Want french food? grab a French fry… How Americans Change International Shows to Suit Their Tastes.

The article “who’s afraid of a few subtitles?The rise of International Television” by Allison Willmore is trying to show us how International TV shows are starting to be watched globally even though they do contain aspect that may turn many people off : subtitles. Subtitles, which are found on many international television shows are a huge deal breaker for the general population. Subtitles tend to distract the viewer from taking in certain parts of the show since the viewer has to focus on reading words on screen. Think about it, if you were coming home from a long day at work sitting at your 9-5 job all day, the last thing you would feel like doing is reading the television screen in order to understand the plot. Willmore goes on to include that it is indeed difficult to come across international television series on normal television even if one wants to consume this form of media. Since Television is based at home, viewers want to indulge in culturally specific television that brings us closer to our surroundings and that does not transport us to a different country. When the U.S chooses to create a Television show based on a foreign plot, the producers usually have to change it in order for it to appeal to a U.S based audience. For example, in changing “Prisoners of War” into “Homeland,”, creator Gidean Raff noted that the original series focused more on aspects happening in Israel and he wanted to change that to aspects happening and affecting the U.S to keep American’s interested. Charlotte Koh, Hulu’s head of content mentions that Americans are so used to exporting all of their goods including media that they find it odd to consume media coming from somewhere that isn’t “Home”. The This article also goes on to mention how there are many more options available now for those who wish to view foreign television shows.

 

“The International Language of Tube” by June Thomas explains to us just how popular international television series actually are. For the most part, American’s steer clear from international series . But , for those who want to open up their media horizons, there is hope. There are plenty of channels and online options to watch international television series such as Hulu and Netflix that do a great job in keeping up to date with the latest international and even Korean episodes. It seems to be that these two media providers truly help Americans open up to new international television consumption. The Danish drama, “Borgen” is also mentioned in both articles article as being an extremely popular show. A very large reason as to why Americans do not prefer to watch international series is that Americans do tend to reach towards their puritan roots when it comes to media consumption. Many series contain too much foul language or “adult scenes” for it to appear on national television which is why when the series are remade, they are usually toned down a bit.

 

Personally, I do not think that international television series will gain the same type of popularity that American television series have. Americans for example enjoy consuming things that have to do with the U.S. They enjoy sitting down and watching American type of humor and being able to relate to the characters in the series. Also the way the characters act in series and what they do and the places they frequent are very relatable to American culture. While other cultures are open to foreign cultures, I have a feeling that Americans only enjoy watching their own type of culture on television. American television shows show the “ American Dream” and type of lifestyle that people living in different countries aspire to have or enjoy watching. For example, The series “Sex and the city” depicts the American carefree lifestyle based in the city of lights that so many people around the world wish they could live. Take a look at ABC’s hit series, “Desperate Housewives” , about five women surrounded by lies, cheating and gossip living their lives in the seemingly perfect suburbs. These types of series have characters that all classes of people can relate to and can enjoy.

 

I also think that American television series are filmed in a more professional way then let’s say a South African soap opera or German comedy show on the relationships between a Turkish boy and German girl. The American actors also seem to act better and look better as well. American series are more asthetically pleasing, with all characters having perfectly white and straightened teeth and the men being typical pretty boys with fake tans. Whenever I watch European series, I can tell that the characters look more “Natural” over all.

 

Most importantly, the American television series will always be more popular because of the language. English is the most widely spoken language around the world making the series widely understandable in many different countries. These series can globalize immediately due to them not having such a strong language barrier. Europeans are used to consuming media in English and do not seem to have an issue with consuming dubbed media or media with under-titles. I know so many people who would prefer to watch shows in English just because there are so many things that cannot be directly translated but Americans would never appreciate watching things in the original languages.

Remember to recycle -yours truly, Hollywood

It seems as if every time I walk into the movie theatre, there is a trailer or advert on the newest super hero movie or the 30th version of a movie that first came out 5 years ago. Is this a case of Hollywood De Ja Vu or could it really be that Hollywood has fallen into a pattern of movie “leftovers” , re-using and re-using film ideas. The article, “Is Hollywood a blockbuster trap and won’t break free anytime soon” by Anita Elberse gives us a pretty good idea at what is happening within the movie industry in Hollywood.

