Sometimes.
In some very specific cases, too much information is bad. With so much Information available on the internet there is almost no secrets or surprises. Especially when it comes to entertainment.
In my experience, the less I know about an IP the better. I like the mystery. I don't need to know everything. Most of life's mysteries go unanswered. I'm good with that. Live in the moment.
Children of Men is an amazing movie. The starting premises is that women stopped getting pregnant and the human race is dying out. There have not been any babies born for a couple of decades. But why? We don't know. It's never explained. Doesn't seem to affect animals, only people. But it doesn't matter. The beauty of the story is not in the past but what is happening in the present. The moment.
Less information keeps expectations in check. Expectations get me in trouble every time. For example: The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. I don’t think I’m the only one, but when The Force Awakens came out, the bar was set pretty low. And then I got to be pleasantly surprised when it actually was a decent movie. Expectations had been high for the Prequels and those were dashed long before credit rolled for Phantom Menace. (I wonder if Force Awakens would have done worse, had it not had the prequels before it.) High expectations certainly are more of an issue with sequels. I’m afraid to hope when it comes to the next Indiana Jones movie.
Two times I knew nothing about a movie going in were with the original Stargate movie and the first Matrix movie. I had not seen trailers for either of them. I think I knew who the leads were and they were scifi and that is about it. I walked out of the theater stunned. I had no expectations because I didn’t know anything about the films.
I’ve started watching Paper Girls and the only thing I know about that IP is that it’s source material is a comic. That’s it. I definitely did not expect the title to be so literal. But that’s fine. After only a few episodes in, I have no idea where the story is going. I was surprised by the time travel element. It’s a very understated title, Paper Girls, and maybe that’s the point. So far I’m enjoying it. Just like with my own writing, I like the discovery process of other people’s work too.
A lot of movies and shows at the moment give out too much information. One of my favorite parts of A New Hope is that we are dropped into the middle of this raid on ship. It is very obvious that George Lucas had an idea of what was happening just before the opening of the movie but we aren’t given that info until years later. I love Rogue One but I always liked that we weren’t force fed every tiny detail. There was something so intriguing about be dropped into a fully formed universe and figuring things out along the way as the story unfolded.
Leaving questions unanswered makes room for other people to engage in the story with their own theories and ideas. It becomes a collaborative work. A well thought out canon and developed world is important to have but the reader/watcher doesn’t need absolutely every tiny detail about everything. Leave some stuff to the imagination of the audience. It’s good for them.
In some very specific cases, too much information is bad. With so much Information available on the internet there is almost no secrets or surprises. Especially when it comes to entertainment.
In my experience, the less I know about an IP the better. I like the mystery. I don't need to know everything. Most of life's mysteries go unanswered. I'm good with that. Live in the moment.
Children of Men is an amazing movie. The starting premises is that women stopped getting pregnant and the human race is dying out. There have not been any babies born for a couple of decades. But why? We don't know. It's never explained. Doesn't seem to affect animals, only people. But it doesn't matter. The beauty of the story is not in the past but what is happening in the present. The moment.
Less information keeps expectations in check. Expectations get me in trouble every time. For example: The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. I don’t think I’m the only one, but when The Force Awakens came out, the bar was set pretty low. And then I got to be pleasantly surprised when it actually was a decent movie. Expectations had been high for the Prequels and those were dashed long before credit rolled for Phantom Menace. (I wonder if Force Awakens would have done worse, had it not had the prequels before it.) High expectations certainly are more of an issue with sequels. I’m afraid to hope when it comes to the next Indiana Jones movie.
Two times I knew nothing about a movie going in were with the original Stargate movie and the first Matrix movie. I had not seen trailers for either of them. I think I knew who the leads were and they were scifi and that is about it. I walked out of the theater stunned. I had no expectations because I didn’t know anything about the films.
I’ve started watching Paper Girls and the only thing I know about that IP is that it’s source material is a comic. That’s it. I definitely did not expect the title to be so literal. But that’s fine. After only a few episodes in, I have no idea where the story is going. I was surprised by the time travel element. It’s a very understated title, Paper Girls, and maybe that’s the point. So far I’m enjoying it. Just like with my own writing, I like the discovery process of other people’s work too.
A lot of movies and shows at the moment give out too much information. One of my favorite parts of A New Hope is that we are dropped into the middle of this raid on ship. It is very obvious that George Lucas had an idea of what was happening just before the opening of the movie but we aren’t given that info until years later. I love Rogue One but I always liked that we weren’t force fed every tiny detail. There was something so intriguing about be dropped into a fully formed universe and figuring things out along the way as the story unfolded.
Leaving questions unanswered makes room for other people to engage in the story with their own theories and ideas. It becomes a collaborative work. A well thought out canon and developed world is important to have but the reader/watcher doesn’t need absolutely every tiny detail about everything. Leave some stuff to the imagination of the audience. It’s good for them.
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