The TV Addict 

I spy movie fans with a little too much time on their hands.

While it may be all the rage these days for over-eager movie fans to flood websites and blogs with blurry and grainy photos of highly anticipated upcoming movies, and it’s arguably become an accepted given of internet movie fandom, this REEL addict simply doesn’t get it.

Don’t get me wrong, I do get the appeal. It’s not so much about what you’re seeing (however boring it often is), but what it suggests about the film being shot, especially with first films of a series like IRON MAN or BATMAN BEGINS where people are desperate to see how the filmmakers translated the material. But how are people able to get themselves excited about blurry long-rage shots of lots of military equipment and explosions in TRANSFORMERS 2? Does that really come as any surprise? It’s a TRANSFORMERS movie. Duh. What did fans expect? Optimus Prime sitting down for afternoon tea?

The real question I have though is has the internet movie fan community really become so desperate for anything to tickle their anticipation that they’re willing to invest themselves earlier and earlier in the stages of a film’s development? Are publicity stills no longer good enough, and now boring set photos are needed? Is this a case of an actual demand from online movie news readers, or perhaps something blogs have found nicely fills up some of the daily news quota? In other words, is this actual legitimate news that bloggers have to report on because – well, it’s their job – or is it something that we’ve been lead to believe is news worthy, when I would argue that it really isn’t? Or am I just being an asshole here and biting the hand that feeds me (expect that I don’t actually get fed, since I as of yet make no money off this blog)?

My problem is also that though these type of set photos really don’t give much away in terms of story, they still dilute my future theater experience. Why can’t we just wait anymore? Why do we need to see these things on set before we see them in theatres? To me it’s like if the Wizard appeared when Dorothy first arrives in Oz and he tells her “You’ll see me later. I’ll be the guy behind the curtain.” The wonder and illusion is gone, the whole purpose of the immediate journey on that yellow brick road is really for naught. You still want to see the context of what you’ve found out, but are you then really watching a movie for the right reasons anymore?

I also consider it a blatant invasion and disregard of the filmmakers creative space, as an excellent recent Entertainment Weekly article illuminates. Call me an old fashioned fuddy-duddy, but I believe that the filmmaking process is something sacred. It’s a creative process that should be private, clandestine, contained. It’s the filmmakers job to do their thing, and they should be able to count on us to have the decency to leave them alone to do it. Their job is to make movies, ours is to watch them. There was a time when that was the case. When filmmakers could just make their film with minimal interference from outsiders. Say what you will, that’s exactly what fans are to the filmmaking process. Outsiders. However entitled some may feel, a movie is not their property, all the more so when it’s in the process of being made.

But in this day and age where increasingly accessible and advancing photo technology is easily available to everyone (in turn fueled by a society that seems hell-bent on eliminating any sense of privacy we have left), anyone from normal bystanders to obsessive fans dangerously skirt that paparazzi line. The outsiders are quickly turning themselves into unwanted insiders.

Why does that matter? Why do I care? I care because in the process they are killing what makes all of us fans of the movies in the first place: the wonderful illusion of cinema, the thrill of discovery, the tantalizing excitement of being drawn in and watching something unfold on that big screen.

To some maybe those simple, boring shots from the set of TRANSFORMERS 2 might be nothing more than pictures. Pictures that arguably only internet going movie fans would be interested in. Inevitably someone might also throw that old web chestnut used to counter spoilers at me: “Well then don’t read the articles/look at the pictures.” They are not unvalid points. They are just pictures, and only really have as much significance as we lend them. And that seems to be a fair amount these days on the blogofsphere. The reason I object is because I worry about the road we might be on.

As producer Dan Jinks so nicely put it in that afore-mentioned Entertainment Weekly article: “I hope that people who are big fans of movies would think about what made them fans of movies, and be a little bit more caring about what they want to put out in the world.”

After all, filmmakers are doing this for us. They’re making these movies for us. If we beat them to putting it out in the world then what’s really the point anymore?