Hype

What is it about hype that makes you feel let down by a film? I can’t tell you how many people told me that the opening number of La La Land and, indeed, the first 20 minutes or so, left them wondering what all the critical acclaim was about. And I think it’s down to hype. [BTW, you know how much I loved La La Land if you read my post from last week.]

When there’s too much praise for anything—a film, a book, a TV show, an art exhibition—the anticipation level is really high by the time you get to experiencing the event. You’ve been looking forward to it and you expect to be blown away.

There’s a great scene in Truffaut’s Day for Night where he plays a film director who’s being interviewed about what it’s like to make a film. Condensing a bit, he says that at the beginning of the shoot you have this idea in your head of what the film will be but as time passes and one problem after another occurs you have to alter your vision and that perfect film in your mind changes. Then, toward the end of the shoot, the whole film is quite different from the perfect idea you began with and you just want it to be over.

We anticipate that things will go our way, we anticipate that we’ll see perfection—and perfection only exists in our minds. Art goes its own way and doesn’t have to try and live up to our expectations—it just is.

As a writer, I know a lot about perfection—because it goes hand in hand with hype. I strive to be perfect in my work just as hype strives to convince me that a new film or TV show is perfect, and neither of these is possible. I worry that as writers we sometimes hype our own very good ideas up in our minds so that when we start writing the work never lives up to the internal hype we’ve given the idea!

I don’t think there’s anything wrong in striving for perfection—in fact, I think it’s natural. Why wouldn’t you strive to be the best you can be? If I take a test, don’t I want to get 100%? If I bake a cake, don’t I want it to look like the cake in the cookbook? Sure, you might only get 92% on that test and your cake might not look quite as good as the one in the cookbook—but if you don’t try for perfection, what are you saying? That you aren’t good enough to do something really well? That you can’t conquer that test or that cake? No. You want to go out and kill that test, you want your cake to win the cake Olympics!

I’ve said it before, but it’s all about having the courage to try. You’re not perfect—no one is—but why not aim high? Assume you’ll get 100% and if you only get 92%, well, hey, not bad! But if you assume you’re only capable of 80% and then you get 72%, well shoot, you haven’t even let yourself aim high, and until you have the courage to do that, you’ll never know how high you can go, will you?

Copyright © Diane Lake

14May17

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com