television shows like Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, Make Room for Daddy, and Ozzie and Harriet depicted a nice home in the suburbs with a white picket fence and a back yard, a car in the driveway, new and shiny appliances and a lifestyle of comfort and convenience. You can only imagine, after watching this night after night, the type of impact it would have on our collective consciousness as a society. Television would help to commercialize the way we viewed life.