Hollywood is all about making money right? since so many movies cost so much money to create, the movie industry wants to make sure that they will be receiving large enough revenue. In order to make these safe bets, the studio executives release NEW films that are all based on past hits. This is a fool proof way to create a successful movie because it is obvious that if the customer liked it once, he or she will definitely be coming back for more. In the past decade, almost 45 percent of the movies that brought in the most revenue were based off of old ideas. Since creative movies are a dying species over in the hills of Hollywood it is no wonder that the studios are also releasing movies that are based on comic books and super hero characters. It seems as if everyone cannot get enough of Spiderman and ridiculously good looking vampires on screen.

Is this Hollywood mentality a good mentality to have? Some film aficionados argue that if Hollywood keeps on re-using books and comic heroes for their films, the creativity of new films will run out and the audience will almost always be expecting the plot of their movie instead of enjoying something that they have never heard of before. This type of “Hollywood trap” as Anita Elberse mentions ,also drives up the production costs because it creates competition for actors that can provide the popular vampire or super hero role on screen. For large companies such as Disney and marvel, this “Hollywood” trap can be very rewarding. Since studios know that their characters and super heroes will become blockbuster hits, they end up paying very high fees in order to secure these characters. But, this is very risky for the studios and if one movie fails, it can cause them to loose very much just because of this one big bet. Being successful in the movie industry nowadays means to create movies with characters that the audience wants to see which in this case means super heroes and movies based on best selling authors etc. Advertisement is also an extremely effective tool at creating revenue along with when an screening is released and on what specific weekend. Anita Elberse also goes on to say that it is the viewers fault for creating this type of redundancy in films in Hollywood because we are showing Hollywood what it is we want to pay for by viewing movies that are based on previous stories

It is well understood now that many of the films in Hollywood are based of popular comic books and heroes. The article : “The Rise of the Comic Book Movie”, goes into detail on how many of the films that are now being produced are based on comic books, with a touch of a“noir” twist. These films aren’t portraying the comic book characters in a happy colorful light, instead they are being portrayed in a dark and serious setting. This article also states that these comic stories have changed from only focusing on the good vs. evil to now focusing on the more moral aspect of the story especially after the 2001 terrorist attacks. There is a philosophical underlying theme in many of these comic stories .

Personally, I can understand Hollywood’s strategy to re use film ideas and to create movies based on comic superheroes and villains. This is a fool proof way for Hollywood to bring in a safe amount of money without worrying if their movie is going to be a flop or not. Wouldn’t you stick to selling a certain color of shoes per say if you knew that most of the general population loves that specific color? I also think that this allows Hollywood’s producers to spend copious amounts of money on creating a really good film with amazing special effects and etc because they know that these efforts will not go to waste. Some producers may be hesitant to spend so much on actors and special effects if they aren’t exactly sure if their movie will be a hit or not. Hollywood knows that these types of movies can globalize efficiently and easily making them generate huge revenue sums from all around the world. Characters like Spiderman Batman can easily cater to many different cultures globally. Also, if Lets say the Titanic was such a hit, there is no reason why Titanic 1, 2 and 3 wouldn’t be hits ( this is perfectly shown by the fact that they have now made 6 fast and furious movies, all earning millions of dollars)

 

I personally do enjoy the fact that Hollywood focuses on blockbusters as their main form of movies because I like entering a movie knowing that I will most likely enjoy it and that it will be done well since it was previously a bestselling book or comic , etc. On the contrary when I look at the cover of a European movie or advert for a non blockbuster Hollywood movie, I instantly assume that it will be more complicated for me to understand and that I wont have as much “fun” as watching it as a blockbuster based on a “true story”.

 

At the same time, it is also a little bit sad that Hollywood is solely focused on making remakes of old movies because it takes away the challenge that producers may have to create an “interesting” or “unique” movie. I guess we will have to see if this is only a temporary fad or if hollywood will go back to producing movies that are not based on Comic books and Blockbusters but, Seeing as Hollywood is all about money, I doubt it.