commercially viable
A well done movie with an engaging story is the embodiment of high art. It’s a very challenging endeavor that draws from many areas of creativity - cinematography, production and art design, music and sound design, acting, writing, etc. A well told story is universally resonant and one that fulfills the audience’s expectation with regards to entertainment value. This is not inconsistent with the need for a film to generate revenue; otherwise, making movies is nothing more than an expensive and entertaining hobby. After all, this is show business as well as show art.
Culturally and Socially Significant
We live in very exciting times. Today’s world continues to become ever more complex and increasingly diverse. At the same time, cultures from all parts of the world continue to converge to form interesting synergies and conflicting micro-cultures. I see these convergences as potentially rich sources of material for my movies. I also believe that a well-told story can make a profound difference in how the audience sees the world. My job as a filmmaker is to create and support entertaining stories that also create and enable awareness of the real issues that shape our lives.
Emotionally Resonant
When you think about it, watching a movie in a theater is quite bizarre. Every day thousands of people who don’t know each other sit in a dark room for over 90 minutes without getting up. In some cases they do so in order to suffer emotions they’d normally go out of their way to avoid in real life. Why is this? People want to experience these emotions as passive observers, and if people are going to invest 2 hours of their time and money to sit and watch a movie, then the very least we as filmmakers can do is to reward them with profound emotional experiences. Whether through humor, tears, or anger, movies are about evoking fundamental emotions, and when the audience leaves a theater, they should have been fully engaged with these emotions.
Intellectually Satisfying
Movies do not need to be dummied down in order to attract and entertain a wide audience. We believe that exploring overly abstract ideas will lose the mass movie going audience; however, moviegoers have always had the capability to enjoy films that evoke the “Aha!!!” reaction. We believe that audiences want this, and we believe that when a paying audience gives a film two hours of their time then it is best to entertain and not insult their intelligence.